Mark chapter 4, starting in verse 1. And again, he began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea. And the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. Then he taught them many things by parables and said to them in his teaching, listen, behold, a sower went out to sow and it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground where it did not have much earth. and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground, and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased, and produced. some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundred. And he said to them, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. But when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable. And he said to them, to you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them. 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 by the wayside where the Word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the Word that was sown in their hearts. These, likewise, are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the Word, immediately receive it with gladness, and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the Word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the Word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in, choke the Word. and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word accept it and bear fruit, some 30 fold, some 60, and some 100. That's as far as we'll read today. So that's Jesus' own explanation to his disciples. I'm not going to take the time to review any of last week, but last week's sermon is available. on our YouTube page and also on our sermon audio page. So you can find that if you want to review some of the other parts of this passage. But I want to dive right into the parable of itself, the parable itself. So let me give a quick word of explanation of the giving of it, which starts in verse 3. And then we're going to jump right to Jesus' explanation of it and talk about it then for the rest of our time. So, it starts off with a sower going out to sow. So think in terms of a farmer planting a field. Goes out with his seed, plants in the field. And what happens? A few different things happen, right? As he goes out sowing his seed, some of the seed just falls. falls out of his sack, or he just drops it. Maybe, I don't know how, depending on what you're planting, how you scatter seed, but maybe a seed is grabbed by the fistful, and maybe in the course of doing that, some of them just falls, not where he intended for it to fall. All right, so there's some of that. And the birds of the air, you know, bonanza for the birds of the air, right? It's eating time. So they come and they devour it up. Now some of it fells on stony ground. So that sounds like seed that was planted intentionally, but there wasn't much earth. There was enough for the seed to like sprout and come up, but because there was no depth, you know, no roots could be dug down. It had no depth. So immediately when the sun came up and the sun hit it, ordinarily the sun would help. a plant grow, right? But there's no roots, there's no depth and so the sun comes and hits it and it just burns it up and that's it. Some seed fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and the picture there is that you'll plant your seeds but there's weeds, thorns, things that you don't want growing among the crop. The crop, the plants themselves will grow up But because these thorns, these weeds, if you will, are competing under the surface of the ground at the root level for the nutrients that come from the soil, the plant itself grows up, but no fruit comes on it. Whatever produce it is you're trying to grow, you don't get any. You just get a plant with nothing on it. So it looks like something's growing, but there's no fruit. Remember that, that's important. And then verse 8, other seed falls on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up and increased and produced. So obviously this is like the objective, right? Seed falls on good ground, the plant grows, and the plant produces the desired produce, right? So and different quantities, right? Some 30-fold, some 60, and some 100. So there's different degrees of fruitfulness in the plants, but they're fruitful. And so that's a good thing. Now, that's the parable itself. We explained what ensued last week. So now let's go to Jesus' explanation. So if you want to flip over to that, that started in verse 13. The first thing Jesus does before he explains the parable itself is he asks this question. Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? That's a rhetorical question. He's not looking for them to answer that. He's asking that question to make them think something. And the thing, obviously, that he's trying to make them think is what? If I don't understand this, I'm not going to understand any of it. So what, by asking that rhetorical question, connected with this parable, what is he doing? He's elevating this parable, this parable of the sower, to a place of great importance among the teaching about the Kingdom of God. If you're going to understand the Kingdom of God, you better understand this parable. You need to understand all of his parables. All of these parables give us some different aspect of the Kingdom of God. But this one is especially critical. So now you stop and you ask yourself, why? What is so meaningful about this particular parable that would make it so important that if you don't get this one, you don't get any of them? And I think I said this towards the end of the sermon. I think this is how I closed last week. But just to remind you, or in case you didn't hear it, the answer is this. What is this parable about with regards to the Kingdom of God? It's about who's in and who's not. Like if you're going to start by talking about the Kingdom of God, the first thing you need to understand is who's part of the Kingdom of God and who isn't. What does the rest of it matter unless you understand for sure how it is that you yourself are part of the kingdom of God and how you yourself can recognize for yourself and maybe even for others around you who's in the kingdom of God. Then we'll move on to the rest of it, right? So that's what I think the rhetorical question demands that we recognize as a response. Who's in and who's out? Now, I'm going to ask you a question. Not a rhetorical one, but an actual one. I've asked this question before, so some of you may remember me asking this. But as you go through this parable, how many different kinds of people is it describing? Four. Correct. Sort of. Right? Really, I would submit to you that this is describing two. Right? It's describing, yes, who said four? Scott? No, Max. Very good. You're correct when you say four because there's the seeds that fall on different kinds of ground. So there's four. But in the end, there are two. It's describing what? It's describing people who are truly saved and people who, to varying degrees, may look like they're saved, or maybe not at all, but they're not. And so ultimately, what the parable of the sower is, like I just explained, it's describing for us who's saved, who's not, and how you can know. And to even some greater extent, why? Right? So that's why this is such a powerful parable. So let's go through them one at a time, and I want to especially spend time giving you a list of some things at the end of this. We'll see how much time we have for that. Let's look at Jesus' explanation. It's very clear. So the sower sows the word. So the sower is the one who's giving out the word of God. That's God Himself ultimately, right? God is the one who gives the Word, right? God uses us to disseminate His Word, but ultimately I think the idea here is that this is God giving out the Word of the Gospel. So the seed is the Gospel itself, the Word of Christ. So God's the sower, I would say, and the Word is the Gospel itself. So, and now Jesus starts breaking down each place that the Word fell. That's why some people, including John MacArthur, who's probably my favorite pastor and teacher of all time, calls it the parable of the soils, because there are four different landing points for the seed that is described here. And these are the ones, verse 15 says, by the wayside, right? These are those seeds that, just as I described, they just kind of fall as the rest of the seed is getting sown. What is this? These are people, what? They hear the word of God. It says when they hear. So they are people who hear the Gospel. These are not people who the Gospel just misses them. These are people that the Gospel, the Word is preached to them. They're aware of the Word. They're aware of the Gospel. But Satan And let's just stop there and realize that Satan, right here makes his way into Jesus' explanation of this parable. Satan is actively at work fighting against the preaching of the gospel. That shouldn't surprise us, right? Peter described it as Satan walking about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, right? So that satanic interference with the gospel is always there. And that's what happens here. He comes and He takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These are people that hear the gospel and for whatever reason it's dismissed. Maybe it's in one ear and out the other. Maybe I just don't have time for that right now. Maybe they've bought into some of the modern day very, I would say, philosophically and socially liberal oriented views of the world and would find reason based on what that has taught them to reject the gospel of Christ outright. But whatever it is, these are people who when the gospel comes to them, they basically just say no. They might be people who show up in church from time to time. Because let's face it, Churches, as much as people complain about them, churches are actually pretty nice places to be, right? Because a church is a place where you can hang around, you can make some friends. For the most part, it's a safe ground and people are friendly and people are giving and if you find a good church, it's a good place to be. But it's possible for someone to be in a church that they have no real faith in the Word of God at all. So you need to examine yourself and be careful about that. Then there's the stony ground. And I'm going fast through this. The stony ground is what? That's where the Word is heard and immediately there is what looks like a favor. I'm too cheap to change batteries in advance. I'm one of those guys that has to soak every, you know. So we just have to watch and enjoy the values. And we have to hope that these aren't like old ones that I saved. Do you do that too? I don't know how y'all do that. I don't know why I spent a lot of time. If there's like any life left in the world, I have to save it. I think these are good. So the seed that falls on the stony ground, You can do that. If you ever went to school as a kid and you did like a little science experiment, like in a little plastic tray or something like that, you threw in some seeds and you threw a little water on it and you put it out in the sun and you watched it sprout and your science teacher used that to teach you something, right? But as far as like farming and trying to get some potatoes or tomatoes or corn or whatever it is, that's not necessarily the best way to do it. You're not going to get it that way, right? It's not going to last like that unless you get it out of there and you plant it in the ground, right? So stony ground art is a description of hearers of the word of God who hear it and look how Jesus explains it. They immediately receive it with gladness and they have no root in themselves. And so they endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation, that's trouble, or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. So, they hear the word of the gospel, and maybe they like, you know, maybe it was presented to them like, you want to go to heaven? Just pray this prayer. And ask Jesus to come into your heart. And He'll save you from your sins. And then maybe they start going to church. And maybe they start getting involved a little bit in the life of Christianity. And then it smacks them in the face that, A lot of times in the world people don't like us. People don't want to listen to us. A lot of times trouble arises in our lives because of the fact that we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus told us that in the world you would have trouble, but be of good cheer because I've overcome the world. The New Testament epistles are filled with admonishments to be prepared for trouble that comes. The stony ground hearer is someone who hears the Word of God and likes it, and they come and they check it out, but as soon as they realize that Christianity is actually what the Bible describes it as, which is a source of great joy and hope and eternal life, but in this life all kinds of hardship and trouble, Brother James read for us from Psalm 39 today. I mean, there was a guy, David there, who was in some trouble because of his own sin, because of his own people around him in his life. He was constantly in hardship. He had enemies, he had people that talked behind his back, he had people that plotted against his life. Jesus himself experienced all of this. As soon as the stony ground here gets a little whiff of that, gone. Right? So there's a lot of those. There are a lot of those people who like kind of put their toe in the water of Christianity and they check it out. But when they realize that there's hardship, when they realize that it makes demands on the life, when they realize that the discipline of being part of a church, they realize that the discipline of praying to a God they've never seen is hard. When they realize that there are hardships and heartbreaks and things all the time, they realize that temptation never seems to stop and it's difficult to overcome. And then they may start to question, like, why am I fighting so hard? Why? I thought this was just all joy and God. This is like the calamity of the prosperity gospel, always presenting God as someone who just wants to give you blessings and blessings and stuff all the time. Christianity is described by Jesus as a narrow road that is difficult and only a few find it. So when the stony ground hearer experiences what Christianity really is, he realizes this isn't what I signed up for, and he's gone. That's the stony ground hearer. There are a lot of those. I've known a lot of those. A lot of those have passed through these doors over the years. Now, these are the ones sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word, And the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful. This is truly a dangerous situation. So these are people who they hear the Word, they'll come and they'll maybe begin to be at a more deeper level involved in the life of Christianity the plant will grow up so they might be side-by-side with true believers in fellowship in some external form of fellowship with true believers maybe worshipping side-by-side studying the word side-by-side right But there's no fruit in their lives, because the fruitfulness has been choked off by the love of this world. Brothers and sisters, this is why the Apostle John says, do not love the world. First John 2 15. Do not love the world. Do not love the things of the world. If you love the world, you love the things of the world. What's it say? It says the love of the father is not in you. The Book of James says adulterers and adulteresses strong language. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Right? So when you love this world, look, we live in this world and it doesn't mean we can't enjoy anything that like God, a wholesome thing that God blesses us with. But listen, if the entire thrust of your life is that you're just running from earthly concern to earthly concern and trying to squeeze in some external form of religion in the form of evangelical Christianity into it, that's not the real Christian life. and it's possible to do that. We know it because we can see it in the world today, and we know it because Jesus teaches it right here. It is possible for someone to grow up side by side, right next to actual Christians, and not necessarily look different, right? A corn stalk with corn on it looks just like a corn stalk that doesn't have corn on it. after the harvest or before it sprouts anything, right? They look the same when the plant grows up. When a tree that produces like oranges or apples or something, or when a vine starts to grow up that grows grapes, they grow up and they look exactly the same. But after a vine dresser has nurtured that grape vine for years and years and is expecting that eventually, I don't know how many years it takes for that to start to happen, but starts to notice that I haven't produced any grapes, he realizes something is wrong, right? In order to realize that it's a good situation, he has to have the fruit on the... Right? So those are the three kinds of people then that are described. The person who when he hears the Word of God it's in one ear out the other. Satan does something to distract them. He's just not interested. Maybe he's been preconditioned by other stuff he's been listening to. His heart is hard. He has no interest in it. That's the seed that falls by the wayside. There's the person who hears the Word of God and they hear it, they respond favorably to it, maybe they didn't hear everything that they needed to hear, they dip their toes into the waters of Christianity, when they realize that Christianity means difficulty, hardship, trouble, they think to themselves, this isn't what I was expecting, and they're gone. And then there's the third kind, the person who they hear the Word of God, they maybe begin to follow, they're able to, maybe for years and years and maybe even for an entire lifetime, be able to live a life that might just look like all of the other Christians around them, but there isn't actually any fruit in their lives. Right? Those are the three different kinds of people who hear the Word of God. that aren't truly saved. In the end, they're all the same. You understand that. When I was a young Christian, I would actually occasionally hear pastors, believe it or not, describe these as saved people. But I don't know how you could possibly arrive at that conclusion. Clearly, from a plain understanding of this, Jesus is pointing us to the fact that it's only the fourth of these four soils that is describing actual saved people. Follow that? And I believe that, too. And what's the fourth one? The good ground. What happens? The seed falls on good ground. Who is that? They're the people who hear the word of God. They accept it. The idea of accept is that they've heard it. It's humbled them. They're convinced of its truth and the reality of it. They humble themselves before that truth and they respond to it with their entire hearts, with all of their faith. These are people who hear the gospel of Christ. It confronts them in their own sinfulness. It warns them of God's righteous judgment. They tremble in awe before a holy God. But they recognize that that same holy God who is a righteous judge also has great love and mercy and compassion for them. And I know those things sound like they're as far apart as you could possibly get. Righteous and holy and hating sin and judging sinners. and merciful and compassionate and loving, and I'm telling you, they are not far apart, they are all absolute, perfectly pure qualities and characteristics of our Heavenly Father. He is holy and He hates sin, but He is loving and righteous and merciful, and God is all of those things to complete purity and perfection. Right? So, this person who is the fourth of the four here, is the person who hears and they accept that. To accept something means to bow before the reality of it. Not just, I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. That's so shallow. It means they accept everything that the message of the Gospel is. Which is first of all a confrontation of them as sinners and a warning of God's righteous judgment. Like the thief on the cross that I read about today, who said what? This man's done nothing wrong. We deserve to die for our crimes. He came to realize that he was hanging on a cross, dying, deserving what he was getting. And then what did he do? He turned to Jesus and cried out to him. And that's what this person does when they realize their sinfulness and they can't save themselves. And God is righteous and will certainly judge their sins. They humble themselves. They turn to Jesus Christ. They believe that he is the son of God. They believe that he is the Messiah. They believe that he came and he died for their sins, for their sins. He and he is the only one who can take their sins away. There isn't any hope in self-justification, religion, nothing else. They trust in Jesus Christ. He died. He was buried. And on the third day, He rose from the dead. He ascended back to heaven. He's coming again someday. They believe. They believe everything about Jesus. And they entrust the eternal fate of their souls to Him by faith. That's what it means to accept it. To accept it means you are presented the entirety of the message. And you say, yes. Amen. In humility and in faith. And there isn't salvation anywhere else. That's it. That's the only place there's salvation. And do you know how you know the real? Not by the sincerity of their words. Not by anything that they, by their own efforts, do. What's it say? They bear fruit now. I'm looking at my nice big clock down there. This is going to become a three part series because I have. A whole list of things, if you've listened to this today. And surely, if you've been in this church for any length of time, you're familiar with this. I've preached multiple sermons and Bible studies on this passage of Scripture, and I've referred to it in passing during other sermons many times. But if you're here and you hear this, you realize coming through this, what is the big question that everybody must ask and be able to answer it for themselves, but must know? That question is obviously what? What is fruit? Because that's the difference, right? There's four different soils, but it represents two different kinds of people, fruitless ones and fruitful ones. So the question that you ought to ask is, what is fruit? That's the question that we'll take up in our sermon next week. I dare not start it today because then you're going to all send me text messages in the afternoon yelling at me for ruining your Mother's Day by taking up the whole afternoon. I had reservations at such and such a place and they know you wouldn't do that, would you? No, you wouldn't. All right. But that's what we'll do. So what? Yeah, there you go. Yeah, you'll call me out on Twitter. Right. All right. So so what is fruitfulness? The Bible describes it. We'll come back and get it next week, but the Bible describes, look, the fruit of the spirit. The Bible describes a fruitful life. The Bible describes fruitfulness of good works. Fruitfulness. You can't save yourself by good works, but they are fruit of a life that's devoted to Christ. The Bible describes the fruitfulness of a love for God and a love for God's people, love for one another, and so forth and so forth. These are things that are not works that we do. These are things that are evidenced in our life because we have, by God's grace, received salvation through believing the gospel. And that is what we will take up in our study next week. Would you all stand up with me, please? And that's where we'll end for today.