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, 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 seeds 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, and 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. 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 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. The Word of the Lord. Brothers, the word of the Lord is opened up before us. Let us seek his blessing. Let us pray. Almighty God, we bless you that you have opened up your mouth and spoken to men. And we thank you for recording that here in these scriptures, which have been inspired by your Holy Spirit, by holy men who have spoken from you. And as we have just read now in our passage, we need your help in hearing your word. Give us that illumination of our minds and our hearts to receive your word into it that we might bear fruit in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Beloved in the Lord, Let me remind you of what we saw in the gospel last week as the context for where we are at this morning. We saw last week that unbelief, a failure to recognize who Jesus Christ is and to commit oneself to him always and inevitably leads to opposition of the gospel. opposition of the kingdom of God, opposition of God's gracious purposes in this world. We saw his family call him mad, wanted to take him home, lock him away and talk sense to him because what he was doing was Very far different from the Jesus they had known for the first 30 years of his life. But you can see how their unbelief led to opposition. They would take Jesus away from his ministry, take him away from his new family, take him away from feeding and tending the flock, take him away from preaching the gospel because they thought he was mad and this was getting out of control. And that was more or less done out of ignorance, culpable ignorance for sure, but not like the others that we met, the scribes. Theirs was done out of malice. Theirs was done out of hatred for Jesus Christ, a hatred for the gospel. They called him bad. They wanted the people to think that he was nothing but a magician who was seducing Galilee so they could go back to Jerusalem, make their report to the Sanhedrin, and get him removed and killed. Of course they did. Silencing the gospel, the herald of the gospel. Working against the grace of God because they have no faith. But then we saw a little party around Jesus, sitting at his feet, whom he called his family. Hearing from him the word and will of God and doing it. And we see then a division happening in the gospel. Those who don't have faith in Jesus Christ and those who have faith, no matter how imperfect they may be, they have enough faith not to oppose Him, but to listen to Him. And what I want to say to you this morning then, the whole reason why that is, if you look at verse 3 in your Bibles, is the first word there, listen. The whole reason there is this divide is people aren't listening to Jesus. Now, if I were to ask you, what is mankind's most fundamental problem? What is the most fundamental problem in this world? What would you say? Yes, and you wouldn't be wrong. It is sin. But more particularly, it is the sin of not listening to God. Because God can teach you. God's making known in His gospel to you how He has gotten rid of sin in Jesus Christ. The fundamental problem of the human race and of mankind is we don't listen to God. We don't put in practice what He would teach us. And so we kill and steal and covet. We don't come to Him when He says, open your mouth and I would feed you. and we seek for everything apart from Him. The fundamental problem, and we know this, it's how the whole story of our sin and misery on this earth begins. In the garden, when Adam and Eve did not and refused to listen to God. And here you see this same problem manifesting it when God is in the flesh speaking to men. They're not listening to Him. That is the fundamental problem that you and I have. We don't listen to God. And I know that it is a difficult talk about listening. Spouses, it's a hard talk, right? We don't like to admit the ways we are inadequate at listening, right? or parents with children. For whatever reason, we don't like to listen. We have problems listening. I hope God gives me his grace this morning to speak to you about listening. And you about hearing. Because God would speak to each of us this morning. He would speak to you about listening to him. Let's start with that verse three and we'll use verse three to launch us in to what we're going to see today in the gospel. Jesus says, listen, behold, a sower went out to sow. I'm sure that this parable is familiar to many of us or all of us. But Jesus tells them to listen, look at him as he's standing on a boat in the ocean and everybody's on the sea and he's casting seed upon them. He's also illustrating this parable for them. by doing the very thing that he's doing, preaching to them. But he tells this people a parable about the way his ministry of the Word has been received amongst them in the last two years in Galilee. He tells them a parable about how the people have been listening to him. Now the purpose of this parable, the main instruction of it, is for his disciples. As we see, those are the ones who are going to come and ask them about it, and he'll explain it to them. But then you go, well, why is he speaking it in parables then to the people at all? That's the whole point. Because they're not listening. And a parable is a way of illustrating to them you're not listening because you say one thing in a parable, right? But you're to hear something else. Jesus has been speaking plainly to them. He's been telling them plainly, Scripture is fulfilled in your sight. Plainly, read the Sermon on the Mount. That's a plain sermon. There are some things that are hard to understand with what he's calling us to do, yeah, but he's not speaking in parables there. He's expounding plainly the law of God. Plainly they're seeing this miraculous power from his hands, but they're not listening. They're not seeing and they're not hearing. And so in reality, what these parables are, is there are judgment or the sin of not listening to God when he would speak plainly to you. So man's fundamental problem is he doesn't listen to God. But Jesus is speaking this parable about the sower because the only When you sow seed, the farmer's only concerned about the seed that bears fruit. Jesus knows that people aren't listening to him because their lives aren't being changed by his message. What this sermon is about, what you're to take away from this sermon, is what it means to be a true listener of God. What it means to be a true Christian. And that is a person who bears fruit in their life. as a person whose life has been changed by God's gospel, who bears the fruit of the kingdom. That is what a true Christian is. Any other hearing sinfully falls short of listening to God. That's the message here this morning. What it means to be a real listener, a disciple, a Christian, is to bear fruit in your life. So what we're going to do is this, we're going to take this word, listen, and we're just going to ask a number of questions about it to understand what Jesus is saying about it. First thing as we see, and we're going to be focusing on verses three through eight and 14 through 20, as they both give the parable and then explain it to us. But the first thing you see in the passage is who are we to be listening to? Who's the sower? Christ. We read from Isaiah 6 just a few minutes ago. Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6. Who did Isaiah see in that passage? He saw the Lord of glory. In John's gospel, when he quotes Isaiah 6, he tells us explicitly, when Isaiah wrote that, the glory he saw was the glory of Christ. They're not listening to the Lord of glory. Sure, is his glory veiled? Yeah. But it's peeping through and these mighty powers and miracles that he's doing. But the person speaking to you in the gospel, the person speaking to you this morning is Christ. How does Christ speak to us today? Is Christ present on earth speaking to us? No, where is Christ at? He is seated in heaven. What has Christ sent in His place? The Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of Christ speaking to you through the Word of Christ and the Word of God that you're to listen to. Not a mere man. If you came here to hear a mere man, you've come to the wrong place. As I hope to be faithful to the Word of God, and therefore it is Not listening to the Spirit of Christ is the great sin of unbelief and not listening. It is listening to the Spirit of Christ which leads to a fruitful life in Jesus Christ. So the one that we are to be listening to, the one who speaks to us is Christ, when He was present on earth in His person, now by the Spirit of Christ and the Word that He inspired and left for us. Well, what are we to be listening to God about? What does God speak to us about in His Word? Chiefly, what Jesus has come announced to the people If you go back to chapter 1, verses 14 and 15, the main message that Jesus has been proclaiming to the people is the gospel of God, telling them plainly, demonstrating to them plainly that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Jesus has been telling these people is the whole hope of Israel. The whole promise of all the prophets is here in flesh before you has come amongst you God's kingdom. That is God's reign. That is God's rule. And what Jesus has been doing illustrates us best for what it means that God's kingdom has come into this world. Because God has always been king over creation. So what's the new news about the gospel? It's a message of salvation. Because what has the kingdom of God been doing since Jesus has been on earth? Giving people the true knowledge of God's word as they've sat under the commandments of men. and have found themselves in opposition to God because they would obey the commandments of men and know nothing of God. So the kingdom of God brings us the true knowledge of who God is. The kingdom of God brings us the true will of God that we might know His word, what is pleasing to Him, and walk in it. We say, right, as in Psalm 119, your word is a light unto my feet, right? When the word of God comes into it, it enlightens me. Jesus has brought the light of God's Word to the people. What else has Jesus been doing right since he's been announcing to them God's kingdoms here? He's been attacking Satan. He's been attacking disease and death, raising people from the grave, healing people, thousands of people. casting out demons from amongst them. That's what it means that God's kingdom has come amongst us, everlasting life has come amongst us. Jesus will tell parables later about the kingdom of God, talking about how will we enter into life. It's synonymous, they start to overlap in the Bible, kingdom of God and eternal life. These people sat in a world of darkness and the light has come amongst them, demonstrating to them the life that God mediates through us through his Messiah, through Jesus Christ, and they're not listening. So who is speaking to us? Christ. What is Christ speaking to us? The gospel of God. the announcement of our salvation, the announcement of all of our hopes, everlasting life has come in Him, calling us to repentance and to faith despite what it looks like. But how are we to listen? That's what the bulk of this parable is about. This parable is about how to listen. And Jesus explains to us a number of ways not to listen. and gives us one way we are to listen to Christ. The first way we're to listen is immediately. That's referring to the seed that falls on the wayside. That's the seed that refers, that falls on the hard hearts and the people don't do anything with it. And so Satan comes and takes it away. Probably all have experienced something like that. You preach Christ to somebody, you talk about God, you talk about religion, you talk about the gospel, you talk about the cross, you talk about forgiveness, it makes no impressions on them. It just lays there. Their hearts are hardened out of prejudice. Many of these Pharisees and religious leaders were prejudiced against Christ. Maybe their hearts are hardened because they sat for so long under false teaching and given themselves to lies and deceit. And so the Word of God makes no impression on them. It's like water on a duck's back. It just runs off. And notice, Satan isn't the cause of their hard hearts and hearing here. Satan just takes advantage of it. If you don't immediately do something with the Word of Christ preached to you, Satan will come and take that seed that he's sown into your ears. Tice you into more and greater evil. It's probably, it's probably what they're steeped in. They have no time for God's gospel. God tells us, if you're going to, Jesus is telling you, if you're going to be a disciple of mine and follow me, how are you to listen to me? Immediately. When I open my mouth and speak, you're to hear it. Because it's almighty God speaking. That's the sole reason we should listen, because God's opened his mouth. Not because it might be useful to you, not because it's some utilitarian doctrine that proves it, but it's because God has spoken, and God is speaking, and people aren't listening. That's a whole problem with the whole world. That's a problem with Christian lives that aren't going well. They aren't listening to God. You'd have them listen. First is immediately. You would immediately take all that God says to you in his word. Don't put it off till later. I'll get around to it. Don't put things before it. Don't come with a heart prejudice. I'll never believe that doctrine, even though it's clearly taught me in God's word. Because you're prejudiced against it. If you don't immediately do anything with it, Satan just takes it away. Secondly, we're to listen to God's word deeply. That's referring to the seed that has been sown upon the rocky soil or the substratum. There's a little bit of soil and it's just rock underneath it. So roots can't get laid down. Again, I remind you, Jesus is talking about how his preaching has been received by the people that he's been preaching to for two years, very plainly and clearly to. Some people do not receive his word deeply. They hold it superficially. They take it with joy as something that they might add onto their lives. But as soon as it becomes an inconvenience to them in their life, as soon as they've listened to maybe how he's telling them, you know what? You probably shouldn't be so holier than thou. Distance yourself from sinners without showing mercy. Maybe they tried that. Maybe they've seen Jesus interacting with the sinners and tax collectors and they thought, okay, I'll do that. And then their neighbors and their colleagues and their friends start mocking them, giving them grief for what they're doing. Maybe they're getting threatened that maybe they've lost their privileges in the synagogue because they're following the word of Christ. And as quickly as they picked it up with joy, they put it down. I asked myself, you know, I tried to think through this. Jesus is talking about here opposition to his word. People taking his gospel, taking what he's teaching them, putting it into practice joyfully for a time until it becomes uncomfortable because of opposition to it. And I asked myself, why is that? How can people so quickly put it down when it comes to suffering? Or when we think it the other way, Why is it that people can hold on to when it comes to suffering? You read the life of the Apostle Paul and he talks about all of the trials he went through. You read about his writing, he tells us through many afflictions must we reach the kingdom of God. Well, what is it then that keeps us clinging? Well, what is it? Why people don't put it down. I think it lies in that. The only emotion they've ever experienced, and I don't even know how deeply they've experienced it, is joy. They don't have any knowledge of the idea of the shame and the guilt of sin and the grief of repentance. There's no real conviction of God's laws, holiness, Christ and his righteousness. They're not clinging to any kind of savior or taking this word as something they can just merely put on their life. And then when it becomes inconvenient, they can put it back down. They don't have any conviction. There's been no turning up and tearing up of their hearts and grief and sorrow for sin. And so when the heat comes, the word goes away and they wither and leave the faith and walk away from it all. So we must listen to God's Word immediately. We must listen to it deeply. Take it inside of us. Have convictions about it. And third, we must listen to God's Word exclusively. And this is referring to the thorns and the seeds sown there, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, And how does our text translate it? And the desires for other things. These are people that take God's gospel, they probably have convictions about it. You know, as we go through these, right, you sort of, if these are the first people, they don't want anything to do with Christianity. The second sort of people appear to want to do something with Christianity for a while, until it becomes inconvenient, and then they're done with it. But the third people are really the most desperate ones, because they're the ones that actually think they're Christians. They probably have real convictions about the truth. I mean, like listening to the preaching of God's Word. I mean, like what the gospel message is, but they don't listen to it exclusively. They don't hear Christ speaking of heaven and a hope that can't be taken away. but they're deceived by riches. What does that mean? They think all of human happiness lies in wealth and getting things and they'll just be happy if they could have more money and more things. And so they spend their lives running for that and not serving out of the fullness of life that God gives us in his gospel. How stupid. For man to live for riches that moths can eat and destroy when God would give them the wealth of a kingdom. Everything there is that can never go away. And they find their happiness. They're deceived thinking wealth and more wealth and more things. If I could just have the next thing, whatever it is, then I'll be happy. And so don't bring forth the fruit of the gospel in their life. Or people that are already wealthy and think they're very happy because they have their money. or the cares of this world. We all have those. The issue isn't the world. The issue is the cares of the world. We all have the cares of, this is referring to, right, food, clothing, drink. Jesus makes it really clear in the Sermon on the Mount when he opens this up. If that's all you're living for, that's all your aim and effort, and focus in life is how I can put food before me, clothe my back, find drink. You're living like a mere heathen. You know nothing of God your Father who will provide all these things freely for you. How lacking of faith to think of God who would regenerate you, by his grace save you, become your father by adoption through Jesus Christ at a very costly amount and giving a son for you. that he wouldn't care about your earthly existence, that you have to live your life like somebody without God and pursuing all these things till they choke out the life of service in Jesus Christ, the life of giving out of the riches of the kingdom that we have received. And then Mark throws in a text or any other desires. What this is really dealing with is people who know nothing of the fact that when the gospel comes into our lives, you have to begin weeding. It can't have competition. You have to put to death the deeds of the body, you have to tear out sin, things have to go. And they aren't willing to do that. And so the life here in this world, I think this is referring to, as Paul talks about in Corinthians, the fashion of this world is going away. Jesus preaches that parable about inviting people into his kingdom, and what excuses do they give? A piece of land they just bought. Some head of oxen they just got. A marriage they gotta go to. Things of this mere world. Finding good things in themselves, but when they choke out the call of God on your life to serve Jesus Christ and the gospel, and therefore you don't bring any forth any fruit, then you're not listening to God. All your hope is still here in this world and your happiness is tied up to what you can get here. And you're not listening to Christ tell you of heaven and of the glories to come. And so you don't bring forth fruit. I am utterly convinced. Utterly convinced. If you don't have a hope in heaven. These are people that don't know anything that the bread of life is more satisfying than anything on this earth. These are people that don't know the gift of God and who Christ is. He'll give them the spirit of the living waters. I'm utterly convinced if you don't have a hope of heaven, you won't live a heavenly life here like you're called to. We cling to this. That's why Christ promises us this and more. He promises us if we serve him, everybody who leaves things, I'll give you a house, home, wife, things, 30 fold in this life. He's not telling us to go destitute. He's saying that people that never make the commitment and put him first in their life, in the kingdom of God, choke out the life of God, because they're not hearing what he would give them. We're to listen to God immediately, we're to listen to God deeply, and we're to listen to God exclusively. And for what purpose are we to listen in this manner? That's what he talks about in the good soil, to bring forth fruit. God speaks to us in his gospel to change our lives. God speaks to us of his gospel to work in us the life of Jesus Christ. That's what God wants from us. If you're not taking that word immediately, if you're not taking that word deeply into you, if you're not taking that word exclusively in you, then the life of Christ, which is but he's sowing in you through the preaching, gets choked out, and you never bring forth the fruit of the life of Jesus Christ. What happens if we don't listen in this manner? Well, that's what Jesus made clear when his disciples asked him, why are you speaking to these people in parables? And Jesus tells them, for judgment. because I've been speaking to them very clearly. I've been demonstrating to them time and again the power, my power, calling them to faith that I am the one sent from God, their Messiah, and they're not listening. And he says judgment has now come upon them, not listening. The judgment that God promised in chapter 6 of Isaiah. These people are going to continue to hear. but not here. Continue to see, but not see. Let this be a warning. God does not speak clearly to people to not be listened to and think there'll be no repercussions for not listening to him. This is a clear example of what our Savior is saying. That if we do not listen to him, you run the risk of incurring judgment to never hear him. Because the Word of God calls for an immediate decision. The Word of God calls for a deep decision. The Word of God calls for an exclusive decision. And if you won't give Almighty God your ears to listen, then he judges sin. And will leave you in that state to never hear. Why does anyone hear? Let's be honest with ourselves, in our earthly relations, it's pretty hard to listen like this, isn't it? Exclusively to somebody and quickly and immediately, all of your attention, taking in what they're going, who, if we have barely any ears like this, for our friends and neighbors and family, why do any of us listen to God in this manner, the only manner that doesn't bring judgment? Verse 11. God's grace to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. What is the secret of God's kingdom? The secret of God's kingdom is the secret of who is Jesus Christ. The secret of God's kingdom is belief that Jesus Christ isn't no mere man, but the very Son of God. these people see, beginning to see in Jesus Christ is glory. That's what John tells us in his gospel. Even in his first miracle at Cana, we beheld his glory, full of grace and truth. To everybody who has that divine gift, that's why you listen. Because you see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And if you see, that's how you know people have really believed and seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. They listen to God's Word immediately, deeply, exclusively, because the grace of God has shown them whom He's speaking to them about, His Son, Jesus Christ, and their salvation in Him. Jesus is also speaking this parable, and I'll finish here. as a mirror to the people whom he's preaching to. They're to see themselves, these parables show you like a mirror shows you, they show you yourself in relationship to God's kingdom. The question those hearers that multitude was to go away with, the question you're to go away with today is, what kind of hearer am I? Do I listen to God immediately? Deeply? exclusively? Have I really seen something in Jesus Christ? Do I know the secret of the kingdom of God? That Jesus Christ is, in fact, the Son of God, who died for me, that I might have life. And so I listened to him immediately, deeply, You know, you could really play on this spousal thing, can't you? Because the Bible makes clear what's our relationship to Jesus Christ. husband, wife, husband, bride, Christ, and the church. And you know, right spouses, how much conflict comes up in your marriage when you're not listening immediately, deeply, exclusively. It will be no different in our Christian life if we're not listening to Christ our head immediately, deeply, and exclusively. That is how we must listen to Christ so that the word that he would sow in us week in and week out as we listen to the preaching, week in and week out as we fellowship in Bible studies, we would bear forth the fruit of the kingdom of God in our lives. Let us pray. Almighty God, we thank you that you would open your mouth and speak to us. Almighty God, we thank you that you had sent Christ, your Son, to speak to us. Almighty God, we thank you that after Christ, your Son, who came, even before he came to speak to us, he came to die, to give himself a ransom for many, to redeem us from the curse of your law, to bring us back into favor with you, to have this standing in grace as you make known your love to us through his sacrifice. And we thank you, Almighty God, for sending down now in his place, as he has been glorified after this great work, has a name above every name, the Spirit of Christ, to speak to us, to change our lives. Forgive us, Heavenly Father, when we don't listen immediately to God's Word, because we are enticed to evil. We have bad desires. We're prejudiced against its doctrines, and we don't want to hear. Forgive us Heavenly Father we don't listen to your word deeply. Let it tear up our hearts. And it speaks to us about sin. And the shame of sin. Forgive us Heavenly Father we don't listen to you exclusively. But let all the competing desires in our lives choke out the life of Christ sown in us. The life of following Him. Of picking up our cross every day and denying ourselves. Forgive us this sin, this real sin of not listening to you and help us by your Holy Spirit to listen immediately and deeply and exclusively as you in your great grace sow in our hearts the word of your gospel to bring forth the fruit of Jesus Christ. And we thank you for all who believe here for your gift to us to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and to believe in him. In Jesus name we pray, amen.