The Seed and the Soils (Part 2 of 2)

Whenever God's Word is preached, there is a diverse response. Among the congregation, some people are apathetic, others are angry, some may be intrigued, some may be completely transformed.

So what makes the difference? Is it the teacher, the listener, the message, or something else? We'll explore the answer today on Truth for Life. Alistair Begg is teaching from Mark chapter 4 verses 1 through 20. Now, we must notice that the confidence of heaven is in the Word of God itself.

The confidence of heaven is in the Word, and the sower sows the Word. Secondly, by way of explanation, we consider the soils, which represent the various responses to that Word being sown. Some people would be tempted if they were creating a parable today to create it differently—that it wouldn't be three different kinds of soil, it would be three different kinds of approach. So one fellow tried this, one fellow tried that, and one fellow tried this, and the third one got it right, and there was a terrific response.

No. Jesus says the issue is the nature of the soil, and he goes on to describe the soils that represent the response of people. First of all, he tackles the response of those along the path. That reference is verse 4. The seed was scattered, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Secondly, the soil that is represented in rocky places. Here is another indication of the response of men and women to the Word as it's proclaimed. The third soil is that which is represented as being thorny.

Thorny. Verse 18. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the Word. But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, the desires for other things, come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful. In this instance, the pressure is not coming externally. The pressure is internal. In this instance, the pressure is the pressure of divided loyalty.

It is the experience of the one who has set their course and charted their future and, with fullhearted commitment, determined that they will go all the way to the end, but they're unrecognizable. Their children don't know why it is that they're no longer the way they once were concerning the reading of the Bible and their prayers. They don't understand why it is that their mom has such little interest now in the worship of God's people, or the parents looking on their children who were so bright in junior high and are so nowhere now in senior high, and having come back from college or from university, despite all that was represented of their nurture and their care of the influence and the prayers that were part of their lives, they would appear that their hearts are thorny.

The words that are used by Jesus are pretty straightforward, aren't they? What is it that does this to a person? Well, it's the worries of this life. The worries of this life. Remember, in Matthew, in chapter 6, Jesus says to his disciples, he says, I don't want you to worry about anything. But we worry.

Well, I would very much like to come to the men's ministry, but I need to stay at the office at least until nine o'clock. We've taken such a dreadful hit that, frankly, I'm worried about whether we're going to make it. I understand that. Are you as worried about whether your soul makes it safely to heaven? What advantage would there be for you to restore the bottom line and lose your own soul? Well, I'm worried about my daughter's education.

I have to make sure that I earn enough in order to send her to the right place so that she might become the right person, speaking in the right way and espousing all the right values. Does that matter more than your soul? You see, the worries of life are understandable worries. It's not that there's something bad or wrong about the worry itself or that which produces worry.

It's our response to the issue. And what Jesus says is, there is certain kind of soil that, although the response to the word is apparently fruitful, it proves unfruitful. It ends up being choked. And if it isn't choked by the worries of this life, it may be choked by the deceitfulness of wealth. Remember, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount made it clear, no one can serve two masters. Either he must leave the one and serve the other. But he cannot serve both at once. And then he gave the punchline, you cannot serve God and money.

You can't serve God and money. And, he says in this instance, the deceitfulness of wealth has in certain cases become the choking factor, the key to unfruitfulness in the lives of those who had professed to be my followers. And then, with a catchall, he adds not only the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth, but the desires for other things. The desires for other things. For other things. Other things other than the primary things. Other things other than, Matthew 6.33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added to you. In other words, you take care of my things, says Jesus, and I'll take care of your things. We reverse that to our peril. No!

You take care of all the stuff that I say is important for me, and then if you do, as a response, I will begin to take you seriously. Jesus says, No! It is actually the other way around—the desire for other things. You remember in Hebrews 12, the exhortation in Hebrews 12 is that we should throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. So it's not just things that are inherently bad, which may deprive me from fruitfulness in the Christian life. It may be things that are intrinsically good, like a love of sports, like our concern for the well-being of our children. That these things unwittingly, if we're not careful, may actually prove to be that which leads to us, over a period of time, losing out.

We look back, and we say, How did I get like this? Why so little interest? Why so little zeal for the things of the kingdom? Why so little concern for my Bible?

Why such a disinterest in the sharing and the praise and worship of God's people? How did I get like this? Thorns! Thorns!

Slowly, imperceptibly, but inevitably, choking the life out of you. Now, you know how much I love to read. In fact, reading is about the only thing I can do properly.

I think my epitaph now should be, He read books. But books can be a snare. Because books contain ideas.

And ideas influence our minds. And if we start to read the wrong books—and I don't mean illicit reading, I mean legitimate reading—but for example, if you read Thomas Hardy without reading your Bible, you may start to think like Thomas Hardy, who was a materialist and a fatalist. You may start to think like Thomas Hardy, who was immoral.

And imperceptibly, something that in and of itself may be neutral, may become for us a choking snare. And interestingly, if you read Thomas Hardy's biography, you will discover that Thomas Hardy was brought up within the framework of a devout Christian home, that his upbringing was under the tutelage of those who loved Christ and who loved the Bible. And yet there was a point in Hardy's life in his late teenage years where he disavowed all that had been shared with him in his early years. And that was largely attributed to the books that he began to read. And for your interest, the same is true of Robert Louis Stevenson, whose grandfather was a minister. Stevenson wrote Treasure Island. Stevenson was nurtured by a nanny who loved Christ.

Stevenson went to Edinburgh University, began to read Baudelaire, imbibed the immoral nonsense that was contained in much of those pages, and died at the age of forty-four of a cerebral hemorrhage in the Samoan islands, still supported by his father, who agonized over the fact that his boy had turned his back almost unwittingly on that which was the very grounding of his life. You see, it wasn't a decisive moment in time. It was a slow choking at the root. And fourthly, the seed that is sown on the good soil actually represents those who not only hear the Bible, hear the Word, hear the gospel, but accept it, and it produces a crop. It produces a crop. Remember Jesus said, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself.

It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." In other words, there is something purposeful, there is something engaging, there is something applicatory, there is something that has to do with heeding, there's something that has to do with assimilating, appropriating, taking to oneself. That's why I say to you again that you will never come to terms with Christianity from the position that is apparently one of safe and detached curiosity. The hearing of the Word of God in and of itself will do nothing for you until you accept it, until you bow down under it, until you believe it. And when God's Word is received in this way, Jesus says, it makes an impact that is lasting. This individual is the one who prospers in the trials, who holds up in the storms, who endures the setbacks, who endures to the end and is saved. This is not the person who shrinks back and is destroyed—Hebrews 3.12—but this is the one who continues to the end and is saved. And it would appear that the disparity that is here thirty, sixty, or even a hundredfold is simply representative of the fact that the disciples of Jesus, faithful as we are, are not uniform in what we produce. Some of us have more responsibility, different degrees of responsibility, and some will produce, I think, disproportionate results.

But it will all be down to what God determines. Now, with that by way of explanation, let me say just a couple of words concerning application. First of all, let's be clear that this isn't a story about the ability of the sword.

This is not a story about the ability of the sword. In fact, when you read this story, one of the things that strikes you is how wasteful this process is. Scatter, scatter, scatter, on the path, among the rocks, among the thorns. Goodness gracious, it seems that there's more wastage than there is profit. And we daren't fail to acknowledge that, on some level, there is discouragement for the teacher. Those of you who teach know this. I admire you. I admire all teachers. How you'd go back into that classroom, and another little set of people are there waiting for you. Some of them like the seed on the path, some like the seed among the thorns, and so on, and a few that will be there saying, Yes, Ms. Jenkins, I would definitely be very interested in what you just told me, and I will do my homework, and I will be back.

But large clutches of them, they're just staring at you. They're just looking like, What is she on about? I don't know why my mother sent me in here. This is a dreadful experience. She's obviously very concerned about it, but I can for the life of me understand why. No, I can't wait to get out of here.

Get on my bicycle and be done with this. The teacher understands that. So does the teacher of the Bible. Sunday after Sunday, week after week, year after year, year after year, people looking at you as if they were on the third front row of a bus going to Boston.

Those are the ones that are awake. Another Sunday to scatter, another opportunity to sow. And another reminder that it's not about the sower, it's about the seed. And the antidote to the inevitable discouragement that the teacher faces—not least of all, in light of the amount of waste that's involved in this parable—is found in the fact that God has promised, has pledged himself to fulfill the purposes that he has for his Word, so that in all the chaos and stupidity and sin of life, God will accomplish what he's purposed.

We may not always see it immediately. We may not even see it in our lifetime, but God will accomplish what he has purposed—that the promises that he has made concerning his kingdom he will bring to pass. He has seen his people all through the Roman Empire. He's seen them all through the Dark Ages. He's seen them in the Cultural Revolution in China, safely to the vibrant church that is present there today. He's seen them through the darkness of the covenanting times in Scotland. And he will see us through the challenges that are represented in this period of the twenty-first century.

Why? Because he has pledged himself, he has committed himself, to complete and accomplish that which he has purposed to do through the sowing of the seed of his Word—through the sowing of the seed of his Word. Therefore, make sure that your chin is up, that your eyes are ahead, and that you remind yourself of this continually. And finally, by way of application, let us notice that in this, as in every study, when we look into the Bible, we look into a mirror. Into a mirror.

Or, as you folks say, a mere. I think there are three Rs in mirror. Practice by yourselves at home. So as you look into this, we find ourselves saying, because we prayed it in our opening prayer, Show me myself. We find ourselves inevitably saying, Which is my response? Which of these soils represents me in my response to the gospel? One of the commentators, Cole, of an earlier era, sees in this what he refers to as the law of consecutive spiritual assimilation—a bit of a mouthful, isn't it?—the law of consecutive spiritual assimilation or progressive spiritual atrophy. In other words, when we hear the Bible taught without appropriating it, without doing what it calls for, we find that our capacity for apprehension, for understanding, and for appropriation actually dwindles and disappears. If, instead, we pay attention, we accept God's Word, then our capacity for receiving the Bible grows in a kind of spiritual geometric progression. If we do not humbly accept the Word of God planted in us which can save us, then instead of being helped by it, we will be hardened by it.

To come to Parkside routinely and listen to the teaching of the Bible without responding to that to which it calls us, we'll find that we will eventually lose any interest in it at all. If it does not help us by calling us to faith, it will in turn harden us in our absence of faith. And that is why we routinely say to one another, don't we, today, if you hear God's voice, do not harden your heart. You're listening to Truth for Life, and that is Alistair Begg with a word of encouragement for Bible teachers and an urgent warning for all of us who listen to their teaching.

Keep listening, Alistair returns in just a moment to close today's program. In our current series about the parables Jesus told, it is quickly clear to us that he spoke with divine authority. Jesus taught knowingly about the kingdom of God because he is God. And the book we want to recommend to you today is a book that will take you through a hundred proofs that Jesus is God. In fact, that's the title of the book, A Hundred Proofs that Jesus is God. This book combs the scriptures to show you how Jesus embodies all of the very same attributes God has revealed about himself in his word. So, for example, when you read A Hundred Proofs that Jesus is God, you'll consider that Jesus answers prayers, he forgives sins, he is perfectly holy. You'll also learn how Jesus revealed his omniscience in the gospels, particularly when he foretold his own death and resurrection. This is a book that points again and again to the deity of Christ. Ask for your copy.

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Simply click the share icon and you can send them the link. Now, here's Alistair to close with prayer. Father, we thank you that we do have a Bible to which we can turn. We thank you that it is clear in its call to repentance and to faith. If we're honest, we do know that we are resistant to its truth, because it demands that we get out of the driver's seat and that Christ takes that place of control, that we resist its impact, because we do really want to go our own way and please ourselves.

It challenges us when we're tempted to set up our stall of our lives directly related to all the things that preoccupy us, are tempted to deceive us, and all the stuff that can choke things out. Lord, you know us. We can't hide from you. You know who we are and what we are.

We can pretend to one another, but not before those who know us best. And we pray that as we continue to study the Bible together that it will be a help to us, help us to understand who Jesus is and why he came, that we might trust him, that it will help us to love him and to serve him, that it will help us to tell others about him, and in the end, that it will help us to prepare for our death so that when we stand before the bar of your judgment, we may plead always and only the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross, satisfying your wrath, taking the place of sinners, and allowing us to stand before you, complete in him. Hear our prayers, O God, and let our cries come unto you for Jesus' sake. Amen. Amen. Glad you've joined us today. We are learning how transformative God's Word is, but if that's true, how is it possible for some people to remain unchanged after years or even decades of consistent church attendance? We'll look at the answer to that question tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.