The Parable of the Ground by John.

The Parable of the Ground
Mark 4: 1-20; Read 1-12

1. As we study Mark, we need to remember there a young man (Mark 14:1,2) was almost arrested along with Jesus. They grabbed his "linen garment," but he fled away naked.
(1) Mark is the only writer who mentions this.
(2) That makes it fairly certain it was Mark himself.
(3) The significance of it is that he was still a young man when he wrote this book since it was obviously the first Gospel account to be written.
2. It's written from an active young-man point of view. He majors on actions rather than conversations and teachings.
(1) These things are there, but usually as a part of the action.
(2) Matthew 13:3ff and Luke 8:5ff give the same parable in greater detail.
3. The latter part of this reading is a quote from Isaiah 6:9,10. You probably have a footnote in your Bible that tells you that.
4. The Septuagint is a Greek version of the O.T. possibly made for Ptolemy II of Egypt.
(1) This passage in it is slightly different.
(2) The Septuagint translation says, "You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; You will be ever seeing, but never perceiving. This people's heart has become calloused; They hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes."
(3) That changes the whole picture from the one given in the NIV New Testament.
(4) We will get to that in a little bit.
5. Most Bibles title this parable "The Parable of the Sower."
(1) A good friend of many years ago suggested to me that the main emphasis of this parable is not on the sower, but on the ground.
(2) I think he was right, the sower is vitally important, but the ground is what it is about.
6. To the Israelites of that day, mostly farmers, herdsmen, or merchants who dealt with them, they understood the basic story, but they missed the spiritual message, or maybe some did guess at it.
7. I do not believe Jesus intended to mislead anyone, but to understand His parables, they had to be spiritually ready.

I. The Sower Sowed by Hand, and He Covered the Ground with Seed!

1. Saying "He covered the ground with seed" might seem like overkill, but it is important to see it.
2. The sower represents God, and God makes sure that every person has an opportunity to know Him.
3. That is the reason every human being is without excuse when he disobeys and otherwise refuses to acknowledge God and worship Him.
4. I've sowed seed by hand, and it is extremely easy to miss some good ground in the process.
5. You don't avoid areas that won't grow anything.
(1) If you were seeding your lawn by hand, wouldn't you make sure your grass grew all the way up to the sidewalks?
(2) If it didn't, what would you do with that expensive lawn edger?
(3) Wouldn't it be disagreeable to see those bare spots next to the walks, ladies?
(4) The remedy is to overlap the walks with the seeds. (That might seem like a waste, but really it is being sure that the usable ground is covered!
(1) The paths in Hebrew fields were made by people walking across the fields. Plowing was not done until the sowing was finished.
(2) Plowing covered the seed with soil, and that wiped out the paths, but the soil was still packed and not good for growing anything.
6. Don't you think God knew all the time that many, many human beings would reject every offer of love He made to them?
7. Don't you think God was aware that even the gift of His Only Born Son Jesus would not sway some people?
8. But God is loving, and He is fair! He gives every disbeliever the same opportunity to spend eternity with Him that He gives us.
9. He gives each one of us all we need to decide to give ourselves to Jesus!
10. That's the reason the sower sowed seed on both good and bad ground!

II. Once the Seed Is Sown, the Ground Becomes Responsible for Growth.

1. The seed is the Word of God, and it does not grow in a hardened heart!
2, Seed sown on the pathway can represent hard hearts, and I believe it does represent hard hearts. That's the first kind of ground mentioned in this parable!
(1) Pathways are not generally planted, are they?
(2) On hard ground, birds pluck up the seed greedily! It's an easy meal for them. Haven't all of us seen birds along the roadways at harvest time getting that easy meal?
(3) The pathway, hard as it is, is not changed by the seed!
(4) But they can be! One of the things Dennis Quigley told us about Moldova is that they have no lawns. Their lawns have become gardens, and they live out of their gardens.
(4) Hard hearts are not changed if they cannot, or do not, let the Word of God get inside of them!
(5) When the Word of God comes in, bad ground changes into good ground!
(6) That's the reason Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has passed over from death to life." (John 5:24)
3. Rocky ground does not produce much growth either, does it?
(1) Particularly in parts of Tennessee and in most of the New England states, farmers cannot get a good crop until they rout out the rocks!
(2) That's why you see so many rock fences and old rock houses and barns in those areas.
(3) Crops do not grow well in that rocky soil, and it is still almost impossible to harvest anything until those rocks are gone!
(4) Rocks tend to hold water, and seed spring up quickly but with little root. When the sun comes out, the seedlings wither and die as quickly as they shot up.
4. There are rocky ground people that we love, and we want them to know Jesus, right?
(1) Witnessing to them may seem like a total waste, like tossing your pearls before swine, but we never know how soft their hearts will become as God's Word begins to sink into their souls!
(2) We need to be careful because hard rock in our eyes sometimes is really good ground.
a. We think we know people, but we don't really even know ourselves as well as we should.
b. I waded in a stream one day down in Mississippi. I saw some mud colored rocks about the size of bars of soap on the bottom. I picked a couple up, and smacked them together in my hands. They crumbled to pieces. The bits that fell into the clear water stained it brown! I thought they were rocks, and they may have been on the way to becoming rocks, but they were just hard balls of clay!
c. Don't take people for granted! Give them the Word! Only God knows what kind of ground they are, or what kind of ground they will become!
5. The third kind of ground is the kind covered with weeds, thorns, briers, and shrubs.
(1) I'm sure all farmers in all ages clear the ground before they plant it, but we know weeds and briers grow faster than wheat and rye, right?
(2) Seed sown into such ground will be choked out before it can grow.
(3) The plants that come up have to fight for water and minerals, and because of the shade the sun usually can't hit them at all.
6. This kind of ground is probably the best picture of modern-day lost people.
(1) We have the ACLU supposedly non-partisan, but obviously anti-Christian fighting against the Gospel message.
(2) They've helped outlaw Christianity in our schools.
(3) As much as I love sports, sports occupy a major portion of our children's and young people's lives. In fact, so much so, that now it is hard to get Christians to do anything that interferes with sports!
(4) When I was growing up, preachers said the same thing about moving picture shows. Yep! That's what they were usually called.
(5) Now, it's TV programs and concerts that seem to call for so much of our time.
(6) These things are not necessarily bad except for the large amount of time we give to them, and the small amount of time we give the Lord!
7. People, we are responsible people, aren't we? Then why do we let everything around us have more time than we give to the Lord?

III. The Fourth Kind of Soil Is Good Soil.

1. Only good soil gives a good harvest!
2. Something may come from the rocky ground, and something may come from the thorny ground, but the only worthwhile harvest comes from good ground.
3. Rocks can be removed. Thorns can be cut and burned, and that poor ground can become good arable soil, but it will not bring anything good until it is good ground!
4. When God's good seed falls on soil prepared for planting, healthy plants spring up and grow into maturity.
5. These mature plants bring forth much fruit. Jesus said, "multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times."
6. Let's take the best for example. If you plant 100 bushels of corn, you can expect 10,000 bushels in harvest!
6. In John 15:5, Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
7. We can be sure, we don't work for salvation, but when we have salvation, we produce! It is our new nature!

conclusion:

1. God's Word is the seed. Our human hearts are the ground.
2. Without Jesus there will be no harvest!
3. Hardness, rocks, snags, and thorns keep us from coming to Jesus for salvation.
4. Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."
5. If you don't have faith, it sounds like all is lost, but there is time right now for us to plow up the hard ground of our hearts, to root out the rocks that cause us to refuse Jesus, to cut and burn the thorns in our lives that choke out spiritual life, so that we can trust in Jesus and be saved eternally!
6. Are you ready to do what it takes to grow up in the Lord and to become a worthwhile child of God?
7. We are going to pray. As we pray, you pray for yourself. Tell God what you see your problem to be. Ask Him to remove it! Then ask Jesus into your heart and life.
8. He will save you forever! Let's pray!

Emmanuel Community Church 11/19/2006