A congregation this morning will remain standing for the reading of the Word of God. This morning our scripture passage is taken from Mark chapter 4 and verses 26 through 29. And Mark, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes this, and he said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night, and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow. He himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, After that, the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. Congregation, this is the Word of God. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that we can gather here today and we can celebrate the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ who saved us by his death on the cross. We thank you that he not only died, but he also rose again from the dead. And not only did he rise again from the dead, but he ascended into heaven. And not only did he ascend into heaven, but right now he is seated at your right hand. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this perfect and complete and irrevocable redemption that Jesus Christ purchased by his obedience and by his blood. Oh Lord, thank you that we can gather here as Christians, as those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, as those who call upon you by the Holy Spirit as our Heavenly Father. Oh Lord, as we gather here today, we recognize that many of us come weak and sick. Many of us come hurting and struggling and suffering with many afflictions of this life. But oh Lord, we also come with great expectation that we know that you are gracious and merciful. We know that you love us as your people and you've promised to bless us through the preaching of the word of God. Even as this parable teaches us that we can trust in the power and sufficiency of your word as it comes to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so even now, our Father, we pray that you would begin to minister grace, amazing grace, to each and every single one of us in here. That you would meet us at the point of our greatest need. Oh Lord, that you would lift us up and build us up and encourage us and strengthen us so that we might continue in this walk of faith, in this spiritual warfare in which we're engaged. Oh Lord, may our lives bear fruit. May our lives bring glory to your name. And may everything we do be for the exaltation of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We thank you. We love you. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Congregation last week we just finished up a multi-part series on the parable of the four soils And now this week we come to another parable which very interestingly has many of the same features as the one before. There's the man who sows the seed, there's the seed itself which represents the Word of God, and then there's the soil or the ground into which the seed of the Word of God is sown. And so on the surface of it, as we come to this parable, we recognize that these two passages of scripture have quite a bit in common. And yet I think it's also very clear as we read this parable that the message of this particular passage is very different from the one before. You see, in the last parable, the message was about the individual condition of the various types of soil. You remember, three of those soils were bad and only one of the soils was good. Three of these soils bore absolutely no fruit. Only one was able to bear that fruit unto God. And so in a sense, as we looked at the parable of the four soils, we can say that that was a comparative study. But in the parable that we're looking at this morning, there is no such comparison. Instead, the focus here is only on the nature of the fruit bearing process that would take place in the one soil that was able to bear fruit to God. So if we are to take the big picture of this parable and narrow it down, we can say that this parable is about the nature of the growth of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men. In one sense we can say that this parable serves as a footnote to the fourth and final soil that we dealt with in the parable of the four soils Now as we get started this morning, I think the very first thing that we need to see here is is a very plain but important message. Let us always keep it in our minds that you and I can never fully understand just how the kingdom of God grows. Notice that in verse 26, Jesus says the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground and should sleep by night and rise by day and the seed should sprout and grow. He himself does not know How? You know, as you read that, I don't want you to be confused. What Jesus is not saying here is that you and I do not know what's involved in the growth of the kingdom of God. Obviously, as we look at the scriptures and even the parables that we've been looking at so far, we know exactly what is involved in the growth of the kingdom of God. In fact, I would say that in order for the kingdom of God to make any progress in this world, we already know that there are at least three things that are absolutely necessary. These three things must always take place. First of all, the first thing is that the soil of the hearts of men must be prepared. and they must be prepared by the hand of God Himself. We know that as long as men, women, and children continue in their natural fallen condition, their hearts can never receive the seed of the Word of God. At least they cannot receive it in any kind of lasting and successful way. Either they'll receive it in a shallow and superficial way, because right there underneath the surface of the soil, right underneath the surface of their hearts, is a slab of solid stone, as we saw last week. Or else maybe they'll receive the Word of God, but the Word of God cannot survive, it cannot thrive in their hearts, because their hearts and their minds are infested with the cares of this world. As Luke says, the Word of God gets choked out by the cares and the riches and the pleasures of this world. And so very clearly, before anything positive can happen, the hearts of men must be prepared and made ready by the hand of God Himself. And last week we covered that in some detail, but I would just say for those who are here with us this week who didn't hear that and might be wondering what something like that would look like, just think about what happened in Acts chapter 17 when Paul was preaching to the Jews in Berea. In verse 11, the Bible says, when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews, and these were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore, many of them believed. Now here you can see that these men were made ready. They were of a willing mind, a willing heart to receive the seed of the gospel of Jesus Christ when Paul came and preached the message. The second thing that's necessary for the kingdom of God to grow is the proclamation. of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know, obviously I might be, you know, preaching to the choir because here we are every week preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we know that without the word of God, nothing will grow in the hearts of men. But you know what? It's no mistake that in each of these parables, there's always that man. who goes out into the field and sows the seed of the Word of God. That's a key element in these parables. The sowing of that man corresponds to the preaching of the gospel. And I think here, congregation, the key is that the preaching of the Word of God must be pure and unmixed. It must be clean and uncontaminated. It must be true and faithful and completely uncorrupted. We cannot mix the pure preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with words of human wisdom and human philosophy. We have to get our doctrine and get our truth and get the content for our preaching directly from the Word of God itself. It has to be pure. And this is why the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 1.23 that you and I were born again, not of corruptible seed. but of incorruptible through the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. And so the second thing that we need to, that needs to take place is the pure and undefiled preaching of the Word of God. Now, the third thing that's necessary is that once the seed is sown into a heart that's been prepared to receive it, still, even then, the Spirit of the living God has to come in and make that seed grow. Do we understand how important that step is? This is a very, very important truth, congregation, because apart from this one step, everything else will ultimately fail. And the reason for that is that even when God prepares the hearts of men, men are still so weak and fragile. Men are still so fickle and unstable. They're still so powerless and helpless and vulnerable that as soon as the slightest thing comes into their lives, as soon as the smallest temptation arrives on the scene, their hearts can be corrupted all over again. If you think or if you're wondering whether or not that's true, just consider the fact that when God first made Adam and Eve, he created them with perfect and upright hearts. And yet even then, in that perfect and uncorrupted state of human nature, the hearts and minds of our first parents were corrupted by the very first temptation that they faced. There's no question that even after the hearts of men are prepared, even after they receive the word of God, still the spirit of God has to come in and make sure that seed grows. This is the work of the spirit of God alone, and it has to take place. Otherwise, no growth will happen in our hearts and in our lives. And of course, this is why the apostle Paul could say in first Corinthians chapter three, verse six, I planted and Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. Now, I just spent some time sort of fleshing out what Jesus is not saying in this text. And again, he's not saying that we do not know anything that's involved in the growth of the kingdom of God. But we still have to ask the question, what exactly is the Lord Jesus Christ teaching us in this text? And I think the answer to that question is very simple, and that is, no matter how much we know or think we know, there is still so much about the process of the growth of the Kingdom of God that we simply cannot comprehend. Yes, we know some things, some of us know many things, but there's still so much that we cannot and never will comprehend. And here I would say that it's just this last part, this third part that we're really talking about. How the Spirit of God comes in and works in such a deep and mysterious way that it leaves the human mind to do nothing but marvel, to do nothing but wonder at the grace of God, to wonder at the power of God. And to say, how was it that God could take a dead sinner like me and raise me back up to life? and to give me faith in Jesus Christ, lead me to repentance, and extract from my soul the confession of my sins. It should make us wonder and not be puffed up in pride as if we know exactly how the Spirit of God conducts Himself in the salvation of a sinner. I remember years ago when my children used to ask me questions about why things are the way they are in this world. And you know, when they were young, it was really fun to answer their questions. They just thought that I had all the information in the world. And so they would say things like, daddy, why do giraffes have long necks? And I could say, well, that's an easy one. God gave them long necks because it makes them very tall. And of course they have to be tall so they can eat the leaves that grow on tall trees. And the kids would be amazed. You know, dad is so smart. He's so wise. And of course, at that time, I thought that was a really good answer. Thankfully, none of them asked me why God couldn't have just given the giraffes long legs instead of a long neck, or why God couldn't have just made the trees a little bit shorter instead. But as the kids got older and their questions became harder and harder to answer, I remember going through a period of time in my life where I was humbled before God. And it wasn't a bad thing, this humiliation process, but it was humbling. Because it seemed like every time they asked me some new question, it was very difficult. All I could say, well, was, you know, that's just the way God wanted it. That's just the way God does things, son. Or sometimes, if I was really puzzled, I would say, you know what? Why don't you go bring that question to your mom? And the point that I'm making here is that even when we're faced with some of the most basic questions about how and why God does what he does, you and I should be humbled by the fact that all of our knowledge put together is still a lot less than what we wish it was. We really don't know the half. of who God is and what God does, especially in the salvation of his people. And as Jesus is teaching this parable, we learn that this is especially true when it comes to the nature of the growth of the kingdom of God in the hearts of individual people. And as you think about just that one point this morning, I want you to also ask the question, how could it possibly be any other way? I mean, just think about it. When the seed of the Word of God takes root in our hearts and begins to grow, that process is what we call the conversion process. And certainly that process includes the production of faith and repentance. As I prayed before, it leads us unto the confession of our sins. And yet at the same time, we know that even before any of us reach that very point, God is already working mightily and powerfully in our hearts. And by the power of the Holy spirit, God has already caused us to be born again. We don't even know it. We don't even sense it. And yet God has already caused us to be born again. And so the point here is that this is something that we have to grasp. How is it that you and I can ever expect to comprehend our heavenly birth when the fact is we don't even comprehend our natural birth? How can we begin to understand what it is that God accomplishes in the new birth when we don't know what it was that God accomplished in our old birth? In Ecclesiastes 11, verse 5, the Bible reminds us of just this point when it says, just as you do not know the way of the wind or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything. Notice here that Solomon attributes the growing of a new life in the womb of a woman to the work of God alone. This is God at work in the womb of a woman, bringing forth new life and bringing a child to full term and then bringing that child into this world. And here, what Solomon says is that you and I cannot possibly comprehend the mystery of how that whole process takes place. It's a humbling thing. but we don't understand it. And in Psalm 139, David is thinking about the very same thing in verses 13 through 16. Listen to what he says. Speaking to the Lord, he says, you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance even as being yet unformed. In other words, what David's saying here is that even from the moment of his personal existence, God was the one who was bringing everything to pass. God was forming and shaping David in the womb. God was making him in a secret and skillful way. So that in the end, all King David could really say when he thought about the process of his natural birth is, God, oh Lord, How marvelous are your works to me? And just so we're clear on this point, when David says that the works of God are marvelous. What he means is that they're too great to comprehend. They make us marvel. They make us wonder. And you can see that because in Psalm 139, if you go back up to verse 6, that's exactly what he says. He says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high and I cannot attain it. And again, as you think about what we're looking at this morning, And we ask the question, if all of this is true about our first birth, then how much more is it true about the second birth? Just as being born into this world involves mysteries that we cannot fathom. So to being born again into the kingdom of God also involves a great mystery. As the people of God, as Bible believing Christians, we have to embrace mystery. Our God is so far above our comprehension. It should just make us wonder as we think of some of the most simplest, the most basic of his works. Now, when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus in John chapter three, this is this is the point that he began to drive home to Nicodemus. He was teaching Nicodemus about the new birth. And if there's anything that comes out in that particular passage, it's the fact that Nicodemus, arguably one of the greatest Bible scholars of his own day, did not understand anything about the new birth. And you can see that because when Jesus said, unless a man is born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And you know, right at that point, you might just expect Jesus to stop and say, Oh, Nicodemus, don't you understand? Obviously you don't understand how this works. So let me explain this to you. Because after all, it's really very easy to comprehend. But notice, that's not what the Lord Jesus Christ said. Because the truth is, it's not very easy to understand at all. In fact, the whole point of what Jesus says next is that the process of a man's conversion is actually impossible to comprehend. It's not something we understand in verse eight. He says, the wind blows wherever it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. And so is everyone who is born of the spirit. Now it's interesting here because in this passage, Jesus is using a play on words. And I say that because in the Greek language, the term for the word wind is the same term for the word spirit. And the reason that's so fascinating is that the very same thing is true in the Hebrew language as well. And so really what Jesus is doing here is fascinating because he's pointing Nicodemus back to the passage that we just read from Ecclesiastes chapter 11 and verse 5, where Solomon did the very same wordplay as the Lord Jesus Christ does in this text. There you remember when Solomon said, you do not know the way of the wind. What he was actually saying is you do not know the way of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who not only forms the child in his mother's womb, but also forms us in the new birth. Both of these are the work of the Holy Spirit. And of course, that tells us that what Jesus wants us to see is a parallel here. He wants us to see a comparison between the first and second births. Both of them were wrought by the Spirit of God, and both of them are, to the mind of man, absolutely incomprehensible. But going back to the point I made before, just because there's a parallel, just because there's a comparison, doesn't mean that there's an equality between these two works. There's not. It's true that the process of our natural birth is a mystery, but all that means is that the process of a man's conversion is a mystery of a much higher order. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? Now, as we look at this parable in our text, I think the first part is very clear. And that is that in terms of the nature of the growth of the kingdom of God, the work of God is incomprehensible. All we know is that it's our job to go out and sow the seed of the word of God. But just like the farmer who's in this parable, we go back to our homes. We continue on with our daily lives and we're sleeping at night. We're waking for the day. And yet all the while, the spirit of God himself is still at work until one day we come outside, we look up and there we see the sprouts of a new conversion to Christ. And as Jesus said, it's almost like there was nothing that we did at all. The farmer is so shocked. There's nothing that he did at all. From our perspective, this new conversion just comes out of nowhere. And just like the farmer looks at the new sprouts and he says, look, the earth brings forth fruit on its own. And so we say, my, look at this new convert to Jesus Christ. How in the world did that happen? You have to realize how beautiful this parable actually is when you start to apply it to your life. It should give you great encouragement to see that the man in the parable didn't have greater skill than the next sower. He didn't have a different message than the next preacher. He had the same seed, the uncorruptible Word of God. He sowed the seed, he went about his life, and God was doing the work of salvation. I've told a story before about the time when I shared the Gospel with a man named Billy White. Now Billy, I was a lot younger, it was at the beginning of my marriage, but Billy was a middle-aged man. And you know, just from looking at this man, you could see that he had a very rough and difficult life. I mean, this man grew up in East Palo Alto, which in 1994 was the murder capital of the United States. It was very clear that Billy struggled with years of drug abuse, missing teeth, wounds and scars on his body, violence probably. And my guess was that he was probably in and out of prison for most of his life. You can look at Billy and you can see all of that history right there on his face. Well, one week when my manager went on vacation, our company sent Billy to our particular office. And I remember that during that week, I would talk with Billy. We would have long discussions because we would work side by side. And even a few days, I took him out to lunch just to get to know him a little more. And the whole time, I was always looking for ways, looking for open doors where I can scatter the seed of the gospel, preach the gospel to this man. And throughout the week, I was able to plant a few good seeds in his heart. But honestly, even as I shared the gospel, because I do this with people that come across my path, I didn't expect anything miraculous to happen. I just said, hey, my job is to sow the seed. That's it. But one morning I was reading the Bible on the computer in my office, And Billy asked me what I was reading, and so I told him, I'm reading Ephesians chapter 1. And not only did I stop and turn to him and read through the chapter, but I went back and began to explain every single verse, from verse 1 all the way up through probably verse 13 or 14, line upon line, in a very simple way, nothing fancy. I just walked this man through the first chapter of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. So here I am, I'm in the office, I've got plenty of work to do, but I'm preaching the gospel to Billy White. And I'm telling him. that our salvation is accomplished by all three persons of the Trinity because that's, that's the, that's the outline of Ephesians chapter one. Our salvation is accomplished by all three persons of the Trinity and the father planned our salvation by choosing us in Christ before the foundation of the world. The son came and accomplished our salvation by dying on the cross for our sins and raising again on the third day. And then we learn that it's the Spirit of God Himself who takes the work of Jesus Christ and applies that salvation to our hearts. And He does that through the preaching of the Word. And so I told him from start to finish, salvation is entirely the work of the triune God. It is not the work of man. The Father purposed, the Son accomplished, and the Holy Spirit applies the work of Jesus Christ to our hearts. And it's interesting because here I am preaching, but right when I got done sharing the gospel, I remember Billy saying to me, you know what? I've been in and out of church my whole life. Ever since I was a boy, my mother and grandmother would take me to church. But right now, the way you're explaining things to me is being, I'm hearing it in a way that I've never heard it before. And he goes, I mean, I've heard it before. but I've never heard it before. And I remember all he kept saying to me was, you know what? I believe that. I would say one thing, he'd say, I believe that. I don't know why, but I believe that. And I just remember thinking, wow, that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, after that week, my manager came back and Billy went back to his own location. And I just thought that was the last that I would ever hear about him again. But then, about a week later, I got a phone call from a young woman and she said, is this Paul Liberati? I said, yes, this is Paul. And she said, this is Billy White's sister. And I thought, oh, yeah, Billy White. I wonder how he's doing. And she said, well, I'm calling to tell you that a few days ago, Billy passed away. He was a diabetic and he slipped into a diabetic coma. And after a few days, he died. But I'm calling you because he was talking about you quite a lot. He was going on and on about how you preach the gospel to him and how that now he's a Christian and is living for Jesus Christ. So she says to me, I thought I should call you and invite you to the funeral. I was just shocked. I didn't know what to think. And I'll give you the short version, but I went to the funeral and I stood up in a room like this, Jones Mortuary in East Palo Alto. And I just talked about my encounter with Billy White and I was telling everyone about our discussions. And I remember that I was telling, as I was telling the story of how he just kept saying to me, I believe that, I believe that. I looked up and right there in the front row, you could tell was his family and probably his mother with a veil over her face, but tears streaming down her face. And those weren't tears of anguish or sorrow in that moment. I could just tell with this half smile on her face that those were tears of joy and relief. She was so happy to know that just before her son died, he gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember I stood there and I said that given all that Billy said to me, And given the earnestness with which he spoke, I have no doubt that right now he is standing in the presence of Jesus Christ himself. I have no doubt about that. Why should we doubt? Why should we doubt the promises of the gospel? And when I said that, I knew it made an impact, and I went down. Before I went up there, everyone was just talking about childhood and, you know, fond memories. But after I came down, it seemed like everyone who went up there wanted to quote John 3, 16. The whole service became focused on the Lord. And they were praising God for what He did in the heart of that man. Now I tell that story just to emphasize how amazing that experience was. This parable being applied to our lives, this is what it's like. But also to show that the point of what this passage is teaching was also confirmed in my experience. When Billy came to the office that week, all I did was sow the seed of the Word of God. I mean, that was all I could do. And then one morning when I came into work, I looked and I saw with my own eyes the sprouts of a new conversion. In that moment, I felt just like the farmer saying, look, the earth has brought forth fruit on its own. And even though it's true that oftentimes conversion is the outcome of a much longer process, as Jesus says, first the blade and then the head, and after that, the full grain in the head, still, by the time I came along, I was able to see the visible manifestation of the kingdom of God in that man's life, right then and right there. So in one sense, I was able to reap the harvest. How glorious, as Jesus says in verse 29 of our text, when the grain ripens, immediately the man puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. And brothers and sisters, as you think about just this one lesson, and by the way, there's a few other lessons that we could derive from this parable. But as you think about just this one lesson, My prayer is that you would go away this morning with a sense of renewed confidence in the power of the word of God, in the power of the spirit of God to do what you cannot do. And that you might be more committed to be faithful in the work of God's kingdom, knowing that this is God's work and that God will be successful in whatever it is that he has set out to accomplish. And we don't have to second guess ourselves. We just preach the word and point men and women to Jesus Christ for salvation. That's it. We should be built up and emboldened for that as you think about just this one lesson. Now, Of course, when I say that we should be confident, we should be bold, I'm talking about confidence in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, not a confidence in how much we may do, not a confidence in how much we may know. Because again, the lesson of this parable is really designed to make us humble as we go out. The design of this parable is to make us ready servants of God. As soon as we start depending on our own skill or our own power or even the knowledge that we think we have, we'll end up working against the Lord and against the Spirit of God. We will be counterproductive insofar as we're depending upon our own strength or wisdom. And so the thing that we have to keep in mind as we go our way today is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 2. He says, if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it. He says, if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it. We must be humble about what it is that we think God has given us. And finally, in Isaiah chapter 55, the Lord reminds us that when it comes to the growth of the kingdom of God in this earth, his thoughts and his ways are very different from our own. In verses 8 through 11, listen to what the Lord says and notice how he ties together the concepts that we've seen today in this parable. He says, My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven and does not return there, but waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud, that it might give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish all that I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us have this kind of confidence mixed with a sense of great humility as we continue to serve the Lord. Amen. Let us pray. Our gracious Father, once again, we thank you for the instruction that we gain from your word. Thank you for the wisdom of Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, we pray for the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ, who every step of the way during his ministry relied and depended entirely upon you and your power. He would always say, not my will, but yours be done. He came down from heaven, not to do his own will, but to do the will of him who sent him. May we also be faithful. May we also have the same confidence and boldness that your word allows for. But oh Lord, let us be humble and let us speak to other men, not as those who are standing above them, but as those who also are saved by nothing but the grace of God in Christ. Help us to love them and to serve them even as the Lord Jesus Christ has loved and served us. We thank you for all that you do and we pray these things in Jesus name, amen. Congregation, at this time, let us rise together and let us sing a hymn of response, I know whom I have believed.