Mark 4:1-34 (September 4, 2022)

In Mark chapter 4 this morning, Mark chapter 4 verses 1 through 34, and I'm going to split up the reading and just read the first 20 verses as we get started this morning and then we'll come back to the rest of those verses as we come to them.

Let's begin reading Mark chapter 4 verses 1 through 20 and the word of the living

God says this, Again, he began to teach beside the sea.

And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea.

And the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables.

And in his teaching he said to them, Listen, behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil.

And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.

And other seed fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.

And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

And he said to them, To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive, may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.

And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?

The sower sows the word, and these are the ones along the path where the word is sown. When they hear,

Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.

And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. Then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

And others are the ones sown among the thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.

This is the word of God to us this morning. I want us to begin by noticing there in the very first verse that Jesus is beside the sea again.

He is beside the sea again, and what has Jesus done up until this point in Mark? What has

Jesus done beside the sea? Well, he has called disciples, he's gathered crowds, he's taught the crowds in such a way that some become his disciples and others are provoked and pushed away.

The seaside is where Jesus calls and gathers his people. Now remember from previous weeks we've seen that Jesus, he is establishing a new

Israel within the old Israel, a new kingdom amidst the old kingdoms of the earth.

He began his ministry preaching this in Mark 1 15, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel, and he chose twelve apostles as the heads of twelve new tribes of the new

Israel. And so here by the sea, Jesus is again calling and gathering his people, and this time he is doing so by speaking parables.

And so those with ears to hear, they come. But why? Why does

Jesus speak in parables? And so before we look at this specific parable, and these specific parables that he tells here in Mark 4, we need to grasp what parables are, and what do parables do, and why are they used?

So we can say at the most basic level a parable is a short story with a point. It's a short story with a point, but they're much more than just helpful little sermon illustrations.

In fact to treat the parables as just cute little sermon illustrations is to miss the point.

You see the parables, they both reveal truth and they conceal truth at the same time.

Parables reveal things that are true and conceal things that are true at the same time. Parables are the

Bible's riddles. Parables are the Bible's dark sayings. You have to put in a little bit of work in order to get their meaning and to figure them out.

You have to do as what verse 24 says, you have to pay attention to them and work them over in your mind in order to be rewarded for their truth.

You have to have ears to hear, that is you have to have a receptive heart. You have to receive them in faith, but not all

Israel had faith. We've seen the opposition to Jesus. We've seen the scribes oppose him.

We've seen them spy on him. We've seen the scribes conspire to kill Jesus and so thus far in Mark plain teaching and plain miracles have yielded plain opposition.

And so Jesus began to teach in parables. Now this had an advantage for him, had the advantage of communicating truth to those who had ears to hear, while also just allowing the disinterested to just pass on by, while also not giving any ammunition to his opposition.

I mean after all on faith value there's just some neat little stories about farming right? He didn't give anything to those who were looking to trap him.

And so later, later Jesus is going to tell a parable, the parable of the vineyard and it's going to be so clear that the meaning of it is unmistakable and it's going to get him killed.

But at this point in the story, at this point in Mark's gospel, Jesus' time has not yet come and so he teaches with much more mystery and discretion.

He teaches in parables. One other thing to note about the parables is that throughout the

Old Testament we see that parables are reserved for times of judgment. Parables are reserved for times of judgment.

So Mark Horne in his commentary on Mark points out in Psalm 78 too that the psalmist says

I will open my mouth in a parable and then he goes on in the rest of the psalm to warn of judgment that is to come on Israel for her sins.

You have Nathan approaching David and telling a parable to deliver news of judgment for David's sin with Bathsheba.

You have Gideon's son coming and delivering judgment with a parable to the men of Shechem after they had chosen a wicked man as king.

You have Ezekiel in several places telling parables of judgment. And so here in our passage,

Jesus in explaining his use of parables, he quotes from Isaiah chapter 6.

This is the call of Isaiah, but if you keep on reading what he quotes from, Isaiah 6 is telling of the judgment that is coming upon Israel.

And so the point Jesus is making in using parables is that Israel is being judged for her wickedness and sins and he's calling out a new people of God and he's calling out to them those who have ears to hear, those who have faith.

He is calling out to them with parables. And that brings us to the parable of the seeds and soils.

And so what I want to do here with this parable, you have the four different soils in which the seed was sown,

I want to look at it on two levels this morning. First kind of a broad general level and we see that the soils are various responses to God's word.

Various ways one might respond when God's word is proclaimed to them.

And so the first soil, you have the hard ground of a hard heart.

It's like taking seed and just throwing it out there on the parking lot. It's not going to yield any fruit is it?

Some people are hard hearted like this and the seed never takes root and it never bears fruit.

And then you have the second soil. You have the shallow rocky soil of a shallow unstable heart.

And so these people immediately receive the word with joy and sprout up quickly.

But it's like a weed. Weeds sprout up quickly. But they have no roots and when tough times come or the emotional high is brought low, they wither.

And some people respond to God's word like this. Then third you have the thorny ground of a divided heart.

The thorny ground of a divided heart. These are people who hear the word and receive it positively.

But the desires for money and comfort, convenience, other concerns of the world choke out its growth and it bears no fruit.

They prefer other lesser things to God. And some people are like this soil.

Respond to God's word in this way. And then you have the fourth soil. The fertile soil of a faithful heart.

They hear the word and accept the word and obey the word and they bear much fruit and thankfully some people receive the word like this.

Now I want to take just a few moments before we move on for a couple of quick pastoral applications of this general broad level of looking at the four soils.

And so the first thing I would say is these soils, they're not necessarily three different types of unbelievers, but they're three ways, those first three soils are three ways of responding to God's word.

Four ways when we take the fourth fertile soil into account. We say that no one is unchangeably characterized by one type of soil or another.

And so maybe you have let the concerns of the world take over your life and choke out your response to God's word for a season.

That doesn't have to define you. You can become the fourth fertile soil.

Hear and believe and trust and obey. And so therefore the exhortation to Christians hearing this parable of the seeds and the soils is this.

Receive the word with gladness. Turn from your sins and believe the gospel.

Be fertile soil for the word of God. That's the first level.

Second level of this parable is how it functions in the immediate context of Jesus where he is speaking and Mark where he is writing.

What is the immediate context here? Well Jesus is talking about how Israel has responded to God's word since the return from exile.

So we mentioned earlier that Jesus quoted from Isaiah chapter 6 which warns of the judgment and exile that is going to befall

Israel in Isaiah's day. And right after those verses that Jesus quoted from in verse 13 of Isaiah 6 it also speaks of a remnant that will remain as a holy seed.

See Jesus connecting seed from Isaiah with his parable of the seeds and the soils. And so throughout the prophets

God speaks of planting Israel back in the land after the return from exile.

He is sowing Israel, planting Israel back in the land. This is in numerous places in the prophets. But we know and we've seen if you read your

Bible that after the return Israel was far from the holy seed that God called them to be.

And so in this parable Jesus is indicting Israel for her failure to bear fruit.

Instead of receiving God's word and bearing fruit through repentance and through obedience she has a hard, shallow, and divided heart.

And so Jesus has come to found a new Israel within the old one, a new kingdom of those who will hear the word and bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold.

And we see that Jesus himself is the fourth fertile soil. He receives and obeys the word of his father and he bears fruit.

And all who unite to Jesus by faith bear fruit in their lives.

But only by uniting to Jesus can we bear fruit. It's what Pastor Gary just read to us from John 15 a little while ago.

I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me you can do nothing.

The only way to bear fruit is by abiding in Christ. Apart from Christ we'll have hard hearts, shallow hearts, divided hearts.

Only in Christ can we have a faithful and fruitful heart. I want to read to us from verses 21 through 25 and answer this question from the next part of this passage.

How do God's people bear fruit? Abiding in Christ, how do God's people bear fruit? God's word says this in verses 21 through 25.

And he said to them, is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand?

For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. And he said to them, pay attention to what you hear.

With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.

For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

How do God's people bear fruit? Well, there's inward fruit and there's outward fruit.

The outward fruit of proclaiming God's word that results in people coming to faith in Jesus, well that's one type of fruit.

And though Jesus is teaching cryptically through these parables here in Mark 4, he says that there's coming a day when the truth that is concealed in parables will be made manifest to all.

Everything hidden will come to light. And so by the time, if you were to flip over a few pages in your

Bible, by the time you get to Acts, you will not find Peter and Paul teaching in cryptic, mysterious parables.

No, they preached the gospel straight up. Undiluted, jet fuel grade gospel is what they proclaimed in the book of Acts.

They made it unmistakable, and they made it clear, and they turned the empire upside down.

They brought to an end the human sacrificing and gladiator gaming and brutality of the

Roman Empire, which I would say is fruitful, a hundred fold even. And so we want to also be a people unashamed of the gospel, who speak it clearly and unmistakably to others.

We want to be a people that bear this outward fruit, but we also want to be a people who bear the inward fruit.

Here we're talking about the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

We want to be a people who grow in godliness. And so we see in verses 24 and 25, we have both a promise towards this end and a warning as well.

Verse 24 has the promise, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be given to you.

This is another way of saying, you reap what you sow. If you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly.

If you sow abundantly, you will reap abundantly. In other words, if you want a lot of tomatoes when you're planting your garden, you don't just plant one tomato seed, do you?

You plant a whole row. And if you want to grow a lot of godliness in your life, you don't plant just a little bit of Bible reading.

You don't plant just a little bit of prayer. You don't plant just a little bit of church attendance when you feel like it.

No, you make these things habits. You become diligent in your use of all the means that God has given to you and put at your disposal to grow in godliness.

He's given you His Word. He's given you His people. He's given you prayer. He's given you corporate worship.

He's given you confession of sin. He's given you the Lord's Supper. It's like there's this big buffet, like you go down to Golden Corral, there's this big buffet of God's grace that's available to you to strengthen you, to grow you in godliness, to conform you into the image of His Son, Christ Jesus, and it's all you can eat and you can come back for more.

And some of us, we're like, you know what, I think I'll just have a handful of peanuts at home.

It's all there for us though, it's for the taking, will you take it? But some of us, we don't want it.

We have no appetite for the things of God. Maybe that's you. Maybe you're going through a season where you're kind of dull to the things of God.

Maybe you don't have an appetite. Maybe you want to, but you don't quite have it. I'd say here's the trick.

Get started. Get started in using these means that God has given to us.

Desire and delight normally follow diligence.

Desire and delight in the things of God normally follow diligence in the things of God. Delight often follows duty.

Blessing follows obedience. It's the order. And so Jesus tells us to be faithful in the little, in whatever you can do, be faithful in the little.

In verse 24, you know what it says, and still more will be added. And still more will be added to you.

It may take some time. Very few worthwhile things grow fast. We said earlier, weeds grow fast.

Oaks take decades. And so it may not be immediate. It may take a while, but little by little by little by little, still more will be added to you and you will grow in godliness.

30, 60, and 100 fold. Proverbs 13, 4 says, the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

Do you want a fat soul? The answer is yes, by the way. There's nothing worse than diet

Christianity, of low fat Christianity that has all the looks but none of the flavor. No.

If you want a fat soul, and we do, go to the buffet. Take and eat of God's word.

Take and eat of God's word. I mean, it's right there. There's a copy in the pew in front of you,

I believe. If you don't have a copy at home, take it. Most of us probably have 10 copies at home. Let's take and use what

God has given to us. Take and eat of the prayers. There's nothing stopping you from praying.

You don't have to have a mediator of a priest or something. You have the one high priest mediator who is

Jesus Christ. There doesn't have to be a special time. There doesn't have to be a special place. There doesn't even have to be special magical words.

You can pray and go to your Father. In fact, the Holy Spirit is interceding on your behalf and stirring up prayers for you.

We saw in Romans chapter 8 several months ago. Take and eat of the prayers.

Take and eat of God's word. Take and eat of corporate worship. We're here every Sunday. Be diligent.

Be diligent. I want to touch on just one of those things. One of those means that God has given to us to grow in godliness, to be conformed to the image of Jesus, and that is regular

Bible intake. Regular Bible reading or regular Bible listening.

And so if you don't have a Bible reading habit, I would encourage you to start one. Start today.

Start tomorrow. Shannon and I, tomorrow, we're starting a Bible reading challenge with thousands of Christians from around the country and around the world.

I think this is, I don't know, maybe the fourth or fifth, maybe sixth year for you of going through this Bible reading challenge.

You read through the entire Bible from Labor Day through the end of May, so basically the school year.

And it's a pretty fast pace, but it's doable, and it's rewarding, and nothing has helped solidify my

Bible reading habits like this. There's a copy of the plan on the tables in the back on the right and left as you leave.

You're welcome to take one of those. Print it out a few. If they get gone, feel free to tell me. I'll print you out another one. The main kind of rule of the

Bible reading challenge is this. Just read that day. Whatever day it is, read that day's reading. If you fall behind, it's okay.

Just jump back in on that day. It's kind of like if you haven't eaten all day. You skip breakfast, you skip lunch, it's dinner time.

You don't have to eat a bowl of cereal and a sandwich before you sit down to the dinner table, do you? You just sit down and eat. Same thing.

It doesn't have to be this plan. Whatever kind of Bible reading plan you use, just read that day.

Any day you read the Bible, you're not behind. Any day you read the Bible, you're being fed, you're being nourished, you're taking up an eating of the means that God has given you to grow in godliness.

Read it. Apply it. The goal isn't perfection.

The goal in your Bible reading isn't necessarily just check off every little checkbox that's on there. The goal is habit formation.

The goal is diligence because the soul of the diligence shall what? Be made fat.

Or as Jesus says in verse 25, excuse me, Jesus goes on to say in verse 25 what the second part of that proverb says, in Proverbs 13.

The second part of that proverb says that the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing. Soul of the diligent is made fat, the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing.

And then Jesus says something similar in verse 25 with the warning where he says, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

In other words, nothing is neutral in this life. Nothing is static.

We are either growing in godliness or falling away from it. But no one, no one is staying in the same place.

You are not staying in the same place. And so grow in godliness. And so you have inward fruit and outward fruit and united to Christ, the exhortation is to be diligent in using what

God has given you and then trust that God is going to work with it. We see this in verses 26 through 29.

And he said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day and the seeds sprout and grows and he knows not how.

The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

But when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.

So if you are a gardener, you plant seeds in the dirt and you water it and you weed around it, but that seed regenerates and grows all on its own, doesn't it?

It sprouts up independent of you. You don't put your hand underneath it in the dirt and kind of try to push it up.

No. It does it on its own. The kingdom of God works the same way.

Some plant, some water, but it is God who gives the growth. Like a seed that grows in the obscurity of the dirt, unseen and in small ways, the kingdom likewise grows.

Like a seed that grows while the farmer is sleeping, the kingdom grows and we know not how.

God himself is always working. God himself is always growing the kingdom and doing the work of the kingdom.

Jesus was establishing this new kingdom and it started small. It started with just 12 men that he appointed on that mountain beside the sea.

And then some more came. And then some more gathered. And before long there was a great harvest.

And it was all, it was all the work of God. Now Jesus was talking about the kingdom broadly speaking.

I want to zero this in, kind of focus in on our church, a small outpost of the kingdom.

We want 1st Baptist travelers rest to grow likewise, do we not? But we need to be clear, we can't manufacture that growth.

We can't manipulate that growth. We can't guarantee that growth. We can't force that growth. We can't program or schedule that growth.

It is God and God alone who gives the growth. And so it's appropriate that Jesus uses these agricultural farming metaphors and stories.

Because ministry is a lot like farming. It's a lot like farming. You get up early, you work hard all day, and then you pray like crazy for rain.

Because if it doesn't rain, nothing grows. If God doesn't bless, nothing grows.

And so we're going to get up early here at 1st Baptist and we're going to work hard. We'll plant and we'll water.

We'll proclaim the gospel broadly and we'll proclaim the gospel boldly. We'll program and schedule the best that we can.

We'll serve with all of our strength. We'll do all that we know how to do, but we better pray like crazy for rain.

We better pray like crazy for God's rain. And we got to realize that it's God and God alone who gives the growth.

And if we want growth, that is if we want God's blessing, we also need to do all according to His word.

We have to ask the question about everything we do, what has God said? We can't cut corners because God won't bless that.

And the growth always comes from God. And when it comes to the kingdom growing, now kind of zooming back out broadly speaking, the kingdom of God, we can have confidence that He will grow it.

We see this confidence in verses 30 through 34.

And He said, With what can we compare the kingdom of God? Or what parable shall we use for it?

It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.

Yet, when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

And with many such parables, He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to His own disciples

He explained everything. He tells this parable and He compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed.

The mustard seed is small, the smallest of all seeds, yet Jesus says the kingdom is like a mustard seed that grows up into the largest tree in the garden.

The kingdom might start small. The kingdom might, at any given point in time, it might look weak.

You might not expect much from it, but Jesus Christ, the Son of God, says it will grow to tower above everything else on earth.

And so, look, I know that if you look around out in town, if you look at the headlines, if you watch the news, it looks bleak out there.

I know that we're seeing just some absolutely bonkers stuff. If you look on social media, it's just wild.

And it can be discouraging. I get that. I want you to zoom out for just a minute.

I want you to zoom out and take a wide 2 ,000 year angle on the scope of history.

And think about how much the kingdom has expanded from that mountain by the sea with 12 men.

And it's expanded to Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and North Africa, and South America, and Europe, and Asia, and Traveler's Rest, and to the other ends of the earth.

And everywhere it has gone, the kingdom of God has toppled empires and enemies, and put the crazy to flight.

And the kingdom is still growing. It is still expanding into every nook and cranny and neighborhood. And it is not going to stop.

The tree is going to become the largest tree in the garden. The seed has been sown in the fertile soil of Jesus Christ Himself.

And it will grow to become the largest tree in the garden. Or as Daniel says it in Daniel chapter 2, the stone cut from a mountain by no human hand, the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Or as Habakkuk 2 .14 says, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

How wet is the ocean? That's how Christian the world shall become. Or 1

Corinthians 15 .25, Jesus must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. And so brothers and sisters,

I do not want you to be discouraged about what you see in the world. We may be in some hard times.

I won't argue the fact with you. We are. But our

God works everything for good for those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.

And God takes what is meant for evil and He uses it for good and turns it for good.

And God who is sovereign over all of history is working all things together according to the counsel of His will.

And if Jesus is to be trusted in His metaphor for the Kingdom of God here in Mark chapter 4 and He is to be trusted, then

I believe with all my heart that we have every reason to be optimistic about the future of the Kingdom of God on earth.

And therefore, we need to live like it. We need to live like the victorious citizens of the

Kingdom of God that we are. And that comes back to being fertile, fruitful soil for God's Word.

That comes back to receiving God's Word by faith and diligently putting it into practice in every area of our lives, in every domain of human existence.

Everywhere we go, we're carrying God's Word and we're applying it. You ever stretched out pizza dough and you kind of got to push it into the corners?

We want to push God's Word into the corners of every corner of our life. It means not retreating from the world but advancing upon it to take it for King Jesus.

And if we'll do that, we have the promise of verse 24. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you.

Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we do want to be a people who worship you and then go out and bring glory for King Jesus.

So toward that end, Father, I pray that we would receive the Word with faithful hearts. That we would be fertile soil for your

Word. That we would take it with gladness and thanksgiving and by faith and then apply it in our lives.

Lord, I pray that you would guard us against emotional highs. That when they're brought low, we might wither away because we have no root.

Lord, I pray that you would guard us against the cares of the world so that we're not choked out by the desires for money or comfort or convenience or a good reputation or whatever else comes from the world.

But rather, Father, I pray that we would be diligent in growing in godliness. That you would make us diligent in using all the things that you have given to us that we might grow.

That we'd use those. That we wouldn't ignore them. Especially, Lord, particularly

I pray that we would be a people who love your Word. And I know the people in this church love your Word. I know there are so many in here with...

They wouldn't dare go to bed at night without reading from the Scriptures at some point during the day. Lord, I pray that that would be true of all of us.

I pray we would be diligent in growing in godliness. And then we would... You would let it come out of our hands into the world and how we live.

We put our hands to the plow and do like what we sang earlier. Work till Jesus comes.

Work till Jesus comes and win glory for His name. Trusting that you and you alone give the growth.