Mark 4 (Part 1) :1-25 - To Tremble at God's Word

Welcome to Through the Bible with Pastor Paul from Life Bible Ministry. Journey from Genesis to Revelation as Pastor Paul guides you through every verse, leading you to a deeper understanding of the scriptures that will strengthen your faith and transform your life. Now, let's get started with today's teaching as we open God's Word together.

Can I ask you a question? Have you ever wondered why it is? That some Christians seem to grow in their faith At just like breakneck speed and others don't you're wondered about that. I have to tell you I've wondered about that a lot. I've also wondered about why Some people get really excited about Jesus and they make a big splash, you know coming to the Lord and they're just like wow Jesus is the greatest and then a few weeks later, you know, you never see him again they're like So where's so -and -so? They're like gone, you know And then there are others who come to Christ and they just You know, they go through that same kind of period of excitement like anybody else But after that initial kind

of honeymoon period kind of dies down a little bit they just settle in to a life of service and growth and serving in whatever way they find themselves to serve. And they just keep walking with God. They're kind of the steady eddies, you know? Have you ever wondered why? Have you ever wondered why different growth happens at different levels? Why some people don't even want to hear about God? Why some people, you know, will hear the gospel and even seem kind of excited about it and then just kind of...

It's like they get a spiritual flat tire after that. Anyway, the reason I ask those questions is because we're going to cover the first half of Mark chapter 4 here this morning, and we're going to be hearing all about this. In fact, this whole section, the first 25 verses is what we're going to cover, and we're going to be seeing here why some Christians explode in growth, why some Christians explode in excitement but never grow, in fact even fall away. We're gonna see things. We're gonna learn things today that we couldn't know apart from Jesus telling us these things. One of the reasons I like to go through the parables in the gospel accounts is that we learn things in these parables that we could

have absolutely no knowledge of if Jesus hadn't revealed them to us, okay? Which is, you know, extremely cool, you know? Because I would hate to think that, you know, that these things would remain mysteries, you know, and we would never kind of know what they were all about. So let's, tell you what, let's pray first. How about that?

Father, just open our hearts to the ministry of your Word. And as we're going to hear many times here in this Scripture, give us ears to hear. Give us eyes to see. Give us a heart, Lord God, that is responsive. and ready to embrace Your Word. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Verse 1. Again He, of course we're talking about Jesus, began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around Him so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And He was teaching them many things in parables.

And in his teaching, he said to them, listen, behold, a sower went out to sow. Stop there for just a moment. It's very cool that Jesus is using these kinds of examples because he lived in an area and at a time when everybody would understand and had in their mind an idea of somebody who went out to sow seed. And what we're talking about is people that go out and plant. plant seed very, very differently in our agricultural scenarios today. But back in those days, it would be as common as the day is long to see someone out with a pouch over their shoulder full of seed. And you'd see the person reaching in with their hand, grabbing a handful and just scattering that seed as they walk along. That's the way

they planted their fields. It wasn't super scientific. We think of farming as in rows. You know, that's the way farming, well, that's not the way farming was back in the day. There were no rows, you know, they just scattered seeds. Stuff came up all over the place, you know. And so this was something that the people would be very familiar with. And you can imagine if somebody scatters seed in that way, a lot of it's gonna go in places they probably didn't intend it to go. Let's keep going here. Verse four, it says, and as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, that refers to the footpath that people would walk on, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil,

and immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched. And since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. And he said, He who has ears to hear, Let him hear and when he was alone those around him with the 12 so it's the 12 plus asked him about the parables and and Matthew in Matthew's account he actually gives us the the question that the disciples asked Jesus about this parable and the question was basically why do you Why do you speak to

the people in parables? What's that all about? Mark gives us Jesus's answer verse 11 and he said to them to you Has been given the secret of the kingdom of God but for those Outside now I want you to take special note of that word outside for those outside Everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven." All right, stop there for just a moment. Here's another question. Have you ever wondered why people can sit in church, hear God's Word? taught over and over and over again and never get it. This parable helps us to understand some of that, too. But, you know, the first thing that the disciples

asked Jesus is, why parables? Why are you teaching in parables? Why not just come out and just say it straight? And Jesus begins to explain to them that parables create a kind of spiritual sifting process that will either reward the hearer or baffle the hearer depending on whether they're on the inside or whether they're on the outside.

What is it that makes somebody on the inside? What is it that makes somebody on the outside? It's whether they want to hear. It's really as simple as that. There's no elite kind of special group where you get the tattoo, the password, and the special beanie cap that says, I'm in. There's nothing like that going on. Those who are on the inside, as far as understanding His Word, understanding the Scriptures, are those who have simply come to Him, humbled their hearts, and said, I want to know. I want to know what the word has to say. I want to understand the scriptures. I am open. I humble myself. I come to you and I say, Lord, without you there's no way I will know. So I come to you that I might

learn. You might think, well, duh, doesn't everybody do that? No. No, no, everybody does not do that. Some people come to church and they basically kind of do this. And you understand the body language involved in that. If you're cold in doing that, I don't necessarily think that you're being hard -hearted. But this posture sometimes suggests that I'm here, but I don't really care to listen. And it's like, you know, word of God.

That's the way I was for about the first 18 years of my life. I went to church and I hated it. Of course, I went to a very liberal church. Parents attended a very religious kind of a place and I didn't have any place in my heart for religion. I still don't But you know, it was just all one big fat bore You know as far as I was concerned and and there wasn't any listening going on You don't go to church to listen you go to church to play, you know or make jokes or you know It's good thing I didn't have a smartphone back then But you know But for those who simply come to God and say, I want to know. I want to know.

You're already on the inside. And you know what? You will know. But boy, I tell you, there are so many people that listen but don't hear because they don't want to hear. And they just want to be mad. Our YouTube channel which has all of our videos from Sunday and Wednesday Attracts some interesting people from time to time and I get some pretty wild comments as you can well imagine I mean they come from around the world and and and like I said I've said to you guys before the people who make comments that are Derogatory and hurtful and just dumb they they don't see the light of day as far as other people but I read them And a lot of times, it's funny, I had one just this last week where some gal

listened to one of my teachings, I think it was in Genesis, and just ripped it. But you could tell there was a heart that just didn't want to know. It's just like, this God you serve is a God who looks a blind eye when people get raped and murdered and all this stuff. And they were just angry, you know what I mean? There was angry people. And I'm kind of thinking, first of all, why are you at our YouTube channel? But second of all, I'm thinking, you've heard the Word of God. You've obviously read it, but you didn't understand it. You didn't open your heart to it. You basically opened the Bible to see what you could find fault with. Have you ever met those kinds of people? You know, I'm going to

read the Bible, but only so that I can figure out what I can throw darts at. There's never a heart to be open and receptive and responsive and say, God, you know, I humble myself. Teach me. If there's any truth here, teach me, you know. But, you know, there are a great many people who walk into a reading of the Bible convinced before they even open the thing, there is no truth here. There's none. And so then they open it up and they begin to read it. And what do they get? They get nothing. Or all they get are things to throw stones at. That's it. And so, you know, it's interesting that Jesus makes this statement about parables and he says, here's why I teach in parables so that you guys on the

inside who want to know, you're following me, you're listening, you're saying, talk to me about these parables here that anybody could have done that. Anybody could have walked up to Jesus and said, OK, that parable tweaked me a little bit. You need to explain that. He'd be more than happy. You want to know what that parable means? Sit down. We'll talk. But the rest of the people are just kind of like, OK, interesting. What's for dinner? And they're just on with their lives.

Or like, boy, I didn't understand that. That guy talks in circles. Forget this. I'm going home. Never any desire, never any pushing in to know, to understand, to grasp sort of a thing. And so for those people, the Word of God remains a closed book. It remains a mystery. They go, you know, I've read the Bible. I just don't get it. I just don't get it. You know why they don't get it? They don't want to get it. Because their heart isn't open. There's not a response there so but you know again I want to repeat to you for anyone with a heart to learn there You know God is always quick to give ears to hear That's why we pray before we get into the word God give us ears to hear because he will honor that prayer

You know every every time When we get to this parable of the sower in Matthew's account, let me show you on the screen here what Matthew records for us. Jesus actually says to his disciples and those listening, but blessed are your eyes, for they see and your ears, for they hear. Why? Because they're on the inside. They're there.

They're pressing in. He says, truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. Why did those prophets and righteous people not get a chance to hear it? because they were waiting for Messiah, but now He's here. Now Messiah is here, and you can walk right up to Him and say, talk to me. Tell me what's going on here. Explain this to me. Sure, sit down, let's talk. But you know, it's interesting. When somebody doesn't want to know the answer, guess what they're going to get from Jesus? Pilate, Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, one of the most penetrating, powerful questions that you can ask God. And he was sitting

there literally in front of God incarnate, Jesus Christ, and he asked one of the most powerful questions you can ask, what is truth? Do you remember? Do you remember what Jesus said? Nothing. Jesus didn't respond with a syllable. And do you know why? Because Pilate wasn't wanting an answer. And that's the way God responds when we come to Him and we purport to ask a question, but we really don't want to know. You know, you've ever had somebody come up to you and say, okay, you're a Christian, right? Yeah. And you know what's coming. All right. All right. There's something I don't understand, they'll say. If you're a Christian, and you believe in the Bible, and then they start, and you know at the outset,

they don't want an answer. And even if you give them one, they're not gonna listen, right? And if you do, they're just gonna go, that's stupid, right? Have that ever happened to you? Happens to me from time to time. But you know exactly what's going on. I'm learning, you know, in my older age, you know, to just not even go there with people. You know, when they say something and you respond and they come back with a statement that says, I'm closed. I'm, this door is closed.

I've gotten to the point where I'm starting to actually exercise some self -control and just kind of drop it and just quit the conversation at that point. Just go. God bless you because you know what? Otherwise, I'm just sitting here wasting my breath wah -wah -wah -wah -wah and it's not going nowhere, you know So, let's look at the explanation to this parable. Verse 13, and he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all parables?

And that's an interesting statement to say, this is a parable that is going to provide a key that is gonna help you to understand all the parables. When you get this one, it will be a glass. through which you can look at all of the parables and have a greater understanding. So get this one, and it's going to go good for you. All right, so he says, here we go. Verse 14, the sower sows the seed? No, he says, no, it's the word. What we're talking about here is the seed is a picture of the word of God, all right? So the seed that is being spread is the Word. Verse 15, and these are the ones along the path where the Word is sown. When they hear Satan, excuse me, when they hear, comma, Satan immediately comes and takes

away the Word that is sown in them. Why? Because this is seed that gets scattered and they didn't mean to scatter it on the path, but it ends up on the footpath. Let me show you on the screen what Matthew records about this. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, that's key. The evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart, and that is what was sown along the path. Notice that interesting insight that Matthew records for us. This is word that goes into their lives, but they don't get it. They don't understand it. Why don't they understand it? Well, again, remember something. This parable is about different heart conditions. I'm not talking about heart

conditions where your physical heart doesn't pump right. I'm talking about conditions of your spiritual heart that create an either a place where the word can get in and become rooted, or not, all right? So the footpath, in ancient Israel, the footpath, they didn't have sidewalks, but there were places that people just walked over and over and over and over again. And so the ground would become so hard, it was literally like concrete. I mean, it would be that difficult for, it would be just as easy for a seed to get into this floor as it would on the footpath back in those days. So The seed hit a place where there was no place for it to enter in Isn't that an interesting thought as it relates to human

hearts? In the same way there are hearts that are so hard That there's no place for the word to get in It you know the word hits those hearts just like it hits any other heart There's no place. There's no place to actually plant the seed because the heart is hard. So the first condition we see is a hard heart. Let's move on, verse 16. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. Look at this. They're thrilled when they hear the word.

But he says they have no root in themselves but endure for a while. Then when tribulation or persecution arises, on account of the word immediately, they fall away. Stop there. The next heart condition that Jesus is making us aware of is what we call the shallow believer, the shallow heart, because this is seed that is sown on, when he says rocky soil, he means that there's dirt. When you look at it, you can't see the rocks. Because there's a thin layer of dirt and you look at that area just like the good soil and it all looks the same to you But you go down just that far and there's rocks underneath there. In fact, there's a bedrock It's hard pan we call it and we see that a lot around here and So he's basically

saying there's no room for this to grow because there's a shallowness To this kind of ground so notice that he says that this the seed germinates But there's no place for the root to really get in and and and anchor the plant So there's a there's a germination that takes place. He says the people receive it with joy. They're like, yeah God's cool. So cool his word Wow, this is great. Have you ever seen people like that? They get excited and they're just like yes, you know, and he says then There because of the shallowness because there's no place for the root to grow no depth in their lives for the Word of God, they have no place to hear and store up what has been sown in their lives and they quickly

fall away when trouble or hardship arise. And notice in verse 17, look with me again in your Bible, notice where the trouble comes from. It's trouble or hardship that comes on account of the Word. Did you catch that? On account of the Word. See, this is the person who is basically willing, or I should say unwilling, to suffer any kind of inconvenience or discomfort because they're a believer. And it happens. Even for those of us in the United States where we have such wonderful freedoms, sometimes in work, family, hanging out with friends or whatever. People can treat us differently when we come to Christ and there can be a form of mistreatment that comes into the life of a believer But this but

these people here who are shallow of heart care too much about what other people think frankly and The possibility of being seen in a bad light is just too much for them to bear and So it causes them to just kind of pitch the whole thing and say, yeah, I don't think so. I don't think so. I'll never forget a number of years ago when I was a youth pastor back in my… back in the early days. I had a gal in my youth group who was, you know, active, involved in the youth group. But one day I found myself in her school.

I don't know why I was there. I forget exactly why I had to go to this school. And I saw her in the hall. And she went out of her way. She was with her friends. And she was a very pretty girl. And I could tell she was kind of part of the in crowd. And when she saw me walking down the hall, I mean, she made a beeline to get out of the way so that nobody would recognize her.

I could tell she didn't want to have to explain, this is my youth pastor. Because I think church was one of those things that at school we don't talk about because that might possibly reflect badly on me and I might become a little less popular with my friends. And this is kind of what Jesus is talking about here, this person who's shallow in their heart. Let's go on. Jesus says in verse 18, And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things Enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful.

And so this is the third heart condition that Jesus is revealing for us here one where the seed never even really has a fighting chance to grow at all because this person may Recognize the Word of God. They don't really have any trouble wrecking. They'll even say yeah, that's the Word of God, but their hearts are so tied to this world, you see, they care too much about money.

They care way too much about being popular and fame, and all the other things that the world would draw us to love, you know? And they care about those things, and they want to be rich. These are the kind of people that say, I'm going to make my first million by age 25 and just go from there. The heart of the world and the desire for riches and the things that go along with it are just deeply ingrained in their hearts.

And so they hear the Word of God and yet their heart is already overcrowded with desires from this world. Verse 20. on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, 30 -fold and 60 -fold and a hundred -fold. Finally, we come to the good soil, which is, of course, the heart that is receptive to God's Word, that has ample room for growth. And you'll notice that the result is, what happens? The seed gets in there, takes root, grows, bears fruit. You know, it's good soil. And of course, that is the heart that is open, humble, and teachable.

This is the person on the inside that Jesus was talking about earlier. The person who comes to Him and says, I want to know. I want to learn. I want to grow. It's not the person who exhibits these other forms of conditions. So we end up with these four heart conditions. Just as a reminder, a summary, let me put them up on the screen for you. You have the hard heart. You have the shallow heart. You have the crowded heart, and you have the open heart, the open receptive heart. Here's my question to you. Which one are you? I think that's one of the reasons why Jesus is giving us this parable, that we might look at it. Now, to be honest, as insightful as this parable is, and I mean, I love it, it just gives me all kinds

of insights about why people are sometimes the way they are. It also generates some questions. Have you noticed? For example, you can ask the question, how does a person end up with a hard heart anyway? How does a person get a shallow heart? I think we probably know how a person's heart becomes overcrowded. But, you know, here's the real question. Can something be done about a heart? that is not receptive to God's Word, or is not an environment where the Word, you know, is going to be attracted to it. In other words, is it possible to bring about any change for the better? If you recognize, for example, and you just, you know, God's Word convicts you in this and you're kind of like, you know what?

I'll be honest with you. My heart's pretty crowded. Pretty crowded place. I mean, that would take a lot for somebody to admit that, I think. I think it would be even probably more so for somebody to say, you know, I'll be honest with you, my heart's pretty shallow when it comes to the word of God, you know, or something like that. So can you do something about it if you discover that your heart is not the perfect place for the word of God to kind of get in and germinate and that sort of thing? Well, frankly, this parable doesn't answer the question. To be honest with you, in fact, the sole point of this parable seems to be just to tell us that our hearts do vary in condition and that those various conditions

govern our response to the word of God accordingly. We have to actually look elsewhere in the word to answer some of these questions. Can you do something about a heart that isn't in prime condition to hear the word of God? But what we find in examples from the scripture are that many times God allows I'm not saying he brings things necessarily, but I am saying that he allows things in our lives in the form of humbling circumstances, many times to do just that, to change the condition of our heart and to make us more receptive. Frankly, that's one of the reasons why when we see somebody with a hard heart or a shallow heart or something like that, We pray. We pray for them. God, just change their heart. Change their heart. Lord,

let the word of God, you know, let them be receptive and open to hear your word, you know, and so forth. So we're praying that God would change hearts. So we must believe that it's possible for those changes to take place. But what do we see in life and what do we see in the word? Many times we have to kind of hit rock bottom sometimes. I don't think it has to happen always that way. It did for me. It did for me. And I'm willing to bet if I gave some of you an opportunity to stand up and talk about how Jesus got ahold of your heart, most of, well, I don't know about most, a portion of you, maybe even a healthy portion of you would be able to get up and talk about how God had to bring you pretty low in

order to change the condition or the receptivity of your heart to a place where you were really hearing and open and responsive, right? I think we should all hate to think that it takes a tragedy to get our attention. What a horrible thought. I just basically go from one tragedy to the next in my life. I'm just waiting for the next tragedy to happen so I can start growing in Jesus. That's a pretty depressing idea. And yet, sometimes that's what it takes. But as I said, it doesn't always have to take that. I think somebody can hear, and they can say, you know what? I need to change. And I'm going to offer up my heart to the Lord, and I'm going to ask Him to change it into a receptive heart, you know? And I believe

that the Lord would honor that prayer. God, make my heart receptive. If you if you kind of realize, you know, the word just isn't really making an impact on my life like it should First of all to even make that confession God's already got to be working in your heart But if you recognize that it's just not having the impact that it should pray and ask him to soften your heart Make it more receptive Look what he goes on to say in verse 21. This is interesting and he said to them is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand. In other words, not in a place in the room where it's going to give light. Obviously, you turn on a lamp so that it illuminates the room, right?

To cover it up would defeat the idea of lighting the lamp in the first place. And yet, there are many Christians who hear the Word of God and then they cover it up. They literally cover up their Christian existence to avoid standing out as a Christian or, you know, they're trying to blend in or something like that. And so, you know, sometimes we have to look on the inside and we have to ask why am I perhaps hiding? Why am I maybe hiding the light that would otherwise be shining in my life? Am I just embarrassed, you know, like I was kind of talking about that young girl many years ago? Are we just kind of embarrassed that people might find out that we actually believe in the Bible? Yeah, I'm one

of those. Are we afraid of what people are going to think or maybe even how it's going to affect our business? Well, if people found out I was a Christian and who I voted for, I might not get any business. You probably notice people are reacting very badly. Maybe we're not shining our light because we have that overcrowded condition where we're too busy doing and thinking about other things. Look what he goes on to say in verse 22. For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light. In other words, God's Word is meant to be understood. If it seems hidden now, don't think that it's hidden because God doesn't want you to know. If it's hidden to you,

it's because there's a block on your end of the situation. He says, listen, nothing is hidden that isn't meant to be revealed, right? There are a lot of things we don't get, but if there's a problem here, it's not because God is withholding information. It's because we're not open and responsive and seeking to know. Here's the point.

Truth is made to be known. We've got to believe that as Christians. Truth is made to be known. God doesn't have truth just so he can keep it from you. When I was a kid, I used to enjoy keeping secrets. Remember how we used to say to our siblings or whatever, when we'd know something that we heard our parents talking about something, we'd go to your siblings. And I had three siblings.

I know something you don't know. And that was something for me as the youngest in the family. Of course, my brother, he'd just say, tell me you're all pounded, Adia. And usually would. But it was always kind of empowering to say, I know something you don't know. We think it's cool to withhold stuff. God says, listen, truth is meant to be revealed, right? So, yeah. Look what he says in verse 23. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. What do you need to hear the truth? Ears to hear. How do you get ears to hear? You ask God. It's not rocket science, you guys, and it's not this hard, you know, there are some people who believe that only the elite and the highly educated can truly understand the word of God. And you know, so well if you

had a PhD like me, you poor people, aren't you glad that I'm here to tell you what's what? Right no a child can understand the scriptures and they usually do better than some adults Because their hearts are open and what it takes to have ears to hear is simply an open heart God I want to hear I want to hear I want to hear your voice.

Oh Just just if you come to God with humility and say God unstop my ears Just stand back right There is an incredible I know I've quoted James or Matthew a lot here this morning, and I'm not done check this out great promise Matthew chapter 7 for everyone who asks Receives and the one who seeks what are they gonna? Just keep searching forever and go gee I can't find this anywhere No, he says they will find and to the one who knocks listen Jesus says it will be opened That's a promise from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and he says listen All you got to do is look and ask and knock and I'll open. It's not like he's, you know, standing behind a locked door saying, who is it? Do you have the right

password? He's like, I want to open this door if you would just knock. Now, notice that that knocking process, it's not just kind of this, you know. Nobody's there. You know how some people do when they knock on your door and they really don't want you to, have you ever done that? You go to somebody's door and you don't want them to answer the door. So you kind of go up there and tap, tap, tap, tap. They're not home, so we're gonna go now. No, we're talking about pressing in. In fact, there's this proverb that I love that talks about pressing in. Can I share it with you? It's in Proverbs chapter two on the screen. My son, Girls here to find no problem if you accept my words and store up my commands

within you turning your ear to wisdom Applying your heart to understanding and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding and if you look for it as for Silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand The fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. What does it take a quick quick? Not tap on the door. No, he's not home I you know, I went to church once you know, all right, you know you get people's I read the Bible once it's dumb It's stupid Yeah, they sure you can read the Bible and come away thinking it's stupid.

You can do that You know why your heart wasn't open. There was no receptivity. You didn't knock you didn't search you didn't look you breezed You know? What is this parable, or excuse me, this proverb saying? Look at all the action terms that are used in there. Accept, store up, turn, apply, call out, cry aloud, and look at this.

If you look for it or search for it as for silver and hidden treasure, Boy, that one hits us where we live, doesn't it? If you put as much time searching in God's Word as you did for just the right lottery number combinations, you'd be growing in your faith, right? There's a lot of things in life we seek after, we search for, you know?

And if we just put that kind of effort into knowing God and His Word, wow. But what do we do? We end up relying on other people. We want to go to a Bible study, but have the teacher do all the study. They're going to do all the work. I'm going to come and just be a receiver. How about digging in on your own? Finally, look at verse 24 here in your Bible. And he said to them, pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you. And in other words, a believer grows in understanding and knowledge in direct proportion to how much they ponder and apply what they've already received. You receive the word of God, what do you do with it? What do you do with it? Because when you

receive it, it's yours. But what do you do with it? When you get done with, it blesses me so much. We've got some parents in our fellowship who say, I've had some dads even come up to me after the service and say, you know, when we get out of church and when we're going home with our kids, we talk to them about what we heard in church. We actually discuss, you know, what you taught on. And so I have a question about such and thus or whatever, and it blesses me all to pieces. Because what are they doing? They're taking what they heard and they're pondering it. And what Jesus is saying here is basically Pay attention to what you have or what you've received because with the measure that you ponder

and focus and open your heart to that, it will be measured to you. But if you're not pondering at all, listen, that's a very small measuring thing in your own life and it will only be measured to you in that same small way. You'll only receive small bits because you're only open to pondering. or applying small bits of the word of God in your life, you see? That's what he's basically saying here. And he says, you know, but if you're open up and you respond and you ponder and you're like, you know, he says, hey, still more will be added to you. God will just continue to give you more insight. And what's the result? He says, verse 25, for to the one who has That's because they've pondered and opened their heart and said,

Jesus, give me ears to hear. More will be given. That's a promise. More will be given, all right? But here's the negative side. But from the one or to the one or from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Because he hasn't pondered, because he hasn't applied, because he hasn't opened his heart to what he did receive, even that will be taken away and it'll be like he never learned it in the first place. I went to church and I forgot what they talked about.

Oh well, who's playing today on TV? You know what I mean? Because there was never any application, there was never any running after truth, seeking after truth. And eventually God takes away even what they did receive. So is it possible for somebody to go to church and walk away and Be a blank slate? Yeah. Yeah, it is. I want to just end here this morning by going back to the words of Jesus in verse 24. Would you look with me?

We're going to end with this. Because in verse 24, Jesus starts off there by saying, pay attention. And those are important words to look at. If you have an NIV sitting on your lap, your Bible says, consider carefully. If you have a New American Standard Bible on your lap, it says, take care. If you have a New King James that you're looking at, your Bible says, take heed. The Greek word, and it's just one Greek word, means to look at carefully. To look at carefully. And that's what we're supposed to do with the Word of God. I want to close with a quick passage from Isaiah, and we'll end with this. You've been listening to Through the Bible with Pastor Paul from Life Bible Ministry. For the complete library of Pastor

Paul's teaching and full transcripts, visit lifebibleministry .com. We hope today's teaching has encouraged and inspired you. We look forward to you joining us again as we continue our journey through the Scriptures.

Mark 4 (Part 1) :1-25 - To Tremble at God's Word

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