Luke 8:12

SATAN’S EVIL WORK

‘Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.’

Luke 8:12

Let us translate the parable a little into modern circumstances. Here is, let us say, a worthy, respectable person—regular in public worship, whatever he may be in private. He has joined, or seemed to join, more or less attentively, in a thoroughly Scriptural service. There has been every help to lift the mind to God, and fix holy thoughts and godly resolutions in his heart; no care, no pains have been spared, perhaps, as far as we can see, for his spiritual profit. He rises up at last with God’s Holy Word ringing in his very ears, with God’s own blessing freshly invoked upon his head, to carry home this good seed, this godly instruction, and, if he will, to act upon it and bring forth good fruit. And just at this very moment, when all seems so safe, so hopeful, so prosperous, when we have all prayed that this good seed may sink down inwardly into his heart, when all humbly hope some good has been done, some blessed impression left on his memory, some holy resolution ready to spring up in his heart— then cometh the devil!

I. In the most unlikely moment.—Then—for has he not been watching, as it were, in the very porch? Then—for he has no time to lose. Then cometh the devil, as he has come to thousands more, as he has come so often, and finds the good seed lying there, and catches it up unopposed, and taketh away that which is sown in his heart. The man was not asleep, nor inattentive. Else good seed would never have got into the ground of his heart at all. When you see the birds fly down on some newly-sown and well-worked piece of land, and with their busy beaks try to rob the sower of his long and careful toil, do you recollect that there is God’s own picture before your eyes of many a hearer of God’s Word, many a worshipper in God’s house; and do you ever ask yourself—Has it been, is it thus, even with me? Good seed, sown over and over again; and what has it all come to? The devil catches away the good seed out of the man’s heart, ‘lest he should be saved.’ Careless souls allow Satan to rob them, to deprive them of their own eternal happiness.

II. How is it that he succeeds so well?—Why are so many forgetful hearers—so few doers of the Word? Why is so much good seed sown—so little fruit borne for God’s glory and man’s salvation? He catches away the seed because it never sank down deep; it lay on the surface; it was never, so to say, raked in and covered over. The Psalmist says, ‘O God, Thy word have I hid within my heart, that I should not sin against Thee.’ That is exactly where the careless hearer fails. Let the Word sink down and be hidden deep, and then, though the devil comes, he cannot snatch it away. What do we read of the Blessed Virgin Mary? (chap. 2) She ‘kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart’ (Luke 8:19); and again, ‘His mother kept all these sayings in her heart’ (Luke 8:51). What sort of crop would he have who neither prepared his ground to receive seed, nor covered it over after it was sown? Ah! the plough, and drill, and harrow, the spade and the rake, all teach us lessons. All bid us prepare for seasons of grace.

III. Who is really careful and anxious over this important matter?—If we would only form one good resolution, while God’s Holy Word is fresh in our ears; if we would say as some neglected duty is brought to our minds, or some secret sin comes home to our conscience—‘Now, from this very moment I resolve, before God, to do this, or that’ (however humble or trifling the act in itself), it would be the greatest safeguard to the good seed. Satan would come and try, but the holy resolution, by God’s help, would be too strong for his cunning. If hell is paved with good intentions, heaven is paved with good resolutions. Let the good resolution be something we can act upon at once. In one, perhaps, it would be a resolution always to read and meditate on at least one verse of Holy Scripture, say at a fixed time daily. Another, perhaps, would resolve to begin the practice of family prayer. Another would resolve to give, perhaps, part of one day in each week to visit the poor. Another, some act of goodwill to an unkind or quarrelsome neighbour. There are hundreds of devout rules, of kind Christian acts, in which we fall short and offend.

Rev. J. T. Parsons.

Illustrations

(1) ‘Nowhere, perhaps, is the Devil so active as in a congregation. Nowhere does he labour so hard to stop the progress of that which is good, and to prevent men and women being saved. From him come wandering thoughts and roving imaginations—listless minds and dull memories—sleepy eyes and fidgety nerves—weary ears and distracted attention. In all these things Satan has a great hand. People wonder where they come from, and marvel how it is that they find sermons so dull and remember them so badly! They forget the parable of the sower. They forget the Devil.’

(2) ‘The agency of the fowls is external—it is not in the soil itself, nor is it connected with the soil; and, in like manner, the foe who removes the seed from the heart—that is from the memory of man—is external. Satan exercises a certain amount of power over the memory. He can relax its grasp, says Christ, upon that which is good—upon that which, if admitted, might convert the soul; and if so, is there any reasonable ground for doubting that he may do mischief in the same quarter in another form, and tighten the hold of the memory upon the evil deposits which by evil accidents have been lodged there?’