Luke 8:4-8, 11-15 (3)

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We’re going to be in Luke chapter 8 this morning.

As always, I would invite and encourage you to follow along in your Bibles.

We’ve come to what is most often referred to as:

“The Parable of the Sower”

-In it, we see a solemn warning being given...

…about how we receive, and respond to, the Word of God.

It also forces us to confront the harsh reality of false conversion.

-Because of its length...

…we’re going to break it up into two sermons.

We’ll begin reading in Verse 4.

Luke 8:4–15 (ESV)

4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable,

5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.

6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.

7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.

8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Skip down to verse 11

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.

14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

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Pray

All Luke tells us about the setting of this event...

…is that it took place:

Luke 8:4 (ESV)

4 ...when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable,

Prior to this, Luke had only recorded Jesus using a few short parables.

This is the first extended parable that he records...

…and in a sense, it serves as a foundation for the many that will follow.

It begins like this:

Luke 8:5 (ESV)

5 “A sower went out to sow his seed...

-Now, when you hear the words:

Sowing

Seed...

…Please don’t envision someone planting a row garden, where:

The ground is cultivated first

Neat, parallel rows are formed

Seeds are carefully placed and covered.

You have a 3’ wide path between each row to walk.

That’s not what’s being described here.

This is the sowing of large fields of grain.

It’s scatter casting.

He’s casting to the right and left as he walks

He’s covering the whole field with seed

He’s covering the whole field with the...

same seed,

In the same way

It’s more akin to the way we sow grass...

…than the way we plant our vegetable gardens.

-Now, already we can see what the variable is going to be, can’t we?

It isn’t with the Sower, or the Seed...

The variable is with the soil.

-Let’s read on in verse 5

Luke 8:5 (ESV)

5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.

These paths were essentially small roads.

These are the areas where people and animals walk to navigate the fields.

As a result, they would be:

Hard

Packed down

Unyielding to plow or root!

What’s going to happen to the seed that lands here?

It’s going to be crushed by the traffic...

…and quickly eaten by the birds.

Nothing surprising here.

-The second type of ground is described in verse 6.

Luke 8:6 (ESV)

6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.

Commentators tell me that this “rock”. . .

…would be referring to a limestone base...

…lying right under the soil.

It looked good from the top...

…but the soil was very shallow.

Hence, it couldn’t retain the needed moisture or nutrients to sustain life.

Matthew describes even more problems:

Matthew 13:5–6 (ESV)

5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,

Seeds will germinate sooner if planted shallow, right?

6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.

Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

Verse 7 describes yet another type of soil:

Luke 8:7 (ESV)

7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.

Mark adds:

Mark 4:7 (ESV)

7 . . . and it yielded no grain.

This third type of soil had too much in it.

It had the hidden remnants of last year’s weeds...

...that weren’t recognizable from the surface.

The grain shot up to begin with...

…because it was freshly sown.

But, in time, the business below the surface...

…worked its way out...

…and it robbed the grain of its nutrients...

…and it died!

We’ve all seen this as well, haven’t we?

-So far, this has been a bleak picture.

But, verse 8 gives us some hope for the harvest

Luke 8:8 (ESV)

8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” . . .

The same seed...

Sown in the same way...

But, sown into “good soil,” . . .

Doesn’t just produce fruit...

It yields a “hundredfold” return for the farmer!

We’ve gone from:

Absolutely ZERO return...

…To an exponential return.

What changed?

The Soil!

The nature and composition of the Soil!

Next, Luke tells us this:

Luke 8:8 (ESV)

8...As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

That phrase “let him hear” is not a permission being given.

It is an imperative in the Greek.

It’s a Command!

You could translate it this way:

Luke 8:8 (NET)

8 . . . “The one who has ears to hear had better listen!”

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-Now, we’re going to skip down to verse 11 for now.

Lord willing, we’ll come back and cover...

Verses 9-10,

Their parallel verses next week.

There’s just too much there to cram into this sermon.

But, you do need to be aware, that...

…when we get to verse 11...

…Jesus is no longer talking to the multitudes.

What we’ve already read is...

…the extent of what He told them.

What He says in verse 11...

…He says to his disciples alone.

They had asked Him what He meant by the parable.

He said this:

Luke 8:11 (ESV)

11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Remember what Luke had told us last week.

He had said that, at this time, Jesus was:

Luke 8:1 (NASB95)

1 ...going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God...

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He was broadcasting that seed!

-Now, if the seed, here, represents the Word...

Who is the Sower?

Mark makes that clear:

Mark 4:14 (ESV)

14 The sower sows the word.

The one preaching/teaching

-So now we have one element left to identify.

Any guesses as to what these different soils represent?

Those who hear the Word

Philip Ryken makes this keen assessment:

Like a seed, the good news about Jesus Christ has the power of life in it, and under the right conditions of the heart, it will spring up to salvation.

But the conditions have to be right, and whether the seed will grow or not depends on where it falls. Not everyone is equally receptive to the word of God — Ryken

-Jesus explains the first group in verse 12:

Luke 8:12 (ESV)

12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

Because of the obsession with the devil and demons...

…in much of the Charismatic world...

…and because of the constant blaming of the Devil for our own sins...

…in much of the Evangelical world...

…we Reformed folks tend to distance ourselves...

…from any acknowledgment of his dynamic activity in the world.

But, we mustn’t over-correct, here.

This verse reminds us painfully that he is:

Very real

Very much a foe

Peter said:

1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

In fact, Matthew’s account attributes...

…the simple “not understanding” of the Gospel...

…to the work of Satan:

Matthew 13:19 (ESV)

19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart...

Paul explained how this all works:

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 (ESV)

3 ...if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ...

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You see, the problem is never intellectual!

It is always spiritual and moral.

This is so often the state of many...

…who consider themselves to be sophisticated and clever.

Like this soil...

...Their hearts are hard and unyielding to God’s word...

…because of their pride.

And what’s behind this proud rejection of God’s word?

The work of the devil.

The two go hand-in-hand.

This is how he operates.

That was how he tempted man in the garden!

Pride is his favorite tool!

-In verse 13, Jesus describes the second type of person/soil/heart.

Luke 8:13 (ESV)

13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.

This is describing an impetuous person.

Excitable, Emotional

Easily influenced

Quick to join up

Quick to leave

Brethren, this is where we mustn’t let our theology...

…nullify the clear teaching of these passages.

These same warnings appear throughout the NT:

John 8:31–32 (ESV)

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

1 Corinthians 15:1–2 (ESV)

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,

2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

Colossians 1:21–23 (ESV)

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard...

Hebrews 3:12–14 (ESV)

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

These Jewish “Christians” were apostatizing because of persecution from the Jews

I put that in air quotes because of...

…an important qualifier that we often see...

…connected to these type of texts:

Hebrews 10:38–39 (ESV)

38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

1 John 2:19 (ESV)

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

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When we harmonize these texts together...

…what it tells us is that...

…those who receive the word initially (even with great joy)...

…but who fall away in the face of hardships...

…never had true roots to begin with.

Because they didn’t persevere...

We can know, that they were...

False converts

Empty professors

NEVER true Saints.

The third type of soil/heart is similar to this one.

Luke 8:14 (ESV)

14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

This one is simple, but sad.

And here too, we have a TON of similar statements...

…in the rest of Scripture:

The most fundamental is probably this:

Matthew 6:24 (ESV)

24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Think about:

Story of the Rich Man and Lazarus

Encounter with the Rich Young Ruler

Parable of the Rich Fool

Remember, what Jesus said in:

Matthew 19:23–24 (ESV)

23 . . . “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.

24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Remember Paul’s warnings in:

1 Timothy 6:9–10 (ESV)

9 ...those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

John’s words perhaps describe it best:

1 John 2:15–17 (ESV)

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

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This is the warning in verse 14.

This is perhaps the worst soil of all!

Think about it:

The first was Hard and Apathetic

The second was fickle and frail

This one is full of strong affections...

…but for lesser things!

This is an idolatrous heart! (Israel’s constant problem)

And of all of these soils...

…this is the one that poses the greatest danger for us today.

-But, there is one type of soil/heart that is radically different from the rest:

Luke 8:15 (ESV)

15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

-Now, keep in mind, that (even though I’ve framed this as a series of warnings)...

These are descriptive statements...

And NOT necessarily prescriptive.

In other words, they’re not really telling us what to do...

They’re simply asserting a truth/reality about...

…why people respond to the gospel the way they do.

But, if you have any concern for your soul at all...

…you ought to be asking this question:

“How do I get a good and honest heart?”

Well, first you need to recognize this:

Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; . . .

You can’t make your heart good...

It’s too far gone!

You need a transplant!

You don’t need a therapist...

You need a surgeon!

This was what God’s people should have recognized all along:

Deuteronomy 30:6 (ESV)

6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

God promised to do that:

Jeremiah 31:31–33 (ESV)

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel...

33 ...this is the covenant that I will make . . . I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 (ESV)

26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

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Does the soil become good through its own efforts...

Or does the soil become good because of what the farmer does to it?

Paul tells us this:

Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV)

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins...

3 ...and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ...

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

I’ll conclude with Christ’s own words in Verse 18:

Luke 8:18 (ESV)

18 Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”

Let’s ask for grace to do that.