I've certainly been blessed today
in singing the praises of our God. He's worthy of all praise. And I have been blessed in with
the teaching of Brother Thomas as he goes through a passage
of scripture that many people go shipwreck on. I've heard a
lot of different takes on that passage of scripture
over the years. In fact, I knew a fellow that
used to claim that he did not sin. And, of course, I told him, well,
you just don't know what sin is. You know, a man that thinks
that he does not sin at all has no comprehension that sin is
what he is and not what he does. uh... you know we are conceived
in sin and uh... we are bent towards it and we
will continue in it apart from the grace of god to deliver us
from and he is gracious uh... to cause his people to see sin
for what it is and uh... as he works in his people both
willing to do of their good of his good pleasure uh... he is pretty pleased to deliver
them from uh... for some people when you say
that they think that you are saying that he is uh... deliver
you from any uh... acting upon your sinful urges
or ways at all that's not what that means in any event he has
delivered us from the love of that way from a desire to walk
in that way from a embracing of that way which we have seen. We are by the grace of God if
we know the Lord. We are as David who cried out
to the Lord to be delivered from his way because he knew what
he was by nature and he desired that the Lord might forgive him,
that he might cause him to walk in the path that he knows is
right. See, God's people know the right
way. We don't have to be taught the right way because we see
it in Christ. If you want to know what the
right way is, just look at Christ. If you want to find out what
you should do in a certain situation, just ask yourself, well, what
would the Lord do? And though we might not always
know that, we are aware in the word of what he tells us and
teaches us concerning that way in which we should walk. And
so we confess that we do not walk. according to the way that
we know. But we also confess that we desire
to know that way. And we do desire to walk in it.
And by His grace, we shall, as He works in us. Now, we're looking
in the book of Mark, still. And
looking in chapter four. And I'm gonna read the chapter,
and then we'll look at, we probably won't look at all of it. It says,
and he began again to teach by the seaside. And there was gathered
unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship and
sat in the sea. And the whole multitude was by
the sea on the land. And he taught them many things
by parables and said unto them in his doctrine, hearken, behold,
there went out a sower. to sow. And it came to pass,
as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the
air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground,
where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up,
because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was
scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns grew up and choked it, it yielded no fruit. and
other fell on good ground and did yield fruit. And that sprang
up and increased and brought forth some 30, some 60, and some
100. And he said unto them, He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, they that
were about him with the 12 asked of him the parable. And he said
unto them, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. But unto them that are without,
all these things are done in parables, that seeing they may
see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand,
lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should
be forgiven them. And he said unto them, Know ye
not this parable? And how then will ye know all
parables? The sower soweth the word. And these are they by the wayside,
where the word is sown. But when they have heard, Satan
cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in
their hearts. And these are they likewise which
are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word,
immediately receive it with gladness, and have no root in themselves,
and so endure but for a time. Afterward, when affliction or
persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are
sown among thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares of this
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other
things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are
sown on good ground, such as hear the word, and receive it,
and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.
And he said unto them, is a candle brought to be put under a bushel
or under a bed, and not to be set on a candlestick? For there
is nothing hid which shall not be manifested, neither was anything
kept secret, but that it should come abroad. If any man have
ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them, 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. For he that hath to him shall
be given, and he that hath not from him shall be taken, even
that which he hath. 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. For the earth bringeth forth
fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, and after the full
corn, in the ear. But when the fruit is brought
forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest
is come. And he said, where unto shall
we liken the kingdom of God, or with what comparison shall
we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard
seed, which when it is sown in the earth, it is less than all
the seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth
up and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great
branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow
of it. And with many such parables spake
he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without
a parable spake he not unto them, and when they were alone, he
expounded all things to his disciples. And the same day, when the even
was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other
side. And when they had sent away the
multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there
were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great
storm of wind, and the waves beat unto the ship, so that it
was now full. And he was in the hander part
of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and say unto
him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose
and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still.
and the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said
unto them, why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?
And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, what manner
of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Now this is probably of all the
parables that we find that the Lord taught in the scripture. The parable of the sower is probably
one of the most, I would say, iconic and best explained and
set forth clearly by the Lord to his disciples that we have
recorded of all these parables. But we see the Lord teaching
by the seaside. Now obviously what this means,
because it says here that he sat in the sea. Now it does not
mean that he was sitting in the water. But rather he was in a
boat out from the edge of the sea so that he wouldn't be pushed
into the sea by the crowds as they thronged upon him because
there was a multitude that came to hear him. So he was in a boat
out in the water and he taught. Now, it is interesting that it
says he sat in the sea. Now, you know, our custom is
that the one who's doing the teaching stands and the pupils
sit. But in those times, it was common
for the people to stand and the teacher to sit. And so you often
see that mentioned in the scriptures that the Lord sat and taught,
which was the custom of the day. Now, one thing I would say about
that is that indicates in his case that he's the master of
all and those that they must stand to hear and give honor
to the one who speaks. But he began again to teach by
the seaside and there was gathered unto him a great multitude so
that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea. And the whole
multitude was by the sea on the land and he taught them many
things by parables. That was his chosen method. He
said, he prayed the prayer, Father I thank Thee that Thou has hid
these things from the wise and the prudent and has revealed
them unto babes. Now that would be an odd thing
for him to say if it was his intention to teach all men the
truth of God, to open the ears of all men to hear it, would
it not? For he thanked the Lord that the Lord had shut the ears
of some. Because the Lord came into the
world for a purpose, and that was to gather his sheep. He came
to seek and to save that which was lost. and that's his purpose
and we see that even in his teaching though his teaching was given
to the multitude yet the hearing ear is only given to a few and
what a privilege it is to be given an ear to hear the word
of God and he said unto them in his doctrine now we must always
remember that this is his doctrine we don't design the doctrine
that we teach some men forget that And they come up with their
doctrine. And they go through the scriptures,
they write books and all sorts of things letting you know what
their doctrine is. Well, we're not interested in
what our doctrine is. Our doctrine doesn't mean anything,
but we want to know what his doctrine is. And may we be found
teaching his doctrine. And if we stick with this word,
then that will be his doctrine. When we seek to add something
to it, then it becomes our doctrine. So we're not interested in that.
And we hope that we would always be reminded of that if we should
ever go in, fall into that trap. And we are, as men, we do like
our, we have our little pet things that we like and maybe some doctrine
that we like to set forth more so than others, that should not
be the case. When we come to teach the word
of God, we must teach it as it is, not skipping over part. I
remember as Brother Ed was talking one time about going through
the book of Romans and when they got to the ninth chapter, they
just kind of did the speed you know, study of that. And I can
remember, you know, as a kid, going through study courses and
this and going through the book of Romans. And I don't ever remember
anybody ever talking about the ninth chapter of Romans. And
it was like a startling thing to me when I got older. And the
Lord began to deal with me and show me some things in his word
that the ninth chapter of Romans was like something I couldn't
believe was even in the Bible. I mean, I never heard such a
thing in all my life. We're not to pick and choose
the parts of the scriptures that we desire to teach, but to teach
it as it is, whether it fits in with what we like or not.
And brethren, a man is not honest if he says he comes to the Word
of God and everything he reads he just agrees with it 100%. Or that he likes it. Because
there are a lot of things in the Scripture that we may not
like. It doesn't make any difference. It's his doctrine. And the Lord
Jesus Christ came and won. The reason that, you know, the
Pharisees, they took notice of this. And the people did. They
said, well, this man teaches like no other man. He teaches
as one who has authority. And why was he doing that? Because
he was teaching his doctrine. It was that which he had set
in motion from before the foundation of the world, and he came teaching
it. and contrasting how much that was in opposition to the
ways of men. And so he said unto them in his
doctrine, behold there went out a sower to sow. Now we must,
as we look at this, we must have the understanding that the sower
had a purpose. Now he wasn't just a man walking
down the road with a sack full of seed and he said, well, I'm
gonna just throw seed out. No, this was a man who had a
sack of seed and he went into his field. See, he was a farmer. He intended, he didn't just sow
the seed to see what would happen. He sowed the seed for the purpose
of putting it in the ground that he had prepared and seeing that
seed come to fruition. That was his purpose. Now, in
the course of his sowing the seed, all of the seed did not
fall on the good ground. And the Lord said that we're
to go into all the world and preach the gospel. We're not
to pick and choose who it is that we speak to. We're to broadcast the word of
God, to tell all men about the truth that is here. But the Lord
is the one that is going to cause the seed to fall on the good
ground where He sees fit to do it. He said His Word would not
return unto him void, but it would accomplish the thing where
to He sends it. Now in the case of this particular
sower, as the Lord uses this parable, and he's putting this
seed out here, he's not aware of this seed that's falling here. Now the Lord's aware of where
all the seed falls. And he's not in any wise taken
by surprise by either the seed that falls on the stony ground
or the seed that falls in the good ground. Because the seed
that he intends to fall in the good ground does fall in the
good ground. And that which he intends to fall on the stony
and the thorny ground is that which falls there as well. And
it came to pass as he sowed, some fell by the wayside. and
the fowls came and ate it up. Now this he says, and of course
he gives a commentary on this parable. He said, these are they
by the wayside when they have, the word is soon, when they have
heard Satan come immediately and taken it away. There's some
people that scoff at the word of God and they don't have any
more consideration of it than anything. It's just like water
off a duck's back. You can preach to them all day
long and they are not interested in hearing it. Satan immediately
takes it away. The seed doesn't even start to
swell from moisture. It is just immediately taken
away by the birds, he says here. They take it away. The fowls
of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony
ground where it had not much earth. Now it had some earth,
But it was stony ground. It was not the field of the Lord. It was not the field that the
sower had prepared. But it was for his purpose that
he might show that he is the sovereign God of the universe.
He calls that seed to sprout. And he says here, These are they
likewise which are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard
the word, immediately receive it with gladness. I've seen multitudes over the
years who receive the word with gladness. And I thought to myself,
boy, this is great. But, unfortunately, the same
family were it's fine up but it was constant all our member
of course as a as a young man and raised in a spin uh... the
the uh... situation of uh... but having
uh... what they call revivals and they
get some high-powered preacher and he would you know, get out
here and he'd get folks stirred up and they'd be multitudes a
lot of times would come and they'd just, you know, it was amazing
how excited people could get and they would just, oh, we're
gonna serve the Lord. And then two weeks later, you
look around, you wonder, well, where'd they all go? See, they
received it with joy. It was a thing that had some
bearing in their mind, but it didn't take root in their heart.
because there was no soil there. There was not much soil. It wasn't
anything that could support it. And then he said, and some fell
on stony ground, had not much earth, and when the sun was up,
it was scorched and it had no root withered away. Some, you
know, a better deal came along and they took it. You know, that's
kind of the way it is, is it not? I mean, you know, a man
gets something in his mind that he thinks is valuable, but then
when something of greater value comes along, he takes that instead. He'll cast the first thing off.
That's what they do. See, many people hear the Word
of God, and it sounds good to them for a while, but then they
find something better. in their mind. Peter said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? The Lord said, are you going
to go away? He said, where can we go? I mean, Lord, you've got
the words of eternal life. See, Peter showed that he was
some of that seed that was sowed in the good ground. But he said,
some fell among thorns. Thorns grew up and choked it
and yielded no fruit. Now that, he says, These are
they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word. They heard
it. They rejoiced in it. They even
walked in it. And the cares of this world,
and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things
entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. Now this is a place here that
men who are claiming to be the followers of Christ need to take
note and be earnest in seeking the Lord to understand that there
are many who for all outward intents and purposes are walking
with the Lord. They heard the word. They not
only heard the word and rejoiced in it, but the seed took root
and it sprouted and grew up and it was looking like something
was good. I don't know how many of y'all, most everybody in here
has planted gardens and you know, you get out and you plant a garden.
And it starts growing. And of course when it's cool
nights and stuff and you can keep the weeds out of it and
it looks good. And you're just thinking how
wonderful this is. But then as time goes on, the
weeds start to come, and the weeds get to the point where
you can't hardly keep ahead of them. It's no longer is your
little garden this nice little clean, cleanly tilled thing,
but you start seeing these weeds coming up. And then after a while,
if you don't keep after those weeds, guess what happens? They
get to, they take completely over, and it doesn't take long.
And they choke out what it is that's there, and the promise
of that fruit never materializes. Because you see the fruit of
God is not what is born right this moment. But the fruit of
God is that which is born over the long haul. Like Brother Thomas
was talking about there, about committing sin. Now obviously,
any man who knows himself would have to consider himself to be
a reprobate if he read 1 John and he considers that speaking
about committing some act of sin. Because who has not sinned? And if any man sinned, then,
you know, he's had it. But by the grace of God, as he
speaks about in the first chapter, if we sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. That is our hope, you see. And
so we don't continue in sin because we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. But there are those that seem
to follow the Lord. They may follow the Lord for
a number of years. I mean, if a man, you know, is
it good enough that a man would serve the Lord for twenty-five
years and then one day forsake it all
and turn aside and walk no more with the Lord? I mean, does the
Lord say, well, you served me faithfully for these thirty years,
so I'm gonna overlook the last 25. Is that the way it works? I mean, no. You see, the fruit
of God is that which is born to the end. And the work of God
is that which is performed in His people to the end. He'll
keep them from falling. That's not their doing. That's
His. But it's manifested. And so they
are not those that are choked out and become unfruitful. And then he says, and other fell
on good ground and did yield fruit and sprang up and increased
and brought forth some 30, some 60, some 100. And these are they
which are sown on good ground. Such as hear the word, receive
it, bringeth forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some
hundred. Now what made the ground good
ground? Because the sower prepared it. It was his field. He didn't just
find a field down the road, did he? I mean, does a farmer just
say, you know, that's a pretty good looking piece of ground
over there. I think I'll go farm that. No, he buys a piece of
land, does he not? It becomes his. And he says,
I'm going to prepare this ground, and I'm going to sow the seed.
And my expectation and my purpose is that that seed is going to
go in the ground, and it's going to grow up. And I'm going to
till the soil. And it's going to grow up, and
it's going to become fruitful. Now you see, there was no tilling
of the ground in the thorny. ground was there, because that
was not the place where the farmer intended for his crop to grow.
He didn't intend for it to grow in the stony ground. You can't
farm stony ground, can you? I mean, you ever tried? I remember
we used to have some fields that had some rocks and stuff in them,
and sometimes you'd be going along with a bottom plower and
hang up on one of those rocks, and it would about throw you
off the tractor when the thing hit the rock. You can't farm
stony ground. It's almost impossible. And the
Lord would not farm it. but he would prepare the good
ground. And that's where the place that he sowed his seed
and had it to bring forth fruit. Now that's what he expected of
it, was it not? He didn't sow the seed in the
good ground and then just leave it. A farmer doesn't sow his seed
in the ground and just leave it. What does he do? He goes
back and he tills it and he waters it and he tins it. and the purpose
for which he does so is that he might gather the fruit the
lord will gather his fruit they belong to him he planted them
and he'll make the harvest at his own time oh what a glorious
savior he is some will bring forth some hear the word receive
it and bring forth fruit some thirty four some sixty and some
a hundred now this is a true thing The Lord has a purpose
that's beyond our comprehension. John, or Peter, asked the Lord,
when the Lord told Peter what was gonna become of him, he said,
Peter, when you get old, somebody's gonna lead you in places where
you didn't wanna go. He says, you won't be able to
do anything about it. And Peter, maybe he was feeling a little
bit miffed about that or whatever, I don't know what motivated his
thought, but he said, well, Lord, what about John? What's gonna
happen to him? And the Lord said, Peter, it doesn't make any difference
what I do with John. He said, that's not any of your
business. Now, I don't know why it is that
the Lord, that the scripture says that the Lord gives to every
man the measure of faith. And that measure of faith is
not the same in all of God's people. We're not cookie cutter
believers. We don't all have the same understanding. We don't have the same level
of desire. And I don't know why they, all
I can say is that's just the way of the Lord. He does that.
But he has those that are weak, and he has those that are strong,
according to his good pleasure. And those that are weak ought
to bear the infirmities, or those that are strong ought to bear
the infirmities of the weak. And so the Lord puts us all together
for a reason, and he causes us to grow together. And he will
rejoice in the gathering of his crop, whether it be 100-fold,
60-fold, 20-fold, or even one-fold, because it belongs to him. It's
done according to his purpose. It reminds me of that parable
that he gave of the workers in the vineyard. And some went and worked all
day. And the vineyard keeper said, I'm gonna pay you this
amount of money. And then some came along and about two or three
hours later, they went into the field and he paid them at the
end. He said, this is what I'll pay
you, and he paid them. Same thing, some came right at
the last hour, right at the very end. Then whenever he came to
pay them all up, those that had come at the first hour, they
looked over here at those that came at the last hour, and those
that came at the last hour got the same thing that they did.
And they didn't like that. But the Lord said, did I do you
any harm? I mean, you know, can you, does
it matter what the Lord does or does not do with somebody
else? when he has blessed us so greatly. Because every one
of his people are caused to give him praise. Think of the joy
that was in the heart of those people that came at the last
hour and got paid for a whole day's work. I mean, think of
the thief on the cross. What a glory he had to give unto
the Lord. Because he to whom much is forgiven,
the same loveth much. Oh, that we might be those that
rejoice in that which the Lord has given us. That he has caused
us to be that fruit, that seed that sprouts up into everlasting
life. Remember the disciples, they
came to the Lord and they said, Lord, man, this is great. Even
the devils are subject to us. He said don't rejoice in that.
He said that doesn't matter at all. He said rejoice that your
names are written in heaven. See that's the thing that's glorious
is the fact that not People lament, you know, those that would accuse
the Lord of unrighteousness, they'll look at this and they'll
say, well, you mean, here's these people over here, I mean, this
seed fell over here on all this other ground and none of it sprouted
up, and that's just not fair, because that that was put in
the good ground, why, they were just blessed of the Lord, that's
absolutely right. See, that's what the gospel is.
It's a message about the grace and mercy of Almighty God towards
unworthy sinners. Now remember that the seed that
the man sowed all came out of the same bag. The only thing
that made a difference was where the Lord put it. Oh, what a glorious
thing, dear brother, to know and understand that the salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. His mercy is everlasting. He'll show mercy to whom He will
show mercy. And the fact that He shows mercy
to anybody is an amazing thing. Oh, you know, the sower could
have just sowed it all on the stony ground, or by the wayside,
and the fowls of the air could have picked it up, and that would
have been it, and what could anybody say? But no, He sowed
some in good ground. and He caused it to sprout unto
His glory. May the Lord help us to desire His way, to rejoice that
He has caused us to rejoice in His Word. And oh, let's set a
watch upon our heart, because how easy it is, dear brethren,
for the fowls of the air to come along and snatch that seed. Now see, the fowls of the air
could even snatch some of the seed that fell in the good ground,
could it not? Could have. But didn't. Because when the Lord sows seed
into the good ground, it will always sprout and bring forth
fruit. Because that's his purpose for it. Oh, that we might rejoice
today in the goodness of God that causes seed to sprout. What
if none of the seeds sprout? Have you ever thought about that
when you buy seed or whatever and you just figure that because
it's seed, it's gonna sprout? You put it in the ground, it's
gonna grow. But that doesn't always happen because some seed's
not good seed. Now, the seed that the Lord sows
is all good seed. But the seed only sprouts because
God makes it to sprout. Men think they can go and have
a big crop because they do everything right. you know they get that
some people even you know they're real interested in the signs
of the moon and stuff and i don't know that you know the lord didn't
say he gave the moon for signs and all that kind of stuff and
so i don't know where i fall on that deal but i've known people
that they just absolutely would not plant you know this seed
until it was the right sign of the moon but brethren When all's said
and done, the Lord's the one that causes the seed to sprout.
He's the one that causes it to grow up. And apart from that,
we have no crop. Oh, that we might give praise
to