Alright, let's open up Mark chapter
4 this morning. I pray I have a message for you. I hope I do. I'm confident what's
said here is important. It's important for me to hear.
It'll be important for you to hear too. We'll get in there in Mark chapter
4 verse 1. And he began speaking of Christ,
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 he said unto them in his doctrine." There's
so many people there, so this parable he's about to give is
not Something privately to a real select group. These are some
backdoor discussions. This is broad. If this place
was so full, I had to stand in the back of a pickup truck out
in the parking lot to preach to people. It would be a lot
of people. He had to be in a boat on the seaside. Completely within
the sound of his voice, what he was telling them was broadcasted. So what does he say? Mark 4,
verse 3, hearken. I hope this morning I can hearken. I hope you can hearken. Christ,
the God-man, was speaking to these people, and he said, listen,
pay attention. 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,
but because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, and
it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among the thorns,
and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
And others fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang
up and increased, and brought forth some thirty, some sixty,
some a 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 him a 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, these things are done
in parables. He's speaking to the people there
that listen, the bulk of it. Lord warns us constantly of wheat
and tares. We're not to sort it out. But
He's saying here, I speak in parables. I'm not plainly telling
them why. That seeing they may see and
not perceive. They saw Christ standing there.
They didn't see Him. They didn't see that God man,
did they? And hearing they may hear and not understand. Words came out of their mouth,
their ears. That ear bone vibrated. Their brain heard words coming.
They didn't hear in their heart. Lest at any time they should
be converted and their sins should be forgiven then. They didn't
want to hear. They didn't want to see. It's
their heart. He said unto them, Know ye not
this parable? How then will ye know all parables?
The Lord is saying this simple, simple parable. Every one of
us here, you might be a meat eater or vegetarian, but we all
know what vegetables are, don't we? Even the young little boys,
you can take them guys and show them a seed, a corn, and explain
to them, you put this in the ground, it dies and it rots. Water gets to it and it springs
up and there's life in it. And then there's more seeds on
top of whatever that fruit is or that plant and they're all
at the same time. This is something we all can see, touch, and feel.
We can see it with our eyes and we can hear it. Easily something
we can understand and the Lord's saying you don't know this parable.
You don't understand How are you going to understand these
more complicated parables that are that are to come? So we need
to He's going to explain to him that and also in this spot The
Lord was playing gave instruction. I think I told just before he
said he that hath ears let him hear And then everybody kind
of went away. And those disciples and those
apostles, boy, I'd be just amazed to speak to the wisdom and the
faith that the Lord gave those men. They ain't much different
than me. They whispered to the Lord, Lord, what do you mean
by that? You know, I don't get it. And does He cast them away?
Does He say, you don't know this parable? How are you going to
understand the other ones? And He just leaves them. No, of course not.
Our Redeemer is faithful. He's kind and patient to us.
He's long-suffering. Boy, I would need that. So what
does he say there in Mark 4 and verse 15? Sorry, verse 14. 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 received it with gladness. and have no root in
themselves, and so endured for a time. Afterwards, when affliction
or persecution ariseth from the word's sake, immediately they
were 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 lust of other
things enter 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 sixtyfold, and some a hundred."
Now there's four types of ground the Lord lists here in a simple
parable we can understand. We can go out in our backyard
and look at these things, something we can look in His creation to
see. He lists four types of ground and He tells us to hearken What
he's saying is vitally important. Now, there's a lot of ground
in this state. That's what Don was telling me.
He didn't help me with confidence. He wasn't helping himself and
helping me to come out here. From San Francisco to the Mexican
borders, one-tenth of the population of our nation is down here. That's
a lot of ground. That's a lot of people, isn't
it? But three out of four of these types of ground, they're
not profitable. There's no fruit given out of
them. That's concerning. We should
hearken to these things. We should pay attention. So who's
this sower the Lord's speaking of? Who's the one that sows the
seed? That's the preacher. That's the man's synagogue. That's
what I'm doing now. I'm standing up here and I'm
sowing seed. I'm broadcasting. as they used to say. 1 Corinthians
said, Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by
whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have,
Paul speaking of himself, I have planted, Apollos watered, but
God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, the guy that plants the seed ain't worth nothing,
neither him that watereth, he's just dumping water on the ground.
but God that giveth the increase. I pray today the Lord will give
us some increase. So what's this seed that this
sower throws out? It's the Word of God. It's the
message of free grace in Christ. That's the seed. This is what
the sower carries and he spreads it liberally anywhere he can
throw it. Now, there's a few things with
this that we can understand. We can understand going out and
planting grass seed in our yard, can't we? The one that's sowing,
he didn't make the seed. The seed was, wasn't it? The
Lord said that. He said, the words I speak, which
are not my words, but are the words of He that sent me. I don't
invent things to tell you. I don't come up with new ideas
to challenge your thinking. I just throw the seed. Tell you
the truth. What else is with this seed?
There's life in a seed. We don't know that. John 6.63
says, "...and the Spirit, it is the Spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life." These words come and that's
where life is. Let's turn to 1 Peter real quick
and look at this one. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1.23 Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed, by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh
is grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of grass. Grass withereth, and the flower
thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord endures
forever. That seed, that life, it endures forever. And this
is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you. We come
into this world through the seed. The seed of Adam. The seed of
our fathers. And we understand those things.
We teach that in high school, don't we? Health class. They
explain how that works. But there's an incorruptible
seed that we're in need of. What this seed is naturally,
that's corruption. Two sinners have a baby, it's
a sinner. How can we have a seed in us? There has to be a new
birth, don't they? That seed has to be planted, that new life
put in us. James 1 says, of his own will he begat us with the
word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creature. That's what comes from seeds,
fruit, isn't it? After its own kind. We saw what that seed is,
now what's this ground? What are these different types
of ground? That ground is the hearts of men and women. There's
dirt inside of me. We're made from the dirt, aren't
we? So who's the hard ground? First
one listed there, back in Mark 4, verse 15. We're going to look
here at what the Lord explains to us instead of in the beginning.
We get in verse 15. The hard ground. And these are
they by the wayside, where the word is sown, but when they have
heard, Satan cometh immediately, right then, and taketh away the
word, that was sewn in their hearts. These people, they hear
briefly, and then it's gone. As fast as it lands on that hard
ground, it's swooped away by the birds. And we know this happens. There's people that come through
the doors, and they sit, and they hear a man stand up and
speak to them. And it's like a hard ground,
and the seed hits it. It bounces off. It no more comes than it
goes. It goes quickly. But that ground's used for a
purpose, isn't it? Whenever you walk on, that's
a pathway. That's what the wayside is. If
I got a garden, I got a little path around it. I got to get
to all my stuff. And that's on purpose. And I use that pathway,
but even weeds don't grow on it. It's just trampled down.
There's just nothing there at all. We see this happen sometimes
at believers' funerals. There'll be a lot of family there,
people that don't care anything about any gospel at all. They
don't care about a false religion or a true religion. But they
show up and they hear, and they hear a faithful seed being broadcast. And it's in one ear and out the
other as if it never happened. They could have got up and read
off football scores and it wouldn't have made any difference to them.
They come and go. But that ground's hardened. Because he walked on
it. Pharaoh's heart was hardened,
wasn't it? His ground was hardened. In Exodus 7 it says, I will harden
Pharaoh's heart and multiply my signs and my wonders in the
land of Egypt. The Lord used that on purpose.
The hardened ground is on purpose. People always get pretty angry
with me when they talk about that. I was talking this morning
to the slanders and the naysayers, but they charge God foolishly.
They say, well, the Lord sends people to hell. He predestines
the hell. He hardens their hearts. But
we think those things because we don't understand what the
word means. We're looking at this, the Lord being mean to
us or something like that, that He's making it do us, because
people think that because they think their heart's good. I think
that inside of me is something good. And people tell you that. They lie to you. But they tell
you that. Inside of me, there's some loose dirt in there. I can
take a seat if I wanted to. But they don't see that their
nature is hard. Whenever you think of hardening, y'all walked
on concrete. You see them little kids, y'all
see them concrete trucks going up and down the road. What are
they doing? They're spinning, ain't they? Why? Because if you
stop spinning concrete, if you stop working concrete, it hardens. Why does it do that? That's its
nature. That's the way it's made. If the Lord stops working in
somebody, they're going to harden. How did he harden Pharaoh's heart?
He just took his hand off of it. He stopped stirring it. That's all that it is. But that's
that hard ground. So what's this stony ground there
in Mark 4 and 16? And these, are they likewise
which are sown on stony ground, who when they have heard the
word immediately received it with gladness, and have no root
in themselves, and so endure for a time, that afterward when
affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately
they are offended. There's no conflict in that ground. There's a little bit of loose
dirt, just enough for the seed to take off, but there's no roots
that grow deep to weather the storm. There's no sacrifice,
no hardships. It says there's no root in themselves.
There's no effort. There's no true God-given conviction
to that ground. There's no God-given faith. There's
no commitment. Roots aren't established. Let's
turn over to Luke chapter 6 real quick. Luke 6, verse 47. Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth
my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like.
If somebody does this, I'm going to show you what he's like. He's
like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the
foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, the
streams beat vehemently upon that house and could not shake
it, for it was founded upon a rock. He that heareth and doeth not
is like a man without a foundation, built a house upon the earth,
against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately
it fell, and the ruin of that house was great. There was no
establishment of that root and that seed. Same as like building
a house. Building a house on the sand or building a house
on a rock. What's that rock we build on? What are those trials
and stuff that force us to dig deep, to look for that rock?
It's the Christ, isn't it? That's what we're set on. We
had corn planted in Kentucky and I babied it. I had a little
tiny corn patch. I watered it, and watered it,
and watered it, and watered it, and made sure, oh, it's growing
so pretty. And what you could see above ground was beautiful. But the winds came. Well, those
roots didn't have to grow deep. They didn't have to go looking
for that water. They didn't have to dig looking for the bottom. And so the first little wind,
it wasn't even strong. I went out one more, and all
my corn's laid over. And those root bulbs stick up. The roots
grew out and not down. But the root is the strength
of the plant. It's not what's above ground
that's strong. What you see, the strength that plants in the
root, that's what holds it. But what's hidden, that's what's
strong. But where does the Lord look?
Does He look on the outside? Does He look at our flowers and
our leaves? He looks at what's on the heart, doesn't He? He
looks at those roots on the inside, what He's planted. Now there's
a spiritual warfare going on inside of me inside of you, inside
of this world that we fight with. But a war, whenever those trials
come that makes those roots grow deep, war doesn't end whenever
you hear the gospel. That warfare inside of you, that's
when it begins. No man will believe that there's
two natures until he has two of them. And they fight. And
it's a war. Spirit doesn't lead us into battle.
into the world with men and their logic. We're led into battle
against ourselves. We take sides against ourselves
with God on the inside. But a war isn't fought two days
a week. Do we fight that spiritual warfare
here on Wednesdays and Sundays and everything else is peace?
There's a truce, ceasefire during those times? No. I've been there. The struggle of war, there's
a struggle on a battlefield when you're out fighting the war. But whenever you're back in your
room at night and during those times off, you're at war whenever
you take a shower. You're at war when you eat. You're
at war when you sleep. It's always. The whole time you're
in that country, you're at war. And as long as I'm going to be
in this body, in this country of this flesh, I'm going to be
at war at all times. The danger is real constantly.
So what's this thorny ground? Go back to Mark chapter 4 there
in verse 18. 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 lust of other
things enter in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful."
Look back up there in Mark 4 and verse 7. Look what it says. It
says, Some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked
it, and it yielded no fruit. He words this twice for us. That
ground there is a little bit different than the other grounds,
isn't it? First, the wayside, that hard
ground, the seed lands, it doesn't do anything. It just bounces
off and the birds come in and take it away. And the second,
the stony ground, it sprouts up real quick, gets excited.
It's pumped up for it, but it dies off at the first sign of
struggle. Now what's this? This one here, the stony ground,
it grows a little longer. Somebody that may have a head
knowledge of this, they may weather a couple storms, accept the Word
of God, they may make a profession of faith, maybe they'll preach,
learn the Scriptures, maybe they'd cast out devils. But are the
people that were... This is the same as the ones
troubling the Galatians, isn't it? They had a knowledge of this,
they accepted that this was the fact, and told people about it,
but there are a lot of thorns around them. But what happens
to this ground's downfall? It says there in verse 19, the
cares of the world. Like Bob was saying the other
day, those Puritans I'm jealous of, they had advantage over us.
They didn't have television. They was able to study and pay
attention real well, weren't they? But there's so many cares
I have of this world that pull me away, things that occupy my
time. We have so many. There's a lot of people who care
about Football and work and family, chores, their houses, things
we need to care of, we're responsible for, but they, oh, they're just
like a sponge, pull your time away. Says they're the riches. We want a bigger TV to watch
those things on. We want better tickets to those football games.
We want better clothes for that family. We want a bigger house
to put a ball in. We desire those riches and everything else. There's a lot of people that
will agree with what we preach, but they have a lot of other
things going on. They don't have time for the Word of God. They say,
oh, I believe exactly what you believe, but I don't have time
for it. They have more important things
to do instead of meet with the Lord's people and fellowship
and gather together to look towards Christ. Matthew 6.24 says, No
man can serve two masters, for either he will hate one and love
the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon. I studied this and I read that.
I stopped and I considered, is that me? Is that thorny ground who I am? whenever I look at myself, and
that made me consider, and I worried about those things, but you know
what I was brought into more remembrance of? To throw all my cares on
the Lord. I pray He makes me know this,
that I'm His, that He will keep me, that I can see His goodness,
that I can know how secure I am in Christ. That's what I pray
for. Make me forsake everything else in my life, Lord, and cling
to You. Let me see us in myself. Let me see what you've done.
But we see all these things around us, and we think they're alright,
but Christ is telling us here, this is a briar patch. So I can dabble. I'm here, and
I faithfully come to hear the Lord, and I have a good pastor
that teaches me sound doctrine, and I'm safe. But I can entertain
these things. I can dabble a little bit in
these things. The Lord said this is a briar patch. You're going
to get poked. You can have the best house and
a new car and a lot of money in the bank and you won't be
satisfied. I have a friend that he's bought one house after another
and everything he looks for, a new vehicle, and, oh, as soon
as I get that I'll be happy. And he ain't. And then the next
one, and all these things in the world, they don't satisfy.
Everybody wants to be happy. I think I told you this before.
Happy, we get the word happy from the word happenstance. It
means every now and then. Not all the time. This eternal
or constant happiness everybody talks about, that's a falsehood.
It's not possible. Not what the word means. But
what is fulfilling? What can satisfy? What can you
lay a hold of on this earth that can give you peace? Really? Really give you rest? Seek ye
first the kingdom of God. Do we do that? Do we build our
life around the gospel or do we build the gospel around our
life? We fit time in for study. Do I? I'm asking myself. I'm
not picking on you. Do I set time aside every day
to read the Lord's Word and concentrate on it, not with my mind somewhere
else? Do I have time to attend services
faithfully? Or do I get cast away with all
these thorns and briars? People say, well, I'm busy, I
have to feed my family. You're right, you do. The Lord gave
you responsibilities in this earth, and you have to tend to
them. But Noah built the ark, and he walked with God. Amos
took care of sheep, and he walked with God while he tended to them.
We can be busy, but where is our hearts? Where is our hearts
settled? I pray the Lord will keep us.
I pray He makes us that good ground. That's what's next there.
Mark 4, verse 20. 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, some a hundred."
Let's turn over to Matthew 13. It might help us a little bit
to understand this good ground by reading Matthew's account
of this. Matthew 13 and verse 23. And he that receiveth the seed
into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth
it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth fruit, and
some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." This good ground
is something that hears the word, receives that seed, and it understands
what it has. So what's some good things, some
things we need to notice here about this good ground? One,
there's no good ground by nature. The soul doesn't till itself.
It has to be worse. It doesn't show up that way.
A farmer doesn't buy land and just throw seed down and hope
it grows. I do that. We have a small farmer
in New Jersey and I pick where my garden wants to go and I plow. And I move the thorns out of
the way. I go weed eat some places and other places I let go because
that's my land and I put it where I want it. And there's stones
in that ground and sometimes I'll till it and I'll go through
and I'll hand pick every one of them stones out. And I put
the stone somewhere else on my property. I use them for a pathway
or something. I do that. That's my ground.
I can understand that because I do it every day, don't I? We
can understand that. The Lord does that to his ground,
to those hearts of men and women. He comes through, he plows, and
he plows deep, looking for that foundation for them roots to
go easily down. He turns that ground up. That
ground was dead, no life in it, but He quickens it. He cuts deep
and removes those stones and clears those thorns. And He prepares
it to receive that seed. And then whenever that seed goes
in, it's heard and understood. Put a seed in and it grows up.
But what do they understand? What does that good ground understand? Well, they understand what the
Word says about sinners, don't they? They understand themselves.
They know there's no good in Him. They understand what the
Word says about God. He's holy. He demands righteousness. They understand that what the
Word says about Christ, that is our righteousness. His blood
cleanses us from all sins. We understand how Christ died,
that God may be just, but still be the justifier, don't we? They're
complicated things, we can understand that. The Lord shows us, because
He prepares our hearts, He plants the seeds. And all of this, it
will result in what? Fruit. Some bring forth more,
some bring forth less, but all have the same fruit from the
same vine. What do we do with that seed?
That seed of life is put in our plowed hearts. It springs up,
it grows, and then it's spread again. And it keeps going generation
after generation. But the seed is always after
its own kind. If I have an ear of corn and
I dry it, and I put that corn seed in the ground the next year,
what's going to come up? Corn. And I'll take that ear and dry
it, and I've got seed for the next year. If I plant tomatoes,
what's going to come up? If corn came up if I planted tomatoes,
I'd be worried, wouldn't you? But it's after its own kind.
Look in Genesis 1. I lost my place in my notes. Genesis 1, I know it's there.
Verse 12. Genesis 1.12, And the earth brought forth grass,
an herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit,
though seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that it
was good. How does that seed work? The Gospel hasn't changed one
bit from Adam. Them boys of Adam went out and
made sacrifices to the Lord, wouldn't they? Cain's was rejected
and Abel's was accepted. How did they know that? They
didn't have an Old Testament. They didn't have a New Testament.
Adam told them, boys, here's what the Lord did for me and
nothing's changed to this day. I was naked. He clothed me as
a sacrifice that needed to be made. He provided it. It stays
the same. It's after its own kind. So how
do these seeds grow? How are they going to grow? Turn
to the right a little bit, Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32 and verse
2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall distill
as the dew, and the small rain upon the tender herb, and as
the showers upon the grass. He's going to water it. That
doctrine of free grace in Christ is going to do it. Because I
will publish the name of the Lord. What else is He going to
publish? Nothing. That's it. I'll only
publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. He is the rock. His work is perfect,
for all His ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is He. He's the
one that spreads that water on it and makes it grow. So those
that hear this word and reject it, those that hear it and gladly
receive it, do you know what those two people have in common?
Out of those four tops of ground, there's only two tops. There's
those that fruit comes forth and those that fruit doesn't
come forth. But they have something in common. They're accomplishing
the Lord's purpose. We get upset. I hurt. I've been hurt. Still hurt. People
come in. They like that stony or the thorny
ground. They make a profession of faith.
And I think, boy, they're a better believer than I am. They're more
zealous than I am. I wish I could learn something from them. And
how quick I'd get pulled away. And I was just sad. Oh, man,
you have pain in you. That's on purpose. That's accomplishing
the Lord's will. In Isaiah 55, we'll close. Isaiah
55 verse 10. Here's how the Lord, what He
uses to accomplish His work with it. Isaiah 55, 10. For as the rain
cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither,
but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that
it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the things whereunto I sent it. And for those he purposes to
be the good ground, those that he's prepared, those that he's
tilled, what does he say there in verse 12? For ye shall go
out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and
the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the
trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn
shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briar shall come
up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Brethren, if
you're made of dirt, if you're from Adam, I pray that the Lord
will show you. Dirt can't till itself. Only
that farmer can. Only that landowner can. I pray
the one that owns you, He shows you that He owns you. I pray
He plows your heart, He removes those stones, removes those briars
and thorns and doesn't leave you hardened to yourself. I hope
He covers you with that good seed and brings life in it. And then what are we going to
do? Proclaim the name of the Lord, won't we? Nothing to brag
on ourselves. That dirt's nasty. It's full
of worms and manure and everything else. What does He do? He makes
that work, don't He? He uses that for good. His Word accomplishes
good. Oh, I pray, if He gives you that,
come to Him. You need water. He's that water
of life. And He'll freely give it. It
ain't going to run out of fountain. It ain't going to run out. He's
got every bit of it.