as we read the scriptures and
God brings us to minister to each other is that he would actually
give us spiritual eyes to see reality, to see life as it really
is and most of all to see the Lord Jesus as he really is. So, you know, we are in Mark's
Gospel and the Lord Jesus has come as the prophet, priest and
king to the covenant people of God, the people of God who at
Mount Sinai promised to obey him. And yet at Moses, at the
end of his life, talks about all the wonderful things that
God has done for these people. They had more evidence of God
than you could possibly wish to ever have. And then he says,
talks about these great trials that they've seen, signs and
great wonders. And then he says, The Lord has
not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear
to this very day. And Proverbs says that the seeing
eye and the hearing ear are from the Lord. So again we are reminded
that evidence doesn't bring faith. God alone works faith and life
and sight in his people. So here we have these men who
come to the Lord Jesus and see him do things that only God can
do, things done before multitudes of people, public activities. He declares himself openly, publicly
to be God and does marvellous wonders in their sight and yet
the Pharisees turn to these wondrous things and say this man is possessed
by Beelzebub, by Satan he does Satan's work. His family think
he's out of his mind. And so the seeing eye and the
hearing ear come from the Lord. And that's what we pray for,
isn't it? As I said earlier, some people went away from these
parables and they heard stories about birds and seeds and rocks
and thorns. And he takes his people aside
and he shows them spiritual realities. And that's really what we plead
for but we must plead God for in the lives of people that they
would see spiritual realities. They would see beyond earthly
things and they would see this world. They would see who they
are in this world and they would see especially who the Lord Jesus
is through eyes that God alone gives. One of the stories that
beautifully illustrates this is the story of Simeon at the
Temple. You probably know it well. was
waiting in the temple. He'd had a word from God that
he would see God's salvation. He would see God's Christ. And so the baby is brought to
the temple, just a baby with little tiny fingers and little
minuscule fingernails, just a baby wrapped up. All the beauty of
a baby, all the smells of a baby was there. And Simeon saw a baby
and what did he say? He took him up in his arms and
he blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant
depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen
your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all
peoples. a light to bring revelation to
the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. So we live
in a world where multitudes know about the Lord Jesus. They know
that a man lived in Galilee 2,000 years ago. They might know many,
many things about him. In the religious world they might
know an enormous number of things about him and be able to recite
huge passages of scripture. The question is, will they see
him as Simeon saw him? Will they see the physical realities
and then see that behind them lie spiritual realities which
are much, much deeper, much, much more profound and much,
much more significant for our souls? And that's what we Pray
happens in church, isn't it, as we open up God's Word and
we just try, as faithfully as God allows us, to just proclaim
what he says in his Word, that we actually confess Jesus, which
is to say the same. We want to say the same about
the Lord Jesus as God says about him. We want to say the same
about the Lord Jesus as he says about himself. We want to confess
what the apostles confessed about him. But we know that that Gospel
is power from God, a declaration of Jesus Christ and him crucified. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Gospel and that Gospel, God says, has power. Extraordinary power
in the lives of people. And so the parable of the soils
is a parable about the gospel coming. The gospel comes as light
and the light reveals what is there in the soils. The light
coming doesn't create the rocks, doesn't create the paths, doesn't
create the weeds. doesn't create the good soil.
The light coming, as we saw last week, reveals what is hidden
from the view of all men. So the soils are not changed
by the coming of the seed. The coming of the seed, the coming
of the Gospel, just reveals what is already there. And so we need,
if God would grant us the grace, we need to see his word through
spiritual eyes. And that's what he does with
these parables. He gives a simple story that's so common to their
experience and yet embedded in that story are just marvellous,
marvellous wonders. about who the Lord Jesus is and
what he does in the saving of his people. Verse 21 of Mark
says, Also he said to them, Is a lamp brought to be put under
a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which
will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but
that which should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let
him hear.' Then he said to them, take heed to what you hear. With the same measure you use,
it will be measured to you. And to you who hear, more will
be given. For whoever has, to him more
will be given. but whoever does not have even
what he has will be taken away from him. So the title of my
message today comes from verse 24. Take heed to what you hear. Take heed to what you hear. So this light, the light of the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus, he calls himself the light of the
world, this light has shone in this world since the time of
creation. The first words of our God are,
let there be light. And as we saw from the parable
of the soils, the light, the gospel comes and it exposes what
is there. It might take a long time for
that to be exposed, but one day it will be exposed. This is the
judgment, says John in chapter 3 verse 19. This is the judgment,
that the light has come into the world and men loved the darkness
rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone
who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light
for fear that his deeds will be exposed. they will be exposed. So the lamp comes. For nearly
400 years the Jews had not received a word from God and then John
the Baptist came. He came, as the Lord Jesus says,
as a light which shone and burned brightly and it was to shine
upon who the Lord Jesus is. It shone both on who Jesus is,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and it
shone into the hearts of people who were brought by God to repent
and then be baptised. And everything these men did,
both John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus, was his open view
to all the world, for all the world to see. So often in the
Gospels we read of great crowds, multitudes and we have them numbered,
4,000 men, 5,000 men, multitudes so great that the Lord Jesus
has to hop into a boat to get away from the shore, to get away
from the crush of the crowd. so that he could preach because
that's why he came. So he came with a message to
proclaim, a message about who he is and what he does in the
saving of his people. This message, this Gospel is
brought to be put on a lampstand and Jesus promises that this
Gospel will be preached to all the world and it is both our
responsibility and our wonderful privilege to see that the Gospel
of the glory of the Lord Jesus is proclaimed as widely and as
clearly as he will allow. But this Gospel is a revealing
Gospel. In verse 22 he says, For nothing
is hidden except to be revealed, nor has anything been secret
but that it would come to the light. So the immediate reference
here of course is to the parable just spoken. Some people went
away hearing stories of birds and stones and weeds. Some went away from that story
hearing spiritual truths. These spiritual truths are revealed
by God as he reveals things. We cannot come to saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus, a deep trust in the Lord Jesus by intellectual
attainments. If we come to the Lord Jesus
by decisions that we make on the basis of intellectual things
that we have understood, then someone will come along at some
time with a greater intellectual argument and they'll take away
that seed that has been sown. God's people live by revelation
from God, a revelation that brings them to meet God and to meet
themselves. This is eternal life, says the
Lord Jesus. that you might know the Father
and know the Lord Jesus. It's not knowledge, it's not
just knowledge about Him. Of course it's knowledge about
Him, but it's knowledge of Him is what he's talking about. In
Matthew 11 the Lord Jesus says, I thank you, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the
wise and prudent. and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in your sight. All things have been delivered
to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the
Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and
the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. And then we have
that great promise from God, that great word of the Lord Jesus. come to me, all you who labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' If the work to
maintain your righteousness, your standing before God, your
understanding of who God is in his holiness and you are burdened
by the fact that your efforts are worthless and that the more
you try, the further you reveal the fact that you are lost. Jesus
says, Come the heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly
in heart and you will find rest for your souls. God's work in
our lives comes by sovereign revelation. Always it must come
by sovereign revelation. And so the seed is hidden by
God. It goes into the soil. Even though
the seed appears to be dead, it does have life in it, as if
it were in suspended animation. Seeds can stay alive for hundreds,
maybe thousands of years. and when it's buried in the soil
and meets the conditions that bring life to be manifested. The life is there and the soil
brings it to life. So how much of God's wonderful
works are hidden from the people of this world? How many people
are going about their normal activities today? It's a great
day for being out on a boat, great day to be fishing. Last
weekend of the summer holidays but you can search the newspapers,
you can search the activities of our land in vain to find anything
about the Lord Jesus. We put all things down to chance,
to the work of men. We look for every possible refuge. rather than looking to God. And
religion is an interference in the lives of people. They keep
saying, you do what you want to do but do it in private and
don't bother us about it. It's hidden from them, isn't
it? God has hidden from people what's going on, what's really
going on in this world. And that's what Romans 1 says,
isn't it? That they know and God has judged them. by hiding
the light of the Gospel from them and giving them idols that
they make, idols that they make and idols they worship, the great
idol of me and I. But religious people all over
the world are going through their various activities and ceremonies
all in some form or other based on the worth, the will and the
work of men as he is encouraged to believe that his work, with
the help of God in some way, will fit him for heaven. The
Lord Jesus compared the day of his return to the day of Noah
when men were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage
and then the rain came. How much is at this time hidden
by God in judgement of this world? Well might we cry In judgement,
Lord, please remember mercy. Please remember mercy on people
that we love and care for. Our God is sovereign. When he hides, things are really
hidden. But in this passage he actually
only hides that things might be revealed. So in the parable
of the soils, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus reveals what is hidden
from the view of our eyes. The word is sown in them for
those by the path. and is immediately taken away
by Satan. The word sawn on the rocky soil
does not last because they have no root in themselves. They look
from our point of view to be passionate and enthusiastic but
God says they have no root in themselves. The word sawn among
the sawns is choked by the deceitfulness of riches and other lusts. But the seeds are on the good
soil, and the soil is good because of God's work, not ours. It is
God who makes us to differ. It is God who makes a difference.
It's hidden for a while in the soil, but it must come to light. So things are hidden by God for
a time, but it must come to light. So the revealing, as I often
say, does not create anything. It just makes evident what is
already there. The same sun which burns up the
plants on the rocky soil and gives life to the weeds which
choke the other plant and gives life to the bird and nourishes
them so they can take the seeds that fall by the path. That same
sun in the good soil, that seed sown in the good soil has the
moisture and the nutrients and all of what's in the soil to
make that seed grow and strengthen the plants. They have the root
in themselves, verse 17. They hear the word of God according
to the Lord Jesus and they accept it. Paul speaks of his ministry
in Colossians. He says, Of this church I was
made a minister according to the stewardship from God, bestowed
on me for your benefit that I might fully carry out the preaching
of the word of God. That is the mystery which has
been hidden from past ages and generations but has now been
manifested to his saints to whom God willed to make known what
is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing
every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we
may present every man complete in Christ. That mystery was hidden. Christ in his people. Christ revealed himself in Paul
in Galatians. And for this purpose, this I labour, he says in 1 Corinthians
1.29, striving according to his power which mightily works within
me. So Christ in people works powerfully,
bringing faith. We speak God's wisdom in a mystery. The hidden wisdom which God predestined
before the ages to our glory. The wisdom which none of the
rulers of this age had understood for if they had understood it
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. God's children receive revelation
directly from God. through His Word, by His Spirit,
illuminating who the Lord Jesus is. For to us God revealed them
through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the
deep things of God. And then the Lord Jesus in verse
23 repeats a warning again and again in this passage. He says,
If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. This is again, I remind
you, the covenant people of God under the Mosaic Covenant, the
people who had witnessed all of the remarkable things that
God had done in the previous 1500 years and more of their
history. In Deuteronomy the Lord said,
He spoke to you from the midst of the fire and you heard the
sound of the words. These people had heard God speak. Has any people, he asked them
in 4.33 in Deuteronomy, has any people heard the voice of God
speaking from the midst of the fire as you have heard it and
survived? Out of heavens he let you hear
his voice to discipline you and on earth he let you see his great
fire and you heard his words from the midst of the fire. God
came and spoke to these people. and their lack of hearing, their
response to him is something for which they are culpably responsible,
these people who made promises to God. They made promises. They said to God, you tell us
what to do and we will do it. For 1500 years God had sent prophet
after prophet. Their words had been written
down and these people when the Lord Jesus comes are the ones,
instead of rejoicing in seeing their Messiah, seek to destroy
him. And their prophets said, remember,
give careful thought, says Haggai, give careful thought. because
the Lord has bared his holy one in the sight of all nations.
God has not done his activities in a hidden way, they're public
activities. He has bared his holy arm in
the sight of all nations that all the ends of the earth may
see the salvation of our God. In verse 24 the Lord Jesus was
saying to them, take care what you listen to By your standard
of measure it will be measured to you and more will be given
you besides. The Lord Jesus is saying to people,
take heed to what you hear. It means to discover by use,
to know by experience, to discern. and there is no doubt that the
things that we listen to go deep into our lives. Our hearts according
to God are deceitfully wicked and beyond cure and beyond understanding
and there is enough in our Adam flesh that provides a ready environment
to grow any evil known to man. No wonder the Lord warns his
people to focus on things that are holy and pure and noble and
true and to fill our minds with those things rather than the
trash of this world around us. But here the Lord Jesus is just
being accused of being in league with Satan and performing miracles
and soon his disciples will face many accusations as they proclaim
the Gospel. and it's always been the primary
aim of those who hate the Gospel to denigrate the preacher. As
they did with the Lord, so will the enemies of the Gospel do
to us today. So he tells his disciples to
take care what you listen to. He says beware of the yeast of
the Pharisees not just the Pharisees, but the yeast of the Pharisees.
So you take care to who you hear. We all have to take care to who
we hear. We keep saying again and again
and we encourage people to go to God, listen to God, read God's
word. Apostle Paul and God exalt the
Bereans because they heard from Paul, a designated ordained apostle
of God, and yet they took his words to the scripture and they
tested them. God commands you to test what
I am saying. God commands you to test what
everyone says that comes to you and we have a test. The test
is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. and the Gospel must be delivered
as the apostles delivered it. It must contain the message about
the Lord Jesus as the apostles delivered that message. and the
message of the Gospel exalts the Lord Jesus, exalts God the
Father, exalts God the Holy Spirit and leaves man in his right and
proper place. And so the Gospel must come with
those elements that we keep reminding people of, the total depravity
of man. In this parable of the soils
everything that was on that soil has to be destroyed and recreated
into a usable state for those plants to grow. For you who are
gardeners, you know that the best soil for growing things
is a soil that is free of all weeds and where the existing
things have rotted away. It's a picture of what man is
like, isn't it? That's why we have on our bulletin
that picture of the old stump. It's old and dead and rotting
away and yet into that stump, God has planted a seed, the seed
that comes because of his unconditional election in all eternity, that
he chose some of Adam's race from all eternity. that these
people will be drawn to him. They will be given eyes to see,
ears to hear. They will see themselves and
they will see Jesus and they will be drawn by irresistible
grace. They won't be drawn by the will
of man. They'll be drawn by the will of God. And those chosen,
redeemed people will persevere because of God's work in their
lives. They were loved by the Lord Jesus
in eternity. He ravishes them as his bride. He died for them and not for
others. He died to take away their sins. and not the sins of everyone
else. He died to make them holy and spotless and blameless and
beyond accusation. And so the simple test is, are
people proclaiming the Gospel as the apostles proclaimed the
Gospel? And where is man in the mix? If man is in the mix in any way
at all other than being the recipient of God's grace, and we are caused
to go away and look into ourselves and look at what we are doing,
then we are not looking to the Lord Jesus. And I think that's
why the Lord Jesus in this verse goes on and says, By the measure
of measure, it says, it will be measured to you and more will
be given you besides. The measure there is a physical
measure but really figuratively it means to evaluate, to weigh
things, to weigh the things you hear in light of the Gospel,
to weigh the things you hear in light of who the Lord Jesus
is. And so the measure that we measure
things with is the measure of the grace of God in the face
of the Lord Jesus, the glory of God. It's grace versus works
is the measure. It's faith versus sight. It's a broken and contrite heart. A heart that's aware that every
activity of its righteousness is a filthy rag before God. It's
a broken and contrite heart. It's not a heart of stone. It's
a heart that has been loved by God in its deepest and darkest
moments and ravished by God and brought into a living relationship
rather than an institution. It's a heart that looks to the
works of the Lord Jesus and not to our works. It's a heart that
sees the promises of God blessing us, as Cole said, in the heavenly
realms with every spiritual blessing rather than blessings that we
earn by our activity. It's about grace gifts rather
than law rewards. And as we see in the lives of
the Pharisees it's about thankfulness and rejoicing rather than bitterness
and a condemning spirit. It looks to eternal realities
rather than worldly cares. It seeks the approval of God
rather than the world's applause. It looks, the right measure looks
to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus rather than the righteousness
of men. And it takes God at his word
rather than questioning the word of God. And so this is a mystery
that's come by revelation and it's a gift according to verse
17 of chapter 4. It's given to them to know. It's given to the apostles to
know who the Lord Jesus is. It's spiritual realities. And
so we measure things in light of grace. The question that we
have to ourselves when it says, take heed to what you hear, what
are we proclaiming to ourselves? What is the Gospel that we preach
to ourselves? Are we preaching a Gospel to
ourselves that's about our activities and our righteousness and what
God is making of us? Or are we preaching to ourselves
a Gospel where it says everything is done and finished and now
in heaven resides all of our righteousness, all of our sanctification,
everything that we ever need, So often Christians, as we have
said before, are looking for growth in the wrong areas. And often the areas they are
looking in it for at are the opposite to what the Bible says.
As Robert Hawker says, but the truth is the growth he is looking
for is to be found in the reverse of what he expects to find. He
supposes to find himself more holy whereas the holiness the
Holy Spirit is ripening him in is Christ. He does indeed make
great progress when from making every day more discoveries of
his own unholiness he becomes more and more longing for the
holiness in Jesus. When a sense of the remains of
indwelling sin makes him more out of love with himself and
more in love with Christ, this is indeed from small beginnings
to a rise to large attainments because it begins in Christ,
it continues in Christ and it ends in Christ. Christ is the
tree of life. and under his branches his people
find both a banquet and a shadow. And then he quotes those wonderful
verses from Song of Solomon 2, 3 and 4. Mark them in your Bibles, they
are so beautiful. Like an apple tree among the
trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men.
In his shade I took great delight and sat down, and his fruit was
sweet to my taste. He has brought me to his banquet
hall, and his banner over me is love." And so we have this
great contrast in the Gospels between the response of the crowds
of people who are amazed and in wonder and awe at the graciousness
of the Lord Jesus and then contrasted is the bitterness of the Pharisees. And so out of this bounty, in
verse 25, because whoever has, for whoever has to him more shall
be given and whoever does not have even what he has shall be
taken away from him. In Jeremiah Chapter 2 there is
a great description of life as a Christian. versus life as a
religious person in this world. He says, for my people, in verse
13, have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain
of living waters, and have hewn themselves cisterns, broken cisterns
that can hold no water. And so, as the Lord Jesus says,
we just are the recipients of grace. Grace upon grace upon
grace. It's a fountain. They are wells
and it's a well of water that springs up to eternal life. It's
a fountain of grace from which we are continually refreshed,
energised, challenged, reminded that from His fullness we have
all received. All of God's children receive
grace upon grace. So when those true children of
God the Father are regenerated by God the Holy Spirit and the
finished work of the Lord Jesus is applied effectually to them
and from this good soil fruit in abundance comes. Hebrews 13
describes this fruit, the sacrifice of praise which is the fruit
of lips that give thanks to his name. And then there is a warning for
those who don't hear. And whoever does not have, even
what he has shall be taken away from him. It could in this situation
be a reference to Judas. It is certainly a reference to
the majority of the people in Israel in the Lord's day and
certainly a reference to the majority of people who have lived
on this earth throughout these countless centuries. What they
think they have, their own righteousness, their own activities, what they
think they have will be taken away from him. They may, as these
Pharisees did, and many of these religious people and still today,
have some seriousness about religious things. but they only have a
speculative notion of the Gospel. They can have an intellectual
understanding of the Gospel but without the light, the light
that comes because of the Lord Jesus' life inside of them and
their life in him and whatever they have will be taken away
from them. And so there is a warning as
the Lord Jesus has Judas in his midst and will send his apostles
out to speak to these people who are represented in the soils.
There is a warning that we need to be careful of profession of
faith without the possession of grace. because those who have
speculative notions about God without any experience in their
lives will sooner or later lose everything. In time, just time
and circumstances, his candle will be put out. What seems to
be light will be darkness and they will according to the Lord
Jesus, when the tough times come and the Gospel truths are to
be defended, he'll drop and deny those truths he once held and
relinquish the profession he once made. So those that have
only received counterfeit grace, a pretense of faith, a false
hope and lip love will in due time be discovered what is hidden
will be revealed and they will lose everything they have. But
wonder of wonders, true grace can never be lost or taken away,
but all the pretensions of grace and faith shall be an everlasting
embarrassment and a torment to the hypocrites. but our Gospel
is the good news of salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus. Righteousness is finished. Satisfaction
before God is finished. Redemption is finished. Justification
is finished. Forgiveness is finished. Salvation
is finished. Sins are done away with. Sanctification
is finished. And this is the message which
is foolishness to the natural man but delights the hearts of
God's people. And so we pray that God will
do, what he alone must do in the lives of people. Salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation comes by revelation. But we do have something remarkably
powerful, a promise from God that his Gospel is going to do
its work. And so we proclaim what the Lord
Jesus has done, full assurance of faith, comes by looking to
the Lord Jesus in faith for absolutely everything. And we delight in
that light and we rest in that light and we proclaim that wondrous
Saviour to all who will ever hear us. Amen.