The Parable of the Soil April 25, 2010 Mark 4:1-20

PAUL TRIPP MINISTRIES, INC.

Well it's not enough to be in the room. You can be in the room where the Word of God is taught and not benefit from it at all. You can hear God's Word preached and walk away utterly unchanged. You can even have joy at what you're hearing, and it makes no difference in your life whatsoever.

I was a third-year seminary student. I was quite filled with the glory of my Greek language ability. I was exegeting my way through Romans. I thought that my work in Romans was brilliant. Maybe someday it would be a commentary – Romans, by Paul David Tripp. Oh the glory of it!

I got to about Romans 8 - I remember it very clearly. I remember it was early in the evening, and I was writing sort of exegetical notes alongside a passage of Romans, and it hit me that I was in the eighth chapter of this glorious exposition of the Gospel, and I had not been touched by it at all. It had been nothing but a theological, exegetical, language exercise. How shocking!

And so this very, very familiar passage is very, very important for us all. The Bible says that the Word of God is meant to function like a mirror so that we can look into the Word of God, and we can see ourselves as we actually are.

Jesus is in that familiar situation. There is this wide variety of responses to Him. You have the Scribes and Pharisees who are now plotting to destroy Him; they cannot abide His self-declaration; they think He is a blasphemer because He's called himself the Son of God; He's claimed authority over the law of God, and they want Him dead.

You have His own family who thinks He's a bit crazy and wants to rescue Him from Himself - He’s delusional; He calls Himself the Son of God. You have the disciples who have shockingly left their livelihood to follow this One who claims to be the Messiah.

And then you have the multitude that presses at Jesus, probably not because they want Him to be their Savior, but probably because they've heard that He's a healer, and He says things that other people haven't said. In this situation, the crowd is so pressing Christ along the shores of The Galilee that He actually has to preach from a boat; what a scene.

And it's as if Mark positions this parable at this moment in his discussion in the Gospel to speak to this issue. The issue is: Why is there this wide variety of responses to Christ? Why are people who hear the very same Gospel of the Kingdom preached responding in such widely disparate ways?

And he records Jesus teaching this parable. You know it as “The Parable of the Sower.” It probably ought to be called, “The Parable of the Soil,” because the soil, in this parable, is really center stage. Unlike most of Mark, where Christ is pushed to center stage, at this moment, what the parable is actually about is the soil, and that issue of how you hear and receive the Word of God, critical issue that it is. And so it really is “The Parable of the Soil.”

And what I would like to do is I would like to look with you at verses 13 through 20; you know well; you've heard the story of these four soils, and let me start here with verse 13,

And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?”

A word just about parables. Parables are like extended metaphors. The purpose of a parable is not to find some kind of application for every little piece of the parable; you do that and the parable just becomes sort of irrational. But parables have a central point that Jesus is trying to drive home, and He’s actually saying to the disciples that this is a source parable; this is a foundational parable; this parable really explains to you what's happening and what I'm doing as I teach in parables.

And so He begins to interpret the parable for the disciples. Verse 14:

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.

Remember the word picture? Seed is broadcast, not like we would sow today; the farmer would have a bag of seed on his hip; he would reach into that; he would throw the seed like this, and so it would be widely broadcast.

Some of that seed in Christ’s picture falls on the path and is immediately eaten by birds. And Jesus says, “This is a picture of Satan immediately coming and snatching away the word before it's able to take root.”

Now here's what Christ is saying: every time the Word is taught, every time it's proclaimed, what takes place next is spiritual warfare. We ought to be aware of the war for the heart that takes place every time the Word is spoken. We ought to take it with that kind of seriousness. We really do believe in evil. We really do believe in an enemy. We really do believe in Satan who wants to do anything he can to keep you distant from, cold from, separate from, the liberating life-transforming power of God's Word.

And that warfare takes place on the turf of your heart in the place even where you are now sitting. That war is taking place even at this moment, and we ought to be very aware of the seriousness of what we’re doing right now.

How do you come into this room? What is the mentality of your heart? I mean, it's possible for this to be just another religious habit that you have, and you’re sort of used to coming to the Sunday evening service; or, do you come aware of that war for your heart and seeking the protecting, preventing, delivering grace of Jesus every time you're hit with the Word of God?

The Bible would say that Satan comes robed as an angel of light. What would be a better deceit than to have you regularly hear the Word of God and not benefit from it? What a cruel trick!

And perhaps I could give you some ways that that can happen. Maybe it happens when you sit there, and you listen theologically, and you listen critically, but you do not listen personally. This is not just a theological exercise. We’re not just rehearsing our outline again. This is not an opportunity for you to stand away from the Word of God and critique the way the preacher handles the theology that you hold dear.

Now you should hold that theology dear, and you should be concerned that those who preach, preach the Word of God with clarity and accuracy, but it must not stop there! Because we should stand against any time the Word of God is taught and is held as some kind of distant academic intellectual outline that isn't received by our hearts in ways that the Spirit of God can transform the very nature of who we are. That is a cruel trick of the enemy, and I will say it: there will be brilliant theologians in hell! It scares me.

Maybe you are actually sitting there listening for someone else. You’re sort of their personal pew-sitting Holy Spirit, and you're very thankful that they’re in the room because you know that they will particularly benefit from the truths now being proclaimed.

Now again, there are balances here; you should love your brothers and sisters. There are times when it’s right to be glad that somebody is there, but not in a way that divorces you from that position of neediness and openness. That, too, is a trick of the enemy. And the whole time you're thinking of brilliant applications into that person's life, and you're missing the power of the Word of God for you. That's Satan’s trick!

Or, maybe you're listening for ministry preparation and you think, “Wow! This would be great to share with my Bible study. In fact, while I’m listening, I think I’m going to outline this passage.”

Now again, God’s called you to be part of what He's doing; you are actually part of the ministry of Christ’s Church, and you should learn about ministry for teaching, but you must not do that in a way that separates you from the teaching of the Word of God. Listen, all those things are appropriate in some way, but not if, with a humble needy heart, I am not receiving the Word. It’s immediately snatched away before it ever has a chance to take root.

Verse 16:

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.

This is pretty humbling. Listen, the litmus test for your receptivity of the Word is not spontaneous momentary joy. Let's not be fooled. The litmus test for your true receptivity of the Word is later outside of the room when the hardships of life and the persecutions of the Gospel drive you beyond your strength and your wisdom and your righteousness, when life doesn't work the way you would want it to work.

Hear this: you will face trials because God, first of all, has chosen to keep you in a world that does not operate the way it was intended. And God has chosen to use those trials as tools of sanctification and change and growth. And those moments will either confirm your belief in the Word, or they will begin to cause you to doubt the Word; there really is no neutrality.

In those moments, the Word will give you courage, and the Word will give you hope, and the Word will give you comfort, and the Word will give you direction, and the Word will give you strength, and you will be so thankful that, when your world is being rocked, you have a sure foundation of the Word of God; you'll love the Word even more because you're not directionless; you're not hopeless; you're not comfortless; all of life has been shaken, and you’ll have the Word, and you’ll hold the Word close to your heart, and you say, “Thank you, God, for your Word; I love Your Word.”

Or, you bring God into the court of your judgment; you begin to wonder if your theology is accurate; you begin to wonder if those things in God's Word are true; you begin to doubt God's goodness; you question His Word in subtle, quiet ways.

In persecution, the Gospel is an offense; and if your lifestyle is formed by the Gospel, you will be a countercultural human being, and there will be natural ways that you think and respond that will be an offense to others. You will testify to the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ, upsetting others.

And once again, the courage of that and the perseverance of that will be the result of the Word of God being confirmed in that moment. But will those experiences lead to fear of man and timidity in compromise?

Third, verse 18:

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.

One of the most significant functions of your heart is the capacity to desire. We are not beings driven by instinct; we are driven by purpose and desire, and so there is a war of desire that takes place in our hearts as long as sin is inside of us. And it’s very important to understand that.

Jesus, in Matthew 6, uses a wonderful word for this dynamic; it's the word treasure. What a great word. A treasure is something of value, and Jesus would say there are really only two kinds of treasures.

There are earthbound treasures. Those are those physical experiences and relationships and possessions and achievements of earth. Now hear this. There is nothing wrong to desire those. God's given us the capacity for enjoyment, for beauty.

We have tongues that taste; I'm thankful for that. He’s given us a desire for relationship; we’re social beings, made that way by Him. And yet those things must not rule my heart; they must not be the place to which I look for spiritual life. They must not be the place where I look for identity and meaning and purpose and my deepest sense of well-being.

That is where this other set of desires must rule my heart. It is a desire for heavenly things, Scripture says. Luke talks about a purse that will never wear out; it's literally a desire for God. Christ summarizes that by ‘seeking my kingdom and my righteousness.’

And so my life is really ruled by a desire for God, that I would know Him, that I would serve Him, that I would grow in Him, that I would please Him, that I could be part, somehow, of the work of His Kingdom--it's desire for God and the glory of God and the furtherance of His Kingdom that is the paradigm that drives my life.

Now the way you receive the Word will be conditioned by what set of desires rules your heart. And I just want to say it, this is a general cultural comment: I think as an evangelical church, we’re in trouble here. I think in subtle ways and ways not-so-subtle, we've bought the Western culture model of what the good life is.

It’s sad, and there are those who are writing about this who would argue that, if you just take the average debt load of the average professing evangelical believer, it itself, is a scandal! We’re chasing earthbound treasure so much that we are so in debt that we do not have the liberty to give as we should to the work of the Kingdom of God.

I think there are ways in which all of us are tempted by this. Listen, you cannot squeeze the demands, and the comforts, and the glories of the Kingdom of God into the busyness and drivenness of that Western culture value system; it won't happen.

And then there’s a fourth category, those who were sown in good soil are the ones “who hear the Word and accept it and bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” These are people who come to the hearing of the Word of God with the soft, rich loam of a needy heart of humility, expectancy, a deep understanding of the desperate need that they have for grace, a realization that although this is not the first time I've heard the Word, I need its grace as much as I did the very first time I believed.

And I come with excitement; and I come with expectancy; and I come with hunger; and I come with humility; and I lap up every piece of God's Word; and it takes root and it bears fruit, not only in my life, but through me in the lives of others.

I would ask you this evening, “What heart do you bring to the hearing of God's Word?”

I want to look with you now at verses 10 through 12 because there’s another element of this parable that we want to pay attention to. Jesus has spoken the parable, and He's going to interpret the parable to His disciples; we’ve just heard that interpretation, and He says these words, “And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.”

Notice there’s more than just the twelve disciples; there's an intimate group of followers, disciples in the loose sense of that, “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.’”

The first thing you need to understand is that Jesus is speaking these words from Isaiah into the present historical context, and He’s saying that the teaching of parables is, at once, a grace and a judgment. It's a grace to those who receive, because as I speak these parables and I interpret them for my own, I open up to my followers the deep mysterious secrets of the Kingdom.

Listen, the most important things in life that you could ever know will never be known by personal experience or research; they’re only known by divine revelation; God must reveal them by His grace.

And yet at the same time, the parables were a judgment to those who stood against the Messiah, stood rejecting the Messiah, mocked His self-declaration, questioned His preaching of the Gospel.

Calvin, in commenting on this passage, says, “The people that Jesus is talking about are enduring blame for the heart…the blindness and hardness of their own hearts.” But we cannot get away from the fact that Jesus is teaching that He is Sovereign over His Word; that He chooses who will receive it; that He decides whom He will open the secrets of the Kingdom to.

Now maybe you would say, “Well, then it doesn't make a difference how I respond. If Jesus is sovereign and He chooses who will hear, then why worry? Just chill out.”

Well, then the rest of the parable doesn't make any sense. I want to take you to what is the punch-line of this parable, verse 9: “And he said, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’” That is a call for you and me to take responsibility for the way we receive the Word of God.

Now what is the balance here? Here's what you need to understand, this is good theology: that God, in His sovereignty, doesn't just ordain the ends, but He ordains the means as well; do you understand that?

So He isn't just concerned about the result, but He has ordained all of the means to that result. And the way that God has chosen in His sovereignty to accomplish His plan is through the preaching and belief of His Word. The means is part of His sovereign plan; and so, it is right for Christ to declare His sovereignty, and at the same time, to call the crowd to responsibility. That’s the Gospel! It's never either/or; it’s both/and.

Now Jesus uses ‘hear’ in two ways. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” What does that mean? Well, it means to receive the Word of God, to come with that receptivity of heart.

Oh, our hearts are so easily distracted. It's so easy to start fiddling with your iPhone or to be thinking about what you're going to eat later, or what you're facing Monday and Tuesday. And so to come into this room with a receptive heart praying, “Oh God, give me focus; clear my mind; open my heart; I want to receive Your Word.”

It means to accept it, that with a humble heart, I believe what God has said simply because God has said it. And in places where it defies my logic and blows away things I've always thought, I don't allow myself to argue against the Word of God; I receive the Word of God; I accept it.

Thirdly, it means I act upon it. I determine, as I leave this place, that I will live a life based on the Word of God, and then it means I live a hungry life; I want to be one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness.

You can’t help but look at this passage and remember that the One who is talking about the sowing of the Word is Himself, the Word. He's the final revelation of God and the One who is The Word, is the Lamb, and He came to suffer and die so that we would have the grace to believe.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith … it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Praise God for that grace! Praise God for His sovereign plan, and you do that by taking responsibility for the condition and the character of your heart as you hear the Word of God. What heart do you bring to God's Word?

Let's pray: Lord, thank you for the beautiful harmony of Your truth that we can rest in Your sovereignty, that You are Lord over Your grace, and yet that rest is not a rest of complacency or laziness or disregard; it's a rest of belief; it's a rest of following; it's a rest of seriousness; it's a rest of humility. May we know that rest, and may Your Word continue to do its work in our hearts. In Jesus’s name, Amen.