Sow Faithfully and Trust God

Lord God, thank you again that we can gather so freely together this morning. Help us as we're here together for your word. Lord, thank you for the good news of Jesus Christ that through his life, death, and resurrection, there is forgiveness of sins and salvation for all who believe.

Please help us this afternoon to hear your word with humble and listening hearts. Please give us all boldness to faithfully sow the seed of the gospel wherever you have placed us. Help us to keep our eyes on you and not to be so concerned about ourselves that we fail to speak about Christ.

Faithful Sowing Requires Going Out

Lord God, thank you for Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Amen. I want you to imagine for a moment a man who has decided to become a fly fisherman. He gets to work by doing a lot of research, studying every river within driving distance.

He learns what kind of fish there are, what they eat, what they enjoy, especially which parts of the river they're most likely to be hiding in. Then he starts buying a whole bunch of equipment, a lot of equipment, starting with a nine-foot fishing rod, then with a flying fishing reel, some line, some waders, boots, vests, clippers, leaders, tippets, and float, and everything you can imagine.

By now he has bought so many things he could open up his own store. Then he begins tying flies. He ties some for trout, some for salmon, a few to imitate insects, some that work best for when the sun is shining, some for when it's overcast.

The guy spends hours and hours and hours meticulously tying these tiny little fishing flies, every thread and feather, until they're absolutely perfect. Eventually, after all that preparation and having spent countless times practicing the perfect wrist-flicking technique for fly fishing, he puts on his waders, grabs his perfectly assembled fly fishing rod, opens up his basement window, and says, here fishy, fishy, fishy, fishy, I think we can all understand that that man is not going to catch a single fish.

Unless he actually goes out to the river, casts the hook in the water, there is no amount of practice or no amount of trying to learn as much as he can that will actually catch the fish. He needs to go out.

Now, once he actually has gone out, this man needs to have the right expectations. Even when he does make it to the river, it's not realistic for him to expect that every single time he casts the hook that there's going to be an abundance of fish jumping onto the hook.

He might be there for hours. He might throw his fly fishing rod and fly 10, 20, 30, 100 times. Eventually, though, he will feel that tug on the line, and that's just how fishing goes. And we can see some of the same principles apply when you and I go out faithfully sharing the gospel as fishers of men.

The Sower, the Seed, and the Soil

The text we will be looking at this morning is Luke chapter 8, verses 4 to 15. I've broken up the passage into three sections, namely, the sower, verses 5, the seed, verses 11 and 12, and the soil, verses 5 to 15 overall.

So our outline is this, the sower, the seed, and the soil. Like a good Baptist preacher, all Ss alliterates. For those taking notes, the main point we will see is this, as followers of Christ, we faithfully sow the pure seed of the gospel, trusting God for the fruit.

I'll say that again, we faithfully sow the pure seed of the gospel, trusting God for the fruit. Please turn with me to Luke chapter 8, verse 4. Once you have found the passage and are able to, please stand for the reading of God's word, starting in verse 4.

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

And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil, and grew and healed it a hundredfold.

And he said these things, he called out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others, they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. 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.

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. 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 of the pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

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 repentance. Thank you, please have a seat. At this point in Jesus' ministry, he is traveling through Galilee, teaching about the kingdom of God, what it means to live under God's reign, and how people enter it.

His teaching has been accompanied by powerful works and miracles that demonstrate his divine authority and confirms the reality and power of the kingdom he is proclaiming. As Jesus' ministry continues, large crowds are now gathering around him from town to town.

Yet the size of the crowds does not necessarily mean that everyone coming out is following Jesus with true genuine faith, nor that they will all repent and put their trust in him. In fact, probably only about one year later is when he has shared about him being the bread of life.

Many after that turned away from him, saying the teaching is too hard and they no longer followed him. So it is in this setting that Jesus tells the parable of the sower. With that in mind, we will now look at the parable a bit closer and see what Jesus is teaching us about the kingdom of God.

The Sower Is Not the Main Point

Section one, the sower. Look at verse five. It says, a sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, the seed fell among four types of soil. There is no further details about the sower. The rest of the parable doesn't even mention the sower again.

Nothing about the methods he uses or techniques he employs to get the maximum efficiency out of sowing. This is actually the case when you look at all three of the other synoptic gospels. What should we make of this?

For now, I want you to notice that Jesus doesn't make the identity and abilities of the sower the main point. This is very important to realize, but let's keep a pin in that and we will come back to that soon.

Instead, Jesus, his focus is on what is sown, the seed, and what happens when it lands on the different types of soil. So now in section two, let's look at the seed. Jesus tells us plainly in verse 11 what the seed represents.

The Gospel Is the Saving Word of God

The seed is simply the word of God. But what does Jesus mean by the word of God here? Verse 12 helps us understand. Jesus says that as the seed falls along the path, the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

Jesus connects the word with belief and salvation. The word is proclaimed, people hear it, and the purpose is so that people would believe and be saved. The seed is therefore the saving message of God's word, the gospel.

This is consistent with the way Luke uses the expression, the word, throughout his gospel and in Acts. In Acts 8, Luke tells us that those who were scattered went about preaching the word. And the very next verse describes Philip going down to Samaria and proclaiming to them the Christ.

Simply the word being preached is the message about Christ. Then later in Acts, Paul describes his message as the word of salvation. And later Luke also says that Paul and Barnabas were speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace.

Consider this then, when scripture tells us in Romans 1 verse 16 that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, does it make a bit more sense why Jesus doesn't put an emphasis on the sower?

Remember how the sower is barely mentioned in the parable? Because it's not the gospel sharer that is the power of God for salvation, it is the gospel. What is that gospel? Well the gospel begins with God, not with us.

God is perfectly holy, righteous, and just. He created us for his glory and he will judge the world with perfect righteousness. Yet God is also love and in his mercy he has made a way for sinners to be reconciled with him.

We as man need this reconciliation because we all have sinned against this holy God. Romans 3 23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of mankind is born into sin and are rebels against our creator.

By our very nature we are enemies of God. Our sin has separated us from him and we rightly stand under his judgment. No amount of good works can remove our guilt and our just punishment. Yet God, being rich in mercy, sent his son Jesus Christ who lived the perfectly righteous life that we could never live.

Then willingly went to the cross. There he bore the punishment our sin deserves, satisfying God's just judgment. And in our place Jesus died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, conquering sin and death.

Salvation is therefore found in Christ alone. Because of this God commands all men everywhere to repent and believe in Christ. Turn from their sin and look to Christ. Abandon their own confidence in themselves and trust wholly in Jesus name.

The Four Soils and Their Responses to the Gospel

That is the seed, the pure seed of the gospel that the sower must faithfully sow. Okay, so having looked at section one and two, the sower and the seed, now let's move on. Section three, the soil. Back in the time of Jesus, farmers didn't have these huge Alberta 10 ,000 square acres of land formed with tractors driving all around.

The work was done on smaller plots of land with small roads intersecting throughout. So when Jesus refers to the seed that fell along the path in verse five, it's the seed that fell on the small dirt roads along the side of the field.

It had been tightly packed down and compressed because people repeatedly were walking over it. When the seed fell on that sort of ground, it was trampled underfoot, but it wasn't properly buried or watered.

So the birds came and ate it up. Jesus compares that in verse 12 to people who hear the word, but it is immediately taken away by the devil so that they will not believe and be saved. Probably all of us have known people like that.

Honestly, it's heartbreaking to look people in the eye, share God's word with them, give them the gospel as clearly as possible, and yet they simply walk away, carrying on as if nothing has happened. The seed falls on their heart.

That is hard. And before they have time to consider it and think about it, it's gone. Notice in this type of soil, the seed did not grow any root or the plant, and of course there was no fruit. But it's not because the seed hadn't been faithfully sown or that the seed was defective in any way.

It's merely the fact that the soil wasn't ready to receive the word. Next, in verse 6, we see some soil fell along the rocks. Plants typically don't grow all the way, all that well in rocky terrain because they can't get their roots down deep enough to find water.

So they spring up quickly, but then wither just as quickly. Jesus compares that sort of plant in verse 13 to people who hear the word and rejoice in it, but because they have no root, they cannot withstand trials or temptations.

So as soon as struggle comes, they fall away. Unfortunately, I think many of us in this room probably also have known people like this. Early, they are excited and embrace Christianity with joy, giving an initial appearance of genuine conversion.

And as long as the Christian life is fun and things are going well, they're all too willing to follow Christ. But they're not rooted and grounded. They have no depth, no anchor for their faith. So when trouble comes, as in life we all will face trouble, these people fall away.

And I've noticed something interesting over the last 10 years of being in Canada. In the beginning, talking to my co-workers about Christ or the Bible, many would just immediately close the conversation, had no interest in it.

But especially after COVID, I've experienced a lot of people being a lot more open to spiritual conversations, talking about the Bible, talking about church. And I've had actually a number of them even come to church, genuinely expressing a real interest.

But they do still only want a God who is primarily interested in serving their needs, making them happy, not one to trust and obey. This is the type of people Jesus is referring to, those who expect Christianity to guarantee their physical, psychological, or financial prosperity.

But when the reality of the Christian life hits them, they experience some suffering, especially for their faith. They completely abandon it. Another interesting thing, learning about North Africa and the Middle East, there's a number of Muslims who live in a context where they don't get that persecuted for leaving Islam.

And understanding Christianity through the lens of Hollywood and what they see on television, they think being a Christian is a license to live life whatever way they want. So there's a number of Muslims coming to Christ in a superficial, shallow way, where they believe they can drink and party and live a very licentious life, until they're confronted with the reality of needing to serve God and follow Him, picking up their cross and obeying.

These people fall away very quickly. We can understand this in light of John's words. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. Now in this type of soil, the seed did grow a little bit.

Not like the seed that was immediately snatched away. This seed did make somewhat of a plant, but it had no root. And like the first, there is no fruit. Yet again, it's not because the seed hadn't been faithfully sown, or that the seed was defective in any way.

It's simply the fact that the soil wasn't ready to sustain a plant long enough to bear any fruit. Next, in verse 7, we see a third type of ground. Some seed fell among thorns, and in this place, plants aren't very healthy and will get choked out.

Jesus compares this to people, in verse 14, who hear the word, but then go back to living as they always have. The cares and riches and pleasures of life choke the word, so that their fruit never matures.

Last week, I went out doing door-to-door evangelism with some folks from my church. Having previously completed a number of other blocks, we moved into a much more rich and affluent neighborhood. Honestly, it was quite surprising how many people opened the door, told us, yeah, I used to go to church.

I went to a Christian school. Now, a lot of them were Catholic schools, but they were blessed with so many Christian influences that it was surprising that they're no longer walking with the Lord. But doing some investigating, asking some more questions, we quickly found out it is exactly this.

The cares and the riches and the pleasures of this world acted like weeds, slowly choking the life out of the plant before it could produce fruit. Again, in this type of soil, the seed did grow. There was a plant with somewhat of a root, but still, it had no fruit.

And as I've said before, it's not because the seed hadn't been faithfully sown or that the seed was defective in any way. No, it's simply the fact that the soil wasn't good soil for bearing fruit. Now, finally, we come to the last type of soil in verse 8.

Good, fertile soil. When the seed hits the ground, it grows and produces much fruit, a plentiful harvest with yields up to 100-fold. Now, here in Alberta, depending on the type of the crop, today farmers can expect a seed to yield ratio of around 30 to 40 for wheat and barley.

When it comes to potatoes, they can almost have a 20-fold increase. When it comes to corn, it's easy to have a 100 to 150-fold increase, but these numbers are way higher than what typically was expected for a first century farmer.

Anything from a 5 to 10 percent or 5 to 10-fold increase in the yield would be lots. So, Jesus gives a number of fruit significantly higher than would have been the expectation of the day. This emphasizes the fruit-bearing nature of the good soil.

In verse 15, Jesus says that these people hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear much fruit with patience. Now, we have to stop here and pause for a minute. Where does this good and honest heart come from?

It's not like there's some people out there that's naturally better than others, or that there's some sinners out there that's so wise that they can figure out a way of salvation for themselves. No, the Bible clearly teaches us the opposite.

There is no one who does good, not even one. So, if anyone receives the gospel, holds fast to it, perseveres, and bears fruit, we ultimately have to look beyond the sinner and look to the sovereign grace of God.

Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. A verse so near to my heart is Ezekiel 36 verse 26, which explains exactly where the good, honest hearts come from. God sovereignly puts it in man.

The good soil is not something the sinner produced himself. God makes the soil good. He gives the new heart that receives the seed, and the seed takes root and bears fruit. So, we see there's almost like a mystery happening here.

God has given us the ability and the duty to faithfully share the gospel, and He acts to powerfully save people. There is no tension in us as man faithfully sharing and God sovereignly saving. Paul actually describes this, this very thing.

He says, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Leaving Conversion and Growth to God

So, you and I sow the gospel faithfully, and God sovereignly prepares the soil. He gives life to the dead and causes the seed to bear fruit. Some plant, others water, but God gives the growth. So, by way of application, are you sowing?

The method is much less important than actually going out and sowing. Let that be an encouragement to you. There's a bit of a danger in getting so concerned about whether we are evangelizing perfectly, that we never actually go out and do it.

A famous preacher was once criticized for the way he was preaching the gospel, but when asking his critic, well, how do you preach the gospel? The man admitted that he doesn't. So, Moody responded by saying, well, I like the way that I am preaching the gospel a lot better than the way you don't.

Let me give you some examples of the types of reactions I have received now, close to almost 20 years of sharing the gospel. The vast majority of the time, people simply do not care. It's like seed falling on the path, but there are some ways people have come to faith in Christ that I want to share with you.

One example, it's on the one extreme end of the spectrum. My friend Andy was on a military exercise down in the States. He's a Canadian. While sleeping in his tent, he was woken up by a next door tent.

One soldier was sharing the gospel with another, just absolutely furious hearing this man saying that man is not good. He stormed out of his tent and literally on the way walking over to confront that man in the next tent over.

He realized, wait a minute, this is true. The Lord just opened his heart, and in that moment, furiously storming over, he got saved, and he believed the gospel. That's one end of the spectrum, just instantaneous salvation.

On the other end of the spectrum is one of my friends that I have for, oh, it was almost 13 years, shared the gospel with him. Prayed for this man over and over and over. Finally, it's like he heard it for the first time.

It just clicked. The Lord opened up his heart, and he got saved wonderfully. He's still walking with the Lord now. Then I had a coworker from Newfoundland. It was kind of in between. It was many, many months.

It's not hard being on a construction site for people to figure out you're a Christian. They don't hear you swearing, so they're like, oh, what's going on here? Swear words are like half their vocabulary.

Getting to know this man a little bit more and more, he was very interested in how much money do you pay to get forgiveness of your sins. He had these ideas because he had some Catholic influence where he grew up.

For months, just going through the Bible, going through the gospel, he didn't fully understand it, didn't fully understand it, shared the gospel with him. Finally, he didn't want anybody knowing that we're doing this, so I would have him come with me in my truck, and we'd go get some material from somewhere, take about an hour drive.

I gave him a small little Bible, and he would quietly read it every now and then. Finally, going through the book of Acts, I came across this story where Simon the Sorcerer wanted to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit, and I could show him in the Bible, look, these disciples didn't have very good words for Simon the Sorcerer that was trying to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Instantly, he just understood the gospel, and it's not because of my clever reasoning. Paul himself says in the Bible he reasoned for many years, sometimes at a location, but I want to highlight it's God opening up somebody's heart.

It's not something that we can do. I've got a bit more of an extraordinary, two quick stories of extraordinary ways in which God has just opened up people's hearts. There is a little church downtown Edmonton.

They went door-to-door evangelism, and literally the night before these folks came and knocked on the door, there was a Buddhist lady. She had a dream of Christ saying, tomorrow I'm sending you my servants to tell you about me, and lo and behold, these people knock on the door.

Hey, we're here to share the gospel of Christ, and she got saved. She's still going to church. Just recently, we had friends coming over from Morocco. There's a brand new, small little underground church forming in another city.

This man heard the gospel, completely rejected what he heard, and then that night, that Moroccan Muslim had a dream of Christ, realizing everything that had been told to him that morning was true, and he became a Christian.

Now he's in the process of slowly maturing, being discipled. What I want to encourage you with is that the common theme here is that all of these people heard the word. None of them would have been saved without hearing about Christ, and that is our job, to share about Christ, leaving the results up to God to do.

What's important is that we're actually taking the time and sharing God's word, the gospel, with others. I've mentioned various examples. I would say don't get too hung up on the exact method. There's some of you who goes out, does street preaching.

It's awesome. I love joining you guys when I have the time. There's some of you that do door-to-door evangelism. That's awesome. Some of you share with your children. Some of you share with your neighbor.

Some of you can share with your co-workers. The important part is, I want you to take a few seconds and think about a person this week that you are able to share Christ with. Now perhaps you're sitting here thinking, well, I'm not that bold to really go out and share the gospel with anybody.

Well then, ask God for this boldness. Let me read to you something. Paul himself asked for prayer in this regard. After telling the Ephesians to put on the whole armor of God and to pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication, to that end, keeping alert with all perseverance, making supplications for all the saints, he says, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

This is Paul the apostle asking for this prayer. He says, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Even Paul asked for prayer to be bold in sharing the gospel.

We should pray for one another this same thing as well. And I have been praying for all of you this week that you would overcome any hesitation and share the love of God with those who are perishing. And just like Paul said, we ought to use real actual words to share the good news of Christ, highlighting his life, death, and resurrection.

For the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. Our life and testimony can point people to God's saving power in our life, especially when we live lives worthy of the gospel. But remember to actually go out and talk about Christ.

Don't be like the fishermen that I shared the story with in the beginning, just staying in your basement. And as you do leave the burden of conversion to Christ, you and I have the little burden of sowing the word, the gospel of Jesus Christ to men and women who are perishing.

Be faithful in sowing, but recognize that God does all the heavy lifting. He produces the faith and the growth. That part is completely out of our hands. Therefore, calibrate your expectations according to the variety of outcomes that Jesus describes.

Don't get fixated on one soil type or the other. Either thinking that everybody should overwhelmingly respond to this gospel message, or that some just absolutely never would. Don't lose heart. Jesus says that he will open the hearts.

I really want to drive home this point that the hearts of men is in God's hands. Don't look at people from the outside and assume what they will believe and what they won't believe. They might have a thousand arguments, but you only need one argument.

Honestly, people ask me all the time, why on earth would you go all the way to Morocco to hardened hearts and people like that? Well, you know, I can ask the same thing. Hardened hearts? Well, what about the atheists?

What about the Jews? What about the LGBTQ plus? What about the self-righteous? What about the heart of man? My confidence is not in man's ability to save themselves. It's in Christ. He is mighty to save, and he does save.

Christ Alone Saves Sinners

So if you're here this morning, I want to encourage you in that fact. Look to Christ. He is the one that's able to save sinners. Now, for those who have not yet put your faith and trust in Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, please do not leave here without talking to any of the members here, or to the pastors, or come talk to me myself.

Your life is so short. Don't squander another day. You, too, can enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, in conclusion, the success of the gospel does not ultimately depend on us. Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.

Let's not be paralyzed by fear of rejection, discouraged by slow growth, or be tempted to try and manipulate people into the kingdom. Sow faithfully, share boldly, and see God save sinners. Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your amazing grace. Lord, that all of us were once your enemy. Yet, Lord, you reconciled us to yourself. Lord, I ask that you would prepare the hearts of the people that we all will share with.

Lord, give us diligence and endurance to carry on sowing the seed of the gospel. Lord, we thank you that we can rest in your sovereignty. The fact that you would save, Lord, just help us be faithful sowers.

Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon from Grace Fellowship Church Edmonton. To access additional sermons and other resources, visit our website at gfcedmonton .com.