03 | Luke 8:4–8, 18 | Take Care How You Hear

INTRODUCTION

We’ve spent 2 weeks this summer considering the question: What is preaching?

2 Timothy 4:1-2 — The intent of preaching

Reproof, Rebuke, Exhortation

7 Proclamations of Acts — The content of preaching

God-centered

Audience-conscious

Christ-focused

Response-expectant

This morning, Luke 8 — The response of those who hear

Last week I pointed out that the proclamation of the Word always includes a call to a specific response.

That is, a call to faith and repentance.

A call to trust the sacrifice of Jesus in the place of sinners.

And to follow after him in faith-filled obedience.

But, as we will see today, preaching does not always produce this response.

All who hear the Word do respond, but not all who hear respond with faith.

And so, this morning we turn to Luke 8:4ff — The Sower, the Seed and the Soil

We will ask the question:

What is the responsibility of those who hear the Word?

How can we take care how we hear?

PRAY

5:00

We beginning by considering to things that are always the same.

First …

SOWER: The Preacher is Always Sowing the Word

Read v5a and v11a.

The sower sows the seed.

The seed is the Word of God.

Remember that all scripture is God-breathed and profitable.

So, the preacher preaches the Word in season and out of season.

It is by the Word that he reproves, rebukes and exhorts …

… with complete patience and teaching.

8:00

APPLY

When the farmer sows the seed, he has an image in his mind.

He sows because he desires a fruitful harvest.

He has the image in his mind of seedlings breaking through the ground …

… crops bursting forth in growth

… and glorious fruitfulness, multiplying bountifully.

This is why he sows. He is his intent. It is what he is doing.

But if he takes a moment to see what is really happening, he is taking a mere tiny seed …

… and throwing it out on dirt.

Or, to make more explicit the meaning of the parable.

He is taking mere collections of words and tossing up in the air …

… to land on ears already full of words

… distracted by other concerns.

How do seeds land on dirt and become a harvest?

How do words land on lives and become fruitful life?

The answer is, it doesn’t.

No farmer can make a harvest.

No preacher can make a disciple.

ILL: Before preaching, “I can’t do this.”

God, what you’ve asked me to do this morning, I can’t do!

I can’t make a single seed take root.

I can’t create faith.

I’ve got words.

Yes, they are powerful words.

Yes, because you have given them to me in your scripture …

… they are the very words of life.

You see, seeds are powerful things!

But they are still just seeds. They are not a harvest.

And apart from the miracle of life, when they land in field, they will just lie there of no use.

There is a miracle needed …

… that when the Word is sown and falls upon the congregation

… it is the Holy Spirit who works in the human heart

… that the seed of the Word would be received with faith

… and grow to a fruitful harvest of life.

Only the Spirit of God gives life.

Preaching doesn’t work. But God does!

This morning , we see why the complete patience is so important.

13:00

SOWER: The Preacher is Always Sowing the Word

SEED: The Word is the Same

The seed is always the same.

Again, remember all scripture is God-breathed and profitable.

Therefore, the content of preaching is the Word of God.

The preacher doesn’t merely preach …

… a good word, a helpful word, an encouraging word

Preaching is not advice or inspiration or creative entertainment.

The purpose of preaching is not to scratch itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3).

2 Timothy 4:3 ESV

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

One thing that is clear from the parable is that the hearers of the Word are easily distracted:

The devil comes and takes away the word.

They never become rooted in faith, so when a time of trial comes, they fall away.

Any fruitfulness is choked out by the cares and riches and pleasures of life.

But, I can think of few things more evil than the preacher who himself become a distraction.

When the Word is not the content of his preaching.

When preaching is not God-centered or Christ-focused.

When preaching is audience-centered and response-focused.

16:00

In the first week of this series, I said that the preacher is the first hearer of the Word.

This is what happens when the preacher himself fails to be careful to hear.

He becomes impatient or even bored with the Word.

And so, he begins to sow something else.

But the Word is always the same!

The power of fruitful growth is packed only into the seed.

Again, the image of the seed is so essential, because no farmer can make anything grow.

The farmer is never fruitful.

Nothing the farmer has become distracted by can every produced a harvest.

Only the seed is fruitful.

And the sprouting, taking root and multiplication of the seed is a miracle!

It is the Word that works, not the preacher.

1 Peter 1:23 ESV

since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

New life, rebirth, is the result of the eternal, life-giving word of God.

20:00

We have considered these two unchanging realities:

SOWER: The Preacher is Always Sowing the Word

2. SEED: The Word Itself is Unchanging

I think the main point of Jesus’ telling the parable is to equip his disciples with reality.

He is going to send them out to sow the Word.

And so much of their labor will reap no harvest at all.

But, when God’s Spirit causes the seed to germinate and take root …

… the fruitful harvest is miraculous

… 30, 60, 100 fold fruitfulness.

So, keep on sowing!

By patient endurance, do not lose heart.

By faith-filled obedience, do not become distracted.

But, what of the soil?

How can the congregation benefit this morning by your consideration of this parable?

A little further on in this collection of parables on hearing the Word of God.

Luke 8:18: “Take care then how you hear.”

22:00

Really, what follows is a long application point.

SOIL: Take Care How You Hear

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition The Larger Catechism

Q. 160. What is required of those that hear the word preached?

Let me say that, to put it simply, what is required is that you believe!

But the confession considers this process of belief in more detail.

The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition The Larger Catechism

A. It is required of those that hear the word preached, that they attend upon it with

If you give close attention to this answer you’ll see that there is a:

Before, during, upon hearing and after response.

Before: preparation and prayer

During: examination

Upon Hearing: receive the truth with faith, love, meekness and readiness of mind, as the word of God.

That is, to receive the Word as from God.

And so, worthy of trust and authoritative for life.

After: meditate and confer

That is, the hearer makes use of the Word preached further on in life …

… by personally remembering

… by corporately considering.

… meditating and confering.

But this manner of hearing …

… by taking care to hear

… the Word brings forth fruit in their lives.

26:00

Jesus says much of the same of the good soil in v15.

Luke 8:15 — As for that in the good soil …

hearing the word

Do you listen to the Word with an expectation to hear the very truth of God?

1 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

True preaching does not merely bear witness to the Word of God.

The Word is not merely the content of our preaching.

By God’s own grace and design for preaching …

… the Word of God heralded is God’s word to you!

True preaching that is God-centered and Christ-focus is not merely the word of men, but the very word of God which is at work in you!

So, when we gather, do you gather in expectation of hearing from God?

28:00

Do you gather with a sense of expectation?

This isn’t just a yes or no question.

It is a question to be considered carefully.

You can examine yourself for the answer.

Proverbs 8:33–34 ESV

Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.

Are you like one who watches at the gate?

One who waits by the door?

From the beginning of the service to the end.

In the past I’ve said this with a smile and with an awkward laugh.

Because I know that every Sunday morning there are many in this awkward moment that hear this call to gather for the whole of the service …

… only in the context of the immediate question

… “Was I late this morning?”

Let me say this, “If there is a rebuke in it for you, so be it.”

But if there is condemnation in it for you, you’re hearing me wrong.

But, I don’t want the awkwardness of whether you were late or not this morning to cause me to pass too quickly over this essential point.

This middle moment in our service is not the whole of the heralding of the truth.

The first words of the service begin the preaching of the Word.

“Welcome in the name of the Lord!”

It breaks my heart for you that only about a third of the church hears God’s welcome to you each week.

Friends, that isn’t my welcome. It isn’t the words of men. It is the word of God to you.

Your soul needs to hear that welcome.

You need to hear that he has called you to gather in his holy presence.

You need to hear that he has enabled you to gather by his grace.

As the Westminster Confession tells us, the responsibility to hear the Word begins before the gathering.

So, what of your preparation?

I am confident that the difficulty of gathering early on Sunday begins on Saturday evening?

Charles Spurgeon We are told men ought not to preach without preparation. Granted. But we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which do you think, needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground? I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I would have the ground well-plowed and harrowed, well turned over, and the clods broken before the seed comes in. It seems to me that there is more preparation needed by the ground than by the sower, more by the hearer than the preacher.

Let me press one more time on why we need to gather for the whole of the service: beginning to end.

Prayer!

Hearing the Word begins with prayer!

Psalm 119:18 ESV

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

Open your eyes doesn’t begin when we gather.

It begins when you opened your eyes this morning ...

… and when you chose to close your eyes last night.

What of those who have young children?

Bless you, friends! It is hard, but glorious work!

You have given your children a wondrous gift by your labor to gather this morning.

And over and over again!

This gift of your attention to the Word can never be taken from them!

It will remain as a testimony over the whole of their lives.

So, let me suggest that there is a complementary gift that you can give to your children.

Teach your children come sundown on Saturday evening that it is time to prepare for the Lord’s Day.

Be careful what you plan on Saturday evening.

Head toward your beds in expectation of God’s opening your eyes the next morning.

Read a psalm or from a collection of prayers as your last thought of the evening.

And set your alarm with expectation.

Most practically, gather at 9:30.

Not at 10!

Imagine walking in the door, not running.

Imagine accompanying your child to CPKids and telling the teacher that you are praying for the them.

Imagine sitting or a moment to simply breath a quiet breath …

… and to ask the Lord to quiet your mind

… that the Lord would remove distraction and cares of the world

… Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

Church, I don’t want to stop pressing this point today nor in weeks to come.

If you will hear my heart and trust me on this …

… I believe that a church that gathers prepares in the evening and gathers early in expectation

… this will have a transformative effect on our life together.

35:00

All of this thus far is before, as preparation.

Now, as we hear the Word held before us.

As the Word falls upon our ears and into the soil of our souls.

hold it fast

v5b - Not quickly snatched away by the birds.

Are you taking any care to receive the word?

ILL: Mirror

James 1:22–25 ESV

… he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Have you heard the word but give to real attention to it?

Do you remember so that you believe?

Do you believe so that you respond with faith-filled obedience?

Since I was a child I would practice the behavior of saying the words of the pastor in my head as he said them.

I would hear his words as though they were words for my own mind.

Later I would learn to write these words, not so I could reference them later, but so that I could notice them now.

And, in the afternoon, recall the scripture that was preached.

On Monday morning, read the scripture again.

And review your notes to see the main points and application of the scripture.

At CPCoast we have worked to provide a number of resources that you would hold the word fast.

Attached to the sermon podcast are the sermon notes:

with the outline

and the scripture references and quotes from the sermon.

On Tuesday, on your way home from work or school …

… listen to the After Sunday podcast

… as we consider the word again together.

Yet another effort to hold the word fast.

And on Wednesday, we confer together.

Over a meal, we read and remember the scripture.

And we recount some benefit the word is working in our lives

39:00

in an honest and good heart

Brothers and sisters, there is not a good heart by nature in this room.

We have no natural disposition to the truth of God.

We must submit ourselves to the truth.

As the Westminter Confession puts it:

receive the truth with faith, love, meekness, and readiness of mind

Meekness: that is, we put ourselves under the work of the word.

What is a good heart? it is a heart that hears with faith.

Hebrews 4:2 ESV

For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.

test

41:00

bear fruit with patience.

This is what the Westminster means when it says that the hearer brings forth the fruit of the word in their lives.

Psalm 119:11 ESV

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

There is a subtlety here.

The psalmist takes hold of the word in the expectation that the Word itself will work change in his life.

James 1:22 ESV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

With patience.

We are never done bearing the fruit of the Word.

We don’t check that box and then move on.

With patience we remain humbled by the truth of God.

And so, day after day, and this pattern established by God …

… week after week

… we humble ourselves again

… we prepare to gather.

… we hear with faith

… and we again, bear the fruit of those who have received the very Word of God.

APPLY

A Warning — v18 — He gives and takes away.

time

APPLY

SOWER: The Preacher is Always Sowing the Word

SEED: The Word is the Same

As for the SOIL: Take Care How You Hear

Hear the word

Hold it fast

In an honest and good heart (with faith)

Bear fruit with patience.

time