Fruit-bearing in the Parable of the Sower

[00:00:00] All right, let's get our Bible and go to the book of Matthew, chapter 13 this morning. [00:00:06] Matthew, chapter 13. [00:00:14] We're entering in, beginning in our study this chapter 13, which is the famous parable chapter, the chapter about all the parables. There are seven parables in this chapter. [00:00:28] You have the parable of the sower, the parable of the wheat and the tares, the parable of the mustard seed, the parable of the leaven, and then you have the parable of the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price, and finally the parable of the net. [00:00:47] And so we are going to cover each one of these and some of them we might have to park two times on just because there is. [00:00:55] This is probably one of the richest parts of Matthew, this passage of scripture. It is just absolutely teeming with truth because this is the long form discourse of the Lord Jesus Christ. We covered the one in the Sermon on the Mount, which is, we spent a lot of time the Sermon on the Mount and then we're here. And then the next big one will be the Olivet discourse, which is about the second coming of Christ. [00:01:21] And so there's just a lot here. So just sit back, relax, listen slowly, let it just take it in, take it in, because there's a lot in here. And we want to make sure we get everything we can out of this passage of scripture that our Lord speaks here. So let's go to chapter 13 and verse number one. We'll read verses one through verse number nine and then we will read verses 18 through 23. [00:01:52] The Bible says the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside, and great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. [00:02:06] How many of you have ever been at a place where next to a large body of water and have noticed how far the sound carries when you're next to a body of smooth water? That's. I know when we lived in Cambodia, we lived in Kapoom Jam town. We lived on the Mekong river. And it was about three quarters of a mile from one side of the river to the other at that point. [00:02:32] And on the other side of the river was a Muslim village. And so there was a mosque there. And on top of it was a loudspeaker. And so they in their prayers five times a day, that loudspeaker, you could hear it three quarters of a mile clearly all the way to the other side to where we lived. You could stand on the shore and hear it clearly. So it's no wonder the Lord's sitting in this boat. And his voice going across that water is able to be heard clearly to everyone that's that's going on this shore as it goes up from the lake there. [00:03:08] Verse three says, and he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, behold, a sower went forth to sow, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched because they had no root. They withered away. [00:03:34] And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them. But other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. [00:03:48] Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. [00:03:52] Verse number 18. [00:03:53] Hear ye therefore, the parable of the sower. When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. [00:04:09] This is he which received seed by the wayside. [00:04:14] But he that received the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the Word, and anon with joy receiveth it. [00:04:23] Yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while. [00:04:28] For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. [00:04:37] He also that receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the Word. And the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. [00:04:48] But he that receives seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some 60 and some 30. Let's pray. [00:05:04] Our Father in heaven. We just want to commit this time in your word together to you. [00:05:11] Lord, we acknowledge that this is not a work of man. This is not about how about any oratory or how skilled I deliver the message. But this is all about what we read here. The word of God falling onto the ground and the soil of our hearts. That's all that this is about. Lord, we acknowledge that we have no power or ability. But we want to see, we desire to see the word of God bear fruit in each one of our lives. Here this morning. Would you please, Lord, make that happen. Help me, Lord, to say what you want me to say to help your people. And everyone here, Lord, whatever their heart's condition, wherever they are, I ask you to please prick hearts. Speak to them. Teach them whether they desire to receive the truth or whether they're resistant to it. Lord, do a great work by your word in the hearts of your people for your name's sake. [00:06:10] So, Lord, we commit the time to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:06:14] Amen. [00:06:17] The parable of the sower, probably the most famous parable that there is in scripture, and we will not cover every facet of it. You could look at the sower, you could look at the seed, you could look at the ground, you could look at the fruit, you could look at all these different areas regarding the sower and have one whole message, one whole Bible study just on each part of it. [00:06:39] And I encourage you to do that at some point. [00:06:43] In this case, the sower is not identified. Notice it just says, a sower went forth to sow. So we know if you look at verse 37 really quick, in verse number 37, in a different parable, which is the parable of the Wheat and Tares, it says, he that soweth the good seed is the Son of man. Now, that's true only for that parable, although it definitely applies and is connected to this parable as well, because you have sowers in both cases. [00:07:10] But because the Lord Jesus himself, the Son of Man, is not specifically mentioned, I think we can take a little bit of liberty and maybe apply it to other ways that the Word is sown. [00:07:20] Ultimately, anytime the word of God is sown, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one doing the work behind the scenes, Right? Even if we're the one sowing the Word in person down here on earth, yet it is done at his command, done by his power, and done at his bidding. Right? That's why missionaries go to the field. That's why people share the gospel. It's because Jesus is working in them, because he wants his Word sown in this world. [00:07:46] So we can assume that the Son of Man is the sower in this case. But we can also see that this parable also applies to the way that we might sow the Word in some form or another to those in the world. [00:08:03] Now, the first thing I want you to see is this, that the sower we're just looking at right now, we're just looking at the sower for a moment. [00:08:11] Notice that the sower starts with seed. [00:08:15] The sower starts with seed. He already has seed in his pouch. When he arrives at this ground, he already has seed. Okay, so where does that seed come from? I was rightly corrected after my message on. Was it. Was it Wednesday night or last Sunday? I can't remember. Was it Wednesday? [00:08:34] Last Sunday? I was rightly corrected by some people with green thumbs in our church after what I said last Sunday night, because I mentioned a BlackBerry bush that I had planted, and it has just borne so many blackberries. Just crazy amounts of blackberries. We just. Every time my daughter goes out, she comes in with another huge bowl of blackberries. And, like, we're like, they're just rotting. We don't know what to do with them all. Does anybody want some blackberries? I have some. Okay, all right. We have blackberries. All right. Maybe we can do an auction. Maybe I can make some money off of this. How much? [00:09:10] So we've got these blackberries. And I mentioned that I saw a stalk that had come up that had looked similar to blackberries, but it didn't bear fruit. So I was waxing eloquent with this illustration about fruit and all this stuff. And so I told everyone I snipped it at the bottom and cut it out. [00:09:29] And then Andrew told me that that was actually the shoot of new growth for next year. [00:09:34] And so now I'm developing a whole new set, a whole new illustration to show how that we cut off our future fruit by our dumb actions now. [00:09:47] So, honestly, I do appreciate that, because I hate when I do stuff like that. But I appreciate people that know more about it than I do. And I'm glad because Brother Andrew said it'll probably shoot another. Give out another shoot for next year, even though I did that. So it has. So Andrew can be. He's probably in the cry room. [00:10:06] It's happening. So we're good. We're good. [00:10:10] But where does the seed come from that the sower has the wheat or the barley seeds that he's sowing? [00:10:17] He didn't buy them at the store. Where'd they come from? [00:10:22] You know, they're the previous year's fruit. [00:10:27] So you have this principle in scripture where the seed that the sower sows is actually the product of fruit bearing and fruitfulness previously. [00:10:40] And that's you and that's me as Sower. If we sow for the Lord Jesus Christ, if we spread the word of God, however that. However that looks, I don't think this is only the gospel. I think this includes the gospel. But it's also other ways that we spread the word of God and how people respond to it. But if we do that as the Sower, in this case, the Lord does it through us, maybe is the better way to put it. We do it because we have already borne fruit, because first is the fruit and then the seed. In a fruit tree you have flesh that surrounds the fruit like a pit of a peach, as an example or in wheat, you have the fruit that comes up in the ear and when it's ripe, it drops the seed down. That's what we take, we eat that, but also we sow it. So the seed that he has that he is sowing is a product of the fruitfulness in his own life already. [00:11:30] And that's you and that's me, right? [00:11:33] And as I was thinking about this, you know, of course the Lord gives the parable in the first part, and then verses 18 through 23, he he interprets the parable so we don't have to interpret it. He does it for us. That's the blessing of parables. Often he does it for us. And I thought about the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is he sowing the seed? What is the design of the sower? [00:11:55] Why is he doing it at all? And you think about this worldwide work. Our church is part of one, part of a large work that the Lord Jesus is doing that spans the not just our nation or our area, our country, but also it goes into other nations and it spans time as well. The Great Commission spans time and it spans localities as well. [00:12:21] But you know, the Lord Jesus wants the world to be sown. [00:12:26] He does. [00:12:27] He wants the world to be sown. And wherever the seed is not sown, there will be no fruit. It's impossible for fruit to be born when the seed is not sown. So the very fact that this sower is sowing the seed tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ wants His seed to be sown in every part of the world. And I thought about how many places in the world, how many places in the world have no seed sown? [00:12:57] Where there's no seed, there's no fruit. [00:13:00] Where there's no seed, there's no fruit. [00:13:02] There are many, many places in the world where the seed is just not sown. [00:13:09] You know what? [00:13:12] In order for there to be seed, which then leads later to fruit, to the glory of God, somebody must take the seed and sow that land. [00:13:26] Somebody must take that seed and sow that land. [00:13:30] We get kind of small minded and we think about just our little area and we should be faithful in our little area and we must do that. [00:13:38] But the Lord wants some sowers to go to places where there Is no seed sown? [00:13:44] Does God want you to go to a place where there is no seed sown, where there is no fruit for the glory of God? [00:13:52] Because those places exist and they're not few and far between. They're literally everywhere. [00:13:58] But you know what? That's not so much true here where we live. [00:14:05] Just think about your own life, your own interaction with the Word of God your whole life. Don't think about. I'm not talking about whether when you were saved or lost. I'm not talking about it at all. I'm just talking about in general terms. [00:14:18] How many times has the Word of God touched your life in some measure, from the time you were born until now? How many of you would say that you have interacted with the Word of God in some measure? Because that's what the seed is in some measure? [00:14:36] 50 times in your life, how many would you say? A hundred times? [00:14:42] Thousand times? [00:14:44] 10,000 times? [00:14:46] I would say a lot of us probably just forget everything. Just take the church services since you've been saved, say 350. [00:14:55] On average, you come to every church service. Assuming you do 350 church services a year, 10 years, you're at 3,500. [00:15:03] Even if you only come once a week, that's 50 a year. [00:15:07] In 10 years, that's 500 interactions with the Word of God. And that doesn't count the radio, the Internet, your own Bible reading, other people talking to you, other people witnessing to you, perhaps before you knew the Lord Jesus, and a multitude of other ways that the Word of God is sown in our hearts. [00:15:27] Here where we live, the Word of God is sown everywhere, all the time. [00:15:32] It's on the radio, it's on the Internet. We have friends at work, we have family members that are believers. We have neighbors that are believers that say a word here and there. We see people in downtown Greenville, people knock on our door. Just. You go on and on and on and on. The number of times that the Word of God is sown in our hearts in this area is unbelievable, is unbelievable. [00:16:01] But yet we see in these four instances, right? The four by the wayside, the stony ground, the thorny ground, the good ground. [00:16:14] We see that for all of the Word of God that's being sown, the fruit seems kind of small, does it not? [00:16:26] It seems kind of small. [00:16:30] So the sower wants the Word of God to be sown. [00:16:35] Somebody's got to go take the Word of God to a place where there is none. [00:16:42] But here, where we are, the Word of God is everywhere. [00:16:47] And yet, just like we see here, it's not bearing fruit everywhere. [00:16:52] Now, the thing I want you to pick up from this, I want to look at a couple of the verses to show you this, if you will. Get Mark, chapter four, and Luke chapter eight. Real quick. [00:17:01] I want to show you the key point of this passage. [00:17:06] Mark, chapter four, and Luke, chapter eight. [00:17:19] Mark, Chapter four, and Luke chapter eight. Mark, chapter four is the parallel passage to our current passage. [00:17:27] Mark four. Eight. I'm sorry. Verse seven. [00:17:30] Mark, Chapter four. Verse seven says this. [00:17:35] And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. And it. What does it say? And it yielded no fruit. [00:17:45] Verse 19. Look at what that says. Same chapter. 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. What does it say? [00:17:57] Unfruitful. Look at Luke, chapter 8. [00:18:04] Luke, chapter 8, verse 14. [00:18:13] 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 with no fruit to perfection. [00:18:26] Now back in Matthew, chapter 13, look at verse 22. [00:18:35] He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the Word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. Choke the word and he becometh unfruitful. [00:18:47] The key matter, I know as theologians. [00:18:52] As theologians, Brother Morell's a pastor in Milton, Florida. [00:18:56] You know, those of you that are theologians among us, we have a few waxing theologians among us. [00:19:04] The argument is always which of these four groups of people is saved. I don't think that's the argument to be had, honestly, because the emphasis in this passage is not whether they're saved or whether they're lost. That's not what's being talked about at all. You won't see salvation mentioned at all, although it's tied in there, obviously, because you talk about the word of God and bearing fruit, and salvation is tied in there. But that's not Jesus. His point. His point is in the last one, the last example he gives, which is. [00:19:34] Which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some in 100, some 60, some 30. And he mentions that in the other parallel passages, he mentions the fruit bearing. [00:19:44] The question is not whether this person is saved, whether this person is lost. The question is whether they bear fruit. [00:19:49] That's what's being examined. [00:19:56] Fruit bearing is the emphasis in the passage. [00:20:02] Now you notice. Now follow it. [00:20:05] Most of you are familiar. We just read the passage. You know, the four types of ground that are mentioned, the wayside, the stony, the thorny and the good ground. Alright? So the sower goes out and he sows seed on the way. You know, he's just spreading seed like this, Right? He's just spreading seed like this. So some falls by the wayside and before anything happens, the birds come and snatch it away. Now I'm going to ask you a question. Does that seed bear fruit? [00:20:30] No, it doesn't even sprout. [00:20:33] It was eaten too soon. All right, second example, the stony ground. So some of the seed falls, it gets past the birds, perhaps, and it falls on the stony ground. And it does, you know, it gets a little bit of water perhaps, and it sprouts, right? But because the ground is stony and it does not have very much dirt, it sprouts. But then it doesn't have the root system to sustain it when the sun comes up. And so it withers. [00:21:00] So now it's sown, it sprouts. But does it bear fruit? [00:21:07] It doesn't. You see how we progressed a little bit though. At least it sprouted this time. So sown, sprouted. You get to the third one, which is the. The thorny ground, sows on the thorny ground. Now you have. It's sown, it sprouts, it takes root, it begins to grow. [00:21:26] But other things, exterior things crowd out. [00:21:30] Does it bear fruit? [00:21:33] No, you see, this is the point, this is the emphasis. The question is not, are they saved, are they lost? That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about fruit. [00:21:43] Fruit. [00:21:45] That's the only thing we're paying attention to. [00:21:48] Because in the fourth example, it is sown, it sprouts, it takes root, it grows and it bears fruit. [00:21:57] That's the only one that gets praise. [00:21:59] That's the only one that gets praise. [00:22:02] Listen, the ground in Greenville, South Carolina has been sown with the word of God for years and years and years and years and years. It has been sown in your life. [00:22:16] All of your life. [00:22:18] No doubt, you guys from Florida. The same is true in northern Florida. Maybe less true in southern Florida. Definitely true in redneck land, north Florida, right? [00:22:28] Milton's Pretty country, right? [00:22:34] The word of God is sown is sown. It's been sown in your life. [00:22:39] But has it borne fruit? [00:22:43] Has it borne fruit in your life? [00:22:47] There's a heavy responsibility that lays upon us that are born and raised here and have interacted with the word of God as much as we have, and yet we have such so little to show for it in our Life. [00:23:03] It's just a fact. But it was true then, right? In this parable, remember that fruit bearing is not about us. [00:23:23] When the Lord wants us to bear fruit, it's not for our happiness, it's not for our joy, although that comes secondarily. [00:23:33] The reason the sower sows the seed is fruit for Himself. [00:23:39] The Lord Jesus sows the seed of the Word of God to get the fruit for Himself. Because the fruit is for him, not us. [00:23:50] Look, if you would, at John 15 really quick. [00:23:56] John, chapter 15, John 15. [00:24:08] That you who are a person that has received in some measure or another the Word of God. Listen. The fact that you are here means that you have been given and the Word of God has been sown in your life in some way. [00:24:26] The fact of the Word of God having been sown in your life tells us that the Lord has a purpose for that Word in your life. [00:24:40] It is not merely for you to come to a church and listen to a preacher and think, that's a great sermon. [00:24:48] There is more to it. [00:24:53] John 15, verse number eight. Look what our Lord says here. [00:24:58] Herein is my Father glorified. Remember, it's not about you and it's not about me. The Word of God and the fruit that we bear from that is not about you and me. It is about the Father. It is about the Almighty God being glorified. [00:25:16] He says, herein is my Father glorified. That ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. [00:25:25] The Lord sows the Word in our life because he wants us to bear fruit. We're going to cover that in just a minute. Look at chapter 15, same chapter, verse number 16. Jesus says this. Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. [00:25:46] That whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, he may give it you. These things. I. I command you that you love one another. [00:25:55] The Lord has ordained that we bear fruit. [00:26:03] As I said, in a place that's so rich with the seed of the Word of God sown everywhere in our lives, our whole life practically. For many of us, myself included. [00:26:15] To have no fruit is a terrible tragedy in our life. [00:26:20] To have no fruit in our life is a terrible responsibility and burden. [00:26:28] And yet it's often the case. [00:26:35] So that's the design of the sower. [00:26:38] What is he trying to do? He's trying to sow the Word because he wants the fruit. [00:26:46] In Jude, chapter one is only one chapter. [00:26:49] There are those who are false professors in A church, you know, people who. In whose life the word has been sown because they're in a church. In their feasts of charity, verse 12. You've read this before. [00:27:03] Their spots there are. In your feast of charity, they're feasting themselves with you. But the Bible says that those same people who are part church in whose life the word of God has been sown, right? The Lord has sown the word in their life. It says they have fruit that is withered without fruit, right? Twice dead, plucked up by the roots. That means In Jude, verse 12. That means Jude is identifying a group of people in a church who have. Listen, the word is sown in them. It has sprouted, it has grown up. But there is no fruit in their life at all. [00:27:50] There's no fruit to the glory of God at all. And I want to tell you something. [00:27:56] In Jude 12, those people are marked for condemnation. [00:28:04] Their church membership, their experience with religion notwithstanding. [00:28:12] No fruit. [00:28:13] No fruit. [00:28:17] So I want to pose this second question to or this second point to you, which is this, what is fruit? What is the fruit being referred to? Obviously in this case, in the parable, the fruit is referring to the fruit of the grain, right? When it grows all the way up. [00:28:31] But what is the fruit? Now you think of a plant. The man's the sower. He's sowing the seed. The seed. You got that in your mind? He sows the seed into the ground again, it sprouts, it grows up, and then it bears fruit. But the fruit bearing portion of the life of this seed is the final portion, right? Those of you that are into agriculture, and I'm getting myself into so much trouble, I should just avoid this subject. But it's literally everywhere in the Bible, right? [00:28:56] But I do know at least this, that right before a plant dies, am I right or am I wrong? Andrew? Right before a plant dies, assuming it's an annual plant, the fruit is the last thing that happens. After that, the fruit drops and it withers. [00:29:10] He's telling me that's what's going to happen to my BlackBerry bush. [00:29:15] So in the process of sowing, sprouting, growing, flowering, and then finally bearing fruit, bearing fruit is the final stage. [00:29:26] It's the end product. [00:29:30] And fruit is born in a plant for two reasons. [00:29:33] Two reasons. [00:29:36] Number one, fruit is used for food. [00:29:40] It's profitable for man, right? That's number one. And number two, the fruit is used for reproduction, right? [00:29:51] To perpetuate the plant. [00:29:56] That's the only two purposes of the fruit. [00:29:59] It's good for man, for Food. [00:30:02] And it's good for reproduction and perpetuation of that plant. [00:30:05] Now hang on a second. [00:30:08] I want you to see this from Scripture. [00:30:10] I'm just going to read the verses because I have too many to look at each one. [00:30:15] First thing, the fruit is good for food. [00:30:18] Here's what that's referring to. That means it's profitable for the one who sowed it. [00:30:24] He sowed it for the fruit. [00:30:26] The sower sows the seed so that he can reap a harvest later which he can then turn into food. Right? Bread. [00:30:34] Romans 6:22 Just listen carefully to these verses. If you want to write down the references to look at later. Of course you can do that. Romans 6:22 but now being made free from sin and become servants to God. Please, please follow me. This is so important. [00:30:50] Ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. [00:31:02] Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. [00:31:19] Philippians 1:11 being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ. [00:31:30] That's the sower right unto the glory and praise of God. The fruits of righteousness. [00:31:37] Colossians 1:10 that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. [00:31:49] Titus 3, verse 14 and let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. [00:31:59] I'm not just listen. I did not just do a concordance search for the word fruit and just throwing them out there to make it to fill up space. [00:32:08] I'm going somewhere with these verses. [00:32:11] James 3:17, 18 Listen to this one. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Peace. What is the fruit number one? Fruit is something that the sower sows that is profitable for him. [00:32:43] It is the work of his labor that is profitable for him. And Scripture identifies the fruit of the Christian as holiness and righteousness. It is an upright life that that has been changed by the gospel. [00:33:01] It is the change from a life in which we indulged in sin. And the gospel, the result of the word of God has so altered us that those things that we used to do that now we are Ashamed of are the things have been replaced by a love for righteousness and holiness. And. And that is a direct product of the word of God in us. [00:33:30] Fruit of unto holiness, fruit unto righteousness. Now I understand that some people don't like for anybody to talk about holiness or righteousness. But you have to remember that God himself is holy. And he says, be ye holy as I am holy. God is righteous. He expects us to be righteous. But. But let me tell you something. But the fruit of the word of God in us is a righteousness and uprightness of life because that is profitable to our Lord, who is the sower that is profitable to him. [00:34:14] That's what the Bible identifies it as. [00:34:18] Why is it then, and this is a scriptural principle I could go into. [00:34:24] I don't have time to go into everything. But why is it then that among us in this part of our world, why is it that the word of God has been sown so many times and everyone professes the name of Christ, but in works they deny him. [00:34:45] They profess that they know God, but there is no. Listen now. There's no fruit. [00:34:54] There is still the same love and lust after sin and giving oneself to serve sin. [00:35:04] Listen to me, if that is you, it is evidence that you do not know God. [00:35:13] We have deluded ourselves with nice little Christian prayers and sinners prayers. And yet when there is no fruit in our life of righteousness to the praise of God which the Lord Jesus identified in John 15, we whistle past the graveyard and we say, I'm good, you are not good. [00:35:33] And the Lord is announcing to you by your life. You need to pause and you need to think what you. Where do I stand with God? [00:35:48] This is. Listen, this is Greenville South Carolinians. [00:35:54] This was me. [00:35:56] I remember I said the prayer. [00:36:01] I remember coming up in my teenage years. [00:36:05] I didn't love God. [00:36:08] I just wanted to sin. [00:36:13] Listen, we have deluded ourselves. [00:36:16] We are bearing no fruit. [00:36:19] We've sprouted, we've grown up and no fruit has been born at all. [00:36:24] There's no love for righteousness. You know, First John. I can go into this. But first John says this. [00:36:30] He that doeth righteousness is righteous. You see that First John says this. So I don't really like that. That's what the scripture says. That doesn't say you become righteous by doing righteousness. No, it's the evidence of righteousness. Brother David, if a man has been justified and declared righteous by God is not the evidence of that righteousness of life, that is the evidence. [00:36:59] Why is it that it's so many people miss that and examine their lives and see no righteousness, and yet they think they're righteous. [00:37:11] That violates Scripture, that is. Listen, one of these days. [00:37:18] Matthew chapter seven tells us, One of these days you are going to meet the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. [00:37:26] And you're going to say, but Lord, I said the prayer. [00:37:32] Have we not done many wonderful works in thy name? [00:37:35] And he's going to say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. Notice that workers of. That means no fruit. [00:37:47] Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. [00:37:53] And the thing the Lord is putting in front of your eyes to try to show you is the fact that you have no fruit. He's trying to tell you you have no fruit. Open your eyeballs and see. [00:38:14] Because when the sower sows the seed, he wants the fruit. Fruit. [00:38:18] And that fruit is the fruit of righteousness. [00:38:28] But the second reason the fruit exists is to multiply the plant. [00:38:35] Even in this case we see In Matthew chapter 13, we see that it says it beareth fruit. Some bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some 60, some 30. [00:38:51] It produces more and more and more. And this is how. Listen. This is how the Word of God, the kingdom of God spreads. [00:39:00] The word of God falls into the ground and it bears fruit of righteousness. [00:39:05] And that is then that very same fruit, Listen. Is put into somebody's pouch and taken to some far reaching place in the world and spread more, and there it bears fruit more and more. Come to Christ and believe, because someone spread the gospel. [00:39:26] Colossians 1, verses 5 and 6. Say this for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is coming to you. The word of the truth of the gospel is coming to you, as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth. [00:39:51] Listen, brothers and sisters, we don't bear the burden of spreading the gospel alone. The seed does the work. [00:39:58] The Word of God does the work. [00:40:02] The last thing I want you to see is this. [00:40:06] There are hindrances to fruit bearing in the first three situations in our text. In Matthew 13 you have the wayside with the birds. You have the stony ground, then you have the thorny ground. [00:40:26] They correlate to the world, the flesh and the devil. [00:40:31] First you have Satan, who's identified in verse number 19, steals the word out of the heart. Then you have the Flesh is made unhappy and unpleasant by the pressure of trouble and persecution. And then third, you have the world coming with its cares and its desires and its lusts, and they choke the word, the world, the flesh and the devil, all designed to hinder fruit bearing. [00:41:01] There might be some here that. There might be some here that think, yeah, well, I'm that person. [00:41:07] I'm that person. [00:41:09] I just. [00:41:10] I'm a Christian, but I just. [00:41:13] I'm the person who is. Who is just not. I'm a Christian, but I haven't really borne a lot of fruit because so many hindrances in my life. [00:41:22] Okay. I mean, I get that. I think that that is a thing that exists perhaps sometimes I think that's just an excuse, though, for something that we're not really wanting to admit that our life is announcing that we don't know God. [00:41:48] The first one is satanic strongholds. That's the bird. [00:41:52] Notice, the bird snatches the word of God out of someone's heart before, before, immediately before the word has a chance to sprout. And when the bird does that, it immediately nullifies the words of Scripture to us and anything, listen, anything in our life which is a satanic stronghold. Things like false religion. False religion is a stronghold. In other words, when the word of God meets that before it even has a chance to sink down into the person's heart, it's snatched away and rejected and nullified immediately. [00:42:32] False religion is one of those. It like predetermines our reaction to scripture. [00:42:38] But another one I thought about was bitterness and resentment. [00:42:42] You know, bitterness in your heart. [00:42:44] Number one is a satanic stronghold. Satan is identified here, but it's also one that immediately nullifies the work of the word of God in your life. You know that it goes in your heart. Snatched away immediately. You will not hear the words. [00:43:05] The satanic stronghold as described in this parable is anything that acts upon us in such a way that it immediately nullifies the words of Scripture to us. [00:43:17] The second thing we have here is, in the second case with the stony ground, is tribulation and persecution. Look at verse 21 or verse 20. But he that received the seed into stony places the same as he that heareth the Word. And anon with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while. For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word, by and by he is offended. [00:43:41] Tribulation, persecution, that which is unhappy, the life no longer is comfortable. It's easy. It's no longer easy. We get disillusioned with this Christian life. We thought it was going to be easy, and it's not easy. We thought everything. We would have plenty of money and we would have perfect health and all of these things. And it didn't turn out that way. We thought everybody would love us. Because, I mean, after all, this is South Carolina. And all of a sudden you get saved and you realize all these other people that said they were Christians are not happy about it. Listen, some of you have lived this in real living color. You got saved. And all the people around you that thought, that said, oh, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian. All of a sudden they look at you with stone face and are like, well, I thought you were saved already. [00:44:33] Why aren't they happy? [00:44:35] This is part of my wife's testimony. [00:44:38] Because in her circle, of her family, all of which are, you know, Christian, you know, this and that and the other, when she got. Actually got saved November 1, 1998, and she told them, they were not thrilled. [00:44:51] Except one person in her family, the one true believer in her family. [00:44:59] One person was. [00:45:01] All the rest of them were like, we thought you saved already. [00:45:14] Sometimes that disillusions us. [00:45:17] We realize we're getting pressure, getting oppressed from people. This is not the way it was supposed to be. Actually, it was. The Bible said it the whole time. [00:45:31] And it's for this reason, brothers and sisters, that we shouldn't just be looking at the immediate profession of faith, although we know that's a blessing. [00:45:39] We should look beyond that to the fruit. Now. When someone puts their faith in Christ, that's the beginning. That's when the seed starts to sprout. Or maybe you can relate it to that. And we know that that has to happen for the fruit to be born later, right? We know that, so we're glad of that. But I want to tell you, I mean, it's disappointing when someone puts their faith in Christ and then washes out. [00:46:05] It's not what we read here. [00:46:08] They wash out. [00:46:10] I'd much rather see fruit, wouldn't you? [00:46:18] Because fruit will happen. [00:46:20] The seed has the power it to bear fruit. The last thing is this. The cares of this world, that's the ground with the thorns. [00:46:33] Mark describes it as the cares of this world. The deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of other things. Luke describes it as cares, riches, pleasures. [00:46:43] I want to say something. [00:46:47] Anything that competes with the word of God will prevent you as a believer from bearing fruit. [00:47:02] Hope he doesn't mind. I'm thinking of T.J. [00:47:10] brother, you have power in you by the seed of the word of God, to bear fruit to God's glory. [00:47:17] Don't let anything compete with that. [00:47:22] You, as a believer, you cannot let other priorities crowd the word of God in your life. The result will be fruitlessness. [00:47:37] It'll affect your life. [00:47:39] It'll affect your family. [00:47:43] It will affect the glory of God. It will affect others coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Because remember, the fruit is righteousness. Multiplication, right? [00:48:03] So I want to ask you a question. [00:48:05] Where do you stand with God in this parable? [00:48:08] Where are you in the. Where do you see yourself? [00:48:11] The Lord calls us to examine ourselves. I'll be honest with you. He calls us to examine ourselves. Honestly, I know everybody in this room has probably made a profession of faith at some point. [00:48:24] Okay? [00:48:26] Do you have fruit? [00:48:28] That's all I'm asking. [00:48:31] You know, there might be a time that at one point you did bear fruit, but since maybe in this season, you've been crowded out with things in your life. [00:48:42] Priorities that are competing with God's word, God's priorities. You know, Matthew 6:33 says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things, temporal things, that we chase after, those things shall be added unto you. [00:48:58] Are you making God your priority or is that crowding out your plant so that you're not bearing fruit? [00:49:07] I just want you to. [00:49:09] I just want you to ask yourself where you stand with the Lord in this. [00:49:14] Would everybody just bow your head and close your eyes very quickly. [00:49:23] Is there anybody in here that would be honest? [00:49:27] Say, if I am honest before God. [00:49:33] My life does not give indication that I'm a Christian. [00:49:46] If that's you, listen. [00:49:52] The Lord Jesus wants you to respond to him and deal with that matter and find out where you actually stand with him. Is there anybody else in here that might say, I have borne fruit? [00:50:08] I know that I've seen the effect of the word of God in my life, but things are crowding it out. [00:50:18] Things are in the way, and I'm not bearing fruit like I should be. [00:50:24] Is there anybody who would be honest with the Lord and say, that's the case? [00:50:31] This is your opportunity. Brother Ari's going to come and lead us in a song. [00:50:35] I just encourage you, if God has prompted your heart to come talk to him about it. [00:50:41] If you need help, there's somebody here that can help you, that can show you from the scripture how you can be saved, or they can help you deal with whatever issue you've got or just help pray for you.