Lake Martin Presbyterian Church March 22, 2026 Podcast

Join Rev. William Skinner for this week’s message from Lake Martin Presbyterian Church. Explore Scripture, hear thoughtful teaching, and be encouraged in your walk with Christ. For more information and resources, visit lakemartinpca.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. We're glad you're listening. Lake Martin Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, located near Lake Martin, Alabama. Each week we share the preaching ministry of our church and pray it encourages you in your walk with Christ. Here's this week's message.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

If you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to Mark's Gospel. The Gospel of Mark. This morning we're going to be looking at verses 26 through 29. In the past couple of weeks, we've been looking at the preaching and teaching of Jesus. And in Jesus' preaching and teaching, the main thing we've been looking at is that the kingdom of God is spread through the sowing of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the hearts of men. And not only that, that's how the kingdom is spread, but that you and I have a part to play in that mission. Both as evangelists and as living pictures, living representations to the world of Christ. But one thing may have discouraged you in the past few sermons as we've been looking at Mark's gospel. One thing may have discouraged you about the mission of the kingdom. The thing that would discourage you would be the opposition that we face in that mission. Remember that sinners cannot save themselves. Sinners cannot save themselves. They cannot even awaken themselves to hear the gospel. That's because sinners do not want to receive the gospel. Sinners do not want to receive the seed of the Word of God. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 1 that sinners suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. That all of us in our sin nature, as we are born in sin, suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. We, as the church, have a resistance to our mission and our message. In fact, three of the four soils that we looked at a few weeks ago, three of those four soils, and there were only four, so three out of the four, that's 75% of those soils were soils that the seed cannot survive in. And that's a depressing prospect. That prospect might tempt you to doubt the efficacy of the church and the efficiency of its mission or its methods. These parables might tempt you to become or to be a pessimistic, glass, half-empty kind of Christian. The kind of Christian who's just waiting for Jesus to return and to save us as everything else goes, as the phrase is, to hell in a handbasket. And the headlines don't help, do they? As you read the scriptures in light of the headlines and what's going on in the world, you begin to think that the church is losing in its mission. That the church is losing in the world. That the church is dying. We hear that a lot. I've heard that, I think, two or three times this week, that the church is dying, it's shrinking. People aren't going to church anymore. Bombs are dropping. Men seem to be increasingly wearing dresses in public. And there's all sorts of homosexuality on every TV show you watch. You can't get away from it. There's moral corruption everywhere. And so you might wonder if the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ are even making a difference. Are we losing? The uphill battle that we face against the resistance of sinners to our message and the opposition of the world might tempt you to believe that the mission, the message, and the methods that we use are failing. And we either need to give up or to find new methods. Or maybe the message is wrong and we need to tweak the message. And those things have been done. Those things have been done by the church time and time again. In fact, I would argue that all the great heresies in the church, all false teaching in the church, started out of a desire for increased missions and evangelism. People were trying to do something that worked. Christians tweaked either the method or the mission and ended up losing what they were sought, what they were seeking to spread in the first place. So if you're in that camp, if you are downcast from the past few weeks, from the opposition that we face in our mission, then this parable that we're going to look at today is for you. In the parable before us this morning, Jesus gives us a reminder that we have every reason for confidence, that you have every reason for confidence in the mission, the message, and the method that He has given us. Not because we're good at it, not because we have more resources, not because we are inherently better than the world or our opposition, but because it's God who is at work. That's the reason for our confidence, because it is God who is at work. And that's the main thing that I want you to see in this text this morning. That you have reason for confidence in our message and our methods because it's God who's at work in and through the ordinary means of grace, the ordinary means here to redeem the world. That's your reason for confidence because it's God who's at work. And in this text, I want you to see three things about how the kingdom grows. First, I want you to see the work of the kingdom in verse 26. The work of the kingdom in verse 26. Secondly, I want you to see the work of the king. The work of the king in verses 27 through 28. And then thirdly, I want you to look at the reward of the kingdom. The reward of the kingdom in verse 29. But before we look at those things, let's pray and ask for God's blessing upon the reading and preaching of his word. Let's pray. Abba Father, Holy God, we read in Hebrews this morning about the power of your word. That it's sharper than any two-edged sword. That it's able to divide even between soul and spirit. That your word will not return void. And so we ask this morning that you would pour out your spirit upon us. That your word would do its work in our hearts, that it would not return void, that we would see the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would know him better, that we would trust you more truly. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Mark chapter 4, beginning in verse 26. And he, Jesus, said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. This is God's word. Look with me at verse 26 first. Let's look at the work of the kingdom. Now in verse 26, we hear familiar words. Familiar words to what we've been looking at the past few weeks. There we see that the kingdom of heaven, as as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. Now, that particular part of this parable is what we've been talking about for weeks now. That the kingdom of God is first sowed through the word of God, through the preaching of the word of God. Here in this parable, we're simply told that the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter. In fact, the word here is different from what we've been looking at. The word has been sowed, which you might call a technical gardening or agricultural term. Well, here in this parable, it's changed, it's reduced in specificity. The word here is just the word for throw. This person just chunks out some seeds. It's less specific. The focus here in this parable is not on the man. The man is not the important part. The important part is on the action that is being done. What is the man doing? And here he's scattering seeds. And that's the first step. That's the first step of the kingdom, that the seeds must be sown. That's the necessary step. The kingdom will not grow, the kingdom will not spread without someone putting out seeds. And again, here it's not even a specific sowing. He doesn't even have to dig a hole. He doesn't have to plow the ground. He just has to chunk the seeds out. But the seeds must be put out. What is this necessary scattering of seeds? What's included in that? It's the same thing that we've been looking at for the previous parables. That the word of God must be proclaimed to the nations. The word of God must be preached. The word of God must be preached to the world, to people. That's what it means to scatter the seed. Paul states this plainly in Romans chapter 10, verses 14 through 15. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how will they hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. So this scattering of seed entails preaching the Word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, to all peoples. As the book of Acts says, from Jerusalem to Judea Samaria to the end of the world. That's what it means to scatter the seed, to preach the gospel all across the world. So what is the seed? We just talked about what the scattering is. What is the seed itself? The seed is Christ. The seed is the Lord Jesus Christ, his person and work in his word. Now this doesn't mean that to scatter the seed is to go around and do the five-step evangelism tract. And once we've done that to all the peoples around the world, the mission's complete. It's over. We don't just check that box and we're done. Jesus tells us himself in Luke chapter 24, verse 44, that all of the scriptures, all of the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, all of it is about Him. He is the center of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. And Jesus must be preached from the whole Bible. The whole counsel of God is what must be preached. Every bit of who God is, who you are, who we are in our sin, God's redemptive plan, the covenants, the person and work of Jesus Christ, and then how we ought to live in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. All of it must be preached. All of Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for training in righteousness, for making men wise unto salvation. It is Christ Jesus in the scriptures that must be preached. That's the seed that must be preached. So the scattering is preaching Christ to the nations. The seed is Christ in his word. And then who is responsible for doing the scattering? Who is it that must do this work? It's the church. It's you. You are tasked with scattering the seed. The kingdom of God here on earth is the collective body which is entast to do this work of scattering. It's not just the apostles who must do this work. It's not pastors who must do this work. It's the church. It's collectively, all of us, who must do this work. That doesn't mean that all of you have to go preach. Some of you probably shouldn't preach. That doesn't mean that all of you are called to be missionaries or evangelists. Some of you shouldn't do that either. But you as the church and every single one of you are responsible to see that this seed is scattered. You may not be gifted to preach, but you can pray. You can pray diligently, seriously, that the word of God would be sown into the hearts of men and women all over the world. You can do that. You may not be gifted to preach, but you can give generously to support the proclamation of the gospel in your local church and then around the world. You may not be gifted to preach, but you can at least make friends and invite your neighbors to come hear the preaching of God's word here in your own community. You may not be gifted to preach, but you can plant the seeds by reading God's word to your children and to your grandchildren and catechizing them and teaching them about who God is and who Christ is and well, there's a ladybug. Who we are in our sins. Sorry about that. In your own families, you can scatter the seeds of God's word. The point is that we, all of us, collectively, we in the kingdom of God have a part to play. We are the ones tasked to scatter the seed of God's word. No one else is going to do it. It's us. It's our responsibility. The buck stops with us, with you. So scattering the seed, that that the church of God is tasked to proclaim the whole council of God to the nations. And that's our primary task. That's our duty. That's our mission, our message, and sorry, our mission, message, and method. It's a tongue twister. The mission. We're to proclaim God's word to all people. That's our mission. Make disciples of Christ. We proclaim God's word to all people. The message. What's the message? It's Jesus Christ for sinners here in the scriptures, here in God's Word, Jesus Christ for sinners. That's our message. What's our method? Preaching the word of God, the ordinary means of grace. The things we do here on Sundays, sing, read, pray, preach God's word in the sacraments. That's our method. That's what we do. We're not reinventing the wheel. It's those things. So that's our mission, our message, and our method. And that's the work of the kingdom of God. That's the part that we play. Now, let's turn and see why we have a reason for confidence in this work. Let's look at the work of the king. The work of the king. Look with me at verses 27 through 28. In the second part of the parable, the seed is planted or really just scattered. And the person who scattered it does nothing. That's the emphasis of this parable. If you look at it, he sleeps and rises, and the seed sprouts and grows. And he does nothing. In this parable, the person who scattered the seeds is just left wondering, how does this happen? How does this seed grow? What's going on here? Now this is a parable, and it's meant to illustrate a point. And the point here is not about agriculture or gardening. This is not to teach you something about how to grow a garden. For any of you who've worked on a farm, been around a farm, or have had a garden, then you already know that this is not how it works. This is not how it works at all. If you merely go out and throw out seeds, even if you plant the seeds at the right depth of soil, if that's all you do and you don't pull the weeds, you don't water your garden, you don't fertilize your garden, then you really can't expect to harvest at all. You probably won't harvest a single thing. If you do, it won't be great. But that's actually the point of the parable. And Jesus knew that when he was teaching the parable. That in the kingdom of God, it's as if a man went out and just threw out some seeds. And that's all he did. And lo and behold, the crop comes up. It produced grain, a full crop of grain. Now, if that really worked, if that was really how agriculture worked, or if people suddenly discovered a magical seed that you could do that with, then farmers all across our country could save millions of dollars on herbicide and insecticide and all sorts of things that they do to keep crops growing. Not to mention the labor costs and the fuel cost. But in the kingdom of God, that's actually how it works. We are responsible, you are responsible to get the word out, to get the word of God into the ears of people. We are responsible to share the gospel, to preach the whole counsel of God, but that's where our role ends. That's where our role stops. We proclaim the word of God, we scatter the seed, and then we turn it over to God. God does everything else. It's God's word and God's Spirit that can do sinners good. So we get the word out and then we let the Spirit of God do the work. It's the Spirit of God and the Spirit of God alone that can change people's hearts. It's the Spirit of God that gives new life to sinners. It's the Spirit of God that can soften our hearts so that we stop suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. It's the Spirit of God alone that can give us faith, the eyes of faith, to take Christ as He's offered in the gospel. And even now, if you have embraced Christ, it's the Spirit of God that continues to cause us to grow in grace and holiness. We can't do that. We can't do that part of it ourselves. There's nothing that we can do. There's nothing that I can do, there's nothing that you can do to do that part of the work. We can't beat people into submission to God's word. If you'll remember from the book of Nehemiah, at the end of the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah actually tried that. At the end of the failed Reformation, the return to Jerusalem, Nehemiah was out there beating Sabbath breakers and pulling out people's hair and kicking them and trying to force them into conformity to God's word. And that clearly didn't work so well. We can't trick people. We can't deceive people into thinking that what we do here is more entertaining than what the world has to offer. It's not. There are much more entertaining things that someone could do on a Sunday morning than be here. We're not going to deceive people. We can't coerce people. We can't do any of those things or similar things because acceptance of Jesus Christ, receiving the seed, begins with a heart change. A heart change that only comes from God. It begins within. And only God can do that work within us. Only God can change the heart of a rebel sinner like you and like me. Now to some of you, that sounds like a cop-out. To say that we have to let go and let God, I don't like that phrase, while we sip our lattes and just hope aimlessly that God will actually bring sinners around and cause growth to happen. And we use that as an excuse for laziness, an excuse for fatalism, that since we can never bring a sinner to faith and repentance ourselves, then it's hopeless. Why do we even try? But any of those responses are wrong. They're completely wrong, they're dead wrong. This parable, these two verses, ought to give you the utmost confidence in what we're doing here. They ought to give you the utmost confidence because it's God who's bringing forth the fruit from his word. It's God who is at work. It's the one, God is the one who's doing it all. And if God The one who's doing it, then it will succeed. Could you imagine if a farmer who's doing all these crazy tactics to get his crop to produce all of a sudden found out that there was this seed that he could just go spread and it would come up in a full harvest? He would sell all of his equipment, buy a spreader, and just go burn up his tires driving around, spreading out the seed all the time. He would rent more land. He would do whatever he could to just get those seeds in the ground, and then he could have a three-month vacation. Just waiting. But that's the kind of zeal that you and I need to have because it's God who's doing the work. That's actually the situation for us. All we have to do is scatter the seed, and God does the work. God has promised that his spirit will accompany his word. And that his word will not return void. It's God who's doing the work, who's bringing forth the growth, who's bringing forth the fruit of the seeds of his word. And all that you and I have to do is get that word out, to proclaim it, to preach it, to send people abroad who will deliver that word to the nations. Our business is to get God's word into the ears of people, and God will do the rest. And doesn't that give you confidence in what we're doing here? Doesn't that give you confidence in our little church here on Lake Martin? That all we have to do, our mission is to be faithful, to proclaim God's word, the whole counsel of God, and that God is the one who will be faithful to give the growth. We are in the business of praying, of teaching, and of preaching. God is in the business of using our efforts to remake our broken world, to redeem this world from the curse. We get to proclaim God's word, sit back, and watch God conquer the world one sinner at a time. I don't know how you can hear that truth, how you can hear this parable and not be an optimist about the church, not be an optimist about preaching. I hear this parable and I want to sit on the edge of my seat. I'm actually standing while I preach, but sit on the edge of my seat figuratively while I'm preaching. Because you never know what God is going to do through the preaching of his word. Because little by little, as we read, preach, pray, sing, baptize, eat bread, and drink wine, the curse, the fall of man is being reversed. Center by center, all around the world, Christ's kingdom is coming down to earth and is taking hold and pushing back the kingdom of darkness. The reason that you should have confidence in what we're doing here. What we're doing right now is not because we're innovative. It's not because we're especially efficient or effective. It's not because we're extraordinary. The reason you should have confidence is because it's the king who is at work. It is God Himself who has promised and will deliver to bring this work about. We've seen the work of the kingdom. That it's your job to get the seeds out. We've seen the work of the king, that he will be faithful and do the work. Let's now look at the reward of the kingdom. Look with me at verse 29. This is simple enough. After the crop grows, the farmer puts in the sickle. For the time of harvest has come. The same farmer who simply scattered the seeds, comes back, and enjoys a full harvest of the crop. And we're told in this parable that's what the kingdom of God is like. We spend our days in this pilgrimage handling the seeds. We spend our days on earth handling the Word of God, getting the Word of God out. And then God does all the work. And then we who simply scattered seeds on earth get to enjoy the full harvest. We get to come back and enjoy a full harvest. But what is the harvest of God? Actually, practically, what is this harvest that I'm speaking of? What's the fruit that comes from the seed of the word? Bishop J.C. Ryle thought that this harvest was a reference to the death of the saint. The day on which a sinner moves, a sinner trusting in Jesus is freed from sin ultimately, who departs from this world and their soul goes to be with Jesus. And that's the harvest of righteousness. And that's certainly true. And with Paul, you ought to be able to say that for me to die is gain. It is gain. We need to be able to say that. But it's not all finished at the moment that you die. That's not the harvest. It's part of the harvest, but it's not the fullness of the harvest. When you die in Christ, your soul will depart from your body. Your soul will depart from your body and go immediately to be with the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. And there with Jesus and all of the other souls of saints in glory, your soul will await the day that Jesus Christ returns, as we confess week by week, to judge the quick and the dead, the day that he returns to earth to judge the living and the dead. It is on that day and at that time that your soul will be reunited to your body. Not your body as it currently is, not your body after years of decay, but your resurrection body, your earthly body made perfect in the new heavens and the new earth. It is there at that moment that the true harvest comes. It's in that moment that the true harvest, what God has been doing in all of time and history, will be revealed. It's in the new heavens and the new earth when you will finally experience the fullness of the harvest of the kingdom of God. So what is the harvest of the kingdom of God? Ultimately, it's that day when the kingdom comes in its fullness, when all the saints will be revealed, when heaven and earth are united at last, when you and I can finally be with God, presently, forever clothed in the righteousness of Christ, living in this world as you are meant to live? It's the day when all the saints will live with our King, and we'll all be perfect. We will all be here in the world without sin, no presence of sin, no effects of sin. But does that mean that we don't get to reap any of this harvest? That we don't get to taste any of this harvest until the final day? Until that day. Until the ultimate harvest day. That day, the ultimate harvest day, is the day we hope for. It's the day we pray for. It's the day we pour out our lives for. But you will get to experience the harvest of the kingdom already. Before that. Today. When Jesus came to earth, when Jesus came to earth, his kingdom was already being brought down to earth. It has already begun. Now, you and I won't be able to experience the fullness of that kingdom until sin is completely eradicated, until there's no more sin, no more death, no more sickness, no more suffering. But if you are in Christ, you're beginning to experience that harvest even now. If Christ is in you and in your family, then you're experiencing the fruit of that kingdom even now. As you receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and it changes you, as you are set free from sin and live in new obedience, as you die to sin more and more each day and live unto righteousness, as you pour out the grace that you've received in Jesus Christ, you're experiencing the fruits of that kingdom even now. As you see the seed of that kingdom taking root in your heart and putting out fruit in your life and the lives of one another in our church, you're getting a taste of the harvest which is to come. You're getting a taste of the kingdom which is to come. And all that we did to partake of that harvest was to passively receive the word, to passively rest and receive in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It's God who does the work. All we do is scatter the seeds, and the king does the work, and we get to enjoy the harvest. A taste of the harvest today, and an abundance of the harvest in eternity. That's the reward of the kingdom. That all who are in Christ Jesus will get to enjoy the fruit of his kingdom forever. When at last you're totally free from sin, from sickness, from suffering, from sorrow, when it's all removed from this world, when all wars cease, when perfect justice rules, you will be there in that kingdom with Christ forever. Praising the king with all of his saints in perfect harmony, if they do harmony there forever. That's the reward of the kingdom. And it's God Himself who's bringing that harvest to fruition. That's the reward of the kingdom. So you've seen the work of the kingdom. That we all are in the business of proclaiming God's word to the whole world. That's our mission, it's our message, and it's our method. You've seen the work of the king. That as we stick to our mission, our message, and our method, that God is the one who does the work of changing hearts and reclaiming sinners. And you've seen the reward of the kingdom. That God is bringing back an eternity of reward for all of his saints. And we did nothing but passively receive the word and proclaim that word. And I hope what you're gaining from this parable, I hope what you're gaining from this short little parable is an unwavering confidence. Unwavering confidence that what we're doing here at Lake Martin Presbyterian Church is worth it. What we're doing here is worth it. What we're doing here at our church is the only thing that will ultimately and eternally change the world. That sounds narcissistic, but it's not. It's what the Bible tells us page after page, that the hope of the world is found in these pages and in these pages alone, in the person and work of Jesus Christ. I hope you have a confidence that reading, preaching, singing, praying, and displaying this word is actually the best thing that we can do in the midst of wars, in the midst of cultural rebellion, in the midst of American decadence and the degeneration that we see all around us. I hope you have a confidence that it's not dependent upon our skills or our innovation, but upon God Himself, who through the foolishness of preaching the word is redeeming the world to himself. And I hope you have a confidence that the only being powerful enough in the universe to fix sin is actually on your side and is fighting for you and with you. And I hope you have a confidence that even now you're getting to taste the fruits of what you'll taste for eternity. In eternity, you'll be able to enjoy the fullness of that harvest with your king. If for the past two weeks you've heard my sermons and you've been a pessimist, then hear Christ's parable this morning and take it to heart that God is on your side and we will prevail. Our mission is not a losing mission, and there's a harvest ahead. Let's pray. Abba Father, holy God, we so often take the news more seriously than your word. We become doubtful in the mission that we're on to disciple the nations. We become doubtful of the message that we carry. We become doubtful of the means and methods that you've given us to accomplish that mission. And I pray that you'd press into all of our hearts what we're hearing from the Lord Jesus Christ today, that all we must do is be faithful to scatter the seeds of your word, and you are the one who are bringing all of it to pass. Keep our eyes on Christ, keep our nose to the grindstone, and help us. Help us to bring many souls into your kingdom and let's enjoy a fruit of righteousness. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

Thank you for listening to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. If this message encouraged you, please consider sharing it with someone else. To learn more about our church, including worship times and upcoming events, visit LakemartinPCA.com. We'd love to have you join us.