Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

How to Listen to the Lord

Mark 4:21-34

 

Without rehashing a lot of the details, we need to remember, as we come to chapter 4, verses 33-34 that the Lord has just given the parable of the soils and the primary focus of the story is to distinguish between good soil and bad soil.  There is the kind of soil that produces nothing, which is illustrated by the  hard soil, the rocky soil, and the thorny or weedy soil which produces nothing. 

 

Then He talks about three kinds of good soil that produce 30 fold, 60 fold and a hundred fold in terms of fruitfulness. And all of that is given to illustrate the kind of hearers and the reception the followers of Christ are going to encounter as they go out to preach the gospel. 

 

Now one thing I want to point out to you is that the difference between the soils that produce nothing and the soils that are productive roots back to hearing the truth. That is what sets believers apart from non-believers. Non-believers cannot understand the things of God because they do not hear the gospel with believing ears, while those who are Christ’s do.

 

So we could sum it up by saying this, the greatest gift God could ever give us is revelation.  Nothing is more important than hearing the truth. You have to have the truth in order to be saved and sanctified and to have the hope of glory and to be instructed in righteousness. So the greatest thing we have is the Word of God. This is the divine revelation.

The companion truth to that is that true Christians are the ones who listen to the Word of God. They hear it. They believe it. They love it. They obey it. That’s what distinguishes a Christian.

 

It’s not some 2 minute encounter with a preacher in an invitation.  It’s not walking the aisle of some church.  It’s not praying some prayer or repeating some words.  What distinguishes a true believer from a false believer or a non-believer is responsiveness to God’s truth. It finds a place in their hearts. They get it. They understand it.

 

What did Jesus say in John 10?  He said, “My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow me.”  Does that sound descriptive of most of the people who have their name on a church roll?  Ask them if they are saved, and they will tell you about joinging the church or being baptized, but Jesus talks about hearing and knowing and following and responding to His voice.   

 

Now, whether we realize it or not, that is the theme of the parable of the soils. There are three kinds of soil that don’t hear in the believing sense.  There may be an emotional response of an initial interest, eventually the truth comes out. 

 

Then there is the good soil and the distinguishing mark of those good kinds of soil is that they hear the Word and become fruitful. 

 

Notice verse 9

 

Verse 23

 

That’s a distinguishing element.  Not everybody has ears to hear.  Not everybody understands divine truth.  Not everybody gets it or believes it or embraces it or loves it or obeys it.  But true believers do.

 

And in essence, what happened at our salvation was the Lord opened our spiritual ear and all of a sudden the Word of God took on a new meaning and we began to hunger for it and long for it like a baby desires milk.  Suddenly, you get it!  So, if you’re among those who can hear, the Lord says, “Then listen.”

 

Then comes this very important statement in

 

verse 24

 

In other words, if you are among the ones who have ears to hear, then be careful how you hear.” That is a very important statement and it basically boils down to something like this: 

 

“Be understanding what you hear.”  In other words, listen carefully to the Word of God. Get it. The literal Greek says, “Be seeing what you are hearing.”

 

Perceive the Word of God thoughtfully and carefully.

In Luke 8:18, the parallel passage to this, says “Take care how you listen.” So that’s what our Lord is saying. You need to be a good spiritual listener.

 

And that really is the heart and soul of this passage.  And around that theme, He has some things to say and He wants us to understand them about how to listen. 

If you have been privileged to receive the revelation of God, then make sure you understand what is being said to you.  So the question this passage deals with is, “How can we be good listeners? How should we listen to the Word of God, and in particularly this particular instruction regarding evangelism? 

 

Then He gives four characteristics of a good spiritual listener in the next few verses.  And they don’t require much interpretation, so we’ll just touch on them quickly. 

 

First of all, we listen

 

 

verses 21 and 22

 

The Lord is saying is if you’ve been given the light, you’re supposed to let it shine.  Or if we backed up to the earlier parable, He would say, “If you’ve been given the seed, you’re supposed to sow it.”

 

That’s our responsibility.  If you have light it is in order to give light. You don’t put it under a basket or a bed.  That would be ridiculous. 

 

The implication is that if you’ve been given the light, you need to let the light shine.  The plan is for the light to shine just as the seed is sown.  .

 

So we listen to the Word of God as they did with a built-in inherent responsibility to take the message to the world. That means we must listen obediently. It is assumed that if you have the seed you throw it, if you have the light, you shine it.

So we listen obediently.

 

Secondly, we listen

 

 

verses 24b-25

 

That is the Lord’s way of saying, “God will give you back a return on what is sown.”  That’s the point. Galatians 6:7 says, “Whatever a man sows, he reaps.” “Sow sparingly reap sparingly, so bountifully reap bountifully.” That’s the basic principle.

 

It doesn’t mean that all the seed you sow will bring about salvation.  But what it does mean is that as you’re faithful to sow the seed, God will be faithful to give you in return, and not just equally. 

 

Verse 24b-25

 

If you’re one of those who has, that is you have eternal life, you have the truth, you have the seed, you will receive not only in measure what you’ve done, but far more. In Luke 6:38, Jesus said, “Give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together and running over.” And it will come from men in this life and from God in spiritual blessing, and in the future, eternal blessing.

 

So, I say we listen obediently and appreciatively because of the promise of reward the Lord has given to us as faithful listeners who let what we hear be known to others.

 

 

Whoever has, verse 25, to him more shall be given. It’s repeated twice, once at the end of 24, and once at the beginning of 25. Matthew 13 gives a parallel account and in verse 12 it says, “And he will have an abundance.”

 

Of what? Divine blessing. As you give out the truth, you will be given more understanding, more truth, more grace, more power, more joy, more satisfaction, more fulfillment, more abundant life and more eternal reward. You can’t out give God. It’s an unqualified, unlimited promise.

 

And then the contrast is found at the end of

 

verse 25

 

Or as Luke says it, “Whoever doesn’t have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him.”

 

People who think they have it but don’t have it will find out that what they think they have, they will lose. For the true followers of Christ, however, on the other hand, there will be blessing and blessing and blessing and more blessing and more blessing poured out to them, measured out by how much they invest in the work of evangelism and even much, much more.

 

So we throw the seed and shine the light obediently because it’s our responsibility to do it and we do it appreciatively because of the individual opportunity and promised reward. 

 

 

 

 

Third, we listen

 

 

verse 26

 

Now remember, the primary context of these verse is doing evangelism, sowing the seed and spreading the light and in the doing of that work, we have to understand our limitations.

 

And in this very simple story, Jesus says, “The farmer plants and then he goes to bed and given the conditions of the soil and the preparation of water, etc., etc., he really can’t do anything but wait till harvest.”

 

 He plays no role in the growth of the crop.  That’s the point. Our role in the salvation of souls is like a farmer who plants the seed and then goes home and goes to bed. You don’t need to live your life in a panic. You don’t need to stay awake 24 hours a day. Plant the seed, shine the light and go to bed. You’re not responsible for what happens. That’s the wonder of it all.

 

Therefore, I do what I do dependent on God.  All we can do is tell the truth. And in the timing and will of God, the soil when prepared by God will receive it and once God makes it grow, and I love this part of the little parable, when it begins to grow, it does not stop until it is harvested.  First comes the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head and then the harvest.  In other words, what God begins He completes.  What does Philippians 1:6, “He that began a good work in you will complete it.”

 

All we can do is give the truth. We can’t change hearts and we can’t produce life from dead people. That’s something the Lord alone does. And once He begins to draw him, then it’s the blade, then it’s the ear, then it’s the full grain.

 

The success then of the gospel does not depend on our power to change the heart, or our power to make the gospel more acceptable, or our power to manipulate the will or manipulate emotions. The work of salvation is divinely automatic. It just happens and we don’t even understand how.  So we listen dependently.

 

Then finally, we listen

 

 

Verse 30

 

And He gives this simple illustration of the mustard seed, which though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants.  In fact, it forms  branches large enough for the birds of the air to nest in its branches. 

 

And as we saw last week, that is the Lord’s way of telling them about what was going to happen with the very humble beginnings of the church and just a few disciples. 

 

So we listen to the Word of God obediently, appreciatively, dependently and confidently.

 

 

As God’s followers, we are to be listeners. We hear with understanding. We are the privileged.

 

Then He ends it in verses 33 and 34 with a reminder.

 

Verses 33-34

 

What’s the greatest privilege of being a Christian? I think it is the privilege of knowing the truth.  In fact, the distinguishing mark of a child of God is they know and obey the truth of God’s Word. 

 

If we will obey it, we must know it and if we will know it, we must listen.  We listen obediently, anxious and ready to do what He instructs us to do.   We listen appreciatively, realizing He will reward and bless us in the doing of it.  We listen dependently because we are nothing without Him.  And we listen confidently because we know and understand what’g going on around us and in the world.

 

What amazing privilege has been granted to us, hasn’t it?  Think of it this way. If you’re a believer, you speak God’s language. When He speaks, you perfectly understand it. It’s a foreign language to everybody else.

 

Let’s pray.