We're going to be reading from
Mark chapter four. And I've kind of divided this
up into a number of little passages again, but you know what? I'm
just going to take it right from the top. We'll read Mark chapter
four, verse one, and we'll read down to verse 20. Mark chapter
four and verse one. And we're speaking about the
Lord Jesus Christ here. And he began again to teach by
the seaside, and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so
that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea, and the whole
multitude was by the sea on the land. And he taught them many
things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken,
behold, there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass,
as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the
air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground,
where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up
because it had no depth of earth. And when the sun was up, it was
scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit, that sprang
up and increased, and brought forth some thirty, and some sixty,
and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, they that
were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. And
he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all these
things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and
not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand,
lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should
be forgiven them. And he said unto them, Know ye
not this parable? And how then will ye know all
parables? The sower soweth the word, and
these are they by the wayside where the word is sown. But when
they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the
word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which
are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word,
immediately receive it with gladness, and have no root in themselves,
and so endure but for a time, and afterward, when affliction
or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they
are offended. And these are they which are
sown among thorns, such as hear the word, And the cares of this
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other
things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are
sown on good ground, such as hear the word, and receive it,
and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Our Lord Jesus Christ was sent
by his Father to reveal divine truth. to this world, but particularly
to his people. And at the beginning of Hebrews,
we are told that God has spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ, having
spoken in times past by a variety of means, God, who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake in time passed unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the worlds. And so, the Lord Jesus Christ
is God's voice to us today. And when we hear the Lord speaking,
we are hearing God speaking to us. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
is speaking to his disciples, and he is interpreting this parable
to them, the parable of the sower. Now we've seen that a parable
both hides and reveals God's truth. It hides in the sense
that it shields or protects holy things from the mockers and the
scoffers and those that would ridicule. The Lord says elsewhere,
don't cast your perils before swine. And yet it also instructs,
the very same words instruct and apply those gospel truths,
laying them on the hearts of those to whom it is sent. Those who are given Holy Spirit
illumination and an understanding heart, spiritual understanding. And this parable, the parable
of the sower which is before us today, it serves to reinforce
that fact to us. That fact that parables both
hide and reveal. This parable was given for a
purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ, in instituting
this means of speaking, this parabolic sermon, did so with
a purpose. And there is a familiarity in
this parable, but there is also a starkness. I want to just pause
and dwell on those two thoughts for a moment in our introduction
here today. Few of us with any knowledge
of the Bible whatsoever will not be familiar with this parable. This parable, the parable of
the sower, is the stuff of Bible And if we have been introduced
to the Bible in childhood, undoubtedly we were given a picture story
book of the parable of the sower. It just lends itself to graphic
imagery and countless children's addresses and lots of evangelistic
sermons. I imagine that everyone who's
listening to my voice right now has already got in their head
a picture of this sower sowing his seeds. But this is also a
very stark parable. Even, dare I say, fearsome. While we are told that some seed
falls on good ground, fruit-bearing seed, there are three other places
revealed to us in this parable where growth is doomed to failure. And also, who makes this an evangelistic
sermon? except a free will preacher with
an agenda and an axe to grind. This is a parable and this is
a parable expressly designed to convey spiritual wisdom to
God's covenant people. And I return to the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is designed by the Lord to
convey spiritual wisdom to those to whom it is given to know the
mystery of the kingdom of God or the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now if you want to call that
evangelistic in a narrow sense, that's fine, but it's certainly
not the case in the free will approach of an Arminian preacher. This parable does not mention
conviction for sin. It doesn't mention judgment to
come. It doesn't mention the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, or cleansing blood, or imputed righteousness,
all subjects that one might expect to find in a message particularly
addressed to unbelievers. But it does explain to the church
What tools of service are at the church's disposal in the
service of God? It does explain to the church
what the world's reaction will be when those tools are exploited
and activated in the preaching of the gospel. And it does explain
to the church where Christian fruitfulness and usefulness is
to be found. And that's the spiritual wisdom
that Christ is dispensing to his people in this parable. Our Saviour has very graciously
and very beautifully explained this parable. So in some respects,
I'm very much redundant today as the preacher, because would
I dare to add to the Lord's explanation Or am I going to be as presumptuous
as to try to bring a few remarks to bear on his explanation that
he missed? That would be presumptuous indeed.
So what we're going to do today is we're going to consider a
few general principles that this parable reinforces. And we will be reminded, I trust,
if the Holy Spirit will engage with us, why the Lord's explanation
of the meaning of this parable to his disciples was so important. So important for them To do so, I want to bring you
four general principles. And the first one is this. The
Lord Jesus Christ was teaching his disciples by the use of this
parable, the centrality of the preached word in the disciples'
ministry. Okay, that's quite a mouthful.
Let me say it again. Here's the repetition coming
in. The centrality of the preached
word in the disciples' ministry. What is this parable about? What
is it called? It's called the parable of the
sower. It's about the sower. the sower,
the one who sows the seeds. Therefore it's about the disciples,
it's about their apostolic ministry. And what the Lord Jesus Christ
is doing in explaining these verses, these images to his disciples,
is he is explaining to them their own personal role as preachers
of his gospel. The Lord is telling these men
what their purpose is, what their role is as preachers of the word. Now let me provide a little context
here for us all. Mark, we've just begun on chapter
4 and we preached from chapter 3 a number of months ago and
perhaps much of it is forgotten and so be it. Let me remind you
of what has just transpired in chapter three. Mark has just
told us in chapter three that the Lord Jesus Christ ordained
12 apostles, or messengers, because that's what an apostle is. It's
a messenger, one who carries the message of the teacher. And he commissioned them or ordained
them to preach. he would send them to preach. So we read in verse 14 and 15
of Mark chapter three, he ordained 12 that they should be with him
and that he might send them forth to preach. So with him to learn
from him that he might thereafter send them forth to preach and
to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. Now this
power to heal sicknesses and cast out devils seems to be particular
gifts for that apostolic age, for that particular time of the
apostolic ministry, before the New Testament scriptures had
been pulled together and gathered together. And indeed we may quite
legitimately spiritualise these two things. The healing of sicknesses
and the casting out of devils in the context of the church's
ministry today is not so much a physical healing but a spiritual
healing of spiritual sickness and a spiritual casting out of
devils. as that strong man who possesses
the house of the unbeliever and has to be expelled and cast out
by the coming of the Holy Spirit in power. But these 12, this
verse tells us, were principally called to preach. men that were
gathered over a period of time and places, but immediately following
their ordination. As the Lord Jesus Christ continues
in his ministry, we are told that two things happen. One is
that scribes come down from Jerusalem and they accuse Jesus of demonic
possession and of serving Satan. The second thing that happens,
and it seems all to happen on the same day, as we were reflecting
last week, is that the friends and family of the Lord Jesus
effectively disown him. And we can read that in chapter
3, verse 21, and in verse 31. There's this idea, there's this
sense that they are unhappy about what he's doing, even to the
point of accusing him of madness beside himself. So these two
things happen. The Lord ordains these 12 and
calls them to preach and immediately the Lord himself is accused of
demonic possession, of being a servant of Satan and his own
family seem to cast him away and marginalise them. Both of
those things must have made a big impression on the disciples.
And let me say another thing here. The disciples, or as they
became the apostles, Peter, James, John, the other disciples that
came along, Paul particularly in later times, they never preached
in parables. They were not learning from the
Lord Jesus how to speak in parables. Their preached ministry was the
work and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Exclusively so,
the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ preached Christ crucified. The Lord Jesus Christ here was
showing them that their ministry would be opposed and he was showing
them that their ministry would be costly. They were called to
be preachers, they were called to be sowers who sowed the word,
who preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Jesus preached
to a multitude in parables, but his real audience was just a
few, the few who gathered to whom the meaning of this divinely
inspired story would be revealed. So Mark chapter four, verse 10
says, they that were about him with the 12, Now that might have
been quite a large number. It certainly is more than the
12. It may indeed have been the 70
that were sent out two by two in order to preach the gospel. But it is to them that the Lord
says, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. So here is the first general principle. I said we
had four. Here is the first one. The first one is what I've just
given you. Preachers are seed men. Preachers are seed men and they
sow the good seed of the word. That's a general principle that
the Lord Jesus Christ has established here in this parable or in the
explanation of this parable. They are called to preach despite
the fact that they will face opposition, despite the fact
that they will suffer. The seed that is sown is the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We read that in verse 14. The sower soweth the word. It is the word of God, the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here's the second general
principle that this little explanation and interpretation of the Lord
Jesus Christ gives us. Notwithstanding their faithful
sowing of the word, because the disciples were faithful preachers
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but notwithstanding their
faithful preaching, The Lord specifies four different responses
that that faithful preaching will result in. There are people who hear the
true gospel preached. There are people, and it is these
people of whom the Lord is speaking in the parable, that hear the
apostolic preaching. Now, let me just pause and remark
upon that. Not everyone in this world hears
the true gospel preached. Not everyone does, that's just
the reality. Indeed, I would go so far, and
I may be a little bit bold here, but I trust not overly stepping
the mark to say that many, many people who believe they're hearing
preaching are not hearing true preaching at all. They're not
hearing sovereign grace preaching. They may be in Christian churches,
but they're not hearing the true gospel preached. So the number
of people who actually hear at any time in their lives the true
gospel preached is probably relatively small in the context of the world
population. And it is only those who hear
the true gospel preached that is in view today, not all those
others out in the world. So, The Apostle Paul tells us
that there is another gospel, which he says is not really another
gospel, but it is a troublesome perversion of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the free will works
religion. And like every religious perversion,
it's not that that is in view in this apostolic preaching.
but it is true apostolic ministry that generates the response in
these four different kinds of soil, of the wayside and the
three soil types that we have before us. The gospel is ordained
to be declared And that gospel is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. That was the message that the
apostles had committed to them. Justification by grace. The necessity of faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Forgiveness of sin. Imputed righteousness. full and
free salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the doctrines,
the key doctrines, the central doctrines, which characterise
faithful gospel preaching. And it is incumbent upon all
of us to seek out and to search for faithful gospel preaching,
because we will not be nourished and we will not be sustained
in our souls if we listen to a perversion of the truth. All who hear that gospel preached
that I've just spoken about, hear a faithful gospel preacher. and Peter and Paul and John were
faithful gospel preachers, but there were reactions to their
ministry. Some were careless when that
gospel, that true gospel, was preached. Some of those hearers
were wayside hearers, and their reaction was, who cares? Who
cares? What is that to me? These people were going to hell
fast and they were ignoring the only message that points to salvation. The only message that points
to Christ the Saviour, to heaven and to forgiveness of sin. It's a solemn thought for us.
Some of our children are in exactly that place. They have heard,
they have been privileged in this world to hear faithful gospel
preaching. And their reaction is, who cares? What is that to me? They're like
Esau, and they're prepared to give up their birthright for
the immediate satisfaction of the offerings of this world.
It's a very solemn thought. They hear the true gospel preached
and they're gone tomorrow, careless of the fact that they have had
such a blessing laid in their lap. Now, I don't want to appear
pretentious, as if this is me personally. But I know people. I know people that are my neighbours
around here. I know people that I'm friendly
with, that I'm polite to. Men and women. And they don't
want to hear me preaching. They don't want to hear the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They just don't. It would be
the last thing from their minds would be to hear the gospel preached. And they would be offended if
I suggested that it would be a good thing for them to do it.
Now let me imagine for a moment that those same people were suffering
from cancer. And I happened to mention casually
in a conversation that I was one of the leading cancer specialists
in the world today. What do you think their reaction
would be? I think their reaction would be to prick up their ears
and to think very seriously and perhaps even engage me in conversation
and broach the subject about their illness and their need
and wouldn't it be wonderful if I could look at their case
notes and perhaps give them the benefit of my thoughts on their
case. Why? Because there's a burden
in their own lives for the need that they perceive. but the people
at the wayside, to whom this good seed was sown, are careless. They've no thought for the true
gospel of Jesus Christ, even though they've heard it, perhaps
repeatedly. Here's the second group of people
that the Lord identifies, the curious. They're interested,
huh? Why are they interested? Something
has intrigued them. Something about this gospel message
has intrigued them. Maybe it's nostalgia. Maybe they're
remembering their childhood. Maybe it's the traditional religion
of their family or even their culture. They go to a new town
or a new city. What do they do? They look up
a Baptist church. Why? Because we were Baptists. We're Baptists way back. And they're interested in coming
along to church. They're interested in hearing
the gospel preached. They like the system. Maybe they
admire the boldness of the preacher, or they sympathize with the aims
of the church. Maybe they like the moral clarity
of Puritanism, and the rules and the regulations of legalism. And they come along and they
listen. But their interest isn't enough
to matter. Not really. Not to matter where
it's important. Their religion works for them
like a tool in a box. It's an insurance policy for
them. And if they've ticked that box
in their life that they've got church sorted, that's all they
need. Some of us are in that category. We're hearing the gospel today,
but we'll be gone tomorrow. Maybe there are some who hear
that apostolic ministry and they're committed. They're committed
to a point, they're committed. And this is perhaps the most
devious and the most fearful state of these soil types that
the Lord presents here before the disciples. They are like
members of the church at Ephesus. Let me read you a couple of verses
about what the Lord says to the church at Ephesus. He says this, and thy patience, and how thou
canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them
which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them
liars. Oh, you know, it's great when
we can identify a free will preacher. It's great when we can identify
a legalist. and is born and has patience,
and for my name's sake has laboured and is not fainted. Nevertheless,
I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first
love. Don't ever imagine that we've
got our spirituality sorted. Oh, that the gospel would continue
to move upon us. These people that the Lord speaks
about here, they have allowed other things to enter into their
lives, things that have choked the word and made it unprofitable
to them. it becomes unfruitful to their
souls. I fear that most of us are in
this category today. But then there's the converted.
Oh, that the gospel preached would convert our souls, change
us and alter us. You know, people sometimes think
that conversion is a one-off experience. It's not at all.
Conversion is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the life
of a believer. What is it that converts us?
It's the gospel that converts us. That's why we have to keep
hearing the gospel. It's why we have to keep feeding
upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the messages of Christ and the
truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it is the gospel that
sustains us. That is the word of God to our
hearts. The word preached, the apostolic
testimony, and that is what enables us to grow in grace. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is telling his apostles, these disciples,
that when they preach, when they sow the word, they will find
in the reaction of the hearers all four of these conditions. Here's another lesson, another
general principle that the disciples had to learn from this parable
of the sower. Response to the gospel preached. is not regeneration. Sometimes there is the temptation
for a preacher to mistake response to his preaching. Now a powerful
preacher, a persuasive preacher can excite his congregation and
he can enthrall his hearers. And some of those hearers will
at once receive the word that they have heard with gladness. But there's stony ground hearers.
There are thorny ground hearers. And whether you're stony ground,
whether you're thorny ground, you can give a good show at the
start. It springs up, it gives an impression
that there's something living there. but only in the leaf and
not in the fruit. Do you see the problem? Do you
see the problem that Peter and James and John and Paul had to
contend with? Response to the preaching of
the gospel was not regeneration in every case. So if a preacher
doesn't seem to be as excited and as enthusiastic about your
gospel experience as you are, be patient with him. He's watching
you. Believe me, he's watching. And
if he's been preaching for a long time, he has likely seen many
people come and go. and he's wondering where you
are. He's wondering whether your gladness
and enthusiasm is real or whether it's false. Some time ago I read an article
by a man called J.C. Philpott. and it was called Reformation
is Not Regeneration and it was a particularly good article. I published it on the New Focus
website at the time. I found it really helpful and
because I found it helpful, I'm going to place a link to it in
the sermon notes in the YouTube little box under the title for
YouTube after the service and you can find it there and you
can click on it and that'll take you to the New Focus website
and you'll be able to read it at your leisure if you choose
to do so. But here's the point that Philpott
was making and that I'm trying to make. It is possible for people
to show all kinds of outward evidence of spiritual life, but
it's just that, an outward evidence, an outward show. Are you an Ananias or a Sapphira,
or are you an Aquila and a Priscilla? Both of those couples shared
fellowship in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of them
was a fraud. But until that fraud was revealed,
both were accepted as bona fide members of the Church. You see, fruit takes time to
grow. And the true believer, the true
believer, will and must weather some floods and some droughts
along the way. How we live proves what we profess. And that's why James in his little
letter speaks about faith without works being dead. He's not saying
that we need works in order to have faith, but he is saying
that true faith will manifest itself in a continuance and in
a perseverance and in a fruitfulness. And here's the fourth and final
point. Good ground requires spiritual
preparation. Because fruitfulness in a believer's
life is spiritual. This was another lesson that
the disciples had to learn before they were able to go out preaching. Peter, Paul, John, they preached
a good gospel. They preached the true gospel
of free and sovereign grace. The seed that they spread as
sores, far and wide, landed here and there, on the wayside, on
stony ground, on thorny ground. But what made the difference
was the quality of the ground. And who made the difference was
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit alone could break
up that hard, stony ground. The Holy Spirit alone is able
to remove the thorns, to make the ground good, to make the
ground fertile, to make the ground productive when the seed is sown. And that can be painful work.
Don't imagine that fruitfulness in a believer's life comes easy. Years ago, I heard this parable
being preached on, and the preacher told us that when we were converted,
we would bring others to the Lord, and some would bring 30
other converts, and some would bring 60 other converts, and
some would bring 100 other converts. That Arminian nonsense can stumble
a young believer. Christian fruitfulness is not
the number of converts that you have. It's your gospel faith
in Christ. Christian fruitfulness is your
faith. Christian service is your praise
and worship and thanksgiving to God for the faith that he
has given you. Good works are in every action,
every service, every sacrifice, every sharing of a burden of
another believer, every act of suffering, everything that we
undertake and undergo in a desire to honour and serve the Lord
Jesus Christ for what he's done for us in salvation. Let me give
you one final little thought here by way of encouragement,
just in case I've been a little bit too stern with you today
in some of these thoughts. There's a final basic principle,
and maybe this was number five, really. These disciples and apostles
and preachers and the church had to learn what the effects
would be of sowing the good seed. But here's another principle.
God's elect will be saved through the preaching of the gospel.
It's how it happens. There's no doubt about it. The
Lord's people will be planted in the sowing of that seed and
they will grow and they will be fruitful. That's the reason
why the Lord sent out the preachers. That's the reason why the disciples
took the gospel to the ends of the earth. It's why the church
continues, the true church, to preach the gospel of free and
sovereign grace today because that is the means by which the
Lord Jesus Christ gathers his church. And it will be nourished
and it will be made fruitful by the preached word of Jesus
Christ. Why? Because that's God's way
of doing it. God will prepare the man, and
God will send the preacher, and he will prepare the ground, and
he will prepare the word, and he will water, and he will wheat,
and he will scour, and he will break, but he will bring to glory
his people. he will save his own. The gospel will not return void. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us and encourage our hearts in them.