Book of Luke - Vh. 8, Vs. 2-10 (05/18/2003)

We're glad to have you visiting with us today We're gonna be in Luke chapter 8.

Let's have a word of prayer and we'll begin with with first one Your father we thank you for the day

That we've had to be together today. We thank you for the beautiful Truths that we saw this morning the judged the judgment of the old man in Christ on the cross the

Fact that we were buried in him that we rose in Christ and that we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ right now

Lord give us the eyes of faith to look around a little bit and to see the glory of God and the glory of the heavenlies and the holiness that is there and to realize that That is how we are to live here

And father as we study our afternoon Lesson today. We pray that you'd be with us and teach us

May your Holy Spirit teach us the sense of this passage Teach us what you want us to learn this very day and then help us to apply it as we move into the week

And may you work in us this week. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen verse 1 and It came to pass afterward that he went throughout every city

Village preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and the twelve were with him

But the twelve were not the only ones with him look at verse 2 and certain women Which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities

Mary called Magdalene out of whom went seven Should it's actually demons and Joanna the wife of Chooza Herod's steward and Susanna and many others which ministered unto him of their substance

So you see that some of these women? Were fairly well to do I would imagine this one who is the steward of King Herod was probably very well to do and God used their substance which of course is his and he moved it to the place where he wanted it to be and brought it to Take care of some of the needs of our

Lord Jesus Christ and look how God used these faithful women in this passage

When we start with verse 4 we see one of the greatest of the parables

You you're in Matthew chapter 13 you see many parables And usually when

I teach this I will teach it from Matthew 13 and bring in some of the things from Luke and Mark but we'll do it the other way around since we're in Luke this time, but this even as a young Christian when

I first got saved was one of my favorite parables to study and Through the years.

I've come back to it many times and studied it and I love to take the other two parallel passages there's a passage in Matthew chapter 13, and there's a passage in Mark chapter 4 and to take those and put them all together and get the different viewpoints of the different penman of The Bible realizing that God is the author of it all and when you put it together you just get some astounding

Truths from this passage things that you see around you happening around you in church and around you in the world

This explains much of it There are a lot of people that go to different churches around today that believe you can lose your salvation and they say well

I've seen people come and receive Jesus and give a strong testimony and then go back and live for the devil

So I've seen people that lost their salvation Well, this particular parable will show why they're not right

They they're going by what they saw with their eyes But they're not listening to what the Word of God says because Jesus explains even that in this parable

So I don't know if we'll cover this entire parable today, but we'll we'll begin anyway

So look at verse 4 the parable of the sower 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 as he sowed some fell by the wayside and It was trodden down in the that means that the little pathway was trodden down and it was hard almost like cement

And the fowls of the air devoured it because you see the seed didn't go down into the dirt

It just stayed right on top on the surface and the birds came and ate the seeds and then verse 6 and some seed fell

Upon a rock and as soon as it was sprung up it withered away because it lacked moisture

Now this was a rocky area that had a very very thin layer of soil over it

So that it might have looked like good soil and it may have looked that way but really right under the soil was rock

So some of the seed fell there and in verse 7 some fell upon 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 Now this next part I'm going to don my new equipment

This is my first official Sunday to have to have reading glasses Do I look distinguished? Now you have to listen to me because I'm an elder

My eye doctor has been telling me for literally for five years almost laughing at me saying are you there yet?

I go and get them checked and I can still read up close and everything But I haven't gone back lately because I know it's gonna be finally

I told you so been coming Okay Wow, that's incredible.

Okay This is great, I remember when I first got my real glasses as a child

I looked around I told my mom hey trees have leaves They just had green blurs all that time.

There are clouds in the sky There are letters on this page. This is great All right

I Look at verse 9 and notice that he in verse 8 he that hath ears to hear let him hear and His disciples asked him saying

What might this parable be in other words explained this parable to us?

And he said unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God but to others in Parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand

Ladies and gentlemen, let me stop there just for a moment because you cannot escape the truth that verse 9 in the bottom part of verse 8 and verse 10

Teach that God is a sovereign God All of the

Bible teaches the responsibility of man All of the Bible also teaches the sovereignty of God and anyone who would leave either out

Is going to find himself into false teaching You cannot leave either out if you leave the responsibility of man out you become a hyper

Calvinist if you leave the Sovereignty of God out you become an Arminian which is worse

And because Arminians are heretical Arminians don't believe in eternal security Why should they if man's in control every one of us would lose their salvation?

We would simply choose to lose it and we would lose it So you can't go on either of the end and be right

You have to understand God teaches both and normally he teaches both within the same breath

If you find a strong verse on the sovereignty of God either within that same verse or the next verse or in the passage

You're gonna find man responsible Just like a verse where where perhaps it says that It was ordained that the

Son of Man should die But then it says but woe unto him by whom whose hand he dies

You know that how do you explain that? It was ordained that he would be crucified it was ordained that Judas would deny him it's written in the psalm

But it says but woe to Judas So you see it's both on the way. I can even come close to Understanding it is simply

God lived in a dimension That does not have time and we live in time and since he's in a greater dimension than us we can't understand him

We can't understand how he can do all this But he does and it's as clear as day as we read verse 8 that Jesus Christ is saying

I teach in parables so that the Non -elect will not get saved now.

Listen, that's strong. You're not going to hear that in hardly any churches left today If you went back before 1900 you would hear it in most

Baptist churches the great prince of preachers urgent was strong Calvinist And asked him why do you witness he said because God didn't put a yellow stripe down the back of the elect

And he commanded me to witness to everyone so I do But he but they were

The Baptist churches in that day were divided into what they called the general

Baptist churches and The particular Baptist churches the particular

Baptist Church was by and large the largest of the two Divisions among the

Baptist it was most people were particular Baptist particular Baptist meant that they believed that Jesus died for the elect a

Particular group of people general Baptist meant they thought he died for everyone It was the smallest group now that is reversed as we come into the last day by far most

Would not even understand any of the writings of Calvin and they've never read them. They just think

Calvin is a dirty word Well, it's not but I'll tell you what

Calvin didn't invent Calvinism You know why? Because if you study history, you'll find out that Calvin had some kinfolks who were

Even before the Anabaptists they were in the line of what we call Baptist, but they had different names

But they go back they were called Waldensians and the Waldensians lived in part of France and in the

Alps of Italy and in France and They were Bible believers who were never Catholics.

They were never Roman Catholics. They were called Protestant and They were called Protestants long before Martin Luther existed because they protested the things of the

Catholic Church They are not right. They said well, that's where Calvin learned his Calvinism But the

Calvinism merely means this who's in control God or man God God is in control.

That's all it means now a hyper Calvinist is a false prophet He's a person that tells you you don't even need Jesus If you're

I'll be elected gonna be saved and I met one of those in Mahalia once he was he owned a little shop a little

Dirty little dingy shop and he was a TV repairman, but he had this big thick torn Bible pattered old

Bible You could tell he used it a lot studied a lot and I was a brand new Christian and I walked in there and and I Saw his

Bible. So I assumed he was born again, and I was excited I just wanted to chat with him a little bit because I'd just been saved and I was all excited about the

Lord and I Said I see you're a Christian. Yes, sir, and He asked me some question that immediately let me know he was off on some tangent

And he started talking to me about That if you were elect you could be off in Africa no preacher ever no missionary ever tell you the gospel

You would still be saved. I said sir, I don't know as much Bible as you do But I know you're wrong and I can't necessarily prove it, but you're wrong about that.

You have to hear about Jesus Right now so we got all these kinds of folks out here that scare us

We've got the charismatics that scare us out of being excited about the Lord We got the hyper Calvinist that scare us about believing in election

Which the Bible teaches so clearly in Ephesians chapter 1 and throughout the entire Bible We don't want to believe it though because we've got hyper

Calvinist and then you know You got the Arminians over here So we're afraid to say that man's responsible because we don't want to be one of those

Listen, we just need to be like brother Otis says we're just what does he call it fundamentalist? Biblinarians just whatever the

Bible teaches Believe it read it in its sense in its plainest sense and believe it as God has said it

Well, I want you to look at this and I challenge you to read this in any other way other than a strong Sovereignty of God viewpoint a strong of the fact that there is the chosen elect that God knew before the foundation of the world as he says in Ephesians chapter 1 as he says over in Deuteronomy chapter 7.

He said I have known you with a love before I created anything in That sense that's what

Jesus is saying. He that has ears to hear they come back and say well Why do you teach in parables like this the disciples ask him were you teaching this we can't even understand it

He said now wait a minute I will explain it to you and you will understand it But I'm teaching this way because there are those that I will not explain it to and they can never understand it

Just as the ones when Jesus looked in their eyes and he said You're of your father the devil

Now we can't do that to people because we can't see the elect or the non -elect but Jesus certainly could he knew who they were

When they looked in their eyes He said you're of your father the devil and you cannot be saved.

He didn't say you will not he said you cannot be saved They're all around us ladies and gentlemen, if you why do you believe that Jesus said don't cast your pearls before the swine

Most of our Baptist brethren today tell you go witness to everybody Jesus never said that he said be very careful only witness to who the

Holy Spirit leads you to witness to and So many of our brethren among the

Baptist today Try to design everything where you just go do it all because they are afraid to let the

Holy Spirit Have a ministry in your life. I am NOT afraid to tell you witness to who he tells you to witness to I'm not afraid to tell you dress like he tells you to dress as long as you're in the word

You're studying the word and you're in the word and you're in a church where the words being preached

God can make you be exactly who you are to be Glory goes to him that way and then then when something happens to me and I'm gone.

You don't have to change Because you didn't do it for me I'm getting too personal now.

Why it? But Jesus said

I teach in parables because there are those who are not going to be allowed to hear and understand exactly what he's saying when he said he's and He said unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others

I speak in parables that seeing They might not that means they may not see and hearing they might not understand and Then look at verse 11.

Now. The parable is this and he explains it. Let me say this to you Do you know why you can learn the scriptures and understand them as you study?

This is a vivid physical picture of the spiritual truth You don't learn one thing that you read off a page of the

Word of God if Jesus doesn't teach it to you It's all in parables. I mean, it's all it's not all in parables literally, but the

Word of God is totally incomprehensible Unless the Holy Spirit is your guide

For he is the author You cannot read this book and know the mind of God unless God is with you as you read it and teaching you and do

You know that he teaches you along the way line by line precept by precept not all at once and There will come a day when you'll read this very passage.

We're looking at a year from now You're going to see something that we are not seeing today Because God wants you to know it on that day

Some of you will learn that today How Can a preacher preach one passage and have five -year -olds and 80 year old and people have been saved six months of people and say 40

Years and teach the same passage and yet they all go home and get something from you explained that to me

It does not happen by the physical Doesn't happen by the set of rules or brother

Roger doesn't happen by how we set up the you know The service how you know the order we did none of that makes it work

It's the Holy Spirit working in the life of each individual believer teaching him right when he wants to a truth

They hadn't seen before and he only does that to the elect And I'll say this he doesn't even do it to the lost sheep

Who just haven't been saved yet, but they're gonna be saved They can't see it either But you know what when the day comes for their salvation their eyes are open or they couldn't be saved in the first place

So they don't save themselves Salvation is of God This passage is teaching us that growth

Is of God and that even one little bit of understanding one truth

If you if you ever understand one truth truth that you didn't understand yesterday You can know the

Holy Spirit has been with you And has whispered in your ear and taught you something and I do not mean a an audible voice

And do it that way now does it how? By his son in these last days he has revealed himself to us by his son

So look it it just vividly explained that you do know the verse don't you look at keep your hand there and go over to Hebrews chapter 1 just for a second.

I want you to see something Because I want you to see that Jesus is vividly illustrating this truth and boy

I tell you we are surrounded by people who don't understand this you did you hear in the news just last week where?

The woman stoned her children to death and then said God told me to do that Do you know why so many people are doing that to go to churches nowadays?

Because so many people nowadays have pastors that teach them that God will speak to you And so when they hear a voice they assume it's

God They've never read about Pharaoh and his Magicians being able to do the same things almost not all the things but a lot of things

Moses could do Through God's power and they say well God speak to you And so I could come to you and say hey last night

God told me to tell you brother birds that you know you need to quit your job That's what God wants you to do. You wouldn't you would if you went to a church like that You would have to listen to me

Because you wouldn't know maybe I was a prophet maybe I'm not maybe I am you don't know

So you're gonna go home worry about it If I tell you that you're gonna assume I eat too much of an onion cheeseburger or something

But but look God lays it out. We do not have to be in confusion. Look at Hebrews chapter 1

Here tell you one thing when you put these on once your eyes get weak and you have to have them the whole rest of Afternoon, don't you

I'm learning that too Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past is very specific used to He spoke to the fathers by the prophets.

That means with signs and visions But in these last days

Hath spoken unto us by his son. There is a Contrast it is different how

God speaks to us today than it was before the cross Before the cross he did use prophets the whole

Word of God was not complete for one thing so he used prophets and the prophets would see visions sometimes they would have dreams and they would then come tell the people and That would be just as if you were reading the

Word of God when they told you that by the way Now these people nowadays they claim to be prophets. I'll tell you what

I'll let them come right in here come right up here and prophesy if they will let me Allow all of you to grab stones and hold them in your hand

And then the first time their prophecy doesn't come through we all throw them at it Because that was the law in the

Old Testament If you told one thing that didn't come to pass you were killed now if they'll live by that rule

We'll let them prophesy, but there is no such thing as that gift of prophecy today It has ceased

Now you would be in a predicament if you could prophesy because this book was closed with the book of Revelation and said if you add

To or take away from this book. You're gonna be cursed So That would be a problem.

But anyway, look what it says in these last days He does not speak by the fathers through prophets, but he has spoken to us by his son notice

He says he has spoken that's past tense You take the life of Jesus and what he taught the

Apostles while he was here And then he told him there are certain things you cannot abide while I'm here

But when I go I'll send you a comforter and he'll remind you the rest of the things and you'll write them down And once those were pinned we have it.

I Say like my mentor. Dr Rocky Freeman said so many times Hebrews chapter 1 through 3 shows that the

Bible has a front cover and a back cover It's finished And so he reveals himself

By his son who being the brightness of his glory and expressed image of his person

And upholding all things by the word of his power Now back to Luke chapter 8 this

This so clearly Pictures that truth we just read in Hebrews The only way these people could understand

What Jesus had just taught now what he just taught was the Word of God wasn't it when he told the parable was not was that not the word and Now we see it written.

It's the written word, but when he spoke it it was the Word of God and They asked him. Why do you speak this way where these people can't understand this and he said because The only way anybody can understand this is if I come back and teach it to you myself

That can only happen for the born -again person and With the born -again person if it doesn't happen, even he will not understand the scripture he studied

So you have to have the Lord Jesus the Spirit of Christ the Holy Spirit Teaching you as you read or you don't get it now

That's probably the great lesson for this afternoon. And I think we should probably stop there We'll pick back up where we left off next

Sunday afternoon, I'm gonna ask brother Otis, even though it may be his turn and we miss him today But if he is back,

I'm gonna ask go ahead and let me finish this passage because it's one of my favorite passages in the whole Bible Studying to teach so we'll pick it up there and we'll go into Jesus Explanation of this beautiful parable

We'll look at it in all three of the Gospels where it's taught and bring it all the little different colors of truth

That the different writers brought in and it just opens our eyes to a lot of things a lot of things

We hear around us that are wrong. It corrects them and a lot of things that we know are true It undergirds them and validates them and helps us even see why so let's have a word of prayer together

And we'll stop for this afternoon father. We thank you for your word We thank you that Lord, if we'll study it line by line and page by page and in context

Keep in mind all of the whole word of God and realize that you cannot contradict yourself That we can see things every day that you want us to see we can grow in areas you want us to grow in We can each individually

Learn things that maybe some of the others of us have not learned because you haven't taken us there yet and therefore we can teach each other these things and You use all of this in our lives to keep the

Word of God fresh and Vibrant before us and new every day and Lord We know they're the old truths that perhaps

Saints a thousand years ago understood the very things we studied today Thank you for showing them to us through the same

Word of God that they had And Lord, we ask you to go with us this week where we see falseness.

May you give us boldness to speak and And give us your permission lead us in times when you wish for us to correct things that are said by people who claim

To be Christians that are speaking falseness May we not join with them and may we not have them think we're joining with them

Give us boldness, but give us love and truth all together at the same time Lead us when to speak and when not to and most of all father help us to walk in the light as you were in the light

Help our walk to be such that when we do speak people will listen Lord, we thank you for the day.

Thank you for the time We've had today the growth that we've had we thank you for our visitors this morning and this afternoon