Well, I invite you to please stand with me as you open God's word up to the gospel of Mark. Mark chapter four, and if you wanna go ahead and turn back to the beginning of Isaiah as well and maybe put a finger or a ribbon or a bookmark there, we're going to be looking at the first couple chapters in Isaiah as well. Let's now be addressed by God through through Mark in Mark chapter 4 beginning here in verse 1 going through the end of verse 20. Again, he, that is Jesus, 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 and 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 seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding 30-fold and 60-fold and 100-fold. And he said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, those around him with the 12 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, 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 those are the ones sown among thorns. They are the ones 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 30-fold and 60-fold and 100-fold. Let's pray. Oh God, give us ears to hear and eyes so that we may not merely see, but that we may understand and perceive. For Lord, unless you give us this, we will never, never understand and never perceive. So Lord, please give us what we lack for your name's sake. Amen. Please be seated. Well, for those who have been with us from the very beginning, since I started preaching out of the Gospel of Mark, you may recall, and for those who have not, I just pointed out that in the gospel of Mark, there's a special connection and a tie with the prophet Isaiah, that this gospel goes back to Isaiah more than any other Old Testament source. And here in chapter four in our passage, we have more of that. So we're actually gonna take this passage, verses one through 20, in two parts. So this is the first, and then next month, Lord willing, we'll come again and examine this passage. So what we're going to be doing this evening is looking at Jesus' teaching on parables broadly. And then next month, we will take the particular parable and examine that more closely. And so this evening, again, we're examining what Jesus is teaching about his methodology. Why parables? And in this passage, what Mark is demonstrating is that Jesus is the true and better prophet Isaiah. And Jesus paraphrases Isaiah chapter six, verses nine through 10, right here in the very center of our passage in chapter four, verse 12. Jesus not only paraphrases Isaiah, but He's applying it to the very moment in which He is ministering. But actually, in order to understand what Jesus is quoting in Isaiah 6, I think we need to actually start in Isaiah 1. And the reason is because what happens in Isaiah 1 is Jesus, or not Jesus, God is reading out charges against his people. So, chapter 1 is a charge sheet. It's the judgments of God. So, it's not merely a charge sheet, but God has indeed found guilt in His people. Little quick background, Isaiah was a prophet given to Judah, and so that's the southern nation. And Isaiah lived roughly a century before Judah is taken into the Babylonian exile. And so let's just go through quickly, peruse this first chapter of Isaiah. and see what the Lord says about the guilt that this nation has on their hands. Starting in verse four, ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it. But bruises and sores and raw wounds, they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. In your very presence, foreigners devour your land. It is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left, like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, We should have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord. I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats when you come to appear before me. Who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts, my soul hates. They have become a burden to me. I'm weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause. And the chapter goes on. There are glimmers of hope, but by and large, this is, they're hard and heavy words, but they're true words. These are the judgments of God upon a nation that is, in the history of Israel and Judah, of course, really a descent through this period to the point of their exile, where they're increasingly hardened, where the prophets are pleading with them, but they will not hear. And so then this brings us to the context of chapter six, Isaiah chapter six. And in verse eight through 13, some of you may have a subtitle here. The ESV subtitle is Isaiah's commission from the Lord. But you not only have a commission, but a bit of a dialogue here. Isaiah says, and I heard, and of course this follows Isaiah's vision of God. And so then God finally speaks here in verse eight. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, here I am, send me. And he said, this is God speaking now, go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. And then now to Isaiah, make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. And then the prophet engages the Lord, responds, then I said, how long, O Lord? And he, God, said, until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled, the holy seed, its stump. Now, Oftentimes, when the Old Testament is being quoted in the New Testament, there's only a fairly small portion that might be recited. You have to remember, this is before chapter and verse were introduced. But Jesus, no doubt, when he quotes this in the middle of Mark chapter four, he's not referring in a very, very limited sense just to what's appearing, but really the wider context, that section. So God tells Isaiah to tell Judah, it's almost, if I can paraphrase, go on hearing, but not understanding, because this is indeed the pattern that they're ensnared in. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. And then Isaiah's charge specifically is to make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and to blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. Now, of course, Isaiah on his own is completely incapable of bringing about a certain kind of response in God's people, but what God is doing is he's actually revealing to Isaiah how he will use Isaiah into what effect his ministry will have upon the people. Theologian and commentator E.J. Young pointed out that Isaiah knows all too well that he cannot argue with God's judgment upon the people of Judah. He cannot question God's decree, but out of love for the people to whom he has sent, he inquires of God in verse 11, how long will this judgment last? And of course, God answers, until cities lie waste without inhabitants and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth, which is a kind of tree, or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. the holy seed, its stump." And so, as is the case with a lot of prophecy, God's answer to Isaiah is fulfilled when Judah is exiled, and this, of course, began in 586 BC. But notice in his answer to Isaiah, he provides hope, even amidst this declaration of the exile. that there will be a remnant, but even this remnant, see in verse 13, will be burned again. And so there's a bit of a pattern of a remnant. So there's the people rebelling against God, descending into a place of evil and hardheartedness. God brings judgment, whether it be through exile, destruction of Jerusalem, but there's always a remnant. He uses the illustration of a tree. And actually, in my own foray into woodworking and such, I've learned that actually there are, I don't know what the right term is, but groves perhaps, forests, where people have been engaged in harvesting the trees for even centuries, where the tree grows up, they come and they cut it down, But certain kinds of trees will put out a new shoot, will grow a new tree off the old stump. And so there's always life that's remaining in these trees. And actually, the oak is one of them, or certain kinds of oak. And so it's appropriately referenced here. You can have generations that are tending these forests. harvesting trees to have them come up again. So there's always life, there's always a remnant. So now we can make sense of Jesus' use of these two verses in Isaiah 6. And Jesus is explaining now his use of the parables in teaching. And a bit late to be introducing my sermon title, but the title of the sermon is Parables, Punishments, and Promises. And what we see in the use of parables is punishments and promises. But what Jesus does in his use of Isaiah 6 is explain why parables. And he's also actually claiming that he has the very same mandate that the prophet Isaiah did, namely that Jesus would speak plainly, and yet most of his hearers will not understand. Jesus would make it so clear that they would perceive with their eyes and yet not possess understanding. But just like God gives Isaiah hope, Jesus too gives hope in the midst of chapter four here. He says to his disciples, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. And so even though God's people deserve to be cut off and for no new shoot to shoot up out of that stump, God nonetheless ensures life and vitality, that in his people there's always a remnant, that that flame will never be quenched fully, that from even a judged people will come a living vital remnant. And so this then brings us to our doctrine. So understand that when a judge judges, there are really two phases of a judge executing justice. The first is a finding of guilt and innocence. The second is, if guilty, to decree a sentence. And those are distinct functions within the umbrella or underneath the umbrella of judging. And so God judges, He sentences or punishes by the hardening of their hearts. Now this sentence can be individual, it can also be corporate. And of course we have in Scripture an example of individual hardening in Pharaoh. God speaks of hardening Pharaoh's heart. Now, he speaks alternately about Pharaoh hardening his own heart, But then God, in response, as a sentence, as a punishment for Pharaoh's hardening of his heart, turns Pharaoh over and hardens his heart even further. And what our passage is showing us is that Jesus' ministry was certainly not the sum of it, but in part to sentence a rebellious Israel. Now you might say, but wait, Jesus didn't come to condemn the world. And indeed, he did not. The world already stood condemned. That was the finding of guilt. They were already guilty. But rather, the judgment that Jesus brought was the punishment. They already stood condemned. But in his teaching, he was heaping up punishment, that through his teaching, that a rebellious people, as a sentence, as a punishment for their rebellion, would further have their hearts hardened. And we can see this in our passage, it's very clear. In verse 12, Well, we'll start in verse 11. And He said to them, His inner circle, His disciples, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables. And then, this is the important, this is the proof. So that, the Greek word is hinah. It shows purpose or intention. So that, why? They may indeed see. but not perceive. They may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven." This is a terrifying thing to be confronted with. But Jesus is the ultimate winnower Jesus separates the wheat from the chaff, and by choosing to teach in this manner, by using the parables, this is part of the will of God, that the wheat would be separated from the chaff, and that the chaff would be further judged, that in His ministry and teaching, they would actually experience the judgment of God. Even Isaiah's preaching, which had a winnowing effect, the substance was the Christ to come. Jesus is the ultimate winnower. And if we can, go briefly back to Isaiah. When Isaiah speaks of the remnant being burned or purged again, This is precisely fulfilled, so the near fulfillment of that prophecy was the Babylonian exile. But then we have the judgment of Israel as a nation when Jerusalem is utterly destroyed in AD 70. There are historians who noted that people coming into a destroyed Jerusalem were in disbelief that it had ever been inhabited. The destruction was that complete. But is the focus of the passage, is the focus of Jesus' teaching on the parables only on this judicial hardening, only on this sentence of hardening? Well, we've touched on it briefly, but no. When Jesus takes his disciples aside, the first thing he talks about is not the hardening, but actually, he states positively, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. That's the first place Jesus goes. Indeed, Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save the world. Jesus came and revealed God to the remnant, to the elect, and this is amazing news. Again, nobody deserved this saving. Nobody deserved this kind of preservation. Nobody deserves to be that shoot that comes after the judgment, but Jesus is, is leading with that good news. Now notice that the secrets of the kingdom are not discovered through the following. They're not discovered through the intellect. The text doesn't record that you had some people who were dull, other people who were maybe quicker on the uptake. It wasn't discovered through cunning. It wasn't discovered through persistence, through hard work, through reform, or any other such efforts. Rather, the secrets of the kingdom are, Jesus says in verse 11, they are given. They're not earned, they are given. And then in verse 13, Jesus, recognizing that his disciples lacked understanding, proceeds to do that very thing. He gave them understanding. He taught them, He revealed to them what they lacked. And He did this in verses 14 through 20. And so, brothers and sisters, let's now apply this to our lives. Well, the first application is for us to just remember and see in this the reminder that God has been gracious to us in all that we have heard, all that we have seen. He's been oh so gracious. But the question before us is, do you understand? Do we perceive? Has the message gotten through? Or has it gone in one ear and right out the other? Now again, God is gracious. in allowing us to hear the message, in allowing us to see himself. And so what do we do when we find ourselves thinking, well, I'm not sure I really perceive or I really understand? Well, again, there's nothing that you can turn to of your own efforts to then incline God to give you this gift of understanding and perception. The only thing that these truths can bring us to is to our knees. That is the only place where we can say, God, I, of all people, deserve to be cut off entirely and forever. There's no way I deserve to be in your kingdom, to have any secret of the kingdom, but oh God, that you would give it to me. That you would grant me this perception, this understanding. Grant it to me, oh Lord. Or perhaps you say, you know, I have been given a great gift. I do believe that I understand and perceive, but God, give me more. Give me more, I wanna see more of your kingdom. Make it real to me, oh Lord. The only place we can do that is on our knees. We should also be asking ourselves, am I the heart of hearing? Am I the heart of heart? Which of course would put you, I would pray, back on your knees. Well, these realities should serve to bring us to a place of reverent fear, of humility. This is a God who is able to destroy both body and soul. And we can see that process happening right before our eyes here in this passage. This is real. There are people who heard God teach while he was in the boat, and they were on the shore, and those people, they heard the very words of Jesus Christ. They saw the God-man with their own two eyes, and yet they hated him. We're witnessing that winnowing happening right before our eyes in this text. And dear friends, brothers and sisters, that is happening right here, right now, this Lord's Day. And it's happening all, at every point in history. God is showing us himself. He's calling out to us from his word. Will we listen? Will we fear him? Will we see the reality of what's happening before us? Let us, brothers and sisters, not be hard of hearing. Let us instead worship and bow down before this God who is able to destroy both body and soul. Let's pray. Lord, give to us the mysteries, the secrets of your kingdom. Lord, help us to understand. Lord, help us to see you for who you truly are. Lord, give us the hard truth of who we are before you. And Lord, may we bend the knee before you. Lord, your spirit alone is able to bring us to this place, to cause us to fall prostrate before you, to cry out to you from a position of utter despair. Lord, cause us to despair of our own efforts, our outward forms of godliness as you judged the people of Judah for. Lord, please, may we not have the outward form of worship, but may we worship you both in truth, but also in spirit. Lord, cause us to live, cause us to be the remnant, cause us to be your holy people. For your sake and for our unending joy, amen.