And then Luke chapter number 8 the Bible says in verse number 1 and it came to
pass afterward that he went throughout every city and village preaching and
showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and the twelve were with him. Now
the theme that I noticed in this chapter is just about how many different places
Jesus went. It starts out talking about how he went to all the cities and
villages and then we see him traveling quite a bit in this chapter. He goes here,
he goes there and it reminded me of the verse in the book of Acts that says
Jesus went about doing good. And so this is showing us some of the works that
Jesus did where he's traveling to various places, he's healing people, he's
preaching the Word of God. It says in verse number 1 it came to pass
afterward that he went throughout every city and village preaching and showing
the glad tidings of the kingdom of God and the twelve were with him. And certain
women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called
Magdalene out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's
steward, and Susanna and many others which ministered unto him of their
substance. This is pretty interesting because this woman Joanna is the wife of
Herod's steward. Now Herod is the king of the land and so this is his steward. So
this is a government guy. This is somebody who's in a pretty high position.
He's close with King Herod and his wife ends up being saved and following Christ
and even donating money because it says that she ministered unto Jesus out of
her substance because Jesus is not working a secular job. He's not doing
carpentry on the side. All he's doing is preaching. All he's doing is soul winning.
That's all the apostles are doing and so people are ministering unto him. They're
they're giving him of their substance it says at the end of verse number three
there. I also thought about how in Philippians chapter 4 Paul says all the
saints salute you chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. So the Apostle
Paul when he's in Rome had been able to win people to Christ in Caesar's very
household. Now this reminded me a little bit of some of the works that were done
recently in Malawi where they were going in and and given the earth I'm sorry was
it Malawi or Botswana where you it was Malawi right both right they were going
into government buildings they were going into the legislature and given
the gospel to the to the government workers they're giving out flash drives
and CDs and DVDs of preaching on to government workers in these countries in
Botswana and Malawi and some of them were one to Christ even in in high
positions. I don't know if there's any hope for any of our politicians but you
know in some places amen people get saved in these positions. So this just
goes to show I think what we could learn from this is that you never know
sometimes who's going to be receptive to the gospel or who's going to be open to
the gospel. You know obviously Herod was a wicked person that was so reprobate
that Jesus wouldn't even tell him the gospel. I mean he Jesus wouldn't even
talk to him and he begs Jesus to talk to him and Jesus just stands there silently
and as a result Herod and his men of war and beating up Jesus making fun of him
mocking him putting the purple robe on him because Jesus wouldn't even talk to
him right. But that doesn't mean that his stewards wife isn't receptive to the
gospel and she got saved. So we need to be careful that we don't just assume
sometimes that certain people are not going to be receptive. We should at least
give it a shot when we see people and and sometimes you'll see people that
look pretty rough maybe some kind of a biker dude or some kind of a rough
gangbanger type and you just assume that they don't want to hear the gospel but
then you walk up to them and and boldly present the gospel and a lot of times
they're willing to listen and a lot of times they'll get saved. And sometimes
the people that look like they're going to be receptive aren't receptive at all.
So we just need to go out there and preach the gospel to every creature go
into all the HOA's and all the apartment complexes and everywhere right
amen and preach the gospel to every creature because you never know maybe
even the assistant manager will get saved. Maybe even the manager themselves
will get saved in these places. So it says in verse number four and when much
people were gathered together and were come to him out of every city he spake
by a parable. Now let me make a key point here I told you that a theme in this
chapter is the travel. You know they're going here they're going there they're
crossing the Sea of Galilee they end up in this place while they're on their way
he stops and heals somebody else preaches to somebody else. Well there's a
key point here because in verse number one it says that he went throughout
every city and village preaching and showing the glad tidings or the gospel
of the kingdom of God. Then in verse number four it says much people were
gathered together and were come to him out of every city. Now there are a lot of
people they don't follow the program that Christ and his disciples were on
and the program that they were on in the book of Acts which involved taking the
gospel to all the towns and villages to all the cities and towns and villages
that's what Jesus did it's what the Apostles did and that's what they
continued doing in the book of Acts. I mean even in the back of your Bible you
probably have a map of these missionary journeys where Paul is just hitting town
after town city after city and preaching the gospel. No they want to just stick
with their little corner of the world and just they've limited their their
scope of evangelizing to just their zip code or just their little town or just
their area but I believe that God wants us to evangelize all towns and villages.
Now obviously our primary responsibility is to make sure we get the gospel right
here at home right here in Tempe and in Phoenix and in Mesa and Scottsdale and
all these places where we are but what about all the towns and villages out
there that don't even have in many cases even a Baptist Church in the town
necessarily or if they do it's it's not a soul-winning church there's no
soul-winning going on there's no evangelism going on I mean people in
Phoenix are more likely to have had their door knocked at some point by
someone with the gospel than somebody in some one-horse town an hour two hours
three hours from here so our church is also involved in evangelizing the small
towns and villages throughout Arizona and we've taken ownership of our whole
state where we say you know what we want to be responsible to get the gospel to
all 21 Indian reservations just us what you know whatever other people are doing
which sometimes seems to be very little when we when we never see any Baptists
preaching in these towns it's just a lot of Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses you
know we're gonna take ownership of it and I hope that other churches will see
our example and that they'll get to all the Indians in New Mexico and in
California and into Nevada and Oregon and Washington but then beyond just the
Indian reservations what about just all the little mining towns right and just
all the towns that have 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 people 8,000 people just
little places we if we follow Christ example are going to get the gospel of
those towns but as we do this they're always gonna be the naysayers the
critics and I've heard this criticism literally hundreds of times well what
about after these people get saved I mean what are you doing to follow up
you're just leaving them as a sheep without a shepherd I haven't heard
somebody compare it to putting a baby in a dumpster you know you you gave birth
to that spiritual baby and then you put it in a dump that's false because we see
scripture after scripture that shows that we are doing what Jesus and the
Apostles did they would preach the gospel they'd be there two days and then
they're like next town I mean I don't even have time to show you all the
examples because it would just take a half hour just to read through them all
let alone expound them to you so many examples but the real story is that
people are just lazy they're prideful they're envious and so they just want to
pick apart someone who's actually getting people saved by saying well you
got him saved but and you know well should we just let him go to hell no I
mean we let's look if we get him saved and do nothing else for them we've done
a lot amen but the real program is that Jesus went through all the towns and
villages and then at that point you know what they had to do they had to come to
him now that's what the Bible says he went to them brought them the gospel
then they had to come to him out of every city and it's the same thing when
we go soul winning in Tempe or Phoenix or Mesa if we give the gospel to
somebody we're leaving them with more than Jesus left them with because we're
actually leaving them with a map to the church I doubt that that Christ was
handing out literature before the printing press and computers I doubt he
was handing out any kind of a writable media or anything you know we're giving
them a flash drive we're giving them a preaching CD we're giving them a Bible
with Genesis to Revelation all neatly bound we're giving them CDs DVDs we're
giving them a map and you know all they got to do is hop in the car get on a bus
call uber whatever it's the balls in their court friend if we go bring
somebody the gospel and get them saved you know where the discipleship is you
know where the follow-up is it's at 2741 West Southern Avenue and it's here three
times a week we got a discipleship class on Sunday mornings at 1030 we got a
discipleship class at 630 on Sunday night and we got a discipleship class on
Wednesday nights at 7 you're sitting in it
consider yourself followed up on if you're here consider yourself being
disciples so this idea that criticizes going far away is ridiculous we're gonna
continue to go far away and yeah it's crazy to go soul winning four hours away
five hours away we're gonna keep doing it cuz we're crazy like that nobody else
is crazy enough to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on the gas and all
the stuff that we hand out and all the Bibles and the CDs and the DVD nobody is
crazy enough to spend thousands and thousands of dollars and hundreds and
hundreds of man-hours and church resources to get a bunch of Indian
reservations the gospel people who live three four five hours away who are
probably never gonna darken the door of the church but you know what we're gonna
do it and I'm gonna see those people in heaven and you're gonna see those people
in heaven and then the naysayers aren't gonna matter but some of those people
will come unto us out of all cities I mean we have a family who drives to our
church every Sunday morning from Mammoth Arizona your mammoth is it's about two
hours plus away and they come here every Sunday to church they're they're
faithful church members from hours away okay now most people aren't gonna be
that dedicated to make that trip but that's not the point we're getting them
saved plus many of these people will eventually end up in Phoenix life will
take them here but even if they never do I'm still glad that we got them saved
I'm still glad we got about and we're doing plenty of discipleship right here
we're baptizing people we're teaching people to observe all things Christ
command and with the internet they can at least tune in and get some growth on
the internet and and and they can listen to flash drives and whatever else so
don't listen to that junk even for one second this this anti soul winning talk
this you know down on soul winning or down on the home missions down on the
the small town soul winning marathons you know of course the devil doesn't
like it when we get the gospel into a town where there's no where there's no
Bible preaching church or something I mean he thought he had those people all
sewn up as his children you know and you know he's like this town's in the bag
right no I mean I got I got all my workers in there I got the Mormons in
there I got the Jehovah's Witnesses in there this is done and then it's like
whoa what's this Baptist Church coming from four hours away right didn't see
that one coming or maybe he did maybe there's always been people like us in
every generation who loved the loss and actually read the Bible and did what it
said so anyway just wanted to point that out because I think that's a pretty
important point then he gets into the the preaching and he tells this parable
of the sower this is probably the number one most famous parable in the whole
Bible if people would bring up one parable name a parable this is probably
the parable that would be number one the parable of the sower right everybody's
heard of it and it's a pretty controversial parable you'll hear
different preachers give totally different interpretations of it and
Christ interprets it but then they interpret the interpretation and and
people are mixed up I think it's pretty clear and I think most people are kind
of just out to lunch on it and that's why they have a wrong interpretation I
think it's pretty clear what the right interpretation is and let me just
explain to you first of all the reason why I think a lot of people get this
parable wrong I think a lot of people get this parable wrong because they they
go into it with the idea that the four types of ground mentioned the four types
of people represent every person who hears the gospel like like everybody's
going to fit into one of these four categories that is not what this
parable is teaching and that's the mistake that they're making now here let
me just show you why that's kind of a silly interpretation and first of all
let me just read you the parable and we'll get into it says when much people
were gathered together and were come to him out of every city he spoke by a
parable a sower went out to sow his seed verse five 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 thorns sprang up with it and
choked it and other fell on good ground and sprang up and bare fruit a hundred
fold 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 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 take it away the word out
of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved they on the rock are they
which when they hear received 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've 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 then he gets right into no
man when he'd lighted a candle cover that with a vessel but he's saying you know
don't put the light under a bushel let the light shine the glorious light of the
gospel but let's talk about this parable here now keep your finger here
go to Matthew 13 and let's look at the parallel passage in Matthew 13 just to
make sure that we fully understand this parallel this is probably all I'm going
to get to tonight just because there's not enough time to go through this whole
long chapter and to give it the treatment that it deserves so I'll
probably finish it on Sunday night and do a sermon on the other aspects of the
chapter but in Matthew chapter 13 it gives us the interpretation of the
parable starting in verse 18 here you therefore the parable of the sower when
anyone here at the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the
wicked one and catch it the way that which was sown in his heart this is he
which received seed by the wayside so let's just learn this parable tonight I
want you to walk out of here tonight and I want you to know this parable I want
you to be able to explain somebody this parable and to just be able to know it
from memory without even having to look at the Bible you just understand and
internalize this parable and understand it the parable talks about four
different types of ground where the seed was sown right one type of ground is the
good ground that's pretty easy to understand somebody's got a good honest
and true heart they hear the Word of God they get saved they also bring forth
fruit some 30 some 60 some 100 so there's really no question about the
good ground right what about the seed that's cast by the wayside so this is
the one that lands in the in the path as it were so therefore it's just exposed
you know because paths are kind of hard dirt and so it's just kind of laying
there on top of the dirt right so what happens the fowls come and eat it and
that represents the Bible says a person who hears the Word of God and they don't
understand it is now what it says right there when anyone here at the word of
the kingdom and understand that not verse 19 then cometh the wicked one and
catch the way that which was sown in his heart this is he which received see by
the wayside so the bird represents the devil taking it out of their heart so
they hear the Word of God do they understand it they did not understand it
just went right over their head so there shouldn't be any controversy here that
the person who received the seed by the wayside did not understand the gospel
it went right over there so that person gets saved no because it says that the
seed was removed lest they should believe and be saved they did not have a
chance to believe and be saved because they didn't even comprehend the message
so when we go out soul winning we should expect that sometimes we're gonna give
the gospel to people and they're not gonna understand it and well I can't
even count how many time that has happened you know you go through the
whole plan of salvation with somebody and they just don't get it so so so now
what do you believe you have to do go ahead up go to church live a good life
just like in one ear and out the other we've all had that happen hundreds times
so the wayside is pretty common and Jesus is given some common situations
here I mean he's given four things that happen a lot okay for us to learn from
so everybody understand the wayside pretty simple right the devil comes and
takes out what does that mean it means that they heard the gospel didn't
understand it and then they end up forgetting the gospel it's gone they
heard it they didn't get it a year later they have no clue it's gone completely
gone totally forgot about it right so that's pretty simple all right we got
that so the stony places now because of the stony places the seed is able to
germinate and a plant is there but there's no root why because the rocks
are in the way to where it can't really have a root system and sometimes you'll
see this where there's a rocky area and there will be some dirt between the
rocks and something can grow in that dirt but it is you just wipe it away
because there's no depth of roots because it tries to put its root down
it just hits a rock immediately it's going nowhere right so Jesus
interprets that person as the one who hears the Word of God and let's look at
in Matthew 13 and we're gonna look at it in Luke 8 it says in Luke 13 a non with
joy receiveth it at the end of verse 20 there so the guy who got the seed in the
stone places he hears the word and a non a non means immediately with joy he
receives it so I mean he hears the gospel and just he's happy about it he
loves it now this makes sense that he loves getting a free gift right he loves
knowing he's going to heaven he loves he's like great he puts his faith and
trust in Christ and he's happy about it he's excited about it and in fact
because he's excited about it he even endures for a while meaning that he
doesn't just get saved but he actually begins to serve God he goes to church he
starts to grow a little bit but because he has no root in himself it says he
dorth for a while for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the
word by and by he's offended right so the first time the policeman comes up
and says hey you can't go soul winning here he's gone the first time a family
member calls him up and says you know what do you think you're doing you know
we're Catholic and but you know you know he's just he's gonna quit the church or
whatever the first person that that goes and protests the church with a sign
that says LGBTQ XYZ you know he's offended I don't want to I don't want to
be you know in any kind of a battle right as soon as old friends are
mocking him for going to church you know when there's any kind of persecution he
folds like a deck of cards that's the stony places guy right he adores for a
while but when times get tough and it might not even be persecution it could
be other types of just tribulation tribulation means trouble trials trouble
just his finances go south his relationships go south it you know
whatever his health goes south he's offended he's just easily offended
easily quits he's not rooted he's not grounded he's not firm he's not hanging
on right got it okay so let's go over to Luke 8 and look at that in Luke 8 it
says in Luke chapter 8 on the interpretation of the stony places it
says they on the rock verse 13 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 now I'm gonna come back to the for a while believe we're
gonna come back to that in a moment but what I want you to see right now is that
it's the same thing in a time of temptation or testing or tribulation or
persecution when things get rough they're not rooted they fall away same
thing as in Matthew 13 okay then we have those who fell among the thorns what are
the thorns it says in verse 14 of Luke 8 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 now look very
carefully at that wording they don't bring any fruit to perfection that is
saying that they start to produce fruit but they never bring any to perfection
right so you could picture a plant with some fruits starting to grow on it
maybe there's some flowers and that pistol is starting to swell up and turn
green and and something's happening right but they don't bring any fruit to
perfection meaning that before they have a finished product a right piece of
fruit there what happens they end up getting choked by the thorns so that
they don't bring any fruit to perfection so they're like on their way to bringing
forth fruit but they don't make it to the finish line right and then the good
ground they do bring forth fruit so what does this mean the cares of this life it
says in verse 14 cares and riches and pleasures of this life this is the love
of money this is where they're they're excited about church they're serving God
but next thing you know they start a business nothing wrong with starting a
business but they start a business and that business becomes more important to
them than church or they start to just look at their house and look at their
car and look at their clothes and say you know what I want more this isn't
enough for me I want more I want to have that big fancy house I want to have the
two-story I want to have the the fancy driveway and I want to have a three-car
garage I'd like to have a boat I'd like to have an RV I'd like to have a
four-wheel drive and you know I'd like to have all the now look I'm not saying
it's wrong to have any of these things but I'm saying this becomes a desire
where they're willing to put church on the back burner they're willing to put
the things of God on the back burner and they're just gonna focus on money and
and not about paying their bills look if you're not able to just pay your basic
bills and feed your family you better get focused on money and get out there
and get a job and work I'm talking about people they're not just trying to feed
their family but they want more they want the pleasures of this life they
want the riches I mean they use the word riches they want that nice car they want
the convertible you know they want more they're covetous and look there are
tons of examples of this that you're gonna see if you stick around in church
long enough people who get into money and you'll see the signs of it when they
just start talking about money all the time and the next thing you know they're
missing a lot of church missing soul winning fading away next thing you know
they're gone their history and you wonder what happened oh well you know
you got back slim he's out of church he's into the and look it might not even
just be riches it could just be pleasures of this life maybe just the
football game becomes more important than church maybe just going camping and
going to the lake and everything you know instead of doing those things in
their proper place and in their proper timing that becomes the big thing and
they quit coming to church so they don't end up bringing forth fruit to
perfection because they're choked out getting busy with everything they just
get too busy with the wrong things does everybody understand okay back over in
Matthew 13 we'll glance at that in Matthew 13 just to make sure and look
I'm just trying to cover all the bases here and and see this from a couple
different angles it says in verse 22 he also that received seed among the thorns
is he that here at the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of
riches why because those riches are not going to bring you the happiness that
you think they're going to bring you that boat is going to get boring and
you're going to wonder why it's taking up so much room in your yard and why you
spend so much money for something that you don't even take out that often and
it's going to get old and you're going to get bored of the four-wheel drive and
the motorcycle and the RV and you're going to get bored of the fancy house
because it's just more cleaning to do it's too big it's all going to get
boring and then the your expensive car the parts are expensive and you know
your job is going to eat up your time you know it's not look it's not what
it's cracked up to be the joy is found in in serving God right so it's the
deceitfulness of riches the trick where you think that it's going to bring
happiness choke the word and he become its unfruitful you know what this goes
to show is that this guy because remember the other scripture said he
doesn't bring any forth any fruit to perfection so it's like he's on his way
to bringing forth fruit and doesn't get there you know becoming unfruitful could
even be interpreted as maybe this guy even brought forth some fruit at one
point but then he gets choked out and he becomes unfruitful okay so it's a
little different wording there in Matthew 13 verses Luke 8 Jesus gives
variations on these parables now let's just stop and use common sense for a
second here we've discussed the four groups briefly right okay one guy didn't
understand the gospel another guy did understand it believed it but he's
thin-skinned so as soon as something goes wrong he folds like a deck of cards
he's a weakling he has no root the other guy starts to grow in the Lord but then
he gets all caught up and busy in the things of this world and then the fourth
guy gets saved and brings forth fruit some 30 some 60 somebody how can this
represent everybody who hears the gospel let me give you some scenarios that are
not mentioned in this parable what about the person who we sow the seed meaning
they hear the Word of God they understand it and reject it where's
that is it in this parable no the only person there's only one person in this
parable that rejected the gospel and it was the one where they didn't understand
it so what about all the people who do understand it and yet choose to reject
it they're not even represented here right okay what about the guy who
receives the gospel never even comes to church once never even never even gets
baptized that's not even represented so there are tons of scenarios you could
think of that are not represented in this prayer these are just four
scenarios that Christ is highlighting they're four common scenarios so the
problem that people have is thinking it represents everybody so here's the
interpretation they walk away with they say everybody's unsaved except the good
ground that's an interpretation that's out there everybody's unsaved when the
the true interpretation is that the only guy who's unsaved is the wayside
because everybody else received the gospel and believed it and therefore
got saved but people say no no only the good ground is safe and then you get
into a false doctrine that if you don't have all these works and if you're not
bringing forth fruit you're not even saved okay when in reality the guy is
saved he just wants a boat and an RV it's obvious yeah the guy's saved look
there are plenty of people who are saved and immediately when tribulation comes
they're offended you're gonna tell me that's not a common situation these guys
are saved but they're not fruitful are you gonna tell me every Christian is
fruitful no way and by the way 30 60 or 100 those are real numbers those are
numbers that's not just saying oh they did stuff they did good stuff no no they
brought forth fruit bringing forth fruit is reproduction it's duplicating
yourself if my wife and I are fruitful it means we bring forth more humans and
if a dog is fruitful it brings for dogs and if an apple is fruitful it brings
forth more apples right so the Christian brings forth more Christians by being
fruitful and the reason it says some 30 some 60 some 100 I wondered about that
for a long time because I thought to myself that's setting the bar pretty low
like you're only gonna win 30 people Lord your whole life you're only gonna
win 100 people Lord your whole life but then I it dawned on me how foolish I've
been for the last 30 years of reading this it's just funny how you can read
something for 30 years and then it finally clicks with you I remember
reading this as a kid and thinking so the the most the the the greatest example
is a guy who wins a hundred people Lord like what about in the Bible they're
winning more than that you know what's going on here that doesn't you know and
I actually I didn't understand that to like less than a year ago which just
shows how deep the Bible is you can read it memorize it study it for decades and
you're constantly learning new things finally it dawned on me that plants
bring forth fruit every year it's not just a one-time thing then the numbers
make sense because let's say you're a dedicated faithful godly Christian
you're not into getting rich you're not a spineless weakling that can't handle
any persecution you're a godly Christian and let's say you're getting out
soul-winding once a week for an hour or two hours right you know what in a
year's time if you're going to a fairly receptive area it's pretty realistic
that in an hour or two of soul-winding you could get 30 people saved that year
now some weeks you're not gonna get anybody saved other weeks you might talk
to a group of three or two people that'll both get saved or whatever so it
makes sense that a person who is a good godly Christian who's serving in their
local church winning 30 people the Lord a year is great that makes sense right
but you know what there are a lot of people that are gonna win a lot more
than 30 people Lord a year there are people who aren't just putting in an
hour or two a week of soul-winding they're not just putting in 50 to a
hundred hours a year or 120 hours a year there are people who are going out
soul-winding for more like three or four hours a week right so if they're
spending twice as much time out soul-winding guess what's gonna happen
they're probably gonna win twice as many people Lord there's your 60-fold soul
winner right and then there are gonna be people who are doing just a ton of
soul-winning and they are winning a hundred people to the Lord a year that
makes sense because that's that's a lot of dedication to get up to that number
of a hundred people saved in a year I mean you're gonna be putting in a lot of
hours you're super dedicated so look some 30 some 60 some 100 it's not that
the hundred guy is better than the 30th they're both the good ground it's just
different situations in life different people have different resources and
different you know winning 30 people Lord in a year is great I mean do that
every year for 10 years that's 300 people do that for 30 years that's 900
people look do that for life and it's a thousand people or more so that's that's
great that now that makes more sense doesn't it a yearly fruit increase so
that's what the Bible is teaching here well guess what that's not the only
people that are saved there are plenty of saved people doing nothing or next
another why because of the thorns in their life choking them out or because
their lack of root and it's causing them to be unfruitful for whatever reason and
look there are other people in other situations as well who are saved and in
church maybe they go to church every week they're not offended by the
persecution they're not into getting rich but they're not bringing forth
fruit for other reasons I mean there's other reasons why plants would fail are
these I mean anybody who's into gardening knows there's a lot more ways
to fail than just rocks and thorns there are other issues there are other
problems that could happen so let's talk about this issue of Luke chapter 8 if
you turn there where it says they believe for a while some people have
tried to use this as a proof text of hey you can stop believing in Christ or or
that you could lose your salvation or something like that and I've heard
interpretations like that first of all you never want to base a doctrine on a
parable based it on clear statements from the Bible that tell us that we have
eternal life will never perish were passed from death unto life there's
plenty of clear scriptures that that that tell us what the gospel is what
believing is how long we're saved that that Christ will never leave us or
forsake us and that nothing can separate us from the love of God so when we see a
verse like this you don't want to just panic because you might just not
understand what it's saying so it says here that for a while they believe and
in time of temptation fall away now the Bible already explained to us why they
fall away in in Matthew 13 because of the fact that they they have no root so
any persecution any tribulation they fall away so why does it say that they
believe for a while they believe for a while first of all the fact that they
believe makes them save period period end of story why because John 3 18 says
this he that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is
condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only God
son of God so those that are not saved they have not believed they've never
believed on Christ because Christ will say them one day depart from me I never
knew you not I used to know you they have John 3 18 is key there there's
those who believe and there's those who have not believed those are the two
groups of people so especially when you look at it in context that the first
group it says lest they should believe and be saved making it clear that those
who believe are saved okay and there's hundreds of other verses for that in
other parts of the Bible but then right there in the context we see that and
then he talks about these people who for a while believe and in time of
temptation fall away first of all what this verse does not say is it does not
say they stop believing that statement is not here now you could see that
implication of they believe for a while so the implication would be that they
only believe for a while I get that but what I'm saying is that there's not an
outright statement that says they believe for a while and then they stop
believing it says they believe for a while and in time of temptation they
fall away which I believe is referring to the fact that they're falling away
from church falling away from serving the Lord falling away from any chance of
bringing forth any fruit because they don't want the persecution they don't
want the tribulation they can't make it through the the testing well stop and
think about this believing is in degrees there are degrees of believing and if
you don't believe me then explain this the disciples said increase our faith
the Bible says we go from faith to faith okay the Bible says that we would
increase and abound in our faith we you know Jesus said well if you had faith as
a grain of a mustard seed you do all these great works so what we have to
understand is that faith to get you saved is not the only faith that you
have in your whole life ever again you see the faith that you have when you get
saved is just believing in Christ putting your faith on him it's not
necessarily a lot of faith I don't think it takes a lot of faith to be saved I
just think it takes all of your faith on Christ you got to believe with all your
heart meaning that you can't be trusting something else in addition you got to
put all your faith on Jesus but I don't think you have to be this great person
of mountain moving faith to get into heaven I mean Jesus told a guy if you
believe all things are possible to him to believe it and he said Lord I believe
help thou mine unbelief and he did the miracle proving that when the guy said I
believe help thou mine unbelief Jesus accepted that faith as enough so you
don't have to have tons of faith to be saved okay now we preach all the time
about how we need to have faith as Christians well what do we just say well
duh we're saved of course we have faith no because what are we saying have more
faith grow in faith have faith on other things have faith in other areas of life
I mean look somebody who has the faith to confess Christ as their Savior right
and believe that he's the Son of God and asked him to save him it doesn't
necessarily mean that they have the faith to sell everything that they have
and move across the country to go you know follow the will of God for their
life or so I mean look Abraham had the faith where he goes out into a country
that he should after receive for an inheritance he went out not knowing
where he was going I mean that's a lot of faith not everybody who gets saved
has that much faith okay they might not have the faith to pay their tithe they
might not have the faith to you know stand up for what's right they might not
have the faith to believe that God's gonna come through for them when they
need him to come through and so they might feel like they have to take things
into their own hands and everything I got look we all have lapses in faith all
the time all the time I mean if we all had ultimate faith we'd be better
Christians we'd be doing more we'd we'd we'd we wouldn't even we wouldn't even
begin to have any kind of doubt or worry because we would just know hey God's
gonna take care of us but don't we all worry sometimes and and doubt and have
lapses and baby man I don't know if God's gonna come through is this gonna
work out I mean look it takes faith to have a lot of kids because that's a lot
of mouths to feed a lot of Christians don't have that faith if they're saved
they have enough faith to believe in Christ but do they have the faith to
excel in these other areas in the Christian life not necessarily so I
believe that what the Bible is saying here is that when it says hey these
people they hear the Word of God and for a while believe and in time of temptation
fall away I think what it's referring to is that these people's faith that they
had to get saved because when they got saved they believe what the Bible told
them their faith takes a nosedive when tribulation and persecution comes now
they have no faith that he's gonna come through and protect them he promised to
protect us he promised to take care of us he promised to bring us through all
the trials but their faith I mean when they got saved they had the faith to
confess Christ and they're excited and they're believing the Bible but then
when it comes to believing the promises of God when it comes to temptations
persecutions and tribulation what about the promise where God said he'll not
tempt you above that you're able they don't believe that apparently because if
they believe that wouldn't they be here through the hard times through the storm
through the battle they'd be here so I think when he says which for a while
believe and in time of temptation fall away I think that the the not believing
there it's not saying that they stopped believing that Jesus is the Son of God I
think it would make more sense in the context of they're going through
temptations trials and tribulations that they stopped believing the promises
of God and you know there are plenty of people who believe God's promise of God
to get them saved but then you show them other promises of God they don't have
the faith to claim those promises I mean that's just the fact and well you
believe the whole Bible don't you yeah we all believe the whole Bible right
everybody believe the whole Bible yeah okay but if you looked at our lives
wouldn't you see some lapses in faith where there's certain things in the
Bible where it appears that we don't believe because we're not living by it
because we're you know what I'm saying so that that's the point here I think
it's silly to just read into this hey these people just stop believing that
Jesus is the Son of God I think that's a little bit of a stretch okay I don't
believe that for one second I think that's a false interpretation but let's
just for argument's sake let's just for argument's sake say that that's what
this does mean like I said that's a wrong interpretation I don't believe in
it but let's just for argument's sake say for a moment that they really did
stop believing I mean these people just stop believing in Christ well here's the
thing they'd still be saved theoretically now I personally do not
believe that it's possible for a saved Christian to just utterly stop believing
in Christ I don't believe that's possible because once you're saved
you're enlightened the Holy Ghost moves in so I don't want you to misunderstand
me that I'm saying that I believe this I'm just throwing this out there as an
alternative interpretation I think is wrong but I'm throwing it out there just
to show you that even if that were what this were saying the people are still
saved because they believed theoretically if we stopped believing
we'd still be saved because if we do anything we're still safe because God
will not break his promise of eternal life once we're his children were his
children that spiritual DNA is in our bodies and in our soul and spirit just
as much as our dad and mom gave us DNA our spiritual DNA is that ingrained
we're a new creature in Christ I mean we you know nothing can shit we've been
passed from death unto life we shall not come into condemnation so I personally
don't believe it's possible to fully stop stop believing but I do think it's
possible to doubt to lapse in faith to reduce your faith to get to where you're
not believing in a lot of the promises of God and I think that that's makes a
lot more sense in this context okay so that's what's going on with that group
so quick review because I want you to walk out of here and remember this I
want you to remember that the parable of the sower talked about people who heard
the Word of God and didn't understand it common situation it talked about people
who got excited about church but as soon as the hard times come they fold like a
deck of cards very common situation it talked about people who got into money
and pleasure and having fun and they got out of church and faded away super
common situation and it talked about a less common situation but still pretty
common around here people who are winning 30 people to Lord every year 60
people the Lord 100 people Lord why because they have a good heart and they
heard the Word of God they believed it they kept it they followed it they
obeyed it they're not perfect but they're bringing forth fruit on a
yearly basis and they're rooted and they're not going anywhere they can
handle the testing they can handle the storms and they're gonna continue to
bring forth fruit year after year until their life is over or until Christ
returns those are the four categories now again if we were to take the
interpretation hey they stopped believing that Jesus is the Son of God
how common of a situation would that be because we could talk to all the people
that quit faithful word whenever things got rough for them we could interview
all the people who quit Verity Baptist Church when things got rough or other
churches and you know what they're all gonna say that they still believe in
Christ they're all gonna say they still believe Jesus the Son of God and they
probably many of them go to some watered-down Baptist Church where
there's no testing and no temptation no tribulation no persecution it's not
that they'd stopped believing in Christ but you know what they stopped believing
that God can protect them and they stopped believing that God can bless
them if they will stand strong makes way more sense much more common situation
that we would see in real life spout our heads and have a word of prayer father we
thank you so much Lord for this this great chapter Lord and and the
teachings that are there in and Lord we thank you for giving us the
interpretation because some of the people in the story didn't get to hear
the interpretation and thank you that we got to hear it along with the 12
disciples we got to hear this interpretation so that we could learn
from it and and we have all the mysteries of the kingdom of God right
here at our fingertips an entire Bible Lord help us to dig into it and read it
and learn it and and and then we can watch it play out around us Lord over
the years we can watch these four scenarios take place over and over again
and see the truth of your word in Jesus name we pray amen