Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 318. 318. I need can be Keep thee ev'ry hour, stay thou
nearby. Take thee in sheep's clothes
to hide. I need thee every hour, in joy
or pain. I come to Thee. I plead Thee every hour,
most holy one. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
212. 212 you No matter what I do, nothing
will matter to Jesus. of Jesus. For my countenance I bring, and
in the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious ? The blood of Jesus ? ? Not a
word that I have done ? ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? ? How
precious is the blood of Jesus ? so this This is all my righteousness,
living in the blood of Jesus. Mark chapter 4, Mark chapter
4. While you're turning let me make
a couple announcements. Blaine and Shannon Shelby had
a little boy real recently I don't know if
it was yesterday or this morning but it was they had it and also
brother Bill Kirkpatrick's requested that we pray for him and his wife, Fran, but especially
pray for them. They're facing some things that
the Lord knows and God help them, God strengthen them, God encourage
them. I'm gonna read down to verse 20 and deal with this parable
of the sower. And he began again to teach by
the seaside. And there was gathered unto him
a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and set
in the sea. And the whole multitude was by
the sea on the land. And he taught them many things
by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken, behold,
there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass, as he sowed,
some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and
devoured it up. Some fell on stony ground where
it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no
depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was
scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. Some fell among thorns, and the
thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And
other fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprang up
and increased. and brought forth some thirty,
some sixty, and some a hundred. And he said unto them, He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear." What He's telling us is here,
you better listen. If you got an ear, you pay attention,
that's what He's saying. If you got an ear, if you got
any understanding, you pay attention to what I'm going to tell you.
And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve
asked of him the parable. What does this mean? And he said
unto them, It is given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. But unto them that are without
all things are done in parables, that seeing they may see, and
not perceive, not understand, and hearing they may hear, and
not understand, lest at any time they should be converted, and
their sins should be forgiven them. And he said unto them,
Know ye not this parable? And how then will you know all
parables? The sower soweth the word of
God. He's gonna explain this parable
to us now. And these are they which by the
wayside where the word is sown, but when they have heard, Satan
cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in
their hearts. And these are they likewise which
are sown on stony ground, who when they have heard the word,
immediately receives it with gladness. and have no root in
themselves, and so endure. But for a time afterward, when
afflictions or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately
they are offended. And these are they which are
sown among thorns, as hear the word of God. And the cares of
this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other
things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are
sown on good ground, such as hear the word of God, and receive
it, and bring forth fruit, some 30, some 60, and some 100. Our great and glorious, blessed
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God, Our Lord, our
master, our redeemer, our savior, our mediator, our intercessor. Lord Jesus, you are indeed our
all in all. Lord, to whom shall we go? You've
got the words of eternal life. We have nowhere else to go and
we don't want nowhere else to go. We love that we're able to
approach you, call on you, come into your holy presence, and know that you hear us, not
for our sake, but for Christ's sake. Everything you've ever
done for us or in us, it's always been for Christ's sake. Lord,
you chose us in Christ. You loved us in Christ. You accept
us in Christ. We were crucified in Christ.
We were risen in Christ. Set in heavenly places in Christ. Lord, indeed, Christ is our all
in all. And Lord, we've gathered here
this morning to worship you, to look into your precious word
and hopefully learn some things from it. Pray that the Holy Spirit
would be our teacher. The Holy Spirit would take the
things of Christ out of these verses today Show them unto us. Make them known unto us. Make
us know the mystery of the kingdom of God. And Lord Jesus, bring
glory to yourself. And Father, we pray for those
who requested prayer. Oh Lord, you be their strength,
you be their comfort, you be their stay. And God bless them. Lord, protect them, shield them. And we pray for those who are
not with us through your providence. Pray that you'd keep them safe
and merciful and gracious. And Lord, we pray for tonight's
service as Brother Bruce comes, that you'd bless him in the preaching
tonight. Please meet with us this morning.
Have mercy upon our lost loved ones for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Hymn number 67. Number 67. As my eyes behold the wonders
of my mind untold, the hands and feet as I arrange the vestry. How can it be? How can it be? How can it be? That God should do us alike Greetings, oh my girl, there's
so bruised and torn you. ? What severed grace, slowly losing
free ? ? From heights of mystery and sorrow ? ? In loving kindness,
thou didst go ? How can it be? How can it be? How can it be that God should
love us so? We'll stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day on the back of the bulletin. Mighty Savior,
how mighty You were when I began Thy praise. ? Where will the growing numbers
end ? ? The numbers of my grace ? ? The numbers of my grace ?
? How art my everlasting trusts ? ? The goodness of my heart
? ? And since I knew thy praises
first ? ? I speak thy glories forth ? ? I speak thy glories
forth ? ? Thy feet shall travel all the land ? ? March with courage in thy strength
? ? To see my Father God ? ? To see my Father God ? ? When I
am filled with sore distress ? ? And soon to rising sea ?
? I'll plead thy perfect righteousness
? ? And mention none but thy name ? ? And mention none but
thy name ? ? How will my lips rejoice at thy praise? ? My soul redeemed from sin and
ill shall thy salvation see. Shall thy salvation see. You know, I was sitting there
thinking when someone requests prayer from
the church, we oftentimes we hear that and we don't think
of it again. But when someone requests prayer, we certainly
need to remember it. We need to remember it as often
as they come to our mind. Pray for them. Because they wouldn't
ask for it if they didn't need it and didn't want it. And so
I believe that we ought to You know, we just hear that, well,
somebody requested prayer, and we let it go by. And we, by God's grace, we need
not to do that, need not to do that. Well, I want to deal with
this subject this morning, the sower, the sower. Our Lord here
gives the parable of Mac and Mark chapter four. Our Lord gives
the parable of the sower. And this parable, this particular
parable, the parable of the sower, is preached more than any other
parable in the Bible. It's in Matthew 13, it's in Luke
8, and it's here. And our Lord deals with it. And
in this parable of the sower, there's four kinds of hearers.
four kinds of hearers, or four kinds of hearts, if you want
to do it. And it's described, all these four different kinds
of hearers are described here, and they're found in every congregation.
The four kinds of hearts, or hearers here, are found in every
congregation. And this parable, this parable
here is of the utmost importance as we read it, because this concerns
me. I'm going to be identified as
a hearer in this parable. I'm going to be identified. My
heart is going to be exposed in this parable as to what it
really is. And there's four kinds of hearers,
and my heart, my ear, and my type of hearing is going to be
exposed in this parable. And I'll tell you what, and I
believe yours will too. And our Lord explains the meaning
of this picture of the sower, the seed, the sower, the seed,
the ground on which it falls. And it's a parable that we ought
to pay very much attention to in caution, with caution, because
it's certain it's about the utmost importance, the way we hear the
word of God, the way we hear it. First of all, we see that
there was a loud gathering, a large multitude gathered with the Lord
Jesus Christ in verse 1. And he couldn't reach all of
them, he couldn't be around them, so he got out on a ship, got
out on a boat out in the sea. So he evidently had a pretty
powerful voice. He's sitting out in the water
on a boat, and there's this great, great, great crowd out there
around him, and all the people can hear him. So evidently, he
had a voice that could be reached and reach the multitude. And
he taught them many things by parables. and he said unto them
in his doctrine. He's teaching his doctrine. Doctrine
just means teaching. Let me tell you what a parable
is first and foremost. A parable is just like this here. He takes earthly illustrations
and teaches spiritual truths. That's what a parable is, taking
something of the earth. Our Lord said, look at the fields
that's ready to be harvested. He looked at that and he said,
There's coming a harvest one of these days, the sickle will
be put in. And then he talked about look
at the lilies of the field, they don't do anything to make themselves
beautiful, God makes them beautiful. And if He does that, how much
more is He going to clothe you? So he uses parables all the time,
but this time he uses a parable and he explains it, he explains
it. And there was this large, large
congregation gathered around there, and he said, first of
all, listen to me. He said in verse four, three,
excuse me, listen to me. There went out a sower to sow. I want you to listen, that's
what he said. And it came to pass as he began to sow, and
he uses four different types of soil. And as he quotes these
things here in verse four, it came to pass as he sowed, some
fell by the wayside. Fowls of the air came and devoured
it up. Some fell amongst stony ground
where it had not much earth and immediately sprang up because
it had no depth of earth. But when the sun, excuse me,
but when the sun was up, it was scorched and because it had no
root, it withered away. Some fell among thorns, and the
thorns choked it, and it yielded no fruit. Other fell on good
ground, and brought forth spruce, sprang up, and increased." And
I tell you what, when he says a sower going forth to sow, it
didn't say here a warrior was going forth to fight. He didn't
say he was a judge ascending his bench to set on judgment
on people. It didn't say he was a philosopher,
it was a philosopher going to his podium to tell us all the
meanings of life. He's not a politician getting
up and campaigning against his favorite cause or for his favorite
cause. And he's not a preacher or a
clown getting up to entertain somebody and make them feel good
about themselves. He said a sower went forth to
sow his seed. And the sower is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the sower is His preachers, or those who preach the Word.
That's what He tells us plainly. And over in Luke chapter 8 and
Mark 13 He says it's the Word of God that's sowed. And a sower
goes out and the sower is the Lord and His preachers. The seed
is God's Word. This one I've read to you, this
seed is God's Word. He said in 1 Peter 2, it says
this, being born again, not of corruptible seed. I have corruptible
seed, you have corruptible seed. I produce like. I'm unclean,
so I produce an unclean child. I was a depraved sinner, I produce
a depraved sinner. corrupt seed, but we're not being
born again, not of corruptible seed, listen to this, but incorruptible
seed. What is that incorruptible seed?
The Word of God, which lives and abides forever. That's the
seed, the Word of God. And oh my, the soul is the human
heart, the human heart, the soul is the heart. And we all have
ourselves in this parable. And our Lord tells us what this
parable is. He says down in verse 10, excuse
me. And when he was alone, oh, so
the crowds left and he's alone and the 12 with him and those
about him ask of him the parable. What in the world was you telling
us? What does this mean? And he said unto them, and unto
you is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. the mysteries
of the kingdom of God. But unto them that are without,
all these things are done in parables. You know, it's given
to us to know the mysteries. The scriptures mention several
mysteries, and a mystery is something that had been hid until it's
revealed, until it's made known. Now, paganism, and there's lots
of organizations today that they like to do things in secret.
They have secret handshakes, they have secret meetings, they
have secret rules that they have to go by, and paganism had lots
of secret ceremonies, rituals, hidden from those that had it.
But our Lord said it's given unto you. If you ever understand
any of the mysteries, the mystery of godliness, The mystery of
the flesh being changed, the mystery of the resurrection,
the mystery, if you ever know a mystery, God's got to be the
one to give you the understanding of that mystery. It was a mystery,
everything about the gospel was a mystery until God made us know
it. The birth of God was a mystery
until God made us know it. It was shut up, but he said,
God said, I give you to know what this mystery is. I'm going
to let you know what this mystery is, and our Lord's given to you
to know the UNDERSTANDING of the Kingdom of God." And he went
on to say this, but everything everybody else said OUTSIDE the
Kingdom is done in the PARABLES. They can only understand earthly
things. Our Lord said, If you understand
earthly things, how are you going to understand anything from Heaven?
And people can understand earthly things, but they can't understand.
And look what he goes on to say. That seeing, they may see. They
see what they're looking at. They see it, but they don't perceive. And hearing, they hear, but they
don't understand what they're hearing. Lest at any time they
should be converted, then their sins should be given unto you.
And listen to what our master said here in verse 13. And he
said unto them, know ye not this parable, And then if you understand
this one parable, and I explain it to you, then you'll know all
parables from here on. You'll understand all, every
parable that I speak from here on when you get this one. That's
what our Lord's saying. So, oh my, the parable is this. The seed is the word of God.
And there's different kinds of hearers. The soul is the human
heart. Let's look at the wayside here,
let's look at all four of these together. That wayside here in
verse, verse four. And it came to pass
as he sowed, some fell among by the wayside and some fell
among thorns, excuse me, fell by the wayside and the fowls
of the air came and devoured it up. And then he said in verse
14, he goes back and forth between them. The sower soweth the word. And then he explains what these
by the wayside, these are they by the wayside. I'm gonna explain
this to you. Where the word of God is sown,
but when they that have heard, they heard what was said, everybody
hears what's being said. Nobody's an idiot, nobody's a
fool. Nobody does not understand words
when they hear words. And he says this, but when they
heard, But when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and
taketh away the word that was sown in their heart." Oh, this
wayside heater, he has an unresponsive heart. The seed is trodden down. Ain't that what it says? It's
trodden down. The wayside here is trodden down.
And I tell you what, and the fowl's devoured, he says the
fowl's come and devoured this seed. They HEAR, and while they're
listening to it, the devil, while that seed is laying there, the
devil comes along and SNATCHES IT AWAY! He used the fowl of
the air and he snatches it away! The devil takes it out of the
heart! And that's why BEWARE, BEWARE when you HEAR! And when
it talks about the waste out here, it's in a hard place. The
heart's hard, it's trodden down. It's a dangerous place, exposed
to the fowls in the air. And oh, I tell you, a bird has
quick eyes. I mean, you know, quick eyes,
get something real quick. And no matter how precious, how
precious the seed is, it can only fall ON THE WAYSIDE HEARER
CAN NEVER ENTER INTO THE GROUND. NEVER. THEY'RE INDIFFERENT. HERE'S THE DIFFERENCE. THEY'RE
INDIFFERENT TO THE WORD OF GOD. THEY'RE ABSOLUTELY INDIFFERENT
TO IT. THEY'RE INDIFFERENT TO THE MESSAGE. THEY DO NOTHING
WITH THE MESSAGE. THEY HEAR IT, AND THEY DO NOTHING
WITH IT. AND THEN LOOK AT THIS IMPULSIVE
HEART. OH MY, THE STONY-GROUND HEARER. IT SAID IN VERSE 5, AND
SOME FELL ON STONY GROUND, where it had not much earth, and immediately
it sprang up, because it had no depth in it, no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was
scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. Now
our Lord says back over here, in verse 16, and these are they
likewise which are sown on stony ground. He's almost plain what
this stony ground here is. Who, when they've heard the word,
immediately receive it with gladness. Oh, they hear it, they're happy.
Oh my goodness, that's the best news I ever heard. Man, that
really does something for me. I tell you, I never heard anything
like it. Oh, I never heard nothing like it. I never heard the scriptures
explained in such a way. Oh, they get happy all over.
They receive it with gladness. Oh my. They hear it, they listen,
they get emotional. They get glad, they're emotional,
they receive the word with joy and with gladness. And oh, they
receive it immediately, oh, with gladness. Oh, they're very emotional. They're happy, they're glad,
they receive with joy. And I'll tell you what, you know,
emotions, there's nothing wrong with emotions, nothing at all
with them. You know, if a woman at Christ s Feast, she wept,
she had emotions, nothing wrong with emotions, but these emotions
here of this stony ground here, they re just superficial, they
re superficial. And oh, this type of hearer,
look what he goes on to say in verse 17, They have no root in
themselves. They have no root in themselves.
They have no depth to themselves. And so endure for a time, and
oh, how often I've seen this happen. They stay in the congregation
for a while. They endure for a while. That's
what it says, they endure for a time. Afterward, when a trial
comes, God sends a trial. God sends affliction, or somebody
questions them about what they believe. How could you possibly
believe that? And it arises for the word's
sake, not for their sake, but for the word's sake. They hear
the word, they receive it happily, gladly, but then sometimes God
sends a burden. God sends an affliction. And
they don't like to be tried. They don't like to be afflicted.
They don't like to be troubled. They said, Boy, being a Christian
is supposed to be HAPPY, JOYFUL, and GLORIOUS! But I tell you,
sending a trial, I deserve better than THAT! I deserve better than
God trying ME! I deserve better than TROUBLE!
And then somebody starts questioning them about the Word! Why do you
believe that about the Bible? Why do you believe about this?
And why do you believe about that? And people start questioning
them. And all of a sudden, they got no root. They had no depth
to their character. They had no depth to their personality. They had no depth to their nature. They're just superficial. They're
just all on the surface. And I tell you what, and look
at what it says there. Immediately, they're offended. Their feelings are hurt. They're
offended. Our Lord said, blessed is he
who's not offended in me. Blessed is the man that don't
stumble over me. Don't stumble over who I am.
Don't stumble over what I did. Don't stumble. You know, our
Lord Jesus Christ was the only people that he was That he loved
and enjoyed being around and delighted in with publicans and
sinners. And I tell you, that's just like
those fellas, you know that in John chapter 6, a whole multitude
of people followed the Lord Jesus Christ. And he had done told
them, no man can come unto me except the Father which sent
me drawing. I done told you that. Well, there's
a whole bunch started following him around. He started talking
about being the bread from heaven and you gotta eat my blood and
drink my flesh. And all went on down through
there and a great multitude's following him. And he looked
at him and he says, the flesh, your flesh don't profit you nothing. Everything about you and your
flesh means nothing. It can't do nothing for you. And he said, oh, listen, and
I told you, I told you that no man can come down to me except
my Father which sent me, John. And the scripture says that they
said, this is a hard saying. This is too hard. You mean I can't come? You mean
I can't come when I want to? I ain't a good person? That my
flesh is not good? That I can't do certain things? I mean, I'm as good as anybody.
Well, that don't mean deadly. Don't mean nothing being good
as anybody else. But anyway, they said, this is
a hard saying. Too hard. And they said, we're
just gonna go back. He's hurt our feelings. He's
offended us. We're going back. And our Lord
looked at the 12, said, you going away too? And all of a sudden
they said, oh Lord. See, those folks didn't have
no depth. Stony ground hearers. And our Lord Jesus Christ said,
oh, you going to go away? Lord, to whom shall we go? I know my flesh is nothing. To
whom shall we go? You've got the words that seed
the words of eternal life. And we're going to stay right
here. We're going to stay right here. And all my, this type of
hearers shall empty. They're affected by the word,
but the word never, never, never affects them. They have no root
in themselves. And now let me ask you a question.
How can we tell if our emotions are real? You know, a lot of
people say sometimes, boy, it's all I can do to keep from jumping
up and hollering. I said, jumping up and getting
involved, you know, and jump up, holler, amen. Some people,
they know, they tell you that. How can you tell that your emotions
are real? I'm gonna tell you. He said,
my sheep hear my voice. How can you tell your emotions
real? They follow me. If you got real emotions, you'll
follow Christ. If your emotions are real, if
your heart's real, and you're not superficial, I hear, and
you're gonna follow me, huh? Oh, James says, blessed is the
man who endureth temptation, for when he is tried, what's
gonna happen to him? He gonna get the crown of life.
And oh, here's another one now. Verse seven, and some fell among
thorns, the thorns grew up and choked, and it yielded no fruit. And now look what our Lord said
about the thorns over here in verse 18. And these are they,
he turns around and explains all this to the disciples. These
are they which the seed sown among thorns, such as hear the
word of God. They hear it, just like that
stony ground here, they hear it. They hear the Word. They listen to it. And each group's
different than the one before it. And the cares of this world,
and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things
entering in, choke, choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful. These are people whose hearts
is occupied with something else. The wayside hearer never responded
at all to the sowing of the seed, the preaching of the word, just
never responded at all. Fell on the rock, they responded
immediately, enthusiastically, and they stopped just as quick.
The third here, this third, they perished too, but just not as
fast as the others. It says it has abundant soil.
It says they that are sown among thorns, You know, even where
thorns are, there's still some good ground, still some ground
there, enough to grow thorns, and they go forth, and the seed
is choked out. And our Lord talks about three
things that chokes out the Word, three things that'll choke out
the Word. And I think this is probably the most identifiable
and the most prevalent hearer in our congregations, most of
them. You know, they're sewn among thorns. And the cares of
this world, the worries of this world, this world has got such
an attraction to them. You know, the world is a course.
The world is a place that's against God, that's against Christ. The
world is a place that gets caught up in all of its wealth and all
of its power and all of its glory and all of its wealth and getting
all involved in the world and all the philosophy and politics
and everything that's in the world. He said, THE WORLD! THE WORLD! The cares of this
world. I tell you, that's just, you
know, I know folks it's this way. I mean, I know folks that,
I mean, they can't get enough automobiles. They can't get enough
boats. They can't get enough money.
They can't get enough houses. They can't get enough furniture.
They can't get enough money. They just can't get enough. And
they'll come and they'll listen and they'll say, boy, that's
good. And then they're right back out in the world. And look
what else our Lord said now. Oh, not only the cares of this
world, but listen to this, the deceitfulness of riches. There's
three things the scriptures tells us are deceitful. The heart is
deceitful above all things. Desperately wicked. Sin is deceitful. And riches are deceitful. Riches. They'll deceive you thinking,
they'll deceive you to that, well, if I ever can get enough,
then I'm gonna retire. I'm gonna be okay. You know,
I gotta have so much riches. And there's three things, three
rich men in the scriptures, and all three of them perished. You
know that? There's a rich young ruler. He
come to the Lord. Jesus says, what good thing,
what good thing must I do to inherit eternal life? Our Lord
said, well, you know the commandments. Keep this, keep that, keep that.
Oh, I've done that since I was a little boy. He said, I tell
you what, go sell everything you got and then you start going
around giving it out to everybody that's poor. Give it to the poor.
He went away, oh God, I can't do that, I just can't do that.
I can't give it up, can't give it up. And then there's another
rich man. He, boy, he labored good, labored
hard, made some wonderful, blessed decisions in his mind. He said,
oh boy, look at how much stuff I've accumulated in my life. I'm gonna have to tear down these
little old bitty buildings that I've got in these little barns,
and I gotta build me some great big ones to hold all my goods.
And then he says, now soul, since you got much, sit down, take
thine ease, and be merry. And you know what? God said,
you fool, I want your soul tonight. Then whose are these things gonna
be? And then there's another rich man. He fared sumptuously
every day. I mean, he ate the best food,
had the best chariot, had the best, I mean, he had servants
waiting on him hand and foot. He had everything he wanted.
There was a poor man laying at his gate, poverty-stricken man. He had sores on his body and
the dogs was coming licking those sores. And that old rich man
go right by him. Never once stopped and said,
listen, listen, let me buy you a suit of clothes. Let me feed
you. I'll take you to a doctor and
get you took care of. Didn't do any of that. And the
scripture said, the rich man went to hell. And he said, oh, would you see,
now he's interested in Lazarus. Now he wants to have something
to do with Lazarus. Lazarus, oh Lord, Abraham, would
you send Lazarus and let him dip his finger in water and just
let one drop, one drop fall on my tongue. Just one. Just one. Oh my. I tell you what, the riches are
so deceitful. He just, it'll deceive you, it'll
deceive you to making you think. You know, I've often said this,
I've never ever bought a lottery ticket. I never have. And God
helpin' me, I never will. But I mean, I've seen people
go in and buy them things, buy the big old, great big list. And all my, And you know, you
hear these people win these hundreds of millions of dollars and all
that, most of them end up broken four or five years. But I'll
tell you this, I've often said this, if anybody had to win a
lottery, let it be anybody but me. I have a hard time just keeping
what few dollars God puts in my pocket without wasting it. You know, I tell you what, I
told John, John and Kathy and I and Shirley was talking Wednesday
night and they went over home with us for a while and I said,
you know, I said, I can honestly tell you without trying to sound
pious that I have absolutely nothing, nothing that God didn't
give me, nothing. THESE HANDS HAVE PRODUCED NOTHING
FOR ME! THEY HAD NOT! THESE HANDS HAVE NEVER BUILT
A HOUSE! NEVER MADE ANY MONEY! NEVER DONE
ANY GOOD! HOW DID I GET WHAT I GOT? GOD
GAVE IT TO ME! THAT'S ALL I CAN SAY! When I
was a boy, I was walking around in shoes with milk cartons. Take
milk cartons and cut them up and put them in the bottom of
my shoes because my shoes had holes in them. I hated to go to school because
my clothes wasn't very good. Had to wear old t-shirts to school.
Didn't have nice shirts like we got now. I was shuffled from here to yonder,
and here to yonder, and anybody take ye in. So I can honestly say that everything
I've got, God gave me. And I'll tell you what, me and
Shirley, and I'll tell you something, I'm not holding on to any of
it. I sometimes get to feeling bad,
get to feeling sick, I say, Lord, is this going to be the one that
takes me home? Oh, my. Oh, riches is so deceitful. Riches is so deceitful. And then
look what else it says about it. The pleasures of this world
or the lust of this things of the world entering in. Oh, my. Pleasures of this life. Oh, my. Godliness was contentment is
such great gain. Moses chose rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season. And all these things come along,
and they take that, that word's there, but it starts choking
you out. They stay for a while, they enjoy
the gospel for a while, next thing they're out for a few weeks,
in fact they are, they're out for a few weeks, the next thing
you know it's choked down, choked down, choked down, choked down,
and there's nothing left. And then last of all, what our
master said in verse eight, other fell on good ground and did yield
fruit and sprang up, and listen to this, it increased. You know,
when seed's sown, if it's on good ground, it's gonna start
growing. It's gonna increase, it's gonna increase. And brought
forth some 30, Some 60, some 100. And then our
Lord said over here in verse 20, These are they which are
sowed on good ground, such as hear the word of God. They hear
it. Everybody heard it. It's how
the reaction to it was. And receive it. Believe it, take
it, enjoy it, and bring forth fruit, some 30, some 60, and
some 100. Oh, my. Now, how in the world do you
get a good ground? Well, we know that we ain't got
good ground. We know we don't have it. God
has to make it. God has to prepare it. God has
to prepare it. He has to prepare the soil. I
think over in Jeremiah it says, you know, plow up the fallow
ground. And oh, He prepares the ground.
He prepares the heart, what God does. He prepares the heart. And I tell you, it's been prepared
by God Almighty Himself. He makes it an honest heart.
Over in, I think it's in Luke chapter eight, He calls it an
honest heart. And I've often said this, an
honest man don't go to hell. If you're honest with yourself,
you're honest before God, you've got to be honest before God.
Honest before God, honest with your own heart, honest with yourself. And let me ask you this, does
anybody here think they've brought forth any fruit? If any of you got 30% fruit, Sixty? A hundred? Anybody here
want to jump up and say, boy, I've really been bringing forth
the fruit? You know why you don't do that?
Because you're looking to Him who gave you that good heart.
You never look at the fruit for evidence that you know anything.
If you start looking for fruit for evidence, Listen, let me look at my fruit. Not me. I'm gonna look to Christ
who caused the fruit. And you know the Lord will be
the only one who knows how much fruit there is. I'm not a fruit
inspector. And I tell you what, that's why
we You know, we never look for fruit in ourselves, never. Now
we can see fruit in other people. We see the grace and love of
God, the mercy of God, the faithfulness of God in them, the longsuffering
of God. We can see it in them. But oh my, here's what they do. They have, here's the word of
God, they keep it. It says they keep it. and they
keep it in memory, they hold fast to it. They're like the
Bereans who search the scriptures whether these things are so or
not. And David said, oh Lord, open mine eyes that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy love. But let me tell you something.
That fellow that, you know, the cares of this world, deceitfulness
of riches and pleasures of this world, You know, believers, every
one of us as believers, we have cares too. We also have cares. You know what our cares are?
The Word of God. Oh, we care for the Word of God.
Oh, how we care for God's Word. We care for Christ and our relationship
with Christ. Oh, how we care for our relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you something else,
we care for one another. We care for one another. And
you talk about riches. The riches we got don't deceive
us. Oh, we've got the riches of Christ. The riches of His grace. You'll
never, you'll never be as wealthy as Christ is. You ain't never
gonna be able to use all the riches He gives you. You can't
use up the riches of His grace, and He gives you grace for grace. Oh my, rich in mercy. These are
true riches. And not only do we have cares
and riches, but we have pleasures. Oh, we have great pleasures.
And the believer's pleasures are so, so simple. They're so
simple. What are they? Gotta hear the
gospel. Got to hear it. Got to hear the gospel. I mean,
not want to, got to. I mean, you can't live without
it. And then, here's another pleasure we have. We enjoy Christ.
Oh, how we enjoy our Lord. How we enjoy his presence. How
we enjoy his power. How we enjoy his love. How we
enjoy his presence. How we enjoy hearing his voice. Oh my, more about Jesus would
I know. More of his grace to others show. More of his love who died for
me. More of His saving fullness see. Oh my. And enjoy our life that
God gives us. Enjoy our life that God gives
us. I was up visiting my little brother here a couple weeks ago. And bless his heart, he's a year
younger than me. And this is how he has to walk
with a walker. Just barely can move his feet.
And when he turns, he has to go like this here. Bad shape. And then another old friend of
mine, back when we was teenagers, we'd run around together, and
young men, our 20s, Alan Schechter, he'd come over to visit us. And
I told those men, I said, I wish to God, I would to God, that
you all felt as good as I do. I wished you all enjoyed life
as much as I do. I enjoy life. I enjoy living. I enjoy everything God done for
me. Do I get tired? Yes. Do I get
weary? Yes. Do I get sick? Yes. Do I have trials? Yes. Do I have
burdens? Yes. But all those things that
make me enjoy life that much more because I know that there's
an end to it. And oh, we enjoy the life that
God gave us. Now, you can't enjoy life if
God didn't give it to you. Y'all, you go around. You know, just mumbling and complaining.
I'll ask my little brother, how you doing? Oh, I ain't doing
no good at all. Oh, I'm in bad shape. I'm in
bad shape. I just, you know, and that's
the way people are. Ask Alan how he was. He said,
oh boy, I've got some breathing problems, some heart problems.
Start telling me their problems. I said, oh, I wish y'all was
like me. You enjoy life. I enjoy it. I enjoy my wife. I enjoy you. Enjoy the gospel. Oh my, what a life we've got.
You're all going to go home. You know what you're going to
do? You're going to have a good meal. You're going to sit down in a
most comfortable chair. And you're going to most likely
take a nap. and then you'll get up this evening,
and if you don't come back, you'll watch on Facebook or whatever,
and you'll watch that, and how could life be any better? And it's the life that God gave
us. I wasn't always that happy, no. but I enjoy the life God
gave me. Our Father, oh, our blessed Father,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing
us to meet here this morning. Thank you for your precious word,
oh, your word, and Lord, make it become effectual. Lord, you're
the only one that can make the good heart Be honest heart, make
the ground good, make the ground bring forth any fruit if it ever
does. You're the only one that can
do that, Lord. So God please, for Christ's sake, sow that seed
in the heart today. And you said that it would increase.
When seed's sown, it don't come up immediately. It comes up gradually,
slowly. But Lord, it'll come up and when
it comes up, it'll bring forth life. So God bless the gospel
today. Bless the word to the heart and
do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look
full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow
strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace. Brother Bruce Crabshaw will be
here this evening to preach for us. And I'm really looking forward
to it. Looking forward to it. Looking
forward to hearing Bruce. I love him. Oh, how I love him. I think I've told you this before. Him and I met in 19... I'm gonna say 75 or 76. He was
a free will Baptist and I was a bitch jumping Pentecostal. And look what God done for us,
huh? I love y'all. Lord willing, we'll
see you tonight, six o'clock. Huh? Oh, next Saturday we have
that get together at our house. Don't forget that.