Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. We have before
us a very familiar passage of Scripture. It is the parable of the sower and the seed. And I've entitled the message
this morning, The Sovereign Seed. The Sovereign Seed. Verse 1,
"...the same day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside. And a great and great multitudes
were gathered together unto Him, so that He went into a ship and
sat. And the whole multitude stood
on the shore. And He spake many things unto
them in parables, saying, Behold, A sower went forth to sow, and
when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls
came and devoured them up. Some fell on stony places where
there was not much earth, and forthwith they sprang up because
they had no depthness of earth. And when the sun was up, they
were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns sprang up and choked them. But other fell into good
ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundred, some sixty,
and some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear? Let him
hear. And the disciples came to him
and asked, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And He
answered. Now listen to the reason that
Christ gives this to His disciples. Because it is given unto you
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them
it is not given. And the first point I would make
about this message is Let's go back to the beginning. I want
us to see this first, that Christ, when He first got there out of
the house, He went by the seaside and a great multitude came to
Him. A great multitude of people, a number so vast that He was
forced into a ship. They pressed in on Him so much
that He had to get into a boat in order to preach to them on
the seashore. I know this. It's a desire of
everyone who preaches the gospel to preach to many. It is. We desire many. We desire many. Isn't that one of our favorite
hymns? That Lord that thy churches be
full. Thy churches be full. That's what we desire. We do
desire that many would hear. That's why we invite people to
come. We want them to hear. Why? Because this is the means,
the only means God has chosen, as we'll see, the only means
God has chosen to save sinners is through the hearing. Faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And I pray
that many would come and hear this gospel. And you know, this
is our commission. It's our great commission. Go
you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
And what is going to be the result? There will be two things happen
today. Listen, this is going to happen
this morning. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
and he that believeth not shall be damned. Now that's going to
happen. Today, today, some of you will
believe and some of you will not. That's going to happen every
time this gospel is preached. Every time. This thing is an
all or none principle here. You will either have it all when
you leave or you'll have less than you had when you came in. That's the way it works. And today I preach to you the
gospel. It is my calling to declare the gospel to you who are gathered
under the sound of my voice. And I preach to you the gospel,
this same gospel that even Christ preached. And believe it, this
message, this parable He preached is the gospel. It is the gospel
He preached. And it's the same gospel I desire
to preach. And listen to what He said. He
said, a sower went forth to sow. What does a sower sow? Seed. Seed. And what is this seed that
the sower is sowing? Well, if you look over in verse
19, It says, "...when anyone heareth
the word of the kingdom." So what is the seed? It is the Word
of God. It is the Word of God. You know,
I don't speculate. I'm not good at it. There's men
who actually make a living speculating on prices of things and stuff. I'm not good at speculation.
I'm just going to tell you exactly what God says because I don't
want you to hear anything else. This is what matters, what God's
Word says. The Word of God concerning the
Kingdom of God. The Word of God that Peter says
is incorruptible. undefiled, that fadeth not away."
How many people have tried to throw away this book? How many
people have tried to destroy it, and where are they? They're
gone, and it's still here. Okay? And long after you're gone,
it will still be here. So I'm interested in only sowing
one seed this morning. It is the Word of God. I'm not
interested in anything else. Not interested in anything else. This word that Christ preached
is very simple. It is not complicated. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Now these Jews thought when Christ
said that, He thought He meant an earthly kingdom. They thought
that somebody would come and deliver them from Roman rule
and that everyone that merited His favor would be accepted into
this kingdom. That's what they thought. That's
what most men think. Most men think the kingdom of
God is something physical, something carnal, something that's going
to happen in this world. They think that somehow He's
going to come back for a thousand literal years and set up a kingdom
in this fallen world? He said, My kingdom is not of
this world. Now is that not plain speech? I don't know what is.
My kingdom is not of this world. Many men believe that acceptance
into the kingdom is merited. They merit it by their works,
by their church attendance. They think they're doing good
just because they come to church. No, no, that's not how you enter
the kingdom. This cannot be because all men
died in Adam. This is why you won't merit God's
favor, because when your father sinned, you sinned. And I'm talking
about your first father, Adam. When he sinned, you sinned. When he died, you died. And therefore, you were born
into this world with no interest, no concern for the things of
God. You were born at enmity against
God, hating God, despising His Word, and you would not receive
Christ, though you heard it plainly. This message I'm preaching to
you this morning, every one of you have heard before. In this
building, I know you have. You have heard this before. Yet
before, you did not receive it. Even now, you say, I don't want
it. Well, that's because you're dead. Because you're dead. You cannot. You're spiritually
discerned. And as we're going to see, just
as many of these, there are going to be four types of ground. That's
the hearing. That's how you receive this Word.
There's going to be four types of hearers, and every one of
you this morning, and Bobby, one of these types. You are incapable. of receiving this Word. Why you
won't receive it is because you are incapable of receiving it.
If I threw a seed on this floor right here, is it capable of
receiving the seed? It's a concrete floor. is incapable
of receiving the seed. It has no earth. It has no ability. It has no power. And as I cast
the seed this morning, repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Christ is the only Savior. And yet you will not receive
it because you cannot receive it. Cannot. The gospel says repent. What
does that mean? That means to turn from your
sins. To turn from your own merits. Turn from your own self-righteousness.
Repent from your vain religion that puts any trust in your works
or self. That's what it is to repent,
is to completely turn from self and sin. False religion of our
day does not exclude Jesus Christ. It does not exclude His blood. It does not deny His deity. But the vain religion of today
includes Christ, but it also includes a man's own works. It includes a man's works. It
says Jesus Christ plus something. Plus His works. The blood of
Christ bought all men, but you have to make it effectual by
your determination and will. That's false religion. Therefore,
faith in Christ, faith in Christ is only a matter of man's will
and not a gift of God. That's what false religion teaches. Yet we still command everyone
everywhere to repent. You get it? Your incapableness
of receiving the Word does not negate my responsibility to tell
you. I'm here to tell you, repent
and believe on Christ. Yet I know all the while that
you cannot repent except God give you repentance. If there is one thing you can
do, If there's still one thing that you think you can do, you'll
do it. And you will not come to Christ. If there's one work
you think you perform, one act of obedience you can give to
merit God's or move God to save you, you recognize then that
it's no longer mercy you're asking for, but merit. So then our gospel is for a particular
group of people. Sinners. Absolute sinners. That's who
I'm preaching to. Absolute sinners who need an
absolute Savior. Our gospel is for those whose
garments are full of sin, those whose souls are defiled, corrupt,
and ungodly. We're preaching to lepers who
need cleansing. We're preaching to blind men
who need sight. We're preaching to lame men who
need power to walk. We're preaching to prisoners
who need deliverance. And this Word, this gospel, this
Word of God, is for those who need to be washed. The water
of the Word washes away the sin. Those whose souls are thirsty
for righteousness and acceptance with God, those who are dead
and need to be quickened, those barren wastelands and deserts
of self-righteousness, repent and behold the Lamb of God."
Behold Christ. Believe and trust in Christ. You see, this word of the kingdom
really is about the king. It's not so much the streets
of gold or the palaces or the pearls or whatever you have a
mind to of the kingdom. It is about a person. The kingdom
of heaven is about a person, the King, anointed of God, Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. You remember that psalm that
says, "...the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right
hand." What is that? Who sits at the right hand of
God but the King? The King! "...and thy people..."
You see, the King, the only King has a people. "...thy people
shall be willing. The Son of God, because He is
the anointed King, God has sent Him in the flesh." In the flesh! The seed of the
woman, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the offspring of David
has come. This is the Word. This is the
seed. It is Christ. Christ has come. He who God promised to come,
put away sin, to atone and redeem and justify His chosen people,
He has come. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh.
Sinner, you're ruined. And there ain't
no hope of you ever meriting God's favor. Do what you will.
Try as hard as you may. You won't do it. I'm telling
you of one that has already come and did it. That's the message. This is the gospel that somebody
has already been sent. It is the Son of God has been
sent to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. The righteousness we could not
earn, Christ has earned it. Christ has come to earn righteousness
to redeem many by His blood. Behold the atonement that we
could not make. Jesus by His one offering, one
offering, forever satisfied the justice of God. What your soul
could not do in hell for eternity, Christ did on the cross by His one offering. He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. By His one sacrifice
of Himself, He has obtained, obtained eternal redemption for
us. And behold how He who knew no
sin, consider His sufferings, consider His sufferings, He who
knew no sin was made sin for us. And I tell you, when He was made
sin, God's justice fell on Him without mercy. You see, we who
are believers, we don't escape punishment. Matter of fact, our
sins have been punished. We don't escape judgment. Our
sins have already been judged. In Christ they have been put
away forever. You see, I point you to one who
has obtained salvation and victory over sin, over death, over hell,
over the world, the flesh, and the devil. Jesus Christ has won
the victory. It is done, the great transaction
is done. I am my Lord and He is mine. And because He has forever put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, listen, God has highly
exalted Him and given Him a name that is above every name. Do
you realize His name is above every name? Even yours. I know we set our
name pretty high. Self. We always set ourselves
up here. Everybody else may be just a
little lower. Even the people we love the most, I imagine,
are a little lower than we've set ourselves. But you listen.
Jesus Christ is above everyone. He is above everyone. God has
set Him on the throne of glory. And He is moving all things after
the counsel of His own will. Whatever is happening in this
world is according to His will. And it is His will that He send
us to tell you of His victory, to tell you of His triumph, of
His success, to tell you to repent. See, I'm
not inviting you to repent. The Scripture commands you to
repent. commands you to repent and believe on Christ. And listen,
you shall be saved. That's good. Is that not the
best news? It is for a sinner. It is for
a sinner. You shall be saved. Oh, but listen
to this, he that believeth not shall be damned. That's just
as sure. As the one who believes is going
to be saved, the one that doesn't believe will be damned. That's
just as sure. Just as sure. Now, no matter how often I preach or how clear
I preach, or I hope to preach as clear as possible, but I know
this, I can preach to millions, or I can preach to a few, it
doesn't matter. Salvation is not in my hands. And I want you
to pay attention to me, listen to me. Salvation is not in your
hands either. Salvation is in the hands of
God. Now, I've done my commission.
I've pointed you to Christ. I've told you to believe. But I know this, if you ever
believe, God has to do it. God has to do it. If this gospel
will ever make sense to you, if you will ever embrace it,
it will be because God gives it to you. If you ever repent and believe
the gospel, it is because God must give it to you. Except God
give you understanding and power to believe, you will never believe. Isn't that what he said? He preached
the gospel to them in that parable. And they asked, why is it a parable? Why are you doing this? He said,
because it is given to you to understand the mystery. But to
them, it is not given. Who has power to give understanding? Only God. Only God has power. This gospel we preach, we preach
it to all men. But you listen to me, it is a
mystery. Isn't that what He calls it? It is given to you to know what?
The mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Mysteries. The Gospel is like this parable.
This parable of the sower, it's not complicated. Anybody that
can read or understand how a seed grows can understand this. It's not complicated. You throw
a bunch of seed out, some of it lands on a different kind
of ground. You just cast it out there and there's some hard ground
over here like this concrete. It'll never receive it. You got
ground over here, it's got a little broken earth, and yeah, it may
get down a little bit, but it don't have no root, so it'll
just burn up in the sun. And you throw it over here with
a bunch of thorns, and yeah, the thorns just grow around it,
choke out all the fruit. Don't have any fruit. It's no
good. And you got good ground. broken ground. Somebody actually
bent down and plowed up that ground and made it good, and
the seed fell in that, and sure enough, it did exactly what it's
supposed to do, spring up. That's easy to understand, isn't
it? Not complicated. The Gospel is not complicated
for the mind. But I tell you, it's a mystery
to the heart. It's a mystery to the heart of man. Man cannot
understand it. Man can understand the earthly
meanings of it, He can actually get a doctorate degree in it. But if Christ will not reveal
this gospel to you, you'll never understand it. If
Christ doesn't reveal this to you, He leaves it to your own
imagination, you'll never understand it. Isn't that what He did here
to these people? He threw that parable out which
has the gospel in it. It is a gospel message and I'm
going to show you in a minute. But He left it there. He didn't give them any key to
understanding the riddle. It was a spiritual thing. He
didn't give them any understanding about it. He didn't give them
a key. He just left it to their own
imagination. So they could think the seed would be anything, right?
Well, man, what does that seed mean? Well, I don't know. It
could be a man's feelings. It could be a man's thoughts.
It could be making images. I don't know what
it is. You just leave it to their imagination. If God ever leaves
this gospel to your imagination, you'll come up with a whole bunch
of crazy stuff. Haven't men come up with a whole bunch of crazy
stuff? bowing down to crosses made with hands, with a little
figurine saying, Behold thy God. Isn't that stupid? It's crazy. Yet they do it. You dress a wicked
man up in religious garb, put him behind a little closet and
confess your sins to another sinner? Kiss the ring of a man
who claims to be the vicar of Christ, who's nothing but a wicked
man who doesn't have any clue what this gospel means? What
are they doing? They're making it up as they go along. The gospel of God is to the natural
man a mystery, a parable, that is to be only interpreted by
his own experiences or his own intellect or the traditions of
other men. This is why we preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ as plainly and clearly as we can. But I know
this, you'll never have the key to it. You'll never understand
it unless He gives it. I point you to Christ and I tell
you He's done it. Salvation's finished. And I tell you, I pray that Christ
reveal it to you. We preach. that Jesus Christ
and Him crucified is the only hope of forgiveness and acceptance
with God. And we preach it, yet we know
that Christ said, No man can come to Me, except the Father
which hath sent Me draw him. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, because he is spiritually judged, neither
can he know them. unless the Holy Spirit open His
eyes. Listen, God must do it. God must
do it. And all that believe on Christ
are saved. All who have faith in Christ,
it is a gift of God's grace that you believe. And all who are saved by the
Spirit, He will keep in this faith until Christ comes. Now all I've said is plainly
revealed in this Scripture. Jesus said, it is given to you to know the mysteries,
but to them it is not given. You see, this gospel is of no
private interpretation. I'm not here to give you my opinion
of things. I'm here to tell you just as
plainly what it says. And therefore, it must be revealed
by divine revelation. Divine revelation. It is given
to you. Therefore, Christ gives us the
meaning of this parable. If you'll go down to verse 19,
he starts to give the meaning of this parable. He said, the
seed. The seed is the gospel. The ground
upon which the seed falls is the heart of man. And how he
receives this seed and then exposes the true nature of the heart. I've preached the Word to you,
Jesus Christ. It is the Gospel. And it's the
same Gospel that's spoken to all men. I mean, every one of
you heard the same thing. I mean, there's no difference
here. So the seed is not the variable here. What's the variable? It's the heart. The heart's the
variable. This same Gospel was preached
to all of these grounds. And I, like the Lord, cast the
seed. I cast the seed at a venture.
You know, I don't know who's going to receive it and who's
not. Because it's not up to me. It's not up to me. Only the Lord
knows who's His and who is not. And so we preach salvation to
all. And Jesus says to these people who professed, to them
it is not given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. But where does
the blame lie? Where is the blame for not receiving
this seed? The seed was cast to all, wasn't
it? If I cast this gospel to all of you and you do not believe,
listen, it is your fault. It's yours. The blame lies with
you. It is in full rebellion. Look
what he says in verse 12, "...For whosoever hath, to him shall
be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath
not, from him it shall be taken. Therefore I speak to them in
parables, because they seeing, see not, and hearing, hear not,
neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Isaiah, that saith, By hearing you shall hear, and
not understand. Seeing you shall see, and not
perceive." This people's heart is calloused. You know why you
won't hear it this morning? If you will not hear it, it's
because your heart's calloused. It's cold. It's hard. Your ears are dull of hearing. And listen, their eyes have they
closed. You don't hear it this morning,
it's because your eyes, you've closed willingly. If God doesn't
give you this understanding, He's not doing anything against
you. As a matter of fact, He's just giving you what you want.
You don't want to hear it anyway. So all He's doing is giving you
exactly what you want. He does no injustice to you by
not giving you understanding. Behold how helpless then is man! How helpless is man! How depraved
is his heart, his mind, and his body! His heart is incapable
of receiving the gospel because he's so corrupt, because he loves
his sin rather than God. Surely God's salvation is sure
to all who see it. He said, lest at any time, if
they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand,
I'll give them salvation. At any time your eyes should
be opened, your heart should receive this gospel, surely He
will save you. That's sure. But the point Christ is making
cannot be avoided. with man, salvation is impossible. Impossible. Therefore, the only
way of salvation is that God open your eyes, your ears, and
your heart. So now then, this gospel does
not go out by way of God's, it goes out by way of God's ordained
man, And then when it is cast, it will be heard on four types
of hearts. Three of which will result in
the damnation of the soul and only one represents the true
believer, those who are accepted of God. Now look at these hearts. And may God open your heart to
even judge as to which one you are. The first one, he said,
"...the sower went forth to sow," verse 4, "...and the seed fell
by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up." Well,
look at the interpretation of this in verse 19. He says, "...when
anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it
not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth it away, that which
was sown in the heart." Do you understand this? Do you understand
the gospel? If you don't, as soon as you
hear it, the enemy comes and just takes
it away. How? You'll forget everything you
heard. It will be like you never were
here. This won't affect you at all.
If this gospel message has no effect on you, that's your heart
right there. Your heart is the wayside. Your
heart is the hard concrete. It will not receive it. It cannot
receive it. And Satan comes and takes away
even that which you've been given. Takes it away. Jesus testified of this, they
that are whole need not a physician. They that are sick. You see,
you don't receive it because you don't have a need of it.
That's the wayside here. They have no need. The only need
they have is out there. The only thing on their heart
is out there. I can't wait to get back to whatever
that is and get away from this. That's the wayside here. Jesus said to the Jews, you remember,
they asked Jesus, are we blind also? And Jesus said, if you
were blind, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But because
you say, I see, because you have no need, your sin remaineth. Your sin remaineth. I declare
that there is salvation by the grace of God. And God gives it,
life and faith, to whomsoever He will. But He does no injustice
to you who do not understand. He just leaves you alone to yourself. Even because you have no desire
for the things of Christ. And you know what I do? I pray
God give you desire. The only way for God to do that
is He's going to have to break your ground up. He's going to
break it up. If you're His, He will break
it up. He will. No doubt about it. The second
ground is the stony ground here. Verse 5, it says, "...and some
fell in stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith
they sprang up. And because they had no deftness
of earth, when the sun was up, they were scorched. And because
they had no root, they withered away." Now see here, these are
people who have surface salvation. On the surface, the earth is
broken up a little bit. Maybe by circumstances, maybe
they're in trouble, maybe they're sick. You know, there's something
that caused their heart to stir up a little bit. They got in
trouble. And so they need something. They know they need something.
They may feel guilty. They may have a guilty conscience.
And they say, oh, man, I need something to quench this guilt.
It's really bothering me. And so what do they do? They
hear the gospel. They say, oh, well, that sounds
good. Forgiveness, eternal life, heaven. Oh, that sounds wonderful. I'd love to have peace, peace,
oh, for peace. My goodness, I'm in so much trouble.
I need some peace. And they hear the gospel and
they say, yeah, that's what I need. And they receive it, these people,
well, they grab a hold of it. They receive it quickly. They determine to take it. They determine in themselves
to have it. But because they have no root,
what does that mean? Because it is a work of your
determination, it will only end in you going away. If God doesn't create a new nature
inside of you, all your religious determination will evaporate
when trouble comes. Listen, being a Christian is
nothing in this world but trouble, pain, suffering, heartache. Anybody who thinks being a Christian
and everything is going to go well has been sadly mistaken. In this world, my Lord said,
you shall have tribulation. This world will hate you. That sounds like a good sales
pitch. I'm not a used car salesman.
I'm not trying to snooker anybody into anything. I'm trying to
tell you, it's nothing but trouble. When you believe on Christ, your
whole world turns upside down. And I tell you this, if you've
got no deftness of heart, if the Spirit of God has not quickened
you and given you life, the same sun that would cause the believer
to be refreshed will burn you up and you will go away. I've
seen it happen so many times, people sitting in the church,
gritting their teeth, trying their best to stay in here. Oh,
they just, man, they're miserable in here. They hate this. They
know they've got to be here, but man, they just don't want
to be. You know how long that lasts? Not very long. I've had men come to me and say,
well, man, don't you preach anything else but Christ? Don't you preach
anything else? No. I can't stand it. Well, of course you can't. You
don't have a new heart. So you're going to find something
else. You'll wither away. John said, they went out from us because
they were not of us. If they were of us, they would
have no doubt, what? continued with us. You see, these
stony ground hearers, they may receive it on the surface, but when trouble comes, they'll
be gone and they'll be proven. John said, they went out from
us so that it would be manifest. They were not of us. Now third is the thorny ground
hearer. Let's read this together. He
said, And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and
choked them. Look and see what he says is
the interpretation of this. He said in verse 22, He also
that receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the
word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches
choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. This is one who seemingly
received the seed. Seemingly, he's just like every
other believer. And he lasts, he stays. This is the thorn, this is the
tares among the wheat, the goats among the sheep that the Lord
said there will always be tares among the wheat. There will always
be false professors of faith. What's the difference between
the true and the false? This one is that the cares of
this world. Now one is gone away because
of trouble. This one goes away because of
prosperity. You remember Demas? Paul says
of Demas, in one place, this is my fellow servant Demas, he
preaches the gospel. Then another place he said this,
Demas, having loved this present world, hath forsaken me. Do you get that? Forsaken me. Some people go away from us because
of trouble. Others go away from us because
of prosperity. But you know what the difference
is between them? Nothing. They're both lost. They're both
lost. I cannot tell you how many people
have been tempted away by the riches of this world and the
prosperity Prosperity is really worse for the church than tribulation. These go away because of prosperity. But praise God that there is
some who do receive into good ground. This seed does fall into,
this is the only one out of the four that actually have eternal
life. And this good ground, I want
you to understand, this good ground was not natural. In order,
if you've done any gardening at all, you know you've got to
plow up the ground. The ground cannot... You just
throw it out there, but if it's not good soil, if it's not tender,
if it's not plowed up, it's not going to be received. You see, God has to plow the
heart. And He does this by exposing our sin. He exposes us for who
we really are. Not before others, before God. He exposes us before God. so that we have no place to hide.
We have nowhere to run. He breaks our hearts because
of sin and then by grace He gives us this seed, the gospel, and
we receive it and we hold to it. And you know what it does? It grows all by itself. He grows this. You see, this
whole thing is done outside of the soil. It's not the soil's
reason. The soil doesn't do anything.
It just receives it. The plant grows because that's
its nature. And when God gives you a new
nature, that seed also is foreign to the soil. Isn't our new nature
foreign to us? And God implants that in us.
He creates that in us. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus under good works. And you know what this seed does?
It produces fruit. What is this fruit? Is it building
orphanages or hospitals? Is that the fruit it produces?
Is it building homes in third world countries or missionary
trips? Is that the fruit? No. The fruit
is the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, meekness, moderation,
temperance. All of these fruits it produces
in the heart of a believer. And I'm so thankful that the
Lord does give us this, that some 30, some 60, and some 100. I'm thankful that you look at
the Apostle Paul and you say, well, man, I don't have that. That's alright. You have what
God gives you. You know, God gives His fruit.
I'm thankful He didn't call it the fruit of Joanne, right? Fruit of Scott. No, it's the
fruit of the Spirit. It's His fruit. And it grows
by His grace. By His grace. And especially
this fruit of faith. I know, believer, your faith
is weak. At best, it's weak. Your love at best doesn't even
seem like love at all. But you see, our hope is not
in our fruit, but rather in Christ. You look at the fruit, you're
going to start to get scared. Look at Christ and hold to Him. I pray that God would bless this,
that He would reveal to each one of you how you received this
this morning. How did you receive it? then you know what your heart
is. I pray that God will plow it up
and bring forth fruit unto himself.