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Mark chapter 4, beginning in verse number 1, it says, And he began again to teach by the seaside, and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea. And the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken, behold, there went out a sower to sow. Now, about half this chapter is taken up with the parable of the sower. And part of the latter half of the chapter deals with similar themes also. And really, it's a great parable about soul winning when you think about it, because it's about the word of God being preached, that seed of the gospel, and the word of God being sown, and what kind of fruit is going to be brought forth. It's an often misunderstood parable, I think. So I want to go through this and spend time breaking it down to you. First of all, we see in the first verse that Jesus is teaching a huge multitude of people that have come out to hear and preach. And because the multitude is so big, he has them all on the shore. And he goes out into a ship, basically so his voice can carry across the water, and he can speak to a big group of people that way. It says in this parable, verse 3, behold, there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth. And immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched. And because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns. And the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. Another fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought forth some 30, and some 60, and some 100. And he said unto them, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now let me just start out by saying this. There are four groups of people that are listed here. One of them receives the seed by the wayside. One of them receives the seed in stony places. One of them receives the seed among thorns. And then one of them receives the seed in good ground, and grows up and brings forth fruit. Some 30, some 60, some 100. Let me just start out right out of the gate by saying this. The only group here that's not saved is that first group. The other three types of ground, they're all saved. But they're just not bringing forth fruit. Now a lot of people will mistakenly interpret this parable and say, hey, it's only the good ground. That's the only one that was saved. That's it. Everybody else is lost. But that's simply not true. And I'm going to prove that to you a few different ways from the Bible. In reality, it's only the first group that's not saved. Let me say this. This parable, and I think this is part of the misunderstanding that people have, this parable is not about every single person on the planet. Every person in the world doesn't fall into one of these four categories. That's a mistake some people make. This is just a parable about a sower sowing seeds, and he gives four scenarios. But this doesn't include every person. Because the first group, if we go to Matthew 13, you don't have to turn there. But when Jesus interprets the parable about the first group that falls by the wayside, it says, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh that wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he that received seed by the wayside. It's the person who hears the gospel, doesn't understand it, and then the devil comes and catches away that which was sown in his heart. What's missing here is the person who hears the gospel, understands it, and rejects it. That's why I'm saying these four categories don't include every person in the world. Because what about the guy who just brazenly rejects the guy? He hears it. He understands it. I've given the gospel to people who definitely understood it. And I say, do you believe that? No. I mean, they explained it back to me. It made sense to them. And they just said, I don't believe that. That's not in this parable. You don't see anybody like this. The only people in this parable you see are the people who, first of all, hear the word, don't understand it. The devil comes and catches away that which was sown in their heart. What does that mean? They forget. The devil makes sure that they forget what they heard. They hear the gospel, and they don't understand it, and then they forget it. Now, the other group, where it says they received the seed in stony places, it says immediately, jump down, if you would, to verse 16. It says, 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 arises for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. Now, compare that with verse number five, where it says, some fell on stony ground where it had not much worth. And watch this, immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. Here's a person who hears the gospel, and the Bible says they receive it. This person's saved. I mean, they believe the word of God when they hear it, but they don't have a root in themselves. You say, what does it mean not? Well, the Bible tells us over and over again that we need to be rooted and grounded in the faith, rooted and grounded in love. The Bible says, 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, and in his law doth he meditate day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit. Hear that? Bringeth forth his fruit in his season, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Who is the one who is rooted? It's the one who meditates on God's word day and night. Who is the one who is rooted? It's the one who knows what they believe, why they believe it, and they are firmly grounded, steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, the Bible says. Now, that's different than the person who just hears the gospel, believes it, they're saved, and they're excited. And sometimes you'll see people get really excited, but then they fall away very quickly. And my pastor back in Sacramento used to call them the Roman candle Christians, because you see it so much where somebody just gets really excited and really fast growth, and you see like a Roman candle, you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and then it's just gone. You're like, where is that person? Because the person who is going to stick with it for the long haul and bring forth fruit has to dig down deep, not just an upward growth, not just an outward growth. And sometimes this really quick outward growth could be just a change right away in the way the person dresses, they act differently, they look differently, they talk differently, and just outwardly you see a big change. And this is one that the church will sometimes get excited about. Wow, that person's really growing. Wow, look at the change in that life. But then often they fall away. When do they fall away? The Bible says in times of temptation, times of persecution, times of affliction, times of tribulation. Those are the words that God uses. Here are some examples. Oh, man, I just, I got saved, I'm going to this great church, Faithful Word Baptist Church, and then their family gets upset and says, oh, that Faithful Word Baptist, have you googled them? You know, that church is horrible, that's an evil church, you know, you need to get out of there. And maybe the family fights them out. I know I've had people that I've known that came to our church and they got really excited about it, and then their family even threatened them and said, we will have nothing to do with you if you go to that church. One person said, if you ever want to see your grandchildren again. I mean, it almost sounds like a ransom note. Somebody told this lady, if you ever want to see your grandchildren again, you have to stop going to Faithful Word Baptist Church. People who are divorced and remarried and had custody issues, where they said, hey, if you take my child to that church, I'm going to fight to where you'll lose all custody of that child. OK, I mean, these are all real stories, you know, where people get, and the Bible says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You say, well, there must just be something wrong with Faithful Word Baptist Church, because I've never heard of that. Well, you know what? You've just been in watered down churches your whole life. If you go to a real Bible believing church, there are going to be enemies. There are going to be people who hate the word of God being preached. I think they nailed Jesus Christ to the cross, because he testified of the world that the works thereof were evil. And they stoned Stephen, because he preached the truth of God's word. And so everybody who preaches the truth is going to go through some persecution. Some people, when that persecution comes, they buckle under the pressure. And the devil will send temptation, testing, tribulation, persecution, something that will test it. Maybe their job will come along and say, hey, you have to work now on Sundays and Wednesdays, and you're not going to be able to go to church anymore. And then they fall away, because they get out of church. I mean, all kinds of examples of testing, trials and tribulation. Their spouse might give them resistance. Their extended family might give resistance. Their job might give resistance to them, serving the Lord, and so forth. They're still saved, but they're weak. They have no root. Or another thing that could happen if they're not rooted is that they'll often be absorbed into other watered down churches, where they're bound to be fruitless. Churches where they're never going to win souls. They're never going to bring forth any fruit. Because by the way, bringing forth fruit is soul winning. The Bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise, Proverbs 11.30. A lot of people say, oh, fruit, bringing forth fruit. That just means that you'll have the attributes of a Christian in your life. Wrong. Wrong. An apple tree can have the attributes of an apple tree. Doesn't mean that it brought forth fruit. Bringing forth fruit is reproduction. The Bible says in Romans 7 that we've been married unto Christ, that we might bring forth fruit unto God. OK, so what's the fruit of marriage? Children. Reproduction. Children, bringing forth fruit. If the Bible talks about a woman being fruitful, be fruitful and multiply. All the way back to Genesis 1. And so whether we're talking about apples, an apple brings forth fruit. What's the fruit? Another apple. And sometimes that other apple can fall to the ground and die and become an apple tree. Then the cycle is complete when an apple tree produces fruit, and then that fruit reproduces itself by becoming a tree of its own. What percentage of apples will become an apple tree? A very small percentage, right? Because what happens to most apples? They get eaten, right? They get eaten by animals. They get eaten by people. They fall to the ground, rot, and whatever. But how many of them actually become a tree? Now, a lot of people will misunderstand the scripture in Matthew 7, where he says, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. He also says in Matthew 3, the same thing, John the Baptist. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast in the fire. Both times he's talking about a false prophet. Both times. Get the context. In Matthew 3, he's talking about the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were false teachers, false prophets. In Matthew 7, he says, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. And a lot of people will say this. Well, you can tell who's saved by their fruits, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says you'll know false prophets by their fruits. Let me ask you this, is every unsaved person a false prophet? Let me tell you something, most people aren't prophets at all. Neither a good prophet or a false prophet. They're just normal people that don't prophesy, that don't preach. So when God says, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves, ye shall know them by their fruits, you can't just say, well, the Bible says you'll know who's saved by their fruits. That's not what the Bible says, not at all. You'll know the false prophet by their fruits, because trees in the Bible are likened unto false prophets. The false prophets in 2 Peter 2 and the book of Jude are referred to as trees whose fruit withers. They bring forth bad fruit. They bring forth evil fruit. The Bible says a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast in the fire. But here's the thing, everybody's not a tree. So the problem that people have with these parables is they think that these parables apply to every person. They'll take the parable of the sower and say everybody fits one of these four categories. False. There are many scenarios I can think of that do not fit these four scenarios. And when it comes to good tree bringing forth good fruit, bad tree bringing forth evil fruit, what about all the people who aren't trees? Because the trees are prophets. The good tree is a good prophet who brings forth good fruit, a good soul winner, a good preacher of the gospel door to door or behind the pulpit. The bad prophet is the Jehovah's Witness that comes to your door. Corrupt tree that brings forth evil fruit. The Mormon who knocks on your door is a corrupt tree that brings forth evil fruit. They are preachers, they are prophets. And they prophesy falsely. And because they're not saved themselves, they cannot bring forth good fruit. Now just think about the logic of this. And I just gave you a bunch of scripture to back up what I'm saying. But just stop and think about it logically. An apple is not necessarily going to reproduce. But if it does, it will produce only apples. So an orange tree is only going to produce oranges. But it might produce nothing. Or it might not even become a tree. The seed might just rot in the fruit and never produce anything. But think about this. Does every human being reproduce? Then they're not human. Anybody who doesn't reproduce is not human. Anyone here who has not reproduced, I'm not ready to declare you human yet. I want to see you bring forth some fruit. And until I see fruit, I don't know for sure that you're human. Prove that you're human by producing human fruit. And as soon as I see a human child that you've produced, then I will believe you are human. Does that make sense? No. Or I'm not going to believe this is an apple until we take one of the seeds out and plant it. And I want to see it grow into a giant tree. And I want to see apples on that tree. Then I will believe that this is an apple. Would that make sense? But isn't that what people do with this parable? And they say, hey, I won't believe that they're saved until I see the fruit. I won't believe you're a Christian unless you bring forth fruit. But they don't think that bringing forth fruit is reproduction. They're wrong. They'll think, oh, well, if they quit drinking, that's fruit. I mean, think about that. Bringing forth fruit is reproduc- I mean, think about it, a tree could have beautiful leaves and it could get really big and tall and have branches and leaves. It hasn't brought forth fruit unless it reproduces. So you can have a Christian who makes their outward appearance look better and even cleans up their inside of their heart and starts living a godly life. That's not fruit. Fruit is when you reproduce. Here's the proof. Some 30, some 60, some 100. People say, oh, the fruit of the spirit, love, joy. No, that's the fruit of the spirit. It's not the fruit of the Christian. The fruit of the righteous is the tree of life. He that win its souls is wise. The fruit of the spirit is his fruit. God is love. Therefore, he brings forth love. He's the prince of peace. Therefore, he brings forth peace. You know, he's the oil of gladness, the Holy Spirit is called. He brings forth joy, love, joy, peace, long suffering, goodness, gentleness, meekness, faith, temperance. I know I got those out of order, but I list them all. So that's the fruit of the spirit. That's not what this parable is talking about. You don't bring forth 30 love, 60 joy, 100 peace. It doesn't make any sense. But what about this, winning 30 people to Christ? That makes sense. Now, does every Christian win 30 people to Christ? No way. Most Christians will live and die having won this many people to the Lord. And does that mean they weren't a Christian? Now, the foolishness of that is so immense to say, well, if you don't ever bring forth fruit, you were never saved. Because if every Christian brought forth fruit, then the number of Christians would grow so exponentially that the whole world would be saved by now. I mean, if you just do a little math and realize that even if I were the only saved person on the whole planet, if no one were saved but me, and I win one person to the Lord per year, just one, then that would mean at the end of one year, there'd be how many saved people in the world? No, there'd be two, because I won somebody to the Lord. And then at the end of the next year, if we said, well, every Christian brings forth fruit, and we're all going to win one person to the Lord per year, because every Christian brings forth fruit, then at the end of the next year, then we'd have four people after two years. Then after three years, we'd have eight people. And after 10 years, we would have 1,024 people saved. If everybody just wins one person to the Lord per year, that's not really a crazy goal, is it? I mean, good night, if you go soul winning once a month, a couple hours, you're going to get one person saved a year. Give me a break. OK, but then after 20 years, we'd have over a million people saved. After 30 years, we'd have over a billion people. Do the math. Check me out at home. I know math. Over a billion people saved after 30 years, and after about 34 years, the whole world would be saved. OK, you know what that tells me? That the vast majority of Christians are winning nobody to the Lord. OK, because it would be exponential like that. And here's the thing. The Bible said some 30, some 60, some 100. So if we went 30 years with our illness, and that's only starting with one person saved. There are millions of people who are saved. But just starting with one person who's saved, even if we just went with the 30 figure, some 30, then after 30 years, we'd have a billion saved. Starting with one. Doesn't make any sense, unless you realize that most Christians don't bring forth any fruit, and then 99% of Christians don't bring forth any fruit, then it makes perfect sense. So God's not saying that you have to bring forth fruit to be saved. What God is saying is that if you're a tree, and you're bringing forth bad fruit, you're not saved. If you're a tree that brings forth good fruit, you're a good tree. And no bad tree can bring forth good fruit. That's why I believe that Billy Graham has never won anybody to Christ in his life. Because Billy Graham is not saved. Billy Graham flat out says that you don't have to believe in Jesus to be saved. He's preaching another gospel. He gets up and says, if you're Muslim, and you're following the light that you have through Islam, you're saved. Jews are saved. Hindus are saved. They might not even know the name of Christ, he says. No, the Bible says, neither is there salvation in any other, where there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. And Billy Graham is a liar and a false prophet. Well, he used to preach right, though. No, he didn't. You can go back and watch videos of him preaching in the 40s and 50s. And he tells you, turn from all your sins and be saved. Well, good luck turning from all your sins. Because the Bible says salvation is by faith, and no one has turned from all their sins. There's not a person on this planet that has turned from all their sins. I mean, we are constantly turning from sin in our lives, but that's not salvation, or else none of us would be saved, because we all have sin. So somebody like that. So when somebody tells me, well, I got saved as a result of Billy Graham's preaching, I'm not saying that that person's not saved. Because a lot of times, if you dig a little deeper, you'll find out that it was actually someone else who wanted the Lord. Because if you tell them, OK, well, how did you get saved? They say, well, I was at a Billy Graham crusade. There was an invitation. I came down the aisle. And when I got to the front, somebody opened a Bible and showed me how to be saved. So guess who won them the Lord? The person up at the front at the altar. Because some saved people have been sucked in by Billy Graham. I've known saved people who worked at the Billy Graham crusade just because they were naive about who Billy Graham is and ignorant. Because at the crusades, he usually sounds pretty decent on his gospel. But to someone like us who has a trained ear, anybody from Faithful Word would hear the garbage that he has mixed into his sermon. But to the untrained ear, a lot of it might go over their head and they just think, oh, yeah, he's preaching the gospel. But then when he gets on Larry King Live, he tells you what he really believes. People can be saved without Jesus. No, but Jesus said, if you don't believe that I'm he, you'll die in your sins. And you know what? Billy Graham does not believe that Jesus is he. He believes Jesus is a way. He's one way. But God said, I'm he, and there's none else. And beside me, there is no Savior. Billy Graham doesn't believe that. So he says, I'm equally as comfortable in a Mormon church, as a Catholic church, as a Baptist church. Listen, Billy Graham, you wouldn't be comfortable in this Baptist church. I don't know what Baptist church you're talking about that you'd be comfortable in, but it's not this one, buddy. You'd be very uncomfortable in this church. We'd throw you out of this church. You wouldn't even be allowed to attend services here. Throw you out in the parking lot and go like this. And stay out. But the Bible is telling us that there are people who don't bring forth fruit. That's telling us they're not getting anybody saved. And that's the majority of this parable. Now, the first group isn't saved because they didn't even understand the gospel. The second group, on the other hand, is just shallow. And let me tell you something. There's a lot of shallow Christianity right now because a lot of saved people end up going to these liberal fun center, mega churches, whatever you want to call them, where there's no doctrine being taught. And because there's no doctrine, there's no root. We just had our tree fall over on Saturday. I think it was Saturday night. Remember the really heavy rainstorms on Saturday? We had a massive tree in our yard. The biggest tree on our property came crashing down. And it came crashing toward our carport. And it just miraculously just stopped right at the carport. So it didn't smash the carport. And we thought that it had hit the carport and the carport had stopped it. But then we cut all those branches off, and it was still just at that exact angle. And it was because the roots, remember, Corbin can verify this. The roots were holding it in place. And it was just kind of hanging right there. But here's the thing. The thing that blew us away about it was how shallow the root system was on that tree. And because it's been raining so heavily over the last couple of months, the earth had gotten so wet and soft that those shallow roots just became uprooted. When the floods come, think about this now. Think about the illustration that Jesus gave of the house that's built on the rock versus the house that's built on sand and kind of tie it in a little bit. When you think about the fact that when the rains came and the floods descended and the wind blew and beat on the house that was founded on the rock, it withstood. OK, so the one who has roots that go down really deep, trees that have deep roots, it doesn't matter how wet the topsoil gets. They're going to be fine when the rain and the storm and the wind comes. But the one with the shallow root system comes crashing down. And that's how these Christians are that are shallow. What's a shallow Christian? Well, never read the Bible cover to cover. You're shallow. You need to get that root down deep into the word and read Isaiah, read Jeremiah, read Ezekiel, and get that nutrition from the soil of God's word. So the shallow Christian is the one who goes to a church where there's no doctrine being taught. They don't read the Bible cover to cover. They haven't studied the word. And so there's going to be a time when they fall away because they're so shallow. And then there's another group. That was the second group. But the third group was the seed that fell among thorns. And the seed that fell among thorns, it says in verse number 18, these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. So this is a little tiny plant that's growing and coming up, but surrounded by weeds that choke it out and choke it of its nutrients. And it becomes unfruitful. Notice that the emphasis is on the fact that it doesn't bring forth any fruit. The one in stony places withers away. It withers away. The Bible says it endures for a while and then falls away. This is the person you see that just gets totally out of church. This is the person you see that they're excited, they're zealous, and then you just never see them again. And they're there out of church, and they don't bring forth any fruit as a result. Whereas this other person who's among thorns, they might still be in church, but they just get so busy caring for the things of this world that they don't bring forth any fruit. They're choked out. Think about how things could choke out the word in your life when you just get really into, say, making money. Because the Bible mentions the deceitfulness of riches in Matthew 13's version of this parable. The deceitfulness of riches, the lusts of this world. They get to where they just care about making money, acquiring possessions. Or maybe they just get really into sports. Maybe they just get really into some other hobby. They just get really into something that takes up their time, and it's where their affection is. And they no longer have their heart on the things above, but rather they get their affection on the things of this earth. And they just get so busy they don't have time to really go soul winning. Or they probably end up being a Sunday morning only type person and no time for soul winning. Just kind of do the minimum. They're still there, but they're not really bringing forth fruit because they don't give the gospel. They don't know how to give the gospel, because they don't have any practice giving the gospel because they never make it out soul winning. And you try to say, hey, let's go soul winning. Oh, man, I'm busy. I'm really busy. But you notice what they're busy with. It's not things that are necessary for life. It's extracurricular things that are becoming more important to them than serving the Lord. And they don't have any time to do any soul winning. They don't bring forth any fruit. The one who falls on the good ground, the Bible says, they hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit. So those are three things, three separate things. Hearing the word is one thing, OK? Everybody in this world hears the word at some point to some degree. Then there's receiving the word, believing the word, embracing the word. And then there's bringing forth fruit. And there's progressively less people. Everybody hears something. Some hear more than others. We need to go out and try to make sure people hear as much as possible. Then there are the people who get saved. And then amongst those, there are the ones that actually bring forth fruit, which is a small minority. And the proof that it's a minority is that they bring forth 30, 60, or 100, or the numbers that God throws out there. And those are big numbers. Winning 30 people to Christ is a big number. Winning 60 people to Christ is a big number. Winning 100 people to Christ is a big number. Now, obviously, there are people who win more than that to the Lord. But even just going through life and winning 30 people to Christ is considerable. I remember as a teenager praying every night when I was a teenager, every night I prayed that I would be allowed to win one person to the Lord before I die. I remember just praying, God, I just want to win at least one person to the Lord because then I'll feel like my life really mattered. I really did something for you. I'll have a reward in heaven if I can get somebody saved. And I just thought that would be the greatest thing to get one person saved. And you know what, it is a great thing to get one person saved. And getting 30 people saved is a considerable achievement. Getting 60 people saved is considerable. Now, there are some who do even more than that, thank God. The apostle Paul, obviously, won more than 100 people to the Lord, just to use a biblical example. But obviously, there are people in our church who win more people to the Lord than that. But you notice it's people who are here for years and years and years and years and years that win a lot of people to the Lord because it's done over the long haul. It's not done in the short term. And so we see here in this parable the example of how to bring forth fruit and what's going to stop you from bringing forth fruit. Two things if you're saved, because there are two saved groups in this parable that didn't bring forth fruit. The shallow and the one who got busy with everything else and cared about everything else more. So those are the two things that are going to stop you from bringing forth fruit more than anything. Getting too caught up in other things and getting too busy where you forget about it, or just being shallow. Because if you're shallow, you will fall away eventually. If you're rooted and grounded, nothing could take you away from serving God. The wind will come, the rain will come down, your life will be falling apart. You'll be like Job where physical ailments, your wife's telling you to curse God and die, and you stay with it. Because you have such a deep root. I mean, Job was rooted deeply in the word. Let's keep going in this chapter. That pretty much covers the parable of the sower. But it's interesting just to emphasize the soul winning emphasis. Look at the next verse, because he says at the end of verse 20, bring forth fruit, some 30 fold, and some 60, and some 100. And he said unto them, is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed, and not to be set on a candlestick. So isn't that a great verse for soul winning also? About not hiding the word under a bushel. Because the Bible says if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. Lest the glorious light of the gospel would shine. So think about it. The Bible calls the gospel a light that shines. And the Bible says if it's hid, it's hid to them that are lost. Wouldn't that be putting our light under a bushel? If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. The God of this world has blinded them. The light of the glorious gospel will illuminate their vision, and they'll see the truth for what it is. So again, there's a soul winning tie in there. He says in verse 22, for there is nothing hid which should not be manifested. Neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them, take heed what ye hear. With what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you. And unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given. And he that hath not, from him shall be taken, even that which he hath. Now this is a very profound thought. When we think about this thing of unto whatsoever we measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. A lot of times we think about that in regard to judging. Because God said that also about judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. Here he applies it to hearing the word of God. And he says, those of you who know the word of God and have ears to hear the word of God, you're going to be given more truth. The Bible says God gives wisdom unto the wise. And the more truth you have, the more knowledge of God's word you have, the more you're going to receive. And the less you have, the less you're going to get. And in fact, he says, take heed how ye hear. Because listen, if you don't hear, here we would use the word in our modern vernacular, listen. Says if you don't listen, I'll take away the knowledge that you have. Think about that. So let's say you know the word of God a little bit. And you come to church and you zone out. And you think about, where are we going to go to eat after church? I wonder if so-and-so the place is still going to be open. And you just start thinking about all the, what are we going to do tomorrow? What's going on this week? What have I got going on for homeschooling tomorrow? What about that big job that I'm going to be assigned to tomorrow? I wonder if so-and-so is going to win the sports tournament. It's not that you're just neutral, you're not gaining new knowledge and new information. No, you're actually losing knowledge. Because think about it, we forget things every day. If you stop reading the Bible, you'll know less Bible tomorrow than you did today. And a month later, you'll know a little less. And a year later, you'll know a little less. Three years later, you know a little less. I think there are a lot of pastors who once knew the Bible really well. And they studied it really well. But nowadays, they don't read it so much and they keep knowing less. They keep knowing less. Because we have to keep on reading and keep on hearing God's word in order to even just to maintain a level of knowledge. Think about all the things you learned in school. You're like, I can't because I forgot them all. Yeah, so did I. Think about the math. I used to be really good. Math was my best subject. I love math. I mean, I remember when I was in junior college and I was taking calculus and everything, I worked ahead. I finished the class and I was like, I want to finish this book. This is so fascinating. Isn't that sick? I actually did math for fun. I used to love math and I really enjoyed it and I wanted to learn and I was good at it. But you know what, I was looking at my son's Algebra II book. I'm like, what in the world is this? I don't even know what this is. Because I haven't really cared about that type of math for over a decade. Now, I did use a lot of math in my fire alarm job. Those things I remember well. But other things that you don't use that are found in an Algebra II book, I looked at it and I was like, wow, I couldn't even work through these problems without reviewing this stuff. I don't have a clue what's going on with these equations. So it doesn't matter how well you know something. I don't care if you grew up in church and you read your Bible every day. If you go years at a liberal church where you're not being taught anything and then you're doing very little reading at home in the King James, you're going to know less and less Bible as time goes on. You're going to get dumber and dumber. Now, it's OK to forget some of that math. But it's not OK to forget the Word of God. And so we have to constantly be, the Bible says, take heed how you hear. When you come to church, you need to be listening. And turn in your Bible to the passages and pay attention. Don't just come here and just put it in appearance, show up, and then just zone out and turn off mentally. And Pastor Anderson's voice becomes like a Charlie Brown cartoon where the parents talk and like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And you're just like, hmm. You need to pay attention. Listen. Oh, I already know about the parable of the sower. Yeah, but you'll forget it soon enough. You'll forget the dot. What did those represent again? What were the different types again? How did that work again? Some of the seeds were GMO or something. Yeah, that's the NIV. Seriously. The sower sows the word. The King James is the heirloom seeds. The NIV, the ESV is a Monsanto Roundup-ready genetically modified corn is what that is. Monsanto version of the Bible. And so when you read the Bible, make sure you're let. You know, have you ever read a whole chapter of the Bible? And then you're like, wow, I just zoned out and thought about something else and was daydreaming. And I have no idea one word of the chapter that I just read. Who's ever done that? I did that like two days ago. I was reading the Bible, and all of a sudden, something on the verse made me think of something else. And I started thinking about something else, but I just kept on reading on autopilot. And then I realized I need to go back and read this whole chapter. I didn't get any of it. Now some people say, oh, you know, I can't listen to the Bible on audio because I zone out and do that. I actually zone out less on audio. When I listen to it on audio, I can pay attention. It's when I'm physically reading, I'll find myself zoning out. And I, oh, back up. And I just mentally disengage sometimes, especially if it's something you've read over and over again. But God says that we need to take heed how we hear. And hearing can also include listening to the Bible on audio or just reading the Bible. Metaphorically, we're hearing God's word speak. Or coming to church and God's word being preached. Take heed how you hear. That's a warning. Take heed. In our modern vernacular, take heed is warning, warning, listen. Because if you don't listen, what you have will be taken away from you. You'll forget it. And then you will not have the wisdom that you need to live your life and succeed. So it's very important that we listen. And by the way, him that hath, to him shall be given. You know who learns the most from a service like this? The people who know the Bible the most. You know who learns the most when they read the Bible? The people who already know the most. You talk about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. That's how it is with Bible knowledge. You know, the people who know end up learning way more. And the people who know little just get dumber and dumber. And they know less and less. So which side of that equation are you going to be on? On the learning side or the backslidden side? That's what this parable is about. He says in verse number 26, 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. So what's he saying? He's saying you plant a seed, right? If you come back a week or two later, you see growth. So what if he says, you know, I want to see that growth. I want to see how it grows. So I figure, you know, I go to bed at night. When I wake up the next morning, there's a little bit more growth there. So what I need to do is get up in the middle of the night. If I get up in the middle of the night, I can watch it grow. But what the Bible is saying is that even if he got up in the middle of the night and watches it, you can't watch it grow. You can't see the growth. And not only that, we don't understand the growth. We don't know how it grows. You say, well, I learned in biology. But science pretends to have all the answers, but they don't. There are so many things in science that they don't understand why it does what it does. And even plant life cannot be created by man. Man can't create any life. All life is created by God, animal life and plant life. Plant life cannot be created in the laboratory from scratch. Life begets life. Life begets life. You have to start with life to produce life. And that life came originally from God. And God even super intends the reproduction of life. And so in this parable, we see that we don't know how the plant grows. But if we apply this to the parable of the sower and think about both of them and we think about soul winning, what this tells us, too, is that sometimes we might plant a seed out soul winning and we don't know what happens to it. How many times do we knock a door, we give somebody the gospel, we walk away, we don't know what happens. It reminds me of Richard Miller's testimony of when he got saved. A guy came to him and gave him the gospel, went through the plan of salvation with him, and he did not get saved right then and there. He got saved about a year later. That guy doesn't know that he won Richard Miller the Lord. And he doesn't know that guy to tell him. He didn't get any contact information from him. Yet, Brother Miller said that he would have not been saved if it had not been that guy giving him the gospel. A year later, he doesn't think he would have gotten saved. So that guy doesn't know what happened to the seed that he planted. Someday he's going to get to heaven and rejoice, wow. That seed that I showed that day was not in vain. I won somebody the Lord that day without even knowing it. I was the one who planted the seed. Someone else watered. God gave the increase. And then Brother Miller went on to win a bunch of people the Lord, and he can have great rewards in heaven. He didn't even know it. So what does that teach us? When we go out sowing, we don't know how it works. We don't know exactly why God had us talking about it. And I've talked to people where it seemed like everything just went over their head. And then later they got saved. Later you find out they were listening. You never know, do you? The Bible says, we don't know. So he says, don't look at the wind. Don't look at the sun. Don't look at the weather. He just said, you know, sow your seed in the morning. Sow your seed at night. You don't know which one's going to prosper, this or that. Ecclesiastes chapter 11. You don't know which seed is going to prosper. You don't know which person you give. Sometimes you look at somebody and say, oh man, this guy's not going to get saved. Have you ever thought that out sowing? This guy's not even going to listen. Or this girl has zero interest. I remember thinking that I was out sowing with Scott. And this girl was whizzing by on a bicycle. And Scott holds out an invite to her as she's just flying by. And the thought popped into my mind, this girl has no interest in the gospel. And she was like, ah! And came back and Scott went to the Lord. I was like, wow, did she get saved or did she just hear the whole gospel? I think she got saved, right? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about? It was a few months ago in Tempe. Yeah, the girl got saved. And I just had that thought where I was like, oh, she's not interested. And then I've seen other, you just see a guy, sometimes maybe like a rough looking guy. And you're just, this guy isn't interested. And they're like, sure, yeah, well, tell me all about it. And they want to hear it. And then other people that you think are interested and they're not. You don't know. That's why you just preach the gospel to every creature. And you just sow the seeds. And don't come back discouraged. You come back, man, we didn't get anybody saved. Man, I haven't gotten anybody saved in months. I've been going out soul winning. I'm in a dry spell. But you know what, though? You're planting all kinds of seeds. And you don't know if years later that seed might bring forth fruit. You don't know if years later that person could be saved. You have no idea. And that's what the Bible is teaching us in this parable. It says, for the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself. First the blade, then the ear. After that, the full corn of the ear. Now, the parable here about the plant, he's saying it does it by itself. You're not the one who really makes the plant grow. The earth does it by itself. Now, if we take that over to the soul winning illustration, what does the Bible say? God gives the increase. We don't actually have control of the outcome. All we can do is sow the seed. All we can do is water it. It's God that's going to have to give the increase. So therefore, we shouldn't take that burden on our shoulders. We'll do our part. Let God do his part. Now, we should try to reap that harvest. We'll do our best to win the person of the Lord, not just plant a seed and then see you every time. No, you try to tell the person, hey, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. But in the end, you've got to leave it in God's hands and say, you know what? It's up to that person to be saved. And it's up to God to work in their heart through the Holy Spirit. It's really out of your hands. It's up to them. It's up to God. We can't control whether or not people get saved. All we can do is preach, and that's it. So the Bible says in verse 29, but when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest has come. And I think that we should immediately put in the sickle when someone's ready to get saved, right? When that word has germinated in them, and they've heard the gospel and understood it, and they're ready to believe it, we need to put in the sickle. And some people, when they go sowing, they don't know how to put in the sickle. They give the gospel, and then they just kind of walk away. But it's better to put it to a decision and say, right now, you need to put all your faith in Jesus right now. Let me help you call upon the name of the Lord and just put all your trust in him right now and just make a firm decision right now. That would be the putting in of the sickle. We should do it immediately. But in a lot of churches, they don't even believe in putting in the sickle. They think the harvest is just going to come in on its own. I mean, if it's a real harvest, it'll load itself into the truck and put itself in the barn if it really wants to be in that barn. We need to put in the sickle. And a lot of churches, they just think, well, they just keep coming, keep coming. If they keep coming, they'll eventually get it. Immediately put in the sickle. Bring your sheaves with you. Don't wait for the sheaves. Come on, sheaves, let's go. Come on, let's go. No, the sheaf doesn't have legs. You pick up the sheaf and you bring it. You bring your sheaves with you. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. And there are so many scriptures about the seed, right, and about planting, and about farming. Because farming is a great illustration of soul winning. I remember soul winning years and years ago. That was the nomenclature that we would always use. We would talk about we're going to farm a certain area. This is where we're going to be farming. That's what we would call it when we would pick an area on the map and say, OK, this is our new farm. This is where we're going to plant the seed. This is where we're going to do soul winning. So that's an illustration that the Bible uses over and over again. It says in verse 30, and he said, where unto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when it is sown in the earth 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 foul of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. Here is, again, a great encouragement that says just a little seed that you plant out soul winning can reap great benefits that you've never even known of. Just that tiny little seed where you say, because whenever I'm out soul winning and someone doesn't get saved, I always say, let me leave you with one quick verse. 99% of people will let you give them that quick verse. And I just say, let me leave you with one quick verse. And I quote them either John 3.16 or Acts 16.31, whatever the verse, 1 John 5.13. I quote them that single verse. That's that little mustard seed that you plant, and hopefully one day it'll bring forth grapefruit that's unknown to you at the time. But guess what, if you're not out soul winning, you're planting nothing. If you're not leaving a single verse, you're leaving nothing. You can't expect something to come from nothing unless you believe in the Big Bang and evolution. But you can't expect things to just come out of thin air and spontaneously generate. Yes, God can do the amazing work of taking a mustard seed and making a gigantic tree out of it, but he's not just going to turn nothing into something. You've got to put the seed out there. The word has to be sown. And it says in verse 33, with many such parables spake he the word unto them as they were able to hear it, but without a parable spake he not unto them. And when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples. Again, notice the people on the outside who don't know much, they continue to be in the dark. And then the disciples who know the most unto them has expounded all things. Ties in earlier with what we're saying. People outside the church, they don't know much about the Bible, and they're going to know less as time goes on. After they watch the Left Behind movie this Friday, they're going to know a little less than they knew before. Every Bible movie they watch that Hollywood puts out, they know a little bit less. Every time they go to their liberal, watered down church that teaches them nothing, they walk out a little dumber. Every time they skip Bible reading, they lose knowledge. People within the church that are here in Bible preaching, doctrinal preaching, scriptures from the King James flowing across the pulpit, they're learning more and more and more and more and more. And the gap becomes greater. The knowledge gap grows as the people who are hearing the preaching and doing the reading get smarter and wiser and more knowledgeable of the word, deeper roots. And then the people out there that are, even if they're saved, they're not listening to the word. And then you find yourself talking to other believers and it's like you can't relate to them. You try to talk to them about the scriptures, they're like, oh, it's all just going over their head. Why? Because that gap is increasing. The longer you're under good preaching and reading your Bible and the longer they're not, the gap just grows and grows. And then you'll find a gap between you and your family sometimes and friends. You're like, wow, I can't talk to these people about the Bible because they just don't even know what I'm talking about because they haven't read, they haven't studied. That's what's so great about coming to church with people that are like-minded. Coming to Faithful Word Baptist or another Baptist church that's serious about the word and you can talk to people and they know what you're talking about. Start talking to them and they're right on the same page with you. That gap isn't there. It says in verse 35, the same day when the even was come, he said unto them, let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. See how the multitude is just being left behind. When it comes to knowledge, they're not having things expounded to them and then they're just left in the dust and the disciples go with Jesus. Which group are you going to be in? Are you going to be in the group that stays with Jesus, that keeps hearing the preaching, that keeps reading the Bible? Or are you going to be just left with the crowd, left with the multitude, not knowing what's going on? It says he passed over to the other side. Verse 37, there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. And he was in the hindering part of the ship asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and say unto him, master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? The people that stayed with Jesus and followed him closely and listened to every word, they got to see the great miracles. They got to see this great display of his power. And they were also kept safe through the storm. They weren't uprooted. They weren't dashed to pieces in the storm. They stayed firm. Even when they lost faith and doubted, Jesus still protected them and kept them safe. And they stayed with Jesus. They stayed in church. Look, we're going to go through times where we go through a rough patch in our Christian life or we go through the storms of life. And we might start doubting and crying out to God saying, God, why are you letting this happening? Where are you? Don't you care that I'm perishing? But at least if we can be like the disciples that heard the word, because what was the whole chapter about? Listen. Listen to the Bible. Listen to the preaching. Listen to the reading. If we can at least be rooted in the word and listening and hearing and remembering it, then when the storms come, even if we doubt, even if we are lean on faith, we'll be able to weather the storm, though. We'll still be with Jesus in the end. And I'm not talking about salvation, because you can't lose your salvation. It's eternal life. There's no way to lose it. Jesus said, I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Jesus will one day say to the unsaved, I never knew you. Depart from me. Not, I used to know you, but I never knew you. I've heard people say, I got a thing in the mail lately that said, oh, these people lost their salvation. But he said, I never knew you, because it's like he never knew. No. He said, I never knew you. He'd be a liar if he said, I never knew you, when he used to know you. I never, I mean, what if I said to my wife, I never knew you? That's a lie. It wouldn't make any sense. If I said to my kids, I never knew you. Now, there are people who forsake their children. There are people who forsake their wife. But could they really say, I never knew you? No way. That doesn't make any sense. You can't lose your salvation. But you know what you can do, though? Get distant from Jesus and be left in the multitude, oh, where's Jesus? We can't find him. How many times were the multitude looking for Jesus, they can't find him? Remember when Jesus' parents lost him and they couldn't find him? Took one day to lose him, three days to find him, in Luke chapter 2. And it's easier to lose him than to find him again. So we, as Christians, can have a distant relationship with the Lord. And we can lose sight of him to the point where we're not hearing his word. We're not hearing his teaching. Think about it. If you're not in church and you're not reading the Bible, you don't hear Jesus. And you're not in fellowship with the other disciples. And that's what this whole chapter is about. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, please help us to take heed how we listen, take heed how we hear. And every day, open the Bible and listen to what you have to say. And not to zone out, Lord, help us to focus on what we're reading. And Lord, help us also to come to church and not zone out, but to focus on what's being preached. Even if we feel like we've heard it before, Lord, let our minds, our pure minds, be stirred up by way of remembrance that we not lose those things which we have. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.