We're turning to Matthew chapter 13. Tonight, Matthew chapter 13, we're going to read some verses at the commencement of the chapter, and then jump down to the verse number 18. But let's read from the opening verse of Matthew's gospel, and the chapter is at chapter number 13, commencing our reading at verse number one. The same day went Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside, and great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went out, or went forth to sow, and when he had sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them, but others fell on good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who have ears to hear? let him hear, verse 18, hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. He that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon or immediately with joy receiveth it. Yet he hath no root in himself, but jureth or endureth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that receives seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that receiveth seed into the good ground, is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Amen, and we'll end our reading. at the Savior's explanation of the parable that we're going to consider this evening. But before we do so, let's unite in a word of prayer. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we come to thy word again. We bless thee for the seed that will be sown. Lord, we pray that thou wilt bring this preacher into good ground. We realize, O God, that for Ruth, It just happened to be, that's how the inspired writer places it, her hop was to fall in that place of rich blessing, that place of bounty, that place of provision. And yet Lord, it just didn't happen. We believe that God providentially led that dear girl to go into the field of Boaz, her near kinsman. Lord, we pray that tonight thou will direct, as it were, the feet of this message into some place of blessing, some place of bounty, some place where there will be fruitfulness. Lord, we recognize that there is varying degrees, some 100, some 60, some 34, but Lord, we cry to thee that this message might be used exclusively of God to the salvation of the lost and to the restoring of the fallen and to the examination of every heart. Lord, answer prayer. Glorify thy son. Fill me with thy spirit, therefore, then for this purpose, and grant us the unction of God that we might function properly and in a manner that is God-glorified. Within the confines of this pulpit, we offer prayer in and through Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen and amen. out of all the various sectors in the farming industry, and we believe that cereal farming and its associated activities is by and far the most referred to within the Word of God. For example, we read about seed on many occasions. The Word of God is likened by Peter to be like incorruptible seed. 1 Peter 1, verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. The believer's faith is to be likened on to a seed, a mustard seed, the smallest of all the seeds in Luke chapter 17, verse 6. And the Lord said, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, He shall say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea, and it should obey you. The Christian worker is described to be like a sower. He's described to be like a sower in passages such as Psalm 126. In the verse number six, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. Ecclesiastes 11 verse one tells us to cast thy bread, the literal translation is cast thy bread seed upon the waters for thou shalt find it after many days. The prophet Hosea exhorted the people of his day to sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up the fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord until he come and reign righteousness upon you. Sowing, reaping, breaking up fallow ground, all activities associated with cereal farming. The Savior used the farm machinery of a plough, a vital piece of machinery for the cereal producer, to emphasize the consequences of those who look back in their Christian lives. No man, he would say, no man having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. The end of the world is pictured on many occasions within the Gospels, but in the book of Revelation also, the end of the world is described or pictured like the gathering in of a crop harvest. Revelation chapter 14, the verses 14 and 15 uses such imagery to portray the final spiritual harvest that will be reaped when time on earth is over. And I looked, he said, Behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud sat one like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice. To him that sat in the crowd, cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. All of these verses in some way or another have an association with cereal farming, a sector that has had its struggles even over the last year. On the 5th of December, the Irish Farmer's Journal reported that the total area harvested for cereals in Northern Ireland this year was lower than initially estimated. The cereal acreage For 2018 was 29,700 hectares, some 8% lower than it was of the 2017 levels. Now tonight we have read one of the more familiar parables of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's known affectionately to us as the parable of the sower, but I believe that it should be better called the parable of the soil, because really the sower doesn't play much of a part within the parable itself. Rather, the Spirit of God focuses our attention on the four kinds of soil, and it is the soil that the Savior refocuses His remarks upon. That parable was told by the Savior from inside a boat that was resting and berthed on the Sea of Galilee. It had become a makeshift pulpit for the Savior. Many had thronged to hear the Christ preach the Word of God, and such were the throngs that he believed that he needed to make his way out a little from the land. to make that little boat a pulpit upon which all would be able to see and to hear his preaching. As he stood there, or as he sat there on that boat, he lifted his eyes towards the freshly ploughed fields around the Sea of Galilee. He watched the farmer sowing out seed, and he thought to himself, I can take this common day occurrence, this occurrence from farming, And I can bring spiritual application to the hearts of all who hear me today. And so that's what he does. He speaks of a farmer, a sower, going out to sow seed. Sowing seed on different kinds of ground. all of which lead to differing results. It is really this parable and the explanation of it that I want us to consider. It forms the sixth message in this little series of messages on gospel messages for farmers. Tonight I want to simply preach a gospel message for the cereal farmer. I want to simply look at the four kinds of ground within the parable and see what happens, the seed that was sown on each of them, drawing gospel lessons from what we discover from the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's no need for us to speculate what the Savior was referring to within this parable, because he informs his disciples as to its meaning within a private conversation with them. This parable is told in three of the four Gospels. And in Luke's Gospel, we are told the Savior plainly states that the seed that is being sown is the word of God. We don't need to speculate, is it or not. Christ himself said that the seed is the word of God. And so we have pictured here in the sword the preacher, because that's what a preacher does. He sows the seed of God's precious word. He sows that seed on all kinds of ground. It is not within his remit to bring forth a harvest from those grounds. That's not within his power. That is left to God himself. But it is the sower that goes in to sow the seed. He sows in all types of ground, just as the preacher does. But there's something I want you to notice. I want you to notice that whenever he leaves the wayside and he goes into the thorny ground, we do not read him changing the seed. He doesn't change the seed when he makes his way into the thorny ground. Neither does he change the seed when he makes his way into the good ground. There isn't a diversity of seed. No, the seed is the same in whatever ground the preacher is to be found. Because there's no problem with the seed. There's no problem with the seed that he's sowing. The problem lies in the ground upon which it is being sown. The unproductiveness, the unfruitfulness that lies within that little seed is not as a result of the seed itself. No, the unproductiveness, the unfruitfulness of the seed is because of the particular ground upon which it is sown. And can I say from this pulpit, there's nothing wrong with the seed. Nothing wrong with the Word of God tonight. This Word is a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces. This Word is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. This Word has the ability to transform a sinner's life in a moment of time. The problem is not in the seed tonight. The problem is in the ground. the ground of your heart, therein lies the problem. And I pray that by the Spirit of God that the ploy of the gospel would so ploy up the ground of your heart tonight that if it be stony and if it be the wayside and if it be thorny ground that God in his grace would come and lift out the stones and extract the weeds and extract the thorns and by his Spirit and plant the seed of his word into good ground within your heart tonight because your family needs you to be seen. Your children need you to be saved. This community needs you to be saved. And I pray that God, by his grace, will sow fine good ground tonight. We want to simply look at the four kinds of ground before us tonight. Now the first ground that the seed was sown was in the wayside ground, the wayside ground. And the sower of the parable goes out to sow the seed. We see that some of the seed falls by the wayside. Now the wayside was very simply a strip of land that ran alongside the unaged fields. It acted as a kind of public highway. Oftentimes you see if any of you men are dairy farmers, you often find that cows always take the same track And as they do so, the grass is stripped bare and that ground becomes compacted. They take the same path out of the field and back into the field again. Well, that's the type of image that we have. It's a public highway, no fields, no roadways as it were, but this place of public treading becomes a place that is well trodden. The soil that once was fresh, the soil that was once broken up, the soil that probably once belonged to good ground has now, Through time and through the treading down of feet has become compacted together because of the frequent footfall that has fallen upon it. And because the seed is sown on this type of ground, it really just bounces off its surface. It lies there exposed, exposed for what? The foils of the air to come and to take this seed away, to devour the seed up. Well, it doesn't take much intelligence. And I'm glad that I'm not a very intelligent person, but it doesn't take much intelligence to understand that you're not going to get a harvest from such land. not for the sake just that it doesn't penetrate the ground, but for the sake that the seed is actually taken away. You can't create a harvest out of nothing. No, the seed must be there. It must be implanted within the ground itself. But this seed has been taken away by the foils, the birds of the air, and therefore no kind of harvest is going to be the case. And we find that that is the case. Jesus Christ gives the explanation. In verse number 19, he gives the spiritual lesson that's being taught. Notice what he said, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, that's another name for the devil, the enemy of your soul, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which receiveth the seed by the wayside. Who is this person? I'll tell you who this person is. This person is the person who comes to gospel meetings like this one, and they remain wholly indifferent, and they remain unmoved by what is being preached. These are people who hear sermons but they pay no attention to them. They go to a place of worship, maybe on a regular basis, but they really take no interest in what is being preached. No, their interest is more in what's happening at the pew, or behind them, or in front of them. Their mind is taken off to the things of tomorrow, the jobs that need to be done, the duties that need to be performed, and so they sit in the house of God unmoved. No interest, no interest whatsoever in the things of God. The seed of the Word has no impact upon the heart and the soul. It doesn't matter whether it's God's law that's being preached or God's grace that is being preached, neither moves them to seek a remedy for their sin. When the threatenings of God's law are heralded out, they fail to terrify the sinner. And yet on the other hand, when the truths of the matchless grace of God are preached, that doesn't melt their heart either. They just sit indifferent. Their heart gets hard. Their heart gets cold. It makes no impact. Just like the seed falling on the compacted ground off the wayside. You see, their hearts isn't ready, hasn't been prepared, and thereby there is no prospect of any harvest, no prospect of the seed of God's Word getting into their hearts and producing Godward faith and repentance. The sad thing about such a hearer is just as I've said, this wayside, it may well have been good ground before, But now because of the frequent downtrodden of that ground, it has become compacted. And is it not the case that by the frequent footfall of sin, that the ground of your heart has become hard? And you've hardened your heart, and you've hardened your neck. and by your habitual sinning and by your daily sinning against light and against truth and against godly counsel and exhortation, your heart is just like this heart, like this groin tonight, hard. unresponsive to the gospel. Once it was soft, once it was tender, once it was sympathetic, but now no longer. And as you've rejected the gospel, and as you've rejected Jesus Christ, that heart has become harder and harder, so that whenever the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, it's like water running off a duck's back. I wonder, am I describing you tonight I wonder, are you one who is possessed with a hard, with an impenetrable, with an unbelieving, an obstinate, a God-hating, a Christ-rejecting heart? Does the night find you at the commencement of another year? Think of it. Another year. Does the night find you at the commencement of another year, no closer to salvation than you were this time last year? Still not? still unregenerate, still not knowing the power of God in the gospel. Maybe you come on a weekly basis, and I thank God for that, sinners to preach to. But you listen to the gospel, and you leave in the same spiritual condition as you entered the place of public worship. There's a preaching of death, the judgment, God's hell. Does it make any impression upon that heart of yours? Does the presentation of the cross and the Christ of God and the gospel and the grace and the mercy and the love of God, does it not induce you to seek after the Savior? Maybe some impression was once made upon your heart, as you said, under the faithful preaching of God's precious word, but it was only a fleeting impression. Before you even turn the key in the ignition of your car and you drive out onto the Hiltonstown Road, you've forgotten what has been preached on and other things have flooded into your mind and your heart, focusing on lesser things, the things of time, the things of eternity. What has happened? What has happened on such an occasion? Here you were, troubled about sin. feeling the guilt and the shame of it all, as you sat in the very atmosphere of such a preaching place. But then you left your seat, you got up off your pew, you walked out into the night, you got into the car, and you were no longer in the car. Then these thoughts and these impressions, they were gone. What happened? I'll tell you what has happened. The devil came and snatched away the seed. The wicked one came. and took away the seed that was sown in your heart. Did you know that the best attendee of Portland Alone Free Presbyterian Church is not this preacher? It's not the caretaker, it's not the organist, it's not any of the elders or any of the committee men, but the best attendee of this church is the devil. Because every time the Word of God is faithfully preached, He is here to snatch away the seed of God's precious Word. He's here to take it away from the heart. Because He knows that if He can take the Word away from the heart, well then He can reduce the chances of a sinner's salvation and a saint's sanctification. Because it is by the word that the saint is sanctified, and it's by the word that the sinner, thank God, is saved. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word, the ramah, the preached word of God. I ask you tonight, will you leave this place as you came in, as hard and as obstinate and as proud and as arrogant as you first came in, or will you leave this house with the word of God having made such an impression upon that heart and soul of yours that you would say by faith, Jesus, I come to thee. May tonight be the night of your then salvation. I tell you, sinner, the scariest place to be spiritually In this world is a place where you can sit under faithful gospel preaching and be unmoved by it. That is the scariest place to be. For it to make no impression. For it not to trouble your heart. for it not to prick your conscience, for it not to bring you to the place of confrontation, that I will die, I will be lost if I know not Christ as Savior, to have no concern about the spiritual welfare of your soul, to be unconcerned about the reality of death and of judgment. I tell you the scariest place on this earth, spiritually speaking, is to sit under gospel preaching and be wholly indifferent to it. I wonder, are you such a person? Maybe I'm addressing someone here tonight, and you have passed the point of grace, so that there will be never a night of your salvation, never a day when you will believe. but the day of grace for you is over. I pray that there's no one here tonight who has reached such a place in their life where God hardens the heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart with respect to the plagues that came, but then there came a moment whenever God hardened the heart. What a fearful place to be. And so this is the wayside ground. It is an unfruitful ground. The second ground that the seed is sown upon is the stony ground. Now the lack of earth on this stony ground, the stony places where the seed fell meant that the growth of the seed that it did enjoy was only temporary. It was but short-lived. The sun would arise, And as the seed was sown and it came to germination, that seed, as it grew, the sun would rise. rise and scorch the vegetation, causing it to quickly wither away. Verse 20 and 21, the Savior reveals what he is teaching here when it comes to the stony ground here. Let's read it again, 20 and 21. But he that receiveth the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word and unknown, or immediately with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not root in himself. but jeereth or goes on for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended. Now this individual is not like the previous. He's not indifferent to the gospel. No, he quite likes the gospel. In actual fact, it's almost as if he receives or she receives the gospel. But not being an indifferent here, this individual is a superficial here. Because his religion and his religious experience isn't centered entirely on the emotions. Not the heart, but the emotions. They are said to hear the word with joy and they receive it. Sounds good up to this point, doesn't it? They hear the word, they receive it with joy. There's no problem. Up to this point, the problem is that there's no depth. There's no substance to their conversion experience. It's all superficial. It's all on the surface. It's all show. It's what it is. It's a mere outward performance, a living by the rules and regulations. And as a result of that, they get discouraged because of the word. That's what happens. The Word, the living out of the Word, is that which eventually shows them for what they are. You know, there is something that does concern any gospel preacher, this preacher included, and it's this. There are those in this country, and they think themselves to have been truly converted. But all that has really happened is that they have been manipulated. to be manipulated by some preacher who has played on their emotions at the end of a gospel service. Now there are emotions when it comes to conversion. Don't get me wrong. But can I say that the emotion that any sinner should feel is not joy? Not initially. It's sorrow. Sorrow. Sorrow of heart. Sorrow of soul. sorry because of your sin, sorry because of your transgressions, sorry because of your God-denying and your Christ-rejecting. No, the joy comes after they believe, but the initial emotion should rather be sorrow. The psalmist said that he was sorry for his sin. It is sorrow that marks true repentance. However, it's not long before the facade drops and such hearers are seen for what they really are, false professors. What is it that reveals them to be for what they are? Well, we're told that tribulation and persecution that arises from living by God's word is what reveals their true nature to all. That such a person is profess faith in Jesus Christ. Let them be exposed to the persecutions of their ungodly relatives. Let them be ridiculed and despised by their schoolmates. Let them be avoided and neglected by their friends. Let the tribulations through which every child of God must travel through in order to get to heaven, let such things come upon them and soon they're gone back. And they walk with Christ no more. The problem is, in the words of the verse number six, they had no root. No root. no depth. One preacher put it, they had no deeply rooted convictions of sin, no deeply rooted sense of the need of a savior, no deeply rooted resolves of abandoning their inequities, no deeply rooted faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and no deeply rooted principles of the Christian life. The root of the matter was not in them. and you need to ask yourself, is the root of the matter in me? Am I a genuine Christian? Am I genuinely saved? You know, this problem is not a modern day problem. We often like to quote Mr. Spurgeon. This is what he wrote about people in his day. He said this, there are people who come forward under an emotional appeal and then immediately go backward into their sin. They go into the inquiry room and get converted in five minutes and have nothing to do with godliness the rest of their lives. Is our land not plagued with individuals like that? They go to an inquiry room. Nothing wrong with an inquiry room. Don't get me wrong. I would love to bring you into the inquiry room tonight, speak to you about your soul. But they go into an inquiry room and they get so-called converted. It all happens in five minutes. Yes, it does happen in a moment of time. Again, don't get me wrong. but there's no godliness in their lives after it. They've just come forward because their emotions have been stirred. It's superficial. And maybe I describe you as I described the seed that falls on the stony ground. You know, for a while you endured. For a time you walked, as it seemed, the narrow way. Then whenever the Christian life just didn't go the way you thought it would, you walk with God no more. You see, you never expected the cost to be so high. You never expected the self-sacrifice to be so great. You never expected the circumspect living to be as all encompassing as it was. And so you said, farewell. to living the Christian life. Your lack of endurance evidences that a genuine work of grace was never wrought upon your heart. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. I wonder tonight, is your life rooted and grounded in the love of God? I tell you in an age of easy believism I caution every listener to this message to beware of the superficial religious experiences that are doing the rounds today within the evangelical church. Anything that's superficial never lasts. You need something that lasts. You need something radical, something of God. You need an experience with the living God that not only lasts for time, but lasts into God's great eternity. Don't be like the stony ground here. But tonight, tonight come to Christ and be saved genuinely. be saved everlastingly. The third ground is the thorny ground. This ground was infested with thorns so that when the cereal crop grew, its growth was halted by the strangling of a stalk by the more aggressive dominant briars and brambles that were surrounding it. And the Savior again gives the explanation, verse 22. He also that receiveth seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. The thorny ground here is a person who is possessed with a Janus spirit. Let me explain what I mean. Janus spirit. You may say, what is he talking about tonight? A Janus spirit. Well, I trust that you know, I'm sure you do, that many of our months are named after false gods, either Roman gods or Greek gods. Well, the month that we're now in, the month of January, it's named after the Roman god Janus. Whenever artists came to depict this false god, they depicted him as a man with two faces. One face looking forward, the other face looking backward. In other words, not knowing whether it's going to go forward or whether he's going to go backward. There is a thought that there is a double-mindedness. And surely such double-mindedness exists within and is resident within the one who is pictured here, I believe, in the thorny ground. You know, they want salvation. They want salvation. They want heaven. They want the crown. They want the mansion. They want to be in the place that is fairer than day. They want Christ. They want to gain heaven. They want to gain the kingdom of God. They want eternal life. But they also want the world. And they want its sin. And they want its pleasures. And so they possess a Janus spirit. They look one way, and that's for them. But they look back to their sin and they say, no, I want that. But let me say that a double-minded man never enters the kingdom of God. The problem in this ground is that there are rivals in the ground. It isn't that this seed is falling on ground where there is nothing else growing. No, there are rivals. thorns. These are the rivals in the very place of sowing. And because there are rivals within the heart, there are many rivals. And because of those rivals, Jesus Christ is pushed to the sidelines, isn't he? Jesus speaks of the two rivals that are in the heart of the thorny ground here. There is the care of this world. What the Savior meant by the care of this world was the daily humdrum of life. You know, groundhog day, that type of thing. Get up in the morning, eat your cereal. Get ready for work or school, go out and do your day's work or do your day's education, come home, get something to eat, do your homeworks, do your chores around the house, go to bed, get up again. The daily humdrum, the groundhog day like of life. This weekly, this daily struggle to meet or make ends meet, the cares of this life. He speaks here in terms of everything that would come into the life that takes our attention away from the things of God. The car repayment, the mortgage repayments, the provision of food and clothing for the family, alongside the family problems and all the health issues that arise from time to time in our lives. And all of these things come into the mind of the unseeing and they so consume their thinking that they give no thought to eternity, to their soul, and to God's great salvation. And maybe this is you tonight. Here you are. You're caught up with the humdrum of life, the daily toil. Really, your soul's welfare has been forgotten. And yet I remind you that someday you're going to leave the care of this world behind. But into what kind of world are you going to enter? What kind of world are you going to enter when you've forgotten God and neglected His salvation? I tell you, you'll have cares then when you lift your eyes and hail. The other rival is the deceitfulness of riches, whether less affluent or taken up with the cares of this world, just trying to get ends to meet. No, the rich, they are on the other side of the spectrum. The deceitfulness of riches, it consumes their hearts and their minds. The false promise is that riches equals happiness deceives many, and so the pursuit of riches is prioritized over the pursuit of God and His salvation. I was listening, I was watching, I was reading about these individuals that have won this great amount on the national lottery. What will it be? What will it be for them if they die without Christ? What was the profit of man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? And yet the world puts him on a pedestal. They've made it now. Oh, they're going to be happy. Ah, yes, maybe. But for how long? because life's little day will come to a close for them, and that which has been given to them will be taken from them, and they'll go out into God's eternity with only their soul and what they've done with Jesus Christ. I tell you, be careful. Be careful that your pursuit of this world's wealth is not to the detriment, the detriment and the damnation of your soul. Be careful. And so the riches and the cares of this world choke it. And again, this ground is unfruitful. Notice that the sower has to tread over three types of ground, the wayside, the thorny, the stony ground, before he ever gets to the fruitful ground. There is a lesson there for every preacher, for every Christian worker. Not into every heart into which gospel seed is sown will bring forth a harvest. There are many unfruitful tracks over which we must traverse before we ever get to the place of fruitfulness, and yet there is good ground. There is good ground out of which the seed having fallen into that heart it will bring forth a harvest. Verse 23, But he that receiveth seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirtyfold. This is the person who hears the word. Their understanding is enlightened. In other words, the penny drops. They understand, I am the sinner. and I'm in need of a savior. The veil is removed and they are then enabled to embrace Jesus Christ as he is offered to them in the gospel. They are enabled to embrace the word that's counsel to the saving of their soul and the evidence, the evidence that such takes place. It's such a one bears fruit, yes, to varying degrees, but fruit nonetheless. Some 100, some 60, some 30. Now you may say to me tonight, preacher, I have believed. You may say, preacher, I have saving faith. But God would say to you tonight, show me the fruit of that faith. Show me the fruit of the faith. because it is by their fruits that ye shall know them." One preacher said, fruit production is the absolute condition and requirement of the Christian life. This alone evidences that we have received the seed, that we have kept the seed, and that the soil is good. Let me ask you, are the fruits of righteousness, are the fruit of the Spirit, Are they born out in your life? Has the fruit of Calvary's redemption sprung up within the soul? Has the seed of God's Word fallen upon good ground and germinated? And is it bringing forth fruit in your life every day to this very moment? The startling fact about this parable is that out of the four soils, only one was sound and good out of the four, just one. That truth should cause every individual, preacher included, to ask that the Spirit of God would search out our hearts and to examine our lives in order that we might ascertain whether or not, whether or not I'm in the faith. This message is seed. Tonight, this preacher has sown seed, but I ask, what type of ground has it fallen upon with respect to your heart? Hard, stony, thorny, or good ground. It is only the seed that falls on good ground and bears forth fruit that evidences that that Word has done its work. There is a harvest. May God in his grace gather you in when that harvest appears on earth. May God give you good ground tonight. May you come to the cross. May you come to the place of blood sacrifice. May you have your sins washed in the crimson tide. And may tonight you be gathered into God's garner as part of his great spiritual harvest. May God be pleased to bring forth fruit some 100, some 60, some 30 fold, but at least some fruit from the preaching of his word tonight. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Thank you for your attention. Maybe God has been speaking to you and troubling you. Maybe you're concerned about these things. I tell you, that's a blessing. Thank God you're not like the wayside. You're not like the hard and penetrable ground of the wayside. Maybe God, in his mercy and grace, has sown into good ground. We'll respond to that tonight. Come to the Savior. If I can help you, I'm at the door. I'm here to assist. God's servant, here to help. We'll speak together through the Word. We'll try and explain it as simply as we can. Come to the Savior. Be saved. Make sure you're in Christ and you're not like one of these other three grounds. Oh, may God have mercy upon your soul. Our loving Father, we do commit this meeting into Thy care and into Thy keeping. We thank Thee for the lessons that we learn spiritually from this parable, and we pray that by the Holy Spirit that the seed will have fallen into some good ground tonight. Oh, bring forth a harvest for the glory of God, for the furtherance of his kingdom, and may there be great rejoicing as we go home, bringing our sheaves with us. Answer prayer. For we offer our petitions in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and amen. Thank you.