Luke 8:8 And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bore fruit an hundred times. And when he had said these things, he cried… l: — I. WHAT IS THE RIGHT RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL? The answer may be given in a word. It is the reception of it into the mind and heart as the remedy for sin. This involves — 1. The recognition of sin. An honest heart is one that ackowledges its wrong. There is no honesty in any of us denying that we are sinful before God and sinners against Him. 2. The acceptance of the remedy offered. II. WHAT, THEN, ARE THE RESULTS? 1. The whole character is changed. 2. A change in the whole life. If a brackish fountain has suddenly lost its bad qualities, the change will be discovered in the sweetness of the stream that flows from it. III. There is, then, A GREAT RESPONSIBILITY in preaching, hearing, and possessing the Word of God. Our responsibility is to God. That a field has soils of various kinds, may be a matter of no interest to any one else; but to the frugal farmer it is a matter of great interest. To the passing traveller it would occasion no anxiety to know whether all was hard as the wayside; or all a light soil on a broad undivided rock; whether thorns and thistles had intertwined their noxious roots over all its surface; or whether it would give bread to the sower, and return thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold to the reaper. But to the industrious labourer this was a matter of the first moment. (E. N. Kirk, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. |
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