018 LISTEN! – part 4

Mark 4:1-34 (16-17)

February 15, 2026

This morning we started exploring Jesus’ explanation

Of that cryptic parable of the sower.

We learned that He wasn’t talking about farming at all.

· The sower is a preacher.

· The seed is God’s word.

· The soil is the human heart.

And we were reminded of the overall point of the parable.

(14) “The sower sows the word.”

That’s it.

That’s the job.

There will be another sowing parable later in this segment.

Mark 4:26-29 “And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. “But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

And you can see elements of that same point there.

· All that man does is “cast seed upon the soil”

· And then he goes to bed.

· He doesn’t cause germination.

· He doesn’t cause growth.

· In fact, he doesn’t even understand how it happens.

· All he concerns himself with is sowing and then harvesting.

That is the point of this first sowing parable.

It is meant to help His followers understand

Why not everyone who hears the gospel obtains salvation.

It is meant to protect His followers from discouragement.

It is meant to protect His followers from doubting their mission.

Followers of Jesus are called to go and shine the light

And should not be discouraged if the darkness rejects it.

Rejection of the gospel is not an indication of their inability to evangelize,

It is an indication of something wrong in the heart of those they preach to.

In the grand scheme of the sermon, we are now in the second point.

#1 THE PROBLEM WITH TRUTH

Mark 4:1-9

Namely that when truth is continually rejected, God may judicially harden a person to make them unable to understand it the next time.

· That certainly happened with Pharaoh.

· That happened in Isaiah’s day.

· And Jesus revealed that it was also happening in His day.

Jesus spent months clearly articulating the gospel all over Galilee

Only to be rejected.

Now He has preached a sermon

That the crowd was not able to understand.

THAT IS A JUDGMENT.

THE PROBLEM WITH TRUTH

Is that it is active, not passive, and it does not accept rejection.

Now we are on to the second point:

#2 THE PRIVILEGE OF TRUTH

Mark 4:10-20

The unbelieving crowd was not granted understanding,

But Jesus’ followers, who had ears to hear,

And who approached Him for understanding are blessed.

They are granted the privilege of understanding the parable of the sower.

They will be given insight.

And that explanation is where we are now.

· Those 4 soils were actually 4 hearts

· It helps us understand why not everyone believes the gospel we preach.

The first we saw this morning: THE HARDENED HEART

They are depicted as the soil by the road.

· It is trodden

· It is packed

· It is hard

It does not accept seed.

· We don’t know if it is hard as a result of it’s own hardening

· Or if it is a result of God’s hardening,

· And we cannot know that.

· But either way, it is hard.

But those with a hard heart are susceptible to the work of the devil.

He comes and “takes away the word which has been sown in them.”

· Whether it’s a persuasion to procrastinate…

· Whether it’s to grant justification for not believing…

· Whether it’s to call into doubt what God has said…

· Whether it’s to reaffirm false doctrine…

· Whether it’s to send a false teacher to distort the truth…

· Whether it’s to incite fear and warn of the danger of following…

Whatever his tactic, the goal is the same.

The seed has been dropped and Satan simply wants you to discard it.

When you preach to people like that, they are not going to believe.

But do not get discouraged, that is no reflection upon your preaching.

I might remind you that Isaiah and Jeremiah endured a similar ministry.

We certainly don’t blame their ministry,

We blame the hardened hearts of those they preached to.

DON’T GIVE UP:

“The sower sows the word.”

So sometimes rejection of a hardened heart and Satan’s thievery.

But that is only one possible reason.

Let’s look at the second type of heart tonight.

Let’s call them simply: SHALLOW HEARTED

They are compared to rocky soil.

(16-17) “In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.”

And here, as in the last case, there are two things at play.

One problem has to do with the composition of the soil,

The other problem has to do with an external threat.

As in the first case the soil had it’s own problems – hardness.

But that opened the door for an external threat, which was birds.

So it is in this second analogy.

· The problem of the soil is rocks, or shallowness.

· But that opens the door for an external threat, which is the sun or drought.

When a person has a shallow heart

They are susceptible to the external threat of affliction.

To begin our examination of such types of people

I want you to understand that JESUS DEALT WITH THEM OFTEN.

There is one chapter, which identifies them more clearly than any other.

TURN TO: JOHN 6

John 6 begins with the famous miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000.

I won’t take you back through that miracle, you are familiar with it.

But we are interested in seeing the response.

(READ: 6:14-15)

· The response to the miracle is incredibly favorable.

· Not only are the mesmerized by Jesus, but they want Him to be King.

· And one might think that this is precisely the goal of Jesus, to be recognized as King.

But there is something terribly “off” and our Lord knows it.

So He withdraws.

THAT NIGHT

· He crosses the sea by walking on water.

· The next day the crowd comes around the sea to find Him.

(READ: 6:25-27)

That statement is very enlightening to us, especially as we seek to better understand who these rocky soil / shallow hearted people are.

Clearly these people sought Jesus, but Jesus knew why.

THEY WANTED BREAD.

Notice the initial warning of Jesus…very important.

(27) “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.”

· These people were working; they were striving.

· But all of their effort was merely to obtain something temporal or earthly.

· They sought only that which perishes.

Jesus encouraged them to seek that which is eternal.

He called it “the food which endures to eternal life”

· Think of “food” here as that which sustains life.

· They wanted that which sustained physical life.

· Jesus told them to seek that which sustained spiritual life.

· And Jesus said He would give it to them if they wanted it.

And this statement sets off a very frustrating debate to read.

It is a crowd that just can’t get the point.

(READ 6:28-34)

· It is a crowd that isn’t getting it.

· They only want the immediate benefits of Jesus miraculous power.

So finally Jesus gets direct and clear.

(READ 6:35)

What they did not realize is that Jesus Himself is that food.

· He is the bread of God.

· He is the bread which came down from heaven.

Instead of seeking the temporary benefits of the power of Christ,

They should be seeking Christ Himself as the savior of their souls.

But they are thick.

(READ 6:47-51)

· There it is again.

· And still they don’t get it.

(READ 6:52-58)

The point becomes clear.

They continually want the benefits of Jesus power

While Jesus is offering Himself.

This is what we call a SHALLOW CROWD or a SUPERFICIAL CROWD.

It starts with an obvious excitement regarding the power of Jesus.

· Men are clearly eager to find Him and follow Him

· And receive all of the benefits which He can offer them.

· And while He clearly has not begrudged them some earthly favor,

· His goal is for them to see their need for Him and cry out to Him.

But they won’t.

And what is the end result of this crowd?

(READ 6:60-66)

This crowd falls away.

They leave.

They were fine with following Jesus so long as there was bread,

But they are not interested in obtaining Christ Himself.

CONTRAST them with the true disciples who were following Jesus.

(READ 6:67-71)

· You see the difference.

· Peter wasn’t chasing bread, he wanted life.

· And Peter was willing to endure to obtain it.

I think that story is a GREAT PLACE TO BEGIN our understanding

Of the problem of the shallow-hearted person.

Let’s go back to Mark’s gospel.

(16) “In a similar way…”

That is an interesting way to begin.

Jesus says that there is a way

In which the hardened soil and the rocky soil are similar.

What is it that they have in common?

· They both are too hard to accept the seed.

· Both of them are hardened.

What is the difference?

· Whereas the soil by the road allows its hardness to be readily observed,

· The rocky soil seeks to conceal its hardness below the surface.

They are both hard.

Neither accept the seed.

But one fakes it for a while.

But they are very similar.

“In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;”

The shallow hearted person is distinguishable

From the hard-hearted person in this one way.

The shallow hearted person will initially rejoice over the word & receive it.

And why wouldn’t they?

· Was the man with the withered hand supposed to be upset about his healing?

· Were those with demons supposed to grieve their liberation?

· Was the crowd of 5,000 supposed to reject the food Jesus provided?

Of course not!

You would obviously rejoice in all of those situations.

There is nothing wrong with rejoicing when Jesus gives you bread.

These people do.

And because of that, they can actually appear to be legitimate.

BUT THEY HAVE A PROBLEM.

(17) “and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary;”

We could try to flesh out the “root” analogy more deeply I suppose.

Scripture uses the analogy of a root quite often.

· Even calling Jesus “the root of Jesse”

· Or we think of the New Testament command to be “rooted and grounded in love”

· Or perhaps the warning in Hebrews that “no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled”

But in reality, the context here tells us

Everything that we need to understand about what Jesus meant.

First He says they “have no firm root in themselves”

Then contrasts it by saying, “but are only temporary”.

The point is that their roots aren’t deep.

And their roots don’t hold.

Whatever that excitement was that we saw, it wasn’t in the right thing.

I can’t help but think of Abram, early on, before God saved him.

God came to this pagan idol worshiper and promised him the world.

Genesis 12:1-4 “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”

And while the writer of Hebrews is clear that

To at least some extent, what Abram did there was an act of faith,

It doesn’t take long before we see that it was superficial at best.

Abram had no problem chasing a material blessing.

· But when famine arose, and the temporal blessing seemed to be drying up,

· Abram left the land and made provision to abandon his wife.

· And we see there a superficial and shallow man.

Where it not for the sovereign election of God to grant Abram saving faith

And to preserve him from disaster, Abram would never have survived.

But I think you see what I mean by a superficial faith

That rejoices at the temporal blessing

But has not sunk it’s roots into the true point of the gospel.

AS JESUS WALKED THE EARTH

· There were scores of people who were willing to latch on to Him

· For the outward and earthly blessings He could provide,

· But very few saw the true value below the surface.

· Very few determined to latch on to Christ.

They were clinging to the wrong thing.

They were clinging to the benefits of the Savior, not the Savior Himself.

So long as the message of the word was paying off,

They were all in, but when the message of the word

Produced a different outcome they were no longer interested.

And that is what we see here.

“then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the world, immediately they fall away.”

First, you need to understand what Jesus just said.

THE WORD BRINGS AFFLICTION AND PERSECUTION

God’s word, even the gospel, is totally contrary

To the logic, thinking, direction, and desires of the world.

And sooner or later the world will rise up against it.

The implication here is NOT JUST that they will hate those who preach the word, that seems somewhat obvious.

The implication here is that they will also hate those who believe it.

You are beginning to see it even in our day and age.

Forget the conversation about hate speech for calling out sin.

· Today you are not even allowed to believe homosexuality is wrong.

· Today you are not even allowed to believe wives should submit

· Today you are not even allowed to believe abortion is murder.

· Today you are not even allowed to believe Jesus is the only way.

And that is only going to get worse.

The word brings affliction and persecution.

Well, that spells trouble for those who were only interested in the word

So far as it brought temporal blessing into their lives.

And when that happens “immediately they fall away.”

They do the exact same thing as the hardened soil did,

Only they delayed it.

We’ve read many times that passage in Hebrews 6

Hebrews 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

Clearly we are talking about that type of person here.

Does it matter if they fall away at the first hearing or 20 years later?

And this is why so many denominations

Believe a person can lose their salvation.

It’s because they don’t understand what Jesus was talking about

Here with the rocky soil.

I’ve heard many testimonies to the effect:

“I knew so and so, I saw them get saved, I saw them walk with God, and then they fell away. I know they were saved, so they clearly lost their salvation.”

A person with such a conviction is testifying that

They do not understand genuine conversion.

Now there is a sense in which

True conversion can only be known at the end.

Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”

Matthew 24:9-13 “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

This is also why the writer of Hebrews

Gives such strong warnings against falling away.

TURN TO: HEBREWS 3:6

In verse 6 the writer of Hebrews makes his doctrinal statement.

· That we are of Christ’s household “if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.”

· He’s right.

· A person who does not do that does not have salvation.

And then the writer gives a penetrating Old Testament analogy.

(READ 3:7-11)

· It is a quotation of Psalm 95

· Where the people whom God delivered out of Egypt still failed to enter the land of promise.

God seemingly saved them only to kill them in the wilderness.

What is the warning?

(READ 3:12-4:2)

Do you see it?

DON’T BE LIKE THEM.

· Make sure you don’t have an empty profession.

· Make sure you don’t actually have “an evil, unbelieving heard that falls away form the living God.”

And there it is again: (14) “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.”

The segment closes in 4:2 revealing the problem.

(4:2) “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.”

· They heard the word.

· They even accepted the word as God’s word.

· But they didn’t believe it.

· It was never allowed to take root in their heart.

And the writer is concerned that those in his congregation

May make the same mistake.

TURN TO: HEBREWS 10:36-39

Do you see it again?

“you have need of endurance”

Clearly those who do not endure to the end will not be saved.

SO PREACHER ARE YOU SAYING

THAT WE CAN LOSE OUR SALVATION?

OF COURSE NOT!

These people who fell away were never saved.

· They never truly partook of Christ.

· They never truly believed the word.

· They were superficial followers.

· They were shallow soil.

· They were hard-hearted people who concealed their hardness under a false

confession.

They were who John told us about:

1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”

Consider this guy:

Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Do you see the fool who heard, but who didn’t act?

· Same problem.

· That word never got inside.

· For a while he had a great house.

· In fact it probably looked as good as the house of the genuine believer.

· But the storm proved otherwise.

And let me just say here, because it needs to be said,

THIS IS A REAL PROBLEM

that MUST BE ADDRESSED IN THE AMERICAN CHURCH.

So many people in America have only heard

Some version of the prosperity gospel

Which focuses primarily on the temporal benefits of the gospel

And very little on the cost.

The typical American who flocks to Jesus does so because

They think Jesus will make everything in their life easy and better.

And when they hear about all the benefits of Jesus

“immediately they receive it with joy.”

But that is not the same thing as being broken over your sin

And running to Jesus for forgiveness even if following Him means death.

The American church should take serious stock

Regarding the shallow-hearted soil

And listen to the warning of the writer of Hebrews who said, “see to it that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”

You want to see how intense this can be?

TURN TO: MATTHEW 11:1-6

Did you catch that one?

· That was John the Baptist.

· He had an expectation about who Jesus was and what Jesus would do, but clearly that expectation did not include prison.

· And as John languished there he began to doubt if Jesus was “the expected One” or not.

Jesus graciously offered proof to John and then gave this mild rebuke.

“and blessed is he who does not take offense at Me”

“take offense” there is the exact same

Greek word as “fall away” in our text.

SCANDALIZO

(where we get our word for scandalize)

It is also translated as “stumble”

Mark 9:43-47 “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. “If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. “If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,”

This is the problem of the shallow-hearted.

· They stumble over the persecution that accompanies Jesus and His word.

· They were not interested, prepared, or willing to endure suffering for the gospel.

· And when it came, they fell away proving their salvation was never genuine.

· Their hardened heart was eventually exposed.

· They never truly believed God’s word and never let it transform their lives.

· They had no living water and the burning sun of affliction withered away their phony confession.

THAT’S A REAL THING.

NOW…

While we certainly need to be aware of such a reality

And even to examine ourselves regarding that truth.

THE POINT OF JESUS HERE is to help His followers understand that

The reality of people falling away is again not on them.

This can be one of the most grievous and discouraging realities

To witness in ministry.

If you share the gospel with someone and they seem to grab it and accept it

And then later deny it, it can be a real punch to the gut.

You will wonder if maybe you should stop preaching the gospel at all.

· Surely there is something wrong with my preaching.

· Surely I’m not cut out for this.

· That person who responded to my preaching later fell away, I must not be good

at it.

If that is the criteria you’re going to use

Then you need to also reject that Moses was a man of God.

That congregation the writer of Hebrews warned about

Was Moses’ congregation.

· He led them through the Passover.

· He led them out of Egypt.

· He led them through the Red Sea.

· He led them to Sinai.

· Then he watched them all die in the wilderness.

They fell away.

We already said that Isaiah and Jeremiah preached to hard-hearted people,

But Moses preached to shallow-hearted people.

We might say the same for Jesus.

We read John 6.

· We saw how the crowds were once enamored and then fell away.

· We saw how the crowds flocked to Him only to end up yelling “Crucify!”

But neither Moses nor Jesus quit preaching.

Moses saw a generation die in the wilderness,

So he preached to their children.

THAT’S THE POINT.

If you preach the gospel and people don’t respond,

· Don’t get discouraged and stop shining your light, some people are just hard-

hearted and refuse to believe.

If you preach the gospel and get some results, but some of them then fall away and leave the faith,

· Don’t get discouraged and stop shining your light, some people are shallow-

hearted and it takes a while for their superficiality to show through.

THAT’S NOT ON YOU.

“The sower sows the word.”

NOW, I WILL SAY THAT such a reality DOES NECESSITATE

That we keep preaching the gospel even to those who have “accepted” it.

I think one of the worst mistakes that happens in the church today

Is that people quit evangelizing their congregations.

· Don’t stop preaching Christ.

· Don’t stop calling men to follow Christ.

· Don’t stop pointing out the danger of sin.

· Don’t stop pointing to Jesus as the Savior from it.

We constantly call all men to follow Christ,

Even those we believe to be saved.

Let me read it again:

Hebrews 3:12-13 “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

“But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today”

Hebrews 12:12-17 “Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”

Don’t let men quit.

YOU GET THE POINT.

Keep sowing the word,

Even though not all men are truly believing it,

Or even though some seemingly stop believing it.

“The sower sows the word”