Well, good morning and welcome
to our continuing study in the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of
Christ according to Luke. We're in chapter 8. We spent
last week on verse 5 through 10 there regarding the
parable of the sower. Today we're going to be talking
about the second parable, but let's read through because these
are both closely linked. We'll read them and then we'll
discuss that a little bit. Starting in verse 5, a sower
went out to sow his seed. And remember that he's talking
to these people and it says that in verse 1 that 12, the disciples
were with him and he spoke this parable and then the disciples
says, well, tell us about this. So a sower went out to sow his
seed and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and it was trodden
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." Boy, we find that same thing repeated
to the churches in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3, and
we'll look at that here in a little bit. Today's message is titled,
Hearing and Seeing the Gospel. Hearing and Seeing the Gospel.
And his disciples asked 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 sing, they might not see and hearing, they might
not understand. Now the parable is this. Unto
you it is given to know. And he's going to explain to
them what this parable means. Those by the way side are they
that hear, and then cometh the devil and taketh away the word
out of their heart, the transducer, the liar that comes and says,
there is no God, and you're not a sinner. And he taketh that word out of
their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on
the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with
joy. And these have no root, which for a little while believe,
and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among
thorns are they which, when they've heard, go forth and are choked
with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit
to perfection. But that on the good ground are
they which in an honest and a good heart. having heard the word,
keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. And then he continues
on, he says, no man, when he hath lighted a candle, cover
it with a vessel or put it under a bed, but setteth it upon a
candlestick that they which enter in might see the light. And for
nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, neither
is anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. Take
heed, therefore, how you hear, whosoever hath to Him shall be
given." and whosoever hath not from him shall be taken, even
that which he seemed to have." Boy, we're going to see some
surprising things in these parables. And so again, we're looking at these
parables as he's got his 12 with him and he begins to bring them
along and letting them know and teaching them what they can expect
and what's expected of them. And we find that he says you're
going to sow the seed and some of it's just going on the wayside
and it's just going to get stomped down. Some is going on the rock.
Some is going in the thorn patch. You just cast it out there. And
it goes wherever, and he says, but by grace, some of it's going
to go on to good ground, and it's going to fall on a ground
of an honest heart and a good heart, a heart that's a new heart
that's prepared by God. And so he brings them these lessons,
and we're going to see a continuation of that through this whole chapter
of Luke, as he brings them along through different stages. and
teaches them things, and they're also applicable to the church. It's relative application of
what we find today. We preach the gospel, and we
have no control over where it goes, or who hears it, and whether
they believe it. That's all up to the Spirit of
God. But our job is to echo the gospel. As we said last week,
that word hath, from the Greek have or hath here that we just
read, in the Greek is the word echo. It's a reflection of sound. Paul said, I give you that which
I received. How Christ died for our sins
according to the scripture and was buried and rose again the
third day according to the scriptures. He just gave He just reflected
back what was given to him. And so, as we noted in that teaching,
to those that go forth with the gospel, that here's the results
that you can expect. And one of the things we wanted
to point out here is that that parable had to do with hearing. Did you notice how many times
it talked about hearing and heard? They that hear, they that hear,
they that hear. Luke 8, 10. Hearing, they might
not understand. Those by the wayside are they
that hear. And still it goes by the way. And they that are on the rock,
when they hear. And they that fell among thorns,
when they have heard. And they, others, which in an
honest and good heart, having heard the word, Keep it. They hold it. They echo it. And
with patience. They don't try to hurry it. Boy,
we see in religion, they are just so eager to get people saved
that they pull shenanigans and they pull shortcuts and they
do things to try and get people to make a profession. They have no patience for God.
They don't wait on the Lord for these things. And that, but they
have to hear it. And isn't that what it tells
us in Romans chapter 10, uh, whosoever shall call upon the
Lord shall be saved. But how shall they hear without
a preacher? How shall they call upon him
in whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without someone
to declare it to them? That's what it tells us in Romans
10. And so it's important here that he tells them that you are
the broadcasters, you are the declarers. And there's going
to be a lot of hearing going on, but it's God that gives the
hearing ear and the seeing eye. And the seeing part we find comes
into the second parable, the parable of the lamp. And this
has to do with seeing. No man, when he has lighted a
candle, cover it with a vessel, or put it under a bed, but setteth
it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. So we have two mediums here that's
talked about. We have this echo, this reflection
of the gospel that's brought forth. And then we have the reflection
of the light that's brought forth. If you haven't noticed, there's
just been a real bright full moon out here the last few days. And it's a reflection of this
light. It doesn't have any light of itself. We don't have the
light of the gospel of ourselves, it's the light of Christ's gospel. And we just are reflecting that
out to people. And again, we just deliver that
which we also received. You were sometimes darkness,
but now you are light. And you know, the next couple
of words are real important because you are light in the Lord. That's
where it comes from. We don't have that of our own
selves. So he says, walk as children of light. And so there's several
lessons to the church here that the Lord intended in purpose
that those who he redeemed, that were saved by his grace, would
go forth and liberally spread the gospel and lead the results
of the preaching of the gospel to God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Because that's their purview.
Ours is just to be faithful in declaring the gospel. So many
people are are told all the time, well people are going to hell
because you're not witnessing to them. Our job is just to be faithful
in declaring the truth of the gospel and then we just have
to let it alone after that. It's not by how many times we
repeat it or how many times we beat somebody over the head with
it. It's the Spirit's work to make
that effectual. The scripture says, go you into
all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. Individually, we can't do that,
but collectively, it's our responsibility wherever we go or whatever we're
doing to declare the gospel. Our job is, as it says in 1 Peter
2, verse 9, 1 Peter 2, 9, you are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. And that word peculiar doesn't
mean odd, like we have an extra ear or something. It means purchased. It means bought. That you should
show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light. And you know, it says, we need
to be ready to give answer to anybody that asks us about the
hope that lieth within us. Why aren't you panicked out about
all the stuff that's going on? Well, it's only temporary, folks.
When the last sheep is saved, we're all going somewhere else.
And that stuff won't matter anymore. So it kind of keeps it in perspective
of how we view things. We declare the gospel, then we
leave it up to God to make it effectual, as it says in 1 Thessalonians
1, verse 4 and 5. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God for, or because, we know that you were elected
because, Our gospel came to you, not in word only, but also in
power and in the Holy Ghost, and to much assurance, as you
know what manner of men we were among you for your sake." And
you know, the Lord says He chose by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. That's His method of operation. So to whom The Lord gives understanding
of the gospel and who he brings into the new birth, born again
from above, as it says. They're obligated to share that
as much as possible. relying on God to give the light
of understanding to the hearers and the seers. We wish we could
do that sometimes. We just say, man, I wish they
would get this. And we just don't control that. So no man He says,
when he lighteth a candle, cover it with a vessel, or putteth
it under a bed, but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which
enter in may see the light. And, of course, the man here
is a metaphor representing Christ. No man, when he lighteth a candle,
he's Christ, the very source of light. who lighted a candle,
one of the elect, one of the sheep, the redeemed, the born
again from above, who showing forth the praises of him who
called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light, that
they might sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and be ready
always to give answer to every man that asks you a reason of
the hope, that is in you with meekness and fear." That's from
1 Peter 3.15. You know, there just isn't any
light outside of Christ. It's just darkness. It's always
referred to as darkness. And it has that connotation of
error and the issues that we have in that unregenerate state. We are just dead in darkness
and error and trespasses and sins. So our responsibility is
clear then, as we mentioned in our last lesson, is to that word
in verse 15. the other that fell on the good
ground, the seed that fell on the good ground, are they which
in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it."
That word to hold fast and bring forth fruit with patience, having
heard. And again, that word to echo
that we find, the holding fast and the patience of waiting on
the Lord, not trying to be effectual ourselves. Trusting the Spirit
of God to accomplish His eternal task. We just don't have any
ability outside of being true and delivering that which we
receive. That's the extent of our ability. And we just have to trust to
him to make it effectual in his sheep. You know, the natural
man rejects the seeing and the hearing unless an almighty work
is done in them. They just don't want to hear
it. Probably many of you out there
have had experience. Try to broach the subject of
salvation with somebody and they say, Don't want to hear it. Keep all that religious stuff
to yourself. I don't need it. It's fine. If you want it, it's
fine. If you want that crutch, if you
want that, that's fine for you, but I don't need it. I'm not
a sinner. Or if I am a sinner, I'm not much of a sinner. Or
maybe I'm a great sinner, but I don't think there's any God
that's going to judge me. And when I meet him, I'll tell
him a thing or two. That's the typical attitude that you run
into. What you wait for is that person that comes up to you that
the Spirit has opened their heart and gave them a new heart. And
they say, we would hear more of this. The Jews rejected, but
the Gentiles said, we would hear more of this. And there was like
3,000 of them added to the church. And one day, as many as were
ordained, to eternal life believed. Those things are what we look
for. The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish and assigned
to him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned." He's got no ability, no way. Zacharias chapter 7,
someday in Norms, we'll get there. But they refuse to hearken. They refuse to hear. The two
things that we're concerned about in our lesson today, hearing
and seeing, They refused to hearken, pulled away the shoulder, and
stopped their ears that they should not hear. They just didn't
want to hear it. We're fine with how we are. We
don't need that. But we know the hearing ear and
the seeing eye, the Lord makes the both of them from Proverbs
20, 12, and that hearing ear that hears the gospel that the heart
has been turned into good ground, a good heart, an honest heart.
And we mentioned earlier that he that hath an ear to hear is
mentioned to the churches. in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter
3. It's five, six times. He that hath an ear to hear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Let's turn over and let's read
from Revelation chapter 3 in verse 3. because it's relevant to what
we're looking at here in Luke. It's all relevant anyway, but
particularly here in chapter three of Revelation. Remember,
therefore, how thou hast received and heard that echo. He said, what Paul said, I delivered
unto you that which I also received. The same thing. Remember therefore
how thou has received and heard and hold fast, hold fast onto
that. Hold fast. Don't let anything
slip. Don't let anything slip. And
remember, in the time of Christ, a lot of them were trying to
add works back into grace. Well, I know that you're saved
by grace, but you need to be circumcised to keep that law.
You need to do this, and you need to do that. And he said,
hold fast to the gospel and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch,
I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what
hour I will come upon thee. So he that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. And that's from
verse 6. We skip forward a couple of verses
to verse 6. It's very important that we hear
and receive, and we hold fast, and we echo that back out. We
deliver that which we've had. So, in the close of these verses,
there's kind of a cautionary word. And this part became interesting
to me as I was looking through it, and I said, let's read that
again. lighted a candle, covereth it
with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed, but setteth it on
a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light."
Well, in our previous lessons, you may have recalled several
times where, like the Pharisee, when Jesus was having dinner
at the Pharisee's house, and the woman that was a sinner came
in, and the Pharisee said within himself, If he was a prophet, he would
know what kind of woman that is. And he thought, he's thinking,
he can't read my mind. But we read, when we were studying
that, we looked at that scripture, it says everything is naked and
plain to him with whom we have to do it. It's like, there is
no secret from the Almighty. He knows everything. We can't
hide our thoughts, our intents, our hearts from Him. He knows
everything. And so as He says, no man when
he lights a candle covers it with a vessel or put it under
a bed, but setteth it on a candlestick that they which enter in may
see. Nothing is in secret. Why is He telling these disciples
that? You know, He's got the 12 with Him. And one of those,
is a faker. One of those guys is up to no
good. Nothing is in secret that shall
not be made manifest. It's already been made manifest
in the Old Testament. Let another his bishopric take the amount of money that he got
paid for betraying the Lord, all those things that he said,
he'll never find out about that. Nothing secret that shall not be made
manifest. Neither is anything hid that
shall not be known and come abroad. That word come abroad, it means
a shining. that comes under a light. Now,
so we have a couple of warnings here, cautionary warnings, not
only to possibly to the ne'er-do-well here among the twelve, but to
the church also that you want to make sure that you don't say,
well, I'd just like to make that gospel more effective. If I could
just get people to sign here, if I could just get people to, we'll just have somebody walk
down to the altar here and that'll get others that are thinking
about doing the same thing to do it because they won't feel
alone if they do it. So all these shenanigans that
they pull, all these emotional ploys they pull to try to get
people to come forward and make a profession. Let's have every
eye closed and every head bowed. And if the Lord's dealing with
you, raise your hand so we can pick you out and deal with you
and all those things. You know, the Lord is able. to
save his people, and he does not need assistance from us other
than he's chosen by the foolishness of preaching the gospel to save
them that believe. So we have a word here that's,
neither shall anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad.
It means kind of exposed by shining. And the gospel, It holds up to the light. It's true. Many, many months
or years ago, we had a lesson. I can't remember from where now,
but I think it was in Corinthians when we were studying the book
of Corinthians. And we came across this word sincere. And this word
sincere, it's a Latin word that when they translated this Bible
into English, they used this word sincere. It's a compound
Latin word that means without wax, is what that word
meant. It turned out that in old time, they would make
pots and the potter, when he was firing it or something, maybe
it would get a crack in it. He'd say, oh man, I can't sell
that with a crack in it. So he'd take some wax and put
it in there. to cover up the crack and then it wouldn't show
up. But the wise shopper would hold
that up to the light and that crack would show up. They would
see that crack. So they stamped the pottery that
was the best pottery, there was no cracks in it. They kind of
stamped it like sincere without wax. It stands up to light. It would pass inspection for
sale. Judged by sunlight, it was true
and solid. That's what the gospel is. You
can hold that up to any light and it's going to be true. It's
going to be solid. It's going to withstand any examination. It's not going to have to be,
you know, every time somebody adds a little work, well, you
need to be baptized. That's a crack. They're putting
a crack in the gospel, and it's not going to hold up to light.
Or you need to do this, or you just need to sign this. Repeat
this prayer and sign this bottom page. and thou shalt be saved. That's a crack in the gospel.
When you hold that up to the light of Christ, it's not going
to show up as anything but a crack. We find this word here in Philippians
chapter 1 verse 10. where Paul writes, that you may
approve things that are excellent. The gospel of Christ is excellent. It's just magnificent. That you
may be sincere and without offense till the
day of Christ. That your testimony, that your
declaring of the gospel is solid, it's true, it's without wax,
there's no cracks in it. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse
12, for our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience
that in simplicity and godly sincerity. And then he says,
here's all the cracks. You should be sincere without
cracks, but here not with fleshly wisdom. That's a big crack. But by the grace of God. we have
had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you, Eward. So anytime we add something that
comes from the flesh, something, well, you know, we could get
a lot more people saved if we could just have a little buzzer
in the seat that would, we could click it and they would jump
up and say, oh, that must, a prod to get them to come forward.
Anything that we think of psychologically, emotionally, like that. It's just a, it's just a crack. And it's just, that's all it
is. You know what he goes on to say here in 2nd Corinthians
that we write none other things unto you than that which you
read and acknowledge. We're just going to give you
that which we've received. How Christ died for your sins
according to the scriptures and how he was buried and rose again
the third day according to the scriptures. While we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Now thanks be to God, which always
causes us to triumph in Christ. That's where it is. And maketh
manifest, makes known the saver of his knowledge by us in every
place. For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that
are saved and in them that perish. To one, we're the saver of death
unto death. They're going to reject that.
and not believe it and say, I don't want to hear it. They're going
to shrug their shoulder and stomp up their ears and say, I don't
want to hear it. To others, we're the saver of life unto life. And who's sufficient for these
things? Not us. We have no control over that. But you know what? We're always
thankful to the person that echoed the gospel to us, that gave us
what they had received in truth, without any cracks, in sincerity. For we are not as many that corrupt
the word of God. We're not as those that put the
cracks in the pot of the gospel. But as of sincerity, it says,
but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. Isn't
that just wonderful how that pictures what happens when you
try to add or subtract things from the gospel. Well, you know
what I know it tells us in Ephesians that we were predestinated, but
we can't really talk about that. We're going to leave that part
out. We're just going to focus on chapter 2, verse 8 and 9. But we don't really even know
what that means. But we're going to repeat it. So, the second
part of that admonition is, take heed how you hear. For whosoever hath that word
holds on to and echoes to him shall be given. And to whosoever
hath not, the one that doesn't hold on, the one that doesn't
echo. And I just think that this is just a picture of Judas here.
He says, to him that hath not from him shall be taken even
what he seemeth to have. He seemed to be a disciple. When
the disciples all, he says, one of you is going to betray me.
And they all said, is it I? Oh God, I hope it's not me. Is
it I? And he said the same thing. And he went out with them two by
two. He went out with them and did
everything they did. He seemed to be a disciple. He seemed to
be a believer. But he was not. And of course we find that written
about in the Old Testament. My own familiar friend betrayed
me with a kiss. He seemed like one of the guys. Seemed like one of the disciples.
But in the end, even from him that hath not, that will be taken
which he seemeth to have. So, we'll stop there on this
lesson and next time we pick up and always remember as we're
going through here that he's teaching his disciples, he's
bringing them along and Nothing is by accident. Everything
is ordained. Everything is at the purpose
of God. I love what our pastor said this
morning about family. You know, here in the next verse
it says, then came to his mother and his brethren, and they couldn't
come at him for the press. And the disciples said, hey,
your mom and your brothers are out there. And he says, you know,
this is my brother and my brothers. You know, if you go in some of
the other Gospels about this same time, they didn't believe
on him. They didn't come around until
some time later. But at this point in time, neither
did his brothers believe in him. His mother did, but he said,
you know what, my family is the people, this is my family. And isn't that true how we find
that in our own lives? We have more in common with our
brothers and sisters in the Lord than we do with our, we don't
have much to talk about with our physical family a lot of
times. And they just want to shrug their
shoulder and stop their ears and not have anything much to
do with you if you're one of them religious kooks. Well, until the next time, and
as we leave there and go across the Sea of Galilee on a mission,
he said, I must go to Gadara. Be free, my friends.