Good morning. It's great to be here. What a privilege to be here and to be in earshot of God's Word, the voice of the Savior. When I was little, when I was younger, we used to collect baseball cards, me and my brothers, and there was You know, the oldest baseball card, unless it's been proven otherwise, I haven't looked in years, but the oldest one, the most unique one, was I think the first card ever was Honus Wagner. It was the most valuable card. And the reason it was most valuable was because of the uniqueness of it. And we would flip through the Beckett Monthly magazine to see values, and that one was always just, it was at the top. The Honus Wagner, I can see the visual of him in my head. As it relates to baseball cards, you know, the value can increase with uniqueness, with, you know, there was one of those, but as it relates to the words of our Savior, we have multiple accounts of His life, His dealings, the Gospels, multiplied accounts of what the Savior said. And we can have a tendency, because of the multiplied accounts, to devalue the words of the Savior. And as we go through the hustle and bustle of life, and we daily, by God's grace, may be in the Word, we ought to regularly check ourselves and say, wait a minute. These are the words of the Savior. And that's what I want you to do this morning. I want you to consider. With freshness. The value. Of the God man's words. God became man. And dwelt among. People and he spoke and in his kindness he's given us his word. What a privilege. We all would do well to pause and consider that. I myself need that. You need that. So let's consider the infinite value of having the words of the Savior within earshot today. Not only that, but having hearts that have any desire to hear it. So let's be prayerful in our hearts. The text I'll be in, Luke 8. Verses 4 through 10. Luke 8 verses 4 through 10. I'll pray and then we'll read the text. Luke chapter 8 verses 4 through 10. Father, here we are. In need of. Your help. Your mercy. Your grace. And you've given us your word. for teaching and instruction, for strengthening, for edification, for conviction, Lord, for the building up of your people. Here we have your word. Here we have the precious words of the Savior. We want to hear what you would have to say to us this morning. So speak, O Lord, and have mercy and help your people, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Luke chapter 8 verses 4 through 10. I'm not going to expound the text. I'm not going to really get into details about the different soil types. What I want to do is consider the wisdom of the Savior and a couple of the effects and implications of how he dealt with the crowds. So it's not gonna be an expounding. I mean, he expounds his own parable and gives explanations where it really simplifies it. So let's look at the text, Luke 8, four through 10. When a large crowd was coming together and those from various cities were journeying to him, he spoke by way of parable. The sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seed fell into the good soil and grew up and produced a crop a hundred times as great. As he said these things, he would call out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. The Savior said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And then if you, then moving on to verse 10, I mean, verse nine, his disciples began questioning him as to what this parable meant. And he said, to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest. it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. And then looking ahead at verse 18 there, because he gives a further illustration or parable to further describe the parable that he just gave, but verse 18, a summary, he says, so take care How you listen, says the Savior, the God-man. So for context purposes, the masses were coming to him. In chapter 12, verse one, listen to what it says. Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together, they were stepping on one another. Also Mark 1.45 through 2.4, but he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas and they were coming to him from everywhere. When he had come back to Capernaum several days afterward, it was heard that he was at home and many were gathered together so that there were There was no longer room, not even near the door, being unable to get to him because of the crowd. I cut a little bit of that out. So if you're proof, you know, if you're checking me, I did cut a little bit of that out just to condense it, but being unable to get to him because of the crowd. Again, as the first verse in our passage, when a large crowd was coming together and those from various cities were journeying to him, So just by way of illustration, occasionally you'll be going down the highway and you'll see people gathered on an overpass. They'll have American flags or maybe a fire truck, people sitting along the side of the road, and then you'll go to the next overpass, you see it again, maybe the next overpass, and you think, what's going on here? Well, who's passing through? Is the president coming through? Somebody important's passing through. So there's a curiosity that comes up. And you think, and you know, nowadays we can just say, oh, somebody looking on Facebook. Something to be on Facebook. Something to be on social media. Oh, it's the presidential convoy or whoever it may be. But what's going on here is there's varying levels of curiosity. In that illustration, there's varying levels of curiosity. There's some people that get up there with their chair and their American flag and say, I gotta be here. There's some people who drive by like me and say, hmm, wonder what's happening. If I find out, great. If I don't, I don't care. I just go on. But there's varying levels of curiosity. And amidst the thousands that were coming to him, Jesus knew there's varying levels of curiosity. And that's where the four soils comes in. And many would have come wanting to see a sign. Likely there was much vain curiosity and just hype. But here, in perfect wisdom and perception, the Savior gives them a heart-searching parable. Perfect wisdom. He sees the crowd, and he knows, here's what they need to hear from me. And he perfectly assesses the crowd. He knows exactly who's in the crowd, and he proceeds. Matthew 9, 3 through 4. And some of the scribes said to themselves. Just think about this, the knowledge of the Savior. If I were to stand here and say, Stephen White, I know your thoughts, brother. Nehemiah, I know what you're thinking back there. Jared, I got you pinned, I know. This is a man that knew the thoughts and the hearts of men. Matthew 9, three and four. And some of the scribes said to themselves, this fellow blasphemes and Jesus, knowing their thoughts said, why are you thinking evil in your hearts? The savior. Luke 5, 22. But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, why are you reasoning in your hearts? Penetrating precision. from the Savior knows exactly what to do. He's perfect in it. He never failed. He knew exactly what to do in every circumstance and did it. This parable, this situation is no different. Consider the unchanging and all-knowing Savior. He knows your thoughts right now. He's here. He knows your thoughts. He knows these things. Ryle said, regarding verse four, let us note in this expression, a strong indirect evidence of our Lord's faithfulness and honesty as a public teacher. So far was he from flattering men and speaking smooth things to procure popularity that he speaks one of the most heart-searching and conscience-pricking of his parables when the crowd of hearers was greatest. The flesh would have catered to the vain curiosity. He would have put on a show, the flesh would have put on a show. The Savior says, here's what they need with exact precision. The majority would have come just to satisfy vain curiosity. They wanted to see a sign from this man of whom thousands were hearing of. Many of them seeking to see and hear the Savior only to satisfy their own appetites. And he, the Savior, simply in summary, tells them, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. He puts a question to them about their listening. And then again in verse 18, so take care how you listen, rather than flattering them, he puts a heart searching parable to them. Let's keep in mind, everyone in the crowd, whether it been 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, everyone in the crowd fell into one of those four categories of soils. That doesn't just apply to us here today. It doesn't just apply to the world out there. He knew all of these people fall into these four categories. Three of the four are not good soil. One is. So he's assessing and saying all of these people fall into these four categories. There are no other categories. If you're in here today, you fall into one of these four. There's no other options. These are the four. One of the four is good soil. Three of the four is not. some of them in the crowd the devil immediately takes away the word from their heart immediately this is mysterious the devil it says it says when jesus expounds his own parable he says that he takes away the word from their heart Consider that. Right now, I'm sowing seed. I'm sowing seed right now. And there's some people in here, the devil has taken it. Right now. He will be here taking away seed when Jeff preaches too. The devil will. The enemy and his agents will be taking away seed that they would immediately say, I don't need that. Before it's even heard, the enemy's already blocked their thinking. Take heed. Take heed how you hear. To these, the teaching would have been useless. They would go away disinterested because he didn't satisfy their vain curiosity. I don't need to hear that parable. On they go. They're gone immediately. Some of them would soon be falling away from temptation because they had no root. Some of them would sooner or later be choked out by the worries and pleasures of this life and would bear no fruit. And we know by Matthew's account, Matthew follows this parable with the story of the tare and the wheat. We know that both will grow together for a time. As he says that, Matthew 13, 30, both will grow together until harvest. So there will be tears amongst the wheat. That's a reality. There's no more options of soil types. The Savior said so. Why not Why would the Savior not have a softer, more Unitarian or inclusive message to the masses? The numbers were coming in, the crowds were flocking to him, and he issues a pause point. He says, wait, take heed how you hear there's four categories, there's four soils, Why not a softer, all-inclusive, oh, it's okay, it's okay, everything's okay, it's not okay. The Savior said it's not okay. He gave a dividing line. Verses 9 and 10, quoting Isaiah 6, 9, His disciples began questioning him as to what this parable meant. And he said, to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest, it is in parables. So that seeing, they may not see. And hearing, they may not hear. All of them saw. They saw him. All of them heard him, but not all of them saw him, and not all of them heard him. So there's a seeing that's not truly seeing. There's a hearing that's not truly hearing. Isaiah foretold it. And here's God in the flesh, sowing seed to the masses. And some of them see him, but don't see him. And some of them hear him, and don't hear him. Oh, God, I want to see. Don't you want to see him? Doesn't that just cause you to say, oh, I don't ever want that to be me. I want to see the glory of the Savior when he speaks. I want to hear it. I want to know it. I want to hear the voice of the Savior. Some of them saw him and didn't see him. And some of them heard him and didn't hear him. Notice he draws a distinction. Isaiah prophesied this, this is what's gonna happen. It says coming, it's coming, the Savior's coming. These are gonna be realities. The Savior's gonna declare things and people are gonna reject him. The Holy Spirit testifies to the Son all the way from creation forward. The Savior's coming, he's coming. Some will see him and some will not. Some will hear and some will not. He draws distinction. He says to you it has been granted. But to the rest to you, but to the rest. All four types of soil saw. All four types heard only. One of them truly saw one of them truly heard. Some of you. Again, I say this applies right now. Some of you here see but don't see, and hear but don't hear. And the reason I put that to you is because I want you to say, I don't want that to be me. Young ones, I don't want that to be me. I don't wanna hear these things and not hear them, and see these things and not see them. It ought to pull out of your heart, I gotta have him, I gotta hear him. And I got to see him. Consider the effect. Philip preached on this a few weeks ago, John 6, 65 through 68. And he was in John 6, 65 through 68 said, and he was saying, for this reason, I've said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the father. As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. So Jesus said to the 12th, You do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. What did Peter do? Lord, where else am I going to go? I got to hear you. I got to see you. The sifting effect that that passage in John would have had was more immediate. As we know from the parable of the soils, the tear in the wheat is a reality. So there's varying levels of which some will go immediately, and some will linger and stay and stay. Any of you who've walked with the Lord for a period of time can look back and think, Whatever happened to those people? They seem to be so alive. And they don't even enter through the doors of a church anymore. What happened? Do you ever pray in a way that says, Lord, don't ever let that be me? Don't ever let that be me. This is the heart of a healthy soil that cries out, said, oh God, I gotta be kept. I gotta be kept. This is what the spirit yields, a cry of desperation. Consider what did the good soil hearers do. Says his disciples began questioning him. as to what his parable meant, or as Mark says in his account, note Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three have this parable, all a great emphasis on hearing. He who has ears to hear, let him hear in all three accounts. Mark says, as soon as he was alone, his followers along with the 12 began asking him about the parables. And then Luke 12, 41, just came across this one this morning. Peter said, Lord, are you addressing this parable to us or to everyone else as well? The good soil goes back and says, Lord, will you tell me more? Good soil doesn't imply that there's full, full understanding and full knowledge. Good soil would yield a heart that says, Lord, will you tell me more? I want to hear more. The heart of the Christian is bent to go to him for inquiry. Psalm 27 for the singular prayer. One thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple, inquire in his temple. I understand it's a different inquiry. One of them is like a literal question Peter asked, but there's still a similarity in that the heart As it says in, um, what was it? Uh, what passage was I thought I had it noted here when he is a first Timothy or second time when he says when he comes to be marveled at. There's this marvel, there's this inquiring reality in the heart of the Christian that says, this one thing, I just want to inquire and I want to meditate. I want to know more about this Savior. James 1.5 would consider this, but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God. The good soil will go and say, is this about me or is this about them? The good soil inquires. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives to all generously without reproach and it will be given to him. What do you need to do? especially when you come up against heart-searching, hard, pause-point parables from the Savior, even some that are mysterious. By way of illustration, a few years back, I was working my way through Romans, Romans 5. I had a hard time with this guilt in Adam. I'm just being honest, I had a hard time with it. But I kept going back to it, and I kept going back to it. And I can tell you to this day, Romans 5 is one of the most beneficial chapters in the Bible for me, because I kept going back. Lord, I need to know what you're saying. So when things may be mysteriously hard, what do we do? Lord, will you tell me more? Will you show me more? So we see by his unwillingness to merely flatter the crowds that many went away. Some immediate, some a little later on, some would, you know, some of the, the tares would remain with the wheat for a while. First John 2 19, they went out from us, but they were not really of us for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out so that it would be shown. that they all are not of us. So we see here that loyalty to truth and not succumbing to flattering men will send some away. That's the case today too. The end goal is not the numbers. The end goal is faithfulness to God. Consider Paul's exhortation to Timothy, 1 Timothy 3, 14 through 15. I'm writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long. But in case if I don't make it, But in case I'm delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of truth, the pillar and support of truth. So the reality is when truth, when seed is sown in fullness, some will go away. Some will be tears among the wheat. But we have to be faithful because the church, and here's an illustration. You know, concrete, wet concrete's very heavy. You put a, you put a, you fill up a five gallon bucket of concrete and it'll probably weigh about 100 pounds. It's heavy. You know, sometimes we, you know, have a house prepped and ready to pour. Sometimes they'll have large grade beam walls. Sometimes they'll be 30 inches of, large relatively speaking. There's much bigger. But for residential construction, 30 to 42 inches of grade beam wall You fill that up with concrete. I mean, Josh would know this. Daniel would know this. The amount of pressure on, because the perimeter of the concrete, the perimeter of the house is built in wooden form boards and residential construction. Anytime you get something that's 24, 30 inches or 36 inches, the amount of weight of that concrete pushing on the outside of that form board It's enormous. And once it busts loose, if you have a blowout, it's bad. There's nothing you can do about it. What are you going to do? Put some gum in the hole like you would a dam? If it blows out, it blows out. So what they'll do, the concrete guys, is they'll hammer several stakes in the ground. We call them kickers. But what those kickers do, and they'll put so many, I'm like, man, that's a lot. But what they're trying to do is prevent a blowout. But those kickers are serving as a buttress. They're serving as a buttress, as a support to hold that wall from blowing out. But the difference, the church is not serving as a buttress. The church is a buttress. That's what Paul says. The church is the pillar and support and the buttress of truth. God has ordained it. That's what we're to be. So if men fall away, men go away because we're holding to the truth. Let's not be surprised by it. The Savior said so, it's part of the four soils. We have to be men and women of the truth. No matter what groups and trends and movements happen, we have to be men of the word, men and women of the word. That's what we have to be. We live in a world of trends, movements, agendas, Some movement, and I'm not just saying they're out there, even well-intended groups and movements within church, within the realms of church can be off base. And we have to be wise, and we have to be men and women of the truth. As we navigate through things, consider it seems like there's almost a new trap on every couple of months. It's like, where did this come from? What's this about? As the hymn says, many dangers, toils, and snares. You know, Pilgrim's Progress gives a good visual of this. We have to stay on the narrow way. We have to function in a way that truly is a pillar and buttress of truth. Psalm 124, two, actually two through six. Had it not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive. When their anger was kindled against us, then the waters would have engulfed us. The stream would have swept over our souls. Then the raging waters would have swept over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who has not given us to be torn by their teeth. This has to be the heart of our congregation. If it hasn't been the Lord, if the Lord had not been on our side, we would be swallowed up. This has to be the heart posture of us as individuals and as a congregation. If the Lord's not on our side, we'll get swallowed up. There's too many dangers, toils and snares. There's too many movements that we can get caught up in. There's too many agendas that we can get caught up in. We have to be people of the truth. What I'm not saying is that we should have a combative spirit to run people off. Not saying that. The Lord did not live that way. The Savior upheld truth as nobody has yet, as nobody has, yet you see in him a loving of sinners as nobody else has either. Jonathan Edwards says in his sermon, The Excellencies of Christ, he says with these coupled characteristics of God in the Savior, he says, the lion and the lamb, though very diverse kinds of creatures, yet have each their peculiar excellencies. He's talking about the actual lion, actual lamb. They're very diverse kinds of creatures yet have each their peculiar excellencies. The lion excels in strength. and in the majesty of his appearance and voice, the lamb excels in the meekness and patience, besides the excellent nature of the creature as good for food and yielding that which is for our clothing and being suitable to be offered in sacrifice to God. He says, there do meet in Jesus Christ infinite highness and infinite condescension. So as we have to be locked in and faithful to God's word, that doesn't mean there's a combative spirit. What it means is we have to cry out to God that he would give us more Christ likeness to where we can hold the truth and we can love and bring sinners in. That ought to lay us low and drop us to our knees in prayer and say, oh Lord, I need to be wise. This is hard. It's impossible apart from the Holy Spirit, but we've been given the Spirit. The same Savior that purged and sifted was simultaneously alluring many with Irresistible healing bomb all at the same time. He's purging and sifting and he's saying come come. Simultaneously, John 423. As it relates to who who are those that would stay with the Savior John 423, but an hour is coming and now is when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth. For such people, the father seeks to be his worshipers. Luke 7, 36-39, now one of the Pharisees was requesting him to eat with him, and he entered the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table, and there was a woman in the city who was a sinner. And when she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, and began kissing his feet and anointing him with the perfume. Now when the Pharisee, who had invited him, saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching him, that she is a sinner. The Savior welcomed it. Luke 18, nine through 14. Now he also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself. God, thank you that I am not like other people, swindlers, crooked adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a day. or twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, says the Savior, with perfect, with a perfect perception. He says in regards to this, I tell you, This man went to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. We need wisdom from heaven. We need to be men and women of prayer. We must be desperate for the leading of the Holy Spirit. One, we need to be faithful to hold to the truth without succumbing to flattery or man-pleasing. And two, to walk humbly, loving our Savior and loving sinners. This takes the Holy Spirit's work to walk in these realities. Consider the errors and divisions that's crept in over the centuries, countless. Is this not enough to send us straight to our knees? Is the prayer meeting dispensable? I mean, really, we got to walk in this kind of wisdom as the Savior did. I'm not condemning anyone who just practically can't go. But I'm saying we got to be a people of prayer. We got to be a people that cry out to God. What we don't need are secondary labels and identities. We need to be of the same fabric as the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 10. He says, picking up a couple of verses here, I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment for it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you." If there's tears that stay with the wheat, folks, this can be a real problem. It doesn't even have to be tears. True believers who love the Lord can bicker and argue over things that don't need to be bickered and argued about. He says, what I mean is that each of you says, I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ. And then he says, for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Romans 14, 17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Imputed righteousness. Peace from God. Joy in the Holy Spirit. we got to be careful at not making things meat and drink secondary things or consider the wisdom of the savior mark 12 then they sent then they sent some of the pharisees and herodians to him in order to trap him in a statement many dangers tools and snares they came and said to him teacher we know that you are truthful and defer to no one flattery For you are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll tax to Caesar or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at. They brought one, and he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this? And they said to him, Caesar's. And Jesus said to them, render to Caesar things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they were amazed at him. He didn't get trapped. We can't get trapped. Render to Caesar that which is Caesar. You see the wisdom and how he dealt with that? Caesar's inscription was on the coin. God's inscription is on everyone. Render to God that which is God's wisdom. They wanted to trap him. And he says, you're not trapping me. wisdom to navigate traps and not get caught up in fruitless arguments. John 18 36, Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm. Saints, our kingdom is not of this realm. Our kingdom is not of this world. We're marching to Zion, and we must be faithful to truth, and we must be those who go to the Lord and inquire. We have to have wisdom from heaven. We have to have the empowering wisdom of the Holy Spirit. We have to, or we'll get caught up. We'll get trapped. We'll get snared. The scriptures are replete with warnings, and the warning will tell the healthy soil, the heart of those who have healthy soil, you better go to him. You better go to him. You better go to him. It's almost like a broken record all your life. You better go to him. If you sin, go to him. If you're walking in victory, go to him. That's what we need to do. Go to him. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word. Oh, your infinite wisdom. Oh, that you would condescend. To walk with man, to be amongst men, and oh that you'd preserve your word for us. What a treasure. What a gift. Thank you, Lord. Feed and help your people in Christ's name. Amen.