Take Care How You Listen
Luke 8:16-18
October 15, 2023
By this time you’ve now heard the parable of the soils.
The banners behind me remind you of each of those various soils.
And now you know what they all mean.
Luke 8:11 “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.”
The seed in Jesus’ story is God’s word.
And that makes each of the 4 soils a different type of person (or heart)
Some are hard-hearted like THE PATH.
• They never hear, they never listen and Satan takes it away.
Some are faint-hearted like THE ROCKY SOIL.
• They hear but see the cost of Christ us too high and they fall away.
Some are half-hearted like THE WEEDY SOIL.
• They want Christ but they won’t give up their idols and the seed is choked.
But some are whole-hearted like THE GOOD SOIL.
• They give their whole heart to Christ and He makes them fruitful.
You have heard that parable now in detail and
Hopefully it’s truth is beginning to sink in to your hearts.
Well the parable from Jesus is over, but the sermon is not.
There are 3 more verses in Luke 8
That are a part of this sermon which Jesus preached on the soils.
It is how Jesus ended that message that we want to look at this morning.
VERY SIMPLY PUT, if you listened to that parable and then you asked yourself, “How would I know which soil I am?”
• How do I know if I have fruit?
• How do I know if I’m shallow?
• How do I know if I’m idolatrous?
• How do I know if I’m good soil?
If you asked that question
Then you are going to be grateful for these next 3 verses
For Jesus is going to bring clarity.
• He’s going to show you what you should be looking for in your life.
• He’s going to show you what you should be examining in your life.
• He’s going to show you how to tell if you’re producing fruit or not.
And then He’s got one final warning and piece of advice.
So first let’s listen to Jesus tell us how to know
If we’re that type of soil that produces fruit
Or if we are one of the other 3.
There are two realities here.
#1 IS YOUR FRUIT EVIDENT?
Luke 8:16
Now you notice that Jesus has SWAPPED ANALOGIES here.
• He has moved from talking about soil and fruit to talking about light.
There’s a reason for the shift in terminology but understand that
We are still talking about THE SAME SUBJECT.
He is still referring to THE OUTPUT of the Christian life.
• Whether you want to see it as the Christian producing fruit…
• Or you want to see it as the Christian shining light…
We are talking about the SAME THING.
The reason Jesus shifts to light as an analogy
Is because this was a direct confrontation of a Jewish mindset.
Jesus is going right at His crowd here.
Jews believed themselves to be a light to the world.
Listen to Paul in Romans 2
Romans 2:17-20 “But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth,”
You see there Paul mention the Jewish belief that
They were “a light to those who are in darkness”.
In Scripture light represents one of three things.
It can refer to RIGHTEOUSNESS.
• The bible speaks of “deeds of light” or “deeds of darkness”
It can refer to INFORMATION or KNOWLEDGE
• We might say someone was “kept in the dark” or “the light came on”
It can refer to HOPE
• We might talk about “the light at the end of the tunnel”
The Jews considered themselves to be all 3 of those things to the world.
• They viewed themselves as the righteous example in a wicked world.
• They considered themselves to have the knowledge of the truth.
• They considered themselves to be the world’s hope of salvation.
It is interesting then when you get to John’s gospel
And hear John say about Jesus:
John 1:9 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”
John was very quick to begin his gospel by revealing that Jesus was “the true light” which was a definite dig at Israel who thought they were light, but weren’t.
Perhaps you are familiar with the Sermon on the Mount.
Most people are familiar with Matthew 5:16 and it is often quoted in reference to the church.
Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
• And while it is true that the church is to shine as lights in the world,
• Matthew 5:16 is not about the church,
• It is a sarcastic statement about the hypocrisy of Israel.
What Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the Mount
Is a STATEMENT OF CONDEMNATION.
You claim to be the light of the world, but you don’t shine.
How does that work?
In fact Jesus actually gave a different analogy first that meant the same thing.
Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.”
There He said, you claim to be salt, but you have no flavor.
How can that be?
So you understand why Jesus turns to the analogy of light now.
He is addressing something
That Jews believed to be true about themselves,
But which Jesus does not.
They thought they were the light of the world, Jesus does not agree.
If we were to stay on the previous analogy
It would be the equivalent of Jesus saying, “So you’re a field but you produce no fruit, where’s the benefit in that?”
So you understand what He’s doing here.
• Jesus is confronting people who claim to have light but don’t shine it.
• He’s confronting people who claim to be salt, but don’t taste.
• He’s confronting people who claim to be good soil, but have no fruit.
DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?
Now, a common excuse of such people is simple.
They like to say things like:
• “My faith is private”
• “My relationship with Jesus is just between me and Jesus”
• “I have fruit, I just don’t display it”
• “I have the light, I just don’t shine it”
• “Just because I don’t talk about Jesus or the gospel doesn’t mean I’m not a Christian.”
Perhaps you’ve heard some variation of one of those statements before.
Perhaps you’ve even made one of those statements before.
Well here JESUS DESTROYS that faulty belief.
(16) “Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light.”
So you say that “I have the light I just don’t shine it.”
Jesus cries foul and says, “No one does that”.
No one turns on the light
And then immediately covers it with black plastic.
What does He mean?
Simply this:
If you are not shining the light of Jesus
It is not because you’ve just chosen not to.
It is because you do not have it.
If you are not displaying the fruit of the gospel
It is not because you just keep it private.
It is because you don’t have any.
Everyone who truly has fruit displays it.
Everyone who truly has light shines it.
EVERYONE…
“no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container”
SO, IF YOU ARE ASKING YOURSELF whether or not you have fruit, then the obvious first question is this:
IS IT EVIDENT?
(Do other people see it?)
And we remember what light represents.
Light can be RIGHTEOUS LIVING (“deeds of light” or “deeds of darkness”)
So do you live righteously or do you live immorally?
• Do you obey the commands of God or do you disobey the commands of God?
• Is righteous living evident to other people in your life?
Galatians 5:19-24 “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Which of those two categories is evident in your life?
1 John 3:10 “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
IT’S REALLY NOT THAT COMPLICATED.
But light also represents TRUTH (“kept in the dark” or “light came one”)
And we would ask “Do you share the gospel of Jesus Christ?”
• You claim to have the knowledge of the greatest truth ever given to humanity;
• The knowledge of the gospel and how sinful men can be declared righteous before a holy God.
You’ve got the greatest single piece of information the world has ever received, DO YOU SHARE IT?
Acts 4:19-20 “But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Do you ever tell anyone about what you’ve seen and heard?
A field full of fruit is only valuable if it shares its fruit with the world.
If you are not, there is reason to question.
We also said that light represents HOPE (“light at the end of the tunnel”)
Do you share hope with those in darkness?
• The hope of forgiveness?
• The hope of eternal life?
• The hope of the gospel?
Here Jesus is simply saying that if you don’t share the gospel with other people it is because you have never received it yourself.
PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE LIGHT SHINE IT.
PEOPLE WHO HAVE FRUIT DISPLAY IT.
SO, IS YOUR FRUIT EVIDENT?
• Fruit is not meant to be hidden.
• That fruitful soil produced a crop 100 times as great.
So is it evident?
Is evident to others?
Do you share it with others?
That’s your first evaluating criteria.
#2 IS YOUR FRUIT GENUINE?
Luke 8:17
This statement of Jesus can be a little cryptic until we study some of the other places where Jesus used the exact same statement.
Luke 12:1-3 “Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. “Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.”
Here Jesus gives a distinct warning to His disciples
Regarding the lifestyle of the Pharisees.
Specifically Jesus warns about their hypocrisy.
You may or may not be aware of this but the Greek word for hypocrite is HUPOCRITES.
It was literally their word for a stage-actor.
When Jesus called someone a hypocrite He literally called them an actor.
They were someone who dressed up in a part and pretended to be someone they were not for the purpose of entertaining someone else.
The slang term today might be “a poser”.
It is at the very heart a phony and a fraud.
Jesus said this is what the Pharisees were and then He said, “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.”
And FROM THAT TEXT WE KNOW what Jesus meant by this statement.
Everything that was phony about the Pharisees
Would come to light and be known.
In other words, their acting days would not last forever.
They would not fool people forever.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 23
(READ 1-7) You see the real problem of the Pharisees.
• It’s all for show.
• They just love the glory and the benefit but they aren’t real.
(READ 23-28) You see it again.
• They are all external.
• They are all for appearances.
And now you understand what Jesus is saying here to us about our fruit.
He is referring to the outward things we do
Which may appear as fruit to some people.
In other words:
We asked in that first question whether or not our fruit is evident?
• Does your light shine?
• Do you share the gospel?
• Is the fruit of the Spirit evident in your life?
And perhaps you were able to say, “Yes” to those questions.
And that’s good.
But Jesus follows that up with another question.
You say your fruit is evident,
Would you say that is true in your private life?
JESUS IS ASKING IF YOU ARE REAL?
Does your fruit only show up when you are church?
• Does your fruit show up in your private life?
• Does your fruit show up when you’re on the internet?
• Does your fruit show up when you’re in the locker room?
Is the fruit you display true or is it just plastic fruit
You put on display for others to see?
WE LIVE IN A DAY OF VIRTUAL FANTASY.
Social media has taught us that people can be one way in person and totally different on their social media account.
We live in a day of phony reality.
• Photoshopped photos
• Virtual friendships via Facebook
• Virtual followers
• Phony athletes with performance enhancing drugs
We even have athletes with slogans like, “Fake it ‘til you make it”
And now we’ve hit the AI era
Where you don’t know if anything you’re seeing is real.
Unfortunately that has been going on in the church since the beginning.
It is those who have a type of plastic fruit,
Like what was on your grandmother’s table.
It isn’t real, but they display it for show,
But when they get alone they know what they are.
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.”
But here is something everyone should know.
You may fool everyone around you.
You may even fool yourself.
BUT YOU ARE NOT; AND YOU WILL NOT FOOL GOD.
Psalms 7:9 “O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; For the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.”
Psalms 90:8 “You have placed our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.”
1 Corinthians 4:5 “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.”
Hebrews 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
There is nothing hidden from God.
And Jesus promises that one day it will all come out.
“For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light.”
In other words, don’t bank on fake fruit.
God knows the difference.
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”
Those people who had done a great job of fooling everyone else,
But they couldn’t fool Jesus.
On the day of judgment their secret was uncovered.
• They were phonies.
• They were imposters.
• Their fruit was a plastic imitation of the real thing.
• And they are excluded from the kingdom of heaven.
So that’s the next question you need to evaluate.
1) IS YOUR FRUIT EVIDENT?
2) IS YOUR FRUIT GENUINE?
• Are you real?
• Are you genuine?
• Or are you playing a game?
SO THAT IS THE WAY YOU EVALUATE WHICH SOIL YOU ARE.
Then Jesus closes His sermon with some ADVICE and a WARNING.
His warning is THE THEME of our entire weekend.
(18) “So take care how you listen…”
• Jesus DIDN’T tell you to try harder.
• Jesus DIDN’T tell you to do better.
If you don’t have fruit it’s NOT because you haven’t worked hard enough.
If you don’t have fruit it’s because
Your heart has not properly dealt with the seed.
WHAT IS THE SEED?
“the word of God”
And the only way you can be fruitful as God demands
Is if you let that seed do its work in your heart.
So the command of Jesus ISN’T work harder.
The command of Jesus is listen better.
You need to receive God’s word!
If you don’t have fruit it’s because
• You’ve been too hard-hearted to let God’s word touch your heart.
• You’ve been too shallow to count the cost and embrace God’s word.
• You’ve got too many idols and they are choking God’s word.
YOU HAVEN’T LISTENED CORRECTLY.
In your quiet time Saturday morning
James told you how to listen to God’s word.
James 1:21 “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.”
• If you don’t listen correctly.
• If you don’t “in humility receive the word”
• You will never produce the fruit that God demands.
“So take care how you listen”
And then Jesus gives His reason.
“for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and who does not have, even what he thinks he had shall be taken away from him.”
The simple point here is this:
GOD TAKES IT PERSONAL
It is not ok with God for you to ignore His word.
In fact, if you fail to listen correctly long enough
God may even quit bothering you with His word altogether.
THAT IS WHAT JESUS SAYS HERE.
• If you hear God’s word and you listen correctly to God’s word, then He’ll give you more.
• If you refuse to hear it, don’t be surprised if He takes away your ability all together.
And do you know what happens when you lose the ability to hear from God?
YOU ARE JUDGED FOR ALL ETERNITY.
Because there is only one way that a lost soul gets saved.
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
You have to hear the gospel and you have to respond to it.
But if you lose the ability to hear the gospel there will be no salvation.
THERE IS NOT A SCARIER REALITY TO CONTEMPLATE
Than the thought that someone could have so offended God
That He stopped calling them to repentance and faith in Christ.
And did you catch this parable at the beginning?
Remember how Jesus started with just a farming illustration?
He then said, (8:8) “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
And then Jesus dismissed the crowd.
The disciples wanted to know why Jesus spoke so cryptically.
They wanted to know why He didn’t just tell them straight.
In fact in Matthew’s gospel we read:
Matthew 13:10 “And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
Why don’t You just clearly give them the gospel?
Do you remember Jesus answer?
Luke 8:10 “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.”
Or more clearly again in Matthew’s gospel:
Matthew 13:11-13 “Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
They wouldn’t listen so now I have made it where they can’t listen.
I have taken away even what they thought they had.
That is a terrifying reality, but it is a true one.
Hebrews 6:7-8 “For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.”
• How long do you keep watering a garden that won’t grow vegetables?
• How long do you keep watering a field that won’t produce a crop?
And so you understand the warning of Jesus.
“So take care how you listen…”
And this morning allow me to lay it out for you one more time.
• In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the Bible says God made everything good. So good in fact that on the 7th day, HE RESTED (because there was nothing else that could be done) (Genesis 1-2)
• God created a perfect garden and a perfect man and a perfect woman to live in that garden. Everything in that garden was available to them except for 1 tree in the middle of that garden. It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they were commanded not to eat of that tree or touch it or they would surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17)
• There came a day when Satan entered the garden in the form of a serpent and he tempted Eve to eat of that fruit, and she did, and she gave some to Adam, and he ate it too. (Genesis 3:1-7)
• On that day, sin entered God’s perfect creation and all of creation suffered what is known as “The Fall” or the sin curse. (Sickness, Disease, Disaster, Hatred, Death) (Genesis 3:14-19)
• And because Adam and Eve fell into sin, they also raised children with their same sinful nature. (Romans 5:12-14)
• In fact the Bible says that now, as Adam’s offspring, we are all born with a nature that loves sin. (It may show up differently in every life, but every life has it one form or another) (Romans 3:9-18)
• In fact, David said,
Psalms 51:5 “in sin my mother conceived me, and I was brought forth in iniquity”
• This sinful nature, is in all men, and because all men love sin, all men commit sin and by reason of that sin are estranged from God and under His divine wrath. (Psalms 7:11-12)
• In fact, because of sin man is called the enemy of God and is in fact under God’s divine wrath and awaiting eternal punishment in hell. (Revelation 20:11-15)
• And if God had not seen fit to intervene in the life of man, all men would indeed spend eternity in hell as punishment for the sins which they have committed. (Ephesians 2:1-10)
Romans 5:8-10 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
• God sent His very own beloved Son into the world that He had created and that which had rebelled against Him in the garden and every day since. (1 Timothy 1:15)
• This Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life in every way. He never sinned, not even once, and was the only human who ever fully satisfied the righteous requirements of God for living. (Hebrews 4:15; Matthew 3:17)
• After 3 years of ministry in which Jesus proved Himself to be the divine Son of God through miracles and works of power, this holy man was crucified at the hands of His own people. (John 5:36)
• And while hanging on the cross Jesus endured more than just the hostility of the Jews, Jesus in fact bore the full wrath of God which was due upon God’s children. (Isaiah 53)
• Jesus then died, was buried, but on the 3rd day God raised Him from the dead proving that Jesus’ death was not for His own sin. His resurrection proves that He really was holy and that His death really was for the sin of others. (Acts 2:24)
• And because of His perfectly righteous life and sacrificial death, salvation became possible to all of God’s children. (Romans 8:1-4)
THIS IS HOW SALVATION WORKS
2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
• When on the cross, even though Jesus was perfectly righteous, God treated Him as if He had lived my sinful life. So that now God can treat me as though I lived His perfect life.
• Jesus was treated as a sinner so that I can be treated as a righteous man.
• This is the very essence of salvation. That through the life and death of Jesus sinners can be reconciled back to God.
• And this is available for all who trust in the work of Jesus for salvation.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
• This is the message of the gospel. Namely that sinful human beings can be reconciled to God because of what Jesus did through His righteous life and sacrificial death. (Colossians 2:13-14)
• And our requirement is that we repent (turn from our sin), and trust in Christ. (Acts 17:30-31)
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”
“So take care how you listen…”
