Bibles this evening to the gospel of Luke chapter number eight gospel of Luke chapter eight And we'll begin reading in verse number four this evening one of the more I would say easily understood parables that the Lord gives in his word as he teaches and And I like right here in this passage where he shares the parable and then makes very clear what the meaning of it is. I don't understand all the parables. I'm going to go ahead and tell you that. Some of them I read across. I think they may mean one thing and then at times it seems that it might mean another thing. But this one is very clear to us. It is a parable about the Word of God. Luke chapter 8 and verse number 4. And when much people were gathered together and were come to him out of every city, he 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 fowls 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 bear fruit a 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, 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. Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. 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. 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. 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 forth 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. Father, we thank you for giving us as your people an understanding Thank you that you care enough for us that you make things very clear to us in the Word of God. Lord, we understand as we look at this truth that you've given that anytime the seed is sown, anytime the Word of God is heard, that there is a battle that takes place in the heart. There are many adversaries. There's opposition to the Word of God. And Lord, I pray that you'll teach us this as your servants, that we might not grow too discouraged as we try to sow and as we try to labor in word and in doctrine. I pray, Lord, for all of our teachers. I pray for myself. I pray for Brother Jared as preachers. I ask you for those in the church that attempt to share the word of God with others, that you'll give us encouragement and instruction through the passage here. And, Lord, I pray for each one that hears that you might speak to their hearts. Help us and give liberty to preach and wisdom to say what needs to be said tonight. And then, Father, I pray again, Lord, for Brother Jerry, Miss Dusty, Priscilla tonight. I ask you, Lord, to bless them and help them and comfort them. And, Lord, I pray for Tracy and ask you that you might work in his heart. And, Lord, please help him. I know he's probably hurting and physically dealing with a lot right now, and I pray you might touch him and help him. Lord, help our brother and our sisters as they reach out to their family member. I pray you give them grace and guidance. Now, Lord, help us tonight as we're here. Lord, bless the Word of God, and we'll thank you for what you do. In Jesus' name, amen. Again, we have before us a parable about the Word of God. And we'll break it down into three real easy points tonight that I see from it, and I hope it'll help us in some way. First of all, I want to look at the heralding of the Word of God, that is, the sharing of the Word, speaking the Word, and then the hearing of the Word of God, and then the heart's response to the Word of God. First of all, I would speak of the heralding of the Word of God. Now, right here, Jesus begins the parable simply by saying, a sower went out to sow his seed. Now, in the other Gospels, Matthew 13, verse 3, and then Mark 4, verse 3, He begins the parable in the same way, only He adds one word to it. He adds the word, behold, to it. He focuses our attention on the fact that there are those who sow the Word of God. They sow the seed of the Word of God. I don't want to get sidetracked here, but I do think it's kind of comical that if you ever turn the TV on and you see a preacher or a religious show on television, they're always telling you to sow your seed, sow your seed, sow your seed. And they're saying your seed is your money. But anytime you see the seed being sown in the Word of God, it is the Word of God. It's not your finances. And it's interesting that so many people are interested in money and the things that they can gain in this world when really our hearts focus and our interest should be in the Word of God. Heaven and earth will pass away, but God's words will always stand. Everything we see around us physically with our eyes one day is going to, like the elements, melt with fervent heat, but the Word of our God stands forever. And the grass withereth and the flower fadeth, but the Word of God stands sure at all times. And so let this be what we live our lives focused on, the Word of God, sharing it and hearing it, and then not being hearers only, but faithful doers of this book. He speaks of the heralding, Behold a sower went forth to sow. Now I want to say this, and it's not because I'm a preacher, But it's because I've enjoyed the benefits of having preachers in my life and teachers in my life that thankfulness really is due to everybody that shares with us the Word of God. I talked to a former pastor of mine just a couple of weeks ago and we were discussing a few different things. He actually was trying to share some pews from their church with me. And it's interesting, if you need pews, you can't find them. But if you need to get rid of them, you can't get rid of them. But he's trying to get rid of his pews. And we were talking for a little while about some different things and sharing some thoughts. And I had an opportunity just for a few minutes there to thank him for the things that he instilled in my heart and in my life. Now, he and I are different people. We see things differently in some areas. And there came a point where He was no longer my pastor because of some differences that we have. But I'm grateful to God for what He invested in me. And it's okay to be different from people and still love them and still be thankful for them. And I've had teachers in my life that have shared the Word of God with me and it has impacted me and shaped me for the glory of God. And so I want to say it is a thing that the Lord would have us to do is to always be grateful for those who have invested in us in the Word of God. Thank God for people who have invested in me. But then secondly, about heralding, responsibility is given to every one of us who know the Word of God. Now I know that some are more studious than others and some people have abilities to comprehend and retain the Word of God better than other people. We all have different skills and different abilities when it comes to that. But as God opens up His Word to each of us as His children, it is our responsibility to then take what we have learned and take what He has given unto us and share it with other people. It is a responsibility that we have. We are in a place as a church where, I'll be honest with you, we need individuals to step up and share in the responsibility of the Word of God. We still have need of teachers. We've got Wednesday nights coming up where we need to figure out what we're going to do with our young people and with having classes. And we need teachers. We need individuals who God has poured the word in to, to continue to share the word of God with others. It is our duty and our responsibility. And anyone with seed doesn't need to let it wither away in the barn, but they need to make sure and spread it out and sow it. And so responsibility is given to those of us who know the Word of God to share it. And God forbid we would hide our light under a bushel. But then also as I see in the parable right here, I would point out that there is a hopefulness that every one of us should hold to when we sow the Word of God. I've shared the Word of God a lot in my life, and I'll be honest with you, there's been a whole lot of times where I wondered if anybody was hearing anything, and sometimes I wondered if I made a lick of sense, and my wife would probably not willingly testify of this to you, but if she was pressed on it, she would be honest and tell you. After about every service, I ask her, well, how was that? I'm always interested in how it goes, how it came across and all that, and sometimes I don't feel a whole lot of hope of seeing much come of what I just taught or what I just preached. But should I feel that way? Or should I not understand that there is always power in the Word of God to accomplish what God sets it forth to do? And I know also as teachers there are times where you feel like maybe people aren't getting what you're sharing with them. But listen, God's Word will not return unto him void. This is one of the promises that He has made in the Word of God. It will accomplish what He means for it to accomplish. And so in looking at this, here is hopefulness. Yes, there is some of the seed that fell on stony ground. Yes, there's some that fell by the wayside and some fell among thorns. But thank God for that, which fell upon good ground and it worked in the heart of an individual and it sprang forth and it brought forth fruit for the glory of God. And so all of us who share the Word of God with individuals can share with hope in our heart. And then lastly, on the point of heralding, We always ought to share the Word of God with humility in our hearts. By this I mean that it doesn't matter who we are. We really are just servants of the King. And really what is most important is the seed that is sown and not so much the sower himself. Even the Apostle Paul had a good grasp of this. Some plant, some water, but God gives the increase. And we understand when we sow, no matter what abilities that we have, even what amount of time that we put into things, it takes God working for things to get done. If God doesn't bless the seed that is sown, there will be no increase. And Paul concludes after this, so then he that soweth is nothing, and he that watereth is nothing, but God is everything that giveth. the increase. And all of us who share the Word of God aren't at the top level of the rung of the ladder of spirituality. We're just servants throwing out what God gives unto us. And we ought to sow in humility. And this humility should be felt to the point that it causes us to depend entirely upon God and not upon our own ways and our own methods to get things done and get things accomplished. Some plant, some water, but it takes God to give the increase. As I thought about this point this evening, I was reminded of what Paul shares in Acts chapter 26. When the Lord saved him, he is sharing his testimony of what God spoke to his heart. And he said in Acts 26 and verse 17 that he was going to be sent to the Gentiles. Verse 18 said, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith, that is in me. And when I say we ought to sow in humility, we have to do so knowing that we don't have the ability to open blinded eyes. we don't have the ability to deliver someone out of the hand of the enemy. Rather, he said, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath redeemed out of the hand of the enemy. God has to be the one to bring forth fruit from the Word that is sown. But it is our job to sow it. Sow in hope, and sow in humility, and pray as the Lord cried out after reading this parable that God would give ears to hear and let people hear the Word of God. There is the heralding of the Word of God. Let's all be faithful in our places to share the Word of God with others. But then secondly, and this really is the thrust of the parable, it is a parable about hearing. It is about hearing of the Word of God. And I note in this that there is always going to be a battle that takes place that we can't see with our eyes, but well, sometimes we can, but it is a battle when it comes to hearing the Word of God. And there's no such thing as hearing without a struggle. I've heard it said throughout my Christian life again and again that we have three great enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And I think that is true. And in fact, you'll find that these three great enemies are at work even in the hearing of the Word of God, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The Lord speaks of the opposition that there is to hearing the Word of God. And He tells us that they that come by the wayside, those by the wayside are those that hear, and then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." Now, I know what this says, and I understand what it says, but to be honest with you, this is a hard truth, isn't it? To think that the devil is able to snatch away that which has been spoken to us. Now, he has different means of doing this. I don't believe that he can just reach a hand into your heart, so to speak, or into your mind, so to speak. But he can sure distract you. And He can sure get you focused on other things. And He can sure whisper doubts and thoughts of unbelief into your heart about the Word of God. And I say this because we have an adversary in Him. And there is a spiritual battle that takes place in every heart, in each of our hearts, as the Word of God is shared with us. I think you and I would agree that we're Well, we're no strangers to this, are we? We understand that at times it becomes a lot harder to hear the Word of God and to take it in than at others. And so there is an opposition to the Word of God. He is a great enemy of our soul. I mentioned this morning, Genesis chapter 3, where he questions the Word of God. Yea, hath God said? Does God really mean this? Did God really say that? Can God really be believed? Can His promises really be taken to the bank, so to speak? And it calls into question the Word of God into our minds, and he opposes the hearing of the Word of God. And again, Paul said that he was sent to individuals to share the Word of God, that God might, through His Word, deliver them from the power of Satan and turn them unto God. He is a master with the Word of God. Now again, I understand this well, but it's a hard truth. that He can snatch the Word out of a heart, but that He can also twist the Word of God in the minds of individuals. He tried this with our Savior. Jesus, the Incarnate Word, who gave the Word of God in His temptation with the devil, said, It is written, in answer to His first temptation. And then the devil said, Well, it is also written, and began to twist the Word of God even with the Lord. And He will do that with us as well. And we need to be very careful that we hear the word of God as it's supposed to be heard. And Jesus even said in one place, take heed how you hear. Remember, we have an adversary that would whisper things into our ears or even twist the word of God to our destruction. And so when it comes to hearing, there is a battle, there is opposition, there is the devil. And then there are two other enemies that we have. One of those is ourself. And of course, the other is the world. Now I'll hit ourselves first. Within every one of us is a hard stony heart. And again, I hate to say this. It's a hard truth to accept, but it is true. And unless the Lord take away the stony heart and give us a stone of flesh, we will never receive the word of God as he would have it for us. Now, of course, of our hearts we know that they are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. But by nature, men have hard hearts. And God has to soften that heart up to receive the Word of God. Our hearts are very deceivable. Men manipulate the Word of God to gain, manipulate the Word of God to twist it in a way rather that it would benefit them or twist it in a way to where they can skirt by obedience in this area or in that area. And you've heard me say it a couple of times already. I've said it a couple of times that some of these truths, they're understandable, but they are hard, aren't they? But just because the truth is hard doesn't mean we get to turn away from it. It's hard to read the words, Be ye holy, as He which hath called you is holy. and to tie that in with other truths that say, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Those are hard truths, aren't they? And yet we don't need to allow the hardness of our heart to say, well, you know, none of us can do that. No, He said be holy to the people of God. It may be a hard truth, but don't let the hardness of your heart cause you to not be obedient to those truths. And so He speaks about those who were like a stone. And they on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but the word never takes root. These have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation they fall away. And every one of us, just as we sow in humility, we need to ask the Lord in humility to help us receive the word that it might change our hard hearts. Amen. We have opposition, we have ourselves, the devil, the flesh, but then there are the world, those distractions that are in the world. And they which fell among thorns or 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 forth no fruit to perfection. I wonder tonight, and I wouldn't ask you for a show of hands, but I wonder how many of you have already thought since the beginning of this message about what you've got to do this week. What's going on when you get home? What responsibilities are laying on you? Well, I know what that's like, and I'm not going to be too hard on you about it. It's a battle for every one of us not to be given to distractions. We all have a thousand things going through our mind. And it seems that the further we go in time and the closer we get to the coming of the Lord, that knowledge is increased, as Daniel said, and we are running to and fro. And if we're not physically doing that, we are mentally doing that, aren't we? You know you can be here and not be here. all at the same time. You say, what is that, preacher? That is the struggle of the hearing of the Word of God. Now, me saying that, I'm not in any way questioning whether or not you want to hear the Word of God or whether you love the Word of God. It is just the weakness of the flesh and the multitude of distractions in this world. There are obstacles that we have to overcome to hear the Word of God. I've heard men, good men, pray, Lord, draw in the wanderings of our minds because our minds wander. We sung it this morning. Our hearts are prone to wander and they're prone to go towards things that are away from us right now and apart from us right now, rather than taking in just for a few moments what God might have for our souls to prepare us for the week to come. There are distractions. Now, I know without any doubt that these first two that are mentioned, those that fell by the wayside and those that fell on stony ground, these are not believers. These people were not born again. The Word of God did not take root in their heart and change them. These in verse 14, though, I have a little question about. Some people would say, weren't saved either, but I would say even individuals who have received the Word of God and gone forth with every intention to follow after the Word of God can at times get sidetracked by the cares of this life and riches and pleasures. And in another scripture, it said the lust of other things. Be very careful, friend, that the things of this world do not draw your heart away from obedience to the Word of God. I was counseling with a young man just yesterday and shared with him as he was telling me some of the desires of his heart. I shared with him Joshua chapter number 1 and how he tells us in Joshua chapter number 1 The book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. And my dear friend, all of our thinking about what we want to accomplish, how we want to prosper, how we want to exceed, it all needs to be rooted in our knowing and retaining and keeping and following after the commandment of the Lord, following after His Word. And God said, if you do this, then thou shalt have good success, then thou shalt prosper. And while there are a thousand cares of this life, there are so many innumerable. I don't know why I threw the word a thousand out there. That definitely comes short, doesn't it? These are things that can choke out the work of God and the word of God from our hearts. Be very careful, child of God. I'm not saying that we live up in the clouds all the times. We're in the world. We understand that, right? But the way that we are in the world and not of the world, is through obedience to the Word of God and following after what He says to us. There are the distractions of riches, the distractions of pleasures, the cares of this life, the lust of other things, and on and on we could go. But let's deal with the heart here real quickly. He deals with the heralding of the Word of God, the hearing of the Word of God, but then the heart's response to the Word of God. Now, it would do us all good if we sought to prepare our hearts for the Word. Nobody plants seeds, at least not if they're real smart, without prepping the ground a little bit, right? And wouldn't it do us all good to come into the house of God having already prayed, Lord, you know what's ahead of me this week? Would you speak to me? Lord, you know what I'm dealing with right now. Would you speak to me? I would even challenge you and encourage you greatly. On a Saturday night, say, Lord, you know we're going to gather together twice tomorrow. Would you bless your teachers? Would you bless the teacher of my class? Would you bless my children's teachers? Would you prepare our hearts to receive what they have? Lord, would you touch the preacher? Give him what we need. You know what we need. Don't let him play on the same old string all the time, Lord. Help him give us something from the Word of God. Open up his understanding. Give him what's needed for all of us. The preparation of the heart through prayer, Lord, help us to receive what you have for us. Preparation of the heart as well by putting away the things that distract us. Sometimes it would do us good to go into a room by ourselves and sit down with the Word of God and take 10 or 15 minutes and just open it up and say, Lord, I don't want anything to distract me. Help me with this and speak to me just for a few minutes today. Preparing our hearts for the Word of God through prayer through the putting away of things Asking the Lord to keep our hearts pliable that we're like Not like the stone that the seed fell upon but we have a soft heart to receive what he has for us I've sown a lot of yards with grass we used to from start to finish build houses as how I got started and When you're the low man on the totem pole, you're the guy that's walking around with that sack around your neck, twisting it, and you're scattering out all the seed. And we would sow rye, and we'd sow Kentucky 31. And we'd put it out there that the rye grass would come up first and take some root and establish the ground. And then that Kentucky 31 would come up. People hate Kentucky 31, but it's actually pretty decent grass. And it'd grow up, and then you'd have to throw the lime out there. The 10-10-10 fertilizer, I believe that's what it was, was 10-10-10 that we used. And we would do all that, but you know it would have been so foolish to have done all that if we hadn't raked the yard first and prepped the ground and pulled the rocks out and made some little burrows, some little furrows rather, not burrows, but furrows for the seed to lie in. And we'd straw it and we would water it. We did everything we could to make sure that that seed found its way into a good place that it might grow. That on the good ground are they which in the honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. They are they which have prepared the hearts as a sower would prepare the ground, and they hear the word of God, and God by His grace causes it to bring forth fruit in their lives. If we're ever to hear the Word of God, it's going to take us seeking the Lord that He might open our understanding to it. Again, with all of these things, you're not going to hear the Word of God without a struggle. Sometimes it's harder than others. Amen. I sat down Wednesday night next to brother Larry and brother Larry looked at me He's like I think the devil is trying to keep us from hearing your message tonight. I kind of chuckled I think Wednesday night from the most distracted Distracting service that I've been in in a long time. It was it was hard wasn't it? Well, you're back there listening. It's hard to preach. I'm gonna tell you but look There is always going to be opposition even if like tonight. It's quiet in here We can hear the word. There's no distractions. I don't hear a single baby crying and mostly nobody's running around. It's always going to be a challenge. May the Lord, by his grace, help us to come in with prepared hearts, say, Lord, speak, thy servant heareth, and then take the word of God that he shares with us, speaks to our hearts with, and allow it to find a lodging place and find usefulness in our lives. There's a reason that God says the things that he says to us. Would you agree with that? Amen. I think there are times that he is giving us some preventative medicine. And then sometimes he has given us something to treat us exactly where we are at. He is giving us that which we need the most. With all of it, whether we're sowing, whether we're hearing, Let's pray in humility that God would open up His Word to ourselves and to those around us and to cause it to bring forth fruit in days to come. Amen. Just some thoughts about a parable for the Word of God. Let's pray together that the Lord will touch our hearts as we share in these things together in the ministry of the Word of God. I encourage you to pray for teachers and preachers alike, that the Lord would bless us and help us and that He would put in the hearts of others to step up and to labor in His field in the sharing of the Word of God. Amen. I wonder what ground your heart is tonight. May the Lord make it good ground. May He work in all of us. Let's bow our heads together. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this day. We thank You for Your goodness to us. Thank you for giving us the Word of God, one in our own language that we can understand. And then, Lord, thank you for the Spirit you've put in our heart that guides us into all truth. And, Lord, we know if left to ourselves with the Word of God, we will twist it, or we'll not rightly divide it, we'll not understand it, and it'll bring forth no fruit to perfection in us. And then, Lord, in every one of us, I know is a tendency to hear only a nod in approval and never be faithful doers of your word as well. Lord, you said those that are like, that do this are those like those beholding themselves in a mirror and then they go their way and they forget exactly what manner of man that they are. As you speak to us from the Word of God, I pray that you'll help us to respond to it as you speak, to hide it in our hearts that we might not sin against you, to hide it in our hearts that it might minister to us in our hours of need. And then I pray, Lord, you'd make us more a people of the book, faithful like the Bereans to search the scriptures to see what things are so and what things are not. Lord, there's so many avenues that people can hear from in this day that my church family can hear from in this day. There's a lot of false teachers in this world, Lord. Give us ears to hear that we might understand the difference between truth and error. And then I pray, Lord, again, that you might make us faithful sowers of the word of God. Help each of us to look for opportunities to serve you. to share our testimonies, to share the gospel, and to share the word of God with others. I thank you, Lord, for the love of the word that you've given to this people. Lord, help us through your word to grow in grace and in knowledge of our Savior. We might love you more and serve you better, and we'll thank you for what you do in Jesus' name. Amen.