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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Eric Walsh

Good Ground, Good Growth

So our scripture reading is from John 4, 24 and 25.

The word says, And he said unto them, Take heed what you hear.

With what measure you meet, it shall be measured to you.

And to you that hear shall more be given.

And he that hath not, from him shall be taken, even that which he hath.

And he that hath not, from him shall be taken, even that which he hath." And our message for this Sabbath, Advent hope, is good ground, good growth.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

We thank you, Lord, for all you do for us and for allowing us this opportunity to still fellowship through the wonders of technology.

But Father God, what we need right now to bring us together is not technology, but your Holy Spirit.

I pray Lord that once again, you would use me as a nail in the wall.

Let us see the portrait of Christ hung upon it.

Let me not be seen or heard Lord, instead by the power of your Holy Ghost, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

This is our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

All right, so Mark chapter 4 and verse 1, the Bible says, and he began to teach by the seaside and there was gathered unto him a great multitude so that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea.

The whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

He taught them many things by parables and said unto them in his doctrine, hearken, Behold, there went out a sower to sow.

Mark chapter 4 and verse 1 gives us 1 of the great parables of scripture.

And when you look at this parable, it starts by Jesus really having a passion and a desire to teach the people.

And ultimately this is what the parable is about.

It is about the spreading of the word of God.

And as Jesus is there, the crowd it becomes almost overwhelming.

And so what Christ does is, he has them push a boat out a little from the shore and he stands on it and uses a ship as a pulpit.

The way that the landscape near the seaside there was, it went back a ways and then there was a rise of rock, similar to what you see along the California coastline in some ways.

And when he would project his voice from off of the ship, the acoustics would allow that many people would be able to hear him.

The Bible says he taught in parables, and he taught his doctrine, in other words, his teachings.

And he starts this by saying that a sower went out to sow.

And of course, as Jesus is doing this, the spirit of prophecy tells us that just behind on those hills are literally people sowing seed.

Literally, it's being played out even as Jesus speaks the words.

Mark 4 and verse 4, it says, and it came to pass as he sowed, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside.

The fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Some fell on stony ground where it had not much earth and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.

But when the sun was up, it was scorched because it had no root, it withered away.

Verse 7 says, and some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no fruit.

And it fell on good ground, another fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased and brought forth some 30, some 60 and some 100.

There are 4 classes of people put here And interestingly enough, most of the time in parables and in general, when you look at the scripture, there are 2 classes of people, those that follow God and his teachings and those that don't.

But in this case, the class that does not is broken down into 3 parts.

The first are those who, the first group are those who, when the seed is sown, it falls on the wayside, like on the driveway is a good way to say it in modern terms.

It grows on, it falls on that part of the ground where seed cannot grow.

The other falls on stony ground where there is dirt but the dirt isn't deep.

It can come up, but because there's no depth in it, no deep roots in it, when the sun comes up, it's scorched.

Verse 7 says, and some fell among thorns.

The thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no fruits.

And the third 1 fell where there was good ground.

The thorns had the weeds, we'd say now, had good ground to grow in, but it was choked out.

The final group fell on good ground and produced some 30, some 60, some 100.

Jesus says in Mark 4 and verse 9, he said unto them, he that hath ears, let him hear.

And when he was alone, they that were about him with the 12 asked of him the parable, they said, Wait a minute, Jesus, you got to explain this parable.

Mark 411 says, and he said unto them unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.

Unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them.

He said unto them, know ye not this parable?

This is, when you read this to me, 1 of the difficult passages of scripture, you know, for some to understand.

Jesus says in verse 11, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.

This is speaking to his disciples and those that are around him.

But unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables.

Then he says in verse 12, that seeing they may see and not perceive and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them.

And it seems like, well, wait a minute, why would Jesus say that?

Then he says, if you don't understand this parable, how will you understand basically any parables?

Verse 12, I want to focus on for a second.

It comes from Isaiah 6, Isaiah 6, 9 and 10.

And he said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see indeed, but perceive not.

Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed." Wow, so Isaiah, of course, at the time is dealing with a people who will not listen as Judah is threatened with annihilation.

So Isaiah is working to get them to, but it's as if the more truth he preaches, the harder their hearts become.

What Jesus is saying is similar to what happened to Pharaoh.

The more evidence some people are given, the harder their hearts will become.

The more evidence of the truth they are given, the more hard some folks hearts will become.

These are they that do not love the truth.

So Jesus is saying, listen, I'll give them the parable.

If they actually understand the parable, it will actually work against them in a sense because they do not love the truth.

In the end, as we see in today's world, There are those who do not, cannot stand to hear the truth.

So even as the truth is unfolded and made plain, they rebel against it.

Paul says this to the church at Thessalonica.

He says this, verse 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 10.

And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

What we understand spiritually that Jesus is saying in Mark 4 in verse 12, is that when some are exposed to truth, it hardens them.

And it's a difficult thing to even get, it hardens them.

And so the scripture says, "'God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe alive.

Pharaoh, it says, God hardened his heart.

But what all God really does is send the truth in the presence of 1 who hates the truth, 1 who rejects the truth.

And by default, they will receive strong delusion.

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Good Ground, Good Growth

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