The Parable of the Sower

Today on Renewing Your Mind, the parables that Jesus taught were meant to reveal, but also to conceal. To those whom God had given ears to hear, it was revelation. But for those whose hearts were hardened, who had a basic antipathy and hostility to the things of God, the parables were a form of divine judgment. Granted, some of the parables that Jesus taught are a bit difficult to understand. There are layers of meaning that we may not see right off the bat. But most of them seem as clear as the nose on your face. So you wonder why some people were left scratching their heads and missing the point that could have altered the course of their lives.

Let's join Dr. R.C. Sproul as he preaches from Luke chapter 8 and focuses on the parable of the sower. Before Luke records for us Jesus' teaching of the parable of the sower, he gives us a brief historical note by saying that it came to pass afterwards that he went through every city and village.

Preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and that the twelve were with him. But Luke then tells us that certain women also were with him, those women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, and he names some of them. Mary Magdalene, we are told, out of whom had come seven demons.

Now this poor woman has suffered from the characterization of having been a harlot, which has somehow come up out of church history because it says that she had had seven demons taken out of her. But there's not a scintilla of evidence anywhere in Scripture that this woman was ever a harlot, and she is seen as an outstanding example of fidelity to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was to this woman that Jesus first revealed himself on resurrection morning. And we see also named Joanna and Susanna, and Luke tells us that many others supported Jesus with their substance. One commentator says that this was the Woman's Aid Society that supported Jesus during his earthly ministry. Another commentator has defined Luke's entire gospel as the Ladies' Home Journal of the Bible because Luke gives more attention to women than any of the other gospel writers.

No, the women were not numbered among the apostles, but they did have a significant role in the entourage of Jesus during his earthly ministry. And here their nobility, their sacrifice, and their fidelity are noted by this gospel writer. And then we were told a great multitude was gathered, and they had come to him from every city, and he spoke by a parable. Listen once more to the parable. A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed some fell by the wayside and was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell upon rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. Some fell among thorns, and then the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. But the others fell on good ground, sprang up and yielded a crop a hundredfold.

And when he had said these things, he cried, he was ears to hear, let him hear. Here is a story taken from the agricultural methodology of Jesus' day. Seed was not sown in the fields in the way it is normally in our country and at this time. But rather when it came time for planting, the sower would have a large bag slung over his shoulder filled with the seed that he was going to plant. And unlike us, he would not plow the field first and then sow the seed. But rather he would go through the field sowing the seed, and the little wind currents would carry the seed where it would, sometimes into the middle of the field, sometimes in the path alongside or in the middle, or on those sections of the field under which there were hidden outcroppings of limestone. But wherever the currents carried the seed, there the seed landed. And then when he was done sowing the seed, then he would take his plow, and he would plow the seed into the earth and wait for the rain to come and have the seed to be germinated. So in every season, every time seed was sown by a farmer, certain things took place. Some of the seed that was cast about would fall along the path that was beaten down, was hard-paying, and had no possibility of penetrating into the earth. And the seed that was cast in that manner never germinated, never bore fruit, but was plucked by the birds of the air, and in a sense seemed to be wasted. And then some of the seed that fell upon the rock, it had nowhere to go underneath the ground, and when the plow came through, it couldn't break up the rock, and so the seed rested just barely below the surface on the stone, but had no possibility of taking root. Some of the seed fell along the sides of the field where there were already other things growing, thorns and brambles, and the seed would fall there in the middle of that, and it could take root.

There was earth there, but when it would take root and begin to grow alongside the thorns and the brambles, the seeds were choked out and died without coming to fruition. And then Jesus said in the parable, there was seed that fell upon good earth, not earth that was hard-paying, not earth that was stone, not earth that was covered with thorns and brambles, but fine soil that the nutrients needed for germination and growth were right there, and this seed took root, and it grew and produced a hundredfold a wonderful crop. And then after telling this little story, Jesus said, Do you hear what I'm saying? Do you understand what I'm saying?

He who has ears to hear what I'm saying, let him hear. And at that point, the disciples weren't sure whether they understood the point of the parable, and so they said to Jesus, What does this parable mean? And Jesus answers the question and explains the meaning of the parable, but before he does, he says something that is often disturbing to people as they read this text of sacred Scripture.

He said, To you has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest, to those outside, it is given in parables that, now quoting from Isaiah, he says, seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. We normally assume that the whole point of a parable was to clarify some difficult point of Jesus' teaching, but actually the parables had a dual purpose. For those who had ears to hear, the parables were given to them to reveal the hidden things of the kingdom of God. But at the same time that the parables were given to some people to explain, elucidate, and clarify the teaching of Jesus, Jesus spoke in parables to others to hide from them the truth of the gospel.

And why would he do that? The parables were given not only to reveal but to conceal. To those whom God had given ears to hear, it was revelation. But for those whose hearts were hardened, who did not have ears to hear, whose necks were stiff, and who didn't want to hear the Word of God, who had a basic antipathy and hostility to the things of God, the parables were a form of divine judgment. It says, oh God, we're saying to these people, you don't want to hear me, fine.

I won't let you hear me. God's justice is poetic. He gives people over to their sins. If their hearts were hardened by their own sin, he would say, let that hardened heart be even more hardened.

Let that stiff neck be even more stiff. If that's what you want, that's what you'll get. A perfectly just judgment of God with respect to people who did not want to have God in their thinking. But Jesus said, this parable was given to reveal things about the kingdom to the disciples, and so he now explains it for them. He said the parable is this, the seed is the Word of God. That's the first thing we have to understand about this story that Jesus gives, that this story about seed being cast into the wind and onto the earth and by the thorns and all the rest is not simply about an exercise in agriculture. This is a parable about the preaching of the Word of God.

The seed represents God's holy Word, and so the holy Word is sown. It is preached, and those by the wayside are the ones who hear, but the devil comes like the birds of the air and takes that Word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. There are people in this room right now, I'm sure, but who are hearing this parable just as Jesus gave it right now, but that this Word is falling upon ears who can understand it intellectually, but it doesn't pierce your soul. It doesn't penetrate your heart. Your heart is still in the possession of the enemy, and He wants to do everything His power to keep that Word from entering into your soul. And though you hear it outwardly, you don't hear it inwardly.

You were like that seed that fell along the way, along the road. In the second group He said the ones on the rock are those who when they hear it receive the Word with joy, but they have no root. They believe for a while, and then in the times of temptation they fall away. Now some look at this parable and think that what it teaches is that people can be saved and lose their salvation.

They can be in a state of grace and be justified, but it doesn't last. Now that flies in the face of everything else the Bible teaches us about the perseverance of the saints. The Bible tells us that those whom the Lord redeems, He preserves, He gives to them the seal and the earnest of the Holy Spirit, and we are told that He who begins the good work will finish it to the end. And John tells us that those who went out from us never really were with us. John goes to great lengths to teach us that God the Father has given the Son a people, and those whom the Father gives to the Son come to the Son, and nothing can snatch them out of His hands. So I don't believe in a second that a true believer ever loses his or her salvation. They may have periods of backsliding and the rest, and they may be engaged in serious and radical fall away from grace, but never full and final fall away of grace.

We say it this way, if you have it, you never lose it, and if you lose it, you never had it. That's the paradox of the situation, but we see over and over and over again examples of people who make professions of faith in Christ and also do it enthusiastically, joyfully, but it is a spurious conversion, not a true conversion. One of the banes of mass evangelism in America in the last couple of centuries has been the phenomenon that evangelists scratch their head about where they'll give these public meetings and they'll give a stirring sermon, and at the end of the sermon they give an altar call and call people to come forward and to give their lives to Jesus. And maybe you've been to places like this and seen these kinds of experiences where all of a sudden a wave of humanity comes out of their seats and into the aisle and come forward to confess their faith in Christ. And then the studies show six months later not just some, but sadly the majority of them have returned to their old ways and show no evidence of conversion whatsoever. You see, in our fallen condition, while we're spiritually dead, we can still perceive something of the benefits of the gospel.

The gospel is good news. And as creatures made in the image of God, though our consciences have been seared by sin, we still, even in our natural condition, have an ability to feel guilt. And in many cases, some people, that's all they feel.

They're guilty, and they know they're guilty, and the euphemisms and rationalizations that we as human beings do to assuage our guilt don't work. And so when somebody preaches a gospel of free grace and of the forgiveness of their sins, they jump at it. There's an emotional response. But as the parable indicates, dear ones, it is superficial. It is a response only on the surface, a momentary emotional response, but not one that comes from the depths of the soul, not one that comes from the deepest chambers of the heart.

It's a surface response, and it's like seed that falls upon that tiny little bit of earth under which there's stone, and it takes root for a second, but the roots don't go deep enough to sustain life, and it springs up quickly, and as soon as the sun comes out and scorches it, it withers and dies, bringing no fruit whatsoever. That describes, as I say, false conversions, which are one of the deadliest dangers that we deal with in the church. By now, if you've been here for any time, you've got to be sick and tired of hearing me say that we're not justified by a profession of faith, but only by a possession of genuine faith.

Anybody can say they believe. Anybody can have their hearts tingling for a moment, but real conversion turns the life upside down. Now, there is something about this I want to say in light of the sermon last Sunday. Last Sunday I mentioned my own personal testimony where I said that on September the 13th, 1957 at 11 o'clock, I met Christ, and it was the defining moment of my life from thereafter.

But after telling that account, I was concerned when I went home. I thought, oh, my, I hope that people didn't walk away thinking that unless you can say the day and the hour of your conversion that you're not really converted. I do think that regeneration, the work by which the Holy Spirit changes the disposition of your soul and brings you from darkness into light and from unbelief into faith is an instantaneous thing. It's not something that happens gradually, and nor is anybody ever partially reborn.

You're either regenerate or you're not regenerate, but your conversion experience, that is, your intellectual awareness of what has taken place may take years to realize. I think of the example of Billy Graham and his wife Ruth Bell Graham that Billy would tell the story of playing baseball one night in North Carolina, and on the way home while he was still in his baseball uniform, he on a dare for some reason stopped at this revival tent and heard the preaching of a man by the name of Mordecai Ham, and Mordecai Ham gave an altar call at the end of his service, and Billy Graham went forward, and his life was changed forever. So Billy Graham could tell you the day and the hour when he became converted, but his wife Ruth was a Presbyterian. And she grew up through catechetical instruction in a Christian home, and she couldn't tell you within five years when her conversion took place. So the question is not when and where were you converted.

It's not the point. But the question is, are you converted? Not that you answer an altar call, not you raise your hand, not that you prayed the sinner's prayer, not that you signed a card. Are you converted? Does the Holy Spirit dwell in your heart? Has your life been changed by the regenerating grace of God the Holy Spirit?

The only test for that is whether you bear fruit. Well, what about this other group, this third group that Jesus describes? The ones who fell among thorns are those who when they heard go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life and bring no fruit to maturity.

But again, like the ones that fall upon the stone, these at least take root, and maybe their profession lasts a little longer than those who fell upon the stones, but these that fell upon the thorns never leave the thorns and are choked by the thorns. I used to teach at the Young Life Institute in Colorado, and I used to give a warning to that organization and their leaders. I would say to them, as far as I know, I don't know any organization that has a more effective ministry to high school kids than Young Life. I said, but the danger here is that you make Christianity so attractive that people can be converted to Young Life and never be converted to Christ.

And one of the problems that the leaders in Young Life used to deal with constantly was the problem of what they called tubing it. That is, kids that would come to camp, sing the songs around the bonfires, and enjoy all the wonderful fellowship in the Young Life groups and so on, but then they would fall away, go down the tubes, as it were, and then renounce their faith. Again, were these converted people who fell away?

I don't think so. Their conversion experience was spurious. It was not the real thing. That's why it's so important that we hear a parable like this lest we go through life blithely and blindly assuming that we're in a state of grace when we're far from the kingdom of God.

That's why we need to search our hearts to make our calling and our election sure lest we be deceived. And then Jesus said there was that seed that fell upon the good earth. Now, don't come away from this saying, well, only good people respond to the gospel. That's not the point that Jesus is making. No, the good soil is the soil that has been changed by God the Holy Spirit. It is the good soil where the seed takes root because God the Holy Spirit has prepared it and tilled it and made it fertile, which is something in our flesh we cannot do for ourselves. But those whose hearts have been changed by the Holy Spirit, when they hear the Word, they love the Word, they embrace the Word, they obey the Word, and they bring forth the fruit of conversion, the fruit of real salvation in abundance a hundredfold. I think that's the point of this very interesting but difficult parable. And it's the reason why many commentators don't even call it the parable of the sower.

They call it the parable of the soil because it's the soil that determines whether the fruit comes forth and whether the seed germinates the soil that has been prepared by the Holy Ghost. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. The fruit of genuine salvation, genuine conversion to Christ, is obvious for all to see.

Those who hear the good news, grow for a while, but eventually fall away, were never converted to begin with. We've just heard a sermon by Dr. R.C. Sproul from the Gospel of Luke. We return to the study every Sunday, and our resource offer today will be a great help to you as we continue the series.

When you contact us and give a donation of any amount, we will provide you with a digital download of R.C. 's nearly 600-page commentary on Luke. In it, he traces the record of Jesus' life as told by Luke. You'll learn that this gospel is for believers and skeptics alike, written so that you may have certainty about the Son of Man who came to seek and save the lost.

No one is in the office today. My colleagues and I are worshiping with our families, but you can give your gift and request this resource offer when you go to renewingyourmind.org. Our desire here at Ligonier Ministries is to proclaim the holiness of God in all its fullness to as many people as possible. One way we do that is by offering a variety of podcasts. For example, Simply Put is a short podcast about long words. Every week my colleague Barry Cooper sheds light on a different biblical or theological term and makes it easy to understand.

Go to simplyputpodcast.com and scroll through the episodes. You'll expand your understanding and deepen your faith one word at a time. Renewing Your Mind is the listener-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Thank you for being with us today, and I hope you'll make plans to join us again next Sunday. .