[0:00] I'm going to turn to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 4. Mark's Gospel, Chapter 4. Mark, Chapter 4, and we're going to read from verse 26, the parable of the growing seed.
[0:30] And he said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows.
[0:41] He knows not how. The earth produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe at once, he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.
[0:56] Now, this parable is only recorded for us by Mark. And as you can see, it's a short parable, but it's full of teaching on the progression of grace in the life of the Christian soul.
[1:16] Jesus often taught in parables. And it's reckoned by many that the reason that he taught by parables was because that many of the people that he taught were publicly illiterate.
[1:42] They didn't have a knowledge of the Bible. And very often when he did teach parables, it was to large crowds. And very often, if there is a large crowd, the chances are that many of them won't have much teaching concerning the things that the Word of God brings before us.
[2:08] So we see that Jesus, in his graciousness, condescends to come down to the level of the simplest person that might be in the audience that he sought to teach.
[2:24] We're thankful for the way that Jesus did teach us because it's down at this level very often that we glean the most concerning the kingdom of God, concerning what God himself is like, concerning the work that he came into this world to establish, and for us to understand the way of salvation.
[2:57] And he would take an earthly story, everyday things, that the people were familiar with, and use it to bring spiritual truths to bear upon them.
[3:11] Now, in this teaching that we have in this parable, our Lord shows us the underlying connections between the two worlds, the natural and the spiritual, and compares the kingdom of God, which comes into a man's heart, to the corn that has been planted in a field.
[3:38] Now, when a person receives Jesus Christ into his life, he might not be aware of it.
[3:50] Now, for those of you who have had clear experiences where you were able to discern where you passed from death unto life, maybe that seems strange to you.
[4:11] But Calvin reckoned that the majority of people would be unaware of the time when they actually received Christ into their hearts as their saviour.
[4:26] It's so mysterious. And even although we might think that we know the time when it happened, it doesn't necessarily mean to say that that was the time that it happened.
[4:40] What we can say, that was the time that we became aware of it. It might have happened long before that time. And Jesus condescends to come down to the level of helping the simplest person to understand what he's to look out for in order to give him the encouragement that his soul needs that he has passed from death unto life.
[5:17] Now, what's going to be true of every believer, whether he's aware that he's a believer or not, is that he has received the grace of God into his heart.
[5:30] Now, if we receive the grace of God into our heart, we will receive three primary graces. Faith, hope, and love.
[5:42] And if we've received one of these graces, we've received all of these graces. Because God gives it as a package.
[5:54] And that's how I want to consider this parable. Under that thought of how faith works in our soul, how hope works in our soul, and how love works in our soul, and we can apply it to this parable.
[6:16] Because we see that Jesus is describing the growth of grace in the Christian's life to seed that has been sown in a field.
[6:30] And then the blade appears. And after the blade, the ear appears, and finally the full grain in the ear.
[6:44] Well, first of all, we want to consider how faith operates in our soul, where it originates from.
[6:57] The earth will never bring forth corn of itself. unless the seed of corn is planted in a field, then that field will never bring forth a harvest of corn.
[7:15] Left to itself, that field will bring nothing forth but weeds. And that's how the natural heart is.
[7:26] we will never produce spiritual fruit in and of ourselves. Left to ourselves, because we are dead in trespasses and sins, there is nothing that we will produce that will be worthwhile, just as the field will produce nothing worthwhile unless it's cultivated and unless it is sown with seed.
[7:57] The same is true of us, we will never of ourselves produce spiritual life. Now, when we appear at the judgment, God is going to look for spiritual fruit in the lives of all who will appear at the judgment.
[8:15] So, how are we going to produce this spiritual fruit? How will there ever be a spiritual harvest? well, the gospel tells us that it's by faith that we're to be saved.
[8:32] It also tells us that faith comes by hearing the word of God. We will never have faith in God unless we hear God's word proclaimed.
[8:50] Because it's only God's word that reveals to us who God is. Now, you can get plenty of people who claim to believe in God, but when you question them further, you come to realize that they don't believe in the God that you believe in.
[9:09] They believe in a God of tradition. They believe in a God of their imagination. They believe in gods that they've been introduced to by their families who have conjured up various ideas of what God is like.
[9:30] But none of these gods can save us. There is only one God that can save us. And the only way we can come to know this God is through his word.
[9:45] This is where he's revealed himself. God is and this is where our faith needs to be placed, in the God of this world.
[10:01] Now that faith will never arise from within our own hearts. How does that faith grow in our hearts? well it comes by the hearing of the word of God.
[10:15] This is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. So we need to hear the word of God.
[10:26] That's the seed that has been sown into our hearts. Notice that in the parable the Lord teaches us that there is a sower.
[10:43] And Paul again in the same context as he was proclaiming the need for hearing the word of God so that people will come to a saving faith in God goes on to say how will they hear without a preacher?
[11:03] So the Lord has to send out people to proclaim this word because people will be ignorant of this God unless they hear this word.
[11:18] So he sends out his preachers. Preachers are sent by God. Preachers are God's gift to his people.
[11:34] Preachers are those whom God has equipped and given the necessary gifts and ability to rightly divide the word of truth so that it will be proclaimed faithfully to reveal to us the living and the true God.
[11:55] Because if it's unfaithfully proclaimed it will not be the God of the Bible that's being proclaimed. it will be a God of man's imagination and that God can't save anyone.
[12:11] But those whom God has equipped have the ability to bring before us the revelation that God gives to us of himself in his own word.
[12:26] God this is the word that will produce the faith that will enable us to lay hold of this God and this God was willing to become flesh the word was prepared to become flesh in order to reveal to us what God is truly like and of course we see him in the face of Jesus Christ this is where God is revealed now just as the farmer who sows the seed needs to be a skillful sower this is talking about days before machineries were able to plant the seed accurately and evenly in the fields this is talking about the days where those who sowed the fields needed to have the ability to sow these fields evenly
[13:33] I remember as a young boy watching my own father and others sowing oats and there was an act to it there was a certain way of spreading the seed so that the seed would be spread evenly in the field so that when it came up it wouldn't come up thick in some parts and thin in others it needed to be spread evenly aspects of what is like to the neglect of other attributes that belong to
[15:15] God and it's only as we come to know the attributes of God and what characterizes God that we begin to realize what we ourselves have lost as a result of the sin that came into our hearts and devastated us to the point that we were left spiritually bankrupt once we realize that this God is able to communicate some of these attributes to us so that the image will be restored we come to appreciate God's grace because that's how he communicates these attributes to us because his purpose is to make us again what we once were bearing his image that is what he seeks to achieve in the lives of his people and that's achieved through faith that lays hold of what
[16:32] God has revealed we need to hear the word of God we need to be diligent in our study of God's word we need to be under the teaching of God's word and those whom he has equipped to rightly divide the word of truth so that we will have saving faith because no other faith is going to be sufficient there are all kinds of faith but it's saving faith that we need so the seed that is sown by the sower is the word of God which produces this faith in our hearts and it's by that faith that that heart is going to become fruitful he uses the means of grace to communicate that grace to his people and that brings us to the hope that that faith will produce in the lives of his people the farmer sows in hope he's sowing in the hope of a harvest and when he sows he's prepared to wait he's prepared to exercise patience the earth if it could speak is saying give me seed give me time give me sunshine give me rain and
[18:37] I'll produce a harvest but I won't produce it overnight you'll need to wait and wait patiently for it now it's similar in the spiritual life a man may be converted in a moment and he might know the moment but the development of that life that begins will take the rest of his life here in this world before it produces the character that God wants to produce salvation doesn't just mean breaking away with our former sins it means breaking the power of sin in our hearts it means a complete deliverance from the power of sin and that's an ongoing work that's not going to happen overnight now the reason that
[19:54] I mention that is because I remember as a young Christian and I know that it's an experience that young Christians have where they begin to question their salvation salvation when they realize that they still have sinful tendencies and they begin to question their salvation as to whether they've been truly saved saved and they come to experience a time that sin is too powerful for them it still overcomes them which would leave them in despondency if they were ignorant of God's word but the more familiar we become with God's word the more we realize that this isn't a work that was established in one night this is a work that is ongoing we have been saved but we're been saved and we're yet to be saved but the encouragement for the
[21:07] Christian is this work isn't his work this is God's work it is God who begins this work it is God who germinates the seed it is God who produces the faith it is God who gives us the hope and it will be God who will give us that love we need to be patient just as the farmer is patient and just as the seed as it grows up if it could speak would at many times say why am I experiencing such awful weather I'm being lashed here by the rains and the winds and on other occasions I'm being scorched by the sun but you see all these things are necessary in order to produce the harvest that the farmer anticipates once he sees that blade growing he has hope that there will be a harvest it's not yet ready to harvest once we're converted and we begin to experience that things are happening in our lives let us not be discouraged if we haven't yet reached the state of perfection that we're pressing on towards we reach that point we will no longer be here it's a journey but because we begin to realize that there are certain things at work in our lives that weren't at one time in our lives that as we grow in our faith that we begin to see more of the
[23:26] God who created us the God who has redeemed us and the God who is so powerful and the God who's transforming us because we begin to realize that even although we're not what we would like to be that we are not what we once were and our hope isn't what we are today our hope is what we're going to be so that our hope is looking forward to the harvest just as if the blade could speak it would be looking forward to the harvest and just as the farmer is encouraged when he sees the blade that there will be a harvest harvest the more our faith grows the more we appreciate God's word because the more we appreciate God's word the greater our anticipation of what is yet to be grows we lay hold of what is yet before us now our hope will never surpass our faith it's impossible for our hope to surpass our faith because it's our faith that gives us our hope it's our faith that reveals to us what
[24:59] God has promised and it's what God has promised which is our hope we haven't yet received it but our faith enables us to lay hold of that hope now the farmer cannot explain when he places the seed in the soil how that's going to grow I'm not even sure if the scientists can fully explain to us why a seed would germinate and grow and produce anything but the beauty of it is we don't need to fully understand it the farmer doesn't understand the science of how that seed will produce a harvest but he knows that it will he's witnessed it in the past he knows that it works and that's all that's necessary for the farmer to know that it works and that's all that's necessary for us to know we don't need to understand the mysteries because we cannot understand the mysteries we can grapple with them and we might get some insights into them but thankfully we don't need to fully understand them in order for us to know that it does actually work and that our lives are actually being transformed even or though we cannot understand how that's working in our lives how
[26:59] God brings forth that work because only God can bring forth that work against all the discouragements that the farmer might face with bad weather or hot weather because he has seen that this has worked in the past he still has hope that this blade even or thoughts being battered is yet going to produce a harvest that brings us to look at the grace of love our love for God if we are growing in grace is something that will grow daily we will grow more in our appreciation of
[28:07] God we will grow more in our love for God just as the plant goes through various stages yet we don't have perfect love we might think we have perfect love when we're converted but we won't be too long in the journey before we realise that our love is coming far short of what we would like it to be the more we understand what God requires of his people the standard that is required of us the more we realise that we're not living up to the standard that we would like because if we were able to live up to the perfect standard we would give perfect obedience obedience but that doesn't mean to say that we have no love because we are growing more in our obedience to
[29:21] God as we continue to grow in grace as we continue to grow in our love for God out of appreciation for what God has done for us not that we loved God John said but that he first loved us and we reciprocate that love as we begin to appreciate that love as we begin to understand the depths of the sufferings that our saviour was prepared to suffer in order to redeem us we begin to become more obedient and coming to the Lord's table is one step in that direction because this is what he requires of us he doesn't require us to be perfect he requires of us to be obedient and that will be the evidence of our love for him because if we love him we will endeavor to keep his commandments whether they are great commandments or those that we would consider not to be so important and it's only as we become more obedient to him that we will grow more in our love for him and if we fail to begin to take these steps we are hindering the work of
[30:59] God's spirit in our lives from bringing forth what that grace is able to produce in our lives so that we are not going to bear the same fruit as we could bear if we submitted ourselves more fully to the teaching of God's word you see even our love will not surpass our faith because it's our faith that edifies our love it teaches us what God is and what God requires of us and it's only as we are obedient to his revealed will which is what his word reveals to us that we will show forth our love for him so we're not born perfect but that doesn't mean to say that we're not born the blade as soon as it appears isn't what the farmer is waiting for he's waiting for the harvest but as soon as the blade appears he has hope that he will have a harvest harvest and then it goes on to have the grain in the ear or first the blade then the ear and then the full grain in the ear we ought to see signs of development as we progress in our
[32:42] Christian lives and we might and more than likely are all at different stages in our spiritual lines but just because we haven't reached the mature stage doesn't mean to say that we are not Christians if we have an interest in the things of God if we are drawn to Christ and are longing to be obedient to him it's not something that you produced in your heart that has brought about these desires it's what God has produced in your heart and just because you haven't got got the full grain in the ear doesn't mean to say that you're not a corn or a
[33:42] Christian in the spiritual significance of the parable some of us will be at various stages for those of you who are familiar with growing oats you will know that once the blade appears you see that beautiful green carpet of green covering the field if you go out and try and pull that blade out of the ground you'll find that it's virtually impossible to pull it out of the ground it's got a firm grip on the soil and that's very often how the young Christian is we're still very stubborn and we've still got a great hold over the things of this world now we're in this world and it's out of this world that
[34:51] God is going to produce his harvest this is the field that he's sown but if you go when the harvest or when the oats are ready to be harvested you can almost just pull it gently and it lets go the oats have ceased to hold on to the ground it's brought all the goodness out of it and it's now in the corn that's ready to be harvested and here's the picture of the mature Christian it's ready to yield to the slightest touch whereas the young Christian is still maybe rebellious and reluctant to give the obedience that
[35:56] God requires of him this is the fruit that God intends to produce in our lives that we will keep his commandments perfectly to love the Lord our God with all of our minds with all of our souls with all of our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves we haven't yet reached that point we're not yet ready to be harvested if we had we wouldn't be here this evening we are still in the progress of reaching that destination because this is the crop that
[36:57] God will harvest this is the work that he will produce in the lives of his people because the greatest of these is love this is the fruit that we need to bear and this is the fruit that we will yet one day bear this is our hope this is what we're pressing on for this is what our faith has given us to expect and whatever stage we're at it's not what we are that's so important it's what we're going to be and we will be that because this isn't dependent upon us just as the growth of the natural seed in the soil is not dependent on the farmer the farmer cannot produce growth in it he can sow it somebody else can water it but even naturally only
[38:14] God can give the increase and how much so is that true spiritually and this is where our confidence lies it's not because of anything that I am it's not out of a result of any natural ability that God has bestowed upon me that I have my confidence our confidence is in God's ability because it is God who has begun this good work it is God who has promised that he will bring on this work and it is God that will see that through to the end and complete that work and if that's the case then we should give him the glory and we should learn to show our appreciation we should be yearning to produce that fruit of love for
[39:22] God by giving obedience because that's the evidence of our love for God because if we love him we will keep his commandments and regardless of how we might feel with the nose else regardless of the sinfulness that we might be aware of love let that not discourage you from thinking that you cannot be a Christian you might still be in the early stages of your development if this is where your desire is if you are drawn to give obedience to God then you must submit to him because until we do we will not progress and he wants us to progress he wants us to grow and although he'll be satisfied with those that will bear thirtyfold what he has sown in our lives he will be more than satisfied with those that bear a hundredfold let us never be content with giving a little let us never be content with where we have arrived if we are aware of any progress because there is a great distance that lies before us and we are to press on towards that mark so that we will receive the prize of the high calling of
[41:03] God in Christ Jesus because this is our hope even although we cannot understand it because we don't know yet what we're going to be but we do know this that when he appears we're going to be like him may God grant that he would bless to us these thoughts let and let you you