Turning now to Luke, Luke chapter
8, Luke verse 4. And when much people were gathered
together, and were come unto Him. That's a good place to come,
isn't it? They were come to Him. Our Lord
said, everyone that is thirsty, come. All you who are heavy laden
and laboring, the Lord said, come to Me. And I will give you
rest." When much people were gathered together and were come
to him out of every city, the Lord spake this parable and preached
the gospel unto them. Now I'm taking the title for
the message from verse 8. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. Now the Lord is giving you two
things, right here and here. Ears, ears to hear. I'm a little bit hard of hearing
and one of these days I'm going to get some hearing aids. But
have you ever taken your hand and done this when someone's
speaking? It becomes amplified, doesn't
it? So this morning, I would want you to listen this way. Listen just a little bit more
closely and carefully. He that hath ears to hear, would
you hear the word of God? Would you hear what God would
have to say? Now this parable of the soul
that's given here is one of the most well-known parables of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We've studied it in Matthew chapter
13. We've studied it in Mark chapter
4. It's the same parable as given.
A little more detail is actually given more in each of those,
Matthew and in Mark. And then it's given here in Luke
chapter 8. It's a parable of caution. It's a parable of caution. He
cautions us to hear the Word of God carefully. A caution about
hearing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and how we hear. Look down at verse 18 in Luke
8. Take heed therefore how you hear. Now how do you hear the Word
of God? Let us hear it as it is in truth,
the Word of God. Not the words of men. Let us
hear this and read this book and hear these words as God speaking
to you right now. We ought to pay attention, right? He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. It's a parable of caution how
we should hear the gospel. We should hear the word, now
listen to this, we should hear the word as if our life depends
on it. We should hear the word and the
gospel as if our life depended on it. Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of truth. Take heed how you hear and take
heed what you hear, it says in another place. There must not
only be true, good, Christ preaching, gospel preaching,
but there must also be good hearing to make it beneficial and a blessing
to your heart. Now you can walk in that door
and you can sit down and you can get up and leave, but if
you don't hear anything, it's not going to be a benefit to
you. It's not going to be a blessing to you. I want to be like Cornelius. You remember Cornelius prayed
and the Lord was working a work of grace in his heart, and he
was told to call Peter, and Peter came there and preached the gospel,
but Cornelius, the Lord had prepared his heart. He made him one of
the good ground hearers. And Cornelius said this to Peter,
and I want this to be our hearts prayer. Now therefore we are
all here present before God to hear all things commanded thee
of God. We are here to hear all things
commanded thee of God. You see the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not a mere invitation. God doesn't merely invite people
to do things. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is a command. The king commands submission
to his word. May that be said of us here today
that we're all here before God to hear all things commanded
thee of God. Now remember, a parable is an
earthly story that presents to us a spiritual lesson, a spiritual
truth. A parable is not just a clever
story. A parable is not a cute story
to grab our attention, but rather the gospel truth concealed within
it. We sang a moment ago Show me
the truth concealed within thy word and in the book revealed."
What do you see? We see the Lord Jesus Christ,
don't we? Now, let's take a look at this
parable. There are mentioned in this parable
of the sower four different types of ground. What is the ground
a picture of? Well, the ground is a picture
of us. It's a picture of our heart. The ground, the dirt,
but how does that picture you? Well, I thought about this. In
Genesis 2-7, the Lord God formed man out of the dust. Sometimes
when you're getting lifted up with pride, just remember that
you are dust. The Lord God formed man out of
the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life.
And then I thought of this Psalm 103 verse 14, for he knoweth
our frame, he remembers that we are but dust, dust. So this ground here, this dirt
and this dust is a picture of you. picture of your heart. Now they're mentioned in this
parable four different types of ground And the ground here
is a picture of our heart. And the heart here, when we talk
about with a heart man believeth unto salvation, we often think
about and often we point to the heart. We say, well, it's not
the head, it's the heart. But he's not talking about physical
things. He's talking about rather what
makes up the real you. He's talking about our heart
includes our mind. Our thoughts, our affections,
our will, our intellect, everything that makes us up as a person
before God. Now we know this, there is no
such thing by nature as good ground, all of it bad ground. tainted ground, because there's
none righteous, no not one. By birth, by nature, by practice
our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Did you hear that? Jeremiah 17,
9. By nature our heart is wicked,
sinful, ungodly before men and God. Psalm 36, the transgression
of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of
God before their eyes. The fool hath said in his heart
there is no God. The Lord in the work of regenerating
grace must give us a new heart. God in regenerating grace must
prepare our heart, prepare the ground He must take away this
stony heart and make us new creatures in Christ Jesus. He must change
our thoughts. By nature, every thought we have
about God and His gospel is totally wrong. God must change our thoughts,
change our affection, change our will, change our mind, and
make us partakers of a divine nature by His grace. He must
make us willing in the day of His power, Psalm 110, verse three. Four kinds of ground that are
mentioned in this parable. Now think about this. Every one
of us here fall into one of those four categories. Every one of
us here. Every one of us. We all fall
into one of those four categories. So there's the ground is a picture
of our heart. What we are by nature. And then
the sower in this parable is the gospel preacher. The sower
went forth sowing the word of life. The sower is the gospel
preacher sent forth with the word of life, the gospel message
of the good news of salvation for sinners that Christ died
for the ungodly. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that the Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. The gospel preacher is like a
farmer sowing wheat. He plows the ground. He sows
the seed with hope that there'll be a harvest. He sows faithfully,
the gospel preacher does, always with great care, always sowing
the word of truth. But he also knows, like the farmer,
he cannot make the seed produce Fruit. That left up to the Sovereign
Lord. He must send the rain. He must send the sun. Back last
fall, I have a little garden out back here, and in the fall
of the year, I plowed up some ground, and I was going to sow
some mustard green. Well, I put out the seed, waited. No fruit. Well, I plowed again. I sowed again. Waited again. no fruit, plowed the third time,
kept sowing the seed, and the Lord gave the harvest. And that's
what we do when we preach the gospel. I can't make you believe
the gospel. I can't make you a good ground
hearer. I can't not prepare your heart.
All I can do is sow the seed, sow the Word, and look to God
to give the increase. Now that's exactly what the Apostle
Paul says here. Turn to 1 Corinthians. Hold your
place there. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Look at
verse 5. Who then is Paul? Who is Apollos?
Ministers by whom you believe, even as the Lord gave to every
man. I have planted Apollos watered. God must give the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but it's God that gives the increase. Now I'm going to sow the seed
and I'm going to ask God to bear fruit. I'm going to preach the
gospel, preach the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has, in His
wise, good providence, ordained the preaching of the gospel for
the express purpose of calling out His elect. On the front of
our bulletin, there's a scripture that's been there for over 23
years, 24 years, 23 plus years, We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servant for His sake." We
preach Christ here. We point sinners to the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, He is the living seed. He is the living Word. And when
we sow the seed, we're preaching Christ. His person, His work,
His blood, His righteousness. It pleased God through the preaching
of the gospel to call out His people. So there we have the
ground. There we have the sower. What
else is in this parable? We have the seed. The seed. Now, seed is very important.
If you're going to have a garden, you've got to go get some seed.
And hopefully it's good seed. Good seed. What is the seed?
Look at verse 11. Now the parable is this, the
seed is the word of God. Not the word of man, it's the
word of God. The seed here is the written
word of God that tells us about the living word. We cannot make
too much of the scriptures which is the word of God. All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God. We spend the majority of our
time here when we gather together, Sunday morning, Wednesday night,
reading and studying the Word of the Lord. And you cannot make
too much of the Word of God. All Scripture is given of God.
And it is profitable to your soul. Many things in the Word
of God describe The scripture described this seed. Jeremiah
23, is not my word like a fire? Sayeth the Lord, it's like a
hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. God can break the heart. He uses the word. Psalm 119,
130, the entrance of thy words give us light. It giveth understanding
unto the simple. The word is the lamp. It's the light that shows us
the way. Paul, when he writes to the Thessalonians,
said, Beloved, we know your election is of God, for our gospel came
unto you not in word only, but also in the power of God the
Holy Spirit. And this word is not the mere
word of men, but it is the word of truth, that effectually worketh
in you that believe. 1 Thessalonians 2.13. And then
we read about in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, Where it says the
Word of God is quick, that means it's living. It's powerful. It is sharper than any two-edged
sword. Now if you needed an operation,
wouldn't you want your surgeon to have a sharp instrument to
cut on you? The Word of God is that sharp
instrument. The Word of God is quick and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. piercing to dividing of
sunder the soul and spirit. And that's what happens in regenerating
grace. He makes us new creatures in
Christ. And we read a moment ago in James
1 verse 18, "...of His own will beget He us with the word of
truth." The word of truth, the seed of life. Peter talks about
the Word of God being the incorruptible Word of God that liveth and abideth
forever. We're born again not of a corruptible
seed, but of an incorruptible seed. It's the Word of God, the
Word of Truth. Now, so there's the ground, there's
the sower, there's the seed. Now what about the results? What
about the results? The result and the effects of
the word preached are exactly according to the sovereign purpose
of the Lord. Look at verse 9, Luke 8 verse
9. His disciples asked him saying,
what might this parable be? And He said unto them, unto you
it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. The gospel
many times in the Word is called the mystery. A mystery that must
be revealed, but unto others in parables that seeing they
might not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now hold
your place there. I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter 13, where this parable is given here in Matthew. Chapter
13, Luke verse 10, Matthew 13, 10.
Disciples came and asked Him, Why speakest Thou unto them in
parables? And he answered and said unto
them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of
the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever
hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance,
but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even
that he hath. Therefore I speak unto them in
parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear
not, neither do they understand. Verse 14, And in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear,
and shall not understand. This is Isaiah 6, 9 and 10. And seeing ye shall perceive,
and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For this
people's heart is wax gross, that's the problem. Their ears
are dull of hearing, that's the problem. Their eyes have they
closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and
hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed
are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, For they hear. Verily I say unto you, that many
prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which
you see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which
you hear, and have not heard them." Now stay right here in
the book of Matthew. Turn to Matthew chapter 11. So
the results are according to His sovereign purpose. The gospel
is a mystery that must be revealed by God the Holy Spirit. Seeing,
they don't see. Hearing, they don't hear. Their
heart is like gross and dead and dull and dumb and dead. God
must speak and reveal the gospel unto us. Matthew 11, look at
verse 25. At that time Jesus answered and
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto babes. even so father for so it seemed
good in thy sight all things are delivered unto me my father
and no man knoweth the son but the father neither knoweth any
man the father save the son and he to whomsoever the son will
reveal him you see I can preach and preach and preach but I cannot
reveal the mystery of the gospel to your heart that's not my business
that's God's business turn to Matthew 16 I'll show you that
again The Lord asked Simon Peter, Whom say ye that I am? Matthew
16, 15. Simon Peter answered and said,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now Peter,
how did you figure that out? How did Peter know that? Was
he smarter than everybody else? Oh no. The Lord answered and
said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, son of Jonah,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven." Salvation is a revelation of God the Holy
Spirit, of the beauty and glory of Christ to your heart and to
your soul. He gives us love for Christ.
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the chief office and
chief work of God the Holy Spirit is to magnify the Lord Jesus
Christ in your heart. Not to make you feel good. To
magnify Christ in your heart. We go and preach the gospel to
all that will hear indiscriminately and randomly we preach to every
creature but the results are not random. They are Sovereign
Son of God. The sheep of Christ will hear
His voice and they will follow Him. As many as were ordained
to eternal life believe the gospel. The sheep will hear the Lord
Jesus Christ and they will follow Him. The rebel, the reprobate
will reject it. But the will and purpose of God
will always be accomplished in faith or in rejection. He worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. His word will
not return unto Him void. It will prosper whereunto He
sends it. The gospel will be unto you either
a saver of life or a saver of death. The same message. Let
me show you that in Scripture. Find 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians
chapter 2. The same message that hardens
the heart of a reprobate also softens the heart of one of God's
elect. Same message. 2 Corinthians 2
verse 14. Thanks be to God, which always
causes us to triumph in Christ, and make manifest the savor of
his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a
sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and them that
perish. To one we're a savor of death unto death, and to the
other a savor of life unto life. Who is sufficient for these things?
To one the gospel is a savor of life, the other is the fragrance
of death. For we are not as many which
corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God
in the sight of God, we speak of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified." The same message that calls and quickens
the elect is the same message that hardens the rebel. Same
gospel, same message. You see, faith and repentance
are both sovereign gifts of God. He withholds and gives as it
Pleases Him. He's exalted to give repentance
unto Israel. Mercy is by the sovereign will
of God to give or to withhold according to His good pleasure.
He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. Salvation is
according to the Lord's sovereign purpose, He saves every sinner,
not by accident, but by purpose. God's love is also sovereign. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. God will have mercy on whom he
will. The deliberate unbelief and willful rebellion of the
reprobate does not alter the will and purpose of God, but
rather is a fulfillment of it. They are vessels, there are vessels
of mercy. a four prepared unto glory, and
there are vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." This is all
according to God's sovereign purpose. The Lord Himself. Now I want us to carefully consider
these four types of hearers having that introduction. The Lord gives
us the meaning of His own parable, and I want you to take this very
personal. You say, preacher, are you preaching
to me? Yes, I am. I'm preaching to everyone that's
here. I want you to take this personally. Every one of us here
are one of these four hearers. Every one of us here. The first
one that he mentions here is a wayside hearer. The wayside
hearer. Verse 12, those by the wayside
are they that hear, then cometh the devil, and taketh away the
word out of their heart, lest they should believe it, and be saved. The seed of the
word goes forth by the preaching of the gospel. The message is
heard in the ear, but with no desire to believe it, no will
to love it. Not being mixed with faith, it
did not profit them, it bears no fruit. They leave the same
way they came, dead in sin, without God, without hope, and without
Christ. The devil inspired this wayside hearer and influenced
them to reject and to dismiss the word being preached. I hope it's not a description
of you. Secondly, the stony ground hearer
that's mentioned in verse 13. They are on the rock, the seed
sown on the rock are they, which when they hear the word, they
receive the word and they do it joyfully. And these have no
root, rather, though, which for a while they believe, but in
the time of temptation, trial, and heartache, they depart. They leave. Again, these stony
ground hearers, they hear the message of the word preached,
and for a short time receive it with joy. It says to them,
they sound pretty good. They profess to believe for a
while. They endure for a time, but when
trouble comes, Persecution arises over the gospel. Instead of contending
for the faith, they cut and run. They deny the gospel. You see,
they have no deep root of grace and faith in them. All their
profession is, is veneer. You know what veneer is? It's
just surface. It's all superficial. There's
no true faith. There's no true repentance. They're
not rooted and grounded in Christ. It's just temporary. You see,
temporary faith is not saving faith. Saving faith continues
in the faith. They continue believing. You
see, true faith never stops believing. True repentance never stops repenting. Never stops coming to Christ. I hope that describes you, coming
always to the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you're not a stony ground
hearer. I hope you're not a wayside hearer. Thirdly, it talks about
the thorny ground, verse 14, Luke 8. They, and they which
fell among the thorns, that is the seed sown, fell among the
thorns are they which when they have heard, they've heard the
word. They go forth and are choked
with cares, the cares of riches, the cares of pleasures of this
life, and they bring no fruit to perfection. Now, when you
plant a garden, and I'm going to plant a garden, Lord willing,
in a few months, You have to weed the garden. If you don't
weed the garden, the weeds outgrow the fruit, don't they? And it
chokes out the plant. The gospel is faithfully preached
to thorny ground-hearers. They hear the message. They seem
to love and appreciate the gospel. They seem to acknowledge the
truth, even contend for time, but bind by other things, claim
their heart, claim their attention, claim their affection, claim
their mind. and rules over them. Our Lord
said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added unto you. In Mark chapter
4, there in the parable found in Mark chapter 4, he mentions
the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and
the lust of other things will drown out the gospel and choke
out the word, the seed, and the person becomes unfruitful, bearing
no fruit to the glory of God. Remember this scripture in 1
John where he says, Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life, pride of life is not of the Father, but is of this wicked,
wicked world. Think about it. This world is
passing away. Everything we see and touch and
everything we have, it's soap bubbles. Those little kids blow
them bubbles and they, boy, they look so nice and they're gone. They're gone. You see, the world
passes away in the last era, but he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever. What is involved in doing the
will of God? Believing the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then lastly, the good ground
hearer. And I trust the Lord has prepared
your ground to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
15, but on the good ground, but that on the good ground, that
seed sown in the good ground, the good ground is a prepared
ground. The good ground is that ground
made so by God the Holy Spirit, cultivated, broken, which in
an honest heart and a good heart, having heard the word, they keep
it, they keep it. and they bring forth fruit with
patience. The good ground here, again,
the gospel is preached, the word is heard, and willingly received
by faith, in a heart prepared, made good by God the Holy Spirit,
by God the Holy Spirit conviction, understood by the revelation
of God the Holy Spirit to quicken the heart to reveal the Lord
Jesus Christ unto it. You see, God must prepare the
heart. You know why? Salvation is a heart work. It's
Christ in you is a hope of glory. Saving faith always bears fruit
to the glory of God. Herein is my Father glorified,
John 15, verse 8, that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my
disciples. In Mark chapter 4, when it talks
about the fruit there in Mark 4 verse 20, These are they which
are sown in good ground, which hear the word, receive it, bring
forth fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. And
the fruit here is what? What is the fruit? Turn to Galatians
chapter 5. They bear fruit. Galatians chapter
5. What is this fruit? Galatians
chapter 5, look at verse 22. The fruit of the Spirit. Now
we know what the fruit of the flesh is. You can read the preceding
verses. The lust of the flesh. But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, Faith is
a gift of God. Meekness, temperance, against
such there is no law. You see, it's the fruit of the
Spirit when God the Holy Spirit works in our heart. We read over here a moment ago, James chapter 1, But be ye doers
of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves, Wherefore,
lay apart all filthiness and naughtiness, and receive with
meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your soul. Let us not just be hearers of
the Word, let's obey the Word, believe the Word, submit to the
Word. Let us seriously take heed to
the instructions our blessed Lord gives us here. Take heed
how you hear. Take heed what you hear. Now, this will sound familiar
to you. We need to take heed how we hear
and what we hear because there's a lot of fake news out there. A lot of fake news. We'll hear
a lot about that today. My wife will always tell me she'll
read something on that smartphone and she'll say, well, have you
heard this? Have you heard that? Have you
heard that? I said most of that is probably fake news. You can't
believe everything you hear. But the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is not fake news. It's the real deal. It's the
real thing. You'll never go wrong believing,
thus saith the Lord. The gospel is true, it's not
fake. May God be pleased to give us
grace in our heart. May God be pleased to prepare
our heart, to give us a new heart, quicken our heart, to hear the
gospel and to believe it, bow to it, submit to it, unto His
glory. Unto His glory. The parable of
the sower. May God bless His word to your
heart.