The Word of God to you. I pray
that as we walk through this together this morning that God
would all give us understanding and help us to hold to the truth
of God's Word. We know holding to the truth
of God's Word is vital to our souls. It's vital to our daily
walk. It's vital eternally to us. This
morning we will be in Mark 4 if you want to turn there. We will
be walking through the parable of the sower. We could have went
to Luke 8 or we could have went to Matthew 13, you can find them
passages as well, or this text in them passages as well, but
by the Lord's grace, I chose Mark. We're gonna read through
verse one all the way to 13, and we'll explain a little bit
as Jesus explains it, for he's the best explainer of his word
that I could ever be, but. Let's read it. Mark 4, verse
1. And again, he, meaning the Christ,
began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered
about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea,
and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was
teaching them many things and parables, and in his teaching
he said to them, Behold, a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed,
some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured
it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have
much soil, and immediately it sprang up, and since it had no
depth of soil, And when the sun rose, it scorched, and since
it had no root, it weathered away. Other seeds fell among
thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded
no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain,
and growing up and increasing, yielding thirtyfold, sixtyfold,
and a hundredfold. And he said, He who has ears,
let him hear. And when he was alone, those
around him of the twelve asked him about the parables, and he
said to them, To you it has been given the secret of the kingdom
of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables, so
that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed
hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.
And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How
then will you understand all parables? Let's pray. but you have given us the grace
to trust in Christ and his atoning word is for assurance of our
salvation alone and nothing else I pray lord as we continue to
grow in your word lord you would continue to teach us lord and
grow us and cause us to love each other and cause us to love
you even more father I pray lord that you would help me a weak
man this morning teach your truth father fully understanding more
than less you help me lord of the chair of the prelude is your
word goes forth it would grab hold of your people's hearts He would do miracles and crowds
would come. He would feed people and crowds would come. Sometimes
he wouldn't do them things and crowds would be there. And Jesus
would teach people about himself. He would teach people about his
father. And in this instance, there was
such a large crowd that Jesus got into a boat and got into
the sea so he could face the people and do a little bit of
what I would like to call open air preaching to them so that
they could hear his words. And a lot of times throughout
Jesus' ministries, especially when you look at Mark, Matthew
and Luke, that Jesus will a lot of times in his teaching talk
in parables, as we see that. And the purpose of him talking
in parables is he explains it to his disciples when we look
In verse 10, he says, and when he was alone, those around him
with the 12 asked him about the parable, and he said to them,
to you has been given the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for
those outside, everything is in parables. What is he telling
them? He says, look, you, the 12, and
you who are with the 12, by my grace and by my father's grace
and by the Holy Spirit's grace, we have given you the understanding
of this parable, which even they, Struggle to understand but they
understood what the secret of the kingdom of God the the mystery
of the kingdom of God Which is the gospel of Jesus Christ? They
understood it and the only reason they understood it was like I
said by the Father's grace Everyone else Jesus would plainly tell
them things that they could physically relate to. I mean, these people
understood what he meant by a sower or a farmer going out and scattering
seeds along paths. They understood what he was talking
about, but they could not understand it spiritually. And then after
he tells them this, he quotes Isaiah 6 to them. Remember Isaiah? Isaiah, seeing the Lord, And
the Lord touched his lips, and he was forgiven. And the Lord
said, who will go for us? And Isaiah stands up and says,
I will go. And the moment he said that,
the Lord says, look, you're going to go teach to them. Or he says
something like, you're going to go teach to them. And they're
going to see, but they're not going to see. They're gonna hear,
but they're not gonna hear. Man, what a ministry that would
be. Meaning everyone you go to, Isaiah, is gonna hate everything
you say to them. Even when you look at all the
other prophets, a lot of times they had the same ministry. They
would go and proclaim the word of God, and the people had the
word of God to testify to what they were saying was true, and
they all would, what, denounce it. They couldn't see. They claimed
to be the people of God, but they could not see. And Jesus
is telling his disciples here that he has given them the secret. He has given them the gospel.
That's the reason why they can understand the things of God.
And beloved, we must remember that. Because it's very easy,
as we understand more and more of the things of God, and remember
the gospel, the main thing that God has taught us, all who are
believers. If we don't know the gospel,
then of course we're a unbeliever. If we're not trusting in the
finished work of Christ, of course we are a unbeliever. But we must
remember that we have not taught ourselves. And honestly, brothers
and sisters, even though James teaches us, even James has not
taught us. Scott Price might have taught
us a lot of things, but even Scott Price has not taught us.
And other brothers whom God has put into our lives to teach us,
they might have taught us, but they have not taught us. Because
James could stand up here all day and teach, but yet who can
understand unless the Spirit of God teaches? A lot of times
we forget that. Sometimes I think we come to
a knowledge that we get so puffed up with all the knowledge that
we have that we become prideful and arrogant and we blast people
on social media and we blast weaker brothers in the faith
and we blast the lost people when in reality the more we understand
the more humble we should become. Understanding that the only reason
I understand truths about God's word is by his grace and the
reason why they don't understand it because they had not received
grace. Basically, that's it. And the only reason why these
disciples understand the gospel, once again, is by God's grace
and nothing else. It isn't that they had bright
minds. They were fishermen. They were tax collectors. Of
course, we know that tax collectors had bright minds at deceiving
people and taking advantage of people, but nothing concerning
the things of God. Of course, the tax collector
in his day were the enemies of what the so-called people of
God thought of them. They were their enemies, because they were
taking advantage of them as well. And Jesus would call those who
did not even grow up hearing the word of God at times to what,
hear it, believe in it, he would use them for his glory, showing
that God can take the most stupidest man that ever lived and give
him great understanding of his word. And that man who's been
through seminary school and become a doctor in theology still doesn't
understand anything about God's word. Why, so God would get the
glory, and man would get no glory at all. Jesus gives understanding. And
we say, amen, brother, yes, we know that, but do we really know
that? Are we still hanging on till we have come to a little
bit of this understanding on our own? Or we come to the Trinity
on our own, or we might have come to predestination on our
own, or we might have come to the gospel on our own, or other
things in scripture, but, blah, blah, we haven't. That's prideful
thinking to think that we have done that. It's all of Christ,
all the teaching of God's word and through the power of the
Holy Spirit revealing them things to us. Those who accompanied
in that large crowd, majority of them people didn't understand
nothing about what Jesus was teaching them. Majority of the
places that Jesus went and taught his word, majority of the people
he taught didn't get it. And that should sadden our hearts.
It should sadden our hearts that the majority of the people that
we will share the gospel with in our life will not get it. Fine, because at that moment
in time, it's not in God's sovereign will allowing them to get it. But we understand by his grace. And Jesus, goes on to explain
this parable to them because he loved them. Notice, Jesus
could have took the opportunity to explain the parable to the
large crowd, spiritually, but he didn't do it. But because
he loved the 12, minus Judas, but even Judas was
in the crowd. with the 12 and the other disciples
that maybe the 72 that he sent out maybe it was them and Mary
Magdalene and all the other women that were probably part of that
he he loves them so he teaches them because beloved there's
many things that even I probably don't understand about the Word
of God and maybe you don't understand about the word but if we're of
God and we seek his truth by his grace out of his love for
us he will teach us himself that's why we know God because he loves
us. Why do we know the gospel? Because
he loves us. And Jesus distribute his great
love for them, shows his great love for them through giving
them the meaning behind the sower of the word. And he says in verse
14, the sower sows the word. Here, it's very easy for us to
run to the church here, which we will do in a second, but mainly,
who is the sower here? Jesus. Jesus is the sower. As I said earlier in this sermon,
that Jesus went about everywhere being what? A sower. He went
in the buildings, the synagogues, and what would he do? Sow the
word of God. He'd go out by the sea and he
would sow the Word of God. Sometimes he would have individual
meetings with people and what would he do? Sow the Word of
God. Everywhere Jesus went, his main
mission was to sow the Word of God. Fully knowing, we must understand,
Jesus knew before he opened up his mouth and gave the sermon
to the large group of people, he fully knew that majority of
them would not understand. He knew it. He knew in John 6,
before he even fed them people, that he was feeding them physical
bread and that they didn't love him, but he still fed them anyways.
Just like he still feeds the world now, even though most of
them don't love him. But even though they didn't love
him, he still gave them his word for the purpose of what? Harden
their hearts. Jesus would go everywhere and
sow his word, and we know we, the church, are also called to
do what? Go and sow God's word. that we are to go and teach people
the gospel as God gives us understanding, we what, go and teach. We know
at the end of every, other than I think John, but every, it might
be in John, but every Mark, Luke, and Matthew, he gives them the
command to his disciples, what, go therefore, and what, make
disciples, go and preach me to the people. Go and sow my word. Don't worry about or don't get
caught up in, well, what's the point of going because they're
not gonna listen to me anyways? No, we go and we sow God's word
because as, excuse me, as Paul says in Romans, how will they
hear unless someone teaches them? How is the elect who are not
presently, God hasn't regenerated them, how are they to hear without
someone teaching them? They're not. And of course, evangelism
would be very, very easy if we knew all who the elect were.
Well, there's no elect in that building, so I'm gonna ease over
here to this building. There's one over there. But we don't see the apostles
in the book of Acts doing that at all. They would go, and they
would preach, and God would save, and God wouldn't save. We know
Peter stood up at Pentecost and he sowed the word of God and
majority of the people didn't believe, but we know there was
a great number who did believe. Stephen stood up not too long ago, or
a little while after that, and hardly no one believed. We know
later on, I believe it was through God using Stephen to plant the
word of God in Paul's heart, watering, throwing the seed out
there. But we know what happened to
Stephen when he stood up and preached, he got stoned to death. But we are called by God to what?
Go and sow this word. And we know the ground which
we'll be sowing upon is what? People's hearts. To preach God's
word and it will fall on all different types of hearts. And
Jesus gives us an example of what some of these hearts will
do once they hear the word of God. Listen to what he says. And these are the ones, speaking,
the sower sows on the word, or sows the word, in verse 15, and
these are the ones along the path where the word is sown,
and when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes the word that
is sown in them. So the moment these people hear
the true gospel of Jesus Christ, it's like they didn't even hear
it. And it's easy to point them people out when you say, well,
you know, how many times I've given the gospel to a Jehovah's Witness
and they just hated it, denied it, Jesus can't be God. Or how
many times I've given to a Mormon, the gospel to a Mormon, they
go, no, no, no, no, no, you gotta finish it yourself to get saved.
Or maybe that atheist, you know, my atheists, man, they really
get hostile sometimes when you give them the gospel. You know,
them are easy ones to point out, but who was it in Jesus' day?
Who wasn't in Jesus' day that the moment he would give them
the word, Satan would run up there and he would what? Take
it away. The religious people. You know those who hate the righteousness
of Christ the most? The religious people of our day.
Those who get up every Sunday morning, put on their best suits,
or non-best suits, and they go to a building that they call
church, they call it the house of God, and they go there, and
they learn these sermons that blaspheme the name of God, because
anytime we don't teach the word of God accurately, or teach a
false gospel, we are what? Blaspheming the name of God.
And they go and they hear these people, and the moment God sends
someone their way to actually give them the truth, what happens?
They get angry. we've experienced that. I've
experienced that majority of you who, especially if you get
on Facebook, and you go to teaching truth, there's gonna be people
coming out of the closets. With swords, they turn into Peters,
they want to chop you up. But they're non safe Peters.
But what do we do with them people? We continue being loving. Once again, reminding ourselves
we believe because God's given the grace to believe. They don't
believe because God hasn't given them the grace to believe. And
who knows, through us being humble and through us being loving and
through us sharing truth with them, who knows if God won't
grant them people repentance. Is he unable to save those who
right now sit in the errors? Is he unable to save them? No. Some of them, God will save probably. And he will save them, not through
the errors which they stand, but through the truth of his
word. And they will openly admit that
they're errors. There's errors I believed in
growing up that I openly admit that they are errors. And thankful
that God delivered me from them errors. And most of the time
these areas consist of what people can put in their hope in something
else other than Jesus Christ. That's what a lot of the Calvinists
of our day I have issues with because rather than calling out
the false gospels, they just say they're using wrong methods.
They go, well, them altar calls are unbiblical. They shouldn't
do them altar calls. And they blame all those who
turn away from the faith or don't hear the gospel. They blame it
all on the altar calls. Well, they shouldn't have done it that
way. When in reality, if you just say, look, everything they're
doing there just so it's set Jesus into your heart, won't
they just say, hey, it's a false gospel? Rather than saying those who
go out and preach a universal gospel, won't they just all lead
a false gospel? Or then wait, they will call
it a false gospel, but those who hold to it, they'll call
them brothers in Christ. Which is it? How can one hold to a false gospel
and still be my brother in Christ? That makes no sense. But you
know why they call them brothers in Christ? You know why? Because they look to the evidence
of their walking in the flesh. You know why most men call Leonard
Ravenhill a brother in the Lord? Because they look at his preaching
and all his righteousness that he talked about, he did himself. They look to the flesh, which
shows what? That their assurance of one being saved isn't Jesus
Christ crucified. And one testifying to that is
all about the works of men. I mean, it's not alarming to
me that majority of Calvinists follow in this assurance of good
works. I'm saved because look what I'm doing and look what
I'm not doing anymore. That's the reason for my hope,
not Christ. Like one of these famous Calvinists
done a Q&A section and one woman stood up and asked about how
she could be saved and he'd give a word. You must be saved, God
must be working your heart because you're here in fellowship right
now. And he never mentions anything about the death of Christ. He
never mentions anything about the resurrection of Christ. He
never mentions anything about the gospel at all. It's all about
this woman having assurance and being saved because of where
she's at right now. Because you can't be part of
my church and be lost. Makes no sense. And it breaks my heart that men
who at one point might say truth, but then out of the other side
of the mouth speaker, it breaks my heart. But why? Because they're
leading many astray. Many men who have come to the
truth and women who have come to the truth of gospel because
that's all they know to listen to, because that's what the mainstream
presents to them. They flood the dim. And it should break our hearts.
Make us angry at the false teaching, but break our hearts and cause
us to pray. But we know if our gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. For our sake,
what the God of this world has blinded them from seeing the
truth. But what has God done for us? He has what? Unveiled
our eyes. He has showed us the light of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. Praise be to God for our salvation.
Praise be to God who he took us while we dwelled in darkness
and brought us into his light. Praise be to God while we were
running hard against him that he, the father, would draw us
and give us to the son. Praise be to God that while we
were deaf and could not hear, he opened up our ears to hear
the truth of his son. Praise be to God that while we
could not see, he opened up our eyes to see. Never let it be praised to us.
Never let it be praised to men that if we have come to faith,
it's solely because of God and his doing. Many will hear the word and they
will automatically right then and there, not hear, but will
fall away. No matter how religious they
may seem and how much they must shout Jesus, and agree, they
will fall away. I can't tell you the many times
that I have stood outside and had people sit beside me and
and amen preacher. Amen to come up and at the word
all men, everything you said was truth and then they're getting
dog log with them dialogue with them and everything I just said
they agreed with and all of a sudden they don't agree with no more.
And I'm saying the same thing that I'm telling them as I was
saying when I was standing up preaching. And yet they don't
agree with it. Why? Because Satan, by God's
will, takes away the Word. It doesn't mean God won't save
him at a later date. He could, but we know that moment
in time what? Takes away the Word. And then in Mark, moving on to
this next heart, Mark 4, 16, and these are the ones Sown on
rocky ground the ones who when they hear the word immediately
Receive it with joy Now beloved Jesus isn't talking about a false
gospel here going forth and people receiving joy from it And then
falling away Jesus is talking about the true gospel the true
gospel Because a lot of times we can read this, well, these
must be people who received it with joy and fell away. It must
have been a false gospel they heard. Well, yeah, many false
gospels go forth and bring people joy and then they even fall away
from the false gospel. No, Jesus here is talking about
the true gospel and people confessing out of their mouths that they
understand this gospel, that they believe in this gospel,
and yet what happens? They fall away. And how do they
show us they believe it? They have joy. They can even testify the truth
gospel out of their mouths to us. And we know what the true
gospel is, that Jesus is God, that he became man, died on the
cross for sinners, died on the cross for his people, was buried
according to scripture. After being buried for three
days, what, he rose again from the grave to show that he was
the Messiah, that he was Christ, that he was God. And we know
he appeared for 40 days to what, to his 12, to some of the women,
to over 500 people. And then what'd he do? He went
back to sit at the right hand of the Father to intercede for
his people. He atoned for his people's sins on the cross. And
now he's back in heaven. That's the gospel. And the only
way you can be saved is through what Christ did. No other means. And that was short. I could go
and, I mean, you might have to read, I'd have to quote about
every verse in the Bible to really demonstrate the gospel even more
than that, because the gospel is the whole word of God. And these are people who believe
that God died for the elect. These are people who believe
in predestination. These are people who believe
in the Holy Trinity. These are people who believe
that Jesus was God. And they agree and have joy over it. And then in a little while, what
happens? They fall away. Which shows that men can mimic
things, truth about God's word, and it not be sown into their
hearts. Some of these men could be around
and be looking like Christians for years and fall away. But why does this
heart fall away after receiving joy? Because of the persecution
of the word. This is what he says. And they
had no room themselves, verse 17, but endured for a while.
Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word,
immediately they fall away. Now, I must throw this in there,
but we know this falling away isn't people losing their salvation.
We understand that if the father draws us and gives us to the
son, that Jesus will lose none. And if God chose us before the
foundation of the world to be holy and blame us before him,
how can we undo that in our own ability? We can't. So this isn't Jesus teaching
one loses their salvation here. This is Jesus teaching that those
who claim to know me and profess truth to even my church will
what? End up leaving them because they
were never of them. And the reason why these people
leave is because of tribulation or persecution arise on what?
The account of the word of God. Beloved, many cannot handle the
thought of when they come to the true gospel, the thought
of what is grandma gonna say now? that I've understand everything
she's taught me growing up is a lie. It's hard for people to do. What's
gonna happen when my son wants nothing to do with me because
I give him the truth and maybe he's caught up in error and I
say your error's wrong? What's gonna happen when some
of these kids, when kids grow up in the world and they're The
family was faithful to take them to a Southern, traditional Southern
Baptist church. Faithful to have them there every
Sunday. And they end up having to tell daddy the preacher was
wrong. The youth minister was wrong. It's hard. Especially if your
daddy's the preacher. That's hard. Or maybe grandpa
might be the preacher. or your cousin that you grew
up very close with, he grows up to be a preacher and he's
taught you so many things and then God brings you to the truth
of scripture and it's all a lie. It's hard. The gospel causes
conflict. Some of us have experienced that.
Have we not? We have. We experience it in
our families, we might experience that at our job, But it's gonna
be there. We know Jesus teaches what? That
he's not come to bring peace amongst all people. He come to
bring a sword to what? Divide. That a daughter might hate her
mother or a father might hate his son. That he's what? Dividing
and causing conflict. And people cannot handle it.
The persecution of the word of God, a lot of times, causes the
joy to go away. Because a lot of times, believers,
even the elect at times, can get so burdened that they become
lonely. And they turn into Elijah's,
well, I'm the only one. There's no one else out there
believing the truth. I'm the only one. And what does
God tell Elijah? I got 7,000 more. That's not built any to
build. But we, in this loneliness, we
can become worrisome, become whiny and complaining,
rather than putting our hope in Christ, knowing that this
suffering that we're going through, through our immediate family
or through others, that God is doing it for our good. Remember
Romans 8? For those who love God and are
called according to His purpose, He works all things out for what?
Their good. He does. The suffering is for
our good. The suffering is a gift. Philippians 129, it's been granted
to you, it's been given to you as a big gift. Not only do you
believe in Christ, but you what? Suffer for his namesake. And
the suffering will come through his word. And us agreeing with
his word and others not agreeing with his word. And it's hard. Because in our flesh, we all
want to be loved. We all want people to agree with
us. And as long as the enemy of God is abounding, Satan himself,
majority of people we come in contact with who are stuck in
religion, we give them the truth of the word of God will persecute
us for it. Will hate us for it. And what
do we do? We continue to love them and
continue to preach as God gives us loans to preach to them or
witness to them. And if they're false teachers,
we'll rebuke them, and then we have nothing else to do with them,
according to Scripture. So we don't feed into it. But persecution will arrive,
beloved. It will. And by God's grace, as people
hate us for the sake of the gospel, we will remain. Those who fall
away, fall away because the Spirit of God was never residing in
them. All the joy they had of hearing
the good news of Jesus Christ was all of themselves. It was
a fleshly joy. It was not the joy that comes
through the power of the Holy Spirit causing one to be born
again through hearing the goodness of Christ. Hear that? It was all of them. And when
I say that, it's sad in my mind because I can think of people
who's coming here and fellowship with us. And maybe they are not saved
now and I'm praying that God might save them in the future,
or maybe they're saved and they're just falling away for a moment. But beloved,
it saddens my heart because a lot of these people have such joy
when they hear the good news. They contact James. Oh, James,
we can't wait to be in fellowship. They contact, we can't wait to
be in fellowship. They contact Trey, we can't wait to be in
fellowship. And they come and they hear the word of God. And they
say, you know, well, there's nothing for me to do. So I'm
gonna run down to this other church where I got a lot to do. Or mama don't want me going to
that church, I gotta go down here. It's a lot better for me. It's
a lot better for my family. Beloved, as we pursue Christ,
suffering will be waiting for us. I mean, isn't that what Christ
told Paul from the get-go? Paul, I'm gonna show you how
much you must suffer for my name's sake. And you could be reading
the text a little bit here, but I'd like to think Paul probably
thought, wow, that's gonna be great, but I don't think it was
near as much as Paul thought it was gonna be. And you look at Peter, as James
closed out his sermon, and John, he pretty much tells Peter what?
You're gonna die for me, Peter. They're gonna hate you so much,
Peter, they're gonna kill you, just like they killed me, Peter.
But as I rose again, Peter, you will rise again. As our brothers
and sisters in other countries arrive at the truth, and they
are killed by their Muslim family members, or killed by other religious
sects, what happens? They rise again. Their suffering
was not in vain, just like Stephen's suffering was not in vain. All
the suffering prepares us for what? Glory. Builds our hope
in Christ. It causes, there's no power in
us to cause any effect on anybody, and it causes us to look to the
Son, who is our hope. But we never look to our suffering
as the reason for our hope. Many kids go, well, I'm suffering
for the gospel, so I'm good to go. I must be of Christ. So they
put all their assurance on their suffering rather than Christ.
They look at verses like, I don't know, where Jesus says, deny
yourself, pick up your cross and follow me. And they go, well,
I'm doing that, so I'm good to go. Beloved, that can't be our
assurance. Assurance in Christ, but if I
have assurance in Christ, I am toting the cross. Bearing a cross won't save me,
only Christ can save me, but if I'm believing in him, I'm
bearing the same cross he buried. Maybe I'm not going to lose my
life over Christ, but it doesn't take away the fact that we will
be hated for his name's sake. None of us in here probably will
lose our life over Christ. We could, if it be the will of
the Lord, but we probably won't. But it doesn't take away the
fact that we're going to be hated. It doesn't make it any easier. But we won't fall away by God's
grace if we be His elect. But those who claim to be elect
but are not elect, who agree with the truth, will fall away.
Alas, God rushes His Holy Spirit in them through the hearing of
His Word. Then he says, going on to the next seed, I mean the
next heart, the next ground in 418. And others are the ones
who song among thorns. And those who hear the word,
but the cares of the world and the seedfulness of riches and
desires for other things enter in and choke the word and it
proves unfruitful. Now, beloved, there are many
sins, many sins that will cause the non-elect to fall away that
look like the elect. We know throughout scripture,
we know many will fall away for the love of money. We know Paul
tells Timothy that many have made shipwreck of their faith
because they believe what? That godliness is a means of
gain. Or they make shipwreck of their
faith because they are designed to be rich. And rich, beloved,
could be all different types of amount to an individual. Sometimes rich might be $10,000,
or rich might be a job making $10 an hour, or rich might be
a job making $40 an hour, or $100 an hour, owning your own
business. Meaning we'll pursue the world and leave Christ because
they desire to be rich. They desire to have a lot of
money, and along their way, they will take advantage of loads
of people to get it. Isn't that why James calls the
people that he writes to in the book of James a bunch of adulterous
people? Because they have not, because they ask not, and then
when they ask, they ask, what, to spend it wrongly on the passion
of their own flesh? He actually says, you covet your
brother's possessions. You're coveting his possessions,
you're desiring the things that he has. And what happens is he
getting caught up in these things causes people to fall away. We know demons left Paul because
what? He loved the world. We know Ananias and Sapphira
Love the world, so when they lied to Peter and them, which
lying to the Holy Spirit, what happened? They turned to a pillar
of salt, or they died. They died right there. We know
when the angels rushed in to take Lot and his family out,
what happened? It looked like his wife was the
elect at the time. She was running away with him,
but what happened? She turned back to the prize of her heart,
which was the world, and what happened? She turned to a pillar
of salt. I believe, though the scripture doesn't teach us, I
believe Onesimus left Fleming because of his love of the world. Ask me a little bit and I'll
go into much detail about that later, but I believe he did. There's
been many people who would make shipwreck of their faith because
of their love of money. And we know that's one of the
biggest false gospels out there. You know, you got your Joel Steens
and your Joyce Myers, and of course they got a lot more stuff
they teach about the false gospel, but it's all about money. One
right down the road from here, all about money. If you ain't
got a lot of money, then you ain't got no faith. Hogwash. Blind men leading people to hell. But there's other things. We
know the man of Corinth was distant now of the church for what? Sex
and morality. He was what? Sleeping with his
dad's wife, sleeping with a stepmom or his mom. And what happened? He was removed from the fellowship.
There's been other men in our lives, other men throughout history
who seem to be the elect of God and walking in the faith. playing
the part, and what happens? They get caught up in sexual
morality and they leave their wives, or the wife leaves the
husband for another. Proving themselves to what? Not
be of the faith. It's one difference that they
get caught up in it, beloved, and they repent. That the church
goes to them, the elders go to them, and they rebuke them in
their sin, and they hear, and they're grieved, and they want
to follow in the truth now. That's different. But many will
go, no, I'm staying with my lover. And they will not adhere to the
truth and they will fall away. Many people get caught up in
drunkenness. As we run away from sexual morality,
beloved, we should run away from drunkenness. You know, the scripture teaches
what we should not be filled with strong wine, but we should
be what filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm not teaching that
it's a sin to drink, for we all have liberty in Christ, but it
is a sin to get drunk. And I would encourage those who
might have had a bad experience in their previous life before
God converted them, that if they had a problem with getting drunk,
it might not be wise for them to drink now. And if one has
become a believer and they've been in a practice here and there
to getting drunk, it might be best for them to put alcohol
away altogether. For who knows if you might prove
to be the anonylate because you get caught up in drunkenness.
Paul tells, along with the sexual morality, Paul tells them in
Corinthians 6 that what, had nothing to do with those who,
what, are guilty of drunken, meaning in the practice of drunkenness,
after warning them. We know others. who adhere to
truth will fall away for the hatred of their brethren. Fall away. They say they love
God whom they don't see, but they don't love their brother
who they can't see. And what is, what is, as Paul
was saying, another part of Corinthians, what is it if you even give yourself
up to be burned at the stake if you have no love for your
brethren? Many men walk around proclaiming truth and yet they
had no love in their hearts. They could care less whether
they hurt their brother or not. They could care less whether
their brother wants to be in fellowship with them or not. They're so
quick just to vanish brothers out of their lives. Unwilling to be merciful, unwilling
to be gracious. It's all about them and what
they're doing. So selfish. And if these men
be elect, they will repent of their arrogance and their lack
of love for brethren. If they be of God, they will
repent. So God would grant them repentance.
For the scripture is clear. How can we, how can we say we
love God beloved and not love the brethren? Some men will walk
in and in this hatred will be like Kings. They were murder
the brothers, maybe not physically, but, but with their mouths. Some
men will be in the practice of walking in unforgiveness, which
is what? Murder. And these things, beloved,
that we as the elect have been guilty of, and as God continues
to give us breath in our lungs, we will be guilty again. But
by God's grace, he will remind of his word that he might help
us not to walk in the airs, that we might live by faith in Christ. Not only will men probably fall
away from the hatred of their brethren, but we, as we all know,
they will fall away because of false teaching. False teaching, beloved. I've
stated, and I've talked a little bit about false teaching already
this summer, but I'm gonna go over it a little bit more, that false
teaching causes many people to divide. It causes many people
who have come to the knowledge of salvation, God's sovereign
grace, and they love it, but false teaching creeps in, and
it puts their eyes on something else. It causes them to find assurance
in something else. Isn't that one of the main things
that we're dealing with right now, is where do we find assurance? Within Calvinism, as we would
say, or doctrines of grace, one of the things is where do we
find assurance? Where do you find assurance?
And what I found out, beloved, the way we know where someone
finds assurance, when they give a chance to give the hope that
they have, either they will talk about Christ and who he was and
what he did on the cross for his people and his rising again. And that's the only hope they
have standing before a holy and righteous God. Or they will give
you a list of details about all what they're doing. You know, Brother Jesse, I haven't
drunk in 30 years. I ain't cheated on my wife in
30 years. That church down there, every time the doors are open,
I'm there at Sunday school faithful. I understand you're a dink in
there. I understand you're faithful to pay your 10% tithes and give
extra when the missions come in. I understand all them things.
I understand your name might be on the end of the pew. But if that's your assurance,
you're standing on sinking sand. You're standing on sinking sand,
beloved. It's very easy for us as people
of Grace Truth to say, well, I'm with a solid church. I moved
from way down there to come here. I'm with a solid church. Or I've
been with this church for so long, so I'm here. This is my
assurance that I'm saved because I'm with Grace Truth. Sinking
sand. I read my Bible every day. We
should read our Bibles every day. James, I think, mentions
every sermon that we should be in the Word, which is the best
encouragement he could ever give us. Because we need to be in
God's Word. But, beloved, I can't say I'm
good to go with God because I'm in His Word. I know Catholics
who read the Bible probably more than all of us combined, who
sit in their rooms and memorize Scripture and quote Scripture because they believe they must
do it to be saved. There's other religious people
who devote their time to prayer four or five hours a day, rub
their knees raw, And yet they're praying to a
false God because their assurance is in their praying and not in
the finished work of Christ. See how easy it is, beloved,
to do right things and find assurance in them and fall away from the
truth? Because, beloved, we should be
praying. The Bible teaches that we should give every thought
to prayer. We should always be praying.
We should be in the Word. The Bible teaches that we shouldn't
neglect meeting together. But the Bible doesn't teach,
beloved, that we should put our assurance in them things. It should always
be Christ and Him crucified. Isn't that what Paul gave remembrance
to them Corinthians? I came to you knowing nothing
but Christ and Him crucified. And beloved, I could spend all
day going with different sins that will cause the non-elect
to fall away who seem like they're the elect. But I will rest in that. Then
he tells us of this fourth hark. And he says in 420, but those
who were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word
and accept it and bear fruit 30-fold, 60-fold, and 100-fold. Here Jesus is telling us what?
That the soul is good. Now remember, the soul represents
hearts. But beloved, what does the Bible teach us about hearts?
They're desperately wicked. And that no heart seeks after
God. So how in the world can a heart
be good or be open to receive that which it hates? By the grace
of God. Remember Lydia, God opened up
her heart to receive the word of God. Others right there with
her, he might have closed their hearts so they couldn't receive
it. But beloved, if we have received, the people who have received
the word of God have done so because God has opened up their
hearts to receive it. He has made their hearts willing
to receive it. Because we know the scripture
would teach what? That no one seeks for God. No, not one. No one seeks for God. We have
all turned astray. We have all went our own way.
We have polluted ourselves with wicked things. We run in darkness,
and only that we run in darkness prior to God saving us, we love
running in darkness. And as we're running, as Paul
was running to kill Christians in darkness, God on his appointed
time speaks to us through his word. Not like Paul, not like
Paul, but through his word. And next thing you know, we agree
with it. And not only do we agree with it, but we believe in it.
And we come to understand that the only way that we can stand
right before God is Christ and Christ alone. And sometimes we might wane in
that, but God is faithful to finish the good work that he
started in us. Sometimes we might get caught up in other sins,
but God is faithful to finish the good work He started in us.
He is faithful, beloved. Even those who have left grace
truth, who appear to have joy for a while, and left, there's
still a chance that if we pray for them, that God will save
them, and we must believe that He will save them. But what's
the point of praying if you lack faith? But these people heard the word
of God, and they showed they were of God by the fruit they
bared. And what was the main fruit they
bared to show they were of God? The testimony of Christ. Now, once one has testimony of
Christ, we affirm them as the brothers and sisters in the Lord,
and we know that they will bear fruit of him, not just the fate
they had, but what the fruit of the spirit, which we see in
Galatians, what they will have, the spirit of love and joy and
patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness
and self-control, which we know against these things are no law.
And those who belong to Christ have what? Crucified the flesh. Now, nowhere in that, when I
quoted that, was Paul talking about that's our assurance. But
he's saying, look, if you have been born again and the Spirit of
God lives in you, these are some of the fruits you will bear.
And not all of us will bear as much fruit as the other. Hear that? Someone might have
more self-control than his brother, but that same
brother might have more gentleness than the man with self-control. Isn't it we're to judge each
other by each other and say, well, you know, I'm better at
this than he is, so I must be better in my faith. No, we know
God extremes his spiritual gifts to his people as he sees fit.
And we know if we abide in him and him in us that we will bear
his fruit. And we know the Father will continue to prune us as
believers that we might bear more fruit. That we might, what,
mature in our faith, not grow in personal righteousness, but
mature in our faith. That's where a lot of people
go with that. Well, see there, once God saves us, we're gonna
become more righteous. No, we're gonna mature in our
faith. The flesh isn't becoming more righteous. And what's crazy,
Now, to get on a little tangent here, what's crazy, these men
who claim that one must grow in righteousness, a personal
righteousness, right after saying that, will say right after that,
or maybe not right then, but later on, that they're in a state
of repentance. Do you understand that? They're
saying they're growing in righteousness, but they're always sinning. Because
if I'm in a state of repentance, what does that mean? That I'm
constantly repenting of sin. So if I'm constantly repenting
of sin, how am I growing more holy? How am I growing more righteous? I'm not. So even the account
that they give of giving one assurance for salvation, they
ain't even living up to it. They might think in their minds
they're living up to it, but they're not. Beloved, if we have been born
again by the grace of God, we will bear His fruit. And as I
already stated two or three times, the main fruit we will bear is
faith in Christ and His work. We will testify to who Christ
is, that He's God in the flesh, that He is the Messiah, the Christ,
that He died on the cross after living holy For 33 years, he
died on the cross for his people. He died on the cross for sinners.
He was buried, and three days later, he rose again, showing
that he is God-beloved, sitting at the right hand of the Father.
Then all the work necessary for his people to enter the kingdom
of God was done through him. Done through him. And that will
be the main fruit we testify to. Maybe a little more in depth,
a little longer, but Christ will be our hope. And throughout that,
we will bear the tops of fruit. Let us pray. Father God, I'm
thankful that you