Bringing Forth Fruit

Sermon Transcript (AI Generated)

Amen. Hello everybody. You can all turn to Genesis chapter 1, please. Start at the very beginning, Genesis chapter 1. Before I begin, I just want to thank Brother Christian, Sister Gwen, for opening up the home to us again to be able to have this event, and thank you of course, as well to Pastor Stucky for allowing me to to preach here this morning.

So the title of my sermon this morning is bringing forth fruit. Bringing forth fruit.

Point 1 - What does it mean to Bring Forth Fruit?

So there in Genesis 1, let's just start reading from verse 11. And God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth." And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind. and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that it was good. Let's jump down to verse 21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged foul after his kind, and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let foul multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the sixth fifth day. And God said that the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind. And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." So God created man in his own image. The image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. And God blessed them. And God said unto them, "Be fruitful and multiply. Replenish the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth on the earth."

That's a big portion of scripture there. But we saw over and over again that everything is bringing forth after its own kind. That's right. We see with the the trees and the animals and the humans, everything brings forth after its own kind. So we can see if you're an apple tree, you're going to bring forth apples. You can't bring forth anything else. The same with a cow is going to bring forth a cow. A human is going to bring forth a human. And of course, this is the reason one of the reasons why we teach that evolution is so foolish and unbiblical because that's teaching that one kind of animal can eventually turn into another kind of an animal. We can see here right from the beginning there's a principle laid down in the Bible that everything brings forth after its own kind. Now the command to both the animals and to the humans was to be fruitful and to multiply to replenish the earth to fill the earth. So bringing forth after your own kind and being fruitful is the same thing. And we're told to multiply not just addition, right? So as humans, we bring forth children and our children have children and our children have children. It becomes a multiplication effort. It wasn't just Adam and Eve having kids, but their kids were having kids and their kids were having kids.

Now, if you turn with me over to Exodus chapter 21, Exodus 21, I'm just going to read for you what Jacob says to Rachel in Genesis 30. He says, "Who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?" So what's the fruit of the womb? This is a child in the belly, right? And so we're seeing here the Bible's talking about children as our fruit, right? So the fruit of my marriage of my wife or my two kids over there, that is our fruit. And if they're in Exodus 21, just look at verse 22. We can see a law here and it says, "If man strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her and yet no mischief follow, he shall surely be punished." So look what it says here. There's a woman with child and if her fruit depart from her. So saying the child and the fruit are the same thing.

If you go with me over to Proverbs 11. Proverbs 11. Now when I looked up the dictionary definition of what fruit is, besides the obvious definition of you know an apple, the fleshly thing that we eat, the so-called archaic definition was “offspring”. So our fruit is our offspring. It's what we produce from ourselves. And of course everything brings forth after its own kind. So we can see here God from the beginning has commanded us to be fruitful to have a lot of children to fill this earth and children of course are an absolute blessing. Very famous psalm. Lo children are inherited of the Lord and the fruit of the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. You see we're commanded to have a lot of children. It's a blessing to have a lot of children. And we should as Christians have a lot of children and have big families. This is the command of God right from the beginning. My sermon this morning is not about bringing forth physical children. My sermon this morning is about having spiritual children, reproducing ourselves as Christians spiritually. And if you're there in Proverbs 11, look at the famous verse in verse 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. Now the way the poetry works in the Bible in the Old Testament is there's two parts to the verse. Usually it's either repeating the same thing twice or saying opposite things to draw a contrast. So we can see here that the fruit of the righteous and winning souls is the same thing. The Bible is just emphasizing what the same thing is. So the fruit of a Christian is having another Christian, getting someone else born again, having spiritual children. Just like we would have physical children, the Bible is using the same picture for having spiritual children.

Now, let's have turn over to Romans chapter 1. We've seen how the Old Testament is kind of using this language about having fruit, having offspring, winning souls. Paul uses similar language over in Romans chapter 1, Romans 1 verse 13. Now, would not have you ignorant, brethren, that often times I purposed to come unto you, but was let hither too, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. So, he's going to Rome to have fruit among them. Let's read on. We'll see what this is. He says, "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also." Saying, "Hey, I want to go to Rome to have fruit. I want to go to Rome to preach the gospel. These are the same thing for a Christian to go out and bear fruit. That's getting people saved. That's preaching the gospel to the lost.

Now, if you're there in Romans 1, just flip over to to Romans 7 quickly and see another usage of this this term. I'm just going to have to get there myself. So Romans 7:4, he's just explaining about marriage and how we're bound unto our wife, unto the law until she's dead. We're married until death to us part. Amen. Amen. It says there in verse four, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye are also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." That's right. So again, bringing forth fruit is used in this context of marriage. And it's using this example that we're married to to Jesus Christ. Why? Because it takes two people to bring forth fruit unto God. Just like in our physical marriage, it takes two people to bring fruit. Well, for a Christian to bring forth fruit, I can't do it by myself. But it's me with Jesus Christ. He died for our sins on the cross. We're preaching the word of God, which is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit's working in the heart of people. God is drawing them. So it's this partnership. It takes two to bring forth fruit.

So Paul speaks other in other places. If you can all turn to John 15, but when Paul's writing to Philemon about Onesimus, Onesimus was a guy who's a runaway slave and he was in prison with him and Paul gets this guy saved. Now he's writing to Philemon and the way he talks about him he says I beseech thee for my son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bonds. Here's someone that Paul has gotten saved and he's saying, "Hey, this is my son. I've begotten him. He's my fruit." There in John chapter 15, we look at verse 16. John 15:16. Jesus says, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he shall give it to you." So you can see they're saying go and bring forth fruit. Now let's apply that the definition that we've seen throughout the Bible that bearing fruit is getting people saved, preaching the gospel. He's saying go and preach the gospel. This sounds a lot like the great commission in Matthew and Mark. If you're wondering where is it in John, it's right here. And even when I was I was looking this up in the the original 1611 translation, the King James Bible. Now if you know the translation they didn't put a lot of cross references in the translation itself but right here in John 15 there is a cross reference to the great commission even 400 years ago the translators they were they were seeing hey this is the great commission here in the book of John to go forth and bring fruit just like we see back in the beginning back in Genesis 1 where commanded to be fruitful multiply Adam and Eve's great commission was to fill this earth with more humans right our great commission is to fill this earth with humans but with more saved people to be getting more people saved. And just like back then it was the kids were supposed to have kids were supposed to have kids. It was the commission for everybody. It's the same thing with the great commission. It's not just for those evangelists or those special people who are they have this gift of preaching. It's for everybody. Amen. Great commission is to preach the gospel, get people baptized, and then teach them all things whatsoever I've commanded. and all things includes getting people saved. It's supposed to be the cycle that continues. And of course, great commission, Matthew 28, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and son and the holy ghost. So Mark 16, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The first word in all of these is to go bringing forth fruit, preaching the gospel. We have to go. But we have to actually go to where the lost are to be able to reach them to be able to have fruit. What does this look like today?

Paul outlines it in Romans 10. He says, "How then shall they call on him and who they have not believed? How shall they believe in him and whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?" Right? That's you. But then it says, "How shall they preach except they be sent? As is as written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace." The great commission is to go. A lot of people don't go because they're not being sent. Churches today are not sending and training out soul winners to preach the gospel, right? But you don't have that problem here because we are sending you out Saturday, Sunday. We're putting in times. We're encouraging the brethren. There are times to go. You are being sent. You just need to go.

Look, there's very few opportunities to witness in your daily life. We get so busy with work and family and the things of this world. We're not often getting a lot of opportunities to preach to people. That's why we actually have to actually go to where people are to be successful. You know, praise God if you get opportunities at work or at home to be able to preach to family, but most of our opportunities are going to come going out sol. And in fact, that's the training ground that's going to teach you how to do it well so that those loved ones that you really want to get saved, you actually know what you're doing when the time comes. Now, we've seen bringing forth fruit. What is it? It's replicating ourselves as Christians, bringing forth other Christians.

Point 2 - What is not Bringing Forth Fruit

But a lot of people don't believe this doctrine. And they'll say, "No, the fruit is not getting people saved. The fruit is something else." So my Point 2 is what is not bringing forth fruit? What are we not talking about? Right? So the first objection you'll hear is, "Oh, what about the fruit of the spirit?" When we Christians bring forth fruit, that's just our love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Right? Let's apply what we've learned back in Genesis. Everything brings forth after its own kind. So when Proverbs 11 says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. Well, this is the fruit of the spirit, it's not saying it's our fruit. It's actually the fruit of the spirit, capital S. This is talking about God. It says when we walk in the spirit will not fulfil the lust of the flesh. So if we're walking in the spirit after the spiritual things, abiding in Christ, these are the manifestations of that in our life. Of course, this makes sense because the Bible says, you know, 1 John 4, God is love. So, of course, his fruit is love. In Isaiah, we see Jesus is the prince of peace. So, of course, his fruit is peace. In Romans 15, Paul says, the God of patience. So, of course, longsuffering is going to be his fruit and so on and so forth. So, the fruit of the spirit, that's God's fruit manifesting in our lives when we walk in the spirit.

Now, the main objection to this is people going to say, "Ah, fruit, that's just our good works." Yeah, that includes getting people saved, but it's really just our good works in general. Let's think for a moment about what a tree has to do to bring forth fruit, the work it has to go through. It has to grow. It has to put down roots. It has to get in the water and the nutrients from the ground. It has to go trees and get the sunlight from the tree and put the energy into growing a fruit. All these works are great and they're good things, but they are different from the fruit itself. The fruit is the end result of all the work that is put in. The same thing for us Christians. The fruit is not the work itself, but it's the product of the work that we put in. So when we put in work into our Christian life, we're abiding in the vine and we're in the word and we're praying and we're getting filled with the spirit. All these things empower us to be better soul winners, to bring more fruit unto God. But that fruit is not the work itself. It's actually the result of it. Now back to the dictionary, we saw the one archaic definition was offspring. But there was another more figurative definition of fruit and that is the result or reward of work or activity. The result or reward of work or activity. So even according to the dictionary, the fruit is not the work itself. It is the reward of the of the work. It is the end result of the work itself. And the Bible does use this kind of figurative language about fruit, but it's always talking about the fruit and the works kind of being separate. In Titus 3, don't turn there. It says, "And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful." So, we need to maintain the good works to not be unfruitful. But it's not the same thing. Same in Colossians 1, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So, we want to be fruitful in our good work, but the fruit is not the good work itself. And one of the main proponents of this kind of false doctrine, and they're usually lordship salvationists or work salvationists, but John MacArthur has a quote in the Gospel According to Jesus. He's one of the big names that's that's teaching this. And he says, "Good works are the fruit, the inevitable fruit of true salvation." Right? It's what these guys are teaching that everyone who's saved, they will have fruit. they will have good works. If they don't have any works, well, then they're not saved.

Let's think back to Genesis 1. God's laid down a a foundation in the Bible. Everything brings forth after its own kind. And a fruit has to be after its own kind. And the fruit of salvation is good works. What is he teaching? Salvation is works. Because if the fruit of works is works, then it is works. That's what they're teaching. That salvation is works. Now, they'll never come out and say that, but this is what this doctrine, this is what it really means and what it really teaches. And why don't people like this doctrine that hey, bringing forth fruit, that's our spiritual children. That's soulwinning. Well, because unfortunately, a lot of Baptist churches just aren't soulwinning. This is just not a big part of their program and a big emphasis. So, this becomes a doctrine of convenience. Hey, it was just the good works. It's just all the good works. Because if they read a verse like in John 15:2 that every branch of me that beareth not fruit is taken away. Well, they're not sowing. That's really going to hit hard for them. So, they have to have this doctrine that makes it okay because works can be anything. I mean, how do you quantify? How do you just judge? Am I doing enough works? You just don't know. This used to be normal Baptist churches, you know, 50 plus years, you had guys like John R. Rice preaching the exact same thing that Christians bring forth other Christians. used to be pretty mainstream but now we see people are just getting away from this doctrine and becomes a doctrine of convenience to just say it's works.

So we see what is bringing forth fruit it's having preaching the gospel winning souls to Christ. What are we not talking about when we're talking about bringing forth fruit? We're not talking about just good works in general. That's what results but we are talking about winning people to Christ.

Point 3 - Why Aren’t Most Christians Fruitful?

Now my point three, why don't people bring forth fruit? Why don't Christians bring forth fruit? What's stopping them from doing this? And to see this, we're going to look at the parable of the sewer. If you want to turn to Mark chapter 4, Mark 4. So the parable of Ser appears in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. We'll mainly be focusing on Mark 4 this morning just so we stay in one place.

We'll just start reading from verse three. Mark 4:3. hearken. Behold, there went out a sewer to sew. And it came to pass as he sowed, and 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 sprung up because it had no depth of earth. 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. and other fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprung up and increased and brought forth some 30 and some 60 and some 100. So first we're going to look at this parable from the perspective of the sewer. So as Christians as soul winners let's picture ourselves as the sower. Now what's the first thing that the sewer does? Look at verse three. Behold there went out a sewer to sew. In order to sew, the soul actually has to get up out of his house and go into the field and sew. That's right. Of course, that's why we saw the great commission. The first word is to go. People are not sewing because they're not going. And they're not going because they're not being sent. Now, the second point would jump down to verse 14. The sower soweth the word. The second reason why people aren't having success is because they're not using the word of God. people out there, they're trying to debate. They're trying to use apologetics or logical arguments, philosophy to try and win people to Christ. And this is just not where the power of God is. The power of God is in the word itself. That's right. This is the sword of the spirit. This is the only thing that's able to actually pierce to the heart of people and to be able to convert them. The Bible tells us in First Peter chapter 1, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which abideth forever. You see, that incorruptible seed that's being sown is the word of God. That is what we need to use when we're out swinging. Look, God's given us everything we need here. That's right. All the verses are here. We don't need to make up and say it in our own words. We have everything here. And look, the Bible says, "Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God." Right?

My third point from the perspective of the sewer. Why don't people win a lot of souls? Because they're not sewing liberally. Look at the sewer. He's just throwing seed everywhere. It's landing here. It's landing there. He's not really taking a lot of time to check the soil and put the seed in all the right places. He's just going out. Hey, let's just see what sticks, right? A lot of people maybe they spend just a little bit of time once a month out soulwinning. Oh, this doesn't work. I'm not not seeing any results. It's because you're not doing anything. At the end of the day, soulwinning is a numbers game. More people you talk to, the more people you reach, the more souls you're going to get saved. Look, the Bible's pretty clear about this. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. But I say this, he which sews sparingly shall reap also sparingly. He which seweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. more time and effort you put into something, the more results you're going to get. Look, especially a country like Australia, it's not a very receptive country. You need to talk to a lot more people to see a lot more results. But thank God, he has a promise for us. And Psalm 126 says, "They that sew in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his she with him." There's a promise from God. If you go out there, you're doing the work, you're sewing, you're preaching to people, you will see results. Might not be immediate, but you're going to see those results. And look, we're knocking every house in Fawkner. And it's not the most receptive area. We have to knock on average 181 doors to see one salvation. Wow. That's a lot of work. That takes a lot of time. But praise God, people get saved. Every 181 doors, someone's getting saved. But it just shows you got to stick to it. You got to keep sewing those seeds and we will reap the rewards and the harvest.

Now let's turn our perspective onto the plant. So we seen why don't people win souls or bear fruit from perspective of the sower. Now look at the perspective of the plant. Now verse 15 Mark 4:15. And these are they by the wayside where the word was sown. And when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and taketh the word that was so in their heart. And in the Luke 8 reading, it says, "Lest they should believe and be saved." So look, everybody agrees, even the false prophets agree that this one didn't get saved. They didn't believe. The birds ate up the sea. They didn't get saved. So now let's look at the stony ground in verse 16. Mark 4:16. And these are they likewise, which are sown on stony ground, who when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and have no root in themselves, and so are due but for a time, afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

Now, those who will teach that the fruit is the works and this kind of doctrine, they'll look at this parable and they'll say, "Well, only that last one bore fruit. It's only that last one is the one that actually got saved because it has the works." That's not what the Bible teaches. In fact, it uses this language here that the one on stony ground received the word with gladness. Now, in Acts chapter 2, the same language is used. Acts 2:41, you have to turn there. It says, "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same were added unto them about 3,000 souls." So, here we have people, they heard the word with gladness and acts, they gladly received his word. And of course, John 1, as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So, receiving that seed with gladness. The Bible's equating that other places about people actually getting saved. Look, salvation is not difficult. We just have to receive that word and believe that word. Now, I had a look at a encyclopaedia article just about germination. I want to see if we can glean some spiritual lessons from this. First of all, it says some seeds are ready to germinate almost as soon as they arrive and will sprout open wherever and whenever they land in a suitable environment. However, the seeds of most plants need to lie dormant for a period of time before they germinate. You see, sometimes when you sew the gospel and you spread seed, people can get saved right away. Other times, people don't get saved, but we've planted that seed and that seed can lay dormant for a long time. So even if we're not seeing results out there immediately when we've planted seeds these can stay there for a long time in people's hearts before somebody else might come and finish the job.

Now the Bible says at the sorry not the Bible the encyclopaedia says at the beginning of germination the seed takes in water very quickly. This process is called inhibition. As the dry seed takes in more water it swells and finally bursts the seed coat. Once dormancy ends and the seed coat bursts, germination becomes irreversible. With its coat now open, the seed can take in even more water and oxygen. So it soon doubles in size. So what do we see here? The seed's been planted. The seed has been watered. And then when that seed coat bursts, we have new life. The cells are replicating. It's growing. It's sprouting up. And of course, the Bible says the same thing. I have planted Apollos watered but God gave the increase. This exact same process. Now we as Bible believing Christians like we believe that life begins at conception. Amen. As soon as that seed of the man has fertilized that egg and those cells start replicating, there's new life. Even if you don't see it right away, there's new life in there growing. Now, it's the same picture here with this plant. The seeds planted, it's watered, it's growing. Maybe it's under the soil. We can't see it yet. There's a new life. There's a baby Christian there in the soil. It's the exact same thing.

Then of course we see that this one on stony ground. It sprouts up really quickly. It's getting in church. It's getting really excited. But now one of the other objections to the one on the stony ground being saved is because in Luke 8 there's a reading where it says for a while believe. A lot of people get confused because Luke 8 says, "Oh, for a while believe." So they're like, "Hang on. Well, he didn't. He only believed for a while. He's not really saved because he kind of fell away." But the Mark 4 reading, it says endureth for a while. And in the Matthew reading, it says endures for a while. Now we have this Luke reading saying believes for a while. So if we're comparing scripture with scripture, wouldn't they see that? Hang on. This believing has something to do with enduring because it doesn't say, "Hey, he believed the gospel. He believed salvation by faith. Now he doesn't believe it's by faith anymore. He's gone and God gone and joined Islam or something else. It's not what it says. Right? So you want to turn over to second Timothy chapter 2. Second Timothy chapter 2. I just want to explore this idea for a moment so I don't leave uh any stone unturned.

So second Timothy, sorry look at chapter 4 first. look at this idea of what it means to kind of believe in the Christian life aside from salvation because he's already said he's received the seed, he's saved, but then he believes for a while. So, look what Paul says to Timothy, 2 Timothy 4:7. He says, "I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith." Now, he's not saying, "Oh, I've believed in salvation by grace through faith this whole time." And he's so excited. He's made it to the end by believing this. He's saying, "Hey, I've kept the faith. I've been in the fight. I've kept the doctrines. I've been going along with the mission. I've kept it throughout all the trials and the tribulations. He's made it to the end. So, back to chapter 2. Now, let's look at 2 Timothy 2, starting at verse 10. Therefore, I endure all things. This is what we're talking about. We're talking about endurance in the Christian life. For the elect's sake, that they may also obtain salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, "If we be dead with him, we shall also reign with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." Sorry, I got that wrong. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we believe not, yet he abided faithful, he cannot deny himself. Look again, I don't think this is talking about somebody who stops believing in salvation by grace through faith. But even if he did, the Bible says God cannot deny himself. See, he's the one who promises to save us. He's the one who promises to keep us. He's the one who's going to keep us into the end, who's promises to finish the work that he started in us.

But look, if people deny him, think about what Peter did when Christ had been crucified. He denied Christ three times. That didn't mean he stopped believing in salvation or even that Jesus was the Christ. He had a moment where he had denied Christ. And the Bible says Christ will deny us. If you think about Satan is the accuser of the brethren and Jesus up in heaven as our advocate and he's fighting for us. Well, if we start denying Christ and Satan goes up to heaven and you know starts talking bad about us, the Bible says he he's actually going to deny us. He's going to say, "Yeah, you're right. This guy is not doing right." And that's the Bible's talking about believing not. You're not enduring. You're not sticking in the fight. You're not following through with what you believe. Now, let's just think about example. Let's say someone you know, the stony ground, they get saved, they're all excited, they're in church, and maybe there's this great, you know, Apostle Paul when he's preaching. But, you know, towards the end of Paul's ministry, he's saying, you know, everyone in Asia has forsaken me. People have left him. So, they're no longer believing in, you know, the teaching and the mission of him. They're not continuing through with that. Or if you think about, you know, in our circles, people get really excited and they get into a new IFB church and there's all this hard preaching and then, you know, the Sodomites come and they want to protest and they want to try and try and persecute the church and people can fall away because of these kinds of things. Maybe you talk to them later. Oh, I don't believe that doctrine anymore. You know, I don't believe that anymore. I'm not talking about people necessarily unsaved, but they're not enduring through the trials and the tribulations. They're not believing in the mission. They're not keeping the faith. They're not sticking it through. Just quickly over to Roman uh Hebrews 10, sorry, to the right in your Bible. Hebrews 10 verse 23. There's just a similar verse here says, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. For he is faithful that promise." So again, we can see even if we do waver on our profession of faith, God is faithful. He's promised us and he's going to keep us throughout it. But this idea of holding fast the profession of our faith about believing and enduring. This is what it's talking about here. So back to Mark 4. So this person is not enduring. They're not believing. Why? Because they don't have roots in themselves. They're not learning these things for themselves, making it real for themselves. They're not in the Bible studying, getting things right in their life. It's all surface level. They're excited. they're in church and oh it's great when things are going well but as soon as things get tough they can fall away.

Of course we should expect that trials and tribulations are going to come. Yeah, right. And that sun that beat down and withered away this plant, it was also shining down on the other plants. It was also shining down on the one in the good ground. So that one was having tribulation too. But because it had the roots, it was with a was able to stand. That's right. In John 15:18, turn there if you want. John 15:18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. In John 16:1, "These things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended." What does it say about the one on stony ground? Immediately they were offended. Right? So Jesus is telling us here in John, I've told you all these things that you won't be offended. So you're prepared that you know that persecution's coming. You know that if you abide in the vine, if you get those roots down, then you'll be able to stand. These things I've written, I've spoken unto you, John 16:33, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

The Bible says in Psalm 119, great peace have they which love my law. Again, what does he say in John 16:33? In me you might have peace. So those who keep his law are going to have peace. And of course in John 14, Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments. These things are all related. Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. If you want to not get offended when the trials and the tribulations come, you need to be in this word, putting roots down, loving it, living it, making it yours. Amen.

That's the one that landed on stony ground. So if we look at back to Mark 4, if we look from verse 18, Mark 4:18, and 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 here we have someone in they're in church. They haven't withered away like the other one. They're still here, but they care so much about the things of the world that they're not doing anything. They're too busy with their sports and their hobbies and their whatever it may be that they can't turn up for soulwinning time. They can't spend enough time in the word to be able to be filled with the spirit to be able to be effective at soulwinning. That's right. The Bible has a clear example of this. There's a guy called Deus. And Paul says, "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed unto the false prophets or teach that, oh, this one, he's not saved. He's not has become unfruitful." No, he's just loved this world too much. And if anybody, if you get in the flesh and you walk in the flesh, you're going to get out of church and it's going to choke you away. Now, how do we overcome this? How can we if we're somebody who's all into all the things of this world, how can we overcome this?

Well, the Bible says that lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth. So, if you're someone who's so worried about the riches of this world, you got to understand that the Bible said it was the deceitfulness of riches. Now, riches aren't going to last. It says, "Where moth and rust doth off corrupt, where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust off corrupt, where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." That's right. You're thinking about the eternal rewards and what's in heaven to come. It's where your heart's going to be. You're thinking about earning those things and not about things upon this earth which are all going to be burnt away and fade away. Now Jesus says, "Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. Now he that planteth and he that waterth are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. May they that be wise will shine as the brightness of the firm firmament. May they that turn many to righteousness as stars forever. Look, there are rewards waiting us for us in heaven if we're going out and we're doing the work. Now, we started talking the sermon about having physical children. Isn't this one of the reasons why people don't have a lot of children? Because they care too much about the things of this world. They want all their holidays and their big house and they want their free time to go out and party and spend time with friends. It's the exact same reason people don't have spiritual children. They're not having physical children. It's all the same thing because people are selfish and they're thinking about themselves.

We shouldn't think about ourselves. We need to think about those who are lost and those who are heading to hell and there's no one to preach to them. As we saw in Romans 10, how shall they hear without a preacher? If we are not going out and telling them, they're not going to hear it from anywhere else. The Bible says, "If our gospel be hit, it is him to them that are lost." Yes, we're still saved. We're still going to heaven. Praise God. But what about everybody else?

Now, in 2 Timothy 2:4, we don't have to turn there, but Paul says, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." If you want to stop worrying so much about the things of this world, you need to go to war. When you're at war and you're out in the battlefield, you don't care about what the latest TV show is back home. You don't care about what the latest gossip is. You're just thinking about your mission. You're thinking about surviving. You're thinking about the soldiers that are around you and your platoon. And you're focused on the mission at hand. If we want to stop caring about the world, we need to get into the fight. Get into the spiritual warfare. Go out the highways and the hedges. Preach to people. focus on the goals of what we want to attain for Christ because when that becomes our focus, everything else is just going to fade away.

Now, lastly, onto the good ground. If you're still there, Mark 4, look at verse 20. And these are they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit, some 30fold, some 60, some 100. And what's the difference between the good ground and the stony ground? They both hear the word and they both receive it. Only difference is one is bearing fruit or one is not bearing fruit. Look, salvation is not of works. If you don't bring forth fruit, well, shame on you, but you're still saved if you have believed and received the gospel. Bible says, "He that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." You have no works, you are still saved. This is not the determining factor. But do you want to be one who is unfruitful or do you want to be the good ground who is actually bringing forth fruit? And look, some 30, some 60, some 100fold. Again, these are quantifiable numbers. This is bringing forth fruit, winning people to the Lord. People that we can actually count. You can't count how much good works you're doing. You can't quantify that. You can't quantify how much love you have. You know, my love's at 60% today. It's not not too bad. according to these work lordship of salvation. It should be 100 all the time. Who's having 30% love, right? This doesn't make sense. But is this your goal? Is this your goal to be a fruitful Christian to be on the good ground? This should be everybody's goal.

When Jesus comes back and he looks at your life, what's he going to find? You know the story when he goes to the the fig tree and he sees all these beautiful leaves and he expects to find fruit on there, but there was no fruit and he curses the tree. Look, we don't want to be, you know, we look good Christian. We've got the quote unquote works, but we don't have the fruit. That's not what Jesus is expecting from us. He's expecting us to be fruitful. And is that the kind of tree you're going to be? Or when times get tough and the tribulation come, you're going to fade away. Or are you going to slowly be choked out by the things of this world? Maybe you're here today, but I'm too busy to go soulwinning. I got this on. I got that on. It'll slowly choke you out. you will be unfruitful. But let's be Christians on the good ground. Let's bring forth much fruit unto the Lord. Let's pray.

God, we just thank you for your salvation. We thank you that we are saved because somebody else has come and preached to us and that we are somebody else's fruit, Lord. And I just pray that you will help us and embolden us to be fruitful Christians, Lord, to be in the battle, to be preaching your word. help us to be able to encourage others to be able to come out as well. Let's pray that you'll bless the rest of our time today and bless our soul winning as well. Jesus name. Amen.