Jesus Explains the Seed Is the Word of Godby CBPepper
4:14Mark 4:14
The sower soweth the word.
The sower sows the word of God, the gospel of truth and teaching of Christ scattered in mind and heart. The sower is Christ in His own ministry and also those who preach present truth as God works through humble instruments called to proclaim mercy. The harvest does not turn on any change in sower or seed but on the condition of the hearers' hearts, whether the word takes root and bears fruit or is overcome as shown in their actions. The same message fails differently where hearts are hard, shallow, or crowded, with some soon losing its impression amid cares and temptations, some falling away under trial for lack of deep root, and others letting riches, cares, and pleasures choke it. Hearts need not remain so, for by repentance, faith, and earnest effort in Christ's strength the soil can be broken up and purified, and those who sow today are to spread the gospel everywhere by word, life, and printed page while exalting Christ and His cross so the seed bears fruit to God's glory.
Seed, Sower, and Setting
The seed is the word — the word of God, the word of truth, the gospel of the Son of God, Christ's teaching, the theory of truth with its evidences, the eternal Word of Christ scattered in mind and heart. The parable uses the familiar work of sowing and the different kinds of ground to illustrate that teaching, with some seed yielding no fruit and seed on good ground producing a harvest. Its results depend on the condition of the hearers' hearts, not on any change in the sower or seed.
The word as seed carries God's own life and power and works by the same laws as natural seed. Receiving it by faith brings God's life and character into the believer and produces a like life and character. Christ has sown this gospel seed since the fall, beginning with the first promise in Eden, while Satan sows error to oppose God's kingdom and bring people under his power.
The sower is Christ, especially in His personal ministry and the work He established, and also those who preach present truth. God works through humble preachers and ordinary people called by the Spirit from their usual work to proclaim the message of mercy. Those who so proclaim it sow the word like seed, their efforts cooperating with heavenly agencies while God prepares hearers' hearts to receive what is sown.
The parable was spoken to disappointment that Jesus had not set up a worldly kingdom and that many learned and wealthy people rejected Him, raising doubts about why His followers were often humble people. It shows the tendencies of human hearts and the different classes taught, explaining Christ's limited immediate results. People were free to accept or reject Him and were not forced into belief or obedience, but had to join their own effort with divine power to overcome sin. Using the sowing scene and the different kinds of ground before His hearers, He made the teaching vivid and memorable to awaken thought, and those who wanted fuller understanding could ask Him.
Hearts Receiving the Word
The seed is the word, and the different kinds of ground picture how that teaching meets different hearers, with some seed yielding no fruit and seed on good ground producing a harvest. Its results depend on the condition of hearers' hearts, not on any change in the sower or the seed, showing the tendencies of human hearts and the different classes taught. Whether the seed takes root and bears good fruit or is overcome by thorns and brambles becomes evident in a person's actions.
The parable explains limited immediate results, for people were free to accept or reject Christ and were not forced into belief or obedience. Hearers had to join their own effort with divine power to overcome sin.
The same message produces different failures according to the heart, and hearing and professing the truth does not ensure a lasting fruitful response. Some soon lose its impression amid worldly cares and temptations, losing the truth through hardened habits and corrupt associations, while others begin a holier life by putting its principles into practice. Some receive it eagerly but fall away under trial because it has not taken deep root, and others let love of the world, deceitful gain, riches, cares, and pleasures choke it.
Hearts become inattentive and neglectful through resistance to the Spirit, and people are responsible for the hardness and thorns that prevent the word from taking root and growing. The heart must be renewed and the word allowed to take root, with repentance breaking up its soil and evil tendencies that choke the good seed uprooted through earnest effort in Christ's name and strength. Hearers need not remain hard, shallow, or thorny, for by choice and with God's help the heart can be cultivated, with poisonous growths uprooted so the word can develop. That deeper work means deeper ploughing and purifying, with self cast out and broken before God in longing for true holiness through practical genuine faith and love and trust, since cherished self quenches the life of Christ in the soul. Where faith is shallow and valueless and fruit is of poor quality, deep heart-searching and revival of love for God and man are needed for good fruit.
What is taken in shapes the mind, for God's word is the foundation of education, and setting it aside and replacing it with human ideas plants doubt, weakens faith, and leaves the soul without guide, safeguard, and restraint on evil passions. Turning from eternal truth to finite human writings narrows and weakens the understanding. Books that mix Scripture with fanciful interpretations sow seeds that produce a harvest of infidelity in what young people read and learn. Likewise words spoken are seed sown in the mind that can take root and spring up and bear fruit, so when difficulties, perplexities, unbelief, darkness, and infidel feelings are talked out, even with no particular object, Satan uses the speakers as agents to transmit his darts to other minds. Words from trusted brethren lodge with special power in a weak mind, where a few difficult passages thrown in can grow into open unbelief, fascination with error, and loss, and to sow such seed is cruel and dishonoring to God, for Satan works unperceived by it and exults in it as he determines by it to overthrow and claim his prey.
The sown word may remain dormant and unseen for a time, making an impression not readily forgotten yet lying buried for years beneath worldly rubbish and pleasing fables. God's grace can convict the heart and awaken it to life, causing it to grow and bear fruit to God's glory. After earthly sorrow or affliction softens the heart it springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. Its effect may not be seen at once, but it can later bear fruit to God's glory and help save many, as teaching remembered after Christ's death and resurrection could be passed on to future generations. Even one discourse heard in continued meetings can leave an impression carried elsewhere, where under the Holy Spirit's influence the truth may later find a place in the heart and lead to conversion and the saving of souls.
Sowing the Word Today
Sowing is spreading the word of the gospel according to God's plan, reaching into people and places not previously considered so that thousands who have never heard the truth may hear it. Those who present truth sow through words, prayers, and influence, trusting the seed will bear fruit to God's glory. Speech rightly used and sanctified by the Holy Spirit is a means of sowing the precious seeds of truth in many hearts, and a life of self-denial and obedience also influences others toward truth. The word of God is sown like seed in minds and hearts, and seeds of truth planted there under the Holy Spirit spring up and bear fruit for God's glory in the saving of souls.
Those who sow must help prepare hearts to receive the seed through personal, sympathetic ministry, for love shown in individual care can soften hearts that argument does not move. Personal, Christlike ministry can soften a heart as hard as a beaten road, allowing the seed of truth to take root where logic and argument fail. Truth so taught breaks up hardened ground and removes the roots of evil growth. Their work includes grounding new believers in salvation through Christ's sacrifice, living His life and character, bearing burdens, denying natural inclinations, trusting Christ, and working for the lost, which keeps the word from failing in shallow soil or being choked by thorns.
Preaching the word as sowing seed bears fruit to God's glory only when Christ as Saviour of the world, His cross and redeeming love, are exalted in connection with the theory of truth and its evidences. Discourses that are wholly argumentative and do not present the cross fail to bring the sown seed to fruit. Because some hearers are hearing their last sermon, with the chain of truth and practical application to the heart never to come again, omitting Christ loses a golden opportunity forever, while exalting Him with the theory can decide souls for Him. God works through humble preachers and prepares hearers' hearts to receive what is sown. Sowers proclaiming the message of mercy may be ordinary people called by the Spirit from their usual work, and their efforts cooperate with heavenly agencies, so their work should be supported and treated with respect, since scorn and discouragement can hinder the gospel and leave people unsaved.
Sowing includes personal, interested effort in wisely distributing papers and tracts, putting the truth they contain as seed into minds that would not listen to a living preacher. Continued meetings give people the chance to hear the word of truth, and even one discourse can leave an impression carried elsewhere, where it may later find place in the heart and lead to conversion, springing up to bear fruit. Speaking the message while canvassing gives young workers experience in sharing the words of life, and seeds of truth so shared can spring up and bear fruit. Carrying truth into new fields as missionaries is sowing the word, and it should be supported with the means needed to advance it. In Nashville this meant workers taking hold in the Spirit of Christ, with young men uniting with schools as students and laboring wisely and judiciously among teachers and students of precious talents, earnestly seeking doors of access to the soul, receiving spiritual discernment, accomplishing much good, and sending truth forth as a burning lamp.
The word is good seed to be sown in children in early life while the mind is impressible, and when sown upon good soil it will bear fruit unto eternal life. In the earliest years parents should prepare hearts and plant truth through loving instruction, teaching that Christ is their personal Saviour and that they become His disciples by giving Him heart and mind. Parents are to do this preparing work by not sending little children away to school too early and by being their best teachers till eight or ten years of age, being careful how the molding of the infant mind is trusted to other hands. Their schoolroom should be the open air amid flowers and birds and their textbook the treasures of nature, opened before them as fast as minds can comprehend, so lessons given amid such surroundings will not soon be forgotten. This cultivation of minds and formation of correct habits deserves the time and labor now worse than wasted in following worldly fashions, and it will bring a marked change in families.
In schools lessons made plain through objects can lead minds from nature to God, planting seeds whose good results may become clear only on the day of God. The seed must be clean and pure words of Christ learned daily and presented with certainty, making school work like Christ's work, and only God's grace keeps the atmosphere clean. Setting God's word aside as the foundation of education and replacing it with human ideas plants doubt, weakens faith, and leaves the soul without guide, safeguard, and restraint on evil passions, while turning from eternal truth to finite human writings narrows and weakens understanding. As seed cast into the ground brings new growth it also teaches Christ's death and resurrection, and the heart must be prepared by repentance breaking up its soil and by uprooting evil tendencies that choke the good seed through earnest effort in Christ's name and strength.
The sower sows the word of God, the gospel of truth and teaching of Christ scattered in mind and heart. The sower is Christ in His own ministry and also those who preach present truth as God works through humble instruments called to proclaim mercy. The harvest does not turn on any change in sower or seed but on the condition of the hearers' hearts, whether the word takes root and bears fruit or is overcome as shown in their actions. The same message fails differently where hearts are hard, shallow, or crowded, with some soon losing its impression amid cares and temptations, some falling away under trial for lack of deep root, and others letting riches, cares, and pleasures choke it. Hearts need not remain so, for by repentance, faith, and earnest effort in Christ's strength the soil can be broken up and purified, and those who sow today are to spread the gospel everywhere by word, life, and printed page while exalting Christ and His cross so the seed bears fruit to God's glory.
Seed, Sower, and Setting
The seed is the word — the word of God, the word of truth, the gospel of the Son of God, Christ's teaching, the theory of truth with its evidences, the eternal Word of Christ scattered in mind and heart. The parable uses the familiar work of sowing and the different kinds of ground to illustrate that teaching, with some seed yielding no fruit and seed on good ground producing a harvest. Its results depend on the condition of the hearers' hearts, not on any change in the sower or seed.
The word as seed carries God's own life and power and works by the same laws as natural seed. Receiving it by faith brings God's life and character into the believer and produces a like life and character. Christ has sown this gospel seed since the fall, beginning with the first promise in Eden, while Satan sows error to oppose God's kingdom and bring people under his power.
The sower is Christ, especially in His personal ministry and the work He established, and also those who preach present truth. God works through humble preachers and ordinary people called by the Spirit from their usual work to proclaim the message of mercy. Those who so proclaim it sow the word like seed, their efforts cooperating with heavenly agencies while God prepares hearers' hearts to receive what is sown.
The parable was spoken to disappointment that Jesus had not set up a worldly kingdom and that many learned and wealthy people rejected Him, raising doubts about why His followers were often humble people. It shows the tendencies of human hearts and the different classes taught, explaining Christ's limited immediate results. People were free to accept or reject Him and were not forced into belief or obedience, but had to join their own effort with divine power to overcome sin. Using the sowing scene and the different kinds of ground before His hearers, He made the teaching vivid and memorable to awaken thought, and those who wanted fuller understanding could ask Him.
Hearts Receiving the Word
The seed is the word, and the different kinds of ground picture how that teaching meets different hearers, with some seed yielding no fruit and seed on good ground producing a harvest. Its results depend on the condition of hearers' hearts, not on any change in the sower or the seed, showing the tendencies of human hearts and the different classes taught. Whether the seed takes root and bears good fruit or is overcome by thorns and brambles becomes evident in a person's actions.
The parable explains limited immediate results, for people were free to accept or reject Christ and were not forced into belief or obedience. Hearers had to join their own effort with divine power to overcome sin.
The same message produces different failures according to the heart, and hearing and professing the truth does not ensure a lasting fruitful response. Some soon lose its impression amid worldly cares and temptations, losing the truth through hardened habits and corrupt associations, while others begin a holier life by putting its principles into practice. Some receive it eagerly but fall away under trial because it has not taken deep root, and others let love of the world, deceitful gain, riches, cares, and pleasures choke it.
Hearts become inattentive and neglectful through resistance to the Spirit, and people are responsible for the hardness and thorns that prevent the word from taking root and growing. The heart must be renewed and the word allowed to take root, with repentance breaking up its soil and evil tendencies that choke the good seed uprooted through earnest effort in Christ's name and strength. Hearers need not remain hard, shallow, or thorny, for by choice and with God's help the heart can be cultivated, with poisonous growths uprooted so the word can develop. That deeper work means deeper ploughing and purifying, with self cast out and broken before God in longing for true holiness through practical genuine faith and love and trust, since cherished self quenches the life of Christ in the soul. Where faith is shallow and valueless and fruit is of poor quality, deep heart-searching and revival of love for God and man are needed for good fruit.
What is taken in shapes the mind, for God's word is the foundation of education, and setting it aside and replacing it with human ideas plants doubt, weakens faith, and leaves the soul without guide, safeguard, and restraint on evil passions. Turning from eternal truth to finite human writings narrows and weakens the understanding. Books that mix Scripture with fanciful interpretations sow seeds that produce a harvest of infidelity in what young people read and learn. Likewise words spoken are seed sown in the mind that can take root and spring up and bear fruit, so when difficulties, perplexities, unbelief, darkness, and infidel feelings are talked out, even with no particular object, Satan uses the speakers as agents to transmit his darts to other minds. Words from trusted brethren lodge with special power in a weak mind, where a few difficult passages thrown in can grow into open unbelief, fascination with error, and loss, and to sow such seed is cruel and dishonoring to God, for Satan works unperceived by it and exults in it as he determines by it to overthrow and claim his prey.
The sown word may remain dormant and unseen for a time, making an impression not readily forgotten yet lying buried for years beneath worldly rubbish and pleasing fables. God's grace can convict the heart and awaken it to life, causing it to grow and bear fruit to God's glory. After earthly sorrow or affliction softens the heart it springs up and bears fruit to the glory of God. Its effect may not be seen at once, but it can later bear fruit to God's glory and help save many, as teaching remembered after Christ's death and resurrection could be passed on to future generations. Even one discourse heard in continued meetings can leave an impression carried elsewhere, where under the Holy Spirit's influence the truth may later find a place in the heart and lead to conversion and the saving of souls.
Sowing the Word Today
Sowing is spreading the word of the gospel according to God's plan, reaching into people and places not previously considered so that thousands who have never heard the truth may hear it. Those who present truth sow through words, prayers, and influence, trusting the seed will bear fruit to God's glory. Speech rightly used and sanctified by the Holy Spirit is a means of sowing the precious seeds of truth in many hearts, and a life of self-denial and obedience also influences others toward truth. The word of God is sown like seed in minds and hearts, and seeds of truth planted there under the Holy Spirit spring up and bear fruit for God's glory in the saving of souls.
Those who sow must help prepare hearts to receive the seed through personal, sympathetic ministry, for love shown in individual care can soften hearts that argument does not move. Personal, Christlike ministry can soften a heart as hard as a beaten road, allowing the seed of truth to take root where logic and argument fail. Truth so taught breaks up hardened ground and removes the roots of evil growth. Their work includes grounding new believers in salvation through Christ's sacrifice, living His life and character, bearing burdens, denying natural inclinations, trusting Christ, and working for the lost, which keeps the word from failing in shallow soil or being choked by thorns.
Preaching the word as sowing seed bears fruit to God's glory only when Christ as Saviour of the world, His cross and redeeming love, are exalted in connection with the theory of truth and its evidences. Discourses that are wholly argumentative and do not present the cross fail to bring the sown seed to fruit. Because some hearers are hearing their last sermon, with the chain of truth and practical application to the heart never to come again, omitting Christ loses a golden opportunity forever, while exalting Him with the theory can decide souls for Him. God works through humble preachers and prepares hearers' hearts to receive what is sown. Sowers proclaiming the message of mercy may be ordinary people called by the Spirit from their usual work, and their efforts cooperate with heavenly agencies, so their work should be supported and treated with respect, since scorn and discouragement can hinder the gospel and leave people unsaved.
Sowing includes personal, interested effort in wisely distributing papers and tracts, putting the truth they contain as seed into minds that would not listen to a living preacher. Continued meetings give people the chance to hear the word of truth, and even one discourse can leave an impression carried elsewhere, where it may later find place in the heart and lead to conversion, springing up to bear fruit. Speaking the message while canvassing gives young workers experience in sharing the words of life, and seeds of truth so shared can spring up and bear fruit. Carrying truth into new fields as missionaries is sowing the word, and it should be supported with the means needed to advance it. In Nashville this meant workers taking hold in the Spirit of Christ, with young men uniting with schools as students and laboring wisely and judiciously among teachers and students of precious talents, earnestly seeking doors of access to the soul, receiving spiritual discernment, accomplishing much good, and sending truth forth as a burning lamp.
The word is good seed to be sown in children in early life while the mind is impressible, and when sown upon good soil it will bear fruit unto eternal life. In the earliest years parents should prepare hearts and plant truth through loving instruction, teaching that Christ is their personal Saviour and that they become His disciples by giving Him heart and mind. Parents are to do this preparing work by not sending little children away to school too early and by being their best teachers till eight or ten years of age, being careful how the molding of the infant mind is trusted to other hands. Their schoolroom should be the open air amid flowers and birds and their textbook the treasures of nature, opened before them as fast as minds can comprehend, so lessons given amid such surroundings will not soon be forgotten. This cultivation of minds and formation of correct habits deserves the time and labor now worse than wasted in following worldly fashions, and it will bring a marked change in families.
In schools lessons made plain through objects can lead minds from nature to God, planting seeds whose good results may become clear only on the day of God. The seed must be clean and pure words of Christ learned daily and presented with certainty, making school work like Christ's work, and only God's grace keeps the atmosphere clean. Setting God's word aside as the foundation of education and replacing it with human ideas plants doubt, weakens faith, and leaves the soul without guide, safeguard, and restraint on evil passions, while turning from eternal truth to finite human writings narrows and weakens understanding. As seed cast into the ground brings new growth it also teaches Christ's death and resurrection, and the heart must be prepared by repentance breaking up its soil and by uprooting evil tendencies that choke the good seed through earnest effort in Christ's name and strength.