Mark 4: 26 – 29
One For The Money – Two For The Show
26 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
If you have been studying your bible with us then you know that I like to reference other men of God who influenced by our Precious Holy Spirit wrote down His message.
In the Gospels the apostle Matthew wrote down the words and acts of our Lord Jesus Christ as he was inspired by our Wonderful Holy Ghost. Then Peter penned his version through his adopted son in the faith – Mark. And also, as you are aware, the disciple Luke who was a traveling companion of the apostle Paul came back to Jerusalem and interviewed the eyewitnesses and composed both the Gospel that bears his name along with part II called the book of Acts.
Now you may be interested in knowing why I am mentioning this information. Well, today we are going to look at the Gospel of Mark. Here he is going to relate to us our Lord’s teaching on the seed of His word and how it will grow to a harvest. However, within His wholesome and good seed, our Master will advise us, that an evil one also crept in and sowed tares. Our Ruler has given the command to allow both the good and the bad seed. Then in the harvest He will separate the good wheat from the phony tares.
What we find unique with this Scripture is that Mark is the only Gospel writer to cover these words of our Supreme Holy Lord. Having said this, however, we can also be amazed that our Awesome Holy Spirit inspired others in past and in the future to further enhance these important facts.
Matthew 13:24-30, “24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ gives introduces to His disciples and to us a partial glimpse into the future. In just four verses He covers the entire history of His church on earth until His Second Coming.
Before leaving this earth and returning to Heaven He said this as reported by the apostle Matthew in chapter 28:16-20 “16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
We are also His disciples, so what are we to do as He ordered? We are to go and tell everyone we know about Him. Tell them that He Is the Son of God and that He came to earth and paid the ultimate price to redeem us from our sins. This sentence for us was death. He poured our His Holy Blood at Calvary and died in our places.
If we confess with our mouths that we acknowledge His substitution death and Resurrection and ask Him to forgive us our trespasses and allow Him to be our Lord and Savior, He forgives us our sins, adopts us into His family, and promises us eternal life with Him, The Father, and The Holy Spirit for all eternity. Now that my friends is ‘Good News’.
This is one thing that a lot of so called Christians are not doing. They are not sharing the seed or word of this ‘Good News.
In the book of Romans chapter 10 we here this same concern from the apostle Paul, “13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
In all purity the job as our Lord gives us here in Matthew is that the word will do the following action until the end of time which is also called the ‘harvest’
26 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
However, our Lord informs us that there is going to be some problems with our scattering the ‘Good News’ seed. We have this enemy of our Great God who wants to mess things up all the time. Our Lord Jesus tells us that is going to sow bad seeds which are referred to as tares - “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.”
I believe many Americans are in the dark relative to our religious freedom to speak openly about our Lord Jesus Christ.
Stop and think about this information with me? First of all we have the problem of wishy-washy Christians. Many say that we are a Christian nation. I do not think we are because of what I see. There are only small minorities that take a stand for our Lord. So, we have many that ‘profess’ that they are Christians yet they do not ‘possess’ the Lord in their lives.
Probably the scariest verses in the bible come from the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 7 where our Lord declares, “21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Therefore we have only a few obeying the Lord’s command to go spread the ‘Good News’. Now add to this Satan’s game plan of hindering the few who are obedient. You might want to know how he has done this.
Well, in case you have forgotten, our country has kicked God out of our schools and out of anything remotely tied in with government. Our country has basically informed us that they do not want to hear about our Great and Holy Adoni Yahweh – The Lord Most High. Oh yes, there is still religious freedom here. If you want to hear about our Wonderful Adoni Yeshua – The Lord Jesus Christ, then go to a specific building. Keep all the seeds looked away in certain buildings.
If our Precious Holy Spirit raises up a man to be the sower of His Word, then the world counters with local residency restrictions to easements and take away the sites where God’s Word is taught.
Do you see how bad this is getting? Now another question which needs to be addressed is ‘what are phony seeds or tares?’
Phony seeds or tares are false doctrine - Teaching things that are not in the Bible. You can also add the teaching of man made traditions and the performance of religious ceremonies.
Our Lord informed us how He will treat the infiltration of false seed. He will allow both the good and bad seed grow together until the harvest – ‘26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’
How can you tell the difference between tares and wheat? You see at first glance they both look alike. Our Lord informed the reapers not to touch the tares and wheat until the harvest, then it will be easier to separate the two. Why?
You see wheat when fully developed bend over from the weight of the grain on top. Tares on the other hand remain straight. The Master informs His reapers to go and pull up the plants that stand straight up – they are the phony tares. They are good for nothing. To get rid of them they are bundled and burned.
We all need to take our own inventories. The apostle Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians chapter 13, “5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.’
I leave you with this great verse so that we will not be fake wheat but respond like a fully developed wheat plant. We read this in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 23, “11 But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. 13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
Do you bear good fruit or tares?
