Mark 4:9 And he said to them, He that has ears to hear, let him hear. I. Let us seek, in the beginning, to discriminate and classify the ordinary hearers of the Word AS THEY SHOW THEMSELVES IN THE SIGHT OF THE PREACHER. 1. For one class, he would be sure to see the listless hearers. He might discover in various parts of the audience room those whose countenances would defy all study. They are perfect blanks. No more life appears than there would be discovered in a gallery of statuary. Some will be asleep. Some there will be who hear the sound of the words, but so inattentively and unintelligently that nothing is regarded as it passes their ears. The sentences fall on their organs like the ordinary ticking of a clock; they disturb no sensibility whatsoever. We should judge that they attracted no attention of any sort if it were not that the eyes flash up suddenly with an eager curiosity if, for some reason, the sound happens to stop. 2. Next, this visitor in the pulpit would notice the criticising hearers. 3. Yet a third class might be singled out: the suspicious bearers. These are continually on the look-out, not exactly, in our times, for heterodoxy, but for eccentricities. They are afraid the preacher will say something inconsistent with the established views they cherish. 4. Then there is a fourth class: the distributing hearers. Some most devout people always listen for the sake of the rest of the congregation. II. Let us seek now, in the second place, to discriminate and classify the ordinary hearers of the Word AS THEY APPEAR IN THE SIGHT OF THE WORLD AT LARGE. Here comes in the question as to results rather than mere behaviour. We fall back upon the parable of the sower; it was given as our Saviour's illustration of the effect of the truth as it is thrown upon human hearts like seed upon different soils. 1. To begin with, there are the wayside hearers. Let us read over the old story, and lay alongside of the description at once our Lord's interpretation. (See Mark 4:4, 15.) King Agrippa (Acts 26:28) is instanced to us as an example. He went with great pomp to hear the Apostle Paul preach. That earnest and powerful pleader laid the truth on his heart, as if he would plough and harrow it into his life. But the devil's birds were near to pick up the seed. Pride came with her glittering pinions, and chirped in his ear, "Thou art a king, but who is this tent-maker?" Lust croaked behind Pride, and had something to say about giving up Berenice. So they came one after another, picked up the grain, and flew away. 2. Then our Lord mentions the stony ground hearers, and afterwards tells His disciples what He means. (See Mark 4:5, 15.) Paul had some of these hearers among his converts in Galatia (Galatians 5:7). Christ had some among His followers in Galilee: their earth was only surface soil (John 6:66). 3. Next, our Lord classifies the thorn-choked hearers. A peculiar kind of thorn in that country grows suddenly and rankly, and seems to love the borders of wheat fields (Mark 4:7, 18). Demas's history has been offered us for an illustration of this short-lived sort of emotion, in one melancholy sentence of Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:10). Perhaps the saddest of all experiences we have to meet is found in this watching of people who promise so much but who come to so little. 4. Then our Saviour speaks of the good-ground hearers in the parable. But for such, seed-sowing would be a failure. (See Mark 4:8, 20.) The great source of comfort to a preacher of the gospel is found here; the principal field of his labour is good ground. He is sustained by two promises, one about the seed (Isaiah 55:10, 11), and one about the sower (Psalm 126:5, 6). III. Let us now, in the third place, look upon those who hear the Word AS THEY APPEAR IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. |
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