Take Care How You Listen – Part 2
Luke 8:4-21 (11-15)
July 8, 2018
This morning we’re going to pick back up with
The text we began looking at two weeks ago.
Most quickly recognize it as the parable of the sower.
And as we pointed out last time, it is part of a greater sermon
Which Jesus preached on the importance of listening to God.
In fact, the real crux of the sermon comes in verse 18.
When Jesus says, “So take care how you listen;”
That’s the point.
When God speaks, you should listen to what He has to say.
We believe God’s word to be of the utmost value.
Psalms 19:7-11 “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.”
His revelation is where we find restoration for our souls, wisdom, joy, enlightenment, holiness, truth, and reward.
There is tremendous value here.
Paul said the same.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
The point is simple, God’s word is valuable
HOWEVER we also recognize that
Just because God’s word is valuable
That does not mean it is always valued.
It is not always popular.
Sinful man does not like to hear what God has to say.
And we saw last time how even God’s people often refused to listen.
Isaiah 30:9-11 “For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD; Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”; And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right, Speak to us pleasant words, Prophesy illusions. “Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.”
Amos 2:11-12 “Then I raised up some of your sons to be prophets And some of your young men to be Nazirites. Is this not so, O sons of Israel?” declares the LORD. “But you made the Nazirites drink wine, And you commanded the prophets saying, ‘You shall not prophesy!’
And of course that it is a sentiment we see even today.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”
In short, God should be listened to, but sadly He is often times ignored.
People do not take the time to listen to God.
And of course by that we are speaking of the time to read His word,
Or listen to His word being preached.
God speaks but men don’t want to hear it.
Because of that reality, we were forced to address a terrifying issue.
WHAT IF GOD DETERMINED TO HIDE HIS WORD FROM YOU?
That is to say, “What if God determined to no longer allow you the privilege of understanding His will?”
And last time we saw that GOD DOES indeed do this.
He certainly did it through Isaiah who was commissioned to go and render the people seeing but not perceiving and hearing but not understanding.
Isaiah 29:11-14 “The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.” Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote, Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”
It is a reality prophesied again by the prophet Amos
Amos 8:11-12 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD. “People will stagger from sea to sea And from the north even to the east; They will go to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, But they will not find it.”
God can become so fed up with a people who refuse to listen
That He will determine to no longer give them any truth
In a way that they can comprehend it.
And that is precisely what Jesus did
In the opening portions of His sermon.
If you will remember
• A large crowd gathered to hear Jesus and He gave them a farming sermon.
• It really wasn’t even a sermon on how to be a better farmer, it was more of a sermon about observations of farming.
#1 THE PARABLE GIVEN
Luke 8:4-8
He spoke of a farmer throwing seed and the difficulties he can expect in planting.
• Sometimes people cut across your field and make hardened paths that will not absorb seed or grow plants.
• Sometimes there’s giant rocks just below the surface that prevent the plant from getting adequate water and the plant dries up.
• Sometimes there’s lots of weed seed in the dirt and after a rain, before the seed has opportunity to sprout, the weeds show up and choke out the plant.
• And then sometimes it all goes as planned and you get a crop.
And then He dismissed the crowd,
And most of the crowd who weren’t concerned in any real truth
Just took that at face value and left.
He gave them truth, just not in a medium they could comprehend.
It was a form of the very judgment we’ve been talking about.
And the disciples picked up on it.
We read that they questioned Jesus. Which was our second point
#2 THE PARABLE QUESTIONED
Luke 8:9-10
The disciples wanted to know why Jesus would only give a farming story
And then leave it at that.
They didn’t understand it
The crowd didn’t understand it
And so they asked Jesus why.
His response was telling.
(10) “And He said, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that SEEING THEY MAY NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND.”
Jesus quoted from Isaiah and blatantly said that
He purposely delivered the sermon in the form of a parable
So that they would not understand what they just heard.
In short, they’d be accountable for having heard truth,
But there was no possibility of them responding to it.
Why did Jesus do it?
Because these people wouldn’t listen.
• Here was truth incarnate sitting in front of them and the people could care less.
• What is more, Jesus had preached all over their region and they had ignored.
• They weren’t interested in truth as Jesus just illustrated.
• And if they had no interest in listening to truth, He had no interest in bombarding them with it.
No wonder He gives the warning, “Take care how you listen”
These people wouldn’t and so they got nothing.
HOWEVER, there was a group who was interested in listening.
• They were not content with a farming story.
• They knew there was more truth there than they understood.
• And so they came to Jesus asking for an explanation.
They are described by that passage I read to you in Proverbs 2
Proverbs 2:1-5 “My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God.”
They are at least showing the first steps of that
Because instead of leaving for Dairy Queen with the rest of the crowd
They have stayed behind for better understanding.
So to them Jesus gives the explanation.
The Parable Given, The Parable Questioned
#3 THE PARABLE EXPLAINED
Luke 8:11-15
In one statement the entire parable comes to life for us.
Without this statement it would be impossible for us to know what the Lord meant,
But now it is clear.
(11) “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.”
And all of a sudden the map is clear.
Once you are given the legend, it all comes in to focus.
• The farmer isn’t a farmer, he’s a preacher
• The seed isn’t a seed, it’s the word of God
• The soil isn’t soil, it’s the people who hear the word
And so again we realize that Jesus is talking about
The importance of listening.
But you ALSO NEED TO UNDERSTAND here that
Jesus is taking His sermon even one step deeper.
We have already separated those who don’t hear from those who do.
Those who don’t hear have already left.
They got the parable, didn’t understand it and went home content
They’ll be characterized by the first type of soil Jesus explains.
But it’s not as though Jesus only speaks of 2 types of soil.
He doesn’t just list hard soil and soft soil.
THERE ARE FOUR.
And what we begin to understand is that
Of the 3 that actually press on for understanding
Only 1 of them ends up being acceptable.
That means it is possible to HEAR the word, UNDERSTAND the word, even RECEIVE the word AND STILL NOT BE ACCEPTABLE TO GOD.
The defining expectation for this soil is clear.
IT IS FRUIT.
We are not looking just for soil that takes the seed.
We are looking for soil that produces a crop.
Every farmer plants a seed for one reason only, and that is for a crop.
• If the seed produces a crop then it is a success.
• If the seed fails to produce a crop then it is a failure.
By that criteria we have here 3 failing soils and 1 successful soil.
And, because Jesus has given us the legend,
We know that these SOILS REPRESENT THE HUMAN HEART.
These soils represent the various responses to the gospel.
And I want to stress from the beginning.
ONLY 1 OF THESE SOILS REPRESENTS A SAVED PERSON
So this crowd has proven themselves a little better than those who went home early, but they are not necessarily all the way yet.
What we are going to do is
EXAMINE these 4 types of soils or hearts or responses or people
And learn what it actually means to listen to God’s word.
1 of these 4 listens the way Jesus intends, 3 do not.
Let’s look at them.
1) THE HARD HEARTED (12)
“Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.”
These represented the crowd that is already half-way to Dairy Queen.
They are the ones represented by the road.
They are depicted as hard and disinterested.
They were in church, they heard, they read what the Bible said,
They just had no interest in what they were hearing.
They are “those who have heard”
But that only means they were present when it was spoken.
They heard Jesus give the parable, but they did not comprehend;
And probably more telling, they didn’t care.
But instead of just saying that “they didn’t get it”,
Jesus goes FURTHER TO EXPLAIN precisely what happens.
He says what actually happens is “the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.”
This is one of the insights Scripture gives us into spiritual warfare.
I know in our day spiritual warfare has almost been glamorized to some sort of mystic battle with hand waiving and candles and flopping and head slapping, etc.
But look, Satan’s objective has never been a circus,
It has always been deception.
Jesus told us pretty clearly:
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;”
For years I’ve heard prosperity preachers call the devil a thief
And then talk about how he steals cars and houses and promotions, etc.
But Jesus indicates here what he steals.
• He loves to steal the truth.
• He loves to steal the word from your heart.
• He loves to quiet the conviction that God brings.
• He loves to contradict the truth that God proclaims.
Remember him debating with Eve?
Genesis 3:4-5 “The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
He appealed to her logic and her sense of self.
It was an effort to get her to eradicate the truth from her mind.
He loves to use the false wisdom and logic of our world
To turn people from the truth.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
He also loves to appeal to your sense of self.
God sends the truth which convicts you and condemns you and Satan loves to supply the argument.
Remember how the people responded to Isaiah’s preaching?
Isaiah 28:9 “To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast?”
Satan whispered in their ear,
“Who does he think he’s talking to? He can’t talk to you like that.”
That’s real spiritual warfare.
• He provides the argument for those who don’t want to hear it.
• He provides the distraction for those who don’t want to see it.
• And he helps you flush God’s word right out of your heart.
Next time you hear God’s word
And your mind is instantly flooded with worldly arguments
Or you’re tempted to get angry and offended;
JUST KNOW WHERE THOSE THOUGHTS CAME FROM.
Well that’s what the devil does.
• God gives the word,
• You’re not interested in what God has to say
• The devil makes sure to help you forget it.
Why does the devil do that?
Because that word will save you.
• It will convict your sin, and show you the judgment to come.
• It will drive you into holy terror and the need for reconciliation with God.
• It will point you to the all sufficient sacrifice of Jesus.
• And it will ask you to deliver all God desires from you which is faith.
And Satan is on a mission to make sure that message doesn’t sink in.
He is well acquainted with the missionary passage in Romans 10.
Romans 10:13-14 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”
So Satan’s goal is to stop you from hearing,
And if he can’t do that,
His goal is to quickly help you dismiss what you do hear.
Could you imagine a greater horror than for Satan to have helped you ignore what God had to say?
Well there are plenty of people who do fall into that category.
They are the hardened soil.
They hear, but it goes in one ear and out the other.
The Hard Hearted
2) THE SHALLOW HEARTED (13)
“Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.”
Here is a type of person that was extremely prevalent in Jesus’ day
And one that is also extremely prevalent in our day as well.
They are the people who flock to Jesus,
But they do so with selfish motives.
First of all we recognize that they also hear.
Jesus says, “when they hear”
And unlike the hard soil, these people “receive the word”.
That is to say, they consent to it, they agree with it, they are not eager to push it away.
In fact Jesus goes on to add that they “receive the word with joy”
They are absolutely exuberant about what they’ve found.
To them, this message is truly good news.
But there is a problem.
“these have no firm root”
That is to say that there is no depth to these people.
• It is all on the surface,
• It is all superficial.
• It is merely emotional.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I tend to believe that hearing from God
Can certainly be an emotional ordeal, but that’s not all it is.
But that’s all it was for these people.
They were in this thing for the joy it produced.
The problem is “they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.”
NOW FIRST LET ME ADDRESS the apparent problem of
Those who are called believers and yet who still fall away from the faith.
I must remind you that professing faith
Is NOT the same thing as possessing faith.
And just because people in Scripture claim belief,
Or are even for a time called “believers”
This DOES NOT always indicate those who are truly redeemed.
John 8:31 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;”
These people are “believers” but Jesus simply says, “We’ll see”
Yes, those who believe are saved,
And yes you claim to believe,
But the proof is in the pudding.
In fact, listen to John the elder as he seeks to help the early church sort this difficult issue out.
1 John 2:18-19 “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”
John there speak of people who were part of the congregation
And claimed faith in Christ,
But they proved their profession of faith was false because they did not remain.
That is precisely the people we are talking about here.
We are NOT talking about true believers who fall away amidst temptation.
We are talking about false believers
Who prove they have no faith during the time of temptation.
These people were all emotion.
And as I said this was prevalent in Jesus’ day.
Notice the crowds flocking to Him…
See them love Him for His miracles…
But watch them when He starts preaching denial of self
And repentance from sin.
John 6:65-66 “And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”
Listen to the crowd cry “Hosanna!” at His triumphal entry
And then “Crucify!” at His trial.
Why the quick turn?
Because they were only in this thing for what they could get out of it.
They are easy to spot.
They come to Jesus for the satisfaction of their flesh,
Not for the crucifixion of it.
And that’s why I can confidently tell you that
We see this all too often today as well.
It is absolutely sickening how Jesus is peddled today in most venues.
He is often held up as the universal satisfier.
• He can fulfill every void your heart has.
• He can gratify every unmet desire.
• He can nullify every unfulfilled expectation.
He’s peddled as prosperity and healing and joy and value and importance
And self-esteem (even self-indulgence) and glory and prestige.
And people flock down the aisles in these emotion-driven services
Where they can get everything their flesh has ever wanted from Jesus.
The problem is, Jesus did not come to gratify your flesh, He came to kill it.
• He DID NOT come saying “Love yourself and follow Me”
• He said, “Deny yourself and follow Me”
And these people who are manipulated under false promises
Often times do come to Jesus with great joy and excitement.
But when following Jesus proves to be far more sacrificial
Than what they expected they are quickly done with Him.
But here we see the shallow hearted,
• Who never counted the cost of following Christ.
• They heard all the promises of blessing,
• They ignored all the promises of persecution
• In the end they proved to love themselves, not Christ.
The bore no fruit – they had no salvation.
The Hard Hearted, The Shallow Hearted
3) THE HALF HEARTED (14)
“The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
Again we are dealing with a person who has “heard”.
They heard the message.
And the message even penetrated the heart.
• They were convicted.
• They were made aware.
• And it is apparent that they may have even wrestled with what they heard for a while.
The problem with their heart however is that it was filled with idolatry.
There were other seeds occupying space.
“and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”
That rocky soil individual accepted the call without ever counting the cost of following Christ.
And when the cost made itself evident they quickly rejected.
This weedy soiled person is not at all like that.
They are far more analytical than emotional.
They are counting the cost to a great extent.
THE PROBLEM is that they are unwilling to pay the cost that is required.
Remember this guy?
Matthew 19:20-22 “The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”
• That guy heard the message.
• That guy understood the message.
• That guy discerned the message.
• The problem was that he rejected it because it cost too much.
And we see those people in our world today as well.
• For them God’s word is not hard to understand, it’s just hard to swallow.
• And rather than submitting to the God of the universe, they determine to keep their idols.
They love the flesh and they will not yield.
They are brought right up to the brink of salvation but ultimately reject it.
This is the type of person that the writer of Hebrews mourns.
Hebrews 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”
Contrary to some arguments the words that the writer of Hebrews uses here
Are NOT words which speak of salvation.
He speaks of temporary benefits of being exposed to God, God’s people, God’s word, God’s sovereignty, God’s Spirit, and God’s salvation.
They are given a full-blown taste.
But upon full understanding and enlightenment
They reject the offer of salvation
And choose rather to crucify Christ to themselves.
THAT IS A WEEDY HEART.
And any time a person hears and understands the word
But balks at the high commands that is what they reveal.
They have a heart that loves the world.
And that heart never produces fruit and is not saved.
AND THE OBVIOUS POINT being made by the Lord is that
Hearing is definitely important, but it’s obviously more than just hearing.
• You have to hear it…
• You have to receive it…
• You have to listen to what is being said…
• You have to obey it…
• You have to submit to it, not matter the cost…
THAT IS WHAT GOD IS EXPECTING.
He’s not just looking for people who can pass a knowledge test,
He’s expecting people who will do what He says.
Do we remember the warning from James?
James 1:22 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”
A person who can hear the word but not do the word
And then think themselves to be a Christian has deluded their self.
Paul wrote:
Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”
The first 3 soils are all people who have heard the word,
But they are also people who are not listening to what they are being told.
• They are either too hard hearted
• Or too shallow hearted
• Or too half hearted
But that brings us to the one Jesus is looking for.
4) THE GOOD HEARTED (15)
“But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.”
They hear, but they hear “in an honest and good heart”
“honest” which is to say not superficial like that rocky soil.
• They weren’t lying when they said they would follow.
“good” which is to say not a divided heart like that weedy soil.
• They were willing to devote their whole life to Christ.
And not only that,
But they “hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.”
• They endure through the temptations.
• They endure through the persecutions.
• They do what God says no matter the cost.
They are committed to producing what God seeks to produce.
They will listen and they will obey and they will endure
Because they understand the objective is to please God not themselves.
This is why they love God’s word,
Because it tells them how to please God.
And the presence of their fruit is the indicator of their obedient heart.
God plants a seed of His word and their heart produces a righteous life.
And this is One Christ is looking for.
So now grasp the next round of application.
We already looked at the danger of not valuing God’s word.
• He might just quit speaking in a way in which you can understand it.
But you should also know that simply understanding God’s word is not the goal.
• The goal is valuing and obeying God’s word.
• Letting God’s word do its work in your life.
And if any of us should fall short of that goal
Then there is evidence that
We are still not listening as Jesus intended.
It may be that
• Our heart is too hard and needs to be broken.
• Our heart is too shallow and needs to contemplate what’s at stake.
• Our heart is too idolatrous and needs to be cleansed.
For what we are seeking is
A heart that is soft and faithful and committed
And one that understands the importance
Of allowing God’s word to grow and produce fruit.
1 Thessalonians 2:13 “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”
That is what we seek.
So again, “Take care how you listen”
