Four hearts; Luke 8: 1-15

Last week we looked at the woman who was a sinner, most likely a prostitute, who came to Jesus and washed His feet with her tears.  And Jesus tells the woman in response to her repentance and faith that her sins were forgiven her.  The Pharisees who were present scoffed at this woman, and even Jesus’ authenticity because they supposed that if Jesus knew what kind of woman she was, He wouldn’t have let her touch Him.  But if you will remember, Jesus rebuked the Pharisee for his hard heart, and said in so many words, “he who is forgiven much will love much.”

And we deduced from this teaching that the fruit of forgiveness is love, or service to God, which is the result of salvation.  Those that are truly saved through faith and repentance will love God, by serving Him with all that they have, and in all that they do.  That’s the fruit, or proof that they are saved.

Now today, Luke, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit brings us to another illustration of that principle.  He takes the principle that being saved produces godly fruit, and extrapolates that for us through the record of one of Jesus’ parables.  It’s called the Parable of the Sower, and it’s one of Christ’s most famous parables.  A parable by the way, is a spiritual principle presented by an earthy illustration.   Para means to come alongside, so that the spiritual application comes alongside of the physical story.

As we look at this chapter, we notice that it says in vs. 1 that at this time Jesus was traveling about from one small village to another, preaching the gospel of the kingdom.  By now, He has the 12 with Him, and also a group of women that had been healed from sickness or delivered from evil spirits.  Vs. 3 says that they were supporting Jesus and the disciples through their private means.  What that illustrates is that even at the beginning of Jesus ministry, there was established a Biblical precedent for the principle Paul speaks of in  1Tim.  5:17 which says, “The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.  For the Scripture says, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”

Now in addition to this growing inner circle of people who were his disciples and genuine followers, there were also large crowds that showed up wherever He went.  And Luke tells us that on this day a large crowd gathered to see Jesus. In such a large crowd, there were undoubtedly some who just came for curiosities sake, there were some perhaps that were wanting to be healed, there were others in the crowd that were scoffers, like the Pharisees, and of course, there were His genuine disciples and true followers who were the minority in the crowd.  And so seeing this mixed multitude, Jesus told a parable that would speak to each of these audiences. The normal tendency is for the audience to critique the preacher. But here, Jesus the preacher is critiquing His audience. The issue is how they  will listen.

Jesus used a familiar illustration for His message.  He was speaking outdoors, to a largely agrarian  community, who only had to look around to see what Jesus was  illustrating acted out. There may have even been a farmer sowing his field on a nearby hillside as He taught.  So He tells a parable of a farmer who goes out to sow.  And such a man would wear a bag slung over one shoulder which contained seed.  And as he walked down the furrows of his field, he would cast his grain with his other arm.  And “and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up.  Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.  Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out.  Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.”

Now as the multitude was perhaps scratching their heads over that, then Jesus called out in a loud voice, “he who has ears to hear, let him hear!”  Or perhaps we might understand it better to say, “he who hears, let him listen!”  In other words, Jesus is indicating that there is an underlying spiritual message here that needs to be understood.  So His disciples asked Jesus to explain the parable.

Now this next statement Luke records Jesus as  making in vs. 10 is an abbreviated version from what Matthew’s gospel records.  A more complete statement is found in Matt. 13:10 “And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 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.”  The last statement there Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 6:9.

What Jesus was saying was that the disciples, who were His true followers, were part of the Kingdom of God, and as such, they would be given more wisdom.  But the majority of the people in the crowd had not repented at His preaching, they had not shown the type of sorrow over their sin as the woman had who had washed His feet. They had not hungered and thirsted after righteousness.  Instead, they were self satisfied. As a result, they remained in their sins, outside of the Kingdom of God.  Jesus goes on to say that even what they think that they already possessed, that is they thought that they had a place in the Kingdom because they were born Jews, or they were circumcised, or because they were religious, Jesus says what they think that they have will be taken away from them.

Then in vs. 11, Jesus begins to explain the parable.  He says, “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.”  Stop right there.  I often find myself  defending our emphasis on the preaching of the word of God.  If you are a regular here, then you know that I don’t often tell jokes.  I don’t know many good stories.  I rarely use an illustration that isn’t in the Bible.  And maybe that is seen as a detriment to my preaching.  Maybe I am just not clever enough for some people.  I have but one book of illustrations and that is the Bible.  But I believe it is more than enough to meet every need.  Hebrews 4:12 says,  that “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”   There is a power in the word that will never be matched by man’s words.  Songs are great, prayer is necessary, testimonies are important at times, but the word of God is powerful to the point of being able to pierce and convict man’s heart.

Jesus is saying that the word of God is the chosen seed by which man comes to be saved.  Paul writing to Timothy said, “from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”  Did you get that?  The Word of God is able to give the wisdom that leads to salvation.  And Paul said that was because “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.”  Our job is to spread the word of God, to sow it into the hearts of our friends and neighbors and families that they might be saved.  Nothing else will get the job done.

Now the explanation that Jesus gives can obviously be broken down into four points, or four types of soil.  Jesus makes it clear that the soil is a metaphor for the human heart.  The Word of God is the seed, and the soil is the human heart.  And there are four types of hearts illustrated by Jesus, and four responses to the Word.

The first one is the indifferent heart.  It’s a hard heart. Jesus says it is like the soil near the edges of the field which were well trodden paths, or roads.  This is soil that is hard.  It has not been broken up.  This is someone that isn’t broken over their sinfulness.  They haven’t come in broken repentance to seek after righteousness.  For whatever reason, they are indifferent to the word of God.

Listen, the key to spiritual birth or spiritual growth, either one, is brokenness.  David said in  Psalm  51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”  I don’t care how mature you may think you are in your Christianity, you should never get past the point of being broken before God, humbling yourself and realizing that you need to be remade, that you can do nothing without Christ working through you.

Another thing that Jesus says about this hard soil is that it was trampled underfoot and the birds of the air come and eat up the seed. Jesus said in another place that salt, which at that time was so valuable that it was often used as money was thrown out and trampled under foot when it lost it’s saltiness.  So trampled underfoot means that they did not think it was valuable.  They failed to see the word of God as important and so it was trampled underfoot.  And then Jesus explained that the birds of the air represented Satan and his demons, who come and snatch away the word, lest it start to take root and they become saved.  Once again, Jesus emphasizes that the word is the means of being saved.  And so Satan has since the beginning, way back in the Garden of Eden, been at war against the word of God.  He is working even in the church, even right now, to distract, to confuse, to deceive people into thinking that the word of God is not that important.  Church services today seem to have an emphasis on entertainment, while the word of God is rarely actually preached.   But Jesus says that it is essential to salvation.

Don’t be deceived, the devil is alive and well in the church today, stealing the word of God from it’s place of authority and supremacy.  There is another parable Jesus gave in Matthew 13 where he likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a mustard seed which grew into this great big tree in the garden.  But mustard seeds usually produce a big bush, not a tree, and certainly not a large tree.  And He said that the birds of the air come and nest in it’s branches.  Any guesses what the birds of the air signifies? The answer is right here in Luke.  The birds of the air are Satan and his angels, and they have taken up residence, they are nesting in the church.

There is a phenomenon today in some churches that claim that angel feathers fall down from the rafters during the services. And they say that this is a sign of the power of the Holy Spirit being there.  There is nothing like that recorded in Scripture.  And so I can assure you that it’s not of God either. Experience is not the acid test for the power of God.  Everything is to be tested against the word of God. The Bible tells us we are to test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because there are many spirits in the world.   Maybe Satan and his angels are in the rafters, but it certainly isn’t of the Lord.  These churches give credence to these type of things because they want to give credence to the word of man, not the word of God.  They want to tell you what they think rather than what God thinks.

The second soil or the second heart Jesus illustrated is described as rocky soil, vs. 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.”  This is the superficial heart.  It’s a heart that is impulsive.  They have not counted the cost of following Jesus.

I find it interesting that Jesus characterizes their flash in the pan profession as being with joy.  Joy is a great part of our salvation experience.  But it is not the only part, nor even the most essential part. Contrary to a lot of false teaching out there today, Jesus didn’t die on the cross just to make us happy. Jesus said, “blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  There is a godly sorrow that is necessary in coming to God in repentance.  Being sick of your sin and wanting to be forgiven of it, willing to do anything to escape that condemnation.

Furthermore, he says these people have no firm root.  What does that mean?  It means that they happily believe everything, but have no foundation for anything.  They have a theology that is a mile wide and an inch thick.  They haven’t become rooted and grounded in the word.  The seed fell on rocky soil which didn’t hold water.  They had a faith that didn’t hold water.  When times got tough, their faith failed because it wasn’t founded on the promises of God.  It was founded on a bunch of malarkey that some television evangelist promised.  You need to make sure that your faith is not founded on some word of faith, but faith in God’s word, which is the true foundation of our faith. These rocky soil hearts withered away when the heat turned up in their lives.  They had no root.  And their faith didn’t hold water.

The third category is that heart or soil that becomes choked by thorns.  Jesus says in vs. 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.”

I think this heart is the one that is most often found in the church.  They have heard the word, they may even have sincerely made a profession of faith, but as time goes on the flame flickers low and the world’s cares creeps in until they are consumed by just living their lives.  Jesus describes three cares of this world that choke out fruitfulness.  Worries, riches and pleasures.  None of those things are sins in and of themselves.  But Hebrews 12:1 tells us that they can have a sinful effect. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”  These cares of the world can become a weight that slow us down.  They can impede our progress to the point that we cannot run the race as God intended us.

You know, in my life I found that God needed to strip me of a lot of what I considered essential in order to use me as He wanted to use me.  I had a lot of weights weighing me down.  I had some bad habits that were holding me back.  I had mortgages and second mortgages.  I had bills upon bills, obligations and commitments, all kinds of responsibilities that I thought were what life was all about.   But God in his infinite wisdom knew that if He were to use me He was going to have to remake me.  And He started that process by taking everything that I thought was important away from me.  And when I was broken and broke and totally dependent upon him for everything, then He began to build me back up by building me up first of all verse by verse in the word.  And then He showed me that I could live pretty comfortably far beneath the financial level of what is considered normal.  But you know what, I have noticed that you don’t see many overweight runners.  The best runners are lean.  And that is what I am.  I am running a race for God, and I need to lay aside all weights and sins which so easily beset me.

What are your top concerns or cares right now?  Are you overly concerned about riches?  Are you chasing the almighty dollar? Are you trying to juggle all the financial requirements that the world has told you that you just have to have to succeed.  How about pleasure?  We all love pleasure.  Our society is consumed with pleasure.  And there is nothing wrong with enjoying what God has provided for us.  But when we become overly consumed with chasing waves, or little white balls around a golf course, or travelling or whatever pleasure you may have, then it is choking out the spiritual life which Christ  has for you.  We have forgotten that verse which says, we are not our own, we are bought with a price. We need to ask ourselves what we are chasing after, what we are working for?  Are we working for the weekend, or are we working for the kingdom?

The final type of heart is represented by the good soil.  Vs. 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.”  The  word perseverance is the Greek word hypomonē.  It means to patiently bear up under adversity. It’s the same word James uses when he says, in James 1:3, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”  Trials and tribulations will come to the Christian as well as the non Christian.  Maybe even more for the Christian during times of tribulation.  But we are to hold fast to the word of God.  The idea is making a ship fast by it’s lines to the anchor or the shore.  Our faith is not in our faith, in other words, our faith is not in wishful thinking, but holding fast to the written promises of God’s word.

How does one get an honest and good heart?  We go back to what David said in the Psalms, we start  with a broken and contrite heart, a heart that repents of their sins and hungers and thirsts for the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  When David sinned with Bathsheba and later was convicted he called out to God to “create in me a clean heart, O Lord.  Restore a right spirit within me.”  That’s the only way to have a good, honest heart, it is through a supernatural transformation by the Holy Spirit within us as we call upon the Lord in repentance and faith to give us a new heart.

God said to Samuel when He sent him to find David to be king of Israel, that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.  I can’t see your heart this morning.  I see only your fruit, or lack of it.  God looks at the heart, and He knows those who are His.

A lot of preachers who preach this parable try to ascertain which hearts are saved and which are not in this parable.  It’s obvious that the first heart isn’t saved, because Jesus says they are not.  But after that, it’s hard to say.  I don’t try to make that determination.  Jesus said in another place that the enemy has sown tares in with the wheat and you can’t tell the difference between them at first.  Only at the harvest time is it evident by their fruit which is wheat and which is tares. So you will be judged by your fruit.  Jesus said in Matthew 7 that by their fruits you shall know them.

I can tell you this.  That all of us can have our fruitfulness choked by the cares of the world.  All of us can find ourselves in a barren place where our hearts are not being watered by the word of God and fellowship.  There is only one place where God wants us to be, and that is the place of the good and honest heart, that holds on fast to the word of God, that anchors our lives around the teaching of the word, and that produces fruit in it’s proper time.  God wants to use us for His glory and for building up the kingdom of heaven.  I trust that you will be found faithful when He comes.