Mark 4:4-15

Some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Though men be outward hearers of the Word, and do also in some sort understand what is taught, yet if their hearts be so hardened in sin and through Satan’s temptations that they are not affected and moved by it, it can never profit them. As seed sown upon a beaten path or highway cannot sink into the earth by reason of the hardness of it, nor take root or fructify; so the doctrine of the Word being preached to those whose hearts are hardened in sin cannot enter into them, and therefore cannot profit them. If the seed of the Word be only sown in their outward ears and in their minds; if it lie above ground, i.e., if it swim and float aloft in their brain and understanding only, and do not enter and sink into their hearts; if their hearts be not affected to love and embrace it, as well as their understandings enlightened by it, it will never take root or bear fruit in them. (G. Petter.)

The character of inattentive hearers considered

1. These persons hear the Word. They are not deaf, and so utterly incapable of hearing. Nor are they determined that they will not hear (Jeremiah 22:21).

2. They are only occasional hearers of the Word. They are, in regard of the assemblies where the gospel is preached, what the wayside is to the field where the seed is sown, ground without the inclosure, Or whereon the seed falls as it were accidentally or by chance. They come by constraint of conscience, or from curiosity.

3. They are not at all prepared for hearing the Word. The ground is beaten, and has received no cultivation.

4. That they hear in a heedless, desultory manner.

5. They remain grossly ignorant.

6. But some in this class do in a sense understand the Word, for the seed is said to be sown in their hearts. They understand speculatively.

7. It makes no abiding impression on the heart.

8. Our Lord’s account of the manner in which these impressions are effaced-“the fowls of the air came,” etc.

I. Who is this wicked one and why he is so called. From this short scriptural account of Satan it appears with what propriety he is here, and in many other passages, styled emphatically “the wicked one.” He is wicked himself in the highest degree, for as be exceeds all others in subtilty and power, so also in impiety and sin; a spirit the most proud, false, envious, turbulent, and malignant among all the various orders of fallen spirits. He, too, is the author of all wickedness, the contriver and promoter of every species of iniquity. Whence, the infinitely numerous evils that prevail in our world are called “the works of the devil.” Such is the character of this first apostate arch-angel, the grand, avowed enemy of God and man. And thus are we led to our second inquiry-

II. What is meant by his “catching away the seed,” and how is this done? For no more is meant by the influence which Satan is supposed in certain cases to exert over the mind, than what is similar to the influence which wicked men are acknowledged to have over others, to allure them by persuasions to sin, and to dissuade them by menaces from their duty. It cannot force them into sin against the consent of their will; or, in other words, so operate on their minds as to deprive them of that freedom which is necessary to constitute them accountable creatures. This mighty adversary watches his opportunity to prevent the salutary effect of the Word upon those that hear it. And considering what is the character of the sort of hearers we are here speaking of, it is not to be wondered at that he is permitted to catch away the seed sown in their hearts, or that he succeeds in the attempt. For if their motives in attending upon Divine service are base and unworthy, if they address themselves to the duties of religion without any previous preparation, how righteous is it in God to permit Satan to use every possible artifice to defeat the great and good ends to which religious instructions are directed!

1. Satan uses his utmost endeavours to divert men’s attention from the Word while they are hearing it.

2. Satan uses every art to excite and inflame men’s prejudices against the Word they hear.

3. Another artifice Satan uses to counteract the influence of God’s Word on men’s hearts is to prevent their recollecting is after they have heard it. (S. Stennett, D. D.)

Wasted seed

We are taught to regard waste of all kinds as a great fault and sin. Wasted food, wasted money, wasted health, wasted time, wasted instruction, wasted opportunities of doing and receiving good; these, in their several ways, are all sins against God and our own souls. While we are young we are punished for them; when we are older we suffer for them; the consummation of them at last is the loss of the soul. But what I wish you to observe is that, sinful as waste of any kind is in us, there is in nature, in providence, in the spiritual world, a constant waste going on, suggesting much of anxious and painful wonder. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.)

The plough needed

Nothing is needed but to plough it up. God drives a deep share through many a wayside heart, and the coulter of affliction breaks up many a spirit, that it may afterwards yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” And if He does that for you, bless Him for His mercy; but do not wait, for you can get rid of all this insensibility by the simple effort of your own will. (Dr. McLaren.)

The devil is an inveterate enemy to the hearing of the Word, and to the fruit of it

He hinders men in sundry ways from profiting by the Word.

1. By keeping them from hearing it; stirring up occasions of worldly business or some other impediments on the Lord’s day to keep them away from church.

2. By keeping them from attending to it when they do hear it.

3. By blinding their minds that they may not understand it.

4. By labouring to hold them in infidelity that they may not believe and apply the Word to themselves.

5. By using means to thrust the Word heard out of their minds that they may not remember it.

6. By keeping them from yielding obedience to the Word. See from this what need we have to be watchful over ourselves and against Satan and his practices when we are to hear the Word. How needful to watch before we hear, that he may not lay blocks in our way to hinder us from hearing. How needful in time of hearing to watch against Satan, that he hinder not our attention by suggesting to us roving thoughts. How needful to pray to God not to suffer him to blind our minds or harden our hearts in unbelief, that we may not understand or believe the Word. How needful also to watch against Satan after we have heard, that he do not quickly thrust the Word out of our minds and memories. Look to these things therefore everyone that would profit by hearing. The more malicious and politic Satan is to hinder us from profiting, the more wise must we be and careful to disappoint him of his purpose. (G. Petter.)

The Satanic hindering of the Word of God

The Lord tells us that this indifference to the Word, by which it fails to convince and convert, is brought about, not through natural, but through supernatural, agency. An enemy does this. In our present fallen state he is able to summon up thoughts which may distract the attention from the thoughts which the life-giving Word suggests, and our evil will fails in with the thoughts which he instills. These thoughts may not always be evil by any means, but they do his work, for they distract the attention, and being far more in accordance with the bent of the evil heart the good thought is swallowed up, effaced, and forgotten. I think that no minister who comes closely into contact with the souls of men for their conversion, but must be aware that there is not only an evil principle at work in the heart, but an evil personal agency which is able to suggest doubts and interpose difficulties, and assist the soul in barring out the Word by placing all his cunning at the disposal of the evil will. Satan or his emissary, the evil spirit to whom he has committed the destruction of the man’s soul, cometh immediately. (M. F. Sadler.)

The devil a great traveller

The devil is no idle spirit, but a walker and vagrant runagate walker, like Cain, that cannot rest in a place. I have heard of travellers that have seen many parts of the world, but never any perpetual peripatetic or universal walker but Satan, who hath travelled all coasts and corners of the earth, and would of heaven, too, if he might be admitted. He is not like St. George’s statue, ever on horseback and never riding, but, as if he were knight-marshal of the whole world, he is ever walking. His motion is circular, and his unwearied steps know no rest. He hath a large and endless circuit. His walk is a siege, that goes about the fort to find the weakest place as easiest for battery. His walks are the circumference, and man the centre. The motive, cause, and main intention of his journey is to win man. As he walks through the streets there he throws a short measure, a false balance, into a tradesman’s shop. He steps into a drinking house and kindles a quarrel. He shoulders to the bar and pops in a forged evidence, a counterfeit seal. He dares enter the schools and commence schisms and contentions, nay, climb up into the pulpit and broach sects and divisions. He travels no ground but, like a stinking fox or dying oppressor, he leaves a scent behind him. (T. Adams.)