========================================================================
  EXPOSITORY THOUGHTS ON MARK - MARK 4:1-20
  by J.C. Ryle
========================================================================

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

These verses contain the parable of the sower. Of all the parables
spoken by our Lord, none is probably so well-known as this. There is
none which is so easily understood by all, from the gracious familiarity
of the figures which it contains. There is none which is of such
universal and perpetual application. So long as there is a Church of
Christ and a congregation of Christians, so long there will be
employment for this parable.

The language of the parable requires no explanation. To use the words of
an ancient writer, "it needs application, not exposition." Let us now
see what it teaches.

We are taught, in the first place, that there are some hearers of the
Gospel, whose hearts are like the wayside in a field.

These are they who hear sermons, but pay no attention to them. They go
to a place of worship, for form or fashion, or to appear respectable
before men. But they take no interest whatever in the preaching. It
seems to them a mere matter of words and names, and unintelligible talk.
It is neither money, nor food, nor drink, nor clothes, nor company; and
as they sit under the sound of it, they are taken up with thinking of
other things. It matters nothing whether it is Law or Gospel. It
produces no more effect on them than water on a stone. And at the end
they go away, knowing no more than when they came in.

There are myriads of professing Christians in this state of soul. There
is hardly a church or chapel, where scores of them are not to be found.
Sunday after Sunday they allow the devil to catch away the good seed
that is sown on the surface of their hearts. Week after week they live
on, without faith, or fear, or knowledge, or grace--feeling nothing,
caring nothing, taking no more interest in religion, than if Christ had
never died on the cross at all. And in this state they often die and are
buried, and are lost forever in hell. This is a mournful picture, but
only too true.

We are taught, in the second place, that there are some hearers of the
Gospel whose hearts are like the stony ground in a field.

These are they on whom preaching produces temporary impressions, but no
deep, lasting, and abiding effect. They take pleasure in hearing sermons
in which the truth is faithfully set forth. They can speak with apparent
joy and enthusiasm about the sweetness of the Gospel, and the happiness
which they experience in listening to it. They can be moved to tears by
the appeals of preachers, and talk with apparent earnestness of their
own inward conflicts, hopes, struggles, desires, and fears. But
unhappily there is no stability about their religion. "They have no root
in themselves, and so endure but for a time." There is no real work of
the Holy Spirit within their hearts. Their impressions are like Jonah\

========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/jc-ryle/expository-thoughts-on-mark-mark-41-20/
========================================================================