2023 03 19

All right. Uh Luke 8 4-15. And uh this one is the story of the parable of the swer. And um following that, I also know that I'm about to lead in and preach a sermon uh that is probably going to be difficult uh for some depending on whatever kind of background you come from when it comes to God's process for salvation. Um, and so I also ask, um, that as I go through this, um, this has included debates that have been going on for hundreds of years, if not thousands of years at this point when it comes to God's process for saving people. And um because of the debates that I know that are out there, often times, what can happen is we tend to land on the side of what we feel is either right or wrong in the process of God's work.

Um that God wouldn't do this uh or that it would be mean of God to operate in this way. And what I'm asking for as we look through this passage and as we look through the supporting passages that kind of discuss this idea of God's process for salvation that we let the scripture speak for itself um versus what our natural inclination might be um in in what we feel should be the way God does something or should not do something. Um, and so keep that in mind as we as we walk through this again, regardless of of where you you tend to land on on this kind of theology and truth. And so, beginning in verse four, um, I feel like I've just added a ton of weight to this passage, but let's just see it. When a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, and I first want to ask the question of just what is a parable? because it is central to what we're looking at today.

And Jesus used parables. He used parables to teach. He used parables to kind of speak in a figuratively way. And a parable is is honestly just a short metaphorical story. It's a story in which he is sharing a a an account or a narrative, but there's a greater truth to that narrative. There's something deeper behind the surface of what he is sharing.

Similar to the parable of a house being built on a rock that Josh preached um a few weeks ago, Lu Luke 6:47 says, "Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them. I will show you what he is like." He is like a man, a man who has built his house on the rock. That's the idea of a parable is saying, I'm going to share with you a truth and show you something that is like it. And so these are stories Jesus would tell in order to illustrate truths of the kingdom to to illustrate aspects of the kingdom. And so the point isn't to simply remember the parable, but to treasure the greater truth that the parable is alluding to.

And that's what we're seeking to draw out of these parables, especially like the one today. And so let's uh let's look at it starting in verse five. It says, "A sewer went out to sew 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 the thorns, and thorns grew up with it, and choked it. And some fell into good soil, and grew and yielded a hundfold."

As he said these things, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." And so I want to start with that small little snippet there, those nine words that talk about this parable before we actually get into explaining the parable. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Those nine words make all of the difference of this entire parable. Now technically speaking they all have ears to hear in a physical sense right? So why would Jesus then say this that this would be a dual meaning statement.

You need to hear the word of God but you also need to hear the word of God. One is a physical listen listening and the other is a spiritual understanding. Have you ever had someone say you're not hearing me or I don't feel like I've been heard? like they're not asking for sounds and syllables. They're they're asking for truth and understanding. Like you you don't understand what I'm trying to say.

You hear me, but you don't hear me. And the key to this parable and parables is whether or not we have spiritual ears to hear God's word, to understand it, to believe it. That's the key to this passage. Because look at what Jesus says next in in verse 9. 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 remember, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Question is, how do we obtain these spiritual ears to hear to understand if that's key? Jesus here in verse 10 says to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of god. So if we break this down to you that is the disciples to whom he is speaking to he has given the ability to know to understand to hear the secrets of the kingdom of God the meaning behind these parables the meaning behind salvation. But for others, that is those who are not disciples of Jesus, they may hear the parables, they may hear the stories, the illustrations, but in seeing them and hearing them, they neither see nor understand. They never get beyond the physical.

They never get to the spiritual understanding. They never get to faith. They never get to belief. And we see this played out on two different accounts in Luke and Matthew. Jesus feeds 5,000 people and that's not counting the women and children. And on another account in Matthew, he feeds another 4,000 people, not counting women and children.

And so I've heard in the past theologians that estimate these groups to be closer to 15 to 20,000 people um that Jesus feeds via a miracle. They they are seeing a miracle. They are witnessing the word of God in action. But if you go to 1 Corinthians 15, postresurrection, Jesus appears himself to the disciples and there's about 500 at his ascension into heaven. After a quick Google search, there were estimated about 70,000 people in Judea during the time of Jesus. And so if we're looking at the miracles and the amount of people in Judea at the time, we can roughly estimate that somewhere from a fourth to a third have witnessed Jesus.

Like they've seen miracles. They've experienced him in some way. But yet somewhere around 500 of them were considered to be disciples who had ears to hear. to these 500 it was given to them as our verse 10 says it reminds me of the ministry of Isaiah in Isaiah 6 is the famous whom shall I send and who will go for us it's a question from God and then Isaiah stands up and he says here I am send me I mean it's been it's been a message that's been uh utilized from many missionaries as kind of a process for how we like determined our calling to go overseas or whatever it might look like but no one wants the ministry of Isaiah because what God then tells Isaiah to do in his ministry was to go and preach the word to them. The people would keep on hearing but not understand. They'll keep on seeing but they're not able to perceive.

And so then Isaiah asks the question, how long am I to do this? How long am I to preach to people who are not going to understand and who are not going to hear and see? And God answered him until only a tenth of the people remain. That is the tenth that remain faithful that hear it and understand. In other words, Isaiah is to preach the word of God to all of Israel and only 10% will believe him will remain after the Lord removes people from far away. As he says, Isaiah is batting one for 10 at the plate when it comes to his ministry.

Here in our parable, our passage, it's one out of four. Now, these aren't numbers that are guaranteed returns on the investment of when we go out and sew the gospel. But the idea is that it's probably not going to be the majority of people who accept it and receive it and believe it, but rather the minority of your evangelistic endeavors. We see this in Matthew 7:13-14 when it says, "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter it are by many. But for the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

The point is this. Many will hear the word of God and will not believe it and therefore not receive it by faith. Few will hear it, believe it, and therefore receive it by faith. To those who do believe the word of God and receive it are the ones God has given to know. God has given ears to hear and God will bless them. This is a hard truth to understand or maybe contemplate but I call it a truth, an absolute truth because this is biblical.

This truth is grounded in verse 10. 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. And so then naturally I want to ask the question why can't the others see and understand? Listen to Paul's defense here in Romans 11 2-7. He says God has not rejected his people whom he forneew.

Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah? How he appeals to God against Israel? Elijah says,"Lord, they have killed your prophets. They have demolished your altars and I alone am left and they seek my life." Elijah as one of the prophets preaching to all of Israel is saying, "I'm the only one left that believes in you, that is faithful to you." But what is God's reply to him in verse four?

I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed to the knee or or bowed the knee to Baal. He then brings it up to the present time and he says, "So too, at the present time, there is a remnant that is there is a people in the area in which Paul is talking to the Romans about. There is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. And then he goes on to say, what then?

Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stuper, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day. Now, that doesn't seem right, does it? Like that doesn't seem loving that God would give some the gift of seeing and hearing and to others the spirit of stuper or blindness and deafness to the truths of the gospel. That's why following this logic, Paul rhetorically says in Romans 9:14-16, "What shall we then say?

Is there injustice on God's part? by no means. For he God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy. And before you are tempted to question or ring your fist against me or God, please consider the end of Romans 11.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How uncarchable are his judgments and how inscrable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counselor. I cannot stand up here and pretend to fully comprehend or understand God's full process in in who he chooses to save. I cannot fully reconcile in my mind how God elects to have mercy on whom he has mercy.

And simultaneously that means that he withholds mercy on whom he withholds mercy. But I can with confidence preach that it is biblical truth and it has massive implications for this parable today. And so let's let Jesus explain this parable as he follows what he just shared starting in verse 11. 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. In time of testing they 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 and 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 patience. Now what is the common theme throughout this parable is that all four hear the word of God. All four hear the word of God. All four have some degree of response to the word of God. But the primary difference among all four is that only one of them is considered to have good soil, proper soil in order for the word of God to take root. So then the question should be how does one establish good soil?

How do we get good soil which is translated here as a good heart? Again God will have mercy on whom he has mercy. Listen to the words of Paul to Titus in Titus chapter 3:es 3-7. He says, "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others, and hating one another." Like, that does not sound like good soil. But when the goodness and loving kindness of our of God our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

That's key. whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our savior so that being justified by his grace we might become hes according to the hope of eternal life at at our house we have three big flower pots in our front landscaping area and every spring what I do is I I take whatever's in those flower pots and it's dead and I just dump it out. I dump it out and then I get fresh new soil and I put it in the pot so that when we put either seed in it or new plants in it. It has room and healthy Kelsey's looking at me like we don't do this. We we put plant we don't put seeds in it but we put we put plants in it but they need something healthy to to to survive to take root and grow in. And this is similar to what God is doing with us through the process of regeneration.

Regeneration, Matthew Barrett says in his essay on regeneration, regeneration is the sovereign work of God, the Holy Spirit of granting spiritual life to each Christian, raising them from the dead so that they are now able to repent and trust in Christ as a new creation. You see, it is the work of the Holy Spirit preparing the soil of an individual to receive and believe the word of God when they hear it. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, removing the heart of stone that is dead and granting to the new to the individual a new heart of flesh that is alive and able after hearing the word of God to repent and believe. The Bible uses the metaphor of being born again. Of being born again to illustrate this work of the Holy Spirit that for us feel it is experienced simultaneously as we become believers but is the first process in God's salvific work of our lives. Barrett goes on to say, "This is not a work in which man contributes, but is a work of God alone.

Much as an infant receives no credit for being born, man receives no glory from being regenerated by God." He goes on to say, "Because man needs a grace with resurrection power, then any willful activity on his own part, including faith itself, cannot be the cause, but rather the effect of the new birth." Let me show you this from scripture as this is the process of God's salvation. And there's this story about Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus where uh Jesus brings up the idea of being born again. And Nicodemus recognizes that Jesus has come from God. And Jesus responds to Nicodemus in this way.

Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Now remember our language of ears to hear. Those who are able to have ears to hear, eyes to see and perceive to be able to understand. What he's saying here is unless you are born again, you will not be able to see and understand. Nicodemus then said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"

And Jesus answered, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Now, we talked about that in length over the last couple of weeks that entering the kingdom of God is synonymous with the process of receiving salvation. That's the message that God has come through Jesus Christ preaching and proclaiming. And so, unless one is born again, they cannot enter into salvation. There must be this work of the Holy Spirit who spiritually gives new life to us while we are dead in our sin. Where we are spiritually helpless and hopeless that we cannot choose for ourselves.

We cannot cause our own regeneration. We cannot cause ourselves to be born again. It is a work of God. Uh Matthew Barrett again used this illustration that often times the gospel is uh preached as a life preserver. And so you kind of picture the scene where um you've got a boat going out and you've got someone out in the water and they're waiting in the water and they're starting to drown and they're taking in water and they're they're just looking for someone to save them. And so and and and I I've heard this analogy preached in youth group and so forth of just Jesus comes and he casts the life preserver out and as long as you by faith grab it then salvation happens.

And that's true. That is true. It's just incomplete. It's not telling the whole story. Christ is coming down as our great life preserver. He is coming to save us and grant life to us.

But the process of being born again, what it is doing is we are not at the top of the water gasping for air and waiting and trying to figure out how do we reach someone who's going to save us. We're already dead at the bottom of the ocean. We're on the floor. And what he does is the Holy Spirit comes and regenerates us. So that when the word is cast and the life preserver comes out and we hear Christ crucified through the process of regeneration, we are now able to hear it, receive it, hold fast to it and be saved. Be saved.

So that the entire process does not allow one option or one opportunity for us to say look what we did. We cannot boast in ourselves for the way in which we grabbed on to the life preserver. He allows the entire process to happen and function. So much so that 1 Peter 1:3 puts it this way. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Being a born again becomes then the first step in the process of being able to hear the word of God and by faith understand it for salvation. Let me show you that as well. 1 John 5:1, it says this, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, past tense, has been born again." Everyone who believes has already been born again. And everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him. that this is how in our parable one person out of four is able to hear the word of God, receive it by faith and see it mature and produce fruit a h 100fold which I will unpack more of that next week um as we get into what that actually means in the the producing of what comes out of us in that part.

But for the sake of time, what are we to do with this today? What are we to do with this today? Because there's two sometimes there there's there's two ways that you can go. Some people say, "Well, if God is going to have mercy on whom he has mercy, and he's going to reveal himself to who he reveals himself, and he's going to for the rest in in a mysterious way harden hearts and so forth. What's the point in me telling anybody about Jesus? And that is an unfortunate misunderstanding of what God has called us to do in our part when it comes to preaching the word of God and sharing Christ and evangelizing to lost souls.

The reality is is we don't know who the one out of four is all around us. We don't know who the remnant is here in Indianapolis. What we know is that God in his goodness and in his um being just did not have to save anybody, but he chose to. He chose to because of the goodness and loving kindness of who he is. And in sending Jesus, Jesus comes into the picture and he does all of the work necessary for us to be saved. But in the process of him spreading this life preserver, he employs us.

He trains us. And he says, "I'm going to have you go and be the one that declares this word, that preaches this word, that casts this seed." Now again in the process of someone receiving that seed and getting saved like that's God. That's God. But it does not then nullify or negate the fact that he has commanded us to go and cast seed to go and prepare or preach the word of God to declare it to share our um experience of knowing who Jesus is and the good news of the gospel. go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and the holy spirit.

He's called us to go and do this. And so really two things. What do we do with this today? We preach the word. We cast the seed. We share the gospel.

In God's design, he still utilizes us in the process of saving others. That's why Romans 10 uh Romans 10 talks about how can they call on the Lord and whom they've not heard and how can they hear unless someone preaches to them. So he still is utilizing the preaching of God's word to those and that just doesn't have to mean what is categorized as what we're doing up here today. Preaching is is is is throwing the word. It's it's declaring the word. It's it's getting out.

And that can be in a conversation that you have with someone in a coffee shop. That can be uh in a conversation that you have with your neighbor next door. That can be over a dinner with a family member or whatever it is where you are preaching God's word. You're proclaiming to them, this is what Christ has done for me. This is what he has done for you if you would receive it. If you have ears to hear and that brings it to the second thing we pray for God to give the ears to hear.

If it is again back to verse 10 of our passage to you has been given the ability to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. Then we're praying for God to give that to those who we share the gospel with. So that again he's earning all of the credit in the entire process and we don't pretend to know how it all exactly works itself out because who has known the mind of the Lord but that's why we have passages like Mark 4:26-27 which is is a part of the parallel of our parable today. He says the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how.

I mean that's all that's ministry. We are called to scatter the seed. And when it means on the ground, we are called to scatter the seed on the hearts of those around us. And some of those seeds will sprout and grow. And we're going to be like, I don't know how cuz I thought I botched that. But God is good.

God is faithful. Through my broken efforts in sharing the gospel with this person, God caused them to be born again. God granted them the ability to understand his good news and he saved them and they are now holding fast to him. That's how it happens. I mean, if if for anyone in this room who's a born again believer in Jesus, you heard it at one point. Like, you didn't wake up in the middle of the night from a dream and all of a sudden was just like, I'm a Christian now.

You heard the gospel preached, whether that was via someone sharing the gospel with you, like a fifth grader who was next door to me when I was in seventh grade, who shared the gospel with me for the first time. Maybe it was through preaching in a setting like this. Maybe it was through a conference that you went to. Maybe it was through the reading of God's word yourself and it preached to you. Regardless, you heard the gospel and you responded because of the goodness and loving kindness of God to cause you to be born again. You responded in faith with this new heart that you have that's able to believe and trust in Jesus Christ and hold fast to him.

And out of this new heart that he's given you, you persevere to the end. Praise God for that. And because we believe that's true, what this does is this encourages us to share the gospel because we know God will save. He will save. And so we don't have to worry about whether or not we are going to mess up in sharing the gospel unless what you're sharing is not the gospel. All right?

We we want some accuracy there. But that's why we do what we're doing and we equip. But what we can stand on is the confidence that Jesus has called us to be a church that declares the word of God because he has a chosen people, a remnant wherever we are. And we don't know who they are, but we cast the seed on all hearts in hopes that God will save some, that he will save some. We know not how, but we know he will. And that brings me to communion.

1 Corinthians 1:21-24 says, "For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified which is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called by God, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Christ crucified is the folly to the world because it truly doesn't make sense. in in our grand scheme of how we have built the world and what constitutes victory and success and so forth.

Nobody in all of history has ever won a battle by dying, right? Like Roman Empire wasn't built by losing battles. America would not be here if we lost the battle. But that's why we celebrate and remember Christ breaking his body and shedding his blood because it was the means to victory. His death satisfied the wrath of God so that while we are in our own death, God might have mercy on us. and he might raise us out of our death to new life just as he gave life to Jesus.

We preach Christ crucified. And right now we celebrate this victory of life being granted by remembering that it came through the death of Jesus first and foremost. So stand together. And I'm going to go ahead and invite you um to come down and get the elements and come back to your seats as we continue to just meditate on this work that Jesus has done. That does not make sense unless God grants ears to hear, eyes to see.