The Sower, The Seed, and The Soil: Mark 4:1-9, 13-20

Download audio by right-clicking here.

A week ago, Bill and I were traveling back from a wonderful weekend conference in Philadelphia, and planned our return so that we might visit Capitol Hill Baptist Church, where Mark Dever is the pastor. After worship, we walked down Capitol Hill to the National Gallery of Art, where we had lunch in the subterranean Cascade Café. Following lunch, I suggested to Bill that we walk around the Gallery and see some of the timeless pieces of art on display there. As we entered one room of the gallery, I couldn’t help chuckling, for there, a delightfully pleasant and diminutive little lady was teaching a group of children about the paintings on display. This particular one was Mary Cassat’s piece from the late nineteenth century entitled, “The Boating Party.” The painting depicts a man, woman and small child in a boat. The lady said to the children, “What do you see in this painting?” And they were calling out, “A man rowing a boat!” “A baby on her mother’s lap!” She said, “How would you feel if you were in this boat?” And the children said, “Sleepy!” and “Calm!” and “Scared!” She said to them, “What sounds would you hear if you were in this boat?” And they said, “Wind blowing!” and “Waves crashing” and “The baby crying!” Now, the baby is not crying in the picture, but that is what one of the kids said. And they made the noises that they thought they might hear. On and on this went, and I was chuckling. Now what is so funny about this? I was laughing because it seemed like many Sunday School classes and Bible studies I have attended over the years.

In these classes, a passage or portion of a passage is read, and then the leader says to the class, “Now tell me, John, what does the passage mean to you?” And John says something in response. “OK, that is interesting. Now Mary, what does the passage mean to you?” And she says something altogether different. “Wow, thanks Mary, that was really interesting. Now who else wants to say what it means to them?” And on and on it goes. And no matter how ridiculous a person’s answer to the questions may be, the leader never says, “Well, I think you misunderstood that passage,” but always, “OK, that’s interesting.” And everyone leaves thinking that the Bible can mean whatever you want it to mean.

In the first part of the passage we read today, Jesus tells a story about a sower who went out to sow seed. But Jesus does not say, “Now class, tell me what this story means to you.” Instead, in the latter part of the passage, Jesus tells us what it means to Him, and whatever it means to Him is what it really means. Now Jesus doesn’t always explain the parables – at least we don’t have record of any other explanations except this one. And not everyone hears the explanation, here only the disciples do. But this explanation is sufficient to tell us that the message of the Bible is not up to us to determine for ourselves, but rather it is dependent on what God intends for His word to mean. We cannot apply the word to our own lives until we understand the Word as God has spoken it.

The first word of the parable we have read today is Listen. The last word of the parable is hear. The parable itself seems on the surface to be nothing more than a lesson in agriculture – How to Sow Seed for a Harvest. Or perhaps a negative lesson – Why The Harvest Fails. But in the explanation, He tells us that the meaning is something far deeper and far more significant. It has to do with hearing and listening, and responding to the Word of God. While all these are interrelated, they are distinct. One can hear without listening, and one can listen without responding. And there are differing levels of commitment in our responses to the Word. So, let us Listen, and let us hear, and let us respond to the Word of God set forth in this parable and its explanation, that the seed of God’s word might produce a bountiful harvest in our lives.

Now it is vitally important for us to see that the seed is the Word of God. Jesus tells us that plainly in v14. Now I would like for you to all know what this Word is, and hopefully you already do. I happened to drop in at a church several months ago and noticed on their publications the phrase, “Seeking God’s Truth.” Here at Immanuel, we are not seeking His truth. We have found it, and we are proclaiming it. When Jesus prayed in John 17:17, He prayed that the Father might sanctify His people according to the Truth, and then He said, “Thy Word is Truth.” The Word of God is Truth. But what is the Word of God? Where can we find it? In Isaiah 55, God says that His Word goes forth from His mouth. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy in His temptations, saying, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” So the Word of God is that which comes from His mouth. In 2 Timothy 3:16, the Apostle Paul says, “All Scripture is inspired by God.” The Greek word he uses there is theopneustas, which the NIV translates literally, saying, “God-breathed.” The breath of God that proceeds from His mouth carrying His very Word is found in the Scriptures! And not just in some Scripture, as if to say that the Bible contains the Word of God, for Paul says all Scripture, a Greek word being used pasagrafe, which is to say “every part of the whole.” No, the Bible does not merely contain the Word of God, it IS the Word of God. And when you are involved in the task of proclaiming it, publishing it, or otherwise distributing that Word of God, then you are sowing seed into the soil of those who hear you.

Jesus was doing this very thing in the passage. Earlier, in Mark 3:9, Jesus was faced with another crowd, and had a boat prepared as a means of escaping them. Here, the boat becomes a means of engaging them. This boat became a floating pulpit for Him. We can’t know precisely the location where this event took place, but there is a place just south of Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee where the land gently slopes down to a bay forming a natural amphitheater. This has come to be known as the “Bay of Parables,” and assumed to be the location, for scientists conducted studies and determined that a human voice could effortlessly reach thousands of hearers on the shore. But Jesus knew they would not all listen, they would not all hear, and they would not all respond in the same way.

In the four parts of this parable, Jesus explains that the four soils represent four different groups of people, all of whom are said to “hear the word.” They have that much in common. However, each one hears and responds to the word differently.

We begin by looking at …

I. The Stolen Seed (vv4, 15)

As the sower goes out to sow, so wide and so broadly is he casting his seed that some of it falls beside the road. Here on this hardened path, there is no soil present so the seed cannot take root. It lays there to become food for the birds which come and take it away. If you want to see this in action, go out to the street where you live and dump a pile of seeds on the road. Soon, birds will swarm in and feast on that seed and it will be gone before you know it.

Jesus says some people hear the word in this way. So hardened is their heart that the seed of His word cannot take root—indeed there is nothing there for the Word to root in. And no sooner is it heard but that Satan comes and immediately takes away the word. They hear the word, but their hearts are so hard that it can never sink in, and they soon forget whatever it was that they heard.

Satan knows the power of God’s Word. He knows that it is powerful to produce faith, as Paul says in Romans 10:17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. He knows that the Word is powerful to save, as Romans 1:16 says, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation.” So, if Satan can keep the individual satisfied in their hard-heartedness, satisfied that they have done their duty to be at church or to have “heard” the word in some way, and he can steal that word away immediately lest it slip through some crack in the concrete of their heart and mind, then he is able to keep them in his bondage.

So this scene is a warning to those hard-hearted hearers of the Word. Break up that pavement that guards your heart, lest the Word of God which you hear become only a feast for Satan who continues to deceive you and keep you separated from God. The more you hear the word, and do not allow it to take root in your life, the harder the path to your heart will become, and in the end, you will perish eternally, your life having become nothing more than a serving table for Satan. What a terrible epitaph that would be. But such is the tragedy of the stolen seed from the hard-hearted hearer.

II. The Scorched Seed (vv4-6, 16-17)

As the sower sows the seed, Jesus says some of it fell on rocky ground. On this rocky ground, there is soil, but not to a sufficient depth to stabilize the sprout once it begins to grow. And notice, that the growth is immediate. Because the soil is shallow, the seed is able to quickly get the water and sunlight it needs to sprout. But because the roots are unable to go deep into the soil, it becomes scorched and withered by the heat of the sun.

In His explanation of this parable, Jesus points out that the individuals represented by the rocky soil have heard the word, and immediately, they received it with joy. What a delight it is for us to see someone respond so enthusiastically to the Word of God! But how often have you been disappointed to see such a person begin to fall away from following Christ in a relatively short amount of time? Jesus uses the same word immediately to describe their falling away as He uses to describe their reception of the Word. I have seen it very often. Why does this happen? Why does a person who seems to delight themselves in God so soon fall away? Sometimes they offer us reasons – someone treated them badly, their circumstances in life are so difficult that they can’t make any real commitments, etc. Sometimes we never hear from them, but offer excuses up for them, and often we look at externals as if the person were a victim of someone else’s actions. But Jesus says that the problem is not outside of the individual, it is inside.

He says that they have no firm root in themselves. Because the soil of their hearts is so shallow, it cannot sustain true spiritual growth. When affliction and persecution arises, and Jesus promises us that both will arise, the faith of this individual withers and fades away. Notice that He does not just indicate that the person experiences hardships. Every human being will experience hardships. We are all prone to sickness and suffering. Jesus is speaking here of a particular variety of affliction and persecution. He says that they are afflicted and persecuted because of the Word. The Word makes demands on us. And those demands are not always comfortable to bear. There may be a life-change that God’s Word calls us to make. There may be a difficult and unpopular stance we are called to take, and persecution will arise because we have stood unwavering on the Word. But when a person is unwilling to endure those afflictions and persecutions that come our way because of God’s Word, Jesus applies a frightening label to this individual – He says they are temporary.

This raises the question of what we believe concerning the permanence of salvation, the doctrine of eternal security, or as it is commonly called, the notion of “Once Saved, Always Saved.” Here I believe that our little cherished Baptist phrase has done a great disservice to many individuals, many churches, and the witness of Christ in the community. Let me say without hesitation or apology that I believe the Bible teaches that once a person is genuinely saved, He or she is saved forever. Their salvation is permanent; they are eternally secure. Scriptures I would point to which teach this are: Let’s use our Bibles here. Turn to…

John 10:27-29

Romans 8:1, 29-39

But, I am also not reluctant or ashamed to say that the Bible plainly teaches that not every who claims to be saved genuinely is saved. Again, turning in our Bibles, look at …

Matthew 7:21-23

1 Jn 2:19

2 Cor 13:5

So, while I would say that on the surface, I agree with, “Once saved, always saved,” I would deny that all who call themselves saved have ever been saved. The grand mark of saving faith is perseverance in that faith, not momentary episodes of temporary enthusiasm. In other words, if it is temporary, then it is not authentic, for authentic saving faith is permanent.

How do you respond to the Word? If you hear it and receive it immediately with joy, it is no sure sign that you are genuinely converted. The evidence of your salvation will be demonstrated in how you endure the afflictions and persecutions that come your way in this life because of the Word. But if those things scorch the seed of God’s Word in the shallow soil of your heart, and you fall away, then you demonstrate that you were never converted in the first place. So, we must cultivate the soil of our hearts as we do our gardens. No one plants a garden without first going to great effort to rid the soil of rocks that will prevent the seed from rooting deeply into the ground. It is grueling effort of plowing and shoveling and repeating over and over again until there is sufficient depth of soil to receive the seed and produce the harvest. So we must be with our hearts. We must strive to keep ourselves sensitive to the Word of God, and strong in the midst of tribulation, relying on God’s grace and power to work through us for endurance, lest we bear that shameful label of temporary.

III. The Strangled Seed (vv7, 18-19)

As the sower was sowing his seed, some of it fell among thorns. Though the seed may sprout and grow, it will not produce fruit. There will be no external demonstration of the vitality of the plant. Because the weeds and thorns are able to grow faster and higher than the cultivated crops they soon overshadowed and choked out the seed. Anyone who has ever dealt with weeds in their gardens or flower beds knows that we must always be on guard against weeds. I wish we could find a market for kudzu. I have driven past places where the kudzu has not only taken over the fields, but the barns, the cars, and everything else in its path. You aren’t going to get anything to grow there, because the kudzu will choke it out.

Jesus explains that this kind of thorny ground represents those who hear the word, but there is no indication of any response on their part. Perhaps they received the word, perhaps they didn’t. It’s so hard to tell, because there isn’t any fruit being produced in the person’s life. They are virtually indistinguishable from the unsaved person’s life. They might call themselves a Christian, and I suppose only God knows if they really are. But there is no manifestation of God working in and through them. Why does this happen? Because the thorns strangle the seed of God’s word and prevent it from producing fruit in that person’s life.

What are the thorns? Jesus identifies a triumvirate of thorny seed stranglers in verse 19: the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and desires for other things. These things demand our earnest attention here, for our Lord says that these three things are able to strangle out the growth of the Word of God in our lives and prevent us from bearing fruit for Him. There may be green leaves that indicate some presence of life in the seedling, but there will be no fruit. That fruit, Paul says in Galatians 5:22-23, that indicates the fullness of the Spirit in us is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Where the Spirit of God is bringing growth to the Word of God in our lives, this will be the fruit we bear. But God has sovereignly determined that where we allow ourselves to be consumed by these thorny seed-stranglers, He will not compete. He doesn’t have to. So infinitely greater is He than anything we encounter in this life, He will allow us to learn our lesson the hard way.

The worries of this world will do it. One cannot live in this life without facing stressors, but danger arises when those stressors begin to distract us from the one thing that is important – our walk with God. When that happens, the worries of this world have strangled the seed of God’s word.

And the deceitfulness of riches will do it just as quickly. Here me carefully here. The Bible does not say that money is the root of all evil. There are many great and wonderful things that can be done with money, and much of the work of God’s Kingdom involves our careful management of money. But the Bible does say in 1 Timothy 6:10 that “the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” It is so deceitful. We are so easily led astray by it. So we must always be on guard against the persistent temptation to elevate the accumulation of riches over the demonstration of righteousness. Many will awake to find that their pursuit of the American dream has actually been a nightmare of the most severe consequences.

Desires for other things can also strangle the fruit-bearing growth of the Word of God in our lives. You should know that God has so wired us that we will only find true satisfaction of our desires in Him alone. Augustine said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until we rest in Thee.” Everything in this world which we desire for ourselves has a built-in disappointment factor. Have you noticed that? Whether it is a possession, a relationship, an activity, or anything else, have you ever set your sights on something and said, “Ah, if only I could have that,” “If only I could be with that person,” “If only I could do this thing or that, then I would have it made!” And God forbid that we should lay ahold of that thing, that it should be actualized in our experience, what will we always find? It does not satisfy. It never can. God has created you so that the only thing that will satisfy the deepest longings of your heart is Him.

C. S. Lewis said in The Weight of Glory, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” But we aren’t pleased. There is always that sneaking suspicion that we need just a little more. The world parades these objects like bait before our eyes, promising us fulfillment and satisfaction if only we will take a bite. But be warned – there is a hook in that bait! It will not deliver—it cannot. Over every fountain that promises satisfaction in this life, we should mark the words of Jesus which He spoke to the woman at the well in John 4:13-14: “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Do you want contentment and satisfaction in this life? You can have it, but it is not found in anything this life affords. It is found only in God, whom you can only know through Jesus Christ. And following hard after other desires, being consumed by the worries of this world, and being deceived by riches will only thwart that satisfaction as it strangles the seed of God’s word in your life and prevents you from bearing fruit for Him. Your life will be qualitatively no different from the average pagan around you. So we must search the soil of our hearts and look for the presence of these thorny weeds, and where we find them we must pull them up from the roots. We must fight against them with all the effort the grace of God will supply. We must pray, we must make it a matter of utter desperation and pray as if our life depends on it, that God would guard us from these seed-strangling snares and allow His word to abide in us richly to bear that fruit that marks us as His disciples.

IV. The Successful Seed (v8, 20)

As the sower sows his seed, some of it falls on good soil, and that seed which falls on good soil will produce a harvest, thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold. No farmer in that day would have experienced results of this measure with the best seed in the best of soils. He would have counted himself immeasurably blessed to see a ten-fold increase. But this seed is far superior to any garden variety seed. This seed is the matchless Word of God. And Jesus says that where it comes to rest in good soil, that seed will be accepted and there will be a bountiful crop of spiritual fruit in our lives.

So, how do you hear the Word of God? You have heard it today. What response will there be in your life to it? Will it lie fallow on the hard ground of your hard-heart, and there be stolen away by Satan as a bird plucks seed from the road? Will you respond immediately with joyful enthusiasm, only to fall away just as quickly because your faith in that Word is temporary? Will you hear it and allow it to take root, only to have its fruit strangled out of your life by worry, by the love of money, and by the desire for the bait that this world dangles before your eyes? And in so doing, will you allow your life to appear as if Christ makes no difference whatsoever? Or will you allow it to sink its roots deeply into your heart, and with persevering faith, see the Holy Spirit producing fruit of righteousness in you as you live for Christ and serve Him?

Perhaps today, the seed of this word falls on the soil of your heart, and it is calling you to salvation in Christ. Every human being stands separated because of our sin from the God who made us and loves us. But God has come to rescue us in the person of Jesus Christ, and promises that whoever will turn from sin and trust that Christ has died in your place and ever lives to save you will receive forgiveness and eternal life. Now what will become of that seed in your life?

Maybe you are a sower of this seed. You are sharing Christ and proclaiming God’s word regularly, but you aren’t seeing any harvest. Maybe you aren’t, but you know you should be. Well, be encouraged, brothers and sisters. It may be that only ¼ of the seed we sow will produce fruit. But God will judge the hearer for his response. Your task is to sow, and if you keep doing it, there will be a harvest.

Or it could be that today, this seed is cracking open in your heart to convict you of a persistent habit of soil inspection in others without examining your own. You know, this time we’ve spent today isn’t really about you and me. It is about you and God. And it isn’t about one who isn’t here. Don’t worry what someone who doesn’t hear this word would do with it. You have heard it. The seed has been sown into your life. What kind of soil will it find there?