Pay Attention To God

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are good, and glorious, and gracious. And despite our sin, because of your loving kindness and grace, you sent your son, Jesus Christ, the word of God. Jesus, everything was created through you. Nothing was created apart from you because you are the word of God. God spoke everything into existence ex nihilo. And Jesus, you, the word of God, came to reveal yourself, and you do that. You reveal God to us through the written word of God.

I pray, Lord, in the same way that everything was created, I pray that you recreate us by your word today. I pray that you give us tender hearts, humble hearts that are teachable, hearts that can truly pay attention to you, pay attention to your word, to listen in order to heed and obey. I pray, Lord, if there's anything in the soil of our hearts that is not conducive to the seed growing, be it thorns, or thistles, or rocks, or hardness, I pray today by your love and by the power of the Spirit, till, break the ground up. No matter how painful it is, I pray make the ground fertile by the power of the Spirit.

Lord, prepare us now to hear from your holy scriptures, the holy Bible, your word. This is the seed that Jesus is talking about. And I pray this seed is planted deep in our hearts, that the root structures go deep so that the harvest may be plentiful, and make us a people who want to be fruitful, who want to bear the fruit of the spirit in our lives, and want to be fruitful by drawing others close to you by making converts, making disciples not of ourselves, but of Jesus Christ.

Lord Jesus, I pray that you send a hunger for your word in this nation, in the world at large. There's a famine of your word because there's a lack of hunger for your word. And I pray that you make us a hungry people, people that hunger, in desperation cry out, "Lord, speak to us. We're ready to do your will."

Lord bless our time in the holy scriptures. Holy Spirit, come meet with us. Do the deep work. I pray, prepare us to hear from you, to hear from your holy scriptures, and give us power to then go and do what it says. We pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

We're continuing our sermon series through the incredible Gospel of Mark. We're entitling the series Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom. The title today is Pay Attention to God.

In the same way that there's a difference between just viewing and actually seeing, there's a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is the process, and function, and power of perceiving a sound. Listening is to hear with thoughtful attention. Hearing is passive and involuntary. Listening is active and requires attention. You can hear without listening, in one ear and out the other. Listening requires focus, concentration, and effort. Listening requires paying attention.

One time I was taking one of my daughters to school, one of the younger ones. I always say this. It got into just habit. My parting words, my parting blessing is pay attention. There was a mom standing right next to me, and she's like, "Hey, that's a good thing to say." She turns to her son, and she's like, "Pay attention." Because kids forget. They think it's just you go have fun and it's just a social thing.

Well, a lot of us, we forget to pay attention to the word of God. Many people hear God's word but they don't listen to it. They don't seek depth of understanding. And to listen to God's word also means listening with the intent to accept it and obey it no matter how paradigm-shifting the implications. And that's when true understanding comes, when you receive the word humbly and you seek to do God's will.

These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 7:17. He said, "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own authority." He's saying, "Do you want certainty that this is true, that this is truly true?" Well, do you listen with the intent to do God's will? And the more you desire to listen to God's word in order to do his will, the more understanding, the more certainty you receive that it's really God's word.

Today we're in Mark 3:31 through 4:20. This paragraph at the end of chapter three, Tyler covered it last week. I'm just going to just make a few comments upon it because it does prepare us to hear the parable of the sower. Would you please look at the text with me?

"And his mother and his brothers came. And standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' And he answered them, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' Looking about at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.'"

"Again he began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gather about him so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea. 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's 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 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 12 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. Where 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.'"

This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts, three points to frame up our time. First, the king's true family does the will of God. Second, the king reveals the secret of the kingdom of God. And hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit.

The king's true family does the will of God. In the previous text, Jesus decisively puts down his most vociferous opponents, the Pharisees and the scribes. And Jesus now turns to a more intimate "enemy" of his opponents, his family who encounter him because they think that he is out of his mind. They grew up with him. They saw him on a daily basis. And as the phrase goes, familiarity breeds contempt. So they think he's out of his mind, that he's insane.

This is verse 20. "Then he went home. The crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying he's out of his mind." Jesus in the previous context said that those who follow him are those who do God's will. And those who do God's will, that's who is part of his true family. And what happens is his family who is saying that he is outside of his mind, literally in the Greek, they find themselves to be outside of the inner circle of Jesus. They find themselves, the family of Christ, to be outside of the family of God.

Verse 31, "And his mother and his brothers came. And standing outside, they sent to him and called him." His family find themselves outside of his circle of followers, which is emblematic of being in opposition to God's will. His mother was Mary. His father is not mentioned after the Christmas and the advent narrative of Jesus' birth. After that narrative, Jesus' father isn't mentioned at all. Most likely it's because he has already passed away.

His mother and his brothers are here. If you remember, his brothers later get converted. James and Jude actually write the later books of the New Testament. They introduce themselves as the brothers of Jesus Christ. But here they're not yet believers. And instead of responding to Jesus' call, they actually try to pull Jesus away from his mission away from doing God's will. Why? Because they absolutely misunderstand the nature of his ministry. Why? Because God's thoughts and plans run contrary to all natural human inclinations.

They weren't given the revelation just yet. They needed a move of the Holy Spirit to believe in the resurrected Christ. It wasn't until probably Pentecost and the Spirit came that James and Jude were converted.

Who's in the kingdom? It's those to whom the mystery has been revealed. In Mark 4:11, in our text, "He said to them, 'To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables.'" Lesson here is friends don't let your family tempt you away from God, don't let your family pull you away from God.

There are many people who have been saved at Mosaic and have been baptized at Mosaic. They say, "Look, no pictures or videos of the baptism. Because if my family finds out, there's going to be dire consequences." That's the world that we live in. And yet we are called to stand firm in Christ no matter what our family believes. We have to close our ears to the siren song even of family if they try to pull us away from the Lord.

Matthew 10:34, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I've not come to bring peace but a sword, for I've come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

In Mark 3:32, "And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' He answered them, 'Who are my mother and my Brothers?' looking about at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.'"

How serious were the concerns of his family for Jesus? Well, where is Jesus? He is ministering in Capernaum. He's probably living out of Peter's house in Capernaum. Where did Jesus grow up? Where is his family based out of? In Nazareth? How far is Nazareth from Capernaum? 25 miles. They make a 25-mile trek, presumably largely on foot, which tells us something about how seriously their concerns were for Christ. But when they get there, the house is so filled they can't even get in.

A little about his family, from Mark chapter six, we know that Jesus has four brothers, James, and Joseph, Judas, and Simon. He also had some sisters. Interestingly, in the parallel passage in Matthew 13, Matthew talks about all of Jesus' sisters, not just both of his sisters, so the implication is there's more than two. So he's got at least three sisters and at least four brothers, so there's at least eight of them. And they didn't believe in him. They didn't believe that this was the Messiah. They didn't believe that this was the son of God. In John 7:5, "For not even his brother believed in him."

You and I have a savior friends that understands, totally gets it when family gets complicated, and sometimes family gets really complicated. But Jesus bore with them, and he continued to minister to them and told about the arrival of his mother and brothers. Jesus refuses to submit to their summons. Instead, he gestures to his followers with his eyes, and he says, "These people, these who are following me, and listening to the word of God, and doing the will of God, this is my true family."

Indeed, this is another demonstration of Jesus' deity. He equates following him with doing the will of God. It is remarkable condescension on God's part to call us children. It's remarkable privilege, remarkable privilege for us to be granted a place in God's family. He doesn't just call us servants. He could have just left at that. He says, "No. When we repent of our sin and trust in Jesus Christ, he becomes our older brother. God becomes our father, and we become brothers and sisters." It's a point that the text makes here by adding the word sister in that culture, at that time, this was a significant addition which validates the equality of men and women in admission to the kingdom of God.

As Jesus will say later point-blank in the Sermon of the Mount, it isn't just the one who believes in Jesus that enters the kingdom of God. Jesus says, "A lot of you'll say, Lord, Lord. We knew you as Lord." And Jesus said, "You didn't do my will." He says, "A lot of you'll say, 'We did religious works in your name. We even cast out demons in your name.'" Jesus says, "That's not what brings you into the kingdom of God. No, it's doing the will of the Father in heaven."

This is what repentance is, and this is why repentance is so important. Repentance is saying, "Lord, I lived doing my will. I lived according to my terms, according to my values, according to my own truth. I repent of all of that. Now I want to follow you and do your will." And these are the true sons and daughters of God who seek to do God's will.

Take Abraham for example, the father of the faithful. Scripture says that Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. But the story doesn't end there. His faith led to his obedience. Later, he proved willing to sacrifice even his son Isaac should the Lord demand it. And God solemnly repeats the promises he made to him, to bless him and to make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, to bless him above all nations. He said he would keep all of his promises to Abraham. Why? Because you have obeyed me. In other words, Abraham showed himself a true child of God by doing God's will.

We see this same message to the very end of scripture. It says in Revelation, Christ says to the Christians in Thyatira in Revelation 2:26, "To him who does my will to the end shall be saved." In some of the very last chapters of the Bible, the beginning of account of the second coming, we're told that the bride, the church has been made ready for the wedding of the lamb. And her dress is fine linen given to her to wear. The fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. The saints, in other words, are those who do the will of God. They live in obedience to his will, his commandments, and his summons. They serve the Lord.

Galatians 5:6 says, "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." Well, what is faith working through love? We have a parallel passage that defines it. 2 Corinthians 7:19, "For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God."

This new relationship with God is spiritual. It's inward. It's not outward. It's not natural, as was generally assumed by Israel in the time of Jesus. They assumed that the Messiah belonged to them by right. This was the attitude of Mary and the brothers of Jesus. This was the typical attitude of the whole nation. They confidently believed that they have a prior right to the kingdom of God because of their physical descent from Abraham. Jesus is saying physical descent in terms of kingdom of God, it actually means nothing.

This is incredibly revolutionary teaching that Jesus brought in a Jewish context where the primary obligation was to one's own family. It's commanded, "Honor your father and your mother." But there's a commandment that is higher, more important than that one, which is, "Thou shall have no other gods before me." What's happening is that Jesus is acknowledging whatever claims of love and honor his natural family had on him, God, the Father, has a higher claim on him.

Here, before we go into the parable of the sower or the parable of the soils, I want to meditate on Mary's faith for a bit. However bright and strong Mary's faith was when the angels came to her, when the magi came, when the shepherds came while she held infant Jesus in her arms, however strong her faith was then, somehow, the course of her journey between then and this moment has led her to a place where her faith has been eclipsed. Yes, she's had a very difficult journey. We don't know how long she's been a single mom, a single mom to eight children, no husband in the home to help. Her faith has been eclipsed because of suffering.

Now we know from later on in scripture she doesn't stay here. She doesn't stay in this moment. She doesn't stay in this moment of disbelief. When her son Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross crucified and all of his disciples were scattered, bar John... One of his disciples betrayed him, the other denied him. And there she is standing there. She was there right to the very end watching her son die. The Lord Jesus Christ, in a very tender moment, speaks to her from the cross, and he entrusts her to be kept by his beloved disciple, the Apostle John. She seems to have come back to the place of trust in the Lord Jesus. But at this point in the story, her faith has suffered eclipse. At this point in the story, she's more like the first soil, hardened by suffering of life. She can't even hear the word of God.

Just a moment just to meditate, I will say there are moments when we do suffer. There are moments when we go through darkness and it seems like the darkness is so thick that eclipses our faith. And friends, my pastoral encouragement to you is at those moments, do not allow Satan to steal the word of God from you. The word of God is the only nourishment to keep you going through those moments, and he will get you through.

Point two is the king reveals the secret of the kingdom of God. This is Mark 4:1. "Again, he began to teach beside the sea. 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." This is the very first time the adjective very large is used. It's the biggest crowd yet. His followers are continuing to invite people to hear the message of the gospel, and the size of the group thronging about Jesus is steadily increasing. He's beside the seas preaching from a boat, which is a floating pulpit so to speak.

This picture of Jesus, God, on the sea, on the boat reminds us of Psalm 29. In Psalm 29, God is sitting in royal majesty on the waters giving utterance in his earth-shattering voice. Psalm 29:1, "Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders, the Lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people. May the Lord bless his people with peace."

He got into the boat. He sat on the sea, and the size and the urgent interest of the crowd is emphasized by the fact that they are not all here to listen to his word. Probably anchored in shallow water, shallow kind of like the hearts of many listeners. It's an impressive scene. Crowds are always impressive. Seeing a lot of people gathering to hear from one person is always very impressive. But large crowds don't necessarily mean that God's work is being done.

Jesus knew the selfish and fickle hearts of sinful people. John 2:23, "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man for himself knew what was in man."

People love a gospel that is good news as they define it. Especially nowadays, it's like there's an internal translator whenever even people are having conversations. Someone says something, and they're like, "So by saying that, you're saying this," and they say something completely different. This is what people do with God's word times infinity.

Many didn't come to hear his word, but just to sample it, just to get a taste. You know charcuterie boards? I love charcuterie boards. They're incredible. A lot of people approach the word of God like that. They just say, "I like this part, I like this part. I don't like that part. I'm going to skip the rest," just like I usually skip all the vegetables. I go straight for the cold cuts. No, it's take it or leave it. It's the whole thing.

Some people had no spiritual interests whatsoever. Crowds attract crowds. It's very entertaining. Go hear something. You've got something to think about, and you leave. By their repeated hearing Jesus's warning here, by their repeated hearing the word of God, and not believing, and not obeying, the word of God actually hardens them to make it even harder for them to believe.

In Mark 4:2, "And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them." Now the word parable in the Septuagint, that's the Greek translation of the Hebrew text. In the Hebrew it is masal, and is a term related to the verb to rule. Therefore, it's talking about authoritative speech. Jesus here is using parables to say, "I have authority to regulate revelation." By using this form of teaching, he is regulating revelation where the same teaching reveals the truth to those who are willing to hear it and obey it, and it conceals the truth from those that do not have spiritually sensitive hearts. It's a system of instruction specifically designed to sift the wheat from the chaff among his hearers because he knew people had mixed motives. And his parables, they're designed to test not intelligence, but the spiritual responsiveness.

Matthew 13:34, "All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world."

Psalm 78:1-2, "Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old."

In verse three of Mark 4, we have the parable. He says, "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it. Listen, this is verbal. Use your ears." Then he says, "Behold." He says, "Look." He's painting a picture with his words. This is a crucial parable, and it's bracketed with exhortations to listen on the front and on the back.

He uses a very familiar agricultural image. Perhaps there was a guy sowing as he is preaching. It was a man, a farmer would take a bag of seed, tie it to his waist, and walk the fields, rhythmically casting the seed, broadcasting the seed.

We do devotions with our daughters in the evenings and a scripture study, a little prayer. I call it community group for our family. Same thing we do in community group, we do with our group. I was just zonked yesterday. I was like, "Ah." I was like, "I'm going to re-preach my sermon to you real quick right now."

As I'm going through, I said the word broadcast. One of my daughters is like, "What's broadcast mean?" I'm not talking about television. I'm talking about broadcasting. That's what he's doing. He's throwing it indiscriminately, just everywhere. He's got a lot of grain. He knows not all of it is going to produce fruit. Here in the beginning, some falls on a path, a path that was tread probably by villagers, worn down since the last time of the harvest. Birds eat that one.

Verse five, "Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it spraying up since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched. 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."

The landowner didn't cut back the thorns. He didn't uproot them. Or perhaps he just cut them back and they grow up even stronger, and they throttle, and choke the fruit. There's been a progression in the case of the first three seeds. The first never took root at all. The second started but died. And the third survived but bore no fruit. In the end, the first three are of no value to the farmer. What is he after? He's after the grain. He's after the fruit.

Verse eight, "And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold." The yield was calculated by comparing the amount of seed that was sown with the amount of grain that was harvested. The yields of 30, 60, a hundredfold are considered remarkable, especially even in modern times in which yields of sevenfold to elevenfold are typical of countries using traditional cropping systems.

The punchline is given verse nine. "He said, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'" Because of the mysteriousness of God's kingdom, a special sort of perception is required to understand, to register its presence. The parable concludes with another exhortation to hear. There is, however, progression between these two uses of the word to hear. In the beginning, he says, "Everybody hear. Everybody listen." Here he says at the end, "Let him who has ears to hear. Let him who has been given the gift of spiritual hearing, make sure you use those ears."

Not all can receive Jesus' strange message about the arrival of God's royal power. In the midst of suffering, in the midst of weakness of this fallen world. Not everyone has ears to hear. The only ones who can hear this paradoxical message, rather, are those who have been granted the organ to do so by God.

In verse 10, "And when he was alone, those around him with the 12 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.'" Jesus now retires with his disciples to a private place, giving his intrigued and mystified followers an opportunity to ask about the parable. And to speak about the arrival of the dominion as a mystery or as a secret implies that there is something elusive to it. The parable does not only describe successful seed, but three quarters of its space is devoted to unsuccessful seed. Because of this mysterious hiddenness, one needs eyes of faith in order to discern the presence of God's reign.

Why didn't Jesus' brothers believe in him? Why didn't Jesus' mother believe in him? Especially his mother. I've been meditating on this. I think it's because she lived through incredible suffering for years. She's like, "You're the son of God? You're the son of... You're supposed to make everything better. You're supposed to alleviate the pain. You're supposed to remove the suffering and here we have years of suffering. You're saying you're the king of kings?"

And When we proclaim that Jesus Christ is king, we understand the difficulty of believing that he's king. When you look around in the world and you're like, "What? Jesus is kingdom. Why are you allowing all of this to happen?" Especially moments of pain.

This last Friday, our worship night, I was worshiping through pain because I got the biggest toothache I have ever had in my whole life, consequences of being a son of immigrants. It's mind-numbing. I wish it was mind-numbing. Mind-splitting. It's pain I have not experienced in probably ever. That was Friday, and then last. By the time I called... Long story. I'm going to the dentist on Tuesday, Lord willing.

But moments of pain where you're just crippled. You're like, "Lord Jesus, I'm preaching that you're a healer. Could you please heal me?" I'm casting out demons from my... Whatever it is. In the name of Jesus. Moments like that, and it's fallen world, and it's fallen flesh where just pain, and suffering, and just evil and darkness. You're like, "You're the king?" Jesus says, "I'm a king that comes like a seed. I'm a king that comes like a seed. I need to be put in the ground. I need to die in order for that seed to bear fruit. Everything that I'm teaching here is along those lines. It's a mystery. It's truth, but it's shrouded. It's veiled revelation." And we do need the power of the Holy Spirit to see that God truly is King.

Martin Buber once put it, "The true victories won in secret sometimes look like defeats." In the limelight, our faith that God is the Lord of history may sometimes appear ludicrous. But there is something secret in history which confirms our faith. This secret is most evident on the cross of Jesus Christ. On the cross of Jesus Christ, you have God who is dying. The author of life is being crucified. The blood from the author of life is dripping down the cross. It seems like the greatest defeat of all defeats. Then, Jesus is buried, and then he rises on the third day, and the greatest defeat turns into the greatest victory, God's victory in apparent defeat.

Those outside only see the defeat, and the secret has not been revealed to them. Therefore, what is spoken to them is spoken in parables. "Jesus, why are you using parables?" And this is his answer, Mark 4:12, "So that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven." God does not intend for everyone to receive his word, so it should come as no surprise that some people reject it. It is not God's intention that Jesus' parables should enlighten the outsiders. Instead, it should blind them, close off their understanding, prevent them from attaining repentance and forgiveness.

There is deliberate divine intention that some people misunderstand and remain impenitent. It's part of God's justice upon them. We see this in this text that's quoted by Jesus in the original context in Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6 begins with the revelation of God enthroned in awesome splendor, the king of the cosmos. Isaiah sees this. Isaiah is in the throne room of God. He sees the seraphim, the angels of God, serenading God, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." Isaiah, realizing he's in the presence of God, he says, "Woe, that's God. Woe is me. Who am I, a man of unclean lips that lives amongst the people of unclean lips." God then sanctifies, forgives him of his sin. Then, God says, "Who shall we send? Who will go for us to preach the word?" Isaiah says, "Here am I. Send me."

Then, the following verses, we see one of the deepest mysteries in all of scripture, that God sovereignly grants salvation to his elect, and sinners are fully responsible for their persistence in sin and their ultimate condemnation. Isaiah 6:9, "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 what their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed."

How did Isaiah obey the strange commission? It wasn't by preaching obscure expressions or complex reasoning. No. You read his preaching. It's very plain, very systematic, very reason. People's reaction was they scoffed at him, and they scoffed at the message. When we read this and we realize to know the truth of the gospel, to believe the word of God is a gift. Why are you a Christian to dear saint? Why are you a follower of Jesus Christ? The only answer that is true is that Jesus saved me. God saved me. God changed my heart. God revealed the truth to me. It wasn't because of my ingenuity, it wasn't because of my studies, it wasn't because of my own reading. No, it was God saved me. God chose to reveal the secret to me.

So what does that do to our pride? Absolutely decimates it. We have no pride. We're on our knees before the throne and we say, "Lord Jesus, thank you for revealing the truth." To me, the same word that comes as revelation to the insiders comes as blinding to the outsiders. The difference between the two groups is not that one gets parables while the other does not. No, it's one gets parables in order to understand and the other group gets parables in order to harden them in disbelief.

Veiled revelation, just like God in Christ is both revealed and veiled. His siblings saw him and they're like, "You look normal. You look like us." Because his mother saw him like, "Can you unveil, please?" It's veiled revelation.

I have sisters. One of my sisters, she's a tremendous gift giver, even better gift wrapper. Whenever you see her gifts wraps and the gift bags, I'm like, "Oh, this is going to be good." then you get the present. It's pretty good.

Then, I have another sister who caress nothing for wrapping. She wraps all her presents in Trader Joe's bags. You get it, you're like, "What is this, Amazon? What's going on?" You know it's going to be good though because it's coming from her. Don't let the packaging keep you from opening the package. Don't let the veil keep you from unveiling the veil and seeing the revelation.

I saw a video of this guy walking around offering people either $20 or an ounce of gold, gold coin. Everyone took the $20. I'm watching. I'm like, "No, don't take the $20." Then, he revealed. Someone took the 20 bucks, and he's like, "How much is an ounce of gold?" He's like, "I don't know, like $1,200 give or take." Everyone's like, "Is it too late?"

A lot of people, they read the word of God, they don't have taste buds that value. There's taste buds of your soul. Their soul don't value that this is the word of God that leads to eternal life. We're not just talking about money or this... You can't quantify the value that you can get from the word of God. It's veiled, but it's veiled for a purpose, a purpose of those with humble hearts to go and to keep asking, to keep seeking, just like his disciples. The crowds all left. They didn't understand. The disciples, they come to Jesus like, "We don't get it." And Jesus gives them even more revelation.

God has hidden his mysteries from the wise and discerning, but he does so only in order to accentuate the miracle that God has now revealed them to babies. The parables serve two functions, first to reveal truth to those who are spiritually responsive and, second, to conceal truth from those who are spiritually superficial or scoffing. One commentator says, "Parables are a mine of information to those who are in earnest, but they are a judgment on the casual and careless."

Verse 13, "And he said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?'" Here, the word understand in the English, in both sentences, it's the same word, but in the Greek it's two different words, oidate and gnosesthe. The first one is to know as if by intuition. That intuition is a gift from God. You can only have the intuition, spiritual perception, intuition if you're gifted it. And the second one is knowledge that comes with experience. He's saying, "Do you understand? Do you have the intuition? If not, I'm going to give it to you." Then, that intuition must deepen with the experience, and only God can give you spiritual intuition which deepens with experience.

Here, Jesus makes the cruciality of this parable clear. He's saying, "This parable is the key that actually unlocks the rest of the parables and the rest of the scriptures. To one who already has something more will be given some spiritual insight into the meaning of one parable will lead to further insight into the meaning of the other parables. And failure to understand this one continues to mystify and further and further brings people into the fog of disbelief."

As in all spiritual matters, we either hear or we do not hear. And to see the spiritual truth, to hear is proof that we have received illumination from the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can give us eyes to see spiritual truth. Why? Because we're blind by nature, blinded by sin.

The more of God's revealed truth we assimilate, the more our capacity for assimilating truth grows. And further spiritual perception of God's truth can be perilous. It only condemns us unless we act upon it. Increased knowledge merely brings increased responsibility.

In Luke 12:47, Christ says, "And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required. And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more."

This brings us to point three. Hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit. In verse 14, Jesus begins expounding his own parable. The sower sows the word. The seed here is a powerful symbol of the word of God that has power to sprout eternal life, bring forth eternal life.

James 1:8, "Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures." 1 Peter 1:23, "Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God, for all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you."

Four soils symbolize four hearts. The first is the hard heart. The second is the shallow heart. The third is the over-cluttered heart. And the fourth is the good heart. How does the seed, which is the word of God, release power? By going deep. What does the depth depend on? The condition of the soil. The soil represents the condition of each listener's heart. Are you listening with your heart? Are you listening with a soft heart?

And how do you know that God's power has entered your life? Well, he's no longer a theory. He's no longer an abstraction. He's no longer a thing. He's no longer just a religious category. No, he becomes the priority. He becomes the center. He becomes number one in the hierarchy, in the org chart of your life. Everything revolves around him. The whole of the Christian life is one of continual and progressive response to the fresh spiritual revelation we get from God's word.

Verse 15, "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." This word falls on deaf ears. Perhaps the heart has been hardened with distractions. Perhaps not necessarily anything bad, just something that takes your mind off of God. It's like you're reading the Bible, and then you read a chapter, you read a second chapter. And if someone stopped you there and they said, "What did you just read?" You're like, "I have no idea. I have no clue."

Or you're listening to the sermon, and you're like, "I've already heard this before." all of a sudden you think about how Mac Jones is terrible. The Pats are awful. And Belichick-Brady, it was clearly Brady, not Belichick. All of a sudden, you're not thinking about the word at all. And you know that's all true.

Or you're like, "You know what? That's interesting." There's a lot of intellectuals in the city, and you're like, "This is very interesting. I'll just think about." But then you never think about, "Well, how should I respond? What does God want me to do with this word?" That's how you take it in. You receive it so that it actually changes you.

The words that we read in holy scripture, in the holy Bible, these aren't just human words. This is the word of God, and it gives us power for life, and it gives us power to find eternal life.

Deuteronomy 32:47, "For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess." This is Satan tempts Jesus, and Jesus says, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." There he's quoting the book of Deuteronomy. Every single one of those words is from the mouth of God himself.

Or maybe you hear a sermon or you read scripture and you think about the implications of this for someone else, but never for yourself. Distractions send more people to hell than even doubt. Satan, what does he do? Satan's, by the way, not a figure of speech. Jesus knows who Satan is. He's taking Satan head on in the desert. There is a real spiritual battle raging for the souls of men and women, and Satan hardens people's hearts by the traffic of world philosophies. This is one of the main things that hardens people's hearts. Just years and years of indoctrination, of demonic ideologies, and it hardens your heart to the point where the word just bounces off. That's all Satan's work.

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." The seed falls on a thin layer of soil over hard limestone or other stone. This is people who are initially moved. They hear the word, and they make a decision that's short-lived enthusiasm. Perhaps it's very impulsive, but not always are they responding to God. Perhaps they're responding to a feeling. And as soon as that feeling is gone, so is the faith.

What's proof of our faith? It's not the intensity in the beginning, but endurance to the end. Once saved, always persevering. The word for fall away here comes from the word skandalon or scandalized. Refers to someone who views the message of the cross as an offense, as a barrier to belief. And to fall away is to trip over an obstacle. Jesus points out in these cases the shame of persecution is greater than the person's embrace of the message, and they stumble over the message in times of trouble, when things get hard.

Here, dear Christian, dear saint, we have to resolve. We have to make a resolution. No matter the persecution, no matter the trials or the challenges, I will stand strong on the word of God no matter what. God help me.

Verse 18, "And others are the ones who are sown among thorns. They're those who hear the word. But the caress of the world, and deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful." Here we have the case of a divided heart, a heart infested with irreconcilable loyalties. Some of you won't follow through on obedience to God's word because the caress of the world begin to choke it out.

It's not a conscious decision to reject God, but little by little God's word gets crowded out by other things. And all of a sudden, God's not that important. Reading scripture doesn't become that important, doesn't become... It's no longer imperative. Little by little, we lose our love for the Lord.

Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters." And 1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." This soil pictures those who get so encumbered with the basic enticements of this world that they produce no fruit. Again, the seed fails to accomplish its purpose.

Think of someone like Judas, Judas who heard all of Jesus' sermons. He saw all of Jesus' miracles. Why, he even performed some miracles himself in Jesus' name. How could this man, how could it possibly be that this man would turn away from the son of God? And how could theologians, describes in the Pharisees, who knew God's words supposedly, and saw Jesus drive out demons, and do miracles, and heal the sick, and they call him an agent of Satan? Well, why didn't they believe? Because no one expected that the king of kings, the Messiah, the God of the universe would come like this. When the king came, all of Israel was to fall into his train and worship him, or so they thought. But the kingdom didn't come that way, not the first time. It comes the way of the seed.

In John 12:23, "Jesus answered them, 'The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.'" If you think about planting a seed, it's such a tender thing. It's so gentle. You take some soil, you take a pot of soil, and you place it gently in, you water it, you care for it. Jesus said, "This is how the kingdom enters your life." Jesus, in the same way that your body entered the ground, you are the living seed of God, the living word of God. You died in order to be raised again. Why? To give us life, to give us new life.

In Mark 4:20, "But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who bear the word, hear the word, and accept and bear fruit thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold." 30, 60, a hundred shows that different disciples have different levels of productivity, just like different people have different talents that the Lord gives one talent to some, two talents to another, five to another. But they're all productive. They do the best that they can with what they have. When the word reaches a prepared heart, it flourishes, and the seed does what the seed is supposed to do to, bear fruit.

I urge you to aspire to greater fruitfulness. Where are you in this category? First of all, which soils are you? I urge all of you to join me in being number four. Altogether, all of us number four, please. Receptive to God's word, humble under the authorial intent. Focus on exegesis, taking the truth out of text, instead of eisegesis, infusing it into the text. But the whole goal is to be as productive as possible. By productivity, yes, I mean fruit of the Holy Spirit and being transported, be more and more Christ-like, but I also mean converts. And this is what this text is, that one seed led to 30 seeds, or 60 seeds, or a hundred seeds. In the same way that someone shared the gospel with you, you are to share the gospel with others.

How many people have entered the kingdom of God thanks be to your witness? Now, let's aspire to do more. Whenever I see categories like this, I was like, "I want to be in the hundred mark. I want to be in the hundred mark." How do we get there? Lord, I come to your word with a humble and contrite heart. Lord, plant your seed in my heart. And Lord, bring the growth.

When you have a receptive heart, I'm like, "God just does incredible things." I'm walking to church today, and some lady's walking her dog. She comes up to me. In Boston, no one really comes up to you. I'm like, "Oh, this is strange." She's like, "Do you know where the dog park is?" Oh, do I know. Because I have a daughter that wants a dog, and we won't get her dog, so we spent a lot of time in the dog park. So I told her. I gave her directions, the dog park.

Then, I'm preaching, and I see her come in, like the first service. Then after the service, all of a sudden, she's weeping. She's like, "God brought us together." I'm like, "Yes, he did. You need to repent and trust in Jesus Christ." She's weeping and praying.

When you say, "Lord, this is my posture of heart. Lord, use me. Lord, plant your word into my heart. Have a go deep. Lord, I want to be used by you so that other people meet you, lots of people, 30, 60, a hundredfold, even more."

The word is not only the message about the kingdom, but also God's instrument for liberating humanity, and thus bringing in the kingdom. The people who really hear the word, listen to it continually, allow themselves to be broken apart and put together again by the word, as they're growing, plant shatters and transforms the earth in which it is sown. It no longer occupies a secondary place in their lives but has moved to the very center of existence.

The word of God promises... When we seek him with all of our heart, we will find him. Jeremiah 29:13, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 'I will be found by you,' declares the Lord. 'And I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I've driven you,' declares the Lord, 'and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile."

Dear friend, if today you're not sure that you are a believer, that you are saved from your sins, from the condemnation that your sins deserve, today, in your heart of hearts, cry out to the God of universe, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on my soul. Lord Jesus, give me grace. Forgive me of my sin. Plant the seed of the gospel in my heart," and you shall be saved. Then, follow Jesus Christ. Study the good book, and do what it says.

For us as believers, if there is anything in your life, in your heart that's choking out the productivity of the word, if there are any distractions today, remove them, and ask the Lord to cultivate a good soil in your heart. Amen.

Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for this time in the word. What a rich word this is. I pray that you make us not just hearers of the word but doers of it by your grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, everything that you call us to do, we cannot do perfectly. But still, you say, "Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

So Lord, we aspire to do your will perfectly. We thank you for the grace when we fall and don't do it perfectly. I pray, Lord, continue to tenderize our hearts by the power of the Spirit so that we can be evermore fruitful as individuals, as families, and as a church. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.