Fruitfulness

I can understand our brother Skate's concern to maintain that which we have and enjoy. Matthew 13, reading at verse 23, But he that receiveth seed unto the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understanding it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. Mark, please, Mark's Gospel, chapter 4, Mark 4, verse 20, These are they which are sown on the good ground, such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.

Luke, please, chapter 8, Luke chapter 8, reading at verse 15, But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. The parable of the sower is the most unique and the most remarkable passage. All of us, I am sure, in this gymnasium have read it many, many times, and I am sure you've been blessed.

I have noticed it recently, and something that has popped into my mind, and perhaps maybe you have seen it years ago, I have not. There is the phrase that we have read in each one of the Synoptic Gospels is the same, of course, the heard the word, he that received the seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it. Every one of the three accounts that we have read has to do with fruitfulness, has to do with bearing fruit.

We understand also that there is a different word in every one of the passages that we have read. In Matthew chapter 13, it's the word understand, and so that is one of the reasons why that the seed was taken away by the fowls of the air, and the earlier soil, the one that was the trodden down, and the seed came, and the fowls take it away. You'll notice we didn't read it, but earlier in the chapter of Matthew 13, it does say, because he understood not.

When we come to Mark, we read the same particular, same verse, they which are that hear the word and receive it. The word there is something that I can delight in. The word understanding is that which I perceive.

I can see, and I perceive what the passage is saying. The word in Mark is delighting. I receive, and I'm delighting in it.

We'll get to perhaps a little bit more. The word in Luke, having heard the word, and keep. So I have an understanding, I have receiving, and now I have keep.

Am I off base, brethren? Can I suggest that that has something to do with the 30-fold, 60-fold, and 100-fold? When you come to the first ground and the wayside here, is the careless indifferent. They're not moved, not touched whatsoever. The stony ground is a man who has perhaps been touched some way, and he's got warm feelings, he's got that fuzzies, and the feelings that he's perhaps maybe moved a little bit, and he has maybe good intentions, but the fact is that when opposition and temptation come, it withers away.

The third ground, the thorny ground, is he agrees with a message, he's touched, and he perhaps maybe is going to determine, like I have done many times sitting in an audience like this, I'm going to do better. As a result of that message, I'm going to do better, I'm not going to have fits and starts like I have in the past, and so you have good intentions, and you have good reasoning, and so on. But on the third ground, there's the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things come in.

The triplet in Mark chapter 4 and verse 19, the triplet of evil, the only one of the synoptics that has those three put together, in that way. But now when we come to the good ground, I understand in order to have that 100-fold, in order for me to have that 60-fold or 30-fold, well what determines a 30-fold, and what determines a 60-fold? I'll have to ask the theologians over here, well I better not say to my right because there might be more over here to my left. I enjoyed the thought that when the Lord Jesus took his disciples and he took them to Jerusalem, when he took them to Jerusalem and told them, I'm going to be spit upon, I'm going to be hated, I'm going to be rejected, I'm going to be crucified, they understood not.

They didn't get it. And like Israel many times going across the sand, going across the desert, they did not get the principles and the teaching that God was trying to give those particular people, they just didn't get it. I'm thinking of the passage in Ephesians chapter 5, reading about verse 17.

Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Understanding what the will of the Lord is. Perhaps maybe one of the most difficult things to determine at times is the will of the Lord.

The will of the Lord is something that I can know. Romans 12 will tell me that. That you might know that good and perfect will of God.

So I can know it. Is this that perhaps maybe it's determining, the determining factor as to how, is this the right way? You know the Lord has given us a brain, he's given us common sense, he's given us a head to think. So I wouldn't think that Norman, Norman's got his boys here and the oldest one is Luke, sorry.

But let's just say Luke, he hates needles and he faints at the sight of blood. Then his dad tells me, well Luke, did you know Luke is going to try and be a nurse? Well I would have a real difficult time as far as that is concerned. Is that the will of God for him? So I'm concerned the fact that the will of God, I've always enjoyed a thought of three lights in my circumstance, in my life.

The three lights are the circumstances. Is the circumstances, is there something in it that's favorable? Number two light is my conscience. Can my conscience go along with it? Can I agree and does my conscience rest in it? And number three, the commandment.

So on those three lights, I can determine somewhat of the will of God. But understanding, they understood, understood not. So I'm thinking, dear Christian, in order for, first of all for me to have that hundredfold, maybe I need to really know what it is to understand, to understand what the will of God is.

When we come to Mark, Mark is saying the same way, the same thing. These are they which hear the word of God and receive it. The word received there is to delight in it, is to really enjoy it.

You've seen the, you've seen pictures of, probably you've seen it in maybe, you've been experienced that you get off the bus, maybe in your childhood days, you get off the bus and the dog is there waiting for you. I've, this has happened to me several times and the dog and I meet together at the end of the driveway. The dog is so delighted to see me.

My companion, if I, if the dog could speak, my companion has arrived home. He's come back and he just whines and he leaps and he jumps and he, he's delighting. So I can understand that in order for me to bring the hundredfold that maybe there needs to be more of a delighting, I need to delight in his word.

When was the last time, dear, dear brethren or dear sister, that you really wanted to say hallelujah? Something touches you and you're just enjoying it and perhaps maybe in your study and you, you just can't help but say, thank God, hallelujah. Delighting in it. But maybe in order for me to receive that a hundredfold, I, I need to understand now that I, I need to perceive and I need to comprehend.

That's the word. I need to comprehend, uh, perhaps I don't comprehend it. And so I need to comprehend it then along with my receiving and along with my keeping.

I wonder if there isn't a suggestion of a hundredfold. So when we come to the book of Luke, having heard the word, they keep it, keep it. Usually the word keep means to guard.

The word keep here means to siege it, to hold on, to hold on steadfastly, to hold it fast. Don't let it go. Isn't that what we've been reminded of in a view of assembly principles? Doesn't Paul say that in first Corinthians chapter 11, that you remember me, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances.

So these wonderful ordinances that we have in the scriptures, dear Christian, marvelous, marvelous to think when I come to Acts chapter two and they continue steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and in fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers, there can't be a more simple, beautiful, majestic way of gathering, of carrying out the, of carrying out New Testament truth. I've wondered what these, some of these, some of these religious places, I've wondered what authority do they have? What scriptural authority do they have of bringing people in to their congregation? Dear Christian, we have the authority, the authority. And once I, I'm appreciating that authority, I can appreciate a place where two or three are gathered to His name.

But you know, when I'm talking about fruit bearing, there's, but when we're talking about fruit bearing, I'm thinking about something that is very, very essential. And that is, I can have perhaps maybe the understanding, maybe, maybe I'm delighting in it. Maybe I can really appreciate it and I'm delighting in this.

And maybe I'm holding this fast and I'm guarding it. But there's something that else that, that needs to, that I need to function and that is this. If I'm going to bear fruit, dear brethren, I need to know what it is to abide.

John chapter 15 tells me it's one thing to be in Christ, it's another thing to abide in Christ. And so I like what J.B. Phillips says, to abide in Christ, to have Christ's words abiding in us means more than just memorization. I can memorize, I can memorize various chapters, but that is not going to, that is not going to give me the joy of abiding.

It means to meditate upon them until our nature is saturated with, until they become a vital part of me. So until what I am, till the truth of God, till these sayings are so saturated into my nature, so saturated to the point where I, it brings enlightening to my understanding. It brings enthusiasm to our emotions and it energizes our will.

Now, to abide in Christ. I'm very, very much aware that he that abideth in me and I in you, the same shall bring forth fruit. John 15, as we know, there's fruit, there's more fruit, there's much fruit.

So in the measure in which I abide, in the measure in which, dear Christian, I have these understandings, I have the scriptures that I can understand, in the measure in which I can receive it and delight in it, the measure in which I hold it fast, the measure in which I'm abiding in that and not letting it, not letting it go, a measure in which I'm enjoying it, in the measure in which I'm rising above circumstances in life that kill enthusiasm, that take away the joy, in the measure, dear Christian, that I'm above those things, I'm abiding in those things. I'd love to be able to just, there's sometimes I wish I could read just for my own enjoyment, but there's the reading of preparation for this meeting, for that meeting, and so on. So there's, there's the fact of abiding, abiding in the vine.

Having that habit, having that habit, that's the word I wanted, having that habit of close, of close communion, a consciousness of his presence, a standard of living, dear young people, if you could just get a hold of this, just a, just a wee bit, a standard of living, of sensing the presence of God with you. Do I know what it is, dear Christian, as a much older man than the younger people here, but do I know what it is to sense the Lord's hand? I'm going down the road just, just two days ago, and I'm in Manchester, and I'm thinking, I hadn't thought about this man driving up to Manchester. When I got to Manchester, I'm thinking, now where should I go? And a name popped into my head, I have to go, go see Marvin.

And oh, I was so glad I went to see Marvin. I hadn't thought about Marvin. When I stepped into that little room, the tears, the choking up, so glad to see me.

Where did, I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't even prayed for the man for the last, maybe a week, and yet I get to this particular place, and the Spirit of God brings that man before me. And I went, you've done that, you've been there.

So having that close communion, if you keep my commandments in John 15, if you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments. How did he keep the Father's commandments? And through rejection and through suffering, there was an awareness that there was an association with the Son and with the Father. And so, dear Christian, can I know something of abiding? To bring forth the fruit.

To bring forth the fruit that he is looking for. The abiding life is the abounding life. So if I'm abiding in the vine, and I'm abiding in the, and letting his word abiding me, and I in him, it's going to be an abounding life.

It's going to be a life that is always abounding in the work of the Lord, 1 Corinthians 15. So, dear Christian, if this is a more positive word than what we've been hearing, I don't know, but I would like to just leave this with you this morning, that there is the joy of abiding in him. It says on two occasions, we read 100-fold first, and then the 30-fold.

On one occasion, we read 30-fold, and then the 100-fold. I'm just liking this to suggest that there is. There is, perhaps, if I understand, if I receive, and if I guard, if I keep, if I not guard, if I hold on, there is abiding in him, being able to understand, being able to receive, delight in, being able to hold fast.

I've always been impressed with John, with Colossians, rather, chapter 1. Walk worthy of the Lord, being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience, long-suffering, and joyfulness. Walk worthy of the Lord, and being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God.

May we know what it is, dear Christian, to bearing fruit, understand, to perceive, to delight, and to hold on. Hold fast, and we too will be able to, in a day to come, be given and rewarded that 100-fold.