December 11 2024

Wednesday December 11

The Evidence That We Are Saved

Luke 8:9-15

9 Then His disciples asked Him, saying, "What does this parable mean?" 10 And He said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that 'Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand.' 11 "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. 14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

In this parable that Jesus told in Luke 8, He makes it very clear that the proof of salvation is fruit and not merely hearing the Word or making a profession of faith in Christ. There might be many roads that “lead to Rome” but there is only one road that leads to heaven. Jesus claimed to be the only way. In John 14:6 He said, “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by me”. We are either saved, or we are lost. We are on our way to heaven, or we are on our way to hell. That is pretty blunt, but it is the truth. Jesus also instructs us in Matthew 7:13, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”

That is why this parable is so important! We should make sure that we have experienced a genuine salvation and not a false emotional experience that made us feel good at that time. Jesus tells us that the “seed in the Word of God”. In every case this “seed” was sowed or scattered on these four different conditions of soil that of course represent the four types of hearts that “hear” the Word. There can be no salvation experience without the “Word of God”.

Jesus said in John 3:5, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  The “water” is the Word of God, and the “Spirit” is the Holy Spirit. The seed is planted in our hearts by someone as they share God’s Word with us. Peter put it this way in 1 Peter 1:23, “Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” Then the Holy Spirit germinates that seed to bring conviction of sin and open our eyes to who Jesus really is and we see Him taking our place on the cross and dying for us!

I love how Paul explained this to Titus in Titus 3:4-7, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

The first soil or heart that Jesus describes is the hard soil or the hard heart (vv. 5, 12). This soil represents the person who hears the Word but immediately allows the devil to snatch the seed away. The second soil or heart He describes is the “rock” or “shallow ground” (vv. 6, 13). These people hear the Word and receive it mentally or intellectually and emotionally with joy. But that is as far as it goes. These people appear to be saved for a short while, but because they have no spiritual root, as soon as a trial or temptation comes they fall away. Remember Judas!

The third soil that Jesus describes is the in the midst of thorns but never produces fruit or grows to maturity (vv. 7, 14). These people are hard to figure out. I think that they probably are the ones who truly or genuinely get saved but no one disciples them and they remain baby, carnal Christians. (1 Corinthians 3:1-3). The “cares of life” which are legitimate things like food, clothing, shelter and a job, “choke the Word” (Matthew 8:22) and they never bear any fruit. They never experience the abundant life available to them in Christ. They are too busy trying to “make a living”, or get caught up making “more” money and having “more” things, and enjoying the pleasures of this world instead of the one to come!

The fourth soil is the “good ground” that bears fruit. It illustrates the individual who hears the Word, understands it, receives it within, is truly saved, and proves it by patiently producing fruit (see 1 Thes. 2:13; 1 Peter 1:22-25). Not everybody produces the same amount of fruit (Matt. 13:8), but all true believers will produce some fruit as evidence of spiritual life. That fruit may include winning others to Christ (Rom. 1:13), money given to God's work (Rom. 15:25-28), good works (Col. 1:10), Christian character (Gal. 5:22-23), and praise to the Lord (Heb. 13:15).

Today, how does your life match up to this parable? Are you sure you are saved?

God bless!