The Gospel of Luke (28): The Parable of the Soils 06/11/2023

Grace Versus Legalism and Licentiousness

The Word of God sets before us two great dangers to the biblical teaching on grace. One is legalism, thinking that somehow we come into God because of the merit of what we do. The other great danger to grace is that of licentiousness, the thought that the grace of God in salvation means I can live any way I choose to live and still have salvation.

Well, the epistle of Jude addresses this very serious problem which plagues evangelicalism today. The great sin of antinomianism, living really contrary to the law of God, and it's a wrong thinking that somehow we can have salvation and live in defiance of God's laws.

The epistle of Jude.

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in a like manner, these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority and blaspheme the glorious ones.

But when the archangel Michael contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

Woe to them, for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs that your love feasts and they feast with you without fear.

Shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted. Wild waves of the sea casting up the phone of their own shame. Wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

It was also about these that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied, saying, behold, the Lord comes with 10 ,000 of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They are loudmouth boasters showing favoritism to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They said to you in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life and have mercy on those who doubt, saving others by snatching them out of the fire, to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, and now and forever, amen.

Prayer for the Sermon and the Work of Christ

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the work of Christ. We thank you for his propitiation that he absorbed the wrath of God as a substitute for us. He stood in our place even though he was a spotless lamb.

And Lord, we just thank you for his great sacrifice on the cross, that because of his death and his resurrection and his ascension, we can have life and we are able now, Lord, to walk in the spirit. And we pray that we would do just that, that we would put off the deeds of the flesh, that we would put on the works of the spirit, that we would keep in step with the spirit following the pattern of Jesus Christ.

And Lord, we rejoice in this truth. And we pray, Lord, as the sermon is preached, we pray that you would give Lars great wisdom and clarity of voice, clarity of thought as he works through this passage.

We pray, Lord, that we would hear these truths and that we would conform our lives to them in the power of your spirit. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.

Luke 8 and the Responsibility to Hear and Obey

Well, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 8. We make our way through this third gospel, synoptic gospel. The parable that is contained in Luke 8 that we are about to consider is within a section of Luke's gospel, which has a special emphasis.

And this emphasis is the responsibility of the one who hears the word of God to heed what he hears. In other words, great stress is given on obedience to the word of God. Not only should one hear and believe the word of God, but it's equally important to obey what he believes, as Jude wrote and as we just read.

And we know and confess that a person does not obtain or keep his salvation because of his obedience. On the other hand, no one will be saved without obedience. Now, there's a progression of thought in Luke's story, which has led to this point.

I've mentioned it in the past, but it would be good to draw our attention to it again. The first portion of our Lord's ministry in Luke was a demonstration of his authority. He had been given authority to heal, deliver people from evil forces.

He had authority over nature, and he even had authority to forgive sins. Jesus had authority. Well, his authority, having been established, the emphasis in Luke's gospel shifted or changed, and stress was given on the responsibility of all to hear him.

If he has authority, you ought to hear what he says. Jesus spoke the word of God with authority. But then, thirdly, we are now in the midst of this emphasis. Luke records incidents in the life of our Lord which stresses obedience to his word.

He has authority. Therefore, you ought to hear him, and you ought to obey him whom you hear. Jesus Christ had been given authority by his Father to bring salvation to his people. And this, therefore, places responsibility on all who hear him intently.

To hear him intently, but further, it compels all to obey him completely. There is no salvation promised to those who are not obedient to Jesus Christ the Lord. We are to both hear and to heed his word.

And in this section, the responsibility of obedience is stressed. Last Lord's Day, we considered that Luke had introduced this account with a few words about our Lord's ministry. Luke 8, verses 1 through 3.

Jesus and the Twelve were traveling about, preaching the good news of the kingdom of God, as they were accompanied with many women who traveled with them and actually supported the ministry through their own means.

And as we consider the contents of Luke 8 through the next chapter, actually till Luke 9, 51, when Jesus leaves Galilee and begins to travel to Jerusalem, we should understand that our Lord's public ministry in Galilee was flourishing at this time.

Great crowds gathering to him for the long-awaited time of God's promised blessing had arrived. And so, there was now available to Jesus Christ deliverance from the bondage of sin. Salvation was now available through Jesus Christ.

Well, verse 4, before us here in Luke 8, tells us that a great multitude gathered, and there perhaps next to a farmer's field, perhaps where a farmer was sowing his seed, Jesus spoke to them this parable.

And so, it was during this period of his ministry that Jesus commenced to teach more exclusively by means of parables. One of the most important, probably the first of the series of parables of that time, is the one that is produced by all three synoptic gospels, and that's the parable of the sower.

And that's what we have here in Luke 8, verses 4 through 15. We'll read it. And when a great multitude had gathered, they had come to him from every city, he spoke by a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed.

As he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock. As soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorn sprang up with it and choked it.

But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold. When he had said these things, he cried, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Then his disciples asked him, saying, What does this parable mean?

And he said, To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. And then Jesus gave the meaning of the parable.

Now, the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are ones who hear, then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy.

These have no root. Who believe for a while, and in time of temptation, fall away. Now, the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience or endurance. Well, let's first consider the telling of the parable itself in verses 5 through 8.

This, of course, is a parable that's familiar probably to most of us. It's commonly known as the parable of the sower, for that is the content of the first few words of verse 5. But actually, it could probably better be called the parable of the soils, for really the parable emphasizes the types of soil.

William Arnott, I've had his book in my library for years, he wrote a classic book, The Parables of Our Lord, gave this word of introduction to this first and foremost parable, the parable of the sower.

The parable is, in our language at least, so uniformly associated with this name, parable of the sower, that it would not readily be recognized under any other designation. But the four kinds of ground, the title which seems to be in ordinary use among the Germans, is logically more correct, inasmuch as it points directly to the central idea and expresses the distinctive characteristic, parable of the four soils.

Now, let's read the details of the parable itself. Once again, Jesus taught the people, the sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell by the wayside. It was trampled down. Birds of the air devoured it.

Some fell on rock. As soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up and yielded a crop a hundredfold.

When he had said these things, he cried, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And so Jesus tells of a farmer scattering his seed in his field with the intention of bringing forth a mature crop at harvest time.

The manner of farming in that part of the world was for the farmer to first sow his seed in the field. After he threw the seed out, he would plow or upturn the field in order to cover the sown seed with soil.

And obviously, not all the scattered seed would be plowed under, and therefore not all the seed would result in growth in a later harvest. Some seed would fall on the hardened path that would remain untilled.

One would not expect this seed even to sprout. The birds quickly take the seed away, and then there is that seed which falls on soil barely covering rock. It's not so much rocky soil, but rather thin soil covering rock.

The seed may grow briefly, but because there's no root system, it cannot be expected to yield a crop. There would not be sufficient moisture. And so the seed may grow briefly, but because there's no root system, it would not grow and mature.

And of course, some seed will fall among the weeds. It too will not bring a yield to the farmer. Only that which falls on good ground, that soil prepared by the farmer, could be expected to produce results desired by the farmer.

In fact, he could be assured that fruitfulness would result. And the concluding remark of verse 8 is most important. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. It's as though the Lord were saying to the multitudes, be careful how you hear.

Do not be mere nominal or superficial followers of me. So through this parable, Jesus summons people to do more than just hear his words. Here you have the emphasis. They must apply them in life as well.

Something must happen in one's life as a result of hearing the word. Not just believing, but believing and obeying. The word of God must bring forth fruit in the harvest. I might say this word, I didn't put it in my notes, but I read one commentator from the 17th century, and I'd never seen it before.

And he described the sowing of this seed and the result, whether it be an immediate growth and then dies out, or the thorns growing up, or ultimately the fruit in the harvest. It's kind of like a season's growth.

Beginning in the springtime when the seed is sown, seed falls on the hardened path and is immediately taken up. And then there's seed sown on the soil, there's rock underneath, and you may see immediate growth early in the summer, but when the heat of the day comes up, it shrivels.

And then maybe toward the end of the summer, you have thorns growing up and it chokes the fruit, and then finally you have the harvest in the fall. It's really describing the life of faith of the professing Christian, that it endures through life.

Well, Jesus gave the reason for teaching in parables before he gave the meaning of it, verses 9 and 10. Then his disciples asked him, saying, What does this parable mean? And he said to you, It has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that seeing they may not see, hearing they may not understand.

So, before the Lord gave the meaning of the parable to his disciples, he spoke of their blessed privilege to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. He spoke of their rather rare blessing, especially when they're compared with the numbers of hearers who never grasp the truthfulness and the importance of the kingdom of God.

On Matthew's account of Jesus giving this parable, the disciples asked why it was that Jesus taught in parables. But here, Luke's Gospel, we simply have the disciples asking Jesus to give them the meaning of the parable they had just heard from him.

Here in Luke's account, just before Jesus gave the interpretation of the parable, he first gave two reasons why he taught the crowds using parables. First, Jesus taught in parables in order to better teach and illustrate truth to his disciples.

Jesus took incidents from life's experiences to explain spiritual truths. Parables involve taking a situation of life with details which people are familiar and use it to explain spiritual truths which the people are not familiar with.

And so, the reason Jesus spoke in parables was to explain the workings of God to his disciples, particularly, again, the nature of the kingdom of God, the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But the Lord's use of parables served another function.

Secondly, Jesus taught in parables in order to conceal truth from non-disciples. Jesus is not trying to save everybody in the world. That would render him a rather significant failure in all of his efforts.

We read in verse 10,. And he said to you, it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest, it's given in parables, that seeing they may not see, hearing they may not understand.

The Lord is not only revealing his truth, he's hiding his truth from anyone who has no concern about obeying him. One cannot expect to know the ways of God unless he has resolved to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.

There can be no true understanding unless there's first a willingness to obey his words. That's a prerequisite to understanding. Jesus said in another place, If any man is willing to do his will, he shall know the teaching, whether it's of God.

You're not going to know unless you're first willing to obey. God's word is not a collection of suggestions to take or leave them, to follow those which seem to be suitable and then disregard the rest.

The Lord hides himself and even clouds the understanding of his word from all those who have no intention to obey him. The Lord knows your heart, he knows my heart, whether it's truly our desire to obey what he tells us.

The Lord is desirous to reveal himself to every sincere seeker, every willing hearer, but he purposes to leave the rest to their just due. Some words in the last verses of the Bible speak to this sentiment.

Let the one who does wrong still do wrong. Let the one who's filthy still be filthy. Let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness. Let the one who is holy still keep himself holy. King Jesus is currently reigning.

He's saving his people. He's damning those who refuse to bow their knee to him. The Lord quotes an Old Testament verse, Isaiah 6, verse 9, to show that his method of teaching parables was in order to hide truth from the disobedient is actually consistent with scripture.

Isaiah did that. God commissioned Isaiah to do the very same thing. This verse is from the passage in which God called and commissioned Isaiah to be his prophet to Israel. Here are the extended words of God to Isaiah the prophet when Isaiah was transported to the throne room of heaven before the presence of the holy God.

We didn't read the first four verses, although I wish we could have. Isaiah sees God. He's overwhelmed at the holiness of God, the seraphim praising God. Isaiah's response to this understanding, that vision of God in heaven, verse 5, so Isaiah said, "'Woe is me, for I am undone, "'because I am a man of unclean lips, "'and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

"'For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'. "'And then one of the seraphim flew to me, "'having in his hand a live coal, "'which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. "'And he touched my mouth, and with it, and said, "'Behold, this has touched your lips.

"'Your iniquity is taken away. "'Your sin purged.'. "'And also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "'Whom shall I send? "'Whom shall go for us?'. "'And then I said, Here am I, send me.'. "'And so God commissioned Isaiah, "'Go and tell this people.'.

"'And then I've emboldened and italicized the words "'that God gave to Isaiah, "'that Jesus quotes in Luke 8. "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand. "'Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. "'Make the heart of this people dull, "'and their ears heavy.

"'Shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, "'hear with their ears, understand with their heart, "'and return and be healed.'. "'Well, then I said, Lord, how long? "'How long do you want me to preach this message "'of judgment, "'to which I know the people will not respond, "'until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, "'until the judgment of God is completely poured out "'upon the nation, upon the city?'.

"'The Lord has removed men far away, the exile, "'the forsaken places, there are many in the midst of the land. "'But yet a tenth will be in it, "'God purposed to save a remnant, "'and will return and be for consuming "'as a terebinth tree, or as an oak, "'whose stump remains when it's cut down, "'so the holy seed shall be its stump.'".

God was going to reserve himself a remnant of the Jewish people. But the whole emphasis of Isaiah's ministry was this, that you tell these people, if you do not intend and purpose to obey his word, then you may look and look again, but you will never see.

You may listen and listen, but you will never hear. If you want to know the Bible, the word of God, and to know the God of this book, you must resolve that you will believe whatever claims it makes and obey whatever commands it gives.

Unconditional surrender is what's necessary to enter the kingdom of God. There's only room for one Lord in this world, and it's not you and it's not me. It's King Jesus. And God opens his book to all of such mind and heart.

Lord, whatever is here, reveal your truth to me. I will believe it. Lord, whatever you say here, command me to do, I will do it as you enabled me by your grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, aside from our Lord stating the two reasons he taught in parables, we might ask, what were the purposes of our Lord teaching this particular parable of the sower?

And I was reading a classic book by the 17th century Reformed Baptist, Benjamin Keech, quite a large book, Expositions of the Parables of the Bible. And in this book, Keech proposed six purposes that this parable served.

And they include the following. First, one great design of this parable, as I can see, is to show the excellent nature of the word of God. Amen. And that it is the seed of all grace in the hand of the Spirit, or as it is by the influences of the Spirit, received into a heart prepared by the convictions of the Holy Ghost.

The value of the word of God. Precious seed. Secondly, considering the great multitudes that were gathered together to hear the word of God at that time, as the second verse shows, it's evident that one reason or main design of Christ speaking this parable was to convince them that it's not enough or sufficient to hear the word of God preached, but that many may hear it who are never effectually wrought upon it but shall eternally perish.

Just because you hear the word and you know the word, you may die in your sins and be damned forever. Thirdly, it might be the design of our Saviour also hereby to show that but few comparatively prove right hearers of the word.

Only one in four. Three sorts of ground proving bad and only but one in four good ground intimating, but very few hearers have their hearts broken up or prepared by the convictions of the Holy Spirit to receive Jesus Christ.

We're a remnant today, aren't we?

In the world.

Fourthly, another main design of this parable might be to show that grace is not of ourselves or from nature, but that it is a supernatural work or blessing flowing from the Lord Jesus.

Amen.

The heart must first be dug up or be plowed up by the Holy Ghost that it may become like good tillage before the seed of the word of God will take root and bring forth fruit unto perfection which three sorts of hearers never experience.

Fifthly, also it might be to discover the case of men's damnation or their final apostasy, namely because their hearts were never right with God. They could be churchgoers all their life and still be damned.

And then, sixthly, also discover that some men who never were sincere or upright Christians might nevertheless go very far in a profession of the gospel as is signified by the stony and thorny ground.

So that most evident it is that this blessed parable gives us to understand the different effect or success the preaching of the gospel hath upon those that hear it so much as the design and scope of the parable.

And I would say, amen, Benjamin Keech. Well, beginning in verse 8, the Lord gave the meaning of the parable to his disciples. In Matthew's gospel, of course, he gave the parable to the crowds, but then later when he was alone with the disciples, they asked the meaning and he gave them only the meaning.

But here you don't have that clear distinction and departure set forth. Now, the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are ones who hear, then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy. These have no root. Who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Now, the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they've heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity.

But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word of God with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. First, we read in verse 11, the seed is the word of God.

If we were to read Matthew's account, there it records Jesus saying, the seed is the word of the kingdom. Matthew gives a great deal of emphasis about the promised kingdom of David. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away that which was sown in his heart.

This is he who received seed by the wayside. But here in Luke's gospel, the seed is the word of God. Now, it's clear from the larger context of Luke 8 that the seed is the word of God, that the seed as the word of God is also referring to the teaching of the mysteries of the kingdom of God.

That itself is stated in verse 10. But it's not as directly stated by Luke as it is in Matthew's account. But it underscores what we always advocate, is that the gospel involves the good news of the kingdom.

Not just how you have your sins forgiven, but it's the good news of entering the kingdom of God, and that's what salvation is. The sower of the word of God is proclaiming the nature of the kingdom of God and the way to enter into it in order to experience salvation.

I once heard an evangelical preacher, who's a good man in many respects, but he taught on this parable on the radio. He's local. And he declared that only the first one didn't have salvation. The other three did.

And that's not taught here. Only the good ground that brought forth fruit to maturity has salvation. Well, here we see our responsibility as disciples of Jesus Christ. We are to scatter the seed of the word of God wherever possible and in as much quantity as possible.

This is the supreme standard to which we may make judgments about churches and ministries. In all their doing, in all their activity, is it their chief concern and effort to disseminate the word of God, and are they faithful in doing so?

That's the bottom line. This is the ultimate question we should ask of our own church and ministry. Have we been and do we remain faithful proclaiming both publicly and privately the word of God? In many things, we falter and fail, but we must be right and faithful in this matter.

The Bible is the word of God, which is the means that God has ordained to accomplish His work. Sometimes a harvest is the result, but sometimes there must first be much sowing and further watering before a harvest is realized.

Can you imagine the ministry of Isaiah? He wasn't very optimistic. Preach the judgment of God upon this generation. Well, how long do I keep doing that? Until there's nothing left. The seed is the word of God,.

Either read or heard,.

And only through the instrument of the word of God will the work of God be accomplished. But sometimes a faithful proclamation of the word of God is an instrument of God's judgment rather than salvation.

It was so through the prophetic ministry of Isaiah, as we pointed out, and it was also true of much of the ministry of the Lord Jesus. He quoted from Isaiah 6. That's the kind of ministry Jesus had. By the end of His three years of ministry, He had just 120 disciples.

Of course, it was finished. He did what He needed to do, and they were going to turn the world upside down through the power of the Holy Spirit. But at the end of Jesus' life, He didn't have a great many followers.

In John 6, John 6 opens, He had 5 ,000 men that wanted to make Him king. By the time John 6 concludes, even His 12 were tempted to leave Him. Jesus Himself declared, for judgment I've come into this world that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.

He's not trying to save everybody in the world. He's saving the people that the Father has given Him from eternity, and He's going to save everyone and not lose a one of them. Thank God. In our Lord teaching through parables, He was accomplishing both purposes for which His Father had sent Him.

As the aged Simeon once declared concerning Jesus the infant, behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of men in Israel. And parables were one of the means why He accomplished that. Well, the various types of soil, of course, are different kinds of hearers of the Word of God.

All four hear the Word of God, but only one of these hearers, the last one, obtains salvation. Only the fourth type produces the yield for which the seed was designed to bring forth.

The Fruit of True Hearing

Fruit.

What is fruit in this context? The metaphor of fruit, of course, in the Christian life is a pervasive theme through Scripture. John the Baptist declared the necessity of good fruit, born of every tree, that is, of every individual.

He said, even now the ax, the judgment of God, is laid to the root of the trees, therefore every tree, every individual, which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Good fruit would be a life of obedience to the will of God, the Word of God.

Of course, Paul wrote of the fruit of the Spirit, the Lord produces in the life of every Christian, that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Perhaps a broader idea of fruit, however, should be understood here. Fruit is practical righteousness that is born in one's life. Fruit is a life of obedience to the Lord Jesus within the kingdom of God, over which Jesus Christ is Lord.

Paul wrote of the Christian being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. And the writer of the Hebrews wrote of the product of the Lord's chastening in the lives of his children.

Now, chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful nevertheless afterward. It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. The fruit of righteousness is shown in the ordering of our lives according to the will of God, set forth in the Word of God.

Living according to God's moral law through Jesus Christ is what the Bible defines as righteousness. The righteousness of Christ is his life of legal obedience. He obeyed the law of God without any infraction, without any sin.

Well, let's consider each one of these types of ground upon which the seed of the Word of God, the word of the kingdom, is cast. First, we read the seed along the path. Hearers are unaffected by the word.