566. Gospel of Luke - Chapter 8 (#2) - The Seed that Falls on Good Soil will Bear Fruit - June 3, 2024

[00:00:06] and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:21] I'm prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today.

[00:00:26] Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them.

[00:00:33] In addition, I pray that everyone listening would have favor with both God and man.

[00:00:39] I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. This is Proverbs 3 beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:47] My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.

[00:01:00] Let not mercy and truth forsake you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.

[00:01:15] Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lead not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

[00:01:27] Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

[00:01:38] Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.

[00:01:53] My son, do not despise the chasening of the Lord nor detest His correction. For whom the Lord loves He corrects just as a father, the son in whom He delights.

[00:02:08] Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the prophets of silver and her gain than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot compare with her.

[00:02:31] Length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand, riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her and happy are all who retain her.

[00:02:51] The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, by understanding He established the heavens, by His knowledge the depths were broken up and clouds dropped down the dew.

[00:03:06] My son, let them not depart from your eyes, keep sound wisdom and discretion so they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck.

[00:03:18] Then you will walk safely in your way and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet.

[00:03:33] Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

[00:03:47] Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your brother, go and come back and tomorrow I will give it when you have it with you.

[00:04:05] Do not devise evil against your neighbor, for he dwells by you for safety's sake. Do not strive with a man without cause if he has done you know harm. Do not envy the oppressor and choose none of his ways.

[00:04:24] For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, but his secret council is with the upright. The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the just.

[00:04:41] Surely he scores the score and full that gives grace to the humble. The wise shall inherit glory, the shame shall be the legacy of fools.

[00:04:54] Friends today I'd like to take a closer look at verses 7 through 10 and prophet 3 verses 7 through 10 tell us this. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and apart from evil, it will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

[00:05:21] Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase. So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.

[00:05:36] Friends we will take a closer look at those four verses prior to closing today, but what I'd like to do is begin the week continuing on our study on the gospel according to Luke.

[00:05:51] And on Thursday's podcast we began chapter 8 and we went over the parable of the sober. So what I'd like to do is begin the week by explaining the parable of the sober. So we are in chapter 8 of Luke beginning in verse 11. Now the parable is this the seed is the word of God.

[00:06:19] So friends my very first point today is the seed is the word of God and I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible and what I'm going to do today is go over quite a bit of commentary from this chapter.

[00:06:39] Because this is a very important parable and there's many lessons in life that we can learn from these few verses.

[00:06:49] When it talks about the word of God, the parable in Luke's gospel and Matthew's gospel of this account talks about the word of the kingdom, a point that Luke makes in verse 10.

[00:07:07] The soyels do not represent individual moments of decision as much as a life long response to God's word.

[00:07:18] And I'm going to camp here for just a minute because many people when they first become a Christian and repeat that sinner's prayer, many of these people have never been in the Word of God before.

[00:07:34] They don't know anything about the Bible and friends if you've never read the Bible in your life and are not used to listening to it.

[00:07:44] It takes a while for it to really begin to bear fruit in your life and we're going to find that out in this parable.

[00:07:54] Let's go to verse 12.

[00:07:58] Those by the wayside are the ones who hear the word.

[00:08:04] Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, less they should believe and be saved.

[00:08:13] But the ones on the rock are those who when they hear receive the word with joy and these have no root who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.

[00:08:34] So friends by second point today is the seed that falls on rock doesn't have any root.

[00:08:43] Now let's dig in to this commentary, first of all in verse 12.

[00:08:49] Because those by the wayside never really gain an understanding of the Word of God before Satan snatches it away.

[00:09:02] There is really no productivity at all and friends this is especially a time when new Christians can be vulnerable because if they are not aware of the Word of God,

[00:09:16] if they're not used to listening to it and the power that comes with the knowledge that one acquires once you begin to understand Scripture,

[00:09:27] Satan is going to come in and eat your lunch. He's going to come in and tell you you don't need to understand this stuff.

[00:09:36] You don't want any of this stuff and he's going to do all he can initially to make sure that the Word of God doesn't take root in your heart.

[00:09:48] And that is what is happening in this particular verse.

[00:09:53] Now let's go to verse 13, believe for a while and then fall away.

[00:10:00] Breathe and superficial encounters with the Word of God will not stand times of testing.

[00:10:10] A person needs to meditate on the truths in Scripture and establish them as principles for living in order to withstand the trials and temptations that will inevitably come.

[00:10:30] And friends that is so key to understand.

[00:10:34] If you're not used to listening to Scripture and if you hear it initially, you're going to be excited.

[00:10:42] You're going to be very glad you're going to like the way that those words sound and you're going to embrace them fully.

[00:10:50] But then a day or two later the realities of life and the things that come through regular life begin to take hold of you and the Scripture begins to fade away.

[00:11:08] Let's go to verse 14, now the ones that fell among thorns are those who when they have heard go out and are choked.

[00:11:20] With cares, riches and pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity.

[00:11:29] But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who having heard the word with a noble and good heart keep it and bear fruit with patience.

[00:11:45] So friends, my third point today is the seed that falls on good ground will bear fruit.

[00:11:55] And I'm going to put in parentheses after this with patience.

[00:12:02] So what I'd like to do is go over the commentary for verse 14 first.

[00:12:08] According to this parable, the cares, riches and pleasures of life are three great obstacles to spiritual fruitfulness.

[00:12:21] The concerns of life can squelch spiritual growth.

[00:12:27] This type of soil is viewed as tragically unsuccessful and the main gist of that particular verse is the things and the cares of this world will basically emotionally strip the good news of the gospel.

[00:12:50] From you and you hear the word you're excited about it.

[00:12:55] You want to embrace it in your heart, but then reality hits and eventually the words that you had on your heart begin to just simply melt away and they just basically go away.

[00:13:12] And that is what is happening here.

[00:13:14] But I really want to get in to verse 15.

[00:13:18] This is the good ground.

[00:13:20] This is when you keep the word inside your heart and you don't allow Satan to take it away from you and you bear fruit.

[00:13:32] This is the one praiseworthy group in the parable.

[00:13:39] The key here is a noble and good heart.

[00:13:44] That is key.

[00:13:46] This soil allows the word of God the saidly in and become productive in your life.

[00:13:56] Now what I'd like to do is go to the second book of Timothy.

[00:14:02] Chapter 2, the second book.

[00:14:05] Let's go and read verses 3 through 6.

[00:14:09] Now listen to this.

[00:14:11] You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

[00:14:19] No one engaged in warfare in tangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him

[00:14:31] as a soldier.

[00:14:33] And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

[00:14:44] The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops.

[00:14:50] And what I'd like to do is go over the commentary for these verses.

[00:14:55] This is very, very important.

[00:14:57] Three illustrations are given for faithfulness.

[00:15:02] The first is a soldier.

[00:15:05] The Christian walk is often presented as spiritual warfare.

[00:15:11] Effective service calls for singleness of purpose.

[00:15:17] The second illustration comes from athletics.

[00:15:22] The Greek games were important and demanded stranyuous training.

[00:15:28] No competitor could be crowned unless he competed in accordance with the rules.

[00:15:36] Here the reference is to a victor's wreath given in an athletic contest.

[00:15:44] Faithful believers will receive a victor's crown.

[00:15:49] Not the royal crown which belongs to Jesus.

[00:15:54] Paul is saying that spiritual activity must be conducted within the directives of biblical faith and doctrine.

[00:16:05] To defect from true doctrine is to lose our reward.

[00:16:12] The third illustration is that of a hardworking farmer.

[00:16:18] Contrary inches, hard labor is necessary before a farmer can enjoy a bound of harvest.

[00:16:27] Lazyness cannot be a character trait of faithful Christians.

[00:16:34] Hopefully that clarifies a bunch of questions that some of you may have.

[00:16:42] Now friends, before we close today I'd like to go back to our proper of the day and we're beginning a new month.

[00:16:49] So we are in proper three today and I want to go over verses seven through ten.

[00:16:55] And it says do not be wise in your own eyes.

[00:17:00] Fear, the Lord, and depart from evil.

[00:17:04] It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

[00:17:09] Now those two verses are very powerful.

[00:17:13] I really would like for those two verses to sink in to your psyche.

[00:17:19] Verse nine, honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase.

[00:17:29] So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.

[00:17:37] Now what I'd like to do is go over the commentary for those four verses.

[00:17:42] And I really want you to key in on what I'm about to say.

[00:17:47] The promises in these verses describe general patterns,

[00:17:54] not rules that have no exceptions.

[00:17:57] These are the results that often follow a full commitment to God.

[00:18:05] The command to honor God with wealth and to give to Him from the first fruits of all income is a part of what it means to worship God.

[00:18:18] In God's covenant with Israel, fullness of barns and vats was God's blessing,

[00:18:26] a part of God's covenant promise.

[00:18:30] Let's now listen to this.

[00:18:32] Yet these verses should not be taken as a formula for getting rich.

[00:18:39] They speak of what righteous people can reasonably expect in life,

[00:18:46] not what God promises to return on investments.

[00:18:52] And friends, the key is that we are to be stewards of everything that God has enabled us to have in our possessions.

[00:19:05] We have a house, we have a car and if you have a house, you have a yard.

[00:19:12] We are to do is take the best care possible of everything that God has placed in our hands.

[00:19:21] That is called stewardship.

[00:19:24] And if you have a vehicle, for example, you do prevent it the maintenance and you change the oil from time to time.

[00:19:33] Same thing, if you have equipment at per yard, like a lawnmower or weed eater,

[00:19:41] things like that from time to time, you need to have them serviced to make sure that they last a long period of time.

[00:19:51] Friends, what I would like my call to action today is to simply ask yourself this question,

[00:19:58] how concerned are you with the cares of this world?

[00:20:04] And how important is the word of God in your life?

[00:20:11] Are you sucked in by the cares of this world?

[00:20:16] Or are you standing on the promises of God described for us in the Bible?

[00:20:25] Friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

[00:20:34] If there is anyone listening today and you have never taken that step, I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today.

[00:20:42] Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior.

[00:20:48] I ask that you forgive me of all of my sins.

[00:20:51] I believe that you are the Son of God and you came to earth and died on a cross and were buried.

[00:20:59] On the third day, I believe you rose from the dead and descended into heaven and now sit at the right hand of God the Father.

[00:21:09] Jesus, I ask that you come into my heart.

[00:21:13] I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life.

[00:21:18] I make you my Lord and Savior.

[00:21:22] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:21:27] The Lord make us face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:21:32] The Lord lift up His countments upon you and give you peace.

[00:21:37] Friends, tomorrow is testimony day.

[00:21:42] Please join me and a special guest as we further explore wisdom today.