Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's get our. Our Bible. And we are going to start in the book of Luke today. Luke chapter eight is where we're going to be.
[00:00:11] Luke chapter eight, Luke chapter eight.
[00:00:30] So just as a review, last week we started a small kind of sub series on in our school of evangelism. We're looking at the analogy, one of the analogies concerning evangelism that's seen in Scripture. And that analogy is the harvest or cultivation, as you might say it.
[00:00:52] So we looked at that in Matthew chapter nine, which Brother Ari and Amy quoted.
[00:00:59] And that's where the Lord sets forth the analogy of the harvest as a picture of the harvest of men, that is, of that process whereby someone comes to know the Lord Jesus and comes to faith in Him. And so we looked at Matthew chapter nine, and I guess the biggest thing that I wanted to take away from that fact is because this harvest or this cultivation is referred to as his harvest. That just takes the burden of this whole matter off of our shoulders. Now, we have a role and we have a responsibility, but our responsibility is not the harvest.
[00:01:43] That's his responsibility. We have a responsibility, and we need to focus like a laser on that part of our responsibility. So with that burden lifted, that success or failure of the harvest is not our business.
[00:01:56] Ultimately, it's not our business. In fact, if the Lord Himself was not actively involved in this cultivation of the souls of men, there would be no fruit ever. So he is actively involved. He takes responsibility.
[00:02:11] And so we can just breathe easy, breathe easy. All we need to do is what he tells us to do. And that. Listen, that's. For many of us, that's hard enough, right? It's hard enough to make sure we're doing what the Lord wants us to do on a daily basis as it regards this idea of harvest. All right. The second thing I wanted to take away from this from last week is. Is the need for what does anybody remember?
[00:02:42] Laborers. The need for laborers. That is, the chief hang up. That is the primary hang up in this problem of cultivation. Because if you do not have somebody to work the field, you can forget about fruit. You can forget about fruit. Laborers are necessary. Well, you say, why don't just the Lord send His angels out to do it? Or why does he use another means? We have no idea why the Lord chose to use human laborers to get the gospel to people and for people to believe by means of the human, you know, human laborers and people giving the gospel to others. I don't understand that, but that's what he has chosen to do. And he has called us the laborers, and he has given us jobs to do. He's given us work to do.
[00:03:29] And we must, if we're going to be faithful to our duty, we must answer that call. Now, here's the thing. As. Just as a reminder, as a laborer, what you and I do, specifically, what job we perform in that harvest, in that cultivation, is up to the Lord. Not everyone can be everywhere at once, and not everyone can be doing the same job. Some people plow, some people sow, some people water, some people reap. And there's other jobs that you could. If we meditated and brainstormed, we could probably think of other jobs that would fit the analogy. But the point is, the Lord is the one who determines who does what.
[00:04:09] We just need to make sure, number one, we are involved as a laborer. And number two, we're faithful to that. To that specific task that he's given us to do. Right? That's. That's where our responsibility comes. The fruit is his responsibility from start to finish. Our job is to work. And you know what?
[00:04:32] Here's the thing. What we have to understand about our service to God, right? This is service we talked about in the men's prayer breakfast last night. Yesterday, rather, is the idea of service is activity. It's work. It's a task. It's a job. We're not talking about so much worship as a matter of our heart, but as a matter of our hands. That's what service is, right? Whether we're serving one another, serving the Lord, however, we might serve. But service brings with it a great deal of fulfillment and joy. In fact, that's actually recorded in Scripture. We might get to it today, we might not. But that you. If. Here's the thing. As a believer who has been given a duty, as a believer who has been given a duty of. To labor in God's harvest, if you and I, if we do not fulfill that, we will be unfulfilled. We will sense unfulfillment in ourselves. But if we labor and we give ourselves and give our time and energies to that, we. We will walk away fulfilled. Listen, I know we all have. You know, we got to work, right? We got to pay our bills. But how many of you would say that you get a great deal of fulfillment from your job? Brother Joseph, do you get fulfillment? No. No, there's no fulfillment in that. There's no sense of eternal accomplishment. You know, I can go to God. Yes, you can go to God and say, lord, I was faithful to provide for My family. And that. That's good. But that's ultimately, that's just a temporal thing that is necessary, right? So that we can give ourselves to eternal things. And listen, this is not preacher talk. This is not preacher talk. This is Christian talk. This is for every believer, right?
[00:06:21] And so this is where, in serving the Lord, giving your time and energy to him as a laborer, in this case. But there are other ways to serve a course. By doing that, that's where you get fulfillment. And you lay your head down at night and say, I have done something of eternal value that the Lord is pleased with. And that testimony and echo of your own conscience is a great deal of fulfillment in your life. It is. It is.
[00:06:55] You think about all the problems that we have today in society.
[00:07:02] So much depression. I know there are physiological problems that cause depression, all those kinds of things. But so much of the issues, mentally and emotionally, I think, come from people not having something to do, right? Not something to. They have nothing to fulfill themselves, to occupy themselves usefully. And that's earthly things. But as a believer, as we think of eternal things and spiritual things, that's what we should be occupying ourselves. And that's where the fulfillment comes. What does the Lord say? He says, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Right.
[00:07:42] What's the servant? That's a person who serves, right? That means you occupy yourself. You see, the praise from the Lord comes from one who faith faithfully serves, not worships, although that's important, obviously, but who serves. And so that's what we're talking about here, a laborer. And this idea of laborer in God's harvest is one way, one aspect of service that we can perform in the Lord's work. All right, so let's move on to Luke, chapter number eight, verse number five. The Bible says verse four for context. And when much people were gathered together and were come to him out of every city, and he spake by a parable, verse 5. A sower went forth, went out rather to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down. And fowls of the air devoured it.
[00:08:42] And some fell upon a rock. And as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.
[00:08:48] And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. And other fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit an hundredfold.
[00:08:59] And when he had said these things, he cried, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
[00:09:04] And his disciples asked him Saying, what might this parable be? And he said unto you, it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand.
[00:09:20] Now the parable is the seed is the word of God.
[00:09:25] Those by the wayside are they that hear, then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
[00:09:35] They on the rock are they which when they hear, receive the word with joy. And these have no root which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.
[00:09:46] And that which fell among thorns are they which when they have heard, go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
[00:10:00] But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. All right, let's pray.
[00:10:11] Our Lord, thank you for the chance once again to study the Scriptures. Lord, please, you know the needs of each person here, Lord. You know the things that you want to tell them. And I pray that you would be our teacher and that you would help your people to understand the Scriptures. These are your words, Lord. We also pray for those that are downstairs, the different classes downstairs. Please bless those teachers and the kids as they listen. And I pray that you would bring forth fruit in their lives in time to come as well. So Lord, help me to say what your people need to hear. Guide me and guide your people as they listen in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:10:52] So what I want to look at this morning on this analogy in regards to Luke chapter eight is this. I want you to see and pay attention to the ground, okay? The ground. Luke chapter eight is one of the Besides Matthew, chapter Matthew, chapter nine, Luke chapter eight is one of the kind of go to places to see this analogy of the harvest, right? But rather than looking at the harvest, we see the entire process from start to finish in Luke chapter eight.
[00:11:25] But what I want to pay attention to is the ground. Because in each of the four cases the Lord gives which is the wayside, which is by the road, okay?
[00:11:38] The rock, the thorns, and the good ground. So you have four cases, and the Lord interprets it in verses 10 through 15.
[00:11:47] But I want to pay attention to the condition of the ground. And when we say ground in this case, these four instances are not referring to the dirt itself so much, but to the entirety of the circumstance in which the seed is sown.
[00:12:04] You understand what I'm saying? But pay attention to verse 8 and verse number 15. Notice verse number 8 and other fell on. What does it say?
[00:12:14] Good ground.
[00:12:16] Okay, look at verse number 15. This is the interpretation of that verse. But in an. But let me pause. Get my words. Okay, verse 15. But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it. You see that? So the ground, or we might say the ground and the circumstances, refers to the heart of the person receiving the seed. And what is the seed?
[00:12:51] Prove it.
[00:12:55] What's that? Verse 11. Very good, very good. So the ground refers to the heart of the person According to verse 15 and the circumstances surrounding their reception of the seed. Okay, now here's what I want to ask you a question. So imagine you're a sower. We'll talk about the sower later. But. But imagine you have a pouch, right? Because you have to carry the seed. Seed is heavy, right? When you have seed that you're. And again, this is not like you might plant in your garden where you take a corn kernel or several corn kernels and you dig a hole and you put it in there and then you cover it up. This is not that. That's not planting that we're looking at here, although that's a thing, and that's useful. But what we're talking about here is, we're talking about wheat or barley, something like that. A grain. And what they do. And like when I was in Michigan, Cambodia, with rice, which is a similar grain, just dig their hand into a bag of seed and just scatter it. That's what they would do, just scatter it randomly, right?
[00:13:59] Let me ask you a question.
[00:14:01] Now imagine that in your mind. So you're just. You're just walking in the general vicinity of the field. You're in the field, you're walking between the fields, and you're just scattering the seed, right? So that's what you're doing, right? Let me ask you a question. Are you, as the sower, responsible for the ground upon which you're sowing?
[00:14:25] No, you're sowing it everywhere. In fact, you see the four. The four instances, right? He's sowing by the wayside. So you can picture him walking, you know, in fields they have. Usually between fields, they have dividers where they have a path, right? And that path is not going to be a place where you cultivate, but yet seed falls there nevertheless, right? It falls everywhere. You scatter it. And some gets on the path and some gets beside the path, and then there's thorns, and some of it falls on the thorns. And some of the ground has rocks in it, you know, and all those things. And he's not responsible for any of that. His job is to sow.
[00:15:03] His job is to sow.
[00:15:06] So the condition of the ground, remember, the ground is the ground. And surrounding circumstances refers to the heart. Verse 15 of the recipient, that's not his business.
[00:15:17] What are you going to do?
[00:15:20] What power do you and I have as people who share God's word, which is what we're talking about, what power do we have to change or affect the heart of a person? We have no power over the ground. We have none.
[00:15:38] Even what power we might think we have is not from us, but from God's word. That's it. But we're talking about the ground. Before the seed even gets there, before the sower even arrives at the field. The ground is what it is. Does everybody follow me?
[00:15:58] So the condition of the ground, the condition of the. Of a man or a woman's heart has already been established before you meet them and offer them the word of God. You don't control that. Like yesterday when we talked to various people, when we knocked on their door, you know, we just like, literally, like we just appeared from a different planet to knock on their door. We had no power whatsoever over what's behind that door and what's been going on in that person's life. Life. And what has brought them and their hearts condition to the point that it was yesterday? No power. Right?
[00:16:33] Our job is to sow.
[00:16:36] Our job is to sow.
[00:16:40] Many circumstances determine the heart, the heart condition prior to the arrival of the sower. But here's what I want you to see. The preparation of the ground is God's business.
[00:16:55] The preparation of the ground is God's business. Now here's what. Remember, before any seed, before the first seed has landed, remember, the seed is the word of God. That's when we tell someone what God says, okay? Before that ever. That first seed ever hits the ground, the Lord's already been working that ground behind the scenes.
[00:17:22] He's been working because as we see here, the good ground is the one that bears fruit, right?
[00:17:30] Do we understand? That's what the Lord wants?
[00:17:33] The Lord wants good. He wants fruit to be born. He wants there to be good ground that's profitable. And so the Lord is working behind the scenes, working the ground.
[00:17:45] Now take a peek at Jeremiah chapter four, if you would.
[00:17:52] I just want to point out one thing that you all have heard before, I'm sure, but I want to kind of draw your attention to it so that we can see how it relates to our study here. Jeremiah 4, verse 3.
[00:18:13] Jeremiah 4, verse 3.
[00:18:17] For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem.
[00:18:24] Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. That sounds familiar, doesn't it?
[00:18:34] How many of you have ever done. Have had a garden?
[00:18:37] How many of you have ever let your garden go and maybe not done anything with it for a while? Or even you've let it go over the winter, and it gets to be spring, the rain, and it dries, and it rains, and it dries, and it rains, and it dries. What happens to it becomes hard, and so it needs to be broken up. Uncultivated land is called fallow ground.
[00:18:59] Fallow ground, uncultivated land. Land that has not been turned, Land that has not been worked, that hasn't been touched. We might say the natural state of the land is not fit for seed.
[00:19:12] It will not naturally bring forth fruit. In other words, if the Lord did not work in people's hearts, if he wasn't doing things behind the scenes, forget it.
[00:19:23] If he wasn't preparing hearts, forget it. So the Lord says, break up your fallow ground. In other words, take that hard ground. And as you get your rotary tiller right, what does it do? It turns that over and it exposes that, and it loosens the dirt so the seed can get to it, so the oxygen can get to it and so the water can get to it. Right? That's the idea.
[00:19:45] It can't be hard. Break it up. Break it up.
[00:19:51] This is what the Lord is doing behind the scenes. Before the seed ever gets there. We have no idea what he's doing. You know, before you got saved, before you were at a place where you were willing to receive the word of God, the Lord was working in your life. Even at this point, even as a believer, if you're already saved, you might look at that and you might not even be able to perceive the way he was preparing your heart. But he was.
[00:20:18] He was, because. How do you know? Because now you're bearing fruit, which meant the ground was good in some way, fashion, or form.
[00:20:26] That's not natural. Natural is what? Fallow. Uncultivated, hard, useless, unfruitful. But what the Lord did is he took his rotary tiller or his plow, and he plowed our life to turn that. Prepare our heart.
[00:20:44] Sometimes the Lord does this through circumstances.
[00:20:49] Sometimes he does it through hardship or through loss.
[00:20:55] Sometimes he does it through crises. In fact, take a peek at Ecclesiastes chapter 7, Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 14.
[00:21:28] One of these mysterious verses in Ecclesiastes. Right. Ecclesiastes 7 to verse number 14. Look what it says.
[00:21:37] In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity. Consider now note the subject in verse 14. What does it say? God.
[00:21:52] God also hath set the one prosperity over against the other adversity to the end that man should find nothing after him.
[00:22:08] What is the Lord doing in this mysterious work that he does? You know what he's doing? He is working out circumstances to teach people things, right? He's using good and bad and setting the good and the bad, the prosperity and the adversity over against. That is, in contrast, one happens and then another, and then one and then another. And that's kind of the way it works in our lives. You know, even as a believer, that's the way it works. But the point is he has an end in mind. He has a lesson that he's trying to teach us. He's trying to teach man.
[00:22:44] And that lesson Here is verse 14 says that man should find nothing after him. In other words, he's trying to see the vanity of it all, to try and try to get his eyes to see kind of the. Kind of close the world in on him so that he'll think in terms of eternal things, which is what the end of Ecclesiastes says, right? Fear God, keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, for God shall bring every work into judgment, right?
[00:23:10] So yesterday when we were knocking on. Knocking on doors and trying to share the gospel with people, Henry opened the door. And Henry was. He's 17 years old, same age I was when I got saved. And he had a lot of thoughts about spiritual things. You know, he didn't necessarily believe the Bible. He had a religious upbringing, but as far as no relationship to the gospel at all.
[00:23:39] And one thing I was trying to share with him is this very truth is that in other words, what is the end of all of this? Because he was kind of philosophical and that kind of thing. So what is the end of all of this? And I shared with him the last few verses of Ecclesiastes. What is the end of it all?
[00:24:01] And the problem is, being so young, he had not really experienced a great deal of adversity to kind of. Or a crisis. And I explained that to him. I explained that, listen, as you get older, things happen in your life over which you have no control, and they're very hard.
[00:24:19] And you look at Those people, as a 17 year old, you look at those people and you think, well, they believe in Christ, they have religion or however he might term it, because it's a crutch. You know, they had something really hard in their life and so they turned to God because they felt like they needed God at that time, right? He's like, that's fine. That's what he said. He said, that's fine and good. I'm happy for them.
[00:24:40] But he had not yet experienced any of that.
[00:24:43] The ground was still fallow.
[00:24:46] Nothing had plowed the ground of his heart to make him see. And what I told him is, I said, I say things are, things will happen in your life that you don't have any power over that will overturn what you thought about yourself and your own morality and what you thought about how good you were and how much control you thought you had over your life. The Lord will just totally overturn that to the end that you might see there's nothing after this. In other words, that you might be awakened and open to God's word at a later time.
[00:25:21] You see what I'm saying?
[00:25:24] But being 17, being so young, he had not experienced life enough to feel it.
[00:25:30] It is true many people become open to the gospel, whereas before they weren't. They become open because of very unfortunate experiences that happen in their life. You know why? It's not because they need a crutch. It's because they finally realized what was true the whole time, that they were weak and sinful and corrupt and broken and had no power over anything.
[00:25:55] And the Lord had to convince them of this. And you know how he does it? He plows their heart.
[00:26:02] He plows their heart. So we might say it like this. And there are other ways that the Lord might prepare the fallow ground to make it ready for cultivation. He might use the testimony, we might say the passive testimony of a believer, right?
[00:26:18] Kind of a distant family member or whatever. He might use a passive testimony to make that person, something is different about them.
[00:26:27] And what, here's what I just want to say. This, this plowing thing is, first of all, it's God's business. And we, we don't really, we don't really know how he does it, but he does do it.
[00:26:38] He does do it. You know, coming up in a Christian home is often, I mean, a consistent, I'm talking about a real, the real thing coming up in a Christian home is one way that God really plows the heart of people using his law is one way the Lord plows the heart of people. That's a good thing. It makes the heart receptive, right? So we might say it like this. Whatever it is that influences a person, that softens the heart and prepares it to be more receptive to the word of God, we might refer to as plowing, right?
[00:27:18] Now, here's what I'll tell you.
[00:27:22] I know the Lord works behind the scenes. Maybe you think of the heavenly things like the weather, things outside of man's control to change the ground and make it ready. But if you actually take a rotary tiller or you take a plow. How many of you have ever run a plow behind an animal?
[00:27:40] Two people in our congregation. I have never done that. It doesn't sound like something I'd like to try, but somebody's got to do it, right? If the ground's going to be plowed, there has to be a plow or a plowman. Right? A plowman.
[00:27:57] Let me ask you something. When you.
[00:28:01] When you were plowing, Wayne, is that a glorious. Is that a glorifying job? Is that a job of notoriety?
[00:28:11] No.
[00:28:13] You're not even sowing the seed. You ain't even anywhere near seed, right? It's just hard work, right? Plowing is no fun. When you meet people whose hearts are fallow, ground and hard and unread, not really ready for cultivation. And we have the part of plowing that's hard work. It's discouraging because people's hearts are hard and that hurts you.
[00:28:37] They're unreceptive, right? That's just. Plowing is discouraging work. It's one of the more difficult jobs when it comes to cultivation.
[00:28:48] It's no fun like harvesting. Harvesting is fun. That's why you do all this work, to get to the harvest. Plowing is not that it's at the beginning.
[00:29:00] There's no glory in plowing. It's early in the process. It's labor that is the least encouraging. And you know what? The harvest is still a long ways away. That's discouraging.
[00:29:13] Plowing can be very discouraging because there's little to show for the work.
[00:29:18] So therefore, we plow by faith, right? You know, First Corinthians. First Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 10 says this.
[00:29:30] That plowing is done. He that ploweth should plow in hope, faith in the future, right? So even as we try to. Even as we try to talk to people whose hearts are hard and they are closed up and they don't want to hear it, even as we try to Plead with them, and we try to talk to them. A family member, a friend, coworker, whatever.
[00:29:49] It's not wasted.
[00:29:52] We do it in hope.
[00:29:54] We do it in hope that maybe the Lord would use something we say to soften their heart to the gospel. Later, maybe we give that. We try to maintain a solid Christian testimony, first of all, for the Lord, but secondly, salt and light for those around us. We try to do that in hope.
[00:30:14] It's a matter of faith.
[00:30:16] We should never be like, well, listen, when we meet someone whose heart is hardened and like, we met so many yesterday. We were in Northwood Hills. Does anybody live in Northwood Hills? Okay, so I can be me.
[00:30:28] No, we were in Northwood Hills and there were a lot of unfriendly people. And it's just an average neighborhood. It's not fancy or anything.
[00:30:37] Would you agree with that? It was pretty unfriendly, generally speaking.
[00:30:42] But, you know, just because someone is hardened and rejects what you say and rejects your attempts to share the truth with them, that is not a final rejection.
[00:30:55] You have no idea what the Lord might do in that person's life to plow their heart up.
[00:31:01] We should never just dismiss someone until they breathe their last.
[00:31:07] Because you and I, we don't know what the Lord is doing behind closed doors. And we can pray to that end and say, lord, will you get out your rotary tiller and will you do something in this person's heart? Will you break up this ground? Don't leave them alone. I pray that y'all. Pray that. Don't leave them alone. Don't give them peace. Don't give them rest.
[00:31:27] Change their heart. That's what we're asking, right? Change their heart.
[00:31:32] Yes, ma'am.
[00:31:58] That's a real life example of what we're seeing here. That's breaking up the ground. You know, yesterday.
[00:32:04] You know, yesterday we were out. When we were out in Northwood Hills, Sam and Isaiah and I think Anna and Mary Abby were kind of. They were in two pair there. And so Sam walked up to a door and the man came to the door. But just basically shooed you off, right? Or something. And then as they were leaving.
[00:32:28] Tell the story what happened.
[00:32:30] Yeah, we went to the door and there's a dog. Came door from the inside. And no one looked like they were calm. So we left the door hanger. Isaiah and I started walking down the driveway. And then apparently the lady inside opened the door.
[00:32:50] So they knew that they were at the door, ignored them. They left a door hanger. And as they were leaving, apparently Sam thinks because of their interaction that she intentionally opened the door to let the dogs out to chase them. Now, we might. And Sam handled it right. And Anna was thoroughly impressed. And he protected Isaiah. And I appreciate that. But we might tend to look at the person behind that door and say, someone who's hard, someone who's antagonistic. We might tend to look at them and say, well, just. They can just go to hell. Then not only is that wicked and totally contrary to the heart of God, but the Lord who says, the Lord is done talking to that person. It might be that very interaction that is a pang of guilt on their conscience.
[00:33:54] I have no idea. We leave it to the Lord. You see what I'm saying?
[00:34:06] Look at one other verse, if you would. John, chapter four.
[00:34:13] And we'll finish here for today. John, chapter four, verse number.
[00:34:34] Verse number 38.
[00:34:43] Jesus says again, we'll probably look at this passage later in its entirety. I just want to point out one verse. Jesus says to his disciples, I sent you to reap. Remember, reaping is at the end of the har. At the end of the cultivation season, right? I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor. Other men notice this. Other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors. One of those other laborers is a plowman, right?
[00:35:16] So a reaper comes much later, and he reaps the fruit. And he's glad of it. But the only reason he can reap is because someone was doing the hard work, the work without glory and without praise.
[00:35:29] The plowman was doing his work.
[00:35:32] That's why the reaper can do his work, right? But notice they rejoice it. Rejoice. They labor together. Their labor is one labor.
[00:35:47] So here's what I want you to take away from this is plowing alone. You think of trying to be good testimony. You think of trying to be kind. And those kinds of things that are related to that aren't maybe the direct giving of God's word to people, right?
[00:36:04] That is not enough. It's important, but it's not enough to bring forth fruit. You have to have seed, which is the word of God that has to be there. So if you plow the ground like Wayne did, you plow the field, and then you walk away and there's no seed sown, then it's pretty much useless.
[00:36:23] Pretty much useless. The seed is necessary. The plowing is the preparatory part.
[00:36:32] But it's encouraging to the plowman to know that the reward will be the same as the one who harvests, because they labored together. And one could not do what they do without the other. You see what I'm saying? They labor together. Let's pray together.
