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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-lavery/five-things-to-be-occupied-with/
Mark 4 and 14. 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 curse 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 one hundred. And he said, Unto them is a candle or a lampstand brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed, and not to be set on a candlestick.
Now, verse twenty-seven, maybe twenty-six. 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 in herself. First the blade, and then the ear, after that 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, Whereunto 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, 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 fowl of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. Now, just a couple of verses farther down.
Thirty-eight. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they wake 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. Verse forty-one. 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 we know that God will bless the reading of his word with what our brother has already brought before us.
Wonderful thing to go to conferences, isn't it? And when we look around, we can't see everybody clearly from up here, but it's nice to see a lot of nice happy faces. So I hope you're happy and enjoying these things.
You know, we come to a conference to hear the word of God, but we also come to encourage one another. And you know, I was at a conference once when a man, I shook hands with him. How are you doing? Great.
Oh, he said, How are you? He said, You've put on some weight since I saw you last. Oh, really I hadn't, so it didn't bother me too much. Then another person, they said, Oh, you're looking good, but you don't have as much hair as you used to have.
Well, that's good, because I didn't even notice that, you know. How would I know? And I wonder, do they say things like that? Do we say things like that to each other to encourage one another? You don't become encouraged, but thank God all the Lord's people aren't like that.
There was one man at this conference. He said to me, Well, you're really looking well. Well, I knew that already. But anyhow, he says, Is your wife a nurse? He said, Your wife takes good care of you. Is your wife a nurse?
I said, No, but don't. I hate telling this, but she worked for a psychiatrist. So I don't know if that's anything to do with it or not. Now that I've got your attention, what I have to say will follow on, I believe, with what our brother Bert has brought before us.
And we need to be occupied in the things of God. There are five things here I want to look at quickly. We need to sow the seed. That's something that's very important. The assemblies are going to prosper.
We need to scatter the gospel. And then we need to shine our light. That's very important, too. And the third one, you may not understand what I have in mind, but we need to sleep in peace. And I'm not talking about death.
And then we have the shadow of the tree. I'd like to say a few things about that. And then the storm and the calm. So those are five very simple things. Now, we do all need to sow the good seed of the Word of God.
There are two ways we have in the Bible, I think, two ways that I look at it. We sow the seed, we scatter the seed, and we let down the net. But here in this part of the Scripture, we have the fact that we said we sow the seed.
Now, I'm sure farmers today would know exactly where they're going to sow the seed or plant the corn. We don't really know what the soil is like. So it's our responsibility to scatter the good seed of the Word of God.
And you may say, well, what really is the seed? Well, the verse is quoted for us yesterday. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
So the seed is the Lord Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord. And Iowa was noted in days gone by, and I hope it still is, maybe in less measure, of people that sowed the seed. It wasn't very long when you met someone in Iowa, when I came years ago before I lived here, and the first thing they would tell you is about when Oliver Smith came down and parked his car in the driveway.
And how he told the saints, and how they love to tell others, how Oliver Smith came and parked his car and helped him, and so on. They sowed the seed. We don't know what the soil is like. And that's not our responsibility.
But we need to keep sowing the seed of the Word of God. Some fell by the wayside and were snatched away by Satan. Another account of this parable is the birds of the air. They came and they snatched it away.
And it didn't bear any fruit. Those that heard it, I think, I could say they were half-hearted. When people are saved, they have a whole heart, they have an honest heart. But we scatter the seed, the devil comes, snatches it away.
And then some fell on rocky ground, and these are people that were faint-hearted. The seed was starved whenever persecution came along. They didn't endure. And then he said, but you keep sowing the seed.
Some fell among thorns. They were half-hearted. Some were hard-hearted, is what I meant to say there, by the wayside, and then faint-hearted, and then half-hearted. The seed was strangled. The world comes in, and the flesh.
There's opposition to sowing the good seed of the Word of God. But thank God, we have seed that fell into a good and an honest heart. It's a successful seed, and it brought forth seed. And it's interesting, in Mark's Gospel, it says 30 and 60 and 100.
In the Gospel of Matthew, it's 100 and 60 and 30. And in the Gospel of Luke, it's all 100. That's the Gospel of God's grace. It's all a level field there. But here, I think the idea, the reason for the increasing number is that Mark was a man that was restored.
That's what we've been hearing about restoration. So he would put it in an ascending way. Maybe that's what he had in his mind. Now, we all need to be occupied in the sowing of the seed. And it will produce fruit.
We can't judge who will listen to the Gospel or who God will work with. But we know that the seed that falls on good ground will produce fruit in the Gospel. But then I was thinking, you know, at a conference like this, do we not really sow the seed in ministry?
And we're looking for results from ministry, not just from the Gospel. Is there going to be a result with me? From coming here to the conference? Or do I have a hard heart? Really not living close to the Lord.
As we've heard, we could go along not reading the Word or dependent on God and prayer. Our hearts can be very hard. And there's not going to be any fruit for God from a heart that's hard. Same thing when we come to the rocky ground.
They received the Word with gladness. You know, we were in the Bible reading, as you remember, they that gladly received the Word were baptized. I didn't have a chance to say, but, you know, even Mr. Newbery points out and Mr. Darby and these men that gladly isn't there in some of the manuscripts.
And the reason I think maybe for that is, whether you agree or not, I think when they received the Word on the day of Pentecost, they were pricked in their heart. It was first of all repentance. And I would say there's something wrong if they're not glad after God saves them.
But here they received the Word with gladness. People will tell you, it's just what I need. But then there's no result. So what about us then? Do we receive it? Oh, that's wonderful. But there's no real exercise in our heart.
That's what I want to apply it that way. And then when we come to the thorns, we have the pleasures of this world. If we're dabbling in the things of the world, we're not going to have any fruit in our lives from the good seed being sown.
It's all good. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the seed. But how about you and how about me? That I come to the conference with a good and an honest heart, wanting to hear the voice of God speaking to me.
There should be definite results. I know one of our great preachers. He's gone now home to heaven. He's from Scotland. And he would come into Ireland. So I'm not slighting Americans by any way. And they asked him back a few years later.
They said, I'm not coming. And they said, why? He said, everything's just going on the way it was before. There's nobody really listening to the Word. We need to not just hear it and say, well, that was a nice little lineup.
We all like nice lineups. But what really impact does it have in our lives? That's what we're interested in. And that's what we all should be interested in. When we hear the Word of God, is there going to be fruit in our lives for God?
Now, when it comes to shine your light, sowing the seed is linked with toil. Not easy. It's not just a part-time work that we're doing. There's really, we need to really get into it. To spread the Word.
And we need to get into it to receive the Word. That it would have an effect in our lives. But you know, I can tell others how they need to be saved. And maybe I don't have a life to back it up. So that's what we have here.
And the next part that I read, he said, if you get a lamp or a candle here, but it's a lamp stand, why do you get it to put it under a bushel basket? That would, to me, would be too busy. I don't have time.
Oh, I'd love to be, maybe when I retire, I'll really do great things. Well, I can't say that because I hope I never retire. But it's too late then for some. But some of us can be too busy. Busy in the things that maybe are legitimate.
But what about the things that are God? Are we busy in the things of God? That'd be a great thing, wouldn't it? And he said, do you put a light under a bed? Well, you know, I think, I mean, not busyness, but laziness.
Am I too lazy? I just want to drift along. You know, today, you see, you just have to go with the flow. You don't have to go with the flow. We don't have to go with the flow. And what we do, whatever we're occupied in, will it have power?
We know God is sovereign. But it's ideal that we should have a life to back up what we're doing, whatever little service God is engaging us in. Maybe that's why we don't see too many results today. Oh, we know so much, and we have all the translations and everything else, but the old Christians, it seemed to me, maybe didn't have a great education, but they carried out what they found in the Word.
They were just simple enough. If we could see it in the Word, that's it. Now, when it comes to trust and sleep, in verse 27, we sleep and rise again, and the seed springs up. And I think what I learned from this is we need to trust God.
We can spoil the whole thing by trying to do God's work. God says, you sow the seed, that's your responsibility. You can't make it grow. You can't corner people and spend hours with them trying to tell them how to believe and so on.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit of God. And He's better at His work, and I suppose in a way as well when it comes to us following the Word of God. It's the Spirit of God that brings these things home to us.
How about it, for you and for me? Can we just not meddle in God's part? I'm sure most of us here that I know, souls want to be saved. We certainly talk with them. I'm not a believer in talking for hours and hours.
I'm not saying it didn't work and some didn't get saved, but that's not the way I would look at it. Give them the Word of God. Give them the good seed. What does it really mean to you? That's it. I like to preach the gospel.
Maybe it doesn't happen a lot, but preach the gospel. Souls are saved right sitting in the meeting, not talking to the preacher at all. And that's what would encourage my heart. God working in the lives of His people.
Now when we come to the shadow of the tree, here we have a mustard seed. Have you ever seen a mustard seed? A mustard seed of a tree that would grow in the Holy Land. Well, when Linda and I were in Japan, they love to grow things.
They don't have much ground, but little ports or something and they have things growing. And there was one gentleman and he said, this is a mustard plant like they would grow in the Holy Land. And he said, I'm going to give you some mustard seeds that you can take home and grow with you.
And they're very, very small. Now, unfortunately, I think it's unfortunately, the tornado came and took away all the mustard seeds. So if you see any around the country, maybe that's part of our seed that was sown by the wind.
But the thing here is, you know, the mustard seed, it's telling us that it has abnormal growth. And the way to apply it, and you can look at the other parables and so on, the leaven going into the meal offering and so on.
But this is abnormal growth. And I want to just warn you and maybe encourage you. Younger people, you may wonder, you know, when people come to you and they say, man, we go to our, there's 3 ,000 or 4 ,000 in our church.
And you go door to door, you know, and you tell them, we're preaching the gospel down the gospel hall. Oh, how long have you been there? Maybe a week. Oh, how many souls have you seen saved? Say, I haven't seen any.
But we hope some will be interested. Oh, we saw 1 ,000 last year. Well, I said, it's a wonder how you can fit them all in your building if you see 1 ,000 every year. Don't be taken in by these things.
They don't even say we saw so many, we saw so many baptized. If you belong to a little assembly, take heart. God's not looking for quantity, although we'd all like to have larger assemblies. It's the fact that the Lord is there.
That's the important thing. I've told this story a few times about a couple that once were in one of our assemblies and they said they were praying that God would sell their house for them in Iowa so they could go to Colorado.
And what is there in Colorado? Oh, there's a great church. It's marvelous. It has a Starbucks. Well, maybe they need that to keep them all awake. I don't know. Maybe not. We shouldn't prejudge maybe. But those things, what's that got to do with really God's local assembly?
The simpler we go on, the better. And God loves a little assembly. And he looks down upon it. And we've been encouraged, I'm not going to go into all the ways we should be pulling together, but we should.
It's a great place to be. And by the grace of God, now I say by the grace of God, I hope I'll never go to any other place. I'm quite happy. You say, is it perfect? No. They always taught me if you find a perfect assembly, don't go because it won't be perfect when you get there, when you're part of it.
Not perfect, but hopefully we're trying to go according to the word of God. Now, there's going to be opposition. And that's why I think these things just follow like this. There's a big storm. And what is God teaching us in the storm?
There may be storms. I'm not hopefully not talking about storms and assemblies, but everything doesn't always go according to scripture. But God tests us. And he tests us in the assemblies. Maybe they haven't seen much for a while, much fruit in the gospel, but he tests them.
Are you still going to go on on the right pathway? Are you going to try and change things to bring more people into the assembly? We don't need to change anything. God instructed the apostles to instruct men like Timothy to teach others that they would help others also.
He didn't say change the word. Modify it in any way. We need to go right according to the word. God has the best for his people. He has the best for us. Why would we want to change something that turns out that it's not really the best?
And God said, I'm going to test you. I'm going to test these people. And you will remember that in the gospels, there are various times when the Lord sent them into the ship. So it wasn't their disobedience that brought the storm.
It was their obedience. Maybe we don't have too many storms because we're just drifting along. But here God's testing them. Do you think this ship could go down? We don't know much about ships. He used to tell us if you get a hole in the boat and the water's coming in, bore another hole to let it out.
But I don't think that would really work. No. He says the Lord's with you. You may have been asleep. You may have forgotten that the Lord was there on a pillow. But what a glorious thing it is to have the Lord with you.
Shouldn't worry about the storms of life. I know some people face a lot of storms in their lives and with their families and so on. But you know this, the Lord is with you. And when they woke the Lord up, he was able to say, peace, be still.
Those are beautiful words, aren't they? After the resurrection, when the Lord appeared in the midst of his disciples, that was the first word he said, peace. Have peace among yourselves. What a wonderful thing it is to be at peace.
You have that peace. Are you a peacemaker? I always say, blessed are the peacemakers, because I have one that keeps going. But that will help you to remember the little verse. Blessed are the peacemakers.
The Lord said, peace. The disciples were maybe arguing about how they had forsaken him and so on. And he said, look, get your eyes of yourselves. That's what we, we look at self, we look at others. And the Lord says, look at my hands and look at my feet.
And he was drawing them right to himself. Get your eye on me. And what did they say? What manner of man is this? They just couldn't understand. It was like saying, where did this person come from? Well, we know he came from the glories of heaven and he made peace.
And he made peace by the blood of his cross so that you and I could live in peace and hopefully we'll never cause any trouble. God's assembly, if you think there's something wrong, just go to your elders.
You might find they know a little more than you do. Just go to them. But don't spread things around among brethren. No need to do that. So may the Lord help us to take heed, to hear the word of God and to lay it to heart so that there might be definite change in our lives.
It should be every conference we should be getting more and more like our blessed Lord. And if we were honest, we'd have to say, well, maybe we're not making too much progress. Well, it's time we started.
When are we going to start? Now is the time. So may the Lord bless the word that has been spoken during the conference and that which will follow. That will give us an encouragement to get into the word of God to get the word of God into us, to put it into practice in our lives and to be a help to one another.