a weighty word from God and it's
weighed heavily on my heart, causing me to have almost sleepless
nights as I think about what's before us in these words. They
are grim and graphic words. But in the context, the Lord
Jesus has just been accused of being in league with the devil.
and those who were closest to him, his own family, those who
loved him most in his earthly being, thought that he was out
of his mind. And here it is, he's chosen the
12 and in these passages of Mark's Gospel he trains the 12 and teaches
them before in chapter 6 he then sends them out. And so he's explaining
to them and showing them what must come to pass, what will
be the result of his ministry and the result of their ministry. And the thing that's stark about
this parable is that the Lord Jesus teaches us plainly that
the vast majority of those who hear the Gospel of the grace
of God preached, even the vast majority of those who profess
faith in him after hearing the Gospel, are lost and will perish
under the wrath of God. It's not for nothing that the
Lord Jesus begins this parable with a strong word. He says,
behold. He says, look, hear and see. This is significant. He who has
ears to hear, let him hear. And so the Gospel preachers are
like farmers in this parable, sowing the wheat. They broadcast
the Word of God on the ground upon the hearts of eternity-bound
men and women. It's not a careless, thoughtless
process. The preacher, if he indeed is
faithful, and a Gospel preacher has his heart in his work. He
is not indifferent to those to whom he preaches and he's not
indifferent to what happens to them. God's servants care deeply
for the souls of men but also they sow with the hope of a harvest. Psalm 26 describes their work
they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. And so the purpose
of this parable is to show the different effects which the Word
of God preached has upon men's hearts and the reasons for that
difference. And these people, just we need
to bear in mind, were all people who had flocked to hear Jesus. such a vast crowd that Jesus
couldn't minister to them and speak without being pressed and
so he had to hop into a boat and go out away from the shore
so that he could actually speak clearly to these people. These
are weighty words and he wants them to hear. But these are people
who have come They have come to hear from Jesus. They've come
to hear him preach. And so I think the other thing
that this story, this parable shows is that the four soils
are there as givens and what happens as the Word of God comes,
it actually exposes what's there. The Gospel sheds a light on what's
in the human heart. But God's people are born again
through hearing the word. So the Gospel preachers press
on. So God's people are brought to life, as James says, by the
exercise of his will he brought us to life through the Word of
Truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits for His creatures. 1 Peter 1.23 said, We are born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
Word of God, which lives and abides for ever. So God saves
chosen sinners. only through and by means of
the faithful exposition of the Scriptures, the faithful declaration
of the Gospel. And the Word of God is faithfully
preached and expounded only when the Lord Jesus is lifted up to
be seen faithfully from the Scriptures as who he really is and what
he really does for his people. Roland Hill said that any sermon
that does not contain the three R's ruined by the fall, redemption
by the blood and regeneration by the Holy Spirit ought never
have been preached. So God's servants, these ones
that go and sow, are gospel preachers. They preach the gospel. And so
this large crowd was gathered and he was teaching them many
things in parables. So we have 10 parables. If you
look at the complementary passages to this in Matthew and Luke,
we actually have 10 parables in this section. But Mark has
chosen a few that we'll look at over this week and the next
couple of weeks. And then he describes the man
who does the sowing and where the seed goes. In those days
the sowing was a simple process where you had something like
a bag or a fold in your garment in front of you and you grabbed
a handful of wheat and you just threw it out. And the good sowers
can get incredibly clever and careful about how they sow it.
And so it was sown out and it's sown, in a sense, indiscriminately. and it falls on different sorts
of ground. And so the first ground that
it falls on is the seed that falls beside the road, in verse
4. As he was sowing, some seed fell
beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. This is a
great parable for us to start on these parables because we
don't have to look to men for the explanation of it. The Lord
Jesus explains this parable in verse 15. He says, These are
the ones who are beside the road where the Word is sown, and when
they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the Word
which has been sown in them. This is just a description of
so much of what we see, isn't it? People are careless, thoughtless
and unconcerned. You think of the number of people
you've tried to talk to about eternity and their souls and
they are just unconcerned. You bring a word to God for them
and as fast as the word falls on their ears, the devil plucks
it away. They come in and they go out
just as they were, unaffected. The Lord Jesus means nothing
to them. It means nothing to them. They
say they love men and they say they care, but you talk to them
about a crucified saviour and it means nothing to them. The
devil so hates the word of God, says Spurgeon, that even if it's
scattered in places where it cannot take root, he comes and
he snatches it away. He takes it away and so it bears
no fruit. Other seed, in verse 5, fell
on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately
sprang up because it had no depths of soil. And after the sun had
risen, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. just a familiar story for those
who have been involved in farming, that where there is rocky soil
and there is rock underneath, the soil actually gets warmer.
And believe it or not, the grass actually springs up faster. But
the Lord Jesus gives us a spiritual understanding of these things.
In a similar way, in verse 16, in a similar way, these are the
ones on whom seed was sown on rocky places. who when they hear
the word immediately receive it with joy and have no firm
root, and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary. Then when affliction or persecution
arises because of the word, they immediately fall away. The word fall away there is the
word to be scandalised. There are things in the word
which scandalise them. And the world is full, isn't
it? Not full, but it's a common thing,
isn't it, for us to come across stony ground here. Remember the
Lord Jesus is preparing his disciples to go out and preach. that they
might preach knowing that the end result of their preaching
will be like the preaching of the Lord Jesus. It will have
its God-given effect, but the effect that you would wish for
from men is not always there. But in the stony ground here
is the Gospel makes very quick but only temporary impressions
upon them. Their religion is all superficial,
just a flash in the pan, Like burning briars in a fire, they
may crackle and pop and make a lot of noise, but they produce
nothing. They may appear enthusiastic. They may talk well. They may
even talk about doctrinal things. They are sometimes moved to tears. They may even speak about inward
conflicts, hopes, desires and struggles and fears. But they
lack, according to the Lord Jesus, they lack one thing. They have
no root. The root of the matter is not
in them. The Word of God takes no root in them because there
is no work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. There is no
conviction, no repentance, no faith. They endure for a while but they
do not last. Like cut flowers they can look
pretty and smell nice for a little while but they'll soon wither
and die. They have no root. Christ is
not in them and they are not in Christ. But we need to note
carefully that the affliction here comes because of God's Word. God's Word is offensive to all
people. God's Word offends every single
one of Adam's children. The heart of man is deceitfully
wicked and beyond cure, says Jeremiah. Mark 7 talks about
out of the heart flows all of the wickedness, adulteries, murders. They come out of human hearts. Two things must happen. Either
the human heart is going to be broken by God's Word and God's
Spirit in them or people will take the Word and break it so
that it no longer has the sharp edge of the sword. It's no longer
offensive. they'll actually create, they'll
take the Bible and they'll create for themselves a refuge of lies. There is a stone, says the scriptures,
that's been laid in Zion and a rock of a fence. Either you
will fall on that rock or the rock will fall on you. And so God gives life to some
and not to others. He gives ears to hear to some
and not others. God gives some to understand
and not others. And so we come here together
because we have taken a stand on God's word. We have taken
a stand on what God's word says about the Lord Jesus and it's
offensive to people. It leaves no room for the good
works or the good will or the good righteousness of men. It
leaves all of salvation in the hands of the Lord Jesus and that
offends, that offends the hearts of men. Satan wasn't joking in
the garden when he said, did God really say, did God really
say, will God really judge Is God really good to his people? And Satan's activities are just
the same today. He finds human hearts which are
perfectly fitted to the deceptions that human hearts love. And so
these rocky ground here is when the sun, when tough things come
along and especially from the Word of God and persecution because
of who Jesus is, they just fade away. You can have peace in this
world. Just don't be serious about the
Lord Jesus and you will have peace and you will find clubs
to join. You will even find churches to
join. Other seed fell among the thorns and the thorns came up
and choked it and it yielded no crop. The Lord Jesus explains
what is a simple thing that these farming people would have seen
day by day, simple stories, and then he gives them a spiritual
meaning. and the others are the ones among
whom seed was sown among the thorns. They are the ones who
have heard the word but the worries of the world and the deceitfulness
of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke
the word and it becomes unfruitful. So the thorny ground hearers
are sent to the Gospel. They can approve of it. They
can be moved by it. They can make a good start in
religion and they can go a long, long way. He feels much, experiences
much, may even have much that appears to be truly spiritual. But he has, according to the
Lord Jesus, a basic underlying problem. It's a problem that
may lie under the surface, hidden from every eye but God's. It may even be hidden from his
own eyes, but it will eventually destroy him. The problem is worldliness. The world still holds his heart. He loves the world. John says
in 1 John 2, Do not love the world or the things of the world.
If anyone loves the world, the lover, the father, is not in
him. And so there's a religion that
we can have and there's a religion that we can have and call it
Christian that still has so much of the love of man and the love
of the world in it. There is a warning from the Lord
Jesus, isn't there? Beware of religious activity
which is not all about the Lord Jesus. Sooner or later those
who love the world will choose the world. They will choose the
world in their hearts even if openly and before other religious
people they would deny it. They are so thoroughly justified
in their own minds that they can actually think what they
are doing is right and they'll never realise they have done
it until they meet the Lord in judgement. Jesus just plainly warns us about
the thorny ground hearers. These three things, one of these
three things will and could possibly destroy your soul. The cares of this world. They
are legitimate cares often, but they can become idols in our
lives. The deceitfulness of riches.
What we see has such a powerful effect on us because we are hardwired
that way. Materialism. and the lusts of
other things. And it may not just be things
that we can hold on to. It's lust for things like fame,
acceptance, position, power, sensuality and pleasure. We just must be so careful about
hanging on to those things. Spurgeon tells the one amazing
story, graphic story of a maid on a ship. long time ago and
the ship was sinking and all the really wealthy passengers
had fled for their lives from their state rooms and left gold
coins and jewels and things and had fled to the life raft and
there was a maid on the ship and she just couldn't believe
how wonderful all this gold was and she gathered all the gold
up and she gathered all these jewels up and she held them tight
to herself and then she went over to the ship and she jumped
overboard. and she fell like a stone through
all the lifeboats that were there just beside her. If you cling
to those things they will take you away from the Lord Jesus
and they take people to hell. So beware, says the Lord Jesus,
beware of religion without Christ. In the bulletin we've actually
put down a list of things that we've dealt with before about
false faith. False faith is a strong delusion,
a delusion by which in this parable one in four who profess faith
in Christ are dragged down to hell. False faith may be greatly
enlightened and knowledgeable of the Gospel, Hebrews 6. False
faith may greatly reform the outward life, the Pharisees.
False faith may speak very well of Christ, the Jews. False faith
may confess personal sins like Saul. False faith may humble
itself in sackcloth and ashes with Ahab. False faith may repent
in tears with Esau and Judas. False faith may diligently perform
religious works with the Jews, travelling over land and sea
just to make one convert. False faith may be generous and
charitable like Ananias and Sapphira. False faith may tremble under
the Word of God with Felix. False faith may experience great
things in religion as the people in Hebrews 6 did. False faith
may enjoy great religious privileges like Lot's wife. False faith
may preach perform miracles and cast out devils like those who
come before the Lord in Matthew 7, proclaiming what they have
done. False faith may attain high office
in the church like deotrophies. False faith may walk with great
preachers like Demas. It may even be peaceful and carnally
secure like the five foolish virgins. So to those who do not
believe the word it is both binding and blinding. And the Lord Jesus
here quotes a passage of scripture which is quoted six times in
the New Testament. It must be a weighty word from
God. It's the word that Isaiah received
after he'd met the Lord Jesus in the temple. And he cries out,
Woe is me. And then he's given his commission
and extraordinarily as well as proclaiming the Gospel. Having
experienced the Gospel, this is what he proclaims. This is
what he is told is going to happen. that while seeing they may see
and not perceive and while hearing they may hear and not understand
otherwise they might return and be forgiven. It's a weighty word
from a sovereign God. It's repeated six times because
God wants us to get the lesson from it. that it is God who will
judicially harden the hearts of those who reject him, who
choose things of this world over him, who choose the things that
gratify their flesh over him. It's a weighty word from God.
there is a rejection of the Gospel which is then aided by God into
a hardening of heart which sends those people to hell. This is
not the end of the story. Mercifully this is not the end
of the story. After three sad representations of what these
disciples were going to meet with as they spent this next
three years with the Lord Jesus and then continued on the rest
of their lives until they met their deaths proclaiming the
Lord Jesus. This was what was going to be before them always. as this circle was gathered around
last week as we saw Jesus gathered his people to himself. Again
he gathers his people and tells them that there is a good soil. Verse 8, Other seeds fell into
the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, They yielded
a crop and produced 30, 60 and 100 fold. The Lord Jesus in verse
20 of chapter 4 describes these as the ones on whom the seed
was sown on the good soil. They hear the word and accept
it and bear fruit 30, 60 and 100 fold. In fact they grow and
they keep on growing and increasing. The good ground that the Lord
Jesus is talking about here is the regenerate heart. The hearing
ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made both of them. We've got to remember that these
soils were there as given, but the good soil is not something
that happens by accident. You can go out and sow wheat
seed onto your lawn as much as you like, and unless you have
the most remarkable season, you won't see much wheat from it.
It'll spring up and it'll disappear very, very quickly. So the fallow
ground, to actually make good soil, You've got to first, and
they still do it today in India as they did in Palestine in those
days, you have to take a plough that digs deep and has a point
on it, and very heavy plough. It must dig deep. It's got to
dig down deep enough to go down below the roots of the plants
that are growing there. And it's got to dig them down
and it's got to lift them up And when that soil, even if it's
really good soil, is first broken up by a plough, it still looks
rough and ready and the things are still growing on it. This
soil needs to be broken down. Everything that is growing there
on that soil is opposed to what will grow there. all the weeds,
all of the other things, all of the clods. They all have to
be removed and broken down. And so there is a hard work,
the hardest work in farming is ploughing untilled soil. It's hard work. It must be dug
down deep. it must be done vigorously and
it must be done consistently because if you leave it, it will
just go back to what it was before. And the plough does its most
important work hidden under the ground as the point of the plough
goes and lifts the sod and turns it. So the ground that the Lord
Jesus is talking about which becomes good ground is ground
that has been worked by God. It has to be broken up. The ground of our hearts, the
hard stone of our hearts as Ezekiel calls it, must be broken down. There must be a heart of flesh
that's put there. It's got to be broken down by
us meeting ourselves in the Gospel to see that we do have hearts
of stone, to see that sin is something that we do without
any encouragement from anyone at all. It is what we are. It comes out of our hearts, says
the Lord Jesus. Sin that's in us needs to meet
with God's holiness and to meet with God's holiness in his law,
the sharp, deep plough of God's law for us to see that God requires
absolute, infinite holiness. Good is not good enough. The
Aussie gospel of the good bloke is a lie straight from the pits
of hell and leads millions to that same place. There are no
good blokes according to the Lord Jesus. There are no good
people. Read Romans 3. There are no people
who seek God. We are all turned away. Together
we all turn away. There is absolutely nothing in
the human heart which desires God at all unless the human heart
is broken down by God. And these hard clods that come
have to be broken down by the heavy harrow of conviction. And
the whole business of making good soil involves vigorous ploughing
and hard, deep ploughing at the beginning. Then it requires constant
harrowing and it needs time. It takes time as God has to work
to soften hearts. The soil has to be ploughed by
the plough of God's law, harrowed by the conviction of who we really
are. We have to meet God in his holiness
and meet God in his wrath. And then that soil is going to
be softened at last by the sweet things that come from heaven.
It needs rain on it to soften it and make it pliable. So in
our vegetable garden at home we have some of the best soil
supposedly in this district, maybe in this country. Beautiful
soil. But if you put a plough into
our soil and tried to grow something straight away, it's not there.
It's not good. But you keep ploughing our soil
and working it and working it and giving it time and giving
it sunshine and wind and frost. and soft rain and heavy rain
from heaven and all of a sudden it becomes this beautiful soil
that is actually yearning to have seeds put into it so that
it can show how vigorous it all is. And so the hearts of people
must be prepared by the grace of God and by the power of God. They cannot receive the Word. They will reject the Word and
then the fruit will come. all of God's children will bear
the fruit, the fruit of lips that bring praise to God, the
fruit of hearts that look to the Lord Jesus and look away
from themselves all the time. there's always going to be fruit.
There is a brokenness in the hearts of God's people where
they repent and then continue repenting because they continue
to see again and again how weak they are, how deep their sin
is and how prevailing it is. And so they are continually in
a process of being worked by God to produce the fruit. The
fruit doesn't come from man's activities. It must come from
God's activities, the fruit of love and joy and peace. And there's
a fruit that comes as we continually look to the Lord Jesus and wait
on him to provide what we cannot provide for ourselves. And so
faith is the fruit. and it may look like pathetic
faith. Sometimes faith may look incredibly
weak to the eyes of the person who has it and particularly weak
to the eyes of those outside. I love the story in Luke at the
upper room when the Lord Jesus says to Peter, Peter, Satan has
asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your
faith should not fail. The question Jim Allman asked
us a couple of years ago, did Peter's faith fail? Did his faith
fail? That same night he was going
to deny that he knew the Lord Jesus at all. To a servant girl
he was going to deny him. He was going to go away weeping
with bitterness as the Lord Jesus just looked at him. Then the
remarkable part of that verse is that when you have been returned,
Peter, you'll strengthen your brothers. Peter's faith didn't
fail. The Lord Jesus didn't fail. Peter was humbled and anything
that humbles us is good for us. The hard stony ground of our
hearts needs breaking again and again and again. And Peter was
to return and strengthen his brothers. He strengthened his
brothers with the fact that it was the faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus that held Peter. It was the faithfulness of the
Lord Jesus. He could say to his brothers, you can be in wonderful
relationship with God even though you fail miserably and God will
pick you up and God will dust you off. and God will make you
fruitful again and again and again. And so it's just wonderful
to think what the Lord Jesus can bring with just a few words. So some of these hearers went
away just hearing a story that day about farmers. They were
farmers, a whole lot of them. They knew that story. But there
were some there who had ears to hear. They heard what God
said. They heard what the Lord Jesus
said about who he is and what he is doing for his people. And
may the blessed Holy Spirit cause us to be good soil that continues
to look to him. And may we, like them, be warned
that we live in a world where there are people who hear the
word and it just falls off them as wheat does on a road and picked
up by Satan and taken away. There are people that we love
and care for deeply who are people who will be like the ones on
the rocky ground who will look so good for a while. and then
there'll be those who grow and look wonderful and will be choked. This is the testimony of the
Lord Jesus. This is the reality of the world we live in. It should
cause us to come to him with reverential awe and it should
cause us to reach out to the only one who can do anything
about any of this and that is God, to turn away from ourselves
and seek and plead God to do things that man can never do
in the hearts of people and then we can rejoice. because our God
is absolutely sovereign. He will not fail. He never has
failed and he will not fail his people ever. May he cause us
to go to him in this dark and dying and wicked world again
and again in faith. Let's pray.