The Soils

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Please turn to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8 [00:00:50] We are continuing our study in the Gospel of Luke. And even though it is Palm Sunday and often times we would pause for special consideration of the event of that day or events, but we felt to go ahead with Luke 8 this morning. And it came to pass afterward that he went throughout every city and village preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and the twelve were with him. [00:01:23] And certain women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chudza, Herod's servant or steward, and Susanna and many others which ministered unto him of their substance. And when much people were gathered together and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable. 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. [00:02:02] 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 and other 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. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? [00:02:35] 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 the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear, and then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They that are on the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with joy, and these have no root, which for a while be leaved, and in time of temptation fall away. [00:03:19] And that which fell among thorns are they which when they have 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 good heart, having heard the word, keep it, or retain it, and bring forth fruit with patience. [00:03:52] As we think of the importance of this passage, often called the parable of the seed and the sower, but probably as you look at the emphasis of the Lord in interpreting it, more likely you could refer to it for its meaning at least As the parable of the soils, or the parable of the various earths, seed plots, whatever. [00:04:34] We would like to give our attention to this passage as it would apply to all of us. Every single person here today is spoken of in this passage. And we would like you to think together about what it has to say. Before we come to the passage, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, in the power of your Holy Spirit, we open our hearts for your work. [00:05:17] We all need the challenge of this passage. It is easy for us to look at others and see their problems. In some cases, see their blessings. But always difficult to look inward. And we know that that is only really done in the power of your Spirit. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will visit this congregation, every single one of us, in the moments to come [00:05:53] and challenge us in terms of our relationship to the living Christ and the written Word. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. The background of this passage here in the Gospel of Luke is something of a series of truths that are very interesting. [00:06:28] I like to think of it as the ministry. And I think it has an application to us, but we do not want to dwell on that today. In the first three verses you have a record of the Lord's ministry in the villages, towns, cities, preaching, showing the good news, demonstrating the good news to people. [00:07:00] It talks about the fact that the twelve disciples were with him in that ministry. Many of us tend to stop there as we conceive of the ministry. We think of the ministry as the preachers, those who have the assignment, the responsibility of preaching and teaching and visiting and all of the various parts of the ministry. [00:07:34] If that were true, then verse 1 is the end of the ministry. Jesus and the Twelve, He who led them and they who followed Him in the ministry in these various towns and villages and cities. However, the passage goes on and lo and behold it talks about some women. And I would like to have us think that those women are representative, not just of the women, but of women and men. [00:08:08] Though it does not name the men here and does not speak of the men in particular. You'll notice it says in verse 2, it talks about these women who had experienced the resurrection power of the gospel. All that the Lord had healed them of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary Magdalene, one who had had seven evil spirits, seven devils, demons within her, whom he had delivered. [00:08:43] And then Joanna and Susanna, and it says many others. And you'll notice that their role is said to be one of support. I'm sure it wasn't just support such as cooking dinner and those sorts of things, although they're very important. But I believe that as you read through the Gospels, you'll find that these women supported him with their presence at the meetings and with various support roles, including, of course, the physical food and other things that they provided. [00:09:20] And I think that is the third arm of the ministry that we almost always neglect As we think about the ministry We think the ministry is the preacher and deacons And those in training and so forth Various leaders in the congregation But here there is a This is really the threefold ministry If you allow me to use that term in a different way, you have the pastoral people, you have those who are following and leading, and then you have all of the rest who are supporting. [00:10:08] And may I say that that is the ministry. It is not just leadership, but the ministry encompasses everybody in the church in one way or another. And one of the things that we see in today's church is that it has become very segregated. You have the leaders and perhaps some type of leaders in training, such as the disciples who are here. [00:10:44] And then at some other level, somewhere, somehow, you have the rest, who take no responsibility for leadership or ministry. But actually, as you study the Scriptures, everybody is responsible in ministry in some way. according to their gifting. Everyone is responsible to others in the congregation to provide ministry, support. In this case, they supported the leadership. [00:11:15] That's fine and necessary, but it's only a part of that. This is an extended application of these few verses. We won't take it any further, but I would commend it to your thinking that the ministry includes the whole congregation. Now, the Lord speaks by a parable, and He speaks to a crowd, it says in verse 4. Much people gathered together. They'd come to Him out of every city, and then He speaks to them by a parable. [00:11:50] And the parable is given there. We read it a few moments ago. Well, it's the parable of the sower seed and soils, or dirt, or earth, or seed plot, or however you want to say that. I think soils is a good way to declare it. He speaks to the crowd by a parable. He interprets the parable to those who are clearly following him. [00:12:25] And so it is even today. We are responsible to give the word to people, all people, but only those whose hearts are open will come to any understanding of it. People whose hearts are closed will come to understanding of the facts and what is said in the sentences and of the events and so on. but as far as being open to God's word flowing into them with understanding, it will all be something of a parable. [00:12:59] Now there was more to that than this. He was speaking to those who had in a sense rejected him and he said he was going to speak in parables so there's more than what I just inferred in the picture. However, I do think we can make that application that the word of God is no more than a parable to the person whose heart is not right. God, who is not open to hear God. Now this parable is a parable that would have been in the context of that time a very common occurrence. [00:13:37] The sower goes out to sow. I remember my grandfather still sowing grass seed in the oats by hand. And something like this. He carried a bag and he called it broadcasting. I don't know what you old timers will refer to it as, but that's the way my grandfather talked about it. And it was a very rhythmic walking and sewing with a hand, reaching into the bag. And it was a very rhythmic procedure. [00:14:14] That's the picture that you have here. Sower, sowing or broadcasting seed. And some of the seed falls on the roadside. And some of the seed falls in the rocks. And some of the seed falls in the thorns. And some of the seed falls on good ground. And the Lord cries out at that point and says, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. [00:14:50] And one wonders what he meant. We who have commonly read farther know much of what he meant, but wonder why did he tell this story? What is the meaning here? Isn't it interesting that the people apparently don't ask? But the disciples do. His disciples ask him, verse 9, [00:15:21] What might this parable be? What does this mean? And he comments in verse 10, 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, hearing they might not understand. Harking back to Isaiah 6 and other such passages that they will hear the Word of God without understanding. They will see the living Word of God. I'm interpreting here. [00:15:53] They will see the living Word of God and not understand. Now, to them, the Lord gives the interpretation. Not only to them, but to every disciple. of all time. And we have the benefit of that interpretation recorded here for us. What does it mean? The Lord says, first of all, the seed is the Word of God. We might debate who the sower is. [00:16:28] It, of course, is in the first place God Himself. In the second place, by application, I think we can say it is anyone, Anyone who sows the word of God Sunday school teacher, parent, preacher, missionary, witness There may be none of the above, but all of us are called to be witnesses Whenever we give God's truth to others In whatever way We could be seen as the sower here [00:17:00] Though the principal sower would be God himself The seed is the word of God and the soils, which is the focus of all of this whole parable and of all this lesson, the soils are the hearts of men and women. And they are described with this picture to help us understand more clearly how God sees the hearts of men. [00:17:37] And so the Lord continues the interpretation after pointing out that the seed is the word of God. He talks about these four different kinds of soil upon which the word of God falls. And I said, everyone here is covered in these descriptions. We would hope everyone here would be characterized by the good soil. [00:18:13] But whether you are or not, I think that it is fair and proper to say everyone here is covered by these descriptions. The four soils are given. First of all, the soil by the road or the wayside in verse 12. And he says, these are the people who hear, they hear the word of God. Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. [00:18:50] It is clear, then, that the people whose hearts are characterized by the wayside part of the parable, or the roadside, it is clear that they are not saved. They hear the word of God, but it says the devil, the enemy, comes and steals it out of their hearts before they believe, lest they should believe and be saved. So this category of individual would be those who hear the word of God. [00:19:28] They have heard the gospel. They have heard the word of God taught. But the devil comes in. And it can happen in church. It doesn't have to happen out in the world somewhere. The devil comes in through the mind and just blinds them and takes the word away before it has a chance to get any root. There are many people today [00:20:00] that this describes. If you've been faithful in witnessing to people about the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've been faithful in witnessing and sowing the seed, you have known some of those who hear the words you say and to whom it seems to make some sense momentarily and then things redirect and they go in a different direction. They may look at the issue of creation or some other area and just turn away. [00:20:36] The devil steals the seed, as it were, out of their lives, that it cannot bring forth fruit. The second category of individual that is spoken of in this passage would be in verse 13. Those that are on there that are on the rock or the rocky soil or the stony soil. are they which when they hear receive the word with joy and these have no root for which for a while believe [00:21:09] and in time of temptation fall away. I think these may be those that we grieve over the most. Those who hear the word of God and respond very openly and apparently genuinely. Their response to the gospel is everything that we would like to see it be. [00:21:44] And then when the trials come, temptations come, when the difficulties in the Christian life come, they turn away. When their joy seems to diminish, they turn away. You'll notice how the Scripture describes it there in verse 13. They hear the Word, they receive the Word with joy and enthusiasm, in other words. [00:22:18] But they have no root. They believe for a while. And then in time of temptation, when the going gets rough and difficult, when the persecution comes perhaps, or when grief enters the picture, or other kinds of temptation, they fall away. The third classification of soil and of men's hearts in verse 14, [00:23:00] and that which fell among the thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection or to maturity, completion. These are not people that fall away in the same way as those spoken of in verse 13. [00:23:38] They just never get anywhere. They hear. I would think they may actually acknowledge that what they've heard of the Word of God is true. But the cares of the world are weighed in too heavily. And so they compartmentalize, we would say in modern day English. They compartmentalize and they say, well, this business about faith, this is fine, but I shall not let it affect the things that I like to do or the things that I want. [00:24:22] Three words are used there, cares, riches, and pleasures. Those things are the big things in the lives of these individuals. And they allowed those things to interfere with the seed of the Word of God growing. And so these people bring no fruit to completion or maturity. I suspect that in 2004 America, this may be a goodly portion of Christianity. [00:25:11] Yes, they accept the facts. Yes, this is fine. Yes, this is the Word of God. Yes, Jesus died for sinners. Yes, I'm a sinner. But that's as far as it seems to get. Because of the cares and concerns and riches and pleasures of the world. Now you can weigh some of that in your own life. [00:25:45] Think about the things that you would call pleasure. Will they keep you from the house of God? Will they keep you from your daily devotional life? That's only a measurement, but I think it's a question that we need to wrestle with. Because I'm afraid in our country, in our culture, there's an awful lot of verse number 14. Awful lot of that kind of soil. [00:26:17] An awful lot of that kind of soil in the church today, where the fruit from the Word of God just doesn't grow. Where, yes, it's accepted, but that's as far as it goes. So, as you think of your life, could you be wayside soil? [00:26:51] Where the devil snatches out the seed before it has a chance to grow? Could you be rocky soil where you prospered quickly spiritually after you heard the gospel? And then the balloon burst and you fell away. Or could you be thorny soil where the things of this world and the cares of this life [00:27:26] and the duties of the work-a-day world choke out the Word of God before it grows to maturity. The Lord is very clear that He's talking here about salvation. He says in verse 12, of that soil, the roadside soil, the wayside soil, He says, lest they should believe and be saved. So this is not talking about one who is spiritual as a Christian and one who is carnal as a Christian. [00:28:07] And there is such a thing as carnality. We're not saying there isn't. But what he's saying is, this is the difference between those who are saved and those who are not. Now, the wayside soil, those people may not espouse Christianity. That seems unclear to me. But the other two, so far as we've gone, the rocky soil, the thorny soil, they espouse Christianity, I would think. [00:28:55] But they are not born-again Christians, at least in the end. I would have you notice what a born-again Christian is described as. Notice in verse 15, But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, Having heard the word, keep it, or retain it, and bring forth fruit with patience. [00:29:37] These are the genuine Christians. It is possible that as you read verse 13, that those were Christians. But those who are genuine Christians who persevere to the end, to use the biblical expression, would be characterized by the good ground. And the good ground has an honest and good heart. [00:30:09] In other words, the Word of God coming to them in the Gospel is a heart-changing experience. They hear the Word and they retain it. So it is a Word to the heart, heard in the light of Romans 10, retained. And they don't throw it out. They don't turn away from it. And as they continue in the word, notice what the rest of the verse says. They bring forth fruit with patience. They hear and keep. [00:31:00] Now, is it necessary to work to be saved? No. I think Galatians and Romans are very clear on that. Is it necessary to work in order to stay saved? Same answer. But if you don't produce righteous works, you are not saved. [00:31:39] In other words, works has no part in grace. Grace, by its definition, is the absence of work. But the person who is saved by grace through faith, from the heart, will produce fruit of that grace. I hope we can grasp that. We all struggle with it, but it's so very important. [00:32:10] Only the fourth category gets to heaven. Only the good soil gets to heaven. Those who receive the word to the heart, who continue in it, and thus bear fruit, as he says earlier, hundredfold. [00:32:46] The other gospel accounts amplify that into several multipliers. So, as you think about that, let's reflect on the account of what we call Palm Sunday. What about those who were crying Hosanna? Those who were throwing down their palm branches, [00:33:18] speaking great glowing words about Jesus Christ, but who less than a week later, likely many of the same people, crying out, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! and crucify him. What kind of soil were they? Well, perhaps they were the rocky soil. [00:33:54] Who received the word with joy on Palm Sunday. About a few days later, had turned from it all. How is it with you? How is it with me? I know many of us assume that we are the good soil. I hope we are. But that is something that has to be settled between our heart and God's. [00:34:27] We can deceive each other. We cannot deceive Him. Is it possible that gathered in this group, and I don't know, but is it possible that gathered in this group are some wayside people from the devil has brought in all sorts of deception [00:35:00] and the seed has no chance to grow. Is it possible that in this group this morning there are some rocky soils? Yes, you believe for a while But there's no root. Is it possible this morning there's some thorny soil? [00:35:34] Where your mind is given over to the cares, pleasures, and riches of this world. That even while we have been studying here together, your mind has wandered out into the other things. rather than being focused on the Word of God. I challenge us. The seed, the Word of God is the same. The message is the same. It is the soils that are different. [00:36:06] So what kind of soil are you? You can't blame God for the soil. That is who you are and that is your responsibility. God does not make anybody not believe. He issues the call of whosoever will. The gospel, the word of God, is sown without prejudice and bias. [00:36:39] It is for all. What kind of soil are you? Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word, for this parable of our Lord Jesus Christ. Take this scripture, burn it into our minds, into our hearts. Use it to challenge us, convict us, and direct us in our response to you. [00:37:10] Through the blessed Holy Spirit, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you for watching!