So again, welcome to this study
in Luke, and we're in chapter 8, and we're dealing with this
parable of the sower. And I think it's important that we
kind of keep in context kind of where we've been and what's
transpired in the previous chapters. And in chapter 7, we learned
of this centurion that demonstrated his faith by works and he had
total reliance on Christ for salvation. He said, you don't
even need to come to my house to effect the plea that I've
made to you. And he said, if you just say
it, it will be done. And he said, I'm not even worthy
that you should come into my house. And so we had faith demonstrated
by works by a Gentile in the midst of those who were charged
with presenting the gospel, we found that, but actually didn't
do that. And someone, however, was faithful
in preaching the gospel to this soldier, according to the purpose
of God. And we know this because the
results are recorded for us there. And next we saw Jesus exercising
his holy, almighty power in overcoming this death. Remember, he came
into this town and just by coincidence, we would say, a funeral was going
on with a young man that was dead. And he uttered those words, I say
unto you, young man, arise. And so he displayed his power
over death. his effectual power, and he didn't
merely make provision for overcoming death, but he actually affected
it. This young man, he had no ability
to bring himself to life, to respond by his own will. It took
almighty power to do that. Then we have the little part
about John the Baptist. He was there to prepare the way
of the Lord and declare the arrival of the King of Kings. And we
kind of focused on this message that Christ sent back with his
disciples. He said, go tell John what you've
seen. How the deaf hear, the blind
see, the lame are made to walk, The dead are raised and the gospel
is preached to the poor. That's the message. Go back and
tell John that. Then we noticed that John, it
was brought out how he was uncompromising in the gospel. He ended up in
prison for the truth. He wouldn't waver on that. Religious leaders in Israel at
the time, they were pretty malleable. and not faithful in declaring
all the truth of the gospel because they didn't have knowledge of
the gospel. They were supposed to be declaring
Christ and all the scriptures, and yet it just became words. Words, words, words. Well, here's
some more words for you. Here's some more stuff to do. Their lips, the Lord said, they
draw nigh to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from
me. And at the time of the Lord's discourse
about John, there was multitudes of people about him that he was
speaking with. And the same is true in the beginning
of chapter 8 here, as we mentioned here when we read the scriptures
from chapter 8 verse 1 through 15, and it came to pass
that he went throughout every city and village preaching and
showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. He had his 12
disciples with him, and these women whom he'd worked a work
of grace in, as well as those disciples that he'd worked a
work of grace in, and much people were gathered together and were
come out to him out of every city. They're in verse four of
chapter eight. And it's interesting that one
of the things that we learned about John from chapter seven
was the people that came to John's baptism that brought fruits of
repentance, that brought evidence of repentance. It says, they
justified God. They said, God is right. We deserve
condemnation, but he has shown mercy to us. And he was just,
not only just, but the justifier of them that believe. We read
in Romans 3.26. And on the flip side of that,
we always have the flip side. that the unbelievers rejected
the counsel of God against themselves there in the close of Luke chapter
7 verse 30. And then we have this record
of the Pharisee that invited him to supper and the woman,
which was a sinner and how she just worshiped him and loved
him and the emotion that was displayed there He said, whoever
is forgiven much, the same loveth much. And so in the midst of
this, and these people that come to the Lord, we have this parable. And we
mentioned earlier, that's kind of code, code talk. It was not
understood really by unbelievers, but he said, unto you it is given,
unto the church it's given to understand the things of the
kingdom of God. And so we have this parable of
the sower, and really it talks more about the ground that the
seed is sown on than the sower, but it perfectly describes The
Lord himself and all who had gone before him in declaring
the gospel, John, and the law and the prophets, the
Lord said, they are they that testify of me. But to so many,
they were just words on a paper that they didn't understand. And importantly for the disciples,
I think it's when we start asking the why, who, what, why, where,
and when, why in the midst of this does he come up with a parable
about sowing the seed? Because that's what these guys
were going to be doing. These disciples were going to
be going out, preaching the gospel, sowing the seed. And so it was
important for them to know and understand As they were doing
that, as they were to go forth and declare the gospel, they
needed to know about sovereignty. They needed to know about the
involvement of the Trinity and the work of the salvation of
the people whom the Father gave the Son before the world was. They needed to know that Some
would be given ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart to understand. And while others were going to
be like us, talked about John, they rejected the counsel of
God against themselves in sin. And remembering John in his Lord's
prayer in John 17, he said, Neither do I pray for these alone, but
those that shall believe on me through their word." And what
was the word they were going to give? The very word that he
gave them. And that was going to be used
by the spirit. And so this parable, he wasn't
just some Zen hippie that was going to say a bunch of wise
things like, what is the sound of one hand clapping and that
kind of stuff. It was important stuff. And a
parable, which Jesus says unto the church that's unto you it
is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. And the
mystery is just something that we see it, but we don't really
understand why it is. But he gives us an understanding. And he said that in others, it's
in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they
might not understand. And you know what he's doing
here? He's quoting from Isaiah chapter
six. He's just quoting what the prophet
said about the same circumstances that were happening. If you turn
over to Isaiah chapter six, Quite the interesting chapter
here. It's not very long. It starts out by saying, in the
year that King Uzziah died, and he'd been a king for like 52
years, and he was mostly a good king until the end when he decided
he was going to burn incense at the altar, and it wasn't his
job, and he kind of had a problem there. But over all of his life,
he was a pretty good king, And yet he died, and that's what
happens to all kings here in the world. They come, kings come,
and kings go. But he said, in the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne. He was sitting on his throne
then, and he's sitting on it now. High and lifted up, and
his train filled the temple, and above it stood the seraphims.
Each one had six wings, and with twain he covered his face, and
with twain he covered his feet, and twain he did fly. And one
cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Every aspect of the Trinity is represented there. Holy, holy,
holy. The father, the son, the spirit. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried and the house was filled with
smoke. And then said I, woe is me. For I am undone. It just struck me that everything
that he had done for his own righteousness, everything
was stripped from him. And when he saw the Lord high
and lifted up and saw himself, he had a view of himself that
he just didn't really have before. He said, I'm undone. I'm a man
of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. And then he's cleansed here in
the next couple of verses. And then the Lord says, who will
go for us? And he says, I'll go. And he
said, go and tell the people. Tell them what? Tell them the
gospel. And he says, go tell these people,
though, that you hear indeed, but you understand not, and you
see indeed, but you perceive not. So that's interesting that
the Lord puts us in the middle of his parable here. And as he's
instructing these people and the disciples, He says, make
the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and
shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with
their ears, understand with their heart, and convert and be healed.
Then said I, Lord, how long? How long should I declare this?
And he says, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant,
till the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
and the Lord hath removed men far away, and there be a great
forsaking in the midst of the land. Here is a key verse here. He
says, but yet in it shall be a tin. There'll be a remnant
according to the election of grace. And it shall return and
be, shall be eaten as a teal tree and an oak and whose substance
is in them when they cast their leaves. So the Holy seed shall
be the substance thereof. So in kind of a nutshell, we
have Isaiah being given a commission to go preach the gospel and the
Lord says 90% is going to reject it. 90% are
going to have ears that don't hear and eyes that don't see
and a heart that doesn't understand. But there's going to be a remnant
that according to the election of grace. And so it's, it's not a coincidence
that he put that parable here in the midst of what he's teaching
these by this parable. So we have a very similar set
of circumstances there between what's going on. He's in this country that's occupied
by a foreign government and people that throng to see him for various
purposes. Again, as I was kind of reading
the Hawker's commentary on this, he said, the parable of the sower
is so fully explained by our Lord himself that it can need
no further comment. He gives the explanation of it.
He says, gives the parable and then they say, well, what does
this mean? And he tells them right off the bat, A sower went
out to sow a seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside,
and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured
it. Some fell upon a rock. As soon as it sprung up, it withered
away because it lacked moisture." You know, you just think about
verses like in John 6, 6, 6. They saw all the miracles. They
saw all the wonderful stuff he did. But then when he said, no
man can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him,
they said, well, that's a hard saying. Who can hear that? And
they walked no more with him. It was good for a little while,
but when the truth came out, they couldn't go there. Some
fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked
it. And others fell on good ground. I think it's interesting that
he says, some fell, some fell, some fell, and then it says,
and then other. The others are, when it says
some, it's kind of a generalization kind of a thing that we find
in the gospel. The gospel goes out in a general
way. But then it becomes specific
in some. Other fell on good ground and
sprang up and bear fruit a hundredfold. And when he 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 and hearing
they might not understand. Now, just saying that didn't
give them understanding. It had to be revealed to them
by Christ. And that's what he does next.
He says, it's given to you to understand. I'm gonna give you
the understanding of it. And that's what he does. Unto
you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to others
in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they
might not understand that we just read from Isaiah chapter
six, verse nine. Now the parable is this. The
seed is the word of God. this parable that it's kind of
something that they could have understanding of that spoke to
a spiritual application. Yet it was a physical something
that they could identify with. Those by the wayside, those that
are on the path where everybody walks, it's packed pretty hard. Those by the wayside are they
that hear, then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out
of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They are
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'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. So if we were
just to combine those two things, and just kind of boil it down
that a sower, that would be Christ, or a gospel preacher, whoever,
one of the old prophets that the gospel according to Ezra,
or Nehemiah, or Isaiah, or Daniel, or David, or any of them, the
law, went out to sow the seed, the
word of God. And as he sowed, as they preached
the gospel word of God that he came and died for the sins of
his people, that he was buried, and that he rose again the third
day for their justification. Some fell by the wayside, that
hard packed ground where people walked, and it's kind of emblematic
of a hardened heart. Those who hear physically the
word, the gospel preached, and then come with the devil, and
that word is the transducer. when you look that up in your
Strong's Concordance, the one who accuses, one who slanders,
one who maligns. And boy, isn't that what we find
in religion. They malign the Lord. They malign the people that heard
it. They malign the preachers of
it. They accuse them of all kinds of things. And just John 7, he
says, They call the Son of Man a wine-bibber and a glutton.
Because I had supper with sinners. They denied Him as the Son of
God. They denied Him as the Almighty. The Word of God is maligned by
those who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness. And the persons
declaring the Word of God are maligned. The person hearing
is maligned. If you believe that, you are
just a dope. You ever hear that? If you need that, that's just
a crutch for you. All kinds of things. They try to belittle
you, make nothing of it. You're only a sinner if you believe
that stuff. You're not a sinner and there
is no God. Isn't that what was written in
the Psalms? There's no God. You don't have
to worry. Some of that seed, some of that
gospel fell on a rock, a metaphor for people who physically hear
the gospel and for a short time, boy, they're just exuberant.
They're just excited about it. They spring up, but they don't
have any root. There's no depth to it. There's just a surface physical
type of a of an attachment. There's no foundation, no real
belief. And because of that, they fall
away. And some of the seed fell among
thorns. Well, I always think of that
thorns when you go down to the Portland and you get down there
just before you get into Troutdale and there's like a million acres
of blackberries out there. If you took a seed and threw
it out in the midst of that, it's not growing. It's never going to get any light.
It's just going to be choked out by the roots. It's not going
to have any access to anything. Thorns are a metaphor for the
curse and sin in this world. Genesis 3, 17, 18. That just
displays how people are, the gospel gets choked
out by the cares and riches of this world just as good seeds
in the middle of that blackberry patch are choked out and can't
grow. So it's curious in the midst
of this parable which outlines these various rejections of the
gospel for various reasons. By natural man we find that quote
from Isaiah 6 there. But we have the other. Thank
God we have the other. Just as in Isaiah he said, but
a tenth. He was commanded in Isaiah to
preach that gospel, and the results, he said, are just going to be
rejected mostly. People with fat, rich, or plenteous
hearts, people with ears too heavy to hear, shut their eyes
that they might not see, no natural desire to understand, because
that's all, he says, unto you it's given, and I'm going to
give it to you. That's where it comes from. And so others that fell on the
good ground, are they which receive the word in an honest and a good
heart, and having heard spiritually the word, keep it, and bring
forth fruit with patience. Now, you know, the natural heart
won't accept seed. It rejects it, chokes it out.
Jeremiah said the natural heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? It's not good
ground for the seed. What has to happen is you need
that new heart, that new heart that the ground has been prepared
by the Lord. Ezekiel 11, 19 says, I'll give
them one heart and I'll put a new spirit within you and I'll take
that stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give them a heart
of flesh, that they may walk in my statues to keep my ordinances,
and do them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their
God. But for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their
detestable things and their abominations, I'll recompense their way upon
their own heads, saith the Lord God." That's just how it is. You know, God will cut away all
the fleshly attributes of the old heart and give us a heart
to know and to love him and where the gospel will take root and
we'll believe it. Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse
6 says, the Lord God will circumcise your heart. Cuts away all that stuff that's
a hindrance. The Lord God will circumcise
thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy
God with all thine heart and all thy soul and that thou mayest
live. Isn't that an interesting verse? And it's he that does that. And in Jeremiah 31, 33 says,
I'll put my law in their inward parts. and write it in their
hearts. And I will be their God and they
shall be my people. This is the covenant that I make
with them. It's all those I will, I will, I will things that we
find. So, boiling it down, the Lord is
kind of explaining to these 12 disciples and to those people
that a lot of them heard but probably didn't understand according
to this parable. and explaining to us right here
in this very day the absolute certain results which they will
encounter as they go forth declaring the gospel. Don't be surprised
if the majority of those to whom you bring glad tidings of good
news don't want it at all. Or they seem to want it and accept
it for a while, but eventually they fade away because it's not
really convenient for them. Be aware that the Lord by the
Spirit goes before you. and prepares a way to make the
ground good through the new birth, a suitable place for the seed,
a place for the Word of God to take permanent root and grow
and produce fruit. In 1 Thessalonians 1, we have
an example of this given to us by the Apostle Paul. He says,
knowing brethren, beloved, you're an election of God. He said,
you're some of that other that fell on good ground because of
the eternal electing love of God. Because our gospel came
to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us
and the Lord, having received the word in much affliction and
with joy of the Holy Ghost." And you know what the Lord told
Paul? He says, I want you to go over
to Corinth, And don't be afraid as I have much people there just
waiting for you to declare the gospel. There's places out there
where the Holy Spirit has prepared the ground with that new birth
and they just need to hear that gospel. I am with thee and no
man shall set on thee to hurt thee for I have much people in
this city. And he continued there a year
and six months teaching the word of God among them. Boy, Acts
chapter, I was thinking about this this morning. I was just
kind of doing the math. Acts chapter 13, the next Sabbath
day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of
God. But when the Jews saw the multitude, they were filled with
envy and spanked against those things. that are spoken by Paul,
contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul in Barnabas waxed bold
and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles. So as the Lord commanded us,
saying, I've set thee to be a light to the Gentiles, that thou should
be for salvation unto the ends of the earth, And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as
many, that other, that other that was good ground, as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the
Lord was published throughout all the region. And we find there in the Acts
where there was added to the church about 3000 souls. Right during that Passover time,
there was like three million Jews from all over the world
there in that city for the Passover. So as we go through this, there's
kind of a couple of interesting words here that I wanted to bring
your attention to that I think is important to the understanding
here. And one of the interesting words we find in this block as
well as in the next section that we'll be looking at here about
the lamp, the hidden lamp, is where it says have or hath in
Luke 8.8, he that hath ears, let him hear speaking about those
who would bring forth fruit. Let's read that. fell on good ground
and sprang up and bear fruit a hundredfold. And when he had
said these things, he cried, he that hath ears to hear, let
him hear." That's a very interesting word. In the Greek, that is the
word echo. And the Greek understanding it
is to hold, to hold, to hold on to something. And It's sometimes
it's translated have, and sometimes it's translated hath. And then it talks about those
that don't have that in verse 13. Let's go down there and read
that. They are on the rock, are they which when they hear, receive
the word with joy, and these have no. That's this one word,
have no. They have no echo, they have
no hold. They have no root, which for
a little while believe, and in a time of temptation fall away.
And they, that which fell among thorns, are they which when they
have heard, go forth and then they're choked with cares and
riches and pleasure, and then they bring forth no fruit. But
that on the good ground are they which in an honest and a good
heart, having heard the word keep it. Now this word keep it
here, is a compound word that contains that word echo and it
also contains a word that means, the whole thing means to hold
fast. They hold fast, the word That was adopted by Dutch seafarers. I read in one of my encyclopedias
that they would tattoo that on their
knuckles as they clinged for life on the ropes and the parts
of the ship. and depended their life on it.
So these words derived from echo give the meaning of to hold and
from that we get this word echo that we think of in terms of
a reflected sound. the thought comes to our mind
that Paul said to those Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15, for I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received. I echoed back
to you the very things that I heard from the Lord. How that Christ
died for our sins according to the scripture and that he was
buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
Those things he reflected back to them. He didn't add anything
to it, as an echo doesn't add anything. It only reflects the
original sound. Later on, in 1 Thessalonians,
he would write, prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. That's the same word as we find
here in Luke chapter 8. Keep it. Keep that word. And so, I think
he's telling these disciples, hold on to the truth. Hold fast
to that. That which you've received, go
and preach to the world. Go ye into all the world, declaring
the gospel. And don't worry. about the results. I'll take care of the results.
Some of it's going to go on good ground. A lot of it's going to
go on the pathway that's trodden down. A lot of it's going to
go out in the thorns. You're just casting that seed
and after it leaves your hand, you've got no control over it.
Your job, your mission is just to be faithful in echoing that
which you've heard, giving out the truth, and leave the results
to the Holy Spirit and to me, and everything will work out
fine. Where religion gets in trouble is they say, well, I
don't see any results. I need to help this out a little
bit. And so you get all these formulaic things that they added. Norm was saying, well, He picked
up a Bible from the Gideons and they said, if you sign here on
the bottom of this page, you're saved. And we see that in the
television all the time. Just repeat after me or do this
or do that. And there's been no real work
of grace there. We need to have the ground prepared
by the Holy Spirit in that new birth. So hold fast to that. Thank you
for your attention. Next time we'll talk about the
lamp, the candle under a vessel. It's really connected here to
this, what we just read about the disciples. He said, I'm gonna
give you information. Don't just keep it to yourself.
Again, you declare all the counsel of God is what Paul said. I've
not shunned to declare all the counsel of God." He said, I'm
not responsible though for how you receive that and whether
you believe it or don't, but I'm going to give it to you.
So thank you for your attention and as always, be free.