Luke 8:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Luke 8:8

Comments

Christ gives his own explanation of the good ground: ‘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.’ This good ground does not mean that we have to be good to receive the message of the gospel. The Bible is clear, there is no one righteous. It means rather that this ground is good, because it has been properly prepared. It isn't the wayside, and the rock has been broken up and the stones removed, the thorns have been dug out and uprooted, and so this ground is prepared ground. Nobody is naturally like this; nobody has the ground of the heart ready prepared. It is one of the wonderful things about salvation that God knows our hearts, and he prepares our hearts and softens them so that our hearts are good in the sense that they become receptive. It is because he works in our hearts that one day for the first time in our lives the gospel makes sense, the gospel is welcome to us. I hear the message that my sins can be forgiven because Christ died, and I long for it and I desire it. ‘Oh that I can be forgiven and come to know Christ and have his power and blessing, and be given a new nature.’ I become capable of receiving this message and desiring it. That is the prepared ground. The good ground person by the Holy Spirit has been made a realist. This is what I need for eternal life. I value the message and grasp it with urgency, and I come to Jesus Christ, and I trust him and what he has done on the cross. He bore away my sin. I pray, ‘Lord, forgive me. Wash me and make me new.’

Application

The purpose of the parable is not simply to identify us as one of these four grounds into which the seed falls. It is move us, to get us to respond to the message as those who represent the good ground. We may start as wayside hearers. But what happens? The mercy of God takes an impenetrable person and suddenly makes these things desperately important in their estimation. So now they are more serious. But perhaps they have only got as far as the rocky hearer. They are taking this message more seriously, but still they are indecisive, and ready to turn back. The Spirit continues to work, and they understand their need more deeply. They need this message; they need Christ, but they are not yet ready to repent and depart with sin. The Spirit shows them that they will lose all unless they come to Christ and seek him with all their heart. They have to come to him and throw themselves upon him and his kindness, and ask for salvation, and at last they respond fully.

Pray for a way to escape; pray that God will help you and prepare you; pray that God will enable you to see your need of the gospel and of his mercy and of his forgiving love. Pray for forgiveness and a new nature and eternal life. Pray that he will deliver you from being brainwashed, indecisive or double-minded. Pray that the ground will be broken up and your mind will be clear, and you will see Christ's great love and his astonishing sacrifice on Calvary. That will move your heart, and you will desire him. Pray that God will help you and come to him and do two things. You have to trust him, trust your life to him, put your faith in him, believe in him and receive him, and at the same time you have to repent. Tell him your sin and confess it all, and ask for that cleansing which is vital for your soul. Don't be swept away. If you hear the gospel and you don't think again about these things, it is because you are the wayside hearer. Your heart is like the pathway, the seed bounces off it. You are hardened and captured entirely by the things of flesh and time. Any of these categories apart from the last is an eternal disaster.

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Luke 8:8 Commentary and Bible Study