The Fourth of July. This is our mission field. Can you see all the souls? But how many of these souls will actually hear the Gospel, and how many will actually hear before the seed is snatched away? There is rocky soil, there is thorny soil, and there is good soil. This is the soil of your soul.
I invite everybody to open up your Bible and turn with me to Mark, chapter 4, verses 1 to 20. And it was so fun to have the parade this week. In fact, some of the people who built the float, or were in the float are right here in this service. Can we thank them for their hard work? Yeah, they did a great job. And if you want to get your picture taken on the float, maybe you saw it coming in. You can get a picture after the service. But when I get to go down Main Street and I get to see all those people, I just wonder, how many of them have really heard the word of Jesus Christ. And this morning, we have an opportunity, not just to hear a sermon at church, but to hear the actual teaching of Jesus that he gave in the parable that really all the other parables come from, the Parable of the Sower or the Parable of the Soils. And so, in the Gospel of Mark that we're going through together, you don't get a lot of teaching of Jesus, but here we get the parable and its explanation. So, I want to read it for us. This is Mark 4:1-20. And out of respect for God's word. I invite everyone to stand for the public reading of Scripture, and I encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention, because at the end of our time together, you're one of these soils that he talks about here. Which one of these soils are you? Please pay attention as I read Mark 4, 1 to 20.
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 in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” And he said, “He who has ears to hear, 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: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, grab your seat. In your bulletin, there is a handout there if you want to take some notes. In fact, we've got the whole text there on the right-hand column. We've got some notes for you to fill out. And I just want to take you through, not my teaching, but this teaching, the teaching of Jesus.
And he begins by sitting in a boat beside the Sea of Galilee. So, if you've read through Mark, by chapter 4, we've been to the Sea of Galilee now a few times, where he called some of his disciples to “follow me.” In fact, go back to chapter 3, verse 9. Maybe you remember this great crowd that he was teaching, and it said back here in Mark 3:9, “Because of the great crowd, he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him.” There are so many, thousands of people, wanting to come and see and hear Jesus, that he's afraid they might knock him into the sea, because there's such a mob of people. And so now, by chapter 4, we're just getting in the boat. We're not even having a boat ready. He is now teaching them from the boat, and there in the Sea of Galilee, with the hills, kind of going up to the north of the sea, there, it's a natural amphitheater where, if Jesus is sitting in this boat, there could be a lot of people right there on the land, but they would be able to hear him as his voice would project very well there. Some of us have got to go there and test that out and see when you taught at this time, you didn't stand up like I am, or stand behind like a pulpit or something like that. No, the picture of authority was to sit down. It was like sitting in Moses’ seat, is what they thought. Every synagogue would have had a seat. And once you sat down, that meant the teaching is about to begin, and a hush would have gone over the people.
And now here's the moment they all gathered around for Jesus is about to speak. And the first word that Jesus says is really the theme for the whole passage. There in verse 3 where Jesus said, “Listen,” listen. He says, to hear. So, if you do have the handout, I want you to circle that word “Listen”. And I want to show you how that is really the main idea throughout this whole parable. And the explanation is, who is really going to hear the message, and what does that mean to really hear the message. What does it look like? And so, the invitation right away is, “Listen”. It's like a command. It's from this Greek word, akouo, which means “to hear.” Even, it has the idea “to obey.” So, it's not just, can you physically hear me with your ears? It's, are you really taking it to heart? Do you really want to do what I say? For example, in Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 1, when it says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord...” Any parents here like that verse? You ever quoted that one before? Yeah. When it says, Obey, that's this word, hear your parents. How many times as parents, do we feel like we're saying, “listen to me” to our kids? Hey, I want you to really take to heart what I'm saying. I want you to hear it so that you could do it. That's the command here from Jesus.
And he tells him a story. It's a story of someone out there sowing, and they're throwing the seed out into the field. And everybody, at this time, they would have all been able to relate to that. They've seen somebody out there tossing the seed. They've seen it fall on the path. They've seen the birds come and take it away. They know what the rocky and thorny ground are all about. Like, they would have thought thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold, that's an amazing return. They knew about this. But notice in verse 9, notice again, when after he's done telling the story, what is the emphasis? “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” See, so circle that; two times it says it here and then here. Do you have the ears to hear? Well, make sure you hear. So, this is powerful, that Jesus, he's not just saying, can you hear me in the back. He's not just like mic check, mic check, one, two. This isn't some cell phone commercial. Can you hear me now? This is, who can really hear? This is a profound question. And, in fact, if you've been reading the Bible with us, like this last week, we read the book of Micah. You can break the entire book of Micah up into three different sections, all based on the Hebrew word “Shema”. “Hear O Israel,” going all the way back to Deuteronomy 6:4. Here's God always trying to get people's attention, always speaking out, who will hear me? Who will listen to me? And so, he sends out the prophet Micah, and he says, “Hear the Lord. Hear the Lord.” And then later on, again, “Hear the Lord.” And the people do listen to Micah, and they turn to God from their sin and the judgment that would have come upon them. God relents of his judgment because they repent of their sin, all because they heard.
So, that's the issue here. Who can really hear? And so, then you get into this conversation that he has with the twelve and some of the other disciples. And he quotes Isaiah 6:10, look at verse 12, you can kind of see it's bracketed there. And he says that they may indeed hear. So, circle that there, “hear” is in there. “They see, but they don't really see. They hear, but they don't really understand.” And then you can see, in verse 13, he even asked the disciples, not just the crowd, but even his close, intimate group of disciples and those who are following him along with the twelve. He says, do you even understand? Do you even understand what I'm saying? “And then you can see the sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path,” verse 15, “where the word is.” So, when they “hear,” circle that. So, the whole issue is, what happens when you hear the gospel, when you hear this word, this message of Jesus? So, it's about hearing in verse 15. You can see in verse 16, we've got the rocky ground when they “hear,” circle that in verse 18, we get to the one sown among thorns. They hear the word in verse 18, and then last, the soil you want to be, verse 20. Well, when it's on the good soil, they're the ones who hear the Word and accept it, receive it, really take it to heart. Oh, there's a message going out, and a lot of people are hearing it, but only the last group is really receiving it in the way that it's meant to be heard.
And so, the whole point is, how do you hear the message of the Word of Christ, the gospel message, this good news. How have you heard that? And go with me to James, chapter 1. I want to show you this idea of really hearing God's Word. And it's not about, can you understand the words that are being said, it's about, do the words get impressed upon your soul? What is the soil of your soul really like? And so, in James, he gives this practical book of Wisdom. In fact, a lot of the things James writes about pick up on the themes of the teaching of Jesus and continue to advance them. And he gets into this idea of listening and hearing. This is James, chapter 1, verse 19. He says, “Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear.” And I just want to really say to you today, as we go through this parable of the sower, throwing out the seed and all the different soils that it lands on, I just really want to encourage you, this isn't my message. I didn't come up with this. I'm not here to tell you a bunch of jokes. I'm not here to tell you a bunch of stories about my family. I'm just going to take you through one of the actual teachings of Jesus when he was here on Earth. And I would encourage you be quick to listen to this. Make sure you really take to heart what Jesus says here today. Don't just be like, look what he says. Don't do here in verse 20, or as we continue to go in verse 1,9 into verse 20, he says, “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” See, sometimes you're trying to say of the message, and people are already talking back. They're already thinking of their response. I don't need to listen to this. I already know what I think, or they're even angry, like, why would I have to do that? Why would that be a problem? Why is it like this and they're already angry? Well, that's not going to get you right with God. If you already have your own thoughts and you don't need to hear it, well, then how's this going to work? You're not going to end up right with God if you already know what you think and you won't hear what Jesus is really saying, what he came from heaven to teach us. So be quick to hear, and then, I love how he says it here in verse 21, “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” See, one of the reasons we have a hard time hearing is because we have this sin, we have this filthiness. We're unclean. We have all this stuff that we want and all this self-focus. And he says, no, no, no, put that away right now. Humble yourself. See, be ready to receive something. Be ready to accept something.
Let's get this down for point number one: You want to “Listen like your life depends on it.” Listen like your life depends upon it. That's point number one. Like Jesus is saying, who can really hear? This is a constant message throughout the Bible. In fact, I think that not listening is the beginning of all the other sins, because if you could have just heard what God had to say and believed it and obeyed it, then you wouldn't have ended up going down that path. You wouldn't have ended up doing this or going there, or meeting that person. And so many people, they go down a path where their life meets ruin and destruction, all because they didn't listen when they had the opportunity to hear. And so, Jesus, he's sitting on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Thousands of people have gathered together to listen to him, and the first thing he says is, “Hear me.” Do you have the ears to even hear me? Can you even really hear me? I'm going to speak a message to thousands, but who will really hear? That's the issue of his teaching.
Go back to Mark chapter 4. And it's not this physical hearing, no, it's this understanding. And we see that in verses 10 to 13, we kind of get between the parable and then and the explanation, we get this interaction that Jesus has with the twelve disciples and some of the other people who are following him. So, the ministry of Jesus, where we're learning as we go through Mark, it always works on kind of a macro level and then a micro level, like he's out here teaching thousands of people and massive crowds. But then he also has these twelve men that he's really investing with, and they're with him all the time. He sends them out intentionally, and it's not just twelve. There are others who are following him as well. So, he's out there sitting in the boat, he teaches this parable. People are like, yeah, I can relate to that. I know how that kind of works. I've seen somebody doing that. Maybe a lot of the people there are even the sower themselves, or on their property, on their land, they're hoping for a crop. And a lot of these people are thinking, wow, thirtyfold, that would be nice. Sixtyfold, that would be amazing. So, they're hearing the story. But then this smaller group here in verse 10, they want to come to him, and they want to say, hey, but what does it mean? What's it all about? What's going on? And notice what Jesus says to them, “To you, has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables.” So, I don't know what you've heard about the parables of Jesus? I've heard people say, well, Jesus, he's such a master teacher. He's such a great storyteller. That's why he uses parables to relate to people. Well, if you actually study the parables of Jesus, they're not there to relate to people. They're actually there, and it's hard for people to understand what they mean. And in fact, that's where Jesus quotes here from Isaiah chapter 2, and he quotes verse 10, and he's saying, yeah, the people, they want to hear me teach, but you know what? They don't really want to hear me teach. They want the miracles. They want the healings of all the physical diseases. They want the casting out of all the demons. They want the spectacle, the hype, they're just I want to be able to say, I saw Jesus. I heard his teaching. They're not really listening. Yeah, they see me, but they don't really see who I am. They hear me, but they don't really understand, because if they did, they would turn from their sin and be forgiven by God.
So, here's Jesus saying, yeah, we went out there by the sea and I gave the message, but they didn't really get what I was saying. So, if you have this idea, like parables are cute stories to make a point, no, that's not how it actually worked. The parables are a way that Jesus is teaching but people aren't really understanding what he's saying. Let's go back to Isaiah chapter 6. I think it's really significant that Mark gives us this quote from the book of Isaiah. So, if you can turn back to the Old Testament prophet Isaiah chapter 6, and Mark began his gospel with a quote from Isaiah 40 that he put in there, and that's where the key word of the gospel of Mark “immediately” came from. Because prepare the way of the Lord, the Messiah is coming. The Anointed One, he is coming. God has sent his Holy One, and here he comes. So, make your paths straight away immediately. At once. Get ready, because the Lord is coming. That's the message of John the Baptist at the beginning of the gospel of Mark. Well, now we get to our second message where Jesus is teaching, and we get another quote from Isaiah. And the quote from Isaiah should be a strong warning to anybody who really wants to hear what Jesus is teaching that so many people, even God's people, even the chosen nation of Israel, even the people who got to hear Jesus preach by the Sea of Galilee, so many people here, but they don't understand. They don't really get it. And so, if you know the story of Isaiah 6, it's the epic scene where he has a vision of God on his throne, and the train of his robe fills the temple, and there are angelic beings there shouting out, “Holy, holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory.” And Isaiah, he's just getting to see the splendor of the holiness of God. And then Isaiah, he's just overwhelmed by this experience, because for five chapters, Isaiah has been saying to people, woe. And “woe” was a word that judgment is coming upon you. Woe to you O Israel. Woe to you because you just want bigger houses. Woe to you because you're so into drunkenness. Woe to you because you're calling good evil, and evil good. Watch out, judgment is coming. But then when Isaiah sees this vision of the glory of God, he doesn't say, woe to the nation. He says, “Woe is me,” because look at this God, and look at me. “I'm a man of unclean lips.” And so, they take some of the coals from the altar and some tongs, and they come and touch Isaiah’s lips. And it's like his sin is atoned for. It's like he's made right with God. It's this powerful scene. And then God says, well, who's going to go out there for us? Who's going to go be our messenger? And maybe you've even quoted this line from Isaiah, where he says, “Here am I! Send me.” And you're like, yeah, that's awesome. Wow. Isaiah is going to go out. Maybe you've even prayed, God, send me out. I want to be used by you. Yeah? But we don't usually quote the next line right here. It's in verse 9, “’Here I am! Send me. And he said, ‘Go, and say to this people: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” I'm ready to go, send me. Great. Nobody's going to listen to you is basically how it goes. Oh, you're going to go out there. Well, they're going to see and they're going to hear, but not really. And then it goes from send me, and then his next question, verse 11, “how long” do I have to do this, “Lord”? Like, Oh, wow. So, I'm just going to go give a message, and people aren't going to listen to it. They aren't going to understand it. Yeah, and you're going to keep doing that till judgment comes upon them.
And so, this idea that God will send out his messenger and the Word of God could be heard, but people won't really understand it. They won't really take it to heart. This is a common idea throughout the Scripture. And see, the people that were there with Jesus, these disciples who are asking him questions, they would have known this passage, and they would have known that it goes from Isaiah to Jeremiah to Ezekiel, and what ends up happening to God's people there in Jerusalem, they get judged. Why? Because they don't really hear, they don't really understand. And so, Jesus, he quotes this, and he's bringing this back up, and he's saying, hey, don't get caught up in the hype of the crowd. Don't get caught up in that multitude surrounding me on the sea, because who's really going to understand what I'm saying? There can be a lot of people at church on Sunday morning, but who really gets it? In fact, how do you even really get it? This is the question that Jesus is raising, and he's quoting Isaiah 6 as a highlight, that Isaiah was clearly God's prophet who saw the glory of God, who had his sin atoned for he went out. Yeah, but who really understood? Who really turned from their sin and were forgiven by God? This is what Jesus wants us to think about. In fact, he doesn't just want the crowd at the Sea of Galilee to think about it. He wants the disciples to think about it.
Go back to mark 4, and you'll see after he quotes that verse, where it gives us this idea that, along with hearing, we need understanding, he then says in verse 13, I think this is so important, especially in the Gospel of Mark he wants to make this point. Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? So, Jesus is now looking at the twelve and the other close disciples around him. Do you even understand the parable? So, this is the hey, he's already given the parable to the crowd. This is a later time now, a more intimate setting, but he's even asking the close people around him, do you really even understand. This theme of do even his own twelve disciples really get it goes through the Gospel of Mark. Go to the end of chapter 6. Let me show you how this theme of understanding goes through the end of chapter 6. And in chapter 6, there are some epic things that happen. Maybe you know the miracle where he feeds “five thousand men, not counting the women and children.” They have like five loaves of bread and two fish, and Jesus miraculously multiplies the food so thousands of people eat. Then later on, the disciples are ahead of him in a boat. So how does he catch up with the disciples? He walks on the water, and then they see him passing by. They freak out. So, he joins them on the boat. So, they've just seen two of the most famous, classic miracles of our Lord, the multiplying of the food and walking on top of the Lake of the Sea of Galilee. And then look at what it says at the end of that those accounts. It says in Mark 6:52, “for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were” what, everybody? “Hardened”.
Like some of us think, if I was there, I would totally be stronger in my faith, if I saw the miracles, if I heard the teaching of Jesus. Well, here are the guys who saw it, who heard it, they did not really understand. Go over to chapter 7, verse 14, where Jesus now is teaching even more clearly. Hey, you guys aren't necessarily getting it. You are evil. You have sinned. Jesus is making that point here in Mark 7. Look at verse 14. “And he called the people to him again and said to them, hear me, all of you, and understand there is nothing outside a person that by going into him, can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” Hey, you guys are getting this all backwards. It's not how you interact with outside things that makes you clean or not. No, it's the sin within you that makes you unclean. Hey, can you hear me about your own sin? Can you understand? Go over to chapter 8, where he feeds four thousand more. So, he does the miracle of multiplying food. Can you imagine if you and your family had four In-N-Out burgers later today, and then you made them forty burgers for everybody in the restaurant? Right? That would probably make the news. Just 40 burgers would probably make the news. We're feeding four thousand here. And then, the disciples start having a conversation about how they have no bread. Hey, we ran out of bread. What are we going to do? We’ve got no food. We’ve got no bread. And look at what he says in verse 17. This is Mark 8:17, “And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears. do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand? How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?’ They said to him, ‘twelve, and the seven for the four thousand. ‘How many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?’ And they said to him, ‘seven’. And he said to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?’” Like you guys have seen me do this twice, and you're over here worrying about what you're going to do, because we don't have any bread. Can you hear me? Do you understand?
So, this is a major theme, and not just for the distant crowd person in the back, but for the guys who are closest to him, who's really picking up what Jesus is putting down, who's really understanding who Jesus is and what he's able to do? Now go back to Mark chapter 4, and I want you to underline or circle this phrase, because in verse 11, in the midst of his explanation, he says, “To you” and then circle this, “has been given.” See, the secret of the kingdom of God, the way that Jesus is talking here about hearing and understanding, he's bringing up a question of, “if you really understand,” he's even questioning, are you even capable of understanding? Can you even get it? And the answer is, you can't just get it. It has to be given to you. “To you it has been given.” It has been revealed. Later on, in the gospels, when Peter says the right answer, I know who you are, Jesus. You are the Christ, the Messiah. You're the anointed one. You're the Son of the living God. What does Jesus say to him in Matthew 16, right after Peter gives the right answer of who Jesus is? What does Jesus say? “Well, blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah,” son of John. “Blessed are you.” You know why? Because my father in heaven revealed this to you. He gave this to you.
See, the ability to really understand who Jesus is and what Jesus did is not a natural ability. It doesn't come down to how smart you are, what your IQ is, how's your reading comprehension is, what you good at school? Are you a booky kind of person. It has nothing to do with natural understanding. No, this what Jesus is talking about is spiritually discerned. It has to be given to you. Your eyes have to be opened to see it. You have to be given the ears to hear, to really understand it. Go with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and look how it's put here. This is 1 Corinthians 2:12, and the understanding that Jesus is talking about is explained to us here. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12, he talks about receiving something, accepting something, and he says, here in 1 Corinthians, 2:12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but we have received the Spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” How did we get understanding? Well, God gave it to us. How did God give it to us? Through giving us his Spirit? And we'll see this that the disciples in the gospels, by the time you get to them being the apostles, the sent-out ones in the book of Acts. Do they really seem to understand a whole lot more in the book of Acts than they do in the Gospels? Wow. What a powerful transformation. How? Because God gives them his Spirit, God freely gives this understanding. And it goes on to say here verse 13, “And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
So, this kind of understanding that Jesus is looking for in response to his teaching of the parable, this isn't just normal. Could you figure out the mystery? Could you get the clues? Could you see what was going to happen before it happened? No, this is like a mystery that has to be revealed to you, and understanding has to be given to you. So, let's get this down for point number two: “Ask God to give you wisdom.” Ask God to give you this understanding by the power of his Spirit. There has to be a humility here. God, if you don't give it to me, I'm not going to see it, if you don't make me understand, I won't really be able to hear it. And so, God, I need your wisdom. I don't already have this figured out. I'm not some kind of know-it-all, you know, I've gone to church most of my life, and there are a lot of people, hey, let's talk about the parable of the sower. You know, all the different soils. Oh, I heard that one. Oh, I know about that. Oh, yeah, I got that. See, when you really understand that wisdom has to be given to us by God through his Spirit, is how we come to understanding. Then there shouldn't be know-it-alls at church. In fact, the people who do know what it's all about at church, they should be some of the most humble, grateful, giving God the glory kind of people. Because I don't know why, out of all the crowds, out of all the people throughout history who heard but didn't understand, how come God gave me his understanding? How come he opened my eyes? How come he gave me the ears to hear, wow, what grace that God would have that I could see. Who is that I could know? Jesus? Wow, God, thank you for giving me your wisdom. So that's what I'm hoping, that when we go through what Jesus says here, that you won't act like you already have heard it, that you won't act like, oh, I already understand it. I'm hoping that everybody's going to go out from here, or even as you're hearing this right now, and you're going to say, God, show me who I am. God, teach me what Jesus is saying. God, I don't want to think I already know it. Give it to me. God, please give me that understanding.
Okay, so with that now let's go back and let's go through the parable together in Mark chapter 4. And I just think the way Mark writes this is masterfully done, because he gives you a parable, and you're hearing the parable, but you're not really understanding. And then there's this whole conversation about who can understand, and then you get to Jesus’ explanation. So even the way Mark writes it, the way he records it, it's like we could be there at the Sea of Galilee. We could hear it taught, and we could realize. Wow, can I even really hear it? Can I even really understand this? And then Jesus explains it, starting in verse 14, and it says, “The sower sows the word.” So, let me make sure that everybody here has heard the word we're talking about, the word of the Christ. Christ is the Greek way to say it. Messiah is the Hebrew way to say it. It means anointed one. From the beginning, there has been this idea that God has someone who will come from the seed of humanity, and he will cut the, he will destroy the head of the serpent. That's what he's going to do. He's going to win a victory. So, there's been this idea someone is coming, someone chosen and anointed by God, is coming. And all these prophecies begin to build the promise to Abraham, the promise to David. Someone's coming through the nation of Israel, through the line of King David. Someone is coming. That's what the word is. It's the word about the Christ. In fact, to go back to chapter 1 of Mark, where we got a little glimpse into the teaching of Jesus, when he came proclaiming his message, the good news, the gospel of God. Mark 1:15 is a summary of the teaching of Jesus. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. This good news that God has one who's coming to save us all from Satan's power when we had gone astray. And so, this one is coming in the Jews. They're expecting a king to come and save them, a conquering hero who will come and overthrow the other nations and restore them to the pinnacle of humanity. And what surprised them, and what many of them didn't understand, is that when the king came, he didn't come to conquer, he came to suffer. He came in humility. He came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life away as a ransom for many souls.
And so, they knew he was coming, but they expected him to come and have this powerful, glorious kingdom when he came, in humility, to die on the cross to pay for your sins. On the third day, he rose again, and he said, everybody who believes in him, you'll have a new life, an abundant life, a higher quality of life, where you know God, and even if you die, you will live a resurrection life. And he says, everybody who believes in me, you can be a part of my kingdom, because there's going to come a day when he will come and he will reign, and the kingdom will be established. But it wasn't yet, and now's the time to spread the word. You need to repent. You need to turn from your sins to Jesus. You need to change your mind about the way that you live. It's not worth it living for yourself. You need to go all in to follow Jesus. And you can't just try to do it. No, you have to trust. You have to believe in the good news that Jesus already did it. Jesus already paid for your sins when he died on the cross. Jesus already rose again. He's got the power of new life. You just trust in Jesus. That's how you receive the gift of eternal life.
See, I talked to somebody this week, and I could tell their idea of what they were going to do based on the message it was, you know, repent and believe in the gospel. Here's what that looked like. It looked like stop trying to do the bad things and do more good things. And that makes sense to a lot of us, because we see people doing the bad things, and we know that's not right. We imagine all the bad that we could do, and we're like, well, I'm not going to do that much. I'll limit the things I'm going to do, and I'll try to do the good things. So, if you compare yourself to other people who are sinners, or you compare yourself to how much sin you could do, and you're trying to do what is right, that seems better. But I was able to say to somebody this week, and God opened up a door for me to talk to him, and I said, yeah, but you trying to do, right? How does that compare to the righteousness of God? Might compare better than the evil version of yourself, but is that really going to get you right with God? Just you trying to do right? All you're going to do is stretch out the times between your sins. All you're going to do is just try really hard by your own willpower and then not make it again. Now see, you can't just try to do it. You have to believe in the gospel. You have to trust that Jesus already did it. The life comes from Jesus, not from you trying. So many people, they don't really hear this message, repent and believe in the gospel. The good news that Jesus is the one who came to die for you, and because of his resurrection, you could have a whole new way to live. That's the Word. That's what's getting sowed out there. This message of good news.
Now look, here's the responses. So, let's get this down for number three: What is your response to the word? And we're going to get four different options here, and you're one of these options, okay? And so, you’ve got to pray that you can hear, that you can understand right now. What is your response to the word? This isn't a sermon for somebody else. This is the soil of your soul. What is your soil? And the first one here, he explains in verse 15, is “the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.” Okay, now, what's the key word of the gospel of Mark, everybody? Immediately. So, circle that, if you got the handout, let's circle that right there in verse 15, where it says that Satan “immediately” comes at the moment when the person's hearing the Word, and they should make their paths straight away. At once, “immediately,” they should get prepared. The Lord is coming. Get ready. Well, at the moment, they should be responding and immediately getting ready. No, Satan is there to “immediately” snatch it away like they just heard it, and then it's gone that fast. That's something Mark says Satan does when the Word is going out, when the good news of Jesus is being preached, something spiritual is taking place, where people are either hearing and receiving because God's giving to them. But there's something else that's happening. Satan is snatching it, stealing it, like they throw the seed, and the seed gets on the path. In comes this crow. The crow picks up the seed, chomps on it, flies away super fast like, instead of the person really hearing it and praying about it and meditating on it, it's like they hear it and then it's gone.
I have seen this happen so many times in Huntington Beach over the almost eleven years that we've been doing this church now in Huntington Beach, there have been times I'm up here, doing my best to explain the word of God, pouring myself out, preaching it, and then somebody will just walk up to me and be like, what do you think about the football game that's happening right now, and I'm just thinking to myself, are we just in the same room for the last forty-five minutes? Are we living in the same time and space, you and me? I mean, I see people that are crying after a service. I see people clearly shaken up. I see people who have just maybe for the first time, seen themselves for who they really are, and maybe for the first time seeing Jesus for who he really is. And they're like, let's talk on Tuesday. And then they walk out of here, and it's like, it never even happened. Tuesday never comes. And I saw this so much. I was like, how this doesn't even seem natural. How could it be that people hear the Word, it gets to their heart, they're clearly stirred up, and then all of a sudden, they're gone, and you don't see them again. It's like it never even happened. That happened to me so many times over the years here. And then one day I read this verse, Luke chapter 8. So, our parable is also in Matthew 13 and Luke chapter 8, and it says, “The ones along the path that those who have heard then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be safe.” And when I read that verse, I was just like, I've seen that happen. I've seen it happen so many times where they heard it, and it was like they were on the verge of really hearing and understanding, and then it just seems like it got snatched away. And you know, I don't know if you've seen the crows here, around the church, the crows that are gone almost every morning when I come in here, they're down there by my house, down the street from church here, and I hear all these crows. I’ve just got to tell you that I have a growing hatred in my heart for these crows. I just have to be honest about it, because they represent to me. I see them. They're up on the building, and then they swoop down and they're going to eat some road kill that's unfortunately right there in the street. And they come down and they get like a bloody bite of this road kill, and then they fly up, and if one of them is in the way of my car. I'm not slowing down. I'm just trying to be honest. I'm just keeping it real. I'm not necessarily speeding up, but I ain't stopping anymore. Okay? It just bothers me so much because I'm just, I want to see that person, can you hear it right now? See, people think Satan's in horror movies. People think Satan's out there controlling the dictators of the world. When Satan is right here in the room and all he wants to do is just get you to not really think about it. Just drive home, just go to Costco. It'll all be fine. It'll all be okay. You don't have to really think about all of that. That's what Satan does, and he's really good at it.
It happened on the Fourth of July parade. We had so many people from the church go out; two thousand flyers and flags gone like that, handing them out, talking to people, and people heard, oh yeah, Jesus, oh yeah, I should go to church. I wonder how many of them are still even thinking about that. Snatched away. Here we are at the nine o'clock service. Will what we're doing right now even matter by two o'clock today. That's not natural to forget something this important that fast. Satan is stealing it from you. He's actively blinding you.
Let's get that down for our first dash. The first one is “Satan steals it.” Very disturbing. The more you think about it, people are hearing it. They're on the verge of understanding it. But instead of this, like spiritual discernment being given to them by God. It's this spiritual theft happening from Satan at the moment that they should be pouring out their heart to God and praying to God and going to find someone to talk after the service. They just stifle it. They go home, and it's like it gets erased from their mind. Satan is actively snatching the seed of the Word away so people will not believe and be saved. It is evil. He wants to kill. He wants to destroy. If you're hearing the Word, don't just leave here today. If you're hearing the Word and you're like, I'm not where I should be, don't let Satan snatch it from you today. Make sure you talk to somebody. Cry out to the Lord. Satan wants to steal it so your soul will be destroyed.
Then look at the next verse, verse 16. Let's talk about the rocky ground. These are the ones on the rocky ground. And notice two verses here, 16 and 17 about the rocky ground. Notice it says, “immediately, they receive the word with joy. But then when the trials and persecutions come, immediately, they fall away.” So again, a couple of “immediatelys” that you want to circle there. And I think these immediatelys aren't just Mark writing in this action-packed, fast-paced way. I think the immediatelys are significant. I think you want to pay attention to them. In fact, if you go back up to verse 5, you will see it was on the rocky ground was the only immediately we got in the original story of the parable. And now in the explanation he gives us two “immediatelys,” there's this quick response, yes, I want to believe and be saved, but see, underneath the soil there's this rocky layer so that immediate emotional like yes response to the Word of Jesus, oh, that sounds great. I'd like to not be judged for my sin. Oh, that sounds great. I'd like my life to improve and have a higher quality of existence. Oh, sign me up for that. I'm in. But see, it doesn't go very deep. It doesn't really get rooted in the soil. It's not really understood in the heart. And so, it's this immediate response, yes, I'm in but then it gets hard to be a Christian. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? Like, if you've heard this message that you become a Christian and your life gets better, no, become a Christian, and your life will be tested by trials, and your faith will be revealed by those trials. Become a Christian, and people will oppose you, and you going to keep believing when people don't appreciate your faith? Are you going to keep trusting when you can't see what's happening and what's happening feels bad and is not going the way you would want? And here are these trials testing you and being a weight on you. Here are these other people opposing you and coming against you. Are you going to keep trusting Jesus through all of that? Well, some people are not, and immediately they fall away.
So, I don't know. I mean, I'm Orange County. I don't really know a lot about farming and agriculture. I mean, I'm not old school Orange County when there were a bunch of orange trees, that's why they called it Orange County, when Garden Grove was actually this beautiful garden. I'm not there in those days. I'm here today. I don't know about farming. I know the 405. You guys know what I'm talking about. But so, I used to think the rocky ground meant rocks in the soil, and that wasn't good, but that's not what it means. If you could see the rocks in the soil, you could remove them. This is rocks you can't see. This is under the ground rock, so the soil is not very deep, so it can't grow down to the roots. It looks good on the outside for a little bit, but then it's scorched, it's withered. It doesn't really get down deep into the soil of the soul. So, it's this immediate response, but when it gets heard, it doesn't stick with it.
Let's get this down for our second dash: “Trials reveal it.” Trials reveal it. We've seen some people. They didn't leave and they get snatched away. They responded, and it was a moment of joy. We celebrated. Some of them got baptized. And for a while, you would have thought they were a brother in Christ. They're a sister in Christ. Look at their life change. Look at their passion. But then it got hard. People in their life didn't accept it. The trials of life started to stack up, and they did not stick with it, they fell away. And sometimes it happens pretty quick. Here comes the trial, and then they leave. And so, it looks good for a season, but that's all it is. It's not real eternal life, because it's hard to be a Christian; there will be opposition. And whether you keep trusting when you can't see it proves the validity of your faith. Your faith is tested and it's refined, and then it comes forth, and you're mature and you're complete, and you lack nothing, and you can keep the joy, not just at the beginning, but even through the trials. See the rocky ground when they experience the trials, they don't keep going. And so, it's shown that that's not real saving faith.
Now let's get to the thorny ground. This is my least favorite soil right here. Starting in verse 18, it says, “And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”
Okay, so let's get this down for our third dash here: “The world strangles it.” The world comes and chokes it. What this means is, hey, the seed falls on the soil. But what you can't see is underneath the ground. There's already something else there, some kind of weed that grows up with the grain, and it chokes out the grain. So, the grain can't really produce this thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold crop. No, there's like competing growth happening here, and this other weed that's growing up, this thorny thing, it's choking out the life of it. So, this one actually gives here in the Gospel of Mark, three different ways that this thorny ground can choke out any real faith, and then there's no fruit. There's no real life. Three different ways that this can happen. Look at them with me.
The first one is the cares of the world, and you could write down “anxieties”; another way you could translate, “cares”. Okay, there are so many things that are always happening in life. It can be so overwhelming. 1 Peter 5:7 would be a good verse to write down next to this, where it says, “Cast your cares” or cast your anxieties “on the Lord, because he cares for you.” So, in life, we're all going to have burdens, people we love and care for, things we need to try to do. And as we go about these things, they become overwhelming to us. And if you don't have a real faith where you give those things up to the Lord, you humble yourself, you say, God, I need your mighty hand to do this. If you're always trying to control it and manage it and do it all yourself, well then you're going to get worried, you're going to get stressed. You're going to be so anxious and, sometimes, that anxiety and that stress, it can lead you to not living really for Jesus. See, and the thorny ground is the one that there's going to be people sitting here afterwards admitting your thorny ground, but still trying to say you're fine. I just want you to really hear this, to really understand this thorny ground. Well, I'm too busy to really go to that fellowship group. I'm too busy to really… I’ve got too much going on in my life. I have got too many things to do. I have too many responsibilities. I don't have time to go get discipled by somebody one on one. I don't have time to go share my faith with other people. I’ve just got too much going on. That's the cares of this world. I'm too busy just living life in general to really follow Jesus, and these days that becomes acceptable, yeah, oh, you're too busy to be a Christian, but you still want to call yourself a Christian. Jesus is saying that's thorny ground. That's not real life. That's life getting choked out because you're too into the cares of this world.
The next thing he talks about here is the deceitfulness of riches. The deceitfulness of riches. Oh, you're trusting in money and the things that money can buy. You think life's going well because of what you've got stored up in the bank account or in your investments. Go over to 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 17, with me, where it says something very similar here. 1 Timothy 6:17 about the deceitfulness of riches. See, the riches give us this impression that we're in a good standing, we're secure, we're in this good place, but the truth is, they have nothing to do with our soul and nothing to do about what really happens in the kingdom that is to come. However much money you’ve got stored up in this age, you can't take it with you to the age to come. And so, it says here in 1 Timothy 6:17, and I know many of us don't feel like rich people, but if you do a historical comparison, or you compare us here in North Orange County to the rest of the world right now, we would be considered people who have much. And it says here, “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” See, God, he's generous. God gives. People can have much, just don't set your hope on the much that you have. Just don't let that be what your heart is trusting in, the things that you can buy. See, it's the love of money that's the root of all kinds of evil. It's when you have all of this and it becomes your treasure. And Jesus, he taught this very clearly, that where your treasure is there, what there goes your heart, there your heart will be also. And Jesus says, what are you going to do? You going to store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, or are you going to store up yourselves treasures in heaven. What's our answer to that? I'll store up treasure. Have both of them. Sounds like I'll diversify my portfolio. Sounds like a great idea. Jesus, thanks for the suggestion. But Jesus isn't saying it like it's a suggestion and you can spread your wealth around. Jesus is saying that in your heart, your treasure is either on earth or your treasure is with him. Which one is it? Because you cannot serve God and money. That's the teaching of Jesus. You're either serving God or you're serving money. Now we all need money. Comes in pretty handy down here. But what are you serving? Where is your treasure? Has it gone past, I need money, even maybe past I want money, to I'm trusting in my money. I have a sense of confidence and security based not on my salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, but based on my financial portfolio. See, that is something that will choke the life right out of you, and you will be unfruitful. In fact, you will find that you were serving the things of this age, and you won't be welcomed by Jesus in the age to come, because you'll find out that Jesus took it personally when you chose money over him, and so he see today, we often act like, well, it's great. You can have all that and you can go to heaven, too. We act like you can have one foot with Jesus and one foot with money. You can have one foot in church and one foot in the world. And Jesus is dropping parables where that's all in the soil. That's the thorny ground; those people don't really have the life. So, it doesn't matter what some other preacher said, it doesn't matter what somebody out of Bible study said. It really doesn't matter what you even think about it. It matters what Jesus is saying right here. And the deceitfulness of riches will be the reason that some people don't make it to the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's a great example of that in Mark, when the rich man, I'm ready to follow you Jesus. And Jesus is like, great, just sell it all, and then you'll be ready to come follow me. And the guy walks away sad because he wants to hang on to the things of this life and doesn't want to leave it to follow Jesus. And we've deceived ourselves into thinking that we can bring our treasure here and have treasure with Jesus. Jesus is saying, take your pick. We're trying to do both. And so, hear what the word is saying. If you're so caught up in the cares of this world, you're being choked, that's not really the life that Jesus came to give you. If you're so torn between money and what it can buy and following Jesus, you're being choked. That's not the life Jesus came to give you.
And then the third one. He says, if you go back to Mark chapter 4, and you see it here in verse 19, the third one is the desires for other things, where you could say, the lust for other things, the passions for other things. Okay, a verse you could write down for the desires for other things is 1 John, chapter 2, verse 16, where it talks about all that is in the world, the pride of life, which could be the pride of your possessions, finding your identity and your money and what you own. But then also it describes the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh. It looks good to me. I want it. I desire it. I have a passion for it. I like to look at it, oh, and it feels good to me. I have a desire for it, a passion for it. That's the idea here. See, oh, I want to follow Jesus, definitely, but I also have this other passion, this other desire, that I really want as well. And then, basically, this sin I won't really turn from. I want to bring the sin with me as I follow Jesus, or this other passion that I have. Maybe it's not a clear sin, but it becomes an idol, and Jesus will suffer no rivals. Jesus will not compete for the desires of your heart if you have these passions for other things, well, then that's the thorny ground. That's passion that is going to choke that life out of you. That's not the life that Jesus came to give you. That's not really salvation. Wow. Wow. Jesus is saying, if you're still going to keep pursuing those things that make your body feel good, if you're going to keep pursuing that sexual immorality, if you're going to be involved in the lust and the passions like that, yeah, you can't do those things and have the life of Jesus.
So, see, the thorny ground is very deceptive. See, when Satan snatches away, you're not even interested anymore. The rocky ground, when it gets hard, you give up, you fall away. But see, the thorny ground? Oh, this is why I hate this one. This is why this one's my least favorite, because you're trying to convince yourself you're growing the whole time when you're being choked and you're being strangled. I'm fine. You're gasping like you have life when it's squeezing you the whole time, and Jesus says the thorny ground that's unfruitful, that's not salvation, that's not the abundant life.
And then he gets to the good soil in verse 20, and he says, “Those that were sown on the good soil, they're the ones who, when they hear the word,” what happens? They “accept it.” They receive it. There's some kind of understanding, some kind of eye-opening, ear-hearing response, and then you can see the life in them. Wow. They bear fruit. Wow. Look at the grain grow here on this field, thirtyfold, sixtyfold. Can you believe it? Hundredfold. Now, I think we've really not understood what this means. Okay, if you got a thirtyfold return, you're out there throwing the seed out, and you get a thirtyfold response. This isn't twofold. This isn't three fold. Sometimes I think people act like, Well, I'm not hundredfold, but I'm okay. I'm at thirtyfold. Let me just make very clear to everybody, thirtyfold is a very great, abundant crop. How'd you do last year? Thirtyfold. Wow. How do you do that? What have you got going on in your soil? That's amazing. I got sixtyfold actually. What? How do you even get hundredfold? Are you kidding me? You should write a book about this. That's the idea here. These are profound responses of life. These are very abundant and plentiful. But fields that we're talking about here, you got thirtyfold from your soil. Wow, that's some good soil. Wow. That's some real life happening there. So, everybody who's got this life, there's a response that's greater than themselves. There's a response where clearly something is happening in you. You've heard something, you've understood something, something that's not natural, something that's spiritual, that God has given you something, and everybody will be able to see there's life to you now that wasn't there before, not a life that can just be manipulated or not a show that just can be put on for other people to see, but something happened in the soil of your soul, Something that has borne real fruit. Wow, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold. Praise God. Look what he's done in you, the good soil. See the fruit. It shows he did it.
Let's get that down for our last dash. The fruit shows he gave it to you. You heard it, you accepted it. You received it. Wow. God has done something in your life, something more than you just trying to do it yourself, something profound, something powerful, salvation, life has been given to you. That's the idea here. You’ve got one where Satan snatches it away. You’ve got one person who tries, but they can't really hang. You got a lot of people deceiving themselves when, really, they're still divided in their heart between Jesus and something else. And then you’ve got people, their heart has been made new. They've been given the Spirit of God. And look at them, you know, you don't have to wonder. You know they glorify God, because you can see the life that's the good soil. Go with me to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13. 1 Thessalonians 2:13 describes people who really heard the word, who really understood it. This church. 1, Thessalonians. This was the first book we ever went through as a church, because we wanted to be like this church. They were known as a church where the Word of the Lord echoed from them, the Gospel rang out from them. When they heard it, they shared it with everybody else. They were known for their love for one another, for their love for other people. In fact, even the people that weren't Christians knew that these Thessalonians. They had repented. They had turned from the idols to serve the living and true God, and they had real belief, real faith. They were waiting for Jesus to come and get them from heaven. They knew a day of wrath was coming, and they knew Jesus would deliver them from the wrath to come. Like people knew, these people heard something, and look at their change in their life of repentance, and look at their faith. They repented and believed in the Gospel. And when Paul writes to them, he describes how that really happened here in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 13, and he says, “We also thank God constantly for this that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God which is at work in you believers.” And I went to church that day. I didn't hear what some church was saying. I didn't hear what some man was saying. I heard the Word of Jesus, that Jesus is the only one who can save anybody, and that we are sinners who have fallen short of God's glory, and Jesus is our Savior, and he lovingly died to pay for our sins, and he powerfully rose to offer us new life. I heard the Word of God, and I believed it. I received it, I understood it, and now it's like this Word is living and active, and it's in me. Now, this word of Christ, it dwells in me richly. Now, God has given me his spirit, who's using this word and it's working in me. I'm not just me anymore. I have the life of God living in me because I heard it and I understood it because he gave it to me.
So which soil are you in your soul? These are your only options. And you can't say, well, I'm kind of this, and I'm kind of this. No, you're one of these soils, as you sit here today, and I hope that you will really hear what Jesus had to say, that you will ask Jesus to give you wisdom and understanding. I hope that you could leave here so confident that God has done his work in your life, or that you would be convicted to see, wow, I'm one of the soils you don't want to be. And if you are one of the soils that you don't want to be, can I just plead with you for a second? Please don't let Satan snatch it away today on your way to something else. If you know you're not where you should be with God today, if you can hear Jesus teach in this parable, please talk to somebody after the service, sit here and pray to God and pour out your heart to him. Please don't just go on with regularly scheduled life, because regularly scheduled life isn't real life. You could have real life here today. Please talk to me. Talk to someone after the service, and if you're like, hey, I can hear this. Hey, I can understand this. Hey, God has produced something in me that's more than me, God is working in my life. He's given me this understanding. Wow. Well, then, hey, let's just take a moment to all acknowledge together, if you're the good soil, that the only way I was able to hear was God gave me the ears, and the only way I was able to understand is because he gave me the Spirit. The only way that I can see this is because God was gracious to open my eyes. And it's amazing that I get to have the life of God living in me. This is amazing grace. If you're able to say, I know I'm a believer in Jesus and I know God's doing his work in me, then we should take a moment right now and let's praise the Lord together. Let me pray.
Father, I just pray that this message of Jesus, this parable of the soils, I pray that it could find root in our hearts here this morning, I pray that today there would be ears to hear. Please don't let Satan snatch it away from anybody here today, Father, please give it to them. Give them the understanding. Let them respond to it now. Let people, even as I'm praying right now, cry out to you in their hearts. Let them talk to someone. Please, Father, do your mighty work. Show us who we are, and those who need to yet repent and believe in the gospel, let today be the day of salvation. And God, I pray for all my brothers and sisters if they can actually look and say, wow, I've heard, I've understood, and God is working his life in me, God, I pray that you would humble us and we would all realize this isn't something we earned. This isn't something we figured out. No, the only way any of us could get it was because you gave it to us. Father, we want to thank you for your grace to give us the revelation of your Son, Jesus the Christ. And we want to say, it's amazing to have your life, and we want to worship you now, God, for all of us who could see our sin, thank you for Jesus being our Savior. We pray this in his name. Amen.