I want to speak from Mark chapter 4 verses 1 to 20 with the sermon title of the parable of the sower, the seed, and the soils. Most of us who went to Sunday school and were brought up in the church will think of this parable as the parable of the sower. We're grateful, of course, that in this particular parable, the Lord Jesus Christ gives the interpretation, the explanation of the parable himself. That's not true of most of the parables, but here the Lord Jesus gives us a very clear exposition of what the parable means. And the rest of the chapter four, which we'll cover next time, follows with three shorter parables, the parable of the lamp. the parable of the secretly growing seed and the parable of the mustard seed and we'll look at that next time. But Mark sets the scene for us in the first verse of chapter 4 where once again we see the Lord Jesus surrounded by a great crowd of people. And like he did in Mark chapter 3 verse 9, he enters into a boat and uses it as a kind of pulpit to preach to the hearers. The Lord Jesus, as we noted in previous sermons in this series, always prioritized his preaching and teaching ministry. He said that this was why he came in Mark 1.38. He says, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, for therefore came I forth. And the miracles and the Gospels are full of the miracles and so are the Acts of the Apostles. The purpose of the miracles and the sign gifts, when the sign gifts were in the church, the purpose of these things was to attest to the truth of the preached Word of God. We see here that Jesus surrounded by a large crowd of people. He could have done many things with them, couldn't he? He could have performed miracles. He could have done many things. But what does he do? In verse 2, we read about what he did with them. He taught them many things by parables and said unto them in his doctrine. That's what the Lord Jesus did. He preached to them. He taught them. Doctrine he taught them about the kingdom of God. This was always the priority of the Lord Jesus For people to hear the Word of God and he was forever using this phrase that let those who have ears Let them hear Jesus of course was a preacher and the greatest preacher that ever has been and when preaching to the crowds he often preached in parables. It says here, and he taught them with many things by parables. And we saw last time when he was in this controversy with the scribes from Jerusalem, it says that he called them unto him and said unto them in parables, That was the main way the Lord Jesus preached to outsiders, to those who were not within the circle of his disciples. In verses 10 to 12 of this chapter 4, the 12 disciples question Jesus about the parable of the sower, the parable he had just related. And Jesus explains to them why he uses parables or why he used parables in his ministry to the crowds. It says there, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without All these things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them. It's one of the hard sayings, as it's known, of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God. The word translated in our English Bible as mystery here is a word that the Apostle Paul frequently used in his epistles. And in For the most part, there are one or two places where this isn't the case, but for the most part, this word mystery does not mean something mysterious or something complex or difficult to understand. Instead, in the New Testament, it usually means something, some truth that God has now revealed to his people, which was formerly kept secret. A classic example of that is Colossians 1.26 where it says, even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. You see, the reason it was a mystery is because it was kept back, it was kept hidden, but now it's made plain. And in the context of Mark's gospel, the mystery that it was given for the disciples to know was the mystery of the kingdom of God. Of course, it wasn't fully hidden, but as we look at the Old Testament, we can see the truth of the Kingdom of God. But in the New, with the coming of Christ, that which was, for the most part, not really visible, obviously visible, is now made clear. The mystery has been revealed. The fact that the kingdom has been inaugurated, the power and presence of God through Jesus has now broken into history. And this is made clear through the preaching and through the miracles of the long-promised Messiah. You see, the disciples are on the inside. Those who are not his disciples are on the outside. And those on the outside receive everything in parables. And in verse 12, Jesus supports his statement by referring to Isaiah 6 verses 9 to 10. And he really quotes from those verses. that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them. So one of the functions of the parables is that they illustrate judgment because the hardness of people's hearts made the use of parables necessary. So parables functioned to hide God's kingdom from those who are living in impenitent rebellion against their creator. Those who refuse to bow to the God of Israel are judged by the Messiah, and he judges them by withholding the kingdom from them and by concealing it through the use of parables. It's not making it any less of a hard saying, is it? But that's really the truth. But the parables also illustrate grace. They illustrate grace for those willing to learn from Jesus, his true disciples. They reveal God's kingdom. If you have ears to hear, they reveal God's kingdom, which is really the key to understanding the parable of the sower. The parable of the sower is a parable about how different people see, perceive, and hear the true word of God's kingdom. This parable, of course, is the foundational parable. It's the parable of all parables. Jesus more or less says this in verse 13. Know ye not this parable, and how then will ye know all parables? This is the foundational parable. Why is that so? Why is this the parable of parables? It's because it is the parable that deals with the origin of the kingdom of God in people's hearts. It is a parable about how different people hear and see the kingdom of God. It is all about hearing, all about seeing. Jesus begins in verse three by saying, hearken, behold, pay close attention. And how important, dear friends, it is to hear God's word rightly. You see, when you hear the word of God and you don't hear it, you don't listen to it, it makes hearing it properly more difficult next time. And the more you hear it and the more you reject it, the harder it is to ever hear it properly. Jesus said in Luke 8 verse 18, take heed therefore how ye hear, for whosoever hath to him shall be given And whosoever hath not from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. Listening, hearing the word of God is so important. Everyone of course thinks that the preacher is the one that does all the work and is the main event. It's not true. Preaching is a complete waste of time without hearers. And hearing the word of God is so important. Jesus said, take heed how you hear. And this really is the message of the parable of the sower. This parable is about how the same gospel message is preached. Everyone has eyes and ears. but people hear the message differently. In fact, many, if not most, do not hear it or understand it at all. It's a solemn warning to us that it's possible to sit week after week under the word of God and never truly hear the true message that God is trying to speak to us. It's an amazing thought to me that many people who physically listened to Jesus, the greatest preacher of all time, they were literally in the congregation, they could see him in the boat preaching to them in real time. It's amazing that you could listen to Jesus and spiritually be none the wiser. That was true for most people, even with the greatest preacher that there ever has been. What an amazing thing. The story of this parable and the story of the other parables would, to some extent, interest them, maybe even entertain them. The Lord Jesus was a great storyteller, by the way. But for most of them it would go no further than that. They never understood the message that the parables contained. And like the people of God in the Isaiah text, they heard Isaiah, but they were blind and they were deaf. to all that God was saying. It's a great warning, dear friends, which I want you to think about as we go through this parable. Are you hearing the word of God? Are you hearing God? Are you hearing the gospel message? Is it sinking into you? Do you have ears that are hearing and eyes that are beholding? Because this message is the message of life. And it's the most important message in the world. So let's look at this parable. Of course, the parable is well known to many of us here this morning. And it portrays a commonplace agricultural scene in rural Palestine in the days of our Lord. It's seed sowing time. The farmer or the gardener goes into his field with his basket of seeds and sows his seeds. And in those days, the way you sowed the seed is you had a basket on your hip and you simply took a handful of seed from the basket and you broadcast it like that, what they call broadcast sowing. You just threw it like this. And this parable makes clear that the farmer doesn't change his technique of sowing. He doesn't change the seed. The farmer is the same. Everything is the same. It's the same farmer sowing the same seed in the same field and yet the results in different parts of the field of the harvest vary enormously. And what determines the success or the failure of the crop that has been sown? Well, it's the soil condition into which the seed has been planted. What changes is not the seed, the sower, or the farming method. What changes is the ground. The Lord Jesus tells us, that the seed is the word of God, the message of the kingdom of God, which he and his disciples were sowing through all the villages and towns of Israel. And the soil into which the seed is sown stands for the human heart. In other words, the spiritual condition of a man's heart determines how they hear and receive God's Word and ultimately whether they accept or reject Christ. And the condition of a man's heart can be observed by how he responds to God's Word. And in this parable the Lord explains four different conditions of a man's heart and four different ways that they respond to the Word of God. Remember as we go through this that it's the condition of the ground or the condition of the heart that determines the type of response that is given to the Word of God. The first type of soil of course is found in verse 4 and it refers to hard ground. And it came to pass as he sowed Some fell by the wayside and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. Some of the seed lands on the path, on the wayside. And the soil here, of course, would have had many human feet going up and down it. and the soil would be trampled, would be compacted, so that the seed, when it landed on the path, this hard soil, merely lied on the surface of the ground. And it became food for the birds, who soon swooped down from the air and they eat the seed that is lying on the surface. And spiritually speaking, Jesus explains that this stands for those who hear the word, but immediately Satan takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. Dear friends, this type of soil in this verse represents the hard heart of a man or a woman. It represents the vast majority of unbelievers today and throughout history, and it describes my heart, your heart, before we knew the Lord Jesus Christ. People upon whom the message of the Gospel barely makes any impression at all. The soil of this type of heart is hardened to the mercy and truth of the Christian gospel. And unfortunately, there are people in, this is true of people in the world, but it's also true of many who go to church, who instead of responding to the word, continually resist it and resisting the word has become second nature to them. In the early chapters of the book of Romans, Paul explains how unrepentant pagans have hard hearts and unrepentant Jews also have hard hearts. He explains how the rejection of God's truth It's not about the fact that they don't have access to the truth. It's because they love sin. And sin hardens their hearts to such an extent that they will not receive the gospel of the kingdom of God when it's preached to them. This is the truth of most people. For the wrath of God, Paul writes, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest to them, for God hath showed it unto them. So they resist even the light of nature, which should be a clue, and it is a clue, a great sign to the to mankind that there's a greater truth about God. Yes, you won't find that truth just in nature, but it's a signpost to the fact that there is a creator, that there's more truth to know. And people even resist the truth that they see in nature. And then Paul talks about the heart of the religious person, in that case the religious Jew. And there's no heart so hard as a religiously hard heart is then. There's no heart as hard as a religious hypocrite. And what a warning this is from the Lord Jesus here in this parable. For those who hear the word week after week, and the word doesn't scratch the surface of their lives because their hearts are hardened to the word of God. You know, this is a great warning if there are any here today who come week by week and yet you know deep within your heart that you're still not really saved, you're in a perilous position because the more you resist the word of God, the harder your heart will become. For many, it isn't that they never get to hear the sower, or that they never have the seed cast upon them. The problem for them is that every time they ignore the warnings and the promises of the gospel, and their hearts get harder and harder. Let that not be you, dear friends, today. Never be in that position because your heart will be as hard as iron, harder than the heart of a pagan, because you've heard the truth and you've hardened your heart against it. As Christians and as ministers of the word, we have to be wide-eyed about the fact that when we share the gospel, the main reason people reject the gospel is because the Gospel is all about God's right to rule and reign in their lives, in their hearts. That is the message of the Kingdom of God, that Christ is to be the King of your life. And that's precisely what the vast majority of people do not want. It's what many people who call themselves Christians don't really want. By nature, until we're born again, our response to God's sovereign right to rule every aspect of our lives is the same as Adam in the Garden of Eden. He had the freedom of Eden. He could eat from all the trees. He had a menu which would put the poshest restaurant in the world to shame. He could eat. the most delicious meals every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But God put one restriction upon his freedom, one small restriction, and yet he became a rebel and fell. And he carried a whole human race into chaos and despair and rebellion against God. And this rebellion, dear friends, against God is part of the nature of the human heart. This hardness of heart is perfectly summed up in the words of the rebellious citizens in Christ's parable of the nobleman in Luke 19. It says there, but his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. That's the attitude of most people when they hear the gospel. For many, it's not that they don't believe in Jesus. There are very few people that don't believe that Jesus lived. Most people have a great respect in many ways for Jesus. It's very rare to find a true atheist. But nearly all of them will not have this man to reign over them. Is that an accurate description of your life today, dear friend? It isn't that you don't believe in Jesus and it isn't a lack of knowledge because you've been, you know, you've perhaps been to Sunday school or been brought up in church. It isn't a lack of knowledge. it's that you don't want to surrender your life to him. You don't want the kingdom of God to come into your life because that means Jesus would be your king and that means your life is now over and your life becomes his life. You may even believe that the Lord Jesus died on the cross for sinners. You may even say and have said that Jesus died for me. But even that's not enough you see. You may say that, but you still won't have Jesus to reign over you. You're in great danger, dear friend, of hellfire, because it is only those who are in the kingdom of God that will be saved. And you need to cry to God for a new heart. If your heart is hardened to God this morning, hardened to the gospel, cry out to him because you need a new heart. And the message of the gospel is that God gives a new heart. It can give you a new heart altogether as we'll go on to see. The second type of soil Jesus refers to is stony ground. Or the second type of soil Jesus refers to is stony ground in verses 5 and 6. And some fell on stony ground where it had not 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. Jesus gives the explanation of this. He says, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and they have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time. Afterwards, when affliction or persecution ariseth, for the word's sake, immediately they are offended." So the farmer carrying on sowing the seed. Some of it lands in an area of the field that has rocks or stones under the surface. One of my bugbears is is when new homes are built on new estates and the gardeners tend to chuck all the bricks and the rocks on the front lawn and then they put a little bit of soil about that deep and then they lay turf on top of it and then you try and plant a garden and you have to excavate it from rocks and stones and rubbish. There's no depth to the soil. And this farmer has sown now seed into soil that has no depth. There's enough fertility, it's really the oxygen that creates this very quick growth, a growth spurt in the plant, but the roots are very shallow. The roots don't go down very deep because there's not a lot of soil to go into before hitting the rocks. And the problem here is that the plant dries out in the hot sun and it withers because the roots are so shallow that it dies. And this type of soil stands for the shallow heart. The shallow hearted convert responds with joy and excitement when they hear the gospel. There's a superficial attraction to the joy and excitement in a church perhaps where it seems to be a buzzing church where much is happening. And then something comes into their lives. some problem, some opposition, some sickness, some difficulty, and as quickly as they came to Christ or appeared that they came to Christ, just as quickly they fall away. We've all seen this, haven't we? Unfortunately we've seen this in the short history of our church where friends have come who have had a tremendous appetite for spiritual things and they seem to have a thrilling testimony but then something comes in and they've disappeared and they won't even speak, won't even contact us or ignore our communications. What's the problem? Well, Jesus identifies the problem with this kind of heart. There is no root. It is all surface growth. We could say it's all shown. There's no deep, deep work of the Holy Spirit in the human heart. And in a world like this, with testings like this, with temptations like this, a shallow faith isn't going to stand the test of time. You'll get found out. You will fade away. If you've got no roots, then something will come into your life and your Christian testimony will disappear. I think the Lord Jesus' reference to the immediacy of the response and the joy with which they respond to the Gospel is a clue about what is lacking in this kind of response to the Gospel. What's lacking is repentance. What's lacking is a deeper repentance from sin. There's no conviction of sin and there's no sorrow for sin and there's no repentance from sin. See, in a way, repentance breaks up the soil, doesn't it, of the hardness of the heart, and it creates a depth in which the good seed of the Word can take root. Now, we've got to be careful with conviction of sin because we can place people under a burden. Conviction of sin varies in different Christian lives, Christian testimonies. Some labour under a great conviction of sin for months, maybe even years, before they become Christians. Others, it is different for them. Childhood conversions, for example, are obviously not going to include great sorrow for a lifetime of sin. They haven't had the opportunity to have a lifetime of sin. John Owen wrote about conviction of sin. If a boil can be lanced with a pin, you don't usually use a sword to do it. So the Holy Spirit knows how to draw us. But whether we became Christians as a child, as I did and as others have here, or whether we became Christians after a life of sinfulness, to some degree Every conversion must include conviction of sin, sorrow over sin, and repentance from sin. Why would anyone come to the Saviour unless they had a sense that they needed to be saved? It makes no sense. And it's no use creating a garden on top of rocky soil. I can tell you that from experience. And it's no use building a Christian life on emotions, on worship, attainment, and easy Christian living, because you won't last in this narrow and hard way of the Christian life. And so I press this home to you also. Have you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and asked him really to deal with your heart? Have you repented from your sin? Have you seen that you're a sinner guilty before a holy God and that you have personally and do personally offend and grieve God every day with your sin and that you need to turn from that and turn from the old life of your sin and turn to the new way of being a citizen in the kingdom of God? The third type of soil is found in verse 7. It is weedy, weedy soil. Verse 7, And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. The Lord Jesus says in verse 18 and 19, These are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful. This type of soil stands for the strangled heart, a heart that has been choked and strangled by noxious weeds. You see, the soil here in many respects is fine. There's nothing wrong. The soil has got fertility in it. It's good soil were it not for the strangling, choking nettles and ivy and brambles. It would be productive ground, but the good seed of the word has been choked. by all these noxious weeds and therefore there is no fruit. Other things have entered in, you see. And the Lord describes these other things as thorns. Horrible, nasty, twisting, climbing, spreading and binding and suffocating thorns and thistles, which God, of course, cursed the ground with when man fell into sin. What makes a Christian profession unfruitful is always sin. People may blame it on other things, but if you're unfruitful as a Christian, if you never seem to grow, it's because of sin. It's being bound up by sin. It's being choked, strangled. by sins. You see, repentance isn't just for the beginning of the Christian life. Repentance is for the whole of the Christian life. I think of this type of soil as the slow death of a Christian testimony because this seed, this plant doesn't die immediately, it's choked over time. The weeds grow slowly and strangle slowly and there is unfruitfulness. To be a faithful Christian, to be a fruitful Christian involves putting sin to death. Read John Owen on that. It will change your life. It's the horticultural equivalent of weeding the soil. What can choke the word of God in your life? Jesus spells this out. He talks about caring for this world more than caring for the kingdom of God. The cares of this world. Maybe this includes being so embedded in this world that it suffocates the seed of God's Word. You see, some people are so absorbed into the world and their progress in the world, some people have taken so much on that they're worn down and they're worn out by the world and the things that they're trying to do in the world that there's no... that the whole of their Christian life is choked and strangled. And the question this morning is, are you absorbed with Jesus Christ and his kingdom, or are you absorbed with your world, your job, your reputation, your climbing of the greasy pole, your attempt to get a good pension pot, whatever it might be? I'm not saying you shouldn't do those things, but if that's the dominating thing in your life, it will choke your Christian testimony. Jesus mentions the deceitfulness of riches. The deceitfulness of riches can choke a Christian life. Jesus gave many warnings about riches. Many of us in this room, we may not think of ourselves in this way, but by historical and contemporary standards, there are many of us in this room who are rich. And if we don't consider ourselves rich, most of us have far more than we really need. Jesus says, beware the deceitfulness of riches. It can become a weed that chokes the word of God. And riches are deceitful. Why are riches, why is wealth, money, property, and all these things deceitful? It's because they promise more than they can deliver always. They can entice you into an illusion, an illusion of security, and pervert you towards materialism. You see, the truth of the Bible is that you can't serve cash and Christ. You can only have one master, Jesus said. Of course, there's wisdom in financial prudence. I'm not talking about that. But if the whole of your life is geared and dominated, as it is with so many, particularly young people, with this journey towards some kind of financial independence, you're on the wrong road, dear friend. You won't find security there. Christ, to him, says, is the answer to my every need. And wealth, money, can be fleeting. And even if you've got wealth, if you lose your health, there's no point to the wealth, because you can't enjoy your wealth without your health. Things can change in a moment, can't they? But the faithful Christian has his eyes set on Christ for security. He's not always looking on his banking app or on his iPhone looking at his latest bank balance and finding security in that. Solomon warns us about the deceitfulness of riches in Proverbs 23 verse 5. He warns us against setting our eyes upon that which is not. For riches certainly make themselves wings. They fly away as an eagle toward heaven. Those of us who have our own businesses will get that feeling at the end of this month. When we pay our taxes, wealth takes wings and flies away. And Jesus mentions the weed of lust, the lust of other things. When we see the word lust, we immediately think of sexual lust, of course, and I'm sure that's included here. And you know, it's surprising how many Christian, so-called or nominal Christians, play around with lust, watching pornography, and so on. You will never grow as a Christian unless you get control of your body, of your basic appetites. That's the starting block of a Christian life. That's not maturity. That's the beginning. But lust is an inordinate desire for anything that can become a noxious weed in the Christian life. That can be fine dining. exotic holidaying, fixation with video games, a whole host of things can come in and choke the Christian life. We must find our springs in God himself. We must experience the sheer joy of serving him only. So I ask you, is your heart and mind set upon Jehovah today? Can you sing all that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me. And the fairest of 10,000 in my Lord I see. Is that your heart today? Or is it choked with all sorts of other interests and weeds in your Christian life? Well quickly the last type of soil is the good soil found in verse 8. and others fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased and brought forth some 30 and some 60 and some 100. So praise the Lord at least some of the seed landed on good soil, landed in good-hearted soil. You know, gardeners today, even down to today, we speak of soil that is in good heart, by which is meant it's deep, it's got good structure, it has depth, it has fertility. And the Lord Jesus explains that these are they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit, some 30 fold, some 60 and some 100. This type of soil stands for the prepared heart. It stands for the prepared heart, the soil. This soil has been prepared to receive the good seed. You see, it's always the case that a good farmer sowing good seed into good ground will have a good harvest. We might need to add with good weather. Who's the farmer in the parable? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sower of the seed, and he prepares the hearts of men to receive the good seed of the word. And sometimes the harvest exceeds all expectations. Sometimes it's a hundredfold. This kind of heart is not hard, It's not shallow. It's not choked with weeds. It's an open heart. It's an open-hearted heart into which the seed can be sown and bear fruit. Of course, the yield will vary, as the parable says. Some lives produce more fruit for God than others, but the evidence that it's a heart prepared by God for the Word is that it does in fact produce fruit, spiritual fruit. You see, there will be a difference in your life if the good seed of the Word has entered into your prepared heart. There will be growth. We see an example of this in Paul's testimony about the church in Thessalonica in chapter 2 verse 13. It says for this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when you receive the word of God when the word was sown which he heard of us Ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. You see, that's how it works out. Well, dear friends, of course, no one by nature has a receptive, open heart to the gospel. All of us by nature fail under Christ's searching analysis of the human condition. All of our hearts, until we're born again, are hard or shallow or choked, maybe all three, as a result of sin. You cannot change the condition of your own heart. Any more than if you have a serious heart condition, you can't do DIY on yourself. You have to go to a surgeon. You have to go to a physician. You have to go to someone who can change your heart. What is our only hope? It is to look at the divine farmer, the divine sower, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who can deal with the soil condition of your heart and prepare your heart for the word of God so that the kingdom of God can enter into you and you can become his. In fact, the promise of the new covenant is that for all who will come to Christ, the Lord will give them a new heart. Ezekiel 36, a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And so I say to you this morning, dear friends, with all earnestness and urgency, cry out to the Lord Jesus, plead with him to give you a new heart, because Unless your heart's been prepared by Him, the seed, even if you're a professing Christian, it will not bear fruit. We may look at our own hearts in despair, but nothing is impossible with God. He has promised to save all who come to Him. in true repentance and faith. And I pray that today you'll hear Jesus' words. Don't forget about me. Hear this parable. Hear the word, the urgent word of Christ and come to him. Do so for his namesake. Amen. Feel free to contact us at Sovereign Grace Church in Tiverton. Email us at grace2seekers at gmail.com. That's grace2seekers at gmail.com. Alternatively, you can visit our website at www.sovereigngracereformedchurch.co.uk.