Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro* – One young college student had perfected the ability to sleep through class, awakening just as it ended.

His prof was soon wise to the ruse, so next class period, just as he was waking up, the prof eyed him and said, “So, John, what do you think of that?” Naturally John had no clue, but he collected himself and asked, “Well, professor, what do you think?”

The prof scoffed, “I don’t think – I know!”

To which John replied, “I don’t think I know either.”

Well, God has something we need to know.

But He made it so you really have to want it to get the message.

You can’t sleep through class, or breeze through on someone else’s coattails if you want to know Him.

Why didn’t He make it easier?

Because He wants to know who really wants Him.

His Word is a hearing test of our heart, and only those who really want Him will persist to pass.

That is the emphasis of our text.

Luke 8:8, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Listen up!

This is critical to your eternal existence.

Luke 8:18, “Take care then how you hear.”

This is a constant theme of Scripture.

The command “Hear the Word of the Lord” appears 35 times in the OT.

“Hear my words” – 12 times.

John 5:24, “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.”

“Listen to me” – 48 times.

God always exhorts in passages like Psa 81:8, “Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me!” When Peter started verbalizing at the Transfiguration, God stepped in and said, “This is my beloved Son; listen to HIM.” Are you detecting a trend?! God, having gone to the trouble of revealing Himself in words insists we listen!

He weeds out those who won’t.

You gotta want it.

Thus, Jesus urges this audience of hangers-on to listen.

He knows the truth of Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

Lack of information wasn’t the problem; lack of hearing was.

Jesus is haunted by the faces He sees, alive with excitement at the spectacle, but dead to the spiritual reality of their hard hearts and lost condition.

And so He begs that they listen, just like He begs that we listen.

How important is it?

Jesus says in Matt 24:35, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

Everything else is temporary; the Word is permanent.

One day we’ll either be judged by it, or it will be the thing we’ve heard, lived by, rejoiced in and found life thru!

Now look at Lu 8:9-10, “And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “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.’”

Here is insight into why the Bible isn’t easy.

Jesus spoke parables for 2 reasons -- one aimed at those who deep down don’t want to hear, and one at those who do.

So why parables?

*I.

To Conceal Truth*

Jesus tells His followers in v. 10, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables (note that they asked about interpreting a parable – singular – but Jesus responds with a general comment about parables – plural.

He spoke in parables), so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’”

This warning should cause the hair on our back to stand up.

Anxious as He is for us to know Him, God actually conceals truth from those don’t want Him.

That’s ominous – hard to grasp.

One of my favorite commentators could not stand that thought.

He claims Jesus was saying, “To you disciples I have given the secrets of the kingdom straight out; but to this crowd I have to use parables, pictures to help them understand.”

But bless his heart – that’s not Jesus’ meaning.

He’s clearly saying parables are to conceal truth from some people.

Jesus quotes from Isa 6 where Isaiah gets a strange commission.

Isa 6:8-10: “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

God sends Isaiah to tell the people, “You’re not going to get this.”

What is the point of that?

Beloved, this is God shutting the door!

He’s saying, “These people have rejected me time after time after time.

I will still send the message, but they will not hear; they will not see; they will not understand, and they will not be healed.

They will die in their sin.”

That’s Isaiah’s mission.

Now Jesus applies the same words to His false followers – people interested only in the spectacle – wanting His blessings, but not Him.

For them, judgment is coming!

It’s a chilling comment.

Persistent rejecters are about to be confirmed in their unbelief.

Parables conceal truth from those who don’t care.

Those who care will dig out the meaning.

Others will blow it off as unimportant.

Imagine their surprise when they are judged one day by the very words they blew off.

Jesus says as much in John 12:47, “If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come (in my first coming) to judge the world but to save the world.

48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.”

God’s purpose in Christ was and always has been to save sinners.

Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost.

But when people refuse to listen, they condemn themselves by the message they refuse.

This illustrates a critical principle – critical!

Continued rejection leads to divine judgment.

The idea that you can reject Jesus Christ time after time without consequence is foolishness.

Many who followed Jesus loved the show, but they wanted no part of repentance.

So, the time had come to lay the basis for judgment to follow.

Continued rejection leads to condemnation.

A prime example Pharaoh’s continued refusal to release Israel from captivity despite the plagues God sent.

God gives us telling insight into Pharaoh’s heart as this happens.

It’s a warning.

Moses comes to Pharaoh for the first time in Exod 7:14: “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.”

The word translated “hard” here is כָּבֵד (kabed) from a root which means heavy, dull, or as NASB translates – stubborn.

After the first plague (water to blood) in Exod 7:22, “Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.”

It’s a different word – חזק (chazaq) which means to harden.

Pharaoh’s heart rebels at the whole idea of losing his slaves

But now go to Exod 8:15 after the plague of frogs (#2) Pharaoh promises the people can go, but reneges again: “But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.”

We’re back to stubborn, but this time HE stubborns his own heart.

After a couple more plagues and reneging we get to Exod 8:32, “But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and did not let the people go.”

Same as before – he stubborns his own heart.

In 9:7 we find that Pharaoh’s heart is stubborned again – no assignment of responsibility.

But Pharaoh has reached the end of his tether with God.

So we find in Exod 9:12, “But the LORD hardened (suborned) the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses.”

God says, “Okay, Pharaoh, your intent is clear; your rejection is total, so let me help you out.”

And God hardens Pharaoh’s heart.

Dear friends, you don’t want to get to that point.

You don’t want God helping you in your unbelief, but you reject Him enough times and He will.

He’ll say, “Let me help you out.”

God is amazingly generous; He’ll help you go whichever way you want.

Remember the father of the demonized boy in Mark 9:24 who says, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

And Jesus did – took his little faith and made it bigger.

But you keep hardening your heart against God and the day will come when He says, “Enough!