When God's Word is faithfully preached, it calls for a response from everyone who hears it. But reactions to biblical teaching are diverse, and today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg takes us through Jesus' explanation of the parable of the seeds and the soils. And he leads us to the important question, what kind of soil are you?
Let's find out. I invite you to turn with me to the Bible, first of all to the Old Testament, in Isaiah chapter 55. And from verse 6, Seek the LORD while he may be found, call on him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth.
It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire, and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. And then in Mark's gospel, chapter 4, from verse 13, where Jesus now begins to give the explanation of the parable that he is told. Then Jesus said to them, Don't you understand this parable?
How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.
But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown.
Amen. Well, we use as our prayer as we turn to the Bible these familiar words from an old children's chorus. Make the Book live to me, O LORD. Show me yourself within your Word. Show me myself, and show me my Savior. And make the Book live to me. For Jesus' sake.
Amen. Well, here we are once again in the parable of the sower and the soil. It's a parable in which Jesus is essentially making it clear that these parables themselves are the Word of God in seed form. And when that Word, when that seed is sown, it is meant by different kinds of response.
Jesus is the sower in focus here in this chapter, but all who are the faithful teachers of the Bible also fulfill the responsibility and privilege of sowing. And just as Jesus tells us in this story, so every time the Bible is faithfully proclaimed, the responses to that proclamation are many and are varied. And we do well to keep in mind a statement made from our previous study that went as follows, We will never get to grips with the message of Christianity from the safe distance of a detached curiosity.
We will never get to grips with the message of Christianity from the safe distance of a detached curiosity. And our study in this parable bears out that observation. The disciples, as we've already seen, had raised a question concerning parables. You see that there in verse 10, and Jesus then in turn had asked them how it was that if they didn't understand this particular parable of the sower and the soils, how they ever thought they were going to be able to understand any of the parables. And you will see that that is there in verse 13. What Jesus is saying is that there is some sense in which this particular parable is the key to understanding all of the parables. And what we're going to look at now this morning is the word that he gives by way of explanation, and then, having done so, take a moment by way of application.
So it's really quite straightforward. First of all, the explanation that Jesus gives, and then the application that must be made. Well, look there in verse 14.
The first sentence sets the scene for us. By way of explanation, the farmer sows the word. The farmer sows the word.
He's told the story. A farmer went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell along the path. The disciples are not clear concerning this, and so he says, Well, let me just make clear to you what it is the farmer is sowing. He is sowing the word. Now, we have read from Isaiah 55 purposefully, because there we have a similar reference to the Word of God going out and accomplishing its purposes. In the immediate context of this parable, the word refers to the teaching of Jesus here in Galilee—the teaching as recorded by the Gospel writers and as recorded by Mark, as we've observed it, in chapters 1, 2, and 3.
In verse 15 of chapter 1, Jesus has stood to say, The time has come, the kingdom of God is near, repent and believe the good news. And the people of the time were thrilled in anticipation of the establishing of the kingdom of God. They had all kinds of ideas in their mind about what that was going to mean. Many of them were inaccurate, but nevertheless, they anticipated something dramatic. And in the ensuing chapters, Jesus has been teaching them concerning these things.
And, as a result, people have responded in a variety of fashions. And these various responses are encapsulated, are summarized, in this parable and in its explanation as given by Jesus. The thing that we must notice first and foremost, of course, is that in this instance, the farmer is represented by Jesus, and the Word that is sown is the Word is the Gospel, if you like. And it is by means of this Word being sown, says Jesus, that the kingdom of God will come to its fulfillment.
This is an important principle in all of time and in every era. In the nineteenth century, in Great Britain, in London, when Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the foremost preacher of the day, he had as a contemporary a man by the name of Archibald G. Brown. Archibald had been first one of his students and then became one of his peers. Brown was a very effective minister and, at one point in his ministry, began to bemoan what he referred to as, quote, the devil's mission of entertainment. And what Brown was referring to was the fact that in his own day, in the nineteenth century, many of the churches and many of the ministers of the time appeared to be seeking to put crowds together, gathering people in their congregation, by means of seeking to entertain them and amuse them. And Brown, observing from the Bible that when Jesus made his teaching very clear, many people turned away. The searching nature of the teaching of Jesus was such that people said, Oh, if that's what you mean, then I'm really not interested at all. And Brown makes the observation. He says, I do not find that there was any attempt to increase a diminished congregation by resorting to something more pleasant.
And he goes on to write as follows. I do not hear Jesus saying, We must keep up the gatherings anyway. So run after those friends, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something very short and attractive, with little if any preaching. Today was a service for God, but tomorrow we will have a pleasant evening for the people.
Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it and have a happy hour. Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow, if not by gospel then by nonsense. No, this was not how he argued. Gazing in sorrow on those who would not hear the word, he simply turned to the twelve and asked, Will you also go away? Jesus pitied sinners, pleaded with them, sighed over them, warned them, and wept over them, but he never sought to amuse them.
He never sought to amuse them. I fear that too many in our day are interested in attending a place of worship, because the invitation that is extended to them is, I think you will find this, highly amusing. Well, if that has been your expectation this morning, I hope to disappoint you greatly.
Indeed, I hope we already have. 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. These soils represent different responses. 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 references verse 4.
The seed was scattered, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Let me explain to you what this means, says Jesus, in verse 15. Clearly, Jesus was not enamored by big crowds, because so many of the people that were part of the large crowd had really no interest at all in the word that he spoke to them, especially when they began to understand what it was he was saying. And for many of them, the Word of God spoken by Jesus was simply like rain on a tin roof.
They were impervious to it. They perhaps found it to be interesting, but ultimately concluded that it was irrelevant. We might have gone among the crowd and heard them saying things like, Well, I like the stories of Jesus. I just don't like his application. I don't know what it is that he means when he talks about calling sinners to repentance. Who in the world is he referring to?
Certainly not to me. I much prefer some of the other things he said than that. And Jesus makes clear that when this is happening, behind all of this, there is the activity of the evil one. He's already done battle with the evil one in the temptation in the wilderness. He's already set back the kingdom of the evil one in the casting out of demons. He's already shown himself to be the king, prevailing over the forces that arranged against him. And he knows that as the seed of the Word of God is sown, the activity of the evil one is always present.
It may just simply be a voice in your head saying to you, Oh, you don't have to listen to this, or you don't need to accept this, or that's probably not true. That is what happens when the seed lands on the heart that is represented by the soil that is hard beaten down on the pathway. 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. And in this instance, you will notice—and this references verse 5, and then is translated to 16 and 17—"some fell on rocky places where it didn't have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root." So says Jesus, let me tell you what this means. This is the individual who says, who, when the Word of God is proclaimed, immediately receives it with joy. Oh yes, they say, I think I would be very much interested in this.
I would like to receive this for myself. Perhaps an emotional response. Perhaps an emotional response that is even engendered or aided by the approach on the part of the one who preaches. It's not difficult to create emotional response. It's not hard to tell stories that stir and move. It's not really very difficult to play the kind of music and to sing the kind of songs that may engender in a person an almost instantaneous reaction to that which is being said.
And the picture is pretty clear. It is that of an emotional response. But the Christian experience of such an individual is like a fleeting pleasure. Robert Burns, in one of his poems, The Scottish Poet, says of pleasure, he says, But pleasures are like poppy spread. You seize the bloom, its flower is shed, And like a snowflake in the river, One moment here, then gone forever.
And this picture here of the rocky soil is that kind of picture. And I haven't been in pastoral ministry for the last thirty-four years not to have both observed this in the Bible and experienced it in those who have been in my congregations. The Word of God is sown. The response is apparently immediate. It is joyful. It may even be followed by a quick baptism.
And the kind of person who's involved in just about everything you could ever imagine being involved in. If they were here this morning, they would immediately… They would have already left the service in order to sign up at the table for children's ministry. That's how excited they are about everything there is. But they're no longer around. They haven't been around for a very long time. Something happened to them along the way. Trouble came, persecution came by way of the Word, and they quickly fell away.
Instant bloom, instant fade. Couldn't handle it when the family that was around them regarded them as just the craziest member of the family. Couldn't cope with the workplace. Couldn't cope with a girlfriend who said, If you're going to be serious about this Jesus stuff, I am gone, because I have no interest in it at all. And instead of the person saying, Well, it must be Jesus, they said, Well, I want to go with you, and off they went.
And together, they're nowhere at all spiritually. Scorched by the growing tides of opposition, these instant blooms shrunk back beneath the surface, rather than to find themselves counted with the followers of Jesus. 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.
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. Don't worry about what you will eat or what you will wear or what you will put on. After all, the birds of the air are fed, aren't they?
And Solomon on all his glory didn't even look half as good as these flowers by the wayside. In other words, he says, I've got you covered. 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? 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. You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. We'll hear more about this parable on Monday. In addition to listening to Alistair's daily Bible teaching here on Truth for Life, I hope you take advantage of the books we recommend. We choose these books carefully, books that will give you a deeper understanding of God's Word. And if you request the books each month by the end of the year, you'll have a spiritually enriching library of 24 books. And a great way to get all 24 of the books that we recommend each year is to become one of our Truth Partners. With a monthly donation of $20 or more, you can request each of the books we offer.
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I'm Bob Lapine. Hope you have a great weekend and are able to spend time worshiping with your local church. On Monday, we'll hear encouragement for teachers of God's Word and a warning for listeners. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
