Is the Soil Good?

Is the Soil Good?

I'd like to call your attention in God's work for our Scripture reading this morning to Luke chapter 8. Please, Luke chapter 8. When we arrive there in Luke chapter 8, if you will look with me, let's begin the reading in verse number 4.

And when much people were gathered together in there and were come to him out of every city, he's spake by a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed some fell by the wayside and it was trodden down and the fouls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. 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 and hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear and his disciples asked him saying, what might this parable be? And he said, he said, under you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But two others in parables that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear. Then comeeth the devil and takeeth away the word out of their hearts, lest they should be leave and be saved. 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 in time of temptation fall away. 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. 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.

And let's mark our Bibles to this passage of Scripture as our text for this morning. And let's acknowledge the word in a word of prayer.

Our gracious Father, we are so thankful for your love and for your word that you have given to us because you want us to know the truth. You want us to walk in the truth. You want us to speak the truth. You want us to do the truth to obey the truth. Help us in that today Lord, may the word fall in fertile ground. May we in an honest heart. May we may we hear and receive the word with good conscience and and and be truthful before you and even with the Holy Spirit in our in our in our reception of the word that it may bring forth this fruit that we read of here in our lives. We pray these things asking them in Jesus name. Amen.

You know we are we're living in a world bombarded where we are constantly bombarded with news about things we have absolutely no control over. I think we're we're inundated with things that are happening around the globe. Unless you just you know completely get away from any form of media at all. You know and even then I mean if you're just walking down the road, I'm just going to tell you about it. We're inundated with those things and I'm less inundated than I used to be because because I just don't follow the news as much as I used to. But I do follow it some just so I know what's going on in the world and we see that there are some things that are not ours to steward. Yes, we pray for our leaders. We pray for our country and we should be good citizens of this nation. We should be I think about Daniel even in Babylon not his own country. He didn't feel any patriotic pride for Babylon per se but he was still a model citizen if you will in Babylon. A country that wasn't even his own his own home his own nation. But there are some things that if we because we cannot control them, we will just worry about them. If we are not careful we will we will mold them over and over and we'll talk about them with everybody and we'll take up our whole time with all of these things that are not what God meant for us to burden ourselves with or to take thought for these things. The scripture tells us there's a lot of things that we are to take thought for and it tells us some other things that we're not to take thought for like tomorrow or what we're going to wear or what we're going to eat. There's things that we can borrow the worries and yet those are not the worries those are not the things we're to be concerning ourselves with.

Jesus taught with an an ingredient in an ingredient using a query and terminology here because it's what the people understood what he meant when he used these terms he spoke in terminology. But I think there's more to it than the fact just the fact that they understood it. Yes they understood it. But it's also I believe God has ordained has created. He knew from the beginning when he created this world that there were going to be certain laws, causes and effects in this natural realm that we're going to have spiritual parallels that we would then help us to understand spiritual principles that would help us to understand these things. I would be foolish to say that God didn't think ahead about that. He already knew about it. He already knew what things were going to be coming to pass that we were going to need to understand spiritually by using parables like the fig tree. He considered the parable of the figs when it begins to blossom or whatever the passage says there. It's the summer is night and so it is with when you begin to see these things coming to pass, look up for your redemption draw of night. There's so many things like that. I began trying to make a list one time of all the agrarian, not just agrarian, but natural examples that God gives in His word like that to point to spiritual truth. I didn't follow through and finish it all the way. I think I filled it, it's in the back of this Bible. I filled up the entire back of the notes in the back of this Bible like 20 pages with references where there's just examples of it. I didn't even finish. It's just the word of God is oozing with these kinds of things if we can say it that way. I didn't follow it, saturated with it, but we are told here very explicitly in this passage that this summer that went forth to sow was sowing a seed but then we're told in this parable that the seed represents the word of God. The seed is the word we read in verse 11 of God. And the soil, the varying types of soil in which the seed, on which the seed falls, in which the seed is sown represents, well very clearly here, hearts. It says here that immediately in the first one, the wayside speaks of that word which is sown and yet the devil takes away the word out of their hearts. Well, I think we understand that, but I want us to understand this morning, the key of this passage is for us to say what kind of heart do I have? What kind of heart do I have? The natural man is more concerned about the appearance, right? What do people think about me? What do people believe about me? What do they think about me? But the question the Lord wants us to consider is what kind of heart do I have? We just saying the other week is thy heart right with God. Humble and lowly right in the sight of God is, what kind of heart do I have? Is it right in the sight of God? God man looks on the outward appearance, but God look at the pun, the heart. Jesus said he knew what was in man, for he made man, right? He knew what was in the heart of man with the, there's that truth that when Jesus walked among men, the words of Isaiah, and he influenced this, but in the words of Isaiah were very much true in his own day in Isaiah 29. Look there with me in verse 13. This was true in large part of his own people who received him not, received him not how, they had received the love of the truth, that they might be saved. They didn't receive him into their on hearts. His word into their hearts. Even though he spoke the words the father had sent him to speak, yet they refused, yet they rejected the words of life. In Isaiah 29, in verse number 13, it says, it says here in verse number 13, wherefore the Lord said, for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but have removed their heart far from me and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. Therefore behold, I will proceed to a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. The Pharisees, when Jesus came, were content with the outward appearance. They were content to appear unto men to fast. They were content to give alms to be seen of men. They were content to pray prayers to be heard by men. They were content to do all of these things in a very external outside of the cup sort of way. As long as it looks good and as long as it sounds good, who really cares if it is good is basically the mentality. Who really cares if it is right and God's sight. As long as it looks, it looks okay. It looks good. You know, when I was doing landscaping, we carried around a candle, several cans of green spray paint with us. Because people's grass died and they were concerned about how it looked. You have a brown patch that was show up. You got to go out there and spray it until you can fix it. You know, spray because they want that green look continuously without any issues. I'm sure they probably do this in ball fields as well. They patch it up and make it look good. Well, that in itself and of course, ultimately you do want to fix the problem. But that in itself doesn't fix the problem. It's a band-aid on the problem, isn't it? It makes it look good on the surface, but it's not really good. One of the most miserable things, I think about in my teenage years is when I had learned well how to say the right things and do the right things. It's not funny, but it was just thinking back of the hypocrisy of, you know, keeping the image up on the outside, but inwardly, my heart was running from the Lord. My heart was doing things in my heart in mind that were not well pleasing certainly to the Lord. I think about religion. You know, religion is a word that's got a bad a bad rap if you will, a bad reputation because it's often speaks of exactly what I've just been describing, right? It speaks of this put-spray panel, it's kind of attitude. And that's very often what the case is, but the basic understanding of the word religion is action or conduct indicating a belief in the divine power and reverence for and desire to please that divine power. Well, that sounds like, that sounds like genuine to me. That sounds like a good thing, doesn't it? But that's not often what religion is associated with when people use that term. People speak about that. We want a relationship and not a religion. Well, if we understand biblically what we're talking about when we say we want a relationship and not religion, I understand what they may mean by that. And I understand the, I think I understand the heart behind that. But a lot of people mean different things when they say that. And yet, and yet, what we want what religion, it comes from the root word meaning to bind fasts. It is true religion, pure religion that binds us in our hearts to God by faith because God sees the heart. He doesn't look on the heart. What kind of heart do I have before God? There was a day coming where all the commentary, all the performances, all of the speeches, all of the presentation are going to fade away. And I'm going to stand by myself before the Lord. And I'm going to give an account before him, he knows me so well. He knows everything about me, he knows my every motive, he knows my thoughts, my words, even idle words are going to come into judgment. All of those things, he knows me so well. And I have a conscience, you have a conscience, we all have a conscience that will bear witness in that day. What have we done with the Lord? What have we done with this word? What have we done? Pure religion, James says, is not merely words. It's not merely appearances, it's reality, it's what we do, what do you say? Pure religion, a pure religion and undefiled before the Father is this. The visit the Father was in widows and their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted, to keep everybody look at me, I'm doing this charity over here charity. And so I can build a resume for my obituary so everyone can see how good of a person I was in this life, that's not the charity we're talking about. In fact, as we went through that study we saw the very reason that says, it's a true test of the heart because the fabulous and the widows can't help you. And they don't have a media platform to go around and say, bless so and so is heart, they just donate all this money and these clothes and this food and they help me out in this situation. No, it's when you do your arms don't do them to be seen of men, don't let your right hand or your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give as unto the Lord and not as unto men and do it for Lord, that's true, that's pure religion before the Father, undefiled, genuine and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. There is an island we all go to as we've heard many times in the island of our imagination in our fault life. When we want Pastor Peacock often said, I believe he said this many times when we want a ticker running across our forehead revealing what we're thinking to everyone around us, but we want that. Well, we have to be careful because God sees our thoughts, he knows our thoughts and it is him ultimately we're trying to please anyway, not we shouldn't be merely trying to please men living for the fear or the favor of men. So true religion before God is not even even when we sink. I'm coming to the heart of the text here in just a moment, but when we sing, what does it say? Let us singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, right? Singing with grace, what to be singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord. And that's all in the context of letting the Word dwell in us, richly and all wisdom isn't it? Closhing 3.16. Let the Word of Christ dwell on you richly and all wisdom is it affects how we speak. It affects, it affects the heart with which we sing to the Lord. It affects the motives of everything that we we do. Pure religion before God, we're gonna see here in this passage though, has to do with how our hearts respond to Him, to His Word. What is the reality of our heart for God? There will be some that appear to be pretty good people, but they will be forever separated from God. And it turned to the end yet, the heart is what mattered. Let's look at this. In verse 5 we saw a sower went out to sower. Let's turn back here in Luke chapter 8 in verse 5. A sower went out to sow seed, and as he sowed some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down and the fouls of the air devoured it. I would say a lot of seed is sown on this kind of ground because there is a lot of times the Word is sown and the ground is just so hard compacted that it doesn't, it can't get down into the soil. It just sits on top and then the birds, the fouls of the air come along, they pick up that seed and they fly off with it. Our responsibility as Christians is not to make the seed grow, but to sow this that is our responsibility. And individually our responsibility is also to be sure that we, I don't do I have wayside soil in my own heart? Is that what my heart's like? Am I sitting in a church and I dress apart and speak the part, and act in the part, but my heart is like this soil. It is just as hard as it can be. It's just as hard as possible. I think about in Texas, you know, when they had all those floods, they have these dry river basins down there, but when they get a torrent of rain, the water some places, it's so hard down there, it just can't even soak in, so it just fills up the streams quickly and causes flooding. Flash flooding when that comes, that ground is very hard. But we know that the road, it needs to be hard because there's a lot, and it will be hard because there's a lot of foot traffic, you know, car traffic that goes up and down the pathways of life. We're not talking about cars in the Lord's time, but there were a lot of horses and you know, dalkeys, mirrors and people and camels walking up and down these roads, and so it was very packed. It was packed very, very, very hard. And this represents, as it says in verse number, if you look down in verse number 12, those by the wayside are they here, then come with the devil and take it the way out of their hearts, the word out of their hearts, unless they believe and be saved. How many times do we see that the word can go in one ear and out another? We need to pray. I guess I'm okay saying this David for this young man, no one, David works with, and he said he wants to come to church here and visit and just see what's about, but he's doesn't believe at all, but he's curious because he's seen some things in David's life. We need to pray for knowing that the word would prepare the ground of his heart as we need to pray. We can't. We need to give the word, but we need to pray the Holy Spirit will work in hearts and soften hearts to receive the word. We see also another kind of soil here, it's this rocky soil, this soil in a rock in verse number six. It says there in verse number six, in some fail, a pot of rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. This is some kind of limestone or rock shelf. There may be a little bit of soil there. It has to be something for the seed to germinate, but there's no way for it to have any depth of root, right? It's just enough, but as soon as it springs up, then it withers away because there's a rock is trying to grow on and it can't grow or rock. It cannot grow through this hard and hot and dry place of rocky grounds. They on the rock, verse 13 says, 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. You'll remember when we went through Pilgrim's Progress, pliable, and I believe it was he that he was just all excited when he first heard about this city that Pilgrim was going to and yet, uh, Christian was going to and, and um, and yet didn't take very long for something to come along and he was very pliable, right? He quickly went after something else, although he was excited at the news at the good news of where Christian was going. What a wonderful thing. Oh, why wouldn't go with you? I believe and yet soon came. We pray for those that have heard the word. Have we have are we among is anyone here among that number that here's the word and yet it can't even take root because it's rocky grounds. Um, what does it happen? It says here that in time of temptation, out, you know, I'll follow Christ if it's, if it's easy to do so. I'll, I'll, I want to go to heaven. I believe in Christ. I'll go, I'll, I'll do the Christian life. If it's fairly simple, but it's not. We, through much tribulation, must enter the kingdom, the scripture says, and I'm paraphrasing, but it's through much tribulation. We must learn patience through the testing of our faith. We must let patience have her perfect work. And if it, if that, if that seed has fallen on, fallen on this kind of ground, we need to pray, the world will change the soil of our heart that you know, something we have learned through gardening. I know I'm sure the staeblers know this, but the, um, just about, I think anytime you can see the problem with a plant is a problem with the soil. There's something in the soil that's not supposed to be there or there's something of course you have pests that come along, but most of the time they're, they're, they're living in the soil and they come up out of the soil, right? And then they affect the plants. Or there's a deficiency of something in the soil. Well, there's no, there's, there's not a good heart, a soil there. A faith, it's, it's temporary. I believe I want to believe this good news, when that's tested in any way, it's just with us. It's, it's, it's, it's tested in any way. You know, the thing is we can't just accept Jesus Christ as I say different health. They've gone through that, but we must accept, we must know a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord. He's our master. If we don't take up our cross and deny ourselves and follow him, how can we be his disciples? We can't just be Christians in what we say. It must be in the Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday of life as well. It must be a reality, even that we don't do so salvation. But if we are believers, the trying of our faith will produce this patience in us. It must be seen. We're for where that is not seen. Oh, we, we may have struggle. We may have to go to the Lord and pray. I don't know what to do about this. Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord child. Don't just throw up your hands and say, well, that didn't work out. That was hard. I think I'll just go back to living the way I was living. I think I'll just, I think I'll just, you know, do things my way. No. What dangerous thinking. And then we see in, in this verse seven, some fell among thorns and the thorns spring up and choked it. And it says in verse 14, that which fell among thorns are they, which when they have heard the word go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. Bring no fruit to perfection. You know, when we save seed, we don't save all of our seed, but we save as much of it as we can for the next year. And you can do a little test for germination of that seed. See if this seed is viable. There's different tests you can do. Some is like, was it flowed or does it sink or put it on a paper towel and wet it and see if it germinates and does that kind of thing. Well, we don't even always do that. But you can't do it. Um, after you let the seed dry and everything, test it to see if it's viable. Well, I can say that though, even in my Christian life, wherever there's been a failure, it is not been the word of God because the word of God is 100% viable. It has a 100% germination rate, not that it always germinates in every type of soil, but because sometimes the soil of my heart is not all that it should be before God. The Lord, when you work with soil, you know this year we planted some tomatoes just because we had extra ones. And I wanted to put a little extra good compost and soil in those holes, but it was clay. It was not really good ground. And I thought we're going to try it because I just hate otherwise. They're just going to shrivel up and die anyway. So let's put them in that ground. And what happened was we got off of eight plants about a handful of tomatoes off of those plants. They produce a little bit, but it was not good. It's not not really good. It's weedy ground. It's not, it's going to take, if I want to grow something there, it's going to take some time to improve for the soil to be good. And it might be okay, so a bit of a scripture talks about 30, 40, 60, 400, 400. That ground can be really, you know, dirt, the difference between soil is it's got to have healthy micro, a microbiome where it's living soil. It's not just a dead medium. It's actually living. And you know, and what feeds that living soil, look at the forest. You have leaves fall on the forest for over a year. And it feeds, things are dying, but it's feeding life, isn't it? Our soil has got to be a living faith in the world. Our soil has got to be this living faith. And you know what? Where there's weed seeds and bones and buyers growing up and we see this picture of the slothl man's vineyard. And that comes to my mind. It's all grown up, covered with metals. How can you grow anything good there? We pick blueberries this year. Some older blueberry bushes. And it's got more and more things that are coming up. Well, you're going to have to pull those out. You're going to have to, because they're going to start competing more and thorny. And this requires diligence in our hearts that we would not allow these thorns and briars and weeds to grow up and choke the Lord so it becomes unfreeful in our lives. It used to grow well, but it's not growing well anymore because we've crowded it with so allowed so many things to crowd into our thinking. We have taken up so much time with things. I know I just preached last Sunday night about being careful with this technology that it does not take the per him and this over God's word and our relationship with him in our lives. Because those things can choke and they will choke the word in us. What is the blessed man? The picture of the blessed man is the one who delights in the law of the Lord and then he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. He'll bring forth fruit and season. The leaf will not wither. As gardeners, we know we don't like withering leaves and we don't like fruit that doesn't come to fruition. So it is with our Lord. He wants to see good ground. He wants to see good ground. Remember the seed, the same seed we were born again by, the seed of the Word of God. When we have these things in the soil that shouldn't be there, I hope I don't bore you with this illustration but we have a problem with our tomato plants. I was telling Brother Stave word about it before the service is called. If you're sorry I'm willed. I think so. And it's spores, fungal spores, they get into the soil and then they go up into the island, the vascular structure of that plant and they clog it. And what happens is a tip to that plant you start seeing, they start wilting and they a little bit more, a little bit more. And because the plant is getting starved because the soil has something in it that shouldn't be in it, right? It's something in there that's causing that plant to wilt. The plant's not the problem. The soil, the soil is the problem. And so it is with our hearts. If getting up and spending time with the Lord and prayer and Bible reading is getting more difficult, it's probably because there's something in the soil that shouldn't be there. If taking time for Christian fellowship is a burden to us or it used to not be, there's something that's clogging. There's something that is inhibiting. There's something that's growing and it may not be that we don't necessarily want to do that. It's just that we're so busy with so many things that we can't take the time to do what things are priorities in God's word. And so we see that this is the challenge presented to us here that the thorns, as it says there, grow up and they choke the word. But finally we see in verse 8 here, Luke 8 verse 8 it says, and other fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit and hundred fold. And when he had said these things, he cried, he even hath ears to hear, let him hear. This is for us to hear and to take two hearts on verse 15. It says, but that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, an honest and good heart. You know, when we stand before the Lord one day, we'll be judged. What kind of heart did you have in the reception of my word? Did you receive the word? Think about that holding the mystery of the faith in a good conscience, right? A faith in things. A good and honest heart. Are we honest with the, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear it with the spirit say that we honest with the hell of God, when the right here, this is something I'm going to reprove you about. I'm going to rebuke you over. I'm in the correct you and well, I just want to encourage you today. I just want to comfort. Well, like I said, we're good at receiving the comfort and encouragement part. But today, he needed the truth Daniel. And so are you in a good and honest heart even receiving that? Are you taking it? Are you receiving it as from the Lord and being bettered? Because there might be something like David said, search me, try me. See if there be any wicked way in me. Is there any wilt in my soil? Are there thorns going there? We all, as gardeners do not like Bermuda grass, wiregrass, is that growth? Can that be taken out? So it doesn't show the good things that the Lord wants to grow and come forth from my life. We must have a good and honest heart before God. We must not be hypocritical. We must not be the good and honest heart does not say, I don't care what God thinks or doesn't say I want to maintain an image before me. And that's not what the good and honest heart says. The good and honest heart, here's the word, responds honestly to that word and keeps it with patience. Because you know what? Sometimes when we obey the Word of God, the fruit doesn't come on the plant. There has to be a period of time of patience for the fruit to grow. You know they say a watched pot doesn't boil. A watched plant doesn't grow either. You sit there and watch that plant. You've got to be patience. But I want it now. I want it right now. Well, the patience is necessary for the fruit to come to fruition. If you pick something before it's right, it's not going to be good. You pick something before. If you rush it, no, it's the Lord's working our lives. He will put us in a trial as long as he sees fit to put us in that trial. To bring forth the fruit that he sees fit to bring forth in our lives. And when he is finished, when patience has had her perfect work, then we will be perfect. We'll be complete, entire wanting nothing. We are told that all scripture, all scripture is profitable. And we mentioned those things that reprove the rebuke, the correction, the instruction, and righteousness. Why is that? So that the man of God may be complete, mature, perfect, freely finished unto all good works. That's the purpose. That's the purpose of the testing. Let's not despise the chasing of the Lord when he brings it in our lives. That's the kind of thinking that those on the walk have. There's trouble that comes with the word. I don't want anything to do with that. No, let us understand. We must understand that faith must be tested. Faith must be tried. And when he has tried us, when he has tested us, he wants to bring that sweet pleasant fruit. Not the works of the flesh. That's what comes from us. That's kind of like the man made. Let's make it grow. Let's get the soil right. Let's get our heart right. God will bring forth the precious and pleasure things for his glory and for the good of others, for our lives. And then we will say those words that we may think those thoughts. We may have those motives that are pleasing in his sight. We must feed the soil of our heart with God's word. We must let the word of Christ dwell in us, richly, the Scripture says. We must let the Lord show us. Is there anything in my soil that's keeping the word of God from the growing? That's keeping it from being fruitful. If we truly, in an honest and a good heart, have that have that view, have that mindset, have that way of thinking in our hearts. By word of my hidden heart that I might not sin against thee. If we have that thinking in our heart, we will not be able to help the be a blessing to God's people. We will not be able to help glorify God in what we think and say and do because it is God that works at work within us, both to will and to do with His good pleasure. And as we respond to His working in us, which work as mightily, Paul would say, then we can say, I am what I am by the grace of God. There is nothing good in me, but everything good in me, the Lord, He has done His fertilizer, He is still, He has broken up my father's ground. We have to cooperate with him in that, yes, but He is the one that is doing it. And the Lord is the one bringing forth the fruit. It is only Him. It is not me. A good God. Having heard the word, in the honest and good heart, keep it and we bring forth fruit for His glory with others in mind for their good, with patience. They got help us. They got help us that we may not be like that man in James. It looks in the mirror. If you hold His face in the natural face in the grass, let me turn around and He goes back out the same manner of man He was. And to just, I heard the word, but He got choked out with the cares of this light. I heard the word, I saw the need. And I just kept on going like I was going. Nothing changed. Nothing was made better because I wanted words of affirmation. I wanted words of encouragement. Well, think the word for those words of encouragement when we need them, and the words of comfort, but we also need the full counsel on the Word of God. We need to hear what the Spirit says.

Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for these moments we've had in your word. I need, I am in need of your word today, word, because without the, we are nothing. As we even see in John 15, the passage there shows us, for without me, you can do nothing. We cannot bear fruit except we abide in the vine. There's another analogy that we see of a agrarian nature. Lord, we pray that if there's any deficiency in our soil, if there's anything growing in that soil that's choking the word, Lord, may it be rooted out today, may it may that root of bitterness spring up not trouble us, Lord, and defile us, but instead may we have good and pleasant and godly things growing in the soil of our heart help us in that word. We're not able in and of ourselves, bless us now as we conclude this with a final hymn, we pray. In Jesus name, amen.