“Hearing the word, hold it fast” Luke 8:15

Luke 8:15

    As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

Our Lord Jesus Christ wants us to hear what He says. All of the Scripture readings today are about this. The third commandment is about this. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and God’s word but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it. The Lord demands that you to listen to Him not because he is craving the attention, but because what He speaks to you is for your good and for your abundant blessings. He truly desires to produce in you all the results of faith that come when you believe what He says.

Jesus tells this parable about the Sower and the seed to show how His kingdom comes. The seed is the word of the Lord. He speaks and His word is like planted in the hearts of those who  hold it fast. There it grows and matures and produces a hundredfold crop. 

Let's consider now that hundredfold crop. I’m going to list some things that you can have in mind as you meditate on this crop that the Lord has planted and is growing in you.

Salvation.

First of all, it’s your salvation. Jesus is describing His work. He is the Sower. His word tells you about His Kingdom and how He has done everything to make and to keep His Kingdom. He came to this world, lived in this world, suffered here, dying on the cross outside of Jerusalem, and rose again on the third day, all for your salvation. Hear what He says about that. Believe it. Hold it fast in an honest and good heart and you will, as Jesus promised, “bear fruit with patience.” And chief among that fruit is your salvation. You are saved, redeemed, won by Jesus from your sins, from death and from the power of the devil. 

Your salvation in this life and in eternity is the crop and harvest Jesus, the Sower is sowing for. He was sowing seed for that harvest when He spoke to crowds in the towns and countryside of Judea. He has been sowing seed for that harvest in every generation since, as His church continues to preach His Word and His followers continue to testify to Him. He Sowed that seed in you when you were taught about Jesus by your pastors and parents and Sunday school teachers. He sows His seed when architects and craftsmen depict His salvation in wood and precious metals and paint and pixels. He sows His seed when you sing His Hymns and show His love and tell others the salvation that is yours and theirs, too.

Repentance.

Now, this crop that the Lord is sowing within you can be thought of in another way. The harvest, the result, is repentance. Repentance means to turn around -- to turn from the old, bad, sinful ways, to turn back to God and His good ways,

This Word of God, that is the seed to be planted, is described in the Epistle reading from Hebrews as “a two-edged sword”. Hebrews 4:12 :    For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

It cuts, both ways. It cuts in the way of the Law and in the way of the Gospel. It comes to you bringing both warnings and promises. It cuts though your defenses like a sharp sword, exposing your sin and guilt. All that which for shame, you hoped would be hidden -- so no one, not even God, would know what you think and do in secret --  This the word of Christ cuts right through to open up hard hearts, that the Lord can replace your heart of stone with a heart of flesh.

There are some sharp warnings for us in this parable that Jesus tells. Some seed falls on bad ground and when it sprouts, the roots cannot penetrate the rocky ground. Some seeds fall where the devil can snatch it away before it even sprouts. Other distractions in this world can be like weeds and thistles, choking out the tender life of faith.  

Heed such warnings, examine your heart. If there is any barrier to hearing and believing the word of God within you, do whatever it might take to remove it and let it be destroyed by the sharp sword of God’s Holy Word. Repent of behaviors that go against the way of the Lord. Avoid the distractions that keep you from hearing and believing and living the Lord’s Gospel. 

Lent starts in a week and a half. Again this year, I want to tell you, make the most of it. We will take some extra time to hear God’s word and have it planted in our hearts. We will come here on Wednesdays at 7:30 to hear His word, pray the Psalms, and sing the hymns of Lent. Use the discipline of Lent to heed the warnings of the Word of Christ. 

And use the discipline of Lent to prepare your hearts to hold fast to the promises of Easter. That’s what Jesus wants mostly. He wants you to have the full understanding of these warnings, in order that you have a full understanding of all His good promises. And that understanding is a part of the great crop we have a part of. 

Understanding.

We understand that because of the Lord’s salvation “we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”, as we say in Psalm 23. In the Psalm appointed for today, Psalm 84, we hear these words:

How lovely is your dwelling place,

        O Lord of hosts!

    Even the sparrow finds a home,

        and the swallow a nest for herself,

        where she may lay her young,

    at your altars, O Lord of hosts,

        my King and my God.

    For a day in your courts is better

        than a thousand elsewhere.

    I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

        than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Not everyone understands this. Not everyone believes it. Not everyone would agree with this opinion, or so they would call it. Some are so bold as to say things like this, “Wait, if I have to repent of my sins, and believe in Jesus and then I’ll go to heaven and have a place in the Kingdom of God for eternity. . . .No. I don’t want to. It’s not worth it to me.” It can be so disturbing, so frustrating to us when we come across someone with such a hard heart toward Jesus Christ. But Jesus doesn’t seem to let it bother Him so much. He just keeps on sowing the seed.  

This is the parable of the Sower. He is not the planter. The planter of seeds is careful and protective of each seed, placing carefully just so, in a row, at just the right spacing, just the right depth of soil. The Sower broadcasts the seed freely. That's Jesus. Spreading His love and His word to all, even while some won’t take it, won’t hold it firmly.  . . .. .

Jesus said to His disciples, Luke 8:10, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.

To you who hear the word of the Lord and hold it fast in your heart, it grows to bear a good crop of understanding. And with that understanding you can appreciate the other ways we can talk about the crop that is harvested from faith.

Assurance of His love.

There is assurance of His love. You can count on it. When you pray, be assured that you have a God who is behind you on all this. He is pulling for you. He wants what’s best for you. There is this concern that can crop up in our minds that God’s got good reason to hold a grudge. When we hear from our Lord both the warnings of the law and the promises of the Gospel we must remember that He always wants us to have the last word be His Gospel and that we His people rest on those promises.

Consider the structure and order of this parable, the promises predominate. As Jesus describes all that can happen to the seed the Sower is scattering, He saves the best for last -- the seed falls on good soil and produces a crop a hundredfold. That’s the word Jesus leaves us with, that’s the line He wants to stick in our mind. He is speaking this to His disciples, His believers so that we can get the understanding of our salvation, the assurance of His love and the comfort from His Gospel. 

Comfort in your suffering.

In the passage from Isaiah that was today’s Old Testament reading, we hear again how God sends His word to accomplish His purposes: 

Isaiah 55:10-11

    "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

        and do not return there but water the earth,

    making it bring forth and sprout,

        giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

    [11] so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

        it shall not return to me empty,

    but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

        and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Then it goes on to list one of the purposes for which He sends forth His word. Isaiah 55:13

    Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;

        instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

    and it shall make a name for the Lord,

        an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

In the midst of our temporary discomforts and sufferings all we can see is the thorn and the brier. God’s word calls us to trust in more than what we can see with our eyes and experience in this fallen world. God’s promises continue to assure us that He is working for our good. We need not be frustrated when we can’t see all the answers, when we haven’t yet realized all the solutions. We and the Sower of the seed are both waiting for the harvest to come. In the meantime, that growing faith within in us produces the comfort God has for us, that even in suffering, His good purposes are being accomplished.

Training in Righteousness.

The word of Christ produces within you the growing ability to live as children of God, so that your thinking, your saying, your doing may be pleasing to God and good for your neighbors sake. Keep that in mind now and through Lent. How can we observe Lent in righteousness? Perhaps there is some individual practice you will want to do. You are certainly not required to, but you may give something up in Lent, as a regular reminder of the season.

Perhaps you can give up some treat that you’re used to buying and your savings can go toward your offerings to God or to someone’s needs. Perhaps you can work on cleaning up your language, or cleaning up your thoughts. I’m going to suggest that you give up 15 minutes a day of TV watching or internet surfing and use the time to prayerfully read the Psalms. I hope to give out a guide for you to do that next Sunday.

So you see, you who hear the Word of the Lord and hold it fast have a crop coming, repentance, salvation, understanding, assurance of God’s love, comfort in your suffering and training in righteousness.

Amen.