Be Careful How You Hear (Luke 8:1-21, Jeff Kliewer)

Father, this is our prayer this morning, that you would give us ears to hear, that you would give us eyes to see, that you would turn our hearts that are naturally made of stone into hearts of flesh that can feel.

Lord, make us responsive to your word. Make us good soil. Let us be hearers and doers of your word.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The first four chapters of the

Book of Luke were introducing the Son of God, the Messiah. So we have the birth story of how he came, and we have the introduction when

John the Baptist baptized him in the Jordan River. We also have the fourth chapter of Luke where he, before beginning his ministry, needs to go off into the wilderness all alone with the enemy and be tempted for 40 days.

Having overcome that temptation, he comes back, and we move into the fifth chapter. And now we're introduced to three other prominent players in the

Book of Luke. Three groups, really. They are the disciples, the crowds, and the

Pharisees. The disciples are noteworthy because in Luke chapter 5, we find that Peter, James, and John are fishermen.

And they catch so many fish, they're astonished by the miracle that Jesus does. It says they leave everything and follow

Jesus. And then also in Luke chapter 5, Matthew, the tax collector, is collecting taxes.

But when he hears the call to follow Jesus, we're told he leaves everything and follows

Jesus. So a disciple is one who leaves everything to follow Jesus. The second group, which were crowds, were easily moved.

We pictured them like a school of fish. They travel together, they go where the leaders go, and they move and go.

Not necessarily by commitment or deep conviction, but by whatever is expedient, whatever might feel good or sound good.

They like new teachings. They like to see miracles. The crowds gather around Jesus. That's the second group.

And the third group were the Pharisees. Now the Pharisees were enemies of Christ.

They didn't want to hear what he had to say. They were offended by him. They took great offense. And so from those chapters 6 and 7, there's a particular emphasis on the

Pharisees. They, in a sense, are enemies. But Jesus teaches us something profound about our enemies.

Unlike the rest of the world, Jesus teaches us to love our enemies. That's a profound teaching in chapter 6.

Now in chapter 7, we get an example of a sinful woman and a Pharisee named Simon. Remember that story?

Simon didn't even welcome Jesus the proper way when he came into his home. And he was judging this sinful woman.

But she, wetting Jesus' feet with her tears, wiped his feet with her hair.

This beautiful picture of devotion to Christ. So she became a true disciple. And by the end of chapter 7, we hear her sins are forgiven, but the

Pharisees are not. Now as we move into chapter 8 today, the emphasis, the attention goes back upon the crowds.

The crowds. They gather to see Jesus. But Jesus deals with each one of them individually.

It wasn't enough that people come in a big crowd and listen to him preach. It wasn't enough that they'd be happy with the things he says or clap when he does a miracle.

He's looking for something deeper. There has to be a private, individual devotion to Christ.

The crowd needs to become disciples. Each individual needs to become a disciple. I heard a preacher this week describe it this way.

He said, faith is like a toothbrush. Everyone should have their own. And that's true.

That is true. You see, you can't just group together to become followers of Jesus.

You must individually come to a place of faith for yourself. So in Luke chapter 8, we're going to see that process.

We're going to see how Jesus deals with the crowds. Let's turn there. If you don't have a

Bible with you, you can just use your phone. Just look it up that way. Put Luke chapter 8,

English Standard Version, and you'll be able to find it. So the main idea today is that Jesus is going to teach a parable.

It's often known as the parable of the sower. But it's better called the parable of the soils because it's not really about the person who's casting seed on the ground.

It's about the ground. The emphasis is on the soil. Jesus teaches not only this parable, but he will also tell us why he speaks in parables.

And the lesson from the two are the same. Only God's grace can change a heart, yet we are commanded to take care how we hear.

So Luke chapter 8, we're only going to do 21 verses today. We're not going to try to tackle the whole chapter, even though we're doing a broad overview of Luke, the big sweep.

We want to focus in on these 21 verses. I'm sorry, Luke 8, 1 to 21, and learn about ourselves.

Now, very often in the scriptures, the emphasis is on God and who he is. And that's where it belongs.

We need to be a God -centered people. But here, Jesus turns the attention right back on us.

And he spends time talking about our hearts. So the soil in this parable is going to refer to our hearts.

And the heart in the Bible is the inner man. It's the core of who you are.

So you have a body. Your body is almost like a tent. But the real identity, the core of who you are, is your heart.

It's the seat of your emotions and your will. It is the centermost part of who you are.

So let's read it. Luke 8, 1 to 3, we'll set up the story, and then we'll hear the parable. Soon afterward, he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.

And the 12 were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities.

Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's household manager, and Susannah, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.

So in verse 1, we see that Jesus is on the move. His disciples are with him. But it's not just the 12.

There are also some prominent women who have come to follow. And they're named here. We learn about Mary, and Joanna, and Susannah.

These are providing for the disciples out of their means. So being Herod's household manager in verse 3, it's probably that Joanna, the wife of Chusa, has means.

She has financial means. And so she's contributing that. But what I love about this picture here is that the mission of Christ is being accomplished by a team that includes men and women of various backgrounds.

And we know how the disciples come about. They come from such varying backgrounds. Matthew, the tax collector, next to Simon, the zealot, who in earthly world, in the way things were according to the culture,

Simon, the zealot, would be very likely to kill Matthew, the tax collector. And yet Jesus has brought them together as one.

And this here includes men and women. But notice that the 12 are marked off in chapter 8, verse 1.

The 12 were with him. This hearkens back to Luke, chapter 6, verse 13. When Jesus, coming down from the mountain, he chose 12 apostles.

He named them apostles, which gave them a special role, a special office. And so there's two things

I think we need to hold together here. One is that the entire church works together as one body in the mission that God has called us to.

But notice that all 12 are men. And this is counter -cultural, but this is the teaching of scripture, that there are certain offices within the church that men are to occupy.

There's not 11 men and one woman. No, there's 12 men who are called to be the apostles.

There are certain roles that men fulfill in the home and in the church. And there's certain roles that women fulfill in the home and in the church.

And in this case, you see the apostolic office. The role to be an apostle belongs only to men.

That's the teaching here. And yet, there is a complementarity so that you don't have a fighting against one another.

Rather, there is an embracing of the roles that God has ordained. And let me just tell you, I've seen a lot of marriages in my day.

I've seen a lot of marriages of all different stripes and kinds. And I'm blessed that I come from my parents' marriage, and I've gotten to see how they have operated, where the husband takes a spiritual leadership role, and the wife is submissive to that.

It's not in a domineering way. It's not in an overlording. But rather, there's a leading that takes place.

And these are the marriages that you would want to emulate. These are the marriages that I want to emulate.

The blessing of God is on a marriage in a unique way when men and women each step up to the roles for which they were created.

And it's the same way in the church. Elders in the church is an office that we currently have, which should be men only.

According to Titus 1, verse 9, and 2 Timothy 2 talks about this.

Is it in order that men would dominate women? That's how the culture would want us to look.

That's how we'll be painted in movies and on TV. But the truth is, according to Ephesians 5, it's a beautiful picture where a husband who's leading spiritually, who's stepping up as a man into that role, loves his wife like Christ loves the church.

The bride of Christ is the church. And how does Christ love the church? He lays down his life for her.

It's a beautiful picture of self -giving and self -sacrifice, but there's roles involved in this.

So we see that in verses one to three. A group who are on mission together, each fulfilling roles that are appropriate to their gender.

And now we get into the parable, verse four and following. And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, before I tell you what the parable is,

I have to tell you what a parable is. A parable is a story which illustrates a deep spiritual truth.

So the word parable from para and bole means alongside and to cast.

So like casting something alongside of another thing, a parable is a story that goes side by side with the spiritual truth.

And the story that goes alongside it is an ordinary thing. It's just something that you would recognize, but it illustrates something very deep and profound that not everybody will catch.

So a parable is a simple story that illustrates a deep spiritual truth. Now we have some misconceptions about parables that we'll get into in verse nine and 10, but let's read this one, five and following.

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 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 yielded a hundredfold. As he said these things, he called out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

So quite an interesting occurrence, isn't it? A great crowd has gathered to hear

Jesus and they're interested to hear what he has to say. But no doubt they're also wanting to see a miracle.

They wanna see something awesome. They wanna see something great. And he tells them a most ordinary story.

A farmer goes out and he throws seed. And some of it lands here on a hard path where carts drive by.

Others land in a rocky place. Other seed falls where there's ground, but there's also thorns.

And finally, some seed falls on good soil and each one has a different result. Only the last one is good soil that produces, but these other three are just bad soil.

It's a pretty ordinary story. And you can imagine this huge crowd that's here to hear him just kinda scratching their heads saying, okay, that's nice.

Why are you telling me this? Why are you telling me about a farmer throwing seed every which way?

Well, the disciples asked this question in verse nine. And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, to you it has been granted or 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.

That's a difficult teaching. I want you to catch that because typically when we talk about parables, we stop with what

I've already said. A parable is a spiritual story. It's a common story that illustrates a spiritual truth.

And so it's a way to help us understand. It's childlike. God gives us a simple, easy to understand story so we don't miss what he's saying.

But verse nine and 10, if you look more closely, is actually saying the opposite. Follow this.

When his disciples asked him what his 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.

Hopefully your mind is just going pfft right now. You just blew my mind. That's the opposite of what

I thought a parable was. What is going on in this text? What is Jesus saying? Would Jesus hide truth from people?

What is going on? Turn with me to John chapter six. This teaching is actually something that Jesus will hit on in a number of places throughout the

Gospels. In John six, verse 37, the context is after a great miracle.

In fact, a number of them. He's multiplied bread and fed 5 ,000 people. And those 5 ,000 people plus women and children are all gathering to hear what he has to say.

A huge crowd. And yet some are not believing. Verse 37,

John chapter six, verse 37. Jesus says, all that the

Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.

The teaching here in John 6, 37 is that the Father gives some to the

Son and as a result, they will come to him. And when they come,

Jesus will by no means cast them out. So there will never be anyone trying to come to Jesus and Jesus just says, no,

I don't want you. I push you away. No, he will accept them.

He will welcome them. But they must first be given to him. And so the teaching here is that the

Father elects some to believe the message that Jesus preaches.

But what about those who are not? Look at verse 644. Jumping down as he's explaining this.

It says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

And I will raise him up on the last day. So according to John 6, 44, do we have the ability to come to Jesus?

I think in evangelical culture, Jesus is presented oftentimes in a rather soft way.

And yes, it's true that Jesus is loving, more loving than we could imagine.

And yet I think Jesus is often pictured as standing in heaven, wringing his hands, just hoping, wishing that we would respond with our almighty free will to just come.

And if only we would come, he would be at peace. That's not the portrait of Jesus that we see in the scriptures.

Rather, we see the picture of a strong savior who is able to save. He is able by his grace to draw people to himself.

Look at 644. We're in John 6, 44. No one can come to me. That's the problem.

The problem is that our hearts are like stone. And though there is the preaching of the gospel all over this town and all over this country and all over the world, people don't want to hear it.

There is a hardness in their heart and they cannot come. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

And notice what kind of drawing this is. This isn't just a general drawing, but this is a powerful, effective, effectual drawing because it says, and I will raise him up on the last day.

He says it again in verse 65. If you look down near the end of that chapter, he said, this is why

I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the father.

Now here's the kicker for the end of John 6. Remember I told you that thousands of people are listening to him at this point in time.

They've come because he's done miracles. He's fed them. He's fed 5 ,000 people with two loaves and five fishes.

Right, or is it the other way around? Was it five loaves or, I don't know. He fed them with a very little bit of food.

He multiplied it and fed 5 ,000 people. And you have this huge crowd that's loving that.

They want that bread. Give us this bread. And Jesus says, yeah, you're following me because I give you bread.

And you can just kind of picture everybody looking at each other saying, yeah, you're kind of right. That's why we're here, isn't it?

And so then he says, well, here's the bread. You have to eat my body and you have to drink my blood.

And all of a sudden the people that loved what he had to say the people that love seeing the miracles, they start departing one by one.

The end of the crowd has suddenly dissipated. And he looks out and one by one people are talking and they're muttering and they're murmuring against him.

What is this talk? Eat my flesh and drink my blood. Who is this? Who does he think he is? I want nothing to do with that.

And by the end of John chapter six, I don't think Jesus read the church growth manuals.

He didn't go to seminary. Because he started with 5 ,000 plus women and children. By the end of chapter six, he's down to 12.

His real disciples, his followers. And he says, do you wanna leave too? He's not growing the church right there.

He's preaching hard truth. And the genuine will remain. And some of those who had departed, they will come when they genuinely grasp who he is.

But the kicker is, Jesus moves that crowd of thousands down to the 12 who genuinely believe.

Who he's drawn to himself. And they understand and they believe. And their hearts are open to him.

Verse 68, Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Jesus says, do you wanna go too?

He says, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the

Holy One of God. Jesus answered him, did I not choose you, the 12?

And yet one of you is a devil. He's talking about Judas Iscariot, of course. And so we move back to the parable.

Luke chapter eight, what is Jesus saying? In Luke eight, nine and 10, he says that to some it is given to come.

But to others I speak in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand.

Jesus is quoting from Isaiah chapter six, verses nine and 10. And you know Isaiah six, where Isaiah saw the glory of the

Lord, the train of his robe filled the temple. And where Isaiah felt undone when he saw the glory of God until an angel took that coal from the fire and touched his lips and his sin was taken away.

And Isaiah said, here I am, send me. And God says to him,

I send you to go and preach so that hearing they will not hear and seeing they will not see.

They will be hardened in their sin for judgment. Isaiah six becomes a passage about judgment.

And as we continue to read what unfolds in Isaiah, the people are hardened in their sin.

Although Isaiah preaches, they don't wanna hear it, they become hardened in their sin.

Until finally, the surrounding army, Nebuchadnezzar and the

Babylonians take them captive and take them away. It's a passage of judgment.

Here's the point. The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.

The preaching of the word in some cases opens a heart to belief.

It melts the wax, turns stone into a heart of flesh, but it also hardens clay.

And the hearing of the word makes someone more resistant to God, more angry at God, more turned away from God.

The natural state of the human heart is hardness against God.

And it's not the case that we in ourselves have this ability to listen to the preaching of God's word and come to him.

Rather, what each one of us in this room needs in order to be saved, in order to be the good soil, is grace.

Our hearts are turned against God. We're rebellious.

Our hearts are hard. And according to Ezekiel 36, 26, the only hope for us is that God would take these hard hearts and remove that and replace it with a heart of flesh.

According to Jesus, we are utterly dependent upon him. We need his grace.

Now as we continue on, we'll see the beautiful thing is he gives it.

And in the preaching of the word, there is a call to repent and believe. It is a time of salvation.

When you're hearing this word preached, this is grace. We'll see that at the end, but right now we're in Luke 8, 9 and 10, and this hard teaching is that no one can come.

God doesn't need to harden a heart by actively pressing it together and making it hard against himself.

He can simply withdraw his grace. Romans 1 talks about this.

It talks about how people are worshiping idols and they exchange the glory of God for things that are made in the image of man, to worship and serve created things rather than the creator.

And so what does God do? He simply, merely gives them over to what they make with their hands.

He lets them have their idols. He gives them over to all kinds of sin.

We read about that in Romans 1. It's a hard teaching. Let's not soften this teaching by making

Jesus how we want him to be. Let's hear his word. Romans 8, I'm sorry, excuse me,

Luke 8, verse 10, says to you it has been given to know. Recognize if you know the secrets of the kingdom of God.

Now the kingdom of God pictures the rule of God, that he is king and that the king has come.

The king has been born and raised by that Virgin Mary who went on to have other kids.

And Jesus the king laid down his life. This is the message of the kingdom and that he's coming again to rule and to establish his kingdom on earth.

He's the king. If those secrets have been made known to you and you believe that, it is a gift of his grace to you.

That word was preached to you. It might have been by your grandmother, your great -grandmother, your mom, or a friend, but by God's grace you heard.

And by God's grace you had ears to hear. It says in verse eight, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Jesus isn't just talking about these appendages here or even that drum that wiggles, vibrates when it detects sound waves and sends signals into your brain to decode what's being said.

No, this is something deeper than the physical eardrum. This is the ability to perceive and value what

God is saying. It's a spiritual hearing that causes you to savor the words of God, to delight in them so that they don't make you sleepy.

They make you hungry. They make you awake. They make you desiring for more. It's ears to hear that the word of God is alive to you and you hear it and it goes into your heart.

This is what Jesus is saying. Let him who has ears to hear, let him hear. Now the parable is this, verse 11 and following.

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.

So herein is the interpretation. That first soil that received the seed, it was so hard that before the seed even penetrated in, the birds of the air came swooping in and had a meal.

And boom, it was gone. It's possible that as I preach here today, before your feet hit the pavement, you've totally forgotten what

I had to say. The birds of the air can take it away. Even as I'm preaching right now, your mind can be in another place.

And before the words even hit the eardrum, the birds are taking it away.

It's a dangerous place to be. We see it throughout the scripture. Remember Simon the Pharisee in the last chapter?

While Jesus is in his own house, presenting him the offer of life in the sense that here's the king in the flesh, in his house.

He's thinking about the sinful woman. His mind is gone. His mind is, if Jesus was really a prophet, he would know how sinful she is.

He had no seed in him and it accomplished nothing. His heart was too hard. Now the second seed.

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.

Now it's getting a little scary in here. Because we say to ourselves, yeah, when

I hear the word of God, I like it. And when I hear about a savior who died for me,

I like that. And that he rose from the grave, I like that. But when my life gets hard, and when someone's coming at my neck,

I'm losing my religion. When the time of temptation comes, the seed is nowhere to be found.

There's no root. You know, I was, like you guys know, I was a missionary in the city for a long time and got to baptize dozens of people.

I look back on that 10 years later now, some of them. And there's two of them

I know that are Muslims. I baptized them, but there was no root.

One of them went to jail, and when he was encountering those teachings there, he was persuaded.

Another was caught up in other things. And I look back and there's many that are holding to the faith.

Here's the test, time, testing. Did the root ever go down?

Ask yourself, am I the second soil? Has my root really gone down?

Or am I just liking what I'm hearing? And now comes the third. There's been at least two occasions in my life where this one has cut my heart.

And I said, yeah, I'm this soil. Maybe it's you. Verse 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.

In the second soil, when the hard times come, forget it, I'm gonna take care of myself.

In the third soil, when the good times come, those become a snare, they become thorns.

What are the things listed here? The cares of this world. That's the worry.

Maybe you're sitting here just worried about something in your life, and the word of God is getting strangled out.

The riches, that's prosperity, things going well, and the pleasures of life, the good gifts that come from God that can become bad things.

That can overtake. The third soil looks like genuine faith, doesn't it?

Doesn't it look like genuine faith? A real plant coming up, but it has no fruit.

It cannot produce fruit because it's choked off by thorns. And finally, the good soil.

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.

The final soil, the good soil, is one who hears the preaching of the word, who reads the word, who receives that seed, and it produces fruit in that person's life.

And that's the only good soil here. All the other soils are not called good. This one is called the good soil.

Hearing the word, they hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience.

That word patience is important because it means it takes time. So as you look at your life and you say, wait a minute,

I'm not out preaching the gospel on every street corner and leading people to Christ every day. Maybe I don't bear fruit.

Be careful with that train of thought because patience means it takes time. But the genuine believer, the one who has good soil, is bearing fruit.

It may not come as quickly as you hope, but there is evidence that you are being changed.

There is evidence that who you are as a Christian is different than who you were before you were a

Christian. There is evidence that you talk different now or you avoid certain things.

There is a change taking place over time and you are really, truly growing. Now, usually we'll stop here in the parable of the soils, but really, 16 and following through 21 is actually carrying on the same train of thought.

And it becomes good news for us here. No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand so that those who enter may see the light.

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

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 he has will be taken away.

Verses 16 and 17 sound a lot like what? The Sermon on the

Mount. You recognize that from Matthew 5 to 7? In Matthew 5, we're told to let our light shine before men.

So that they will see our good deeds and glorify God in heaven. Be careful at this point, because think about this.

Jesus would often say similar things as he traveled. Look at chapter eight, verse one.

He's going from city to city, through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news.

So what he says on the mount in the Sermon on the Mount might very well be similar to what he's saying in a city, in a village, but it's a different sermon, with a different context.

Often when I would read this, my mind would just jump back to Matthew 5 and I'd think that it's talking about doing good works and letting people see you do good works so that God will be glorified by the good works we do.

But in context, that's not what's happening here. Jesus is using a similar analogy to put light on this truth.

So no one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand so that those who enter may see the light.

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.

That heart of yours, it's invisible. Even you can't see it.

Our hearts are desperately wicked. We don't even know our own hearts and no one can see it.

But when light is shown upon it, everything becomes visible. And so the exhortation, and this is a word of hope in verse 18.

Take care then how you hear. Up until this point, everything has been descriptive.

You have four kinds of soils. The hard soil, you have the rocky soil, you have the thorny soil, you have the good soil.

And it's descriptive of those things. And so we're reading this saying, okay, which one am I? But at this point, the text becomes prescriptive.

It calls you to something. And that's good news.

It says, take care then how you hear. Please understand this, that although God is an electing

God and he chooses those that he would make good soil and that he would give ears to hear, he sends forth his gospel with a genuine offer to you.

And you are responsible, the responsibility for how you hear the gospel is upon you.

That's how the Bible presents it. So there's a compatibility between God being an electing

God who has to do a supernatural work to change your heart and this call of the gospel for which you are responsible.

We are told, take care then how you hear. When you wake up on a

Sunday morning and you're brushing your teeth and you get ready for church and you come and sit in these chairs, used to be called pews, when you sit in the chairs, be careful then how you hear.

You are responsible for your thoughts. God is calling you to clear away every distraction.

He's calling you to receive the seed. He's sending forth his gospel into all the earth and he holds individuals responsible for how they hear.

Such an important truth. Keep reading, there's one more section here, says a very similar thing.

Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd.

And he was told, your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you.

But he answered them, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

The parable of the soils is about how you hear. How do you respond when the word of God is preached?

How do you listen? Do you have ears to hear?

And Jesus won't even leave the house where he's teaching to go out and talk to his mothers and brothers because he's showing by this that he values the disciples willingness to hear.

They're listening to him, they hear him. And that's who he calls his mother and his brothers.

Verse 21, my mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.

So in closing, the parable of the soils is very different than we often take it. Jesus is not just a beggar asking you to come, rather we are the beggars.

Do you understand that? I'm just a preacher, I'm just throwing seed out.

It's not about the sower, is it? It's not like if the sower became better in this parable, they would produce better results.

In this parable, the onus is placed squarely on the soil. And so in a worship service, when we come together on Sunday mornings, there's two things that have to come together.

I need to be faithful to say what this is saying. I have to tell the truth,

I have to discover the meaning of the word from the text itself. But the other half of that is how you hear.

And that's between you and God, and he knows your heart. And if you are a person that says, I don't get it,

I'm not hungry for the word, I have no desire to open the word. It's you that needs to be begging him for grace right now.

To say, God, my heart is like stone. And God, there's rocks in my life and my roots are not really deep.

Or you need to say, you know what, God, I care more about riches and pleasures than I do about your word.

And like a beggar, you need to come to God and ask him and say, God, give me ears to hear because I'm not hearing and I don't really care.

It's us that need him. We are in desperate need of grace.

And the good news, we hear this in Hebrews, today is the day of your salvation. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as you did in the rebellion.

The gospel comes forth as good news. There is a savior, he died on Calvary's tree.

He rose from the dead and he is alive. And his words are written for us on the pages of a book.

Be careful how you hear. Ask him now, let's close in prayer. Michael, if you could come up.

This is a heavy sermon. Guys, let's just all bow our hearts before the

Lord, close our eyes. I'm gonna give you about 30 seconds to talk to God about the state of your own heart.

Ask him, what kind of soil am I really? Light will make it visible, be clear now.

Don't wait for the day of judgment. Ask him what your heart is really like.

Is it that good soil that produces fruit? Is it thorny soil, rocky soil, stone -hard ground?

Ask him what it is and then beg him, ask him to turn your heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

Good soil for the Word. Just between you and him, pray right now for about 30 seconds.

God, as a sower of the seed, I dare not blunt the force of what you're saying.

Try to water it down to make it more palatable. Woe is me if I do that,

God. And yet from this parable, I am aware that wherever there is the sowing of seed, the preaching of the

Word, there are four different kinds of soil. And only one out of the four truly receives the seed.

God, I beg you for grace in this room today that if there's any here that are one of the three soils and don't truly receive your

Word and truly know you, you would change their heart right now. God, I ask you for grace that we would receive the seed of your

Word. Change our hearts, God. Give us ears to hear. Give us eyes to see.

Think of the author of the Hebrews who says, I expect better things for you, things that accompany salvation.

Lord, I expect the same of this congregation. That these are a people that genuinely believe, that genuinely are good soil, that want the

Word of God. I think that, Lord. I expect that,

God. I thank you for that. And I pray going forward as a church,

Lord, when we come into this building, we would examine our hearts and put aside every worry and desire and pleasure, every distraction, and recognize that this is the

Word of God, the Word of the living God. That we would treasure it and savor it.

Desire to hear from you. That we would come like beggars, just asking for grace.

Change our hearts, oh God. Thank you, Jesus, that you speak. You've given us this

Word, and it calls us to yourself. You tell us to be careful how we hear.

So this morning, Lord, we're listening. We're listening. We're thankful for your

Word this morning, Lord. And as we go forth this week, let us hear your