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The Book of Luke, The Parable of the Soils, Part V - Lesson 101
We know by our parable of the soils that the seed broadcast by the sower is the word of God.
That seed will bring forth fruit in good soil.
The fruit that is brought forth from the word of God is the fruit of the Spirit and is evidenced in those who have been born into the family of God.
That fruit is a direct result of the seed for the seed determines the fruit.
You plant an apple seed and you get an apple tree capable of producing apples, not pears, not grapes, not bananas, only apples will result from an apple seed.
Within any seed are all the ingredients necessary to produce a particular kind of fruit.
So the seed that is the word of God is designed to bring forth a particular fruit and that fruit we know of as the fruit of the Spirit.
We know by Galatians 5:22 that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
That is what the seed, the seed that is the word of God, produces in God’s children who are the soil of God and the recipient of the seed.
If you are God’s child that is what is being produced in you and God is giving that fruit to you for particular purposes.
It is not fruit given for no purpose or fruit given to waste and let lie dormant but is given for particular purposes of God.
We know by Ephesians 2:10, that ……. we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
This verse from the Amplified Bible reads thusly: For we are God’s [own] handiwork, (his workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which he prepared ahead of time] that we should walk in them [living the good life which he prearranged and made ready for us to live]
So those who are saved, those who have been born again, those who are children of God are created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of doing those good works which God planned beforehand.
Those who have been born into God’s family will not only be doing good works in this body but they will also be doing good works in their glorified body.
For this is an eternal purpose of God for his children.
But we are not to do good works on our own, by our own specifications, by our own ideas but we are to do them according to God’s specifications.
And God’s specifications are that any good works that are done for God are to be done with the fruit that he gives his children by His Spirit.
A man is given tools and methods with which to build an automobile and he is expected to use those tools and methods in accordance with the designer’s specifications so the final product will look as the designer envisioned.
He is not to bring in his own tools or formulate his own methods but he is to follow the specifications set before him.
And it was in the designer’s interest to equip him with the right tools and methods to do so!
And likewise, we as God’s children, are equipped with fruit that God gives us in order to carry out good works in his name.
Galatians 5:13 says: For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
We see here an example of how to serve one another.
Service is good works. And we are to do those good works by love.
In God’s vineyard it is God’s will that we are not to serve without love.
Service without love is not representing God in the right way.
It is communicating another God for God does not serve without love.
That is God’s specification and He wants his specifications followed.
Service without love is not fulfilling God’s way nor is it presenting our God to others as our God truly is.
Paul in Ephesians 4:1-3 says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The vocation wherewith you are called is good works and you are not to do good works in God’s name unless you do them in lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering forbearing one another in love.
That is God’s way.
That is how the Lord Jesus Christ does things and He expects those who are being conformed to the image of his son, to also do things.
So the fruit of the Spirit is given in order to carry out God’s work in God’s way.
We are not to invent a way in which to carry out God’s work but we are to do so in accordance with God’s specifications.
And God always equips us to do His work His way if we pay attention and are obedient to His word.
So any good work that we do, if we expect it to be blessed of God and approved must be done within the confines of the fruit of the Spirit.
Good works are to be done in love, Good works are to be done with joy, Good works are to be done in peace, Good works are to be done with longsuffering, with goodness, in faith, in meekness, and with temperance.
And if done in any other way, they are not done in the Spirit but are simply done in the flesh for the flesh operates outside of the fruit of the Spirit.
The flesh operates in lust, temporal happiness, anxiety, impatience, evil, by sight, proud, and intemperately.
If you are a Christian you should ask yourself how do I do my good works?
Are they done begrudgingly?
Are they done in a spirit of worry, anxiety, fretfulness, with impatience?
Are they done with a moody and irritable spirit.
Are they done with a spirit of pride thinking of what will be personally gained?
Certainly you can suppose that good works done in this spirit are categorized as wood, hay and stubble and will not survive the testing fires of God?
But the good works that are done according to God’s plan, that of doing them within the confines of the fruit of the Spirit will survive the testing fires of God and are called gold, silver and precious stones.
Our God as the husbandman, expects to see those created in Christ Jesus using the fruit that he has given for those works that he has appointed to be done.
Think about all the debris that surrounds us on every side due to our recent hurricane.
All that debris has no value and will be discarded. In the same manner God will discard all those works that have been done apart from the fruit of the Spirit.
For God has no use for those works that have been done without the fruit of the Spirit.
But we as God’s children ought to cheer the heart of God with works done with the fruit that He has supplied.
So after explaining this parable of the sower and the four soils the Lord Jesus Christ instructs his disciples further in Luke 8:16-18:
No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. 17For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. 18Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.
Think upon God’s creation as to fruit.
Think of the color of the orange, the banana, the apple and the peach.
God does not hide the fruit of his trees but makes the fruit known by the bright color of the fruit in contrast to the leaves of the tree.
The fruit of the tree is there to bless others.
An orange is first green but changes its color to orange when it is ready to bless.
It is not ready to bless until it is prepared.
It has to persevere in order to bless.
An undone orange will not bless but brings sourness to the eater.
Likewise the banana and the peach and the apple will not bless until ready.
So any fruit that has been given to you is not to be hidden or kept to yourself but is to be used to bless others as the orange, as the apple, as the peach and the banana are given to bless others.
So in this context we are given this passage about the lighted candle, the lighted lamp.
In the previous verses Jesus has told His disciples that He meant to hide the truth of the kingdom from the masses, while revealing it to His intimate followers.
Now, in verses 16-18, Jesus makes it clear that this “hiding” of the truth is not to be done by his disciples who hear the truth.
The truth, Jesus taught, was like a light, and light was not intended to be hidden, but to be brought into the open, where men in darkness could benefit from it.
As the orange is hidden in green until it is ready, the gospel was hidden by Christ until it was ready to be broadcast by his disciples.
In verse 17, Jesus went on to say that nothing which was presently hidden was to stay hidden for long, but would be brought out into the open.
Jesus was not revealing His secrets to His disciples so that they could keep these things to themselves.
Jesus was revealing His secrets to His disciples so that very soon they could broadcast them to the world.
The disciples were urged to listen well, for as they distributed that which the Lord had entrusted to them they would be given even more.
As the truth was broadcast, more truth would be revealed.
Why, then, were these truths, these secrets of the kingdom, temporarily concealed from the masses?
Why were only the disciples told?
Because Israel was not yet ready, Israel was not yet ripe.
Jesus Christ was continuing to prepare the soil of unbelief by withholding the truth from Israel.
The nation Israel had not received Jesus Christ as their Messiah in spite of the fact that he had presented himself to them as the Messiah in accordance with the scriptures.
In spite of the scriptures their leaders have rejected Him and have determined to put Him to death.
The people demand miracles and signs, they demand a show.
This was not a nation about to believe and receive light but a nation in a track of unbelief and a willing slide toward darkness.
So Jesus began to veil His teaching, focusing more on His disciples and revealing more and more to them about His upcoming rejection and sacrificial death.
Jesus’ concealing of these mysteries of the kingdom allowed the unbelieving nation to intensify its efforts to rid itself of this kind of Messiah which did not fit into their beliefs. |