The Parable of the Sower, Pt. 3 (02/27/2000) | NOTE: Incomplete tape

Has nothing to do with the message, but it's my wife's favorite verse. I'm gonna read it this morning We had a wonderful time in Sunday school this morning, by the way we invite you to come at 10 o 'clock and If nothing else, it's a good time to wake you up.

So you'd be ready for the message at 11 Also on Wednesday nights

Brother Roger Erickson is teaching through how to properly interpret the scriptures Interpretative methods and it's powerful.

I mean you need to know That is information right there That is so important and I have believed for a long time that it's not that there are many interpretations what it is

They're just many rules Different rules people have for how to interpret a lot of people have the wrong rules and Rogers giving you the right rules on Wednesday nights at 630.

So be sure make a note come come to that because you need that it's excellent

Well, let's read first Peter 1 4 together. Well, you read it to yourselves. I'll read it out loud start with Verse 4

We can't start with verse 4. Let's start with verse 3 We're gonna start right in the middle of the idea if we start with verse 4

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance now look what kind of inheritance this is incorruptible

Undefiled that fadeth not away That is reserved in heaven with your name on it.

That's what it means when it says for you Who are kept? Isn't it interesting that it doesn't say that you keep yourselves

It says you who are kept By the power of God Through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time

Wherein you greatly would rejoice Now go to Colossians chapter 1

If you're a Baptist, then you would call that an eternal security verse, wouldn't you? And if you're not a

Baptist, then you would just say the Bible says that so I believe it Hopefully the Baptist would say that I Know that the historic

Baptist would now look at Colossians 1 17 and He is before all things you see that's the eternal present tense and By him all things consist.

This is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ Not only is it that he is he has always existed

But he holds all things together even right now by the power of his hand

Now look at verse 19 for it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell in Him is all the fullness of the

Godhead Bodily, that's who Jesus is Now look at verse verses 20 through 22 and you're gonna find

Some wonderful eternal security verses, but I want you to notice what happens when we get to verse 23 the first word in verse 23 is

Has been problematic for some folks and you'll see why but let's start with the verse 20

And I want you to pretend that we're just gonna skip verse 23 like most preachers like to do just we're not even gonna read it

Because if we don't bring it up, we don't have to talk about it because it's just great without verse 23 So we're gonna leave it out.

Don't want you to even think about it. Don't look at it Okay All right.

Don't think about pink elephants either and Having made peace through the blood of his cross

By him to reconcile all things and to himself by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven and you that were

Sometime alienated and enemies in your mind. That's the way we were before salvation

Alienated and enemies, isn't it puzzling how some people think that aliens and enemies choose

Jesus? Is that a rabbit trail By wicked works yet now hath he reconciled

In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and Unapprovable in his sight period close the book.

That's the end of the statement It's a wonderful eternal security verse but look what the next verse does start with if Isn't it a shame sometimes our theological boxes are not perfectly clean and intact if We are honest with the

Bible Sometimes I had a friend that discipled me when I was first saved named

Gary Plumlee And I remember one time he told me don't ever let your theology make you be unscriptural

And I've always remembered that But some theologians would really love to stop at the end of verse 20 because that if in verse 23

Seems to be a problem. It says it says that He will present you holy and unblameable if You continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel

Which you have heard and which was preached to every creature, which is under heaven whereof

I Paul and made a minister Well now does that throw in the possibility of one losing his salvation?

Does that throw in the possibility of one falling away? of one not continuing in the faith of one being moved away from the faith that he once had and Then not being saved

Well, I think this whole parable in Matthew 13. Let's go back into that Gives Wonderful answers to these questions

We know because it does say Baptist on the sign out front that you can't lose your salvation, right?

If you are saved you're saved First John 5 12 and 13 says he that hath the

Son hath life It doesn't say you might have it and it doesn't say you will get it.

It says you have it now And these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the

Son of God that you may know that you have That means now that's present tense You have eternal life and this life that you have is called eternal by God.

How long is eternal? Somebody tell me When does it stop

Never so if you already have it and it can't stop. How could you lose it? That's all we need is

Baptist We don't need a lot of theology. Just you know, those two verses are plenty David Would you turn the

Sun off a little bit here? It's just I noticed mrs. Rogers was looked glorified already this morning

It's just all right. Can you still see me? All right. I Lost my train of thought

David you you interrupted me And yes, brother

Otis I am still asleep All right, let's go into Matthew chapter 13

We Know that you can't lose your salvation, but let's find out some reasons why that if was there in the other verse and Also at the same time prove that you cannot lose your salvation

We've made our way in this passage in Matthew 13 Down to the place of the good soil

So to review just a little bit in case you weren't here in previous weeks We studied the pathway and the stony soil and The thorny soil and today we're going to talk about the good soil.

So there are four kinds of soil that represent the hearts into which the seed is

Sown and the seed is the Word of God and who is the sower? Sowing the seed we learned that last

Sunday. Who is it? we are and So the parable begins by teaching us if we learn nothing else that we're supposed to be sowing the

Word of God to every creature We sow the seed everywhere And that's where we start

I remember one time they asked Spurgeon the great prince of preachers the great

Baptist preacher from England If you believe in the elect that God elects then why do you witness?

and he said because God told me to He said God didn't paint a yellow stripe down the back of the elect so that I could identify them

He just told me to give the gospel to every creature. So I obey the Lord and another person asked him once Well, how do you reconcile?

Brother Spurgeon the will of man and the sovereignty of God and Spurgeon said

I don't have to reconcile friends Think about that All right, now the hard path as you go into the field is the place where they walked and As some of the seed hit this hard path it couldn't go anywhere it had no depth of soil whatsoever and Jesus came back later and explained to his disciples that the birds that came and ate the seed represents

Satan Taking the Word of God from the very mind of the person before he could ever understand it or before it could reach his heart

Now it's interesting as we look at verse 11 just for review a little bit

We look up at the end of verse 10 Actually, the disciples come and they say why speakest thou unto them in parables?

it bothered them a little bit that Jesus wasn't speaking more plainly so that everyone could be saved and Jesus answered and he said well

He said because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven But to them it is not given and he expounds upon that all the way through verse 14

And it's interesting this phrase unto them. It is not given. I believe that this hard pathway certainly

Pictures those people they're people who are not going to be saved They might even hear the gospel but before they ever really hear it with understanding

Satan comes and snatches it right out of their mind and They are not saved the stony soil if you remember

Looked to be saved They heard the gospel and very quickly sprung up and got excited about it

But then what happened says the Sun came out And because there was no root

No depth of soil, so there was no root They withered away Jesus said that the

Sun represented Persecution our problems because of brought about because of the word which

I've always thought was an interesting phrase That the word is what brings these problems and when the problems come they just go away

The people just go away and they're not there anymore Now what what did they lack that kept them from really being saved even though they had made a profession of faith

Dear Jesus come in my heart and save me. Amen. Shake my hand. You're my brother now. Amen.

Why doesn't that work? Because there has to be the root The root is the root of Jesse the

Lord Jesus Christ but there is another passage a parallel passage in in Mark and Luke and There's another thing that's mentioned that was lacking.

Can you remember what it was had no root and had no what? Water right what is water picture throughout the

Bible the Holy Spirit So this person never had Jesus the root this person never had the

Holy Spirit the water Nor did they understand the water of the word and this person was not saved

They looked saved for a short period of time and then just went away and then we studied the thorny soil last

Sunday This is a person who really appears to be saved. It even says that they hear the word and There's a phrase in the passage where it says look at verse 22

He also that received seed among thorns is he that here at the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches

Choke the word and he becometh unfruitful in the English It almost sounds like he was fruitful, but then he became unfruitful

But I'd like for you to understand that in the Greek language. It doesn't sound that way It really would read more this way the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he is unfruitful it does not imply in the

Greek that he was ever fruitful and Then that brings us to verse 23, which is where we are today

We're going to talk about the good soil and I think I've pretty much let you know last time that I agreed with Matthew Henry and and With J.

Vernon McGee who both believed that the first three soils are people who are not saved.

They were not saved at all and Only the fourth soil the good soil in this parable represents the saved person

So we're going to study the saved person in this good soil for a few moments this morning he that received seed into the good ground is he that here at the word and Understandeth it which also

Beareth fruit and bringeth forth some and a hundred some sixty and some thirty fold let's talk about that just for a few moments

Matthew Henry says this fruit is the thing that God expects and requires from those that enjoy the gospel fruit according to the seed a

Temper of mind and a course of life Agreeable to the gospel. This is fruit and it will abound to our account now notice some of the

Attributes of this soil which represents the heart of a person who is saved

The first thing that we see that they do is it says Well, I'll look at the first part of verse 23, but he that received seed into good ground

He received seed Now let's think about that word receive

Brother Otis brought to to my attention About a year ago That there are a lot of us who like to use the phrase.

I have accepted Jesus Christ And I'll tell you where that came from You may not be aware of this

I'm gonna tell you where it came from Preachers. No, I'll tell you where it may have come from.

I Don't really I'm not sure about this So I'm stepping out on a limb a little bit But I seem to remember that when

I first was saved I was given a New American Standard Bible One of the modern versions of the

Bible and I believe that in that version John 1 12 may say as many as accepted him to them gave he the power to come to the sons of God If not that version then it may have been the

NIV or one of the other modern versions I believe you can find the word except in some of the modern versions, but I'll tell you this in the

King James Version I don't believe you'll find it You will see that the person receives the

Lord Jesus Christ What's interesting about it the scholars back in 1611 when they were translating the

King James understood English very well They understood that there is a slight but important distinction between accepting something and receiving something

Accepting implies that you are making the decision You're deciding will

I will I accept this or not and based on your decision will determine what happens But receiving something is when the other person makes a decision to give and you simply receive it because they gave it

Subtle but important now notice that this good soil that we're talking about this morning

The first attribute that we see in this person is that he receives seed

It does not say he accepts the seed. It says he receives it Now look look at Mark chapter 4

Verse 15, we're gonna bring in some of the parallel passages here because they they shed a little extra light on the story if you remember on the on the thorns we had to look at all for all three of the got three of the

Gospels anyway to Realize that the thorns represent four things here in Matthew. It only lists two, but if you put it all together four things

The cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches The pleasures of this life and other things coming in all four are listed if you read them all so we need to look at The other passages so in Mark chapter 4 verse 15, and these are they that that they by the way

That means the pathway where the word is sown But when they have heard

Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts

Now I want you to look at the phrase the word that was sown in their hearts and Notice that this applies not only to the bad soil the the pathway

It would also apply to the good ground because in all four of the soils this the word was sown by the farmer

So notice the word that was sown in the heart and we're going to take that and apply it to the good soil now

It proves that it is not a matter of accepting something It is a matter of something being sown in your heart by another and that other person

Represented by the farmer and by us who go out and sow the seeds, but we have to understand.

Where did the seed come from? It came from the father And where did the order to sow the seed come from came from the father?

And So this is a thing that is done to you by the father. He sows the seed into your heart

Now the first thing we see about these folks is that the seed was sown into their hearts this word

So and the Greek language is Spiro Which means to scatter or to sow but I wanted to give you the

Greek word because it's going to come up here in a moment And I think it'll be interesting to you where else we see it in a few moments

But let me give you the the tense of the verb here this seed that's being sown into the heart by God It's in the perfect passive participle now

I know you don't remember that stuff neither do I so I spend a few minutes before I get here cheating and looking them up In a book at least

I'm not like Greg and I don't bring the dictionary. He's got a dictionary sitting right down here

I try to do it before I get here. So I'm prepared, you know But I know what he's doing. He's there just in case certain people ask him questions that he wasn't prepared for He's a cruel person though He's sitting right behind me that dictionary and I got asked a question or two in Sunday school

I couldn't answer it just real quickly and he wouldn't even whisper the answer and he had the dictionary a

Lot of help Well, what is perfect tense mean Debra she's our teacher

All right. Well Actually, I've got the book. May I read it?

Actually, you got that backwards are you awake this morning? Oh Did you ever nail me

I will ask you no more questions today Yeah Okay, I'm not obviously

All right. Think about this perfect means does nothing else has to happen to it. Good way to remember it

Done once and for all in the past never to be repeated

Now think about that. That's what perfect tense means This seed was sown in the hearts of these particular people

In the Greek language, it's in the perfect tense, which means it was done once and for all never to be repeated

And yet and of course, it's in passive which means it was done by another to us and that's obviously the father

So this seed was sown into our heart by the father Once and for all never to be repeated and yet it's participle.

I'm not gonna ask you I'm just gonna tell you tell you what it means All right, it's like in the English putting ing at the end of it, so what does that make it?

Continual isn't that strange? How can you have perfect continual? Well, you know

God has been accused of using bad grammar before back in Genesis when he said let us make man in our

Image and when he uses the word Elohim, which is a singular plural word

God is one God subsisting is three persons the Trinity sounds like bad grammar, but it's on purpose and in this particular phrase

This is just amazing and I guess we could just stop here and just think about this for a while and that could be the Sermon, but you know,

I'm not that kind we're gonna go on and if I can put Deborah to sleep I'm gonna get a few others of you involved in that restful state before we leave but Think about this.

It is a thing that was done once and for all This seed was sown into the heart by God once and for all and yet it is continuing to be done

Don't you find it true as you walk in your Christian life you open this book

You still sense the Lord's sowing seed into your heart Remember the seed doesn't represent salvation.

It represents the word and The saved people need the word too, don't we and it's a continual thing

Now in Matthew 13 23 it says but he that received the seed.

Let's look at the word received for a moment This is a little bit interesting when you think about the tense of it, too

It's in the aorist tense, which English doesn't have an aorist tense But in the Greek what it means is the verb is considered without regard to past present or future

It's just like it is this way You don't have to worry about when it happened.

It's just this way and So these people receive or it says that they are they that receive the seed.

It's just the way it is It doesn't matter whether it happened in the past the present the future

It's just it's the fact that they are the receivers of the seed. It's also in the passive which means someone else

Put it there and placed it in their heart It's not active and that's the difference between receive and accept except would be active but receive is a passive word

But it also is participle I NG So this person is a person who has had the seed sown into his heart

Once and for all never to be done again in a sense But only as you think from God's point of view

Can you see it that way because from our point of view it's a continual thing always happening but not only that but he has received the word and Is receiving the word?

Now do you remember the if that we talked about when we started out this morning? If you continue

This is in the continual tense. God just says you're gonna continue if you're the good soil it's very interesting that the word received is

Found in another place if you remember up here, well, let's look at this look at verse 23 Now it says but he that received seed into the ground

So it is speaking of your hearts and you receive seed Do you remember in Mark chapter 4 where it says the word was sown into their hearts?

And I mentioned that the Greek word for so is Spiro Well now look at Matthew 13 in verse 23

But he that received seed that is exactly the same Greek word now in the other verse

It's translated into the word sown and you picture the farmer sowing the seeds and now in Matthew 1323 it's translated as this person received the seed but it's the same word as the word sown

You can't distinguish the difference in the Greek language So here where it says that this person received the seed

It's the same as saying he had the seed sown into his heart Who does that put in control?

God God is the one sowing the seed into the heart you read it in the

English It looks like oh, well, I received it and you might even think I accepted it, but it's not what it says

It doesn't even say that you received it it said you had it sown into your heart Isn't that amazing now stop and be thankful for a moment?

And now we'll go on Turn to John chapter 6

With me for a moment. I Want to think a little bit more about this idea of the seed being sown into your hearts about it being the work of God Not the work of man

While you're looking for John chapter 6, I want you to look at verse 44.

I Want to read you a verse from John chapter 1 verse 13 Which were born not of the blood

Nor of the will of the flesh Nor of the will of man but of God You see it's not an accepting.

It's a receiving of Seed being sown into our hearts by another and that's by father

But if you're in John chapter 6 Let's see who's in control of the sowing and of the receiving which is the interesting part.

Look at verse 44 No man can come unto me except the father which hath sent me

Draw him and I will raise him up at the last day Now where does the eternal security come in all through this passage look back up at verse 39.

Oh look at verse 37 all that the father giveth me shall come to me and Him that cometh to me.

I will in no wise cast out look at verse 39 And this is the father's will which hath sent me that of all which he hath given me.

I should lose Nothing, but should raise it up again the last day and Verse 40 and this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the

Son now that word should be beholdeth the Son and believeth on him may have

Everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day No man can come unto me except the father which hath sent me

Draw him and I will raise him up the last day verse 44 says now a lot of people will not go on into verse 45 because it's one of those verses that you have to study a little bit to To really understand what it says and it's a lot easier just to read over it and go on to the next verse

Because verse 44 is so so clear we get into verse 45 We just say

I was probably talking about something similar and you go on into verse 46 but let's look at verse 45 a minute it is written in the prophets and They shall

Be all taught of God now You're gonna find out in a minute that they refers to the verse 44 these people that the father draws to Jesus It's the same group

All of these people it's the saved the people who will be saved and who are saved all of these people shall be taught of God now that doesn't mean they will be taught about God that means they will be taught by God So you might want to put a little note there where it says obvious it's by they will be taught by God every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned and where you see the word of put the word from and Have learned or by or the word by those that have heard and learned

By the father or from the father are the ones that come to me Now here we see who's doing the the action it's the father

It's the father who is drawing and it's it's very interesting that the word draw is the word hell coo.

Oh, which means to drag as if against the will To drag this person to the

Lord Jesus Christ Was the Apostle Paul when he was on the road to Damascus was it his will to find

Jesus? Or was he finding Christians to? persecute that was his will and yet God caused him to look and see the face of Jesus and once he had those eyes to see what did he say

Lord? What would you have me to do? Did he count Jesus Christ his

Lord before that moment? Not at all And all of a sudden he did and it was the father who drew him to that place

Same for all of us and it really means drug us to that place Well in John 15 16

Jesus says you have not chosen me But I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go forth and bring forth fruit now notice this little addition

Here in the book of John that it says that those that he has chosen will bring forth what? Fruit that's another reason.

I think that this last fourth soil is the only one that's really safe It's the only one that bears any fruit and Your fruit shall remain in other words.

It's not going to burn off on your way up there All right Some some works will but this fruit will not that whatsoever you shall ask of the father in my name

He may give it to you So we see then that the first predominant thing about this person is

That he receives the word But as we examine the language in the Bible we find that the word receive is not really what's happening so much as the fact that the word is sown into his heart and Because of that he receives it or in that respect.

He receives it now the second Aspect of this person back in Matthew chapter 13

But he that receives seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word

So he hears the word and this is the Greek word akua, which simply means for the sound to strike the ear

Now if you'll notice Some of the other soil had that happen. They heard the word in fact all of it did

Even the hard pathway heard the word But Satan came and snatched it out of his mind before it could really get into a nut state of understanding

But this person the good soil Receives the seed and he hears the word so just like all the others he hears it and look at the next word

He understandeth it now. You don't find that among the other soils You'll hear you'll have the hearing but you don't ever have the understanding

But in this place you do and it's the thing that makes the difference the word understand

Has the little word soon in front of it, which means to come together and The word hey me at the end, which means to sin.

So it means to put it all together in the mind These other soils never did that but this person does so as the seed is sown into his heart by the father and He is drawn to the

Lord Jesus Christ and he sees that light just like the Apostle Paul did and he looks up he has the understanding to say

Lord, what would you have me to do and This understanding is given to him in John chapter 6 verse 45 you see the same idea as it is written of the prophets

They shall all be taught of God Every man therefore that hath heard you see that's the hearing the striking of the ear and hath learned that word learned is a synonym with the same word as understand and hath learned of the father so it is the father that gives the understanding and As this person receives the seed he also receives the understanding from God now

We go into the next concept verse 23 he understandeth it which also beareth

Fruit now not only that it says he beareth fruit, but then it says he bringeth forth fruit

So bearing just simply means to carry or to hold the fruit.

It doesn't mean he produces the fruit who does that? That's right. And in a plant what does that the root and who is the root?

Is the root of Jesse that's the Lord Jesus Christ. So yes, he bears the fruit.

That's present tense active This is something that the believer does once he's saved. He now is in the active state it was passively given to him by the father and once he has this he actively he begins to act and he begins to bear the fruit and It's just a fact it's in the indicative

So that means it is an absolute fact now you see that's why I believe That this soil represents the saved people because it is an absolute fact that they will bear fruit

Now if you notice I'll jump ahead a little bit. It says some 100 fold some 60 and some 30 We don't all bear the same amount of fruit and maybe not the same kind, but we all bear fruit now not only does he bear the fruit, but he brings forth the fruit and This is

Something that happens. It's not something that's continual It doesn't happen all the time just like a tree brings forth fruit in his season.

Not maybe not all the time You'll have seasons in your life when you're not bringing forth fruit But you'll have seasons when you do bring forth fruit and it'll be a fact it will be indicative

It'll just flat happen if you're saved and that's what the the teachings are kind of Behind the scene in the grammar here in this passage, in fact in John 15 16

He says you have not chosen me But I have chosen you and ordained you and then he says so that you what should go and bring forth fruit

It's interesting in the Greek language word should is not there It's not like you should you might not but you ought to that's not what it's saying

It's saying I have chosen you that you will go forth and bring forth fruit so all true believers will bring forth fruit and that fruit will remain and Whatsoever you ask of the

Father my name it will be given you you can pray you have a prayer life at this point In Ephesians chapter 2 10, we see the same language exactly it says for we are his workmanship

Created in Christ Jesus unto good works Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them the word should it's not in the

Greek It means we will walk in them and that's what the

Bible says well Let's go on through verse 23

Not only is this a person who receives the the word as it is sown into his heart by the father

Not only does he just hear the word but he understands it and then he brings forth fruit

Some 100 fold some 60 and some 30 well in the

Luke passage Turn to Luke 8 15. There's a key word that's brought into this.

I want you to see It's gonna be the last word in the sentence

But that on good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the word

Keep it and bring forth fruit with patience Now this word patience

The definition for it is cheerful endurance If you look that up in the Greek cheerful endurance now

You remember that if we talked about at the first of the lesson this morning if you continue

Do you know that God Jesus not only taught in parables that day in Matthew 13, but the whole thing's in parables

Everything we see in the Bible is written in parables in a sense and what I mean by that It is written for you to understand but unto them it is not now haven't you

Been aware that there is a struggle out there between this doctrine that says you can be saved but then all of a sudden you can lose that by Going away from the

Lord and getting out of church and not tithing anymore is the main offense I believe and all of a sudden you lose your salvation and those people that believe that at certain

Denominations that believe it will take you to like the verse we looked at in Colossians and they'll point out the big if They'll say well, you're only secure if you continue so you have to continue through to the end

What was it that the the Methodist have have said forever? But I've heard people that used to go to some of the old tent meetings that the

Methodist had Little phrase they used about following through anybody heard that before Tell y 'all are not

Methodist Nobody knows what I'm talking about. It's like I'm gonna continue through to the end

They would use a little phrase that meant that and what they meant by that was, you know Are you are you saved?

Are you on your way to heaven? Well, I sure hope so I'm gonna try to continue through to the end and it's a work that they're doing.

It's a trying of doing something They're gonna say I'm gonna try to bear it out and make it all the way to the end that way

Maybe I'll get to heaven And then the Baptist come back and say well if you're saved you're always saved and they don't want to discuss this if any you know but the thing that puts it all together is when you understand who's doing the sowing and Who is placing it in the hearts of particular people and you go back into Deuteronomy?

Chapter 7 verses 6 7 and 8 and you understand that those are the same people that God Set his love upon before the foundation of the world and you find those same people in the first chapters of Ephesians It's not really a choice that God made you don't have to choose to love your children.

Do you moms? Do you get up you get up this morning you say I? Choose being

I think I love him today. You don't make that choice And yet we think

God did but he didn't he didn't have to He can look out upon the world and he can see his children

He can see Satan's children Jesus could look at him right in the eyes and say you don't believe in me because you're of your father the devil

Of your father you'll be like your father It was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

You're like him. That's why you want to kill me Abraham saw me But and understood but you look at me and want to kill me you're of your father the devil

Listen, God didn't have to make this choice He has loved you before the foundation of the world.

And so what happens? When he comes down to this place where that seed is sown and on a particular day of your life

It was received into your heart and you were born again and the lights came on and all of a sudden you could see the

Lord Jesus Christ as your own and You could hear you had ears that would hear

You had eyes that could see you had a life you were alive for the first time and you know the difference and One of the things that came with this is that you are a person

Who brings forth fruit with patience with cheerful endurance, you're not a quitter

You know why not because of you or me but because the moment you got saved God changed your nature

He gave you of the divine nature I've used this with teenagers before you know, why does a cow eat grass?

Why didn't he eat meat? Does he have to make the choice to eat grass? It's just his nature he does that because he's a cow

Why does a lion eat meat? Because it's his nature and when you got born again

God set change your nature You don't have to work at enduring

It is your nature to believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ You don't have to think up a bunch of good works to go do and please

God It is but it has been ordained before the foundation of the world that you should

Walk in them and it doesn't mean should it means would you will you will walk in them?

and We have this wonderful Cheerful endurance and that by the way is the if So for a true believer, there is no if It's a done thing.

You are going to continue you are going to walk in these things And so you do have an inheritance incorruptible that fadeth not away in heaven for you with your name on it who are kept by the

Father and Then it lastly it says some Bear a hundredfold some 60 and some 30 it is true that all of God's children bear fruit

But it is not true that we're all the same That's a problem we have in churches sometimes

The more mature that a person is in the Lord the more he is able to get along with other of God's children and He recognizes that as the body may have a foot and it may have a hand

The hand is not supposed to look at the foot and say you're not important because you're not a hand you can't pick up anything

The mature Christian realizes that the foot is just as important because the hand can't go over and to the place

Where the object is to pick up without the foot And we're all different don't ever make the mistake of trying to mold everybody in this room to be another you and Not to like them if they're not

Because God didn't do that He placed all of us in this body for a purpose and he made us all to have a different fingerprint for a reason

So some will bear fruit a hundredfold some 60 and some 30 all according to God's will

I'd like to close with someone Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat

Of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the Lord. He doesn't have to think about it

He doesn't have to worry about it. He has that it's his nature to love God's Word his delight is in the law of the

Lord and in his law that he meditate day and night and He shall be like the tree planted by rivers of water

Why because he's got the root it's gonna get down into that water that bringeth forth fruit in his season

Doesn't say might bring forth says he will now there may be a season for it a time when you don't but there's always gonna

Be the fruit his leaf also shall not wither You know what? That's the if If you continue your leaf is not gonna wither

You can't do anything other than continue if you're the Lord's his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever

He doeth shall prosper the ungodly are not so Doesn't work this way for them

With the ungodly they may spring up quickly as a plant a seed that falls on the stone

With a little bit of soil Can't get any root can't get any moisture springs up just quickly with joy.

I love the Word of God I'm gonna give my testimony and I'm gonna tear it up for Jesus and then all of a sudden two months later

They're out of here. You don't ever see him again Some denominations are gonna tell you he lost his salvation

But what do you know the ungodly are not so the ungodly never had root never had water

But he's like the chaff which the wind driveth away Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous

For the Lord knoweth the way the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish The good soil receives the seed

He Hears But he hears with an understanding heart that God placed there