the morning once again. We're continuing a series in the Gospel of Mark. We are in Gospel of Mark, chapter 4. And our text takes a turn. Up to this moment, we're looking at a set of miracles and actions of Christ. He would go, and He would heal, and then He would speak, and then He would be confronted by the scribes or the Pharisees, and he would address them. But now we move into a time of discourse in the Gospel of Mark. There's going to be a section here, particularly on parables of the kingdom in chapter 4. So we're going to be looking at Mark chapter 4, verses 1 to 33, the parables of the kingdom. So with that, let's turn to it in our text. We're going to look at verses 1 to 33, chapter 4 of the Gospel of Mark. verses 1 to 33. You can turn there in your Bibles, it's also printed for you in your bulletins. Hear God's Word. 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 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 down and devoured it. Other seed fell on the 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, 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 and these are the ones along the path where the word is sown and 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 and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately they fall away. And others are the ones who sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but they 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. The word of the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you this morning asking that you would help us to understand your word. Give us ears, we ask, to hear and eyes to perceive the glories of Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So I confess that there was a moment when I was caught up in a TV show called Downton Abbey. I know, it's kind of crazy, but I was for a brief moment. And I watched a little bit of it. And I remember one line from it that struck me. For those of you who have not watched it, it's OK. That's fine. That's probably good. But there's a character in there named Lord Grantham. He's the father figure in the story, the one who was in charge of this manor, Downton Abbey, this big old estate, whose existence was being tested by the onslaught of modernity. And he said, sometimes I feel like a creature in the wilds whose natural habitat is gradually being destroyed. And this struck me, these words struck me, because I often feel that way in this world. Maybe you're like that. I live in a world that I don't fully recognize, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, that oftentimes seems antithetical to the things that I believe, that I hold as true and right and good. And it can be a discouraging feeling. If you are like me, I tend to get overwhelmed by the way of the world, all of its parts. And as I get older, I like this change less and less. And I am sure that part of this is me, right? Part of this is just me. I'm not one who really likes this change. But actually, there is a part of it that is true. There is a sea change, a cultural change that we all feel. And it feels as though the basic assumptions about the nature of the world, the nature of humanity, the nature of what is right and wrong have been turned on their heads. Maybe some of you feel that way. Maybe some of you don't. Maybe for some of you, you think these things are turning to the right. They're going well. But for me, and I think for many of us in the Christian faith, we feel that natural habitat, is shrinking. As a preacher, I think I'm tempted to wonder, is the Word of God still effective today? I remember being alarmed by one of my preaching professors in seminary back in 2003 who said, since we live in a post-literate age, we need to be post-literate in our preaching. We need to use less words, more pictures, more drama, I'm not saying anything about those things other than to say I was greatly distressed by that. But as I now struggle and despair over the seeming impotency often of those words, thus saith the Lord, seem to have less and less effect on our hearts, I wonder maybe my professor was right. Or maybe we just need to close up shop altogether. The world has changed. Well, that's the temptation. That's the temptation. To start to buy the narrative that the world has won, that God's word is no longer effective or relevant. That's the temptation. But then I go back to God's word. And I read it, and I'm reminded of its eternality, of its power, of its wonder, of its advocacy, of its glory, of its hope. And I'm encouraged. And our text this morning reminds us of this powerful and active word that the king proclaims. We are looking at a very familiar parable, the parable of the sower. And it's really a parable about the glory of the word being proclaimed, the king's proclamation. But oftentimes, I think, this parable comes off as a parable of the soil. It's all about the soil. But it's not. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus actually says, this is the parable of the sower. the one who sows the word of God. It's about the king who comes and he proclaims the coming of the kingdom. The great king calls us to listen and to rejoice because he has come to proclaim the word of life. This is the good news. And I want to look at this in a few parts. First I want to see this idea of seeing and not perceiving. There's a very difficult portion of text right in the very center, right in the very heart of our text this morning. We're going to take a look at that to begin with. Seeing and not perceiving. The second thing I want us to look at this morning is that the King's Word does not return void. It does not return void. And then finally I want to see the King's Word that produces life. So first, seeing and not perceiving. As familiar as this text might be, smack dab in the middle of it is a difficult saying from Isaiah that Jesus quotes. It says this, 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. Immediately we read words like that and it viscerally doesn't feel right. You've got to understand it. Jesus and his disciples had spent the day by the Sea of Galilee. In fact, some commentators take this portion of teaching and actually in, so you have to understand something about the gospel writers. They don't always write in exactly linear writing. They often rearrange things for their theological purposes. So they might put something because it fits the context of something else in another section. And so earlier in the Gospel of Mark we read that there was a time when Jesus went down to the lake and he was being pressed in. Do you remember that? And they were healing and he was casting out demons. But people were pressing in on all sides and so he told his disciples to go get a boat. so that he could get in that boat and then from that boat he could stand and preach without being crushed by the crowds so some commentators think it's possible that this parable section actually falls into that period of time that this was the teaching of the Lord Jesus when he was down by the lake and here he was sitting or standing in the boat on the Sea of Galilee teaching the crowds and so that it presumably he wouldn't be crushed But after a day's worth of parables and teaching, when the 12 and a smaller group of disciples around them, sort of a group of folks that were following Jesus more closely, at the end of the day, they came to him. They were gathered together. And someone voiced the awkward question. So everybody's listening intently to the teaching of Jesus throughout the day. And then when they finally get him privately, they say, Jesus, We're just wondering, we're hoping you might clarify some things for us. What did you mean that the kingdom of God is like a sower going out and sowing seeds in different soils? We don't get it. We don't understand. And why do you speak in these parables? What's going on here? And Jesus graciously answers them. And it said, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables. And then he has this quote from Isaiah that I read a few minutes ago. Now it's important to note It is very purposeful that Mark places this parable at the outset, at the beginning of the other parables. In many ways this parable is a parable of parables. It's a parable about parables. It is a story, an analogy to talk about what it is like to receive the Word of God, and how to understand them. So what is this parable stuff anyway? What is a parable? Well, a parable is a story, short story usually, and it comes alongside. Parabolus is, you know, like in math, it's that curve that is kind of mirrored on both sides, this perfect curve. There's this sort of coming alongside of sense. This is a story that comes alongside of a spiritual truth, right? And it's written usually in a sort of extended simile. The kingdom of God is like, etc. Or, like in a metaphor, right? The kingdom of God is, just straight up, right? Mom, did I get that right? Okay, good. My English teaching mom, correct me on my creative writing stuff. That's generally speaking what a parable is. It gives a spiritual truth, an analogy that comes alongside of a spiritual truth, a story that comes alongside of a spiritual truth. But there is another aspect of the parable that is at work here. Parables are veiled. They're not straightforward. Jesus didn't just come out and say exactly, sort of didactically, this is what I'm saying. He gave it in story form so that those who did not have eyes to see or ears to hear would not perceive and would not understand. That's a difficult truth. It's veiled. And it seems like a strange thing, right? If Jesus came to proclaim the good news of the kingdom, and if he desires that people would turn to him in faith and repentance, then why does he speak in these veiled ways? What is his purpose in that? Isaiah's words are hard words. It says that they may not be forgiven. That they might not turn and be forgiven. Okay, it's hard stuff, but I want us to remember the context in which this was written. We go back to the last section we looked at. You'll remember Jesus had been doing that healing. He had cast out demons. And the scribes came up from Jerusalem. They came to Jerusalem and they looked at what Jesus was doing. They saw what He was accomplishing, the miraculous works that He was doing. They didn't attempt to refute those things. They were there in front of Him. But the scribes said, well, we can't deny that the miracles are happening. So we have to say, what? We talked about this last week. These miracles must be born of the devil. Jesus, you're casting out demons because you have a demon inside of you, Beelzebub. And you remember Jesus' response to them. He said, a house divided against itself cannot stand. Evil cannot cast out evil, which you are doing borderlines on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And that sin cannot be forgiven. So remember that context when we come to this section. What is Jesus' purpose here, in this place, and in this context, and in this time? The scribes were eyewitnesses of the power of God in Christ. And as leaders of the synagogue and followers of God, they were attributing the works of God to the devil. In other words, they were hardening their hearts against the Lord Jesus Christ. and against His word. So when we hear this quote it ought to be seen in the context of the rejection of the scribes and Pharisees who were seeking ways to destroy Jesus. Remember Jesus' mission, the King's plan was to go to the cross. That's what He's going to do. That is His purpose. And it would be hard-hearted sinners hard-hearted sinners who refused to listen to his words, who could not perceive, who could not understand, who would, in short order, in a very short time, crucify him. This is part of the eternal plan of God for our salvation. Jesus' mission was to save the lost, it was to preach good news, it was to call sinners to repentance, and he came full of grace and mercy, but Jesus also, as the Lord of glory, came to judge the whole earth. He is the sovereign king and the divine son whom the psalmist warned of in Psalm 2 when he said, Be warned, O rulers of the earth, kiss the sun lest you perish in his way. And he is the conquering king who one day return and vanquish once and for all, all His enemies. You don't get to just have the Jesus. He's all love. He is. He's all love. But He's also the King of Kings. Sovereign Lord. Who judges. so Jesus here as he preaches the parables of the kingdom is proclaiming both salvation and judgment and there's a call for us there's a call for us to perceive to listen to not harden our hearts to the word And I think any time we read difficult words like this that touch on the challenging reality that God is sovereign, that he's one who gives sight to the blind, remember, you know, that beautiful hymn, Amazing Grace, I was blind but I now can see, right? We love it, we all love that. John knew and knew that it was the grace of God that enabled him to see. Amazing grace. So that same God who gives sight to the blind also leaves the blind spiritually speaking, without sight, as is the case with these religious leaders, these scribes and Pharisees. And our hearts tend to cry out against God, that's not fair. Maybe you feel that. Feel that. And you're right. It's not fair that you should see and perceive. It's not fair that the Lord of full glory should humble himself, take on our flesh, be born of a woman, put himself under the law, be cursed, be crushed, be crucified so that we might have eyes to see and perceive and so be saved. That's not fair. Friends, He graciously calls you to listen and to heed His word. to see and perceive the glories of his grace. To recognize that apart from his miraculous work we could not see, we could not perceive, we could not understand, and so the king calls us graciously to listen, for he enables us to hear. To see and perceive the glories of his grace. This is hard stuff. This is the stuff of... Theologians love to fight about, but here it is in our text, we can't get away from it. Don't forget the Lord of glory is the one by his very word opens our hearts, our minds to see and perceive. So the king calls us to listen, to not harden our hearts to his word. And second, the king's word does not return void, but accomplishes its purposes. I said at the beginning that this is a parable of the sower, not the parable of the soil. And I think we want to see ourselves in the various soils, right? I think it's easy for us to kind of look at ourselves or our friends or our family members and kind of figure out which soil we put ourselves into, particularly the bad soils. I don't even think we think about ourselves enough in terms of the good soil, but I don't think that's what the text is actually getting at. The path, the rocky soil and the weedy soil, they're important. We're going to look at them. But the emphasis, the emphasis is on the sower. It's on the one who brings and sows the Word of God. It's easy to worry that we might be like any of these at any point and that our faith is not real. There are many sensitive Christians who struggle to find assurance, especially when they read a passage like this. What if I'm like the one who quickly comes up and then I'm going to just be burned away by the sun and I'm going to fall away? How do I know that's not going to happen? While there's some warning in the soil types, I don't think it's the point. The parable is about the soil. The sower goes out and he casts his seed. It's indiscriminate. That's what the picture is. You know, I think it was my father who pointed out in modern mining terms, you know, we don't just indiscriminately cast seed. Maybe if you're, maybe a lawn, you might do this with, I would do this with a lawn. I'm indiscriminate, just kind of put the seed out there and hope it grows. It doesn't always, but. But generally speaking, modern farmers, they put seeds exactly where they want them. They have big machines that do that. They kind of go through and place the seeds in very specific places. But here, there's a picture of the seed going out indiscriminately. Some falls on the path, some falls on rocky ground, some falls along the edge in the weedy areas, and some falls in the good soil. And so it is with the king's proclamation. The word goes out to all. All are responsible to heed it and come under its authority. That's sort of the picture. The word is going out to everyone, and everyone has a responsibility to receive that word. And yet, we see here some land on hard hearts, some land in rocky, thin soil, some land in the edges along with the weeds. So I want to take just a minute and think about these different soils, but I want us to keep in our eye and our mind that it's about the sower. It's about his word and the power of his word. So it says here that some lands on the hard hearts and then Satan snatches it away before it ever takes root. And we see this in our daily lives often when we meet people. And maybe there are some here today who are hearing the word for the first time or have heard it occasionally and are like, yeah, that's a bunch of hogwash. I have no time for this stuff. And for the believer, it can be a place of discouragement. We go to our friends or our family or our neighbors and we say, I have this beautiful thing, the word of God, the hope of salvation, only to have it thrown up in our face. You've probably experienced that. It can be a huge discouragement. But we ought to remind ourselves, Christ indiscriminately cast the word. The Word goes out, and it's effective. It is effective in judgment and salvation. And in His sovereign grace alone can the scales be taken off. And this should give encouragement to those of us who do also go out and scatter the seeds of God's Word in the world. We can take comfort in knowing it's not up to me to save so-and-so. That's only by divine grace, only by the power of God can the scales come off the eyes. be perceived, but either way the gospel is freely given, gospel goes out, and the Lord of glory brings the effect of his word on those people whether in judgment or in grace. We also see the effects of the rocky shallow soil amongst co-workers and friends and family and fellow students. We can look back at moments when we knew someone who made a commitment to the Lord, but when hardship came upon them, they ran away. When the call to discipleship was too much, too great. And in our despairing, we can think that God's word was not effective enough. If it was effective enough, that person would have stayed preserved. But again, we need to be reminded, it's the sovereign king who's at work. in judgment and grace. We don't know, of course, the ultimate outcome of that seed that was planted. And while for a time it seems as though the plant has withered and died, the God of all grace is the only one who can cause the death to hear, to replant that seed in the heart of that person. But it takes a divine work to make that soil rich enough to receive the word of God. Again, the word goes out by the divine power of God. The sower is sowing and growing and cultivating his words in the hearts of the people. And yes, some might not respond and some may fall away, but God's word remains as a powerful testament against that rebellion. We all know the allure of the world and have watched as friends and family, co-workers and whomever have traded in the gospel for all that glitters. We've seen how the world and all its demands slowly erode their hearts and we can think, is God's word effective? Does it really have the power to preserve? And Jesus is saying through the parable, yes. But some will be lured away by the world. And in the end, the reality is they could not see. They could not hear. They could not perceive. It's like the rich young ruler. Remember him later in the gospel? The rich young ruler comes to Jesus and says, what must I do to enter the kingdom of God? I've obeyed all the commandments. I am a faithful God honoring Jew. I've done everything that I should. And Jesus says, go sell everything. And he went away in despair. It was too much, the world and all its riches. But God's word still does not return void. Where rebellious hearts refuse to listen, it stands as a reminder, as judgment. But then the glorious last ground is the hearts that have been tilled by the Spirit of God receive the word and yield the grain in abundance. And Jesus through this parable is describing the work of the kingdom. He is describing the way the king proclaims his word and the way he cultivates a people for himself. He is describing the things that we see around us all the time. And he puts them in context. that we might not be distressed when we see people run one way and run the other. And he reminds his disciples that his word will accomplish its purposes. His word, the word of the king, does not return void. For those that have ears to hear and eyes to see the glorious word produces life. I'm going to stop right here because some I'm sure here this morning are tempted by the world or are running after the things of the world or they are fleeing from the trials that they face for following the word or they are just standing here sort of like what are you talking about and I want to encourage you The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. And He proclaims the good news to you that you might hear, that you might respond, that you might put your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you might be saved. And that is a divine work. But cry out to Him because He is the one that can do it. That's a sign of God tilling up the soil of your heart. Don't push it away. Put your trust and faith in the Lord Jesus. Well, this is where I want to conclude. The king's word produces life. I don't know about you, but my heart fixates on the soils. In fact, I often find myself thinking that I must be part of one of those soils in some way. I look at the world around me and I think, is God's Word really effective? Everything seems to be going backwards. Christianity across the region and across this country seems to be this thin. Whole denominations go awry. My whole heart My personal heart feels the tug of the world. And I think I'm just a part of, I'm a part of one of these terrible soils. It's just a matter of time. I don't, it's not what the text is saying. The text is saying his word produces life. Look at the very end of this section that we read. and other ones sown, verse 20, but those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word, who accept it, and bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold. I think what The Lord Jesus wants us to see and to hear is that He is at work tilling up the soil of our hearts to produce fruitfulness and life. And not just a little bit of life, not just just like one little shoot of life, but full life, full life of produce. It's a picture of mass amounts of grain being produced from just a few seeds. The seed goes out and it produces mass amount 30 fold, 60 fold, and a hundred fold. One thing that was noted by one commentator was that if you think about sowing a field, especially in this ancient world, they're throwing the seeds and they're being scattered indiscriminately. But he said, the commentator said, but one thing I think we often think when we read this text is that it was like an equal portion. It's like a quarter of it goes here on the road. A quarter of it goes here. on the thorny soil, and a quarter of it here goes on the rocky soil, and then a quarter of it over here on the good soil. But when a sower goes out, his main aim with that seed is to get it on the field, is to put it where it will be fruitful and grow. The Lord is one who is proclaiming his word, and it goes out with power, and as he, the sower, is the same one who tills the hearts tills up hearts all over the place, building us and growing us and transforming us and growing us and making us fruitful. That's his goal. Don't be distracted by the reality, this is true, that some will fall away, some will reject it, and some will be wooed away by the world, but see the glorious fruitfulness of the word as it takes root in the heart. One of the things that strikes me at this parable, it's a parable to understand parables. It's a way to sort of understand the kingdom of God and how to understand what the Lord is doing at this time. The Lord, of course, as I mentioned earlier, was going to the cross. In some ways, he was hardening hearts that would then crucify him. but the Lord of judgment was going to and glory and grace was going to the cross that he himself might be judged. You see elsewhere he says for one seed for there to be new life the seed has to die and to grow up again. Christ the Lord of glory was going to the cross as the eternal word, as the seed, that He might die. And that in Him, as that seed grows into this beautiful branch, this root of Jesse grows into this glorious tree. He engrafts us into Himself and gives us life, and goodness, and grace, because He Himself was willing to fall under the judgment that we deserved. So we try to understand the parables. What I want us to see this morning, what I want us to come to a glorious reality of is that the king has come, calls us to listen to him and to rejoice because he proclaims to us the word of life. that he as the eternal word who died who bore the judgment and wrath of God for us is able to take those scales off our eyes and unstop our ears so that we might know the glories of salvation and produce innumerable fruit and life in our in ourselves so with that let's let's go to the Lord in prayer.