Alright, we're going to be in
Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4, and we're just
going to be looking at verses 26 through 29. Now, it's a parable,
and this parable that we're looking at here, it's only recorded in
Mark's gospel. Mark's the only one that has
this particular parable recorded. We learn something about what
we're to understand in this parable by its placement, what it follows,
what the Lord was just saying before he gave this parable.
And what he said most powerfully that pertains to this one is
Mark 4.24 that says, Take heed what ye hear with what measure
ye meet. It shall be measured to you.
And unto you that hear shall more be given." So, this parable
has a blessing in it. It has a blessing for the people
of God because we see and understand that it's a blessing to hear
the Gospel. It's a blessing to hear it and
especially to understand it, which we understand it when the
Lord attends the preaching of His Word, when He lays it to
our heart, when He makes it effectual to us so that we hear what's
being said. And this morning, what we're going to see is that
salvation, according to this gospel that we preach, it's a
mysterious work. It's a work of the Spirit of
God. He's got to do this. And it's a work that goes undetected
by any of us, really. By me who's preaching it, and
by you that's hearing it, it often goes undetected for a long
time. But the Lord has a way of yet
making it effectual and causing it to grow in us so that we hear
Christ and that we grow in Him. The title is The Seed Grows. The Seed Grows. And we'll have
three divisions. First we'll look at the nature
of the sower, and then we'll see the nature of the seed, and
then, very briefly at the end, we'll see the harvest, the harvest
of the seed. So, You that like to garden and
are familiar with that, you'll at least see some pictures in
what we do, right? Because everything we do was
created that we might see and understand the gospel better.
They were created for the gospel, right? They were created for
our Lord. So, all right, the nature of the sower. In verses
26 and 27, Mark 4, and he said, so is the kingdom of God, as
if a man should cast seed into the ground. and should sleep
and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up,
he knoweth not how." Now, consider with me for a moment that in
the beginning, this earth was very fruitful. It was very fruitful. It brought forth Abundantly,
we read in Genesis 1 verses 11 through 12, and God said, let
the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the
fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself
upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth
brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind,
and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his
kind. And God saw that it was good.
So before sin entered, and sin entered by Adam, by Adam's act
of rebellion and disobedience against God, sin entered. And
by sin came death upon us so that Adam's seed was corrupted
by sin. And we all come forth from our
father Adam, ultimately our father came forth from his father and
so on and so on. So we all came forth by corrupt
seed. And so when we come forth, we're
dead spiritually. The scriptures teach that we
don't know or understand the things of the Lord. When left
in the state of nature, when Christ is before us, we don't
understand and we don't comprehend the light. We don't understand
things that are being said. It means nothing to us. It doesn't
really have any any effect or any benefit upon us savingly. And we see this in Romans 5.12,
it says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that
all have sinned. So we all come forth from Adam's
corrupt seed. Now because of man's sin, God
cursed the earth so that it wouldn't bring forth abundantly for man. He had to work and labor and
really apply a lot of effort just for it to bring forth a
little bit of food for himself. We see this in Genesis 3, 17
and 19. And what we see is that what
the earth now easily brings forth, what it just produces without
really any labor from us is thorns and thistles and briars. The
scriptures sometimes use the word briars. So thorns and thistles.
And so when we see thorns and thistles, when we see the weeds
that we have to fight and wrestle against, we're reminded of the
fact that we're sinners and that's all we bring forth in this flesh
is thorns Thistle so Genesis 3 17 through 19 and unto Adam
the Lord said because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy
wife and hast eaten of the tree which I commanded thee saying
thou shalt not eat of it cursed is the ground for thy sake in
sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the
herb of the field in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
till thou return unto the ground For out of it was thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." So we know
and understand when it comes to what we eat and consume, we
don't get any nourishment from thorns and thistles. We're not
getting any benefit to our bodies from eating thorns and thistles.
Those are just the product of the earth and they're not good
for us, but when we look to our flesh and when we trust in the
strength of our flesh and our wisdom, when we're looking to
those things and we imagine that somehow God is pleased with the
works of our flesh, that's like picking up and eating and munching
on a whole big handful of thorns and thistles. And it's not nourishing
to us. It's not going to be good for
us to eat those things. So we see a picture there that
we're not to look to this flesh for anything spiritual or anything
anything good to bring forth fruits that are something that
we can live on and be sustained by and nourished by. So it's
got to be a spiritual work. It's got to be a work that this
flesh can't produce because this flesh only brings forth thorns
and thistles. It's got to be a work that the
Lord does. And the way he does it is he
delivers us from looking to and trusting in the works of our
flesh. He's got to deliver us from the
way of carnal man and trusting in those things. Paul wrote to
the Romans in Romans 7-5 that when we were in the flesh, so
we were all like this, there's not one of us that can boast
and say I'm a perfect person, I never sinned, I never did anything
wrong. He said when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins
which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth
fruit unto death. We just brought forth thorns
and thistles. And what carnal man does, a person
left in their spiritual deadness, that has no life, they do certain
things, and they look to those things and they have confidence
in them. They say, well, that was a good work. And you hear
people joke about that at work oftentimes. They say, well, I
did my good deed for the day, or that was such a good deed,
that'll last me a whole year. People, they joke about that.
They don't really believe it. They think that if there is a
God, that there are certain things they've done that will stand
up for them in that day and say a good word for them. It'll look
good for them because they did that thing or these things. They
think that they're going to profit them, but really all they're
doing is heaping up more condemnation upon themselves. And Hebrews
6, 8 says, but that which beareth thorns and briars, that which
comes of this flesh, which is nothing more than thorns and
thistles and briars, That which bare thorns and briars of our
flesh is rejected and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to
be burned. That's what we see in Hebrews
6a. Now, there's false teachers, right? There's false teachers
that come and they're speaking, many of them across the world
today and teaching people things to look to their flesh. They're
telling you and they're teaching you how to look to your flesh,
how to make yourselves righteous before God. Some of it's subtle,
some of it's just right in your face and there's no discernment
for it, but they're teaching people to look to their flesh
to bring forth something that is pleasing to God. And it's
just thorns and thistles. And our Lord said in Matthew
7, verses 15 through 20, if you could turn there, Matthew 7,
15, He warns us of false prophets. He warns us of false teachers. He says, they come to you in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. And
he tells us in verse 16, ye shall know them by their fruits. You
shall know them by their fruits. So if you hear what they're saying,
you'll know them. And I can remember when I was
a young child and my dad would read things like this to me and
I would think, well how do I, if they're both doing works that
are good, if they're both doing things that appear to be good
works, how am I going to know them? They all seem to have good
fruit. And I didn't, because I didn't
have any spiritual understanding, I didn't understand that, that
they were looking to their flesh to produce a good work to please
God. And that's a work of the flesh. That's a thorn and a thistle
and a briar that isn't going to profit us at all. And so the
Lord turns to the hearers and he asked them, do men gather
grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Is that where you look to? Like if you have a Thorns and
thistles growing up in your property. Are you looking for grapes and
figs to come forth from those things? No, you know better than
that. You know that I'm not going to
get anything edible or good from that type of a bush or that type
of a tree or that type of a plant. So we know that. And so what
we're to understand is, spiritually speaking, are you going to get
anything profitable from your flesh? Is this flesh going to
bring forth grapes and figs and that which is nourishing and
profitable for us. Or is it going to do what it
does? It's going to bring forth thorns and thistles. And the
Lord says, even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down and cast into the fire whereby by their fruits, or wherefore
by their fruits, ye shall know them." So when men are standing
up and teaching us and telling us to look to our works of the
flesh, to have confidence, whether it's for justification or for
sanctification, that's a corrupt tree. They're telling you to
look to your flesh to do some good work, to make yourselves
pleasing before God. And that's the fruits, that's
what the Lord is saying. One is bringing forth thorns
and thistles, and you see it because they're looking to the
flesh, the dust that brings forth thorns and thistles. So that's
the fruit they're bringing, but then the other one looks to Christ,
and Christ only because we know and understand it's a spiritual
work. He's got to bring forth that
which is spiritual, those grapes and those figs that only he can
bring. The good fruit is pointing you
to Christ. The evil fruit, the corrupt fruit,
is pointing you to your flesh and leading you to think that
there's something you can do in your flesh. That's a false teacher. That's somebody who's not doing
anything good for you. You might be sitting in a church
and a lot of people think, well, at least I'm going to church.
No, not if they're teaching you lies. Not if they're giving you
poison and filling you up with thorns and thistles. Then it's
not good for us to be there. You know, that's just us by nature,
and that's what we think. And that's why it was so hard
when you don't have the spirit and you look at that passage,
you think, well, wait a minute, if they're doing good works, isn't that
good? if they're helping people, isn't that a good work? You know,
and you're just looking at the outward of it. You're just looking
at the Pharisee and not really the fact that the Pharisee is
just an empty tomb full of dead men's bones, you know, that it's
not, there's no life there. It's just, it's just death. So
this flesh comes forth. It's a fallow ground. It's a
hard, hard ground. It's harder than this wood. It's
like an adamant stone. It's just a hard ground. And
that's how we all come forth. And so, man, us people here,
we've got to be broken up, and the Lord will break us up, and
he's going to rip that fallow ground up, and he's going to
turn it over, and he's going to prepare it to make a good
ground so that when you hear the gospel seed, it'll land on
that good ground, prepared for the Lord, softened by the Lord,
all prepared to hear it, to receive it, and it'll bring that rain
upon it, and it'll cause it to to grow under the sun of his
righteousness. The thing is that we don't want
to neglect the means that God's given us in the preaching of
the gospel. We don't want to neglect it because
that's where the Lord's casting out the seed. That's where he's
providing that gospel seed and he's causing us to stop looking
to the flesh or trusting the flesh or not even caring about
these things. and he causes us to have an interest
in the Lord, but he does it through the hearing of faith. He does
it through the preaching of the gospel, because that's what he's
ordained to do. That's how he's worked it out.
The Lord will use a preacher, just like he uses a sower or
a husbandman, to go out and to cast that gospel seed out the
way you would go out to your garden and you'd put your seeds
out there in the garden thinking and believing, well, this is
the way it's going to produce fruit. It's got to be done underneath
the preaching of the gospel. So the other thing that we see
and know is that the Lord's preachers, they're gospel preachers. We're
not preaching, some of us aren't preaching works and fleshly things
and some of us are preaching good and spiritual things. No,
the Lord's preachers are all going to see eye to eye. They're
all going to preach that spiritual gospel and point you to Christ
and exalt and lift up the Savior. They're not going to exalt and
lift up man and give man a false hope and a false confidence that
he can save himself. So the Lord That's why he sent
the sun into the world, so that we would know and be turned from
this natural way of thinking that we have, and thinking that
there's something we can do to save ourselves. And there's so
many different religions out there, there's so many options,
and people naturally just gravitate towards something they think
suits them and sounds right to them and aligns with their opinion
to a degree. And so they go there and they
stay there, but the Lord sends the gospel to his people so that
they hear it and are turned away from those false teachings and
they're brought out of those lies and that's what it means
by repentance toward God. He's giving us spiritual life
so that we are granted godly repentance where we turn from
those dead works and trusting in the works of the law and the
flesh or any other false religion that's out there. We turn from
those things and we are given faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ
so that we see I'm the sinner, I'm worthy of death, I'm worthy
of hell, I'm worthy of destruction. The Lord should destroy me, but
we see that He's provided salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ. And
it's a full salvation. It's a perfect salvation. It's
everything that's necessary and that we need. He has it all. And He melts this hard, wicked
heart and brings us to see the Lord. I need that salvation. Save me. Cleanse me by His blood. Have mercy upon me, the sinner."
And so He grants us repentance, turning us away from that, and
gives us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that He is a sufficient
Savior and that He died for me, that He shed His blood for me.
And we start begging Him for mercy to cleanse us and to save
us and to forgive us of our sins. That's what he did. That's what
Christ accomplished. He accomplished our salvation.
It's put away and now as we saw in the last hour, he's given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. So he
gives us that faith and that hope in him. That's what the
preacher does. He's sowing the seed. He's just
casting out that gospel seed. Not me, but the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're doing. We're pointing to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I've got to prepare the
word, right? I sit down, I have to study the
word, and we water it through prayer. looking to the Lord that
he would have mercy upon his people, upon me as well, that
I not be a castaway when all is said and done. I'm hoping
in the Lord just like you're hoping in the Lord, and that's
what he does. He makes us all to look to him and know it's
of him, it's of his work. And that's what Paul said, neither
is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but
God that giveth the increase. So we're all looking to the Lord.
to do this. We're here doing what we're supposed
to do, because this is where the Lord is going to feed us,
but we know it's of the Lord. It's going to be of Him. It's
of Him. So now the nature of the seed.
We see where the seed comes from. It comes from the Lord. The Lord's
got to be the one that provides that seed for us. All right, so yeah, the Lord's
the one that's gotta provide that seed for us. And turn over
to Isaiah 55. And go to verse 10. Isaiah 55. In this text, in Isaiah 55, our
Lord reveals to us that he's the giver of the seed and he
gives it to the preacher and he instructs the preacher and
helps the preacher so that the preacher, by the power and the
grace of the Lord, by his work, bread goes out to the eaters.
Bread goes out to his people and you eat and are fed and nourished
in the new man by the bread which he gives to us. Isaiah 55 verse
10, for as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and
returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring
forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to
the eater. So we see the goodness of our
Lord in this work in providing seed for us and which is then
made bread to you who eat it and feast upon the Lord and are
nourished by His richness and His grace. And it won't be tares,
right? The Lord's not going to have
me preaching tares. Or if I do say something that's
not right, we trust that the Lord, you'll separate the precious
from the vile and you'll not make us to hear that, but you'll
cause us to hear only that which is pure, sweet gospel word, that
that's what will help us, and that's what we'll hear, and we
know that he'll teach us and instruct his preachers so that
they know and understand rightly the word of truth. And it says
in Isaiah 52.8, He says, Thy watchman, we'll be back in Isaiah
55, but I'm just going to quote this one. Thy watchman shall
lift up the voice with Thee voice. We're going to see eye to eye
with the Lord and we're going to speak according to His words.
So we'll lift up our voice with Thee voice. Together shall they
sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring
again Zion. He's the one that gives this
word, and He's the one that makes it profitable to us, right? He
prepares us for this word. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth, verse 11, it shall not return unto
me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. And so, you know,
the Lord, we know it's the work of the Lord, but He warns us,
He warns your pastor, He speaks to your pastor in, And he speaks
to us. For us, he encourages us and
tells us in Hebrews 3, verses 12 and 13, he says, Take heed,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God. but exhort one another daily
while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through
the deceitfulness of sin." So he tells us, keep coming to this,
keep staying upon this word because this is where the Lord is instructing
us. And we see how there were many in Israel, there was many
as we see, there's many in the so-called Christian church that
have no heart, no love for the Lord, no desire for His righteousness.
They're just there for religion and they're happy But there's
always a remnant. There's always a remnant. that
are saved, and that's why it's so small. There's just not an
abundance of people usually, but the Lord will bring them,
and he knows how to save his people. He knows how to separate
them and cause them to come and to hear this word. So we hear
this, and the Lord instructs us to be diligent in these things,
to keep seeking him and stay upon him. He expects diligence
of me in studying the word, right? So it says in Luke 12, Verse
35 through 38, speaking to your pastor, he says, let your loins
be girded about and your lights burning and ye yourselves like
unto men that wait for the Lord when he will return from the
wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him
immediately. So I have to seek the Lord and
ask the Lord to help me to understand what I'm reading and give me
a word and a message that's timely for your people in this hour,
what they need to hear, what's gonna feed them and give them
that nourishment of how you're growing us here and now. And he says, blessed are those
servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.
Verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them
to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them. And
that's what it is. The Lord gives me the word to, you know, he
serves it to me so that then by his strength and power I serve
it. out to you, because bread to the eater. And then he says,
if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch
and find them, so blessed are those servants. So we see part
of it's just, it might take a long time. It might take all day before
the Lord helps me to see it. But also, I think there's something
in there that shows us that as the church goes through its history,
there's times where certain passages and scriptures are going to be
made keenly relevant to us in a way that's going to be very
meaningful and just a blessing to us. The Lord knows how to
do that. I don't know how to do it, but He knows how to bring
to light and open up certain passages that we've read many
times and to see it in light of what He wants us to see or
what He's preparing us to see. All right, but back in Isaiah
55 verses 12 And 13, it says, for ye shall go out with joy
and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall
break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands. So we preach the gospel, we come
and we hear the gospel, and the Lord is the one that increases
it to the benefit of our hearts. And in this parable, it's the
good ground hearers that are hearing this word. He's focusing
in here on the good ground hearer And notice the effect in verse
13, Isaiah 55 verse 13, it says, instead of the thorn, instead
of that which comes up from the flesh, instead of the thorn shall
come up the fir tree, And instead of the briar shall come up the
myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. So instead of that
which is natural to the flesh, producing thorns and thistles
and briars, instead comes up by the power of the Lord something
fruitful, something profitable to us who hear the word and are
growing in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's a good ground here, and
back in our text now, Go to Mark 4, but while you're going there,
I'll just read what Paul wrote to the Romans in 7th 4. He said,
Wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to
him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God. So by the Lord doing this in
us, we bring forth fruit unto God our Father. All right. But Mark 4, 26 and 27, and he
said, so is the kingdom of God. As if a man should cast seed
into the ground and should sleep and rise night and day and the
seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. So the sleep
here that's being referred to here is that this work is done
in faith, right? We're trusting that the Lord
will make it effectual to his people. We don't look on the
outward appearance of things, but we trust the Lord. You know
how to save your people. You know how to bring your people
in and cause us to hear it. It doesn't matter what we're
thinking, the attitude we come here in, we know how the Lord
has turned our hearts many times when we were disinterested or
tired or just not into it at all, but the Lord causes us to
hear it. When it's his time, he'll cause
us to hear it. So we trust in him to do it. And that's what the sower's doing,
what I'm doing. I'm just throwing out the seed
and trusting the Lord's going to cause it to fall where it
falls, and he's going to cause it to be profitable where he
wants it to be profitable. And that's why, that's what like
Christ was saying in John 3 verses 7 and 8, he said, marvel not
that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. We must be born
again. And then he goes on to say, the
wind bloweth where it listeth, right? We all are familiar with
the wind and how it works. You don't see wind, but you see
the effects of the wind. You see it when the trees start
moving and swaying and You now know it's blowing. You hear the
rustling of the leaves as it's going through. You hear, and
that's what he says, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of
the spirit. So it's a mysterious work. that
the Lord does in the hearts of his people. As he said to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. We don't know or understand how
it happens, but we know it's the Lord, and it's because he's
shown mercy and compassion to a sinner that's undeserving of
his mercy and compassion. of his grace. And then when it
comes, it's just a little tender sprout, right? You see it pop
up through the ground and it's just that little tender green
thing and it's tiny. And you don't want to mess with
it, you don't want to ruin it or mess it up. You don't harvest
it then, right? Because it's still tiny. But it grows and
it begins to grow up and it doesn't come forth overnight. It doesn't
pop up out of the ground and have all this abundance of fruit,
but it's a tiny little thing. It's just, it's a day of small
things and it just slowly grows up and it gets stronger and it
becomes to look more and more like a plant. But you know what
it is when you see it, right? You could tell that's a cucumber.
Oh, that's a tomato there or whatever. But it all comes up
even though it's tiny. And so we wait upon it and You
know, the Lord just has a way of working it in so that we see
it even, you know, when I came from New Jersey, you could see
a lot, too, where a lot of the young people, they would come,
many of them begrudgingly and not willingly at first, and they
would have sour faces on, and some of them would be trying
to look anywhere but with what was being said, and some of them
were purposely trying not to hear anything, Yeah, you just
see after a while, the Lord just brought a smile on their face,
and then they were looking, and they'd look up, and they'd really
try and hear what was being said, and the Lord just did it. You
don't know how or when, but it just happens, because that's
how He does it. And that's what it says there,
He knoweth not how. Even the preacher doesn't know
how it happened. Even the hearer doesn't know.
I mean, we preach the Word, but we don't know how or when the
Lord makes it effectual. And that's why Paul wrote to
the Corinthians in 1558, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in
vain in the Lord. All right, so the Lord's going
to do the work. Now, Mark 4, 28. He says, for
the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself, first the blade,
then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. So, as
we said before, it's a patient work, it's gonna come forth of
the Lord's power, and we wait for it. We're patient and we
wait upon the Lord to do it. And don't be discouraged, but
what I would say is, If you can be here, be here. Get here as
consistently as you can. And for your kids, encourage
them to be here. And certainly if they're at a
certain age where they're not adults and can get away, but
encourage them, bring them here. Think about your garden. You
have a nice garden plot out there in your yard. You don't look
out when it's the time of planting and say, boy, I really hope that
we get a good crop this year. And then you don't put any seed
down. you know what's going to happen. You know, we're not surprised
if we don't go out there and till the ground and put seed
down. We're not surprised when it brings forth thorns and thistles
and briars and weeds, right? We're not surprised because we
didn't do anything. We let it sit there and lay fallow. It's
the same thing that even though the power is in ours, even though
we know it's a work of the Lord, we don't want to be indifferent.
So we encourage our loved ones. We bring ourselves here and we
encourage our loved ones to be here and we bring them here because
that's exposing them to the seed. And that's how the Lord's going
to make it profitable. Even if they don't want to be
here, bring them as often as you can get them here because
that's where the seed's being applied, where the Lord's laying
down that seed and just trust and wait on Him to make it effectual.
Because then if they're hearing the seed, when you put seed down
in your garden, you're not surprised when you get those plants and
they come up and eventually they're fruitful. It takes time, but
eventually they're made fruitful by the Lord. So we see Him doing
that work here in His people. So don't be discouraged, brethren,
just because you don't see anything. It's the same thing in your gardens.
You don't harvest that thing right away. You wait for it to
come up and be fully grown and strong, and then you see the
flower, and then the flower drops, and the fruit starts, and then
the fruit grows. When it's ready to be harvested,
that's when you harvest it. So we wait on the Lord. And that brings us to our third
and final point, the harvest. We don't know when or how it
happens, but we recognize it's a plant when we see it. We know,
oh, that really is a plant. It'll come up and we wait with
patience upon the Lord to grow it and to do his work. And it
says in Mark 4.29, but when the fruit is brought forth, immediately
he put it in the sickle because the harvest is come. So what
he's saying is every believer is going to bear fruit in the
time that the Lord appoints. Every believer is going to bring
forth fruit. We're not all super abundant plants and some of us
are bringing forth more fruit than others. That's okay. The
result is still the same. We still have the inheritance
of the Lord. None of us is getting any more than anyone else. It's
just according as the Lord pleases. Some plants produce more fruit
than others, but it's still a plant after all. It's nothing to boast
in. It's the Lord. It's as He chooses
in wills and purposes, but we all have the same reward, the
Lord Jesus Christ. We're all going to receive the
inheritance of the saints with Him, and we're content with that.
We don't care if some of us are more fruitful than others. We're
just thankful to the Lord because it's all the work of the Lord.
He does it, and so we trust Him to do that. But when our time
of fruit comes forth, and we bear that fruit for which God
has purposed us to bear, then He harvests it. Whether it's
individuals, for us individually, and He'll bring us home, or the
church at large when he's done with the work. As it says, he's
purposed to do a short work. When it's all over, when the
last child of God has been saved and they bear that fruit that
he's purposed them to bear in him, then comes the harvest.
It says he's going to put in the sickle and bring it home.
And we see that in Revelation, Revelation 14. Go there because
it's a little bit long. But I want you to see Revelation
14 in verse 12. This is what he says there in
Revelation, and he says, Here is the patience of the saints.
Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Verse 13, And I heard a voice
from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, sayeth the spear, that they
may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. This
is all that fruit that the Lord brought forth of his people.
And I looked, and behold, a white cloud. And upon the cloud one
sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown,
and in his hand a sharp sickle. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
it's talking about. And another angel came out of the temple,
crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, to the
Lord Jesus Christ, thrust in thy sickle and reaped, for the
time has come for thee to reap. for the harvest of the earth
is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on
the earth, and the earth was reaped. But now notice in verse
17, now there's another harvesting that's gonna go on. So the Lord's
gonna gather up all his people, when that final one to bring
forth fruit brings it forth, the Lord harvests his people.
Verse 17, and another angel came out of the temple, which is in
heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came
out from the altar, which had power over fire, and cried with
a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, thrust
in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the
earth, for her grapes, that earthly fruit which is corrupt, it's
fully ripe, and the angel thrust in his sickle, into the earth
and gather the vine of the earth and cast it into the great winepress
of the wrath of God." So there's that fruit of the dust, that
fruit of the earth, which is not profitable because it's not
connected to the branch, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. But
those to whom they are connected to the branch, to the Lord Jesus
Christ, they will bear fruit and the Lord will harvest them
in its time and the rest will be left and be thrown into the
wrath of the Lord. So let me just close with this
passage just to encourage us. We looked at it this morning
in Ephesians 4, but I just want to read a couple verses from
it. In Ephesians 4, 11. This text is about the sower
of the word and the hearers and how the Lord uses the gospel
word to sow faith and grace in the heart of his people. And we thank the Lord for his
grace and what he's doing. And that's why we come here.
And that's why we're encouraged to come here and want to be here
and bring those that we can to hear it. But it says in Ephesians
4.11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists
and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ. And here it is, till we all come in the unity of the
faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
We want We want to bring in that final one in the hopes, you know,
as many as the Lord will save, get them here knowing that the
Lord's going to save his people and they're going to bring forth
that fruit and then he's going to harvest us and bring us home
to be with him. So I pray the Lord will bless
that to our hearts and give us a heart and a joy to be with
Him and to hear Him and to be with the saints and to know that
this is where the Lord is giving out the seed. So come here and
in His time, He'll make it profitable to His people. So trust Him for
that. You trust Him and believe Him.
Alright, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we pray, Lord,
that You would give us a heart that you would prepare us to
hear your word and give us a heart to look to Christ, to see that
he is the sufficient and the almighty savior of your people.
Lord, we pray that you would make your word effectual in our
hearts, cause us to see that we are sinners in need of your
grace and mercy, and that in Christ and in Christ alone, that's
where you've provided salvation for your people. Help us to see
him, help us to believe him, Lord, and there will be a small
beginning, Lord, let it grow and let it be nourished and watered
by your rain and your sun, Lord, and bring forth the fruit of
your people to the praise and glory of your name. In Christ
Jesus' name we pray.