Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter
8. And Ruby, they took her home
yesterday afternoon. She's at home now. Makes it good
for everybody. It's good to see all these girls
here. They sat there for years and
years when they were teenagers and young girls. And then they
all got married and left. And got a whole row of young'uns
up there. Love to see it. Just love to
see it. Granny likes it pretty good too,
don't she? Alright, I'm going to start reading
here in verse 4 down to verse 15 and bring a message after
a while on the sower. And when much people were gathered
together and were come to him out of every city, he spake by
a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed,
and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden
down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. Some fell upon a
rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because
it lacked moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the
thorns sprang up with it and choked it. And others fell on
good ground, and bear fruit an hundredfold. And when he had
said these things, he cried, he that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. And his disciples asked him saying,
what might this parable mean? And he said, unto you it is given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others
in parables that seeing they might not see, and hearing they
might not understand. Now the parable is this, the
seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they
that hear. Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out
of their hearts, lest they should believe, and be saved. They on
the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with
joy. And these have no root, which
for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And
that which fell among thorns are they, which when they have
heard, go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures
of this life and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the
good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having
heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. They
sung, that's Ruby's favorite song. I've got, she's down in,
when she was down in Vanderbilt, They held the phone up to her,
and she sang into the phone, she sang that song. Still got
it on my phone. And you know, her voice is so
frail, you have to put it right up to your ear to hear it. But
that's her song. She sang that the other day up
at the nursing home to me. Oh boy, that's her song. She
loves that song. He loved me long before I knew
it. All right, look with me again
here in Luke chapter 8. I want to talk about the sower. The sower. Our Lord gives us
this parable. And this is the parable of the
sower. He calls it a sower. A sower went forth. And this
parable is probably preached more than any other parable in
the Bible. It's in Matthew, it's in Mark,
and it's in Luke. And there's a little different
nuance in all of them. but they all say the same thing.
And here in this parable of the sower and the seed, there's four
types of hearts, four types of hearts. And in this congregation
or any congregation you went to, you'll find all four of these
hearts. You'll find all four of them. And our Lord describes
these four hearts and where the seeds sown in these four hearts
and the results of that seed fallen on those four different
types of hearts. And this parable is utmost important
because as we read it, it talks about these different hearts.
And I'll find my heart in this parable here. My heart will be
in this parable and yours will too. But which one is it? Which
one is it? There's four different types.
But which one's mine? Which one's mine? Which one's
yours? And our Lord, when he gives this parable of the sower,
he turns around and explains it. He interprets it himself.
He gives us the interpretation of it himself. And he talks about
the sower, the seed, and the ground on which this seed falls. And it's also a parable of caution,
caution about the most important subject. And you know what that
is? It's the way, the way we hear God's Word. Every one of
these people, every one of them, it says they heard the Word,
they hear the Word, they heard the Word, they that hear the
Word. All four of these people, all four of these types of hearts
heard the Word. Every single one of them heard
the Word. But what was the result of them hearing the Word? And
I tell you, it's very, very important, and that's what he's talking
about, how we hear the Word of God. It says there in verse four,
a large crowd was gathered together, much people out of every city,
and he spake by parable. And then look what he said, verse
5, a sower went out to sow. Now watch this, his seed, not
somebody else's seed, his seed. The sower went to sow his seed.
He didn't talk about a man going off to war and going off to fight
a war. He's not talking about that.
He's not talking about a judge going up to his bench to pass
judgment upon people. He's not talking about that.
He's talking about a sower went forth to sow his seed. He's not
talking about some philosopher who wants to get up and philosophize
about the world and how the world is and how we can all better
ourselves if we'll just follow his philosophy. And he didn't
say a politician went forth trying to convince somebody of his side
or his cause. He didn't say that. He didn't
say it's some clown, some preacher that's arising to entertain his
congregation and tell funny stories and good jokes to make people
feel good about themselves. He said a sower went forth to
sow his seed. And our Lord Jesus Christ tells
us Who that sower is, that's Himself. He went forth to sow
His seed. And the sower is our Lord, and
also the preacher who preaches the Word of God. The sower who
preaches the Word of God. The Gospel is called a seed. There's a seed, there's a corruptible
seed and incorruptible seed. And the corruptible seed is what
we're begotten by. The incorruptible seed is what
we're begotten by naturally. The corruptible seed is from
our fathers and mothers. But the incorruptible seed is
what we're begotten by, by the gospel. And that seed, the word
of God, the scriptures that he's talking about, it's an incorruptible
seed because it's his seed. And the seed, he says the seed
down there in verse 11, the seed is the word of God. He makes
it plain what the seed is. I'm sowing this morning. And
when a preacher gets up to preach, he's sowing. If he's of God,
if he's the Lord's preacher, he's sowing the word. And the
soil, the soil is the heart, the human heart, the heart. And
we have ourselves in this parable, in our heart. And that's what
He talks about, the heart here. Now look what His disciples said
there in verse 9. His disciples asked Him, saying,
What might this parable be? What might this parable be? What
are you talking about? Explain this to us. You know,
a parable is taking an earthly thing, seed. Everybody knows
what seed is. Everybody in this building is
planting seed or sowing seed at one time or another. Pretty
soon, people are going to plow up their gardens and they're
going to sow turnip seed. And so everybody knows what it is
to plant seed. Everybody knows what kind of
soil there is. And the better soil you use,
the better your seed will do. And so our Lord Jesus Christ
talks about this seed being sown and where that seed falls. and
whether it'll bring forth fruit or not. And we all know what
that is, and that's why our Lord uses earthly things to tell heavenly
truths. And so He uses seed, He uses
sower, and He tells us what the seed is and who the sowers are,
and then the ground upon which that seed falls. And look what
he's told his disciples there in verse 10. What might this
parable be? Explain it to us is what he's
saying. And list what he says, unto you, unto you, it is given
to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. And I
tell you what, he says, unto you, you my disciples, you my
sheep, you that hear the word of God, you that believe the
word of God. He said it's given to you to
know the mysteries. And there are several mysteries
in the scriptures. A mystery is something that has to be revealed
and it's a mystery until somebody tells you what it is. And our
Lord Jesus Christ, He talked about mysteries. You know, he
said, this mystery had been hid from generations, but now is
made manifest, Christ in you, the hope of glory. He talked
about, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye. So
he takes these mysteries and he explains them to us. And he
said, it's given to us. You can understand these mysteries.
You know something about the kingdom of God. You know something
about the word of God. You know something about Christ
sitting on his throne. You know something about Christ
who came into this world. You know the mysteries of God.
You know the mystery of the incarnation. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. And he said, you know these mysteries,
you know that there's a king in his kingdom, and not everybody's
in the kingdom of God. He told one lawyer one time,
he said, you're not far from the kingdom of God. You're not
far from it because of the way he answered the question. But
listen, he wasn't in the kingdom. He didn't understand the mysteries
of the kingdom. The Jews could not understand
the things, the mystery that God would bring Gentiles like
us, that he would bypass the Jews and save Gentiles like us. That was a mystery to them. It's
still a mystery to them. So it's given to us to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of God. Now, paganism and a lot of things
in this world, they have secret ceremonies, secret ceremonies. They have rituals hidden from
those who are not in that particular religion or whatever it might
be. They got these mysteries. And
that's how cults start. Somebody says, I know something
the rest of you don't. If you follow me, I'll let you
know that. And they never do let you know what they know.
That's why they get you in a cult. That's how they start. But our
Lord said, it's given to you to know the answer. That's what
he said. You're given to you to know the
answer. I'll get you, whatever the question is, I'll give you
the answer to it. That's what our master said.
The understanding of God's kingdom. He said, but to other folks around
here, I speak by parables unto them that seeing they might not
see. By hearing they might not understand. when He says, it's given to you
to know. You'll not know these truths unless they're revealed.
You'll not know Christ unless He's revealed. And then look
what He said in verse 12, the parable is this. Verse 11 He
says, now the parable is this. The first thing He says, the
seed is the Word of God. That's the first thing He says,
the seed is the Word of God. And then He talks about the different
kinds of hearers. and the soul is the human heart.
Now look what he says down here now, in the wayside here. You
know, he makes a point down here in these verses and then he comes
and explains them. Look down verse five, the wayside here.
Look at the, here's the first person whose seed was, talks
about the sower, went out to sow his seed. And he said in
verse 5, and he sowed some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden
down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. Now up here in verse
12, he tells us what that means. Verse 12, he said it's a sower
went out and it fell by the wayside. And that's talking about a heart
that's hard, trodden down. It's a hard heart. It's a wayside
here. The seed falls over here on the wayside, and the scriptures
tells us it's trodden down. And then the fowls come and devour
it. And it says here, they hear. It says they hear. By the wayside
are they that hear. They hear it. Then along comes
the devil, the devil. I'm telling you something, the
devil comes to every service we do. He does. You know what he does? You know
what his business is? To get your mind away from the
gospel. Let your mind be here, yonder, and everywhere else.
Let you sit in judgment, let you be critical, let you figure
out whether I'm saying the truth or not, let you figure out whether
it's the truth or not, whether it's you or not, whether it's
somebody else or not. You know, sitting around, what, you know,
and he's here to make you not pay any attention. But here's
this thing, said it's a hard place because it's trodden down. The ground is trodden down and
when the ground is trodden down, seed can't go into that. It's
a dangerous place. There it lays on that old trodden
ground and the fowls, they're flying around and a bird can
see a seed and get down and get it just like that. Ah, they have
quick eyes, but no matter how precious the seed is, it can
only fall on the wayside hearer, never in to the heart of that
wayside hearer, never into it. And that means that they're indifferent
to the Word. They're just totally indifferent
to it, to the message. They do nothing with the message.
It means nothing to them. Now look here in verse six, here's
the second heart. And some fell upon a rock. He's
sowing seed. I mean, he's out sowing seed.
He's throwing, he's sowing seed. And he's going out and he's sowing
this seed. Some of it fell on a rock. And as soon as it was
sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. Lacked moisture. Now he explains it to us in verse
13. Look what he says. They owned
the rock. are they which, when they hear,
receive the word with joy, and these have no root, which for
a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away." Oh,
this is a heart, emotional heart, an impulsive heart. Seed fell
on a rock, they hear. Oh, they hear. And the scripture
says here, they listen. They listen. They're very emotional.
They receive their word with joy. Oh my, that's wonderful
news. That's the best news. I never
heard such a gospel as that. That's the most wonderful thing. I just, oh, I love it, I love
it, I love it. And they receive the word with
joy. And you know, joy, there's nothing wrong with emotion. nothing
wrong that woman come to our lord jesus christ and fell at
his feet and wept at his feet that's about as emotional as
you can get get at a person's feet and weep and weep and weep
and then she wept at our savior's feet huh there's nothing wrong
with emotions there's nothing wrong with having joy there's
nothing wrong with saying amen there's nothing wrong with with
us being happy and joyful. Nothing wrong with that. But
this here, he's emotional. He receives the word with joy.
And here they cry easily, but they dry up just as quick. And
this type of here is shallow. Very shallow, superficial. He's
empty. It says here they received the
word with joy. Oh my joy. This type of here
is shallow, superficial, empty. They are affected by the word
right while they're hearing it. But here's the thing, the word
never does have an effect upon them. Why does it say? Because they have no root. That's
what it says. These have no root. These have
no root. I've done ginseng for years,
haven't in a while. But you get in some real rocky,
rocky ground, and you got to take and move rocks and everything
else, and you're trying to get a lot of big root out between
some rocks. And if you don't move the rocks
and things like that, I mean, it'll be right down in there
and it'll be even flat sometimes. And you'll have to move rocks
and everything else, try to get that one root out of there. And
it's hard. It's hard. And that's what our
Lord Jesus Christ says, says they have no roots in themselves. They have no root. Now how do
we tell if our emotions are real? Look what it says, what else
about this fellow here in verse 13. And oh, they received the
word with joys and these have no root, which for a while they
believe. They believe for a while. Yep,
they believed for a while. God told Ezekiel, said, they'll
come and sit before you, son of man, and they'll listen to
you. Said, boy, what wonderful words.
Then they'll go off and say, I don't know if I believe that
fella or not. But oh, listen, how can we tell if our emotions
are real? Here's how we tell. And in time
of temptation, they fall away. In time of temptation, they fall
away. That's how you can tell whether
it's real or not. That's how you can tell if it's real or
not. When time of temptation, they fall away. Our Lord, turn
with me over to James. James is right after the book
of Hebrews. Look in James chapter one, verse 12 with me. You know,
our Lord said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never
perish. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me. This fella didn't follow. Believe for a while. Believe
for a while. But how can we tell whether our
heart won't fall away? And the scriptures tells there's
gonna come a great falling away one of these days. A great falling
away, and it's already started. The falling away is not people
leaving the gospel. It's falling away as people just
don't want the gospel. And that falling away is done
taking place. Very, very few people believe the gospel. But
look what he said here in verse 12 of James chapter 1. Blessed
is the man that endureth temptation. Oh, temptations are real. Temptations
are something that God sends. Temptations are real. Temptations
to go places. Temptations to do things. Temptations
to... A thousand temptations can come
our way. A lot of temptations can come
our way. tempted to say things, do things,
we ought not say, do things, go places, act towards people,
we tempted to do things. But he said here, he said, blessed
is the man that endures whatever temptation comes. For when he
is tried, and he's gonna be tried, he shall receive the crown of
life. And I tell you that man who keeps
on enduring and keeps on trusting, keeps on looking to Christ, he's
got the crown of life. Christ is the crown of life himself. which the Lord hath promised
to them that love him." This fellow over here, he believed
for a while, and when temptation come along, temptation come along. I got someplace else to go, something
to do, and I need to be doing this, that, and the other, and
then temptation comes along and he's through. And then I tell
you, here's another heart. Here's the third heart. Verse
seven. with me over here in verse 7.
Here's the third heart. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns sprang up with it. The seed sprung up, and thorns
sprung right up with it. Now look down here in verse 14,
and he tells us what this means, what kind of heart this one is.
And that which fell among thorns are they which, now listen to
this, when they have heard, now remember every one of these folks
heard. And listen to what it says here, he goes forth, he
goes forth. Oh, here's a heart that's preoccupied. Here's a heart that's preoccupied.
Each group, it differs from the one described before, before
it. The wayside here never responded
at all to the preaching of the Word of God, never responded
at all. Those that fell on the rock, they responded immediately,
enthusiastically, and they stopped just as quick as they start.
But this third here, They perish too, just as fast. It says it's
an abundant soil because it's enough to grow thorns. It'll
grow thorns. And it's enough, you know, this
soil's got enough ground in it, got enough soil in it that it
grows thorns. And the scripture says that they
go forth. They got this word of God and
they go forth. Go forth. But the seed choked
out. It's choked out. Choked out.
There's three dangers that our Lord tells us about here. Three
dangers that he tells us about. Oh, it fell, I tell you, and
it brought, they heard, they heard. They go forth. I mean,
they're going forth. This seed fell, it sprung up.
It's bringing forth, it's coming up. Here it is, this grass, this
seed's coming up. And as it starts growing, other
things choke it out, choke it out, choke it out. And our Lord
gives us three things. First of all, it's choked with
the cares, cares. That word cares is the same word
as worry, worry. cares and worries. You know what
our Lord Jesus Christ said? He said, He which hath begun
a good work in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
Oh, worry, worry, worry, worry, worry. And then riches, riches
and riches. And this word riches means craving
for wealth, craving for wealth. There's nothing wrong with being
rich, nothing wrong with being rich, nothing wrong with having
money, as long as money don't have you. Now that's the difference.
And here's what our Lord said about riches, craving for wealth.
And you know when He talks about, there's three people in the scriptures
that our Lord describes of being rich and all three of them perished
over their wealth. All three of them did. There's
the rich young ruler. He come to our Lord Jesus Christ,
says, what good thing, master, must I do to inherit eternal
life, to get to be saved? What must I do? And our Lord
Jesus Christ says, keep the commandments. He said, I've done this since
I was a little boy. He said, well, if you would be
perfect, go sell everything and give all your money away and
give it to the poor, and then you turn around after you've
done it and follow me. That fella went away. Oh, I can't
do that. I can't do that. I can't do that.
And then there's the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man fared
sumptuously every day. Fared sumptuously, had an abundance. And he dressed in purple. That
means he was very wealthy, very wealthy man. And there was a
poor man, Lazarus, who was a beggar, right outside his gate. He lived
in a gated house, lived in a place where they had gates. He was
so wealthy, he didn't want nobody on his property. Stay off! And
Lazarus laid out there by his gate. And the scripture said
he was full of sores, and the dogs would come by and lick his
sores. And that rich man fared sumptuously
every day. You know what happened between
the two of them? Lazarus was taken to glory. The rich man
was sent to hell. And you know what he asked for?
He said, oh, send Lazarus. Please, send Lazarus. Let him
dip his finger and let one drop fall on my parched tongue. He
said, son, you had your good things in this life, Lazarus
had the poor things, and now he's got everything and you ain't
got nothing. And the other rich man was this. He walked out one day and looked
at all, looked at his house, looked at his land, looked at
his property, looked at everything he had and said, listen, I've
got so much stuff, I don't know where to put it, so I'm gonna
just tear down this barn and I'm gonna build one so big it'll
hold everything I got. And then I'm gonna get in my
easy chair and I'm gonna say, soul, take thy knees and be merry. That night, God said, you fool,
your soul is required of you. Oh boy. One wife talks about
her husband, said he'd give everything we got away if I didn't watch
him. Listen, if you start to getting tight with your money,
start giving it away, I'm telling you. Liberal soul will be made
fat. And then not only the riches
and cares, but look what he says, the pleasures of this life. Love
and pleasures, whatever pleases me, pleases my flesh. Said they're
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Look what he said
over here in Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, look with me over
here. Let's look at this together. Talking about pleasures of this
life. Pleasures of this life. And there's
a lot of pleasure in this life. I enjoy living very much. A good
cup of coffee, that's pleasurable. I enjoy a good cup of coffee.
I enjoy a good meal. I'll tell you what, it's pleasure
to me to eat a good meal. It's pleasure to me to, after
a day, you know, to sit down and relax. It's pleasurable.
It's pleasure. But that's not what he's talking
about here. Look what it says here in Hebrews 11, 24. By faith
Moses, when he was come to years, when he got old enough, he refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Raised in the court
of the wealthiest man in Egypt, one of the wealthiest men in
the world. and all the gold and pop and silver and all the great
big palace and all the things. He said, I don't want to be Pharaoh's
daughter, son. I don't want to be. Choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season. Sin only has pleasure just for
a little while it promises you this what? Temptation come along
they'll promise you boy if you take this and do this that's
like Satan said Eve if you eat this fruit here You're gonna
see things you never seen you're gonna hear things. You never
heard you gonna experience things you never experienced Go ahead
and eat it. You'll be wise and Well, she
ate it. Look what it did to all of us.
And that's all sin can. It can just give you a little
bit of pleasure for its season. And I mean, if you live to be
80 years old, 85 years old, 90 years old, 95 years old, 100
years old, and you don't know Christ, pleasure or sin is still
just a moment in passing. And choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season. Listen to this, esteeming the
reproach of Christ, listen, greater riches than the treasure in Egypt. Now here's why, for he had respect
unto the recompense of the reward. What's the reward? Christ. He
said, I want Christ. You can have the palace if you
want it. I want Christ. You can have the
throne and crown if you want it. I want Christ. I want Christ. All right, now look here. Here's
the fourth one. Here's the fourth one. Have you
figured out which one you are yet? Here's the fourth one. And in verse eight, another fell
on good ground. and sprang up, and bare fruit
a hundredfold." One place it said over in Matthew 13, it says,
30 fold, 60 fold, and a hundredfold. And when he had said these things,
he cried, if you got ears to hear, if you can understand what
I'm saying, you better listen to me. That's what our master's
saying here. Then he goes down here in verse 15, and he tells
us what this good soil is. But that on the good ground,
that seed, now see this seed fell on four different types
of ground. One out of four was a believer. One out of four brought
forth fruit. One out of four. But that on
the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart,
having heard the word, keep it and bring forth fruit with patience. Now how in the world does a person
get a good and honest heart? Where does that come from? Jeremiah
says the heart is deceitful above all things, and who can know
it? And he said in another place, only a fool trusts in his own
heart. And our Lord says, give me your
heart. My son, give me your heart. Out of the heart are the issues
of life. So if a heart's gonna be good, if a heart's gonna be
honest, somebody has to make it that way. The ground has to,
it talked about over, I think it's Hosea, it may not be, but
I think it is there where they plowed, plowed with a deep farrow,
deep farrow, you know, they plowed, he said, you know, the word of
God's like a plow, just went to plowing. And it breaks up
that fallow ground. And I tell you, the heart has
to be prepared. It has to be prepared. Who can
prepare it? We can't prepare our hearts for the Word of God.
After we're converted and after God saves us by His grace, we
can prepare to come hear the Word of God. We can do something
about that. We can pray before we come. We
can seek the Lord for the blessings upon the services. We can read
some scriptures. We can do a lot of things. But
here he says it's a prepared heart. Good ground. How'd that
ground get good? Oh, it's a heart, it's a ground
that's had special, special care. It's been plowed up. It's been
disked. It's been prepared. The Holy
Ghost made it good. The Holy Ghost made it honest.
And then it says an honest heart. And I heard old Barnard say one
time, God does not send honest men to hell. And what did he
mean by that? First of all, you're honest with
God. How many people in here this
morning are honest with God? I mean being honest with God.
Not yourself, not your wife, not your husband, not your children,
with God. How many of you in here this
morning is honest with God? You know God knows you, so you
have to come clean. You can't hide nothing. You can't
deceive him. You can't lie to him. You can't
do anything. He knows. And how many of you
can be honest with God? And you know, ask for things
that you know that only He can do. Say, Lord, I can't do this. I don't have the ability to do
it. And oh, Lord, You take my heart and You change it. You
change it toward this. You change it toward that. Change
it, Lord. Let me love more. Let me know
more. Let me understand more. We have
to come honest before God. Are you honest with yourself?
Are you honest with yourself? What is your opinion of yourself?
What is your opinion of yourself? I'm a good person. I think I'm
a good person. I'm doing the best I can. I'm
sincere. Then you're not honest with yourself.
You know a man that's honest with himself? I don't know nothing,
I don't have nothing, and I can't do nothing without Christ. And
Lord, if you don't keep me by the day, by the hour, by the
minute, I won't last no longer than a snowball in the hell,
a blast burner. I know that. You're an honest
one. Are you honest about being a sinner? Honest about being
a bonafide, certified, God-made, Holy Ghost-made sinner? Have
you ever been made a sinner? And that's what he said. It's
on an honest heart, made honest by the Spirit of God. And then
look what it says here. Having heard the word, having
heard the word. Oh, they've heard it. Everybody
else heard it. But look at the difference. They keep it. They keep this word. Oh, what
does that mean, keep it? I mean, they believe it, they
cling to it, they hold fast to it, they keep it in their memory,
and they want to know what God says, and what God says is right,
regardless of what we think, say, or feel. It's right. It's
true. It's like the Bereans. Paul and
Silas went down to Berea and it says, these were more noble
than those at Thessalonica that they searched the scriptures
daily to see if these things were so or not. David said, Lord,
open thy mine eyes and I may behold wondrous things out of
thy law. So they keep the word, they keep
it. They keep it. It's precious to
them. And if they had the ability,
they would remember everything that they ever heard and they'd
believe, I mean, they would put it in their brain, every bit
of it, if they could. And then, oh my, look what else
it says. Then it's a fruitful heart. It says it's a fruit,
and bring forth fruit. And this is what it says here.
With patience, there ain't no hurry. They got to stay here
till the Lord comes anyway. Till the Lord comes and gets
them. And they bring forth fruit and they just patiently, just,
and that word patience means that they just wait and go on
and wait and go on and just keep on going on. They're not in no
hurry. You know, they bringing forth
fruit. And I tell you, beloved, and let me say this in closing,
all these different hearers, You know, it talked about that
ground that fell among the thorns, choked with cares and riches
and pleasures. You know, the believer has cares,
too. You know what his cares are? He cares for the Word. He
cares for Christ. They care for one another. They
care for the lost. They care for the gospel. And
they've got riches, too. They crave riches, too. but they
crave the riches of Christ and the riches of His grace. And
they have the riches of Christ. We're wealthy in Him. Paul told
the Corinthians says you're rich in Christ, made wealthy in Christ. And you know, we want riches.
We want the riches of grace. We want the riches of Christ,
the true riches, the true riches. And we have pleasures too. You
know what? The believers' pleasures are
very, very simple, very simple. They come to hear the gospel.
They attend to the Gospel. They enjoy the Gospel. They enjoy
Christ, and they enjoy the life that God has given them. And
the two most pleasurable things to me in the world, two most
pleasurable things to me in this world, is first of all, sitting
and listening to somebody preach the Gospel. I love to hear somebody
preach the Gospel. I love the Gospel. I love to
hear somebody preach it. Secondly, having fellowship with the Lord's
people, whether it's Just me and one man, me and one woman,
me and two, three people, whether it's sitting in a couch or sitting
in a home, sitting at a dinner table, riding along in an automobile. There's nothing more enjoyable
than to be in with the Lord's people and enjoying them one,
you know, just a handful together at a time. There's nothing like
it. It's the most enjoyable thing ever was. Ain't it? Yeah. You
know, Christian and faithful, they walked along while they
talked about the things of God. And when we get together, we
tell one another our experiences and what the Lord's done for
us, how He brought us here, how He brought us there. The sower
sowed his seed.