Our message is the cross and the resurrection. To confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God what? Raising from the dead. That's the seed. That's the gospel seed.
That's the word concerning Christ. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. it's been said there is no attribute of God more comforting to his children than the doctrine of divine sovereignty. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon called God's sovereignty the pillow upon which you lay your head.
that is to say, true rest for the Christian comes from trusting God in all things. The question is, how do you cultivate that trust? Specifically, when you've been witnessing to a friend or a co-worker or a family member, and it seems nothing you've said is getting through, how do you deal with that? Is it all about putting forth effort, maybe a lot more effort, in order to see that person come to faith in Christ? Consider that today as we continue a series of messages chosen by Grace to U staff members that we call John MacArthur's Most Memorable Sermon.
Today's lesson is titled The Theology of Sleep.
So follow along as John begins the lesson. I want you to uh take your your Bible and open it to the fourth chapter of Mark. I want to Talk about what I've called the theology of sleep. The Lord gives us really a whole chapter here on evangelistic instruction. It's foundational, I think, to our understanding of biblical evangelism.
It's comprehensive. It's detailed. It is um critical for us. to understand what's in this Chapter. I want to begin by having you look at Verses 26.
It's 29. And it is from this portion of the chapter that I have drawn the title. Our Lord gives a series of parables here. This one Only in Mark. The others appear in Matthew and Luke, this one only in Mark.
Verse 26, he was saying. The kingdom of God Is like a man who casts seed upon the soil. And he goes to bed at night. and gets up by day. And the seed sprouts and grows.
how he himself does not know. The soil produces crops. by itself. First, the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle.
Because the harvest has come. The parable says Sow the seed. And go to sleep. Because you're not in charge. of the results.
But there are essential elements in that automatic operation that must be there. And for us to understand some of those things, we need to sort of broaden our perspective here and pick up some of the other parables in the chapter.
So let's go back to the beginning of the chapter. And I don't want to belabor this one because I know you're very familiar with it, but just to make a few points. How do we approach evangelism? Let's just let's make a few words kind of a hooks to hang our thoughts on. The first one is humility.
Humility. I mean, we would understand that. by just what's been said. Humilities. Because it's really not in our power.
to do the work. We don't want to live under that ridiculous illusion. And that is expanded in the very familiar parable in verse 3. Behold, listen to this, our Lord says: the sower went out to sow. He was sowing some seeds fell beside the road and birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it didn't have much soil. Immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. After the sun had risen, it was scorched because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns and the thorns came up and choked it and yielded no crop. And you can just know that those guys, those disciples who are there with him, are just, yeah, that's right.
We're very familiar with that. They're very familiar with that kind of scenario where the fields were basically crisscrossed with beaten paths. That's how they walked in and out and around and through the countryside. And our Lord's disciples were doing that and plucking grain as they went, of course, which they were allowed to do from the Old Testament when the Pharisees condemned them.
So they traversed those beaten paths. They understood that. They understood there was some kind of ground that had bedrock underneath it and the seed would burst open and there would be some kind of plant that came up, but eventually it would die when the sun came out because it couldn't penetrate past the rock to get to the water and it was superficial and fruitless and there were other That were caught up in the weeds that never were cleaned out of the soil. They were all very familiar with that. What they weren't familiar with, the surprise in the whole deal is verse 8.
Other seed fell into the good ground, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop that produced 30, 60, and 100 fold.
Now Our Lord wants to explain the parables.
So He does that only to his followers. Verse 10 says he pulls his... Followers to himself alone and begins to explain to them because to them it is given to know these things. It is not given to the already rejecting nation who with their hardness of heart have cut themselves off from that opportunity.
So he begins the explanation, I love this, in verse 14. The sower sows the word. This is so foundational. I I I just I feel kind of uh foolish even saying it, but It should be obvious to all of us that there are no adjectives to describe the sower. The sewer.
Anybody who throws seed. Anybody? There are no qualifications. For the sewer.
Sower is somebody who throws seed. It's that simple. That is not the issue here. In the work of evangelism, We are not the issue. It really doesn't matter whether you have a beat up, tattered, burlap seed bag or a designer seed bag.
Really doesn't matter the style of your seat bag. Anybody who throws seed is a sower. And there are no adjectives to describe the sower.
So there's nothing in the story about the sower. The seed? We know what that is.
So or so is the word. In the language of Luke 8, 11, the word of God. The word of God. I don't know that we need to be reminded about this. Romans 10 says that faith comes by hearing the word concerning Christ, right?
Faith comes by hearing the word concerning Christ. While the salvation is divinely automatic and is the work of God, it cannot occur apart from the message concerning Christ. The full message. Our message is the cross and the resurrection. To confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God what?
Raising from the dead. That's the seed. That's the gospel seed. That's the word concerning Christ. Is it offensive?
You bet it's offensive. Stumbling block to the Jews. Foolishness to the Gentiles, that doesn't change anything. In that wonderful text, The 1 Corinthians 1, where the Apostle Paul talks about that. He says, we preach Christ crucified, the Jews, a stumbling block, the Gentiles, foolishness.
Listen to this, but to those who are the called. There's a Calvinist statement for you. Those who are the called Those who hear the divine call. Those who are under the divine automatic work, those on whom the wind of the Spirit blows. This message, which will always be foolish, which will always be a stumbling block to the natural man, becomes the power of God.
For salvation. And in the end. Verse 30 says, It's by his doing you're in Christ Jesus. It's by his doing you're in Christ Jesus.
So if you're going to boast. Boast in the Lord. Paul's response to this evangelistically, when I came to you, brethren, I didn't come with superiority of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, in much trembling.
My message, my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Paul understood it completely. You preach Christ crucified and risen, even if it's rejected, even if it looks like it's stupidity and shame. You preach Christ. Because to those who are the called, on whom the Spirit blows.
In whom life is generated divinely, automatically. This is the power of God. to salvation.
Well, what is the parable about if it's not about sowers and seed? Can't mess with sower, it's anybody who sows the seed. Can't do anything with the seed. You don't want to create a synthetic seed and. and get a mutation, do you?
I think a lot of that's going on. I think they're all over the place there are Quasi Churches of mutations. The issue in the parable is soils. The rest of us Parable is simply an explanation of Soil. In Matthew 13, the parallel, it says that which is sown in the heart.
So the soil is the heart. I can sow the seed. I can't. Change the heart. Are we agreed?
Beyond me. I'm like the farmer. I just sow the seed and go to sleep. I'm not in charge of the heart. It's popular for people to think that they can alter the heart.
In my preaching, I never purposely appeal to the human will. I never try to drive the human will. Cause I might be I might be causing people to have certain things they wish were true. to follow a path like weak-willed women. Paul referred to in writing to Timothy.
I'm not interested in manipulating anybody's will. I never appealed to the emotion. I'm not interested in making anybody sentimental. about Jesus. All appeals are to the mind.
to understand the truth. to understand the truth. Don't appeal to people emotionally. Because you'll get a whole lot of emotional response. Don't appeal to people's will because you'll get a whole lot of self-willed responses.
You always appeal. to the mind. Jonathan Edwards, in the treatise concerning religious affections, which he wrote in seventeen forty six. Was very, very concerned to make it known that fallen human nature is fertile ground for fleshly religiosity. which is impiously Spiritual.
rooted in self-love, he said. High emotional experiences. Gushy kind of uh Sentimentalistic Approaches to Jesus. Schmaltzi musical experiences Or a far cry from the genuine Regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Centered on a transformed soul, transformed character.
Edwards wanted to point these things out, and I think the bottom line for him was: where there is a genuine work of the Spirit in a life, the result is not a kind of smug satisfaction, but a humility, a spirit of meekness, gentleness, forgiveness, mercy, brokenness. People being broken over their iniquities. In all false conversions, generally that's the issue.
So, that what we have to do is drive the hard edge of evangelism at the issue of sin and repentance. That makes acceptance hard. Self-denial, self-hate, hate your father, your mother, and even your own life. Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me. This is what makes acceptance hard.
That's why Jesus said, when he was asked the question in Luke 13, are there only a few being saved? He said, it's hard. They can't get past that self-will. They can't get to the Luke 18 mentality, Lord, be merciful to me. The sinner.
It's not enough to make Jesus attractive. Jesus is very attractive. Very, very attractive. Not enough to make people have good feelings about Jesus. Not enough to get people.
to activate their will for some Personal benefit, not enough to. Excite their emotions. Spurgeon said. People told to come forward in response to an emotional appeal, make a decision to accept Christ, they come forward and immediately go backward. They go, he said, into the inquiry room and get converted in five minutes and have done with godliness for the rest of their lives.
Well, these are the people that have No root. The people that are caught up in the in the things of the world. Deceitfulness of riches, the distractions of this age as the parable unfolds, and you're familiar with that parable. We're very aware of the fact that the hearts are the issues we're dealing with. There are hard hearts like the hard ground.
There are those superficial people who with joy receive the truth for a little while. Joy is no indication of saving faith. True repentance is not necessarily joyful. Might be agonizing. Edward said, true conversion is marked by humble, broken-hearted love for God.
So, we all understand we're dealing with hard hearts, and we're dealing with superficial hearts, and we're dealing with distracted hearts, double-minded hearts that are caught up in the things of this life and the things of this. World. But the bottom line is, we have no power over those hearts. We can't give life to the dead. We can't give light to the darkened.
We can't give sight to the blind.
So we approach this ministry humbly. We sow seed. We know we're not the power. We're simply the human means. We so see.
Humility. That's the first attitude. Second attitude, just briefly. is found in the parable in verses 21 to 23. A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed?
Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden except to be revealed, nor has anything been secret. But that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. We are humble because we know we are not the power in salvation, but we are obedient because we know we possess the light.
That's the point of that story. Look, you might say, well, if it's all the power of God. Then I don't have any role to play. Oh, that's not so, and that's why this parable is here. You don't cover up the light.
You are the lamp. You don't put the lamp under a basket. Under a bed. Put it out where everybody can see it. We are humble because we know we are not the power to change the heart.
But we are obedient because we know we are the means by which the light comes. How will they hear without what? A preacher. Go into all the world. Preach the gospel to every creature.
Make disciples. Go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. The uttermost part of the earth, because the Spirit of God will come upon you, and you will be empowered for that. He's saying to them, Look. It's axiomatic.
Lamps are to spread light. You don't like one to cover it up with a mode on, about a nine liter basket. Original language. You don't take a flat pallet bed and put it on top of a lamp to hide the purpose of the lamp. You put it on a lampstand, on the wall or on the floor.
This would have been a little oil lamp, usually set on top of something with a floating wick. You light the wick, and that's how the house is lit. We are To be lights in the world, are we not? We're to let our light shine, these are all. simple, foundational, basic, biblical.
Concepts.
So, while on the one hand it is not within our power to change hearts, it is within our responsibility to be obedient to let the light shine. And so, it's not only the message that we preach, which is the pure gospel of the cross and the resurrection, but it's the life. that undergirds that personal testimony. A life of light. These are axioms, all of them.
Nothing is hidden except to be revealed. Nothing is secret except that it would come to the light. That is to say, the purpose in keeping something hidden for a time is that there is a precise time to let it be seen. The purpose for having a secret is that it would be inappropriate to reveal it now until the right time to reveal it. The day he is saying of worldwide evangelism is coming.
There is coming a day when I will no longer say to you, don't spread this around, but I will tell you to go to the ends of the earth. Scatter the seed, spread the light. There's a third word. As we just give you, I'll give you one more in a minute, but the third word would be diligently. We go humbly, we go obediently, we go diligently.
Some people say well If you're going to believe all of this and you're going to believe it's all the work of God, that takes the motivation out of evangelism. That's the big criticism that people in Reformed theology always hear. But I want you to look at verses 24 and 25. Take care. This is another little axiomatic analogy.
Take care what you listen to or how you listen. By your standard of measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given you besides.
Now, let me just stop there and say this. Look, folks. You are not the cause of anyone's salvation. But you are the means. We are humble about the cause.
We are obedient as the means. We let the light shine. Just how diligent should we be? Here's the motivation. Right here, by the standard of measure, it'll be measured to you and more will be given to you besides.
Here we come right back to the fact that this astonishing promise truism axiom is this: usefulness in gospel evangelism is proportionate to the seed sown and leads directly to eternal reward.
So sparingly Reap sparingly.
So bountifully reap. Boundly.
So you sow the seed. You sow it diligently. Because you know that your usefulness is proportionate to your sowing. And that leads to the majority of the m to divine blessing. That leads to eternal reward.
That's how you purchase friends. for eternity. One more word. We sew and we sleep. Humbly.
Because we're not in charge of the results, obediently. Because it's the very nature of being the light that we shine. Diligently Because Our usefulness is proportionate to our faithfulness. To sell. And it will be rewarded forever.
And finally, confidently. confidently. I love this. Verse 30, and he said, how shall we picture the kingdom of God? How shall we picture?
And you know, if you're a skeptic, you might say, oh, yeah. Tiny little group of beleaguered people over here in a corner somewhere. That's it, that's the kingdom. Gotta revamp our whole approach here. Yeah.
Here's how we need to think about it. It's like a mustard seed, which when it's sown on the soil, Though it is smaller than all the seeds that are sown on the soil, not all the seeds in the world, but all the seeds that were sown typically and annually in Israel. And when it is sown, however, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants. forms large branches.
so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. Guess what? We sow confidently Because we know that God has determined an exponential outcome. Isn't that marvelous? An exponential outcome.
What's going to be the final outcome? What should we expect? With this little tiny seed kingdom and these little Men, at one point the whole kingdom is in a boat in a storm. It all could have drowned right there. What could they possibly expect?
Like a mustard seed. Explosive growth. This tiny little seed that Produces a bush as high as 15 feet and as wide as five or six feet. Out of that tiny little sea. The kingdom is going to rise like that.
small beginnings, no one could ever, ever, ever imagine that very soon they would be saying about this little kingdom, these people are turning the world upside down. One final thought. We can sow the seed. Humbly obediently, diligently, confidently. and leave the results to the Lord.
Just a closing illustration. Jesus fed the 25,000 people. Mm-hmm. At the end of the feeding, Yeah. This is hard to believe.
It says... The disciples got in a boat. The wind stopped. When Jesus got in the boat, the wind stopped. They were utterly astonished.
This is the night after the feeding of the 25,000 or so. They get in a boat, they're going back to the other side, the western side. And the storm comes. Jesus meets them in the middle. and something amazing happens.
The incident with Peter takes place, Jesus gets in the boat. And they respond by saying this, you are. God's Son. They said that in the middle of the lake, four miles from the shore, In the storm. when Jesus stepped inside the boat and calmed.
the storm. Why did they all of a sudden come to that conclusion? Mark says this. They had no insight. They had gained no insight from the incident of the loaves.
But their heart was hardened. They just came from A hillside near the town of Bethsaida, where Jesus had. Made food. I mean, he was making crackers. Flat crackers.
from grain that never grew. He was passing out. pickled fish. that never swam. creating food.
Yeah. Choo, choo, choo, choo. And they're just getting the baskets, and they've got people sitting in groups of 15 and 100, and they're firing all this food everywhere. And they say, now collect everything that's left. And they come back with how many baskets?
Twelve? The precision is as staggering as the power. I mean, it's not, you can't just be creating supernatural fish and let it lie around. It was all consumed. Come on.
This says they didn't get any insight because their heart was hardened. What is that? I would have said, I believe, Lord, I believe. I got no more questions. What in the world?
After he fed them, he put them in the boat, sent him out. He went up into the hill, and it says he prayed. I think he prayed for them. I think he prayed for them. And that night when he came to them in a boat, He stepped in the boat.
The hardness was gone. And they said, truly, you are God's son. How did that happen? I think the father in that moment on the lake in Galilee that night answered his son's prayer for them. and open their hearts.
That was the great transforming moment. Was there something about the walking on the water that was more impactful than what he had done the day before or what he did for all the times before. That was the moment. in the most unlikely circumstances, in the most unlikely ways. automatically.
Life. Hard hearts are shattered. I tell you what, it's pretty exciting to be a part of this. The burden is not mine. Except to sell.
the scene father we thank you for our wonderful Text of scripture, rich. Full. Blessed. We love you. We love your word.
We exalt him. Be exalted through us. as we faithfully So the gospel seed. For the glory of Christ. Amen.
You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. Our current study is called John MacArthur's Most Memorable Sermon.
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Now for the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week with us. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our compelling series called John MacArthur's Most Memorable Sermon. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. On Grace to You.
