Seed 2 Matured

Campbell Chapel Free Will Baptist Church

Ironton, Ohio

Campbell Chapel FWBC of Ironton Ohio - Pastor Bob Bradley

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Free Will Baptist Church
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Ironton, Ohio 45638

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From Seed to Mature Ear

January 30, 2008

Bob Bradley

_________________________

Mark 4:26-29

26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

Keep in mind that Jesus has been teaching about sowing seed. Keep that thought in your mind because it has to do with what we are talking about here tonight.

The sower goes forth and he sows seed. It falls in four different types of ground. Three of the grounds that the seed falls upon, because of the ground itself; some of it is hard, some of it is rocky, and some of it is thorny; it doesn’t bring forth any fruit. However, one particular ground brought forth some fruit because it was good ground. Some brought forth 30 fold, some brought forth 60 fold and some brought forth 100 fold.

Keep that in mind because as we look down through here, it is going to have something to do with this. He has explained the parable to us and told us about the rocky ground, the hard ground, and the thorny ground and the good ground.

Last week, we talked about light and our responsibility that we have as God reveals light unto us and give us truth. We talked about how that we are to share that and how you and I as candles and light bearing objects, we should have an understanding and live a life where people should be able to see the love and the light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. We have a responsibility to do that. It talks about that there is nothing hid that is not going to be made manifest.

We may think today that we have things hid or we have things covered up or whatever and most times we don’t. There is always somebody watching; especially watching Christian people. I get a kick out of people sometimes. I get calls from time to time for people telling on some of you guys, some of what you do and where you have been and some of the things you have said. Sometimes it worries me a little bit. Sometimes it is funny. Sometimes I talk to you about it and sometimes I don’t. I don’t know why people want to do that. Anyway, we have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to live right lives.

26 …So is the kingdom of God…

The seed has been sown on these four different types of ground. As we talked about, He is talking about four different types of hearts here, or four different types of individuals that would hear the Word. We know that three of them did not bring forth any fruit. We know that the one individual that received the Word and accepted the Word deep in his heart we know that some of those folks brought forth 30, some 60, and some 100.

He makes the statement here: “…so is the kingdom of God…” He is going to be telling us some things about the kingdom of God. Keep that in mind.

26 “…as if a man should cast seed into the ground…”

We know the kingdom of God is in us. We know the kingdom of heaven is going to be a literal kingdom that is going to be here on earth during the millennium. We understand that. The kingdom of God is within us. When you and I are saved, we become part of the kingdom of God. We become part of the family of God. We are born into the family. We are baptized by one spirit into His body. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. He is moving in our lives. Sometimes we don’t think that He is there, but if we are saved, He is there. Sometimes He may not be very active because of our conduct or our character; or some of things that we are doing or not doing. If we are saved and living in the will of God then He is very active in our lives. He mentions here about this.

26 “…So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground…”

First thing I want you to notice here is that He uses the word man. He is not talking about Jesus. I know that in the parable before about the four different types of ground. There is no doubt that the sower talked about there was Jesus Christ. However, here it could not be Jesus because of some things here that this man is going to do. It says, “…a man should cast seed into the ground…” Now He mentions seed.

Seed is something that is very important. If a farmer is going to grow crops then he has got to have seed. He has to have good seed that is going to germinate. There are many things that could be said about that. This fellow is spreading his seed. Look where he is casting it to.

26 …cast seed into the ground…

He is spreading the seed.

Look at something here. When we talked about seed in the other parable we know that we talked about it being the Word of God. We talked about, and Jesus was talking about the seed being sown and how that people would receive it. The seed here is the Word of God. The seed here is the Word of God. The man here is sowing it in the field. Keep this in mind. He is painting us a picture here of what the kingdom of God is like. A man is casting seed into the field.

The Bible says:

27 …And should sleep, and rise night and day…

He goes and sows his seed. He sows seed and he goes about his business. In other words, the Bible tells, when you read it in the Greek it talks about doing something that was monotonous. He does things over and over again and again. He goes to sleep tonight. He sleeps tonight. He gets up in the morning. He does his daily things. He goes to sleep the next night. He gets up the next morning and he continues to do this.

If he sows seed today and puts it in the ground today, he is not expecting to go out tomorrow and to see the fruit or the blade coming through the ground. He is not going to do that. He is going to go about his daily routine in life. He is going to sleep and there is something to be said about sleeping. He is going to work and there is something to be said about working. If a farmer is going to work during the day then he is going to have to sleep during the night. If a man is going to work of the day, really and sincerely work hard during the day then he is going to have to sleep sometime.

Farmers did that. Years ago when we did farm and more people farmed; it wasn’t anything that when it got dark, people went to bed. When it got dark outside people went to bed. Some of the old timers went to bed a long time before dark. Likewise, they would be up a long time before daylight. He sows the seed and goes about his daily life. We are going to come back to this and look at this spiritually but for the sake of getting to where we are going; follow me for a minute.

He sows the seed in the ground and then he goes about his routine. He sows the seed. He sleeps. He works of the day. He sleeps of the night. He works of the day. He sleeps of the night.

27 …and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how…

He continues to do his normal things in life. He sleeps. He works. After a long time, he goes out one morning and he sees a little blade sticking through the ground. The ground has a lot to do with things growing and how quick that it will grow. Not only that but also the moisture of the rain that we have. The sunshine and many different things have to do with how quick the seed is going to come up. Keep in mind that the farmer does not go out and sow the seed today or next week; he don’t go out and dig it up and look at it to see what it is doing. He does not do that. He is very patient. He leaves it alone. He knows that he sowed good seed and he knows that it is going to grow. After awhile, a week or two; ten or twelve days after some rain and after some sunshine he goes out one morning and he has a blade through the ground.

27 …and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

Even today, if you talk to scientists and smart people and read things about seed, they cannot tell you how that works. They can tell you about germination. They can tell you about moisture and what moisture does to a seed and how it germinates. There is a mystery here today that even this world does not know how all this stuff works. That is what he is saying here. The farmer sows his seed. He goes about his daily life. He goes out one day and the seed has germinated and sprung through the ground. He does not know it does it. He does not have to explain it. It is not up to him to know all the answers to all the questions. He goes out and he sees what he has sown in the ground start to come up.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself…

When you look at that, the word “of herself” it uses the word in the Greek that we get our English word “automatic.” What that means is that the seed is planted in the ground and the earth automatically brings forth the seed. It brings it forth and it starts to grow. You can go out there and dig it up if you want to. You can go out there and do all kinds of things over the seed that is in the ground, but you cannot make it germinate. You cannot make it grow. You cannot make it do anything. The earth brings it automatically. It just grows. That is what he is telling us here. The earth does that automatically. First, the blade then the ear and after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

He is painting this picture for you and me about a fellow sowing seed. He says, he goes out and sows his seed and he goes about his business. He is talking to His disciples and He is talking to you and I about some responsibilities that you and I have as Christian people, as light bearing people, as people that are to sow the Word of God; we have the responsibility to do some things. He painting the picture here, “…so is the kingdom as if a man should go out and sow his seed in the earth.” We should be sowing and working today, sowing the gospel.

It is my and your responsibility today to sow the seed. If we will do that then we know that God will bring forth and do some things with that. It is my responsibility and your responsibility to do that. That is a responsibility that we don’t necessarily like. Sometimes we don’t want to do that. I have heard people say sometimes, “Well, I can’t talk. I’m not a good speaker. I really can’t do much at all. I don’t much about the Bible.” Some of that may be true. However, if you are sitting at home and you need the mashed potatoes, you are not going to have any trouble telling somebody to pass the taters. If you want the bread, you are not going to have any trouble telling somebody to pass the bread. We should be the same, if we are a light bearing instrument as we should be, and some of us are bringing forth 30, 60 and 100. Then we should be sowing the seed.

Many times over the years, even today, I have had people say to me, “I feel that I have just wasted my time.” Sometimes in our Christian life, if we are sowing the seed, if we are sowing the gospel—not what you think about the gospel, not what the Free Will Baptists say about the gospel—but if we are sowing the Word of God, as we sow the gospel there is going to be some that are going to hear it. As we sow the gospel, as we testify to people, as we talk to people, we think that this thing should happen today. We think that we should testify to someone today about the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we think that they should get saved today. That would be great if it worked that way. However, it usually does not work that way. Jesus said the seed is sown today and we go about our business. We go about our routine in life.

If we go on our jobs, if we go to our homes, if we go to our neighbors and if we everyday hound people and try to over persuade people and to beat things into people’s heads; the only thing that we are going to do is drive people away. If we take the Word of God and the seed/gospel and we sow that and it falls upon good ground then lets let it alone for awhile and see if it is going to come up.

Seed does not come up overnight. There are times of great harvest. If there is a harvest, then there has to be a time of sowing. Harvest does not come unless we sow.

I’m not saying that we talk to people today and then forget about them for twenty years. We drive people away from church by our attitudes many times, by the way that we do things sometimes and by us being belligerent. We drive people away. Let’s share the gospel with them and if that gospel falls upon good ground, it is going to bring forth good fruit. We don’t have to go back when we see them in the morning and say, “Hey, did you get saved last night?” We don’t need to do that.

A farmer does not go out and dig up the seed everyday and look at it. He goes about his daily routine. When we look at a farmer, he had certain things that he did. When we were home, we would get up in the morning and feed the cows, milk the cows, feed the chickens and take care of the hogs. We had a routine that we went through. When we got that done then we would go to something else.

That is what we should be doing as Christian people. Let’s sow the seed, but let’s go on with our life. Let’s don’t go out here and look at it and stare at it every morning and think that it is going to come through the ground today. Let’s don’t go out here and dig it up in the morning because we sowed it today and it didn’t come through the ground. There is nothing wrong with the seed. If it falls upon good ground then it is going to bring forth some fruit; let’s give it time to grow.

We think that we should pound, pound, and pound. You can do that and what you usually do is you drive people away. Let’s sow the good seed. Let’s testify about the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we do that, when that is done, let’s go on with our daily lives. Let people see who we really are. It is one thing to sow the seed. It is one thing to do that but it is something else to go on with our daily lives. I’ve seen so many people drive away people with their attitude.

I’ve went to hospitals before and someone come in and praying with somebody else beside of another. It is sad when we try to make seed come up, when we try to force Christ down people’s throats; it is not going to work. I can’t make seed grow. Seed grows because it is the nature of the seed. Seed will germinate when it falls in good ground. Seed will germinate and it will grow. It is spontaneous. It is automatic when good seed goes into ground, when the gospel is spread, when it is sown upon good ground it is automatic; it will bring forth fruit. God said that. It will work. You cannot make it.

I cannot make it grow in me, can you? No, let’s share the gospel with people, but don’t be overbearing. Let’s don’t be belligerent. Let’s don’t tell them that they are no account. The gospel is not what you THINK they are. The gospel is not you getting them aside and telling them all the bad things that they have done in life. That is not the gospel. The gospel is not you pointing your finger at them and saying you are bad person. That is not the gospel. People already know who they are. People already know how bad they are. They already know that. We need to share with them the good news. We need to share the gospel according to the Bible, it is Jesus Christ.

The death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel. That is the seed that we should be sowing. When we sow that seed, it is not all going to fall upon good ground. Not everybody that you testify to is going to hear you, or wants to hear you. People at this church have sat here in these pews for many years. One fellow here got saved not too long ago and he came to me and said, “Preacher, I want to tell you something. I know you thought the many years that I sat here in these pews that I was not paying any attention to you.” Then he started telling me some of the things that I have said many years ago. Those things that he heard many years ago, was seed that fell upon good ground. It took 4 to 7 years to come up, to bring forth some fruit, but it did its job. I could have said, “You nitwit, why don’t you get saved?” We drive people away. We don’t need to do that. Let’s share the gospel with people and let’s go on about our Christian lives. Let’s spread the gospel, sow the seed and if we don’t see any seed coming through the ground after a week or ten days then we may want to do it again. We may want to scatter some more seed. However, we don’t do that everyday….

Spiritual growth, even in our own lives, I think sometimes that we think that we should be a whole lot smarter than we really are. Sometimes we think that we are smarter than we are. In talking to young Christians, they think that they should be progressing quicker than they are. I can’t make you grow. I can’t make a seed germinate. You sow it in the ground and as it is exposed unto rain and sunlight and air then that automatically grow. It grows at its own pace. I can go out there and wave a magic wand over it. I can do all kinds of things but that would not make it grow quicker.

Here is what makes us grow spiritually. When we have heard the Word of God, it falls upon the good soil in our hearts, we accept it down in our hearts as we expose our self to the truth, as we expose our self to those elements that God said would cause fruit to grow, as we expose our self unto that then we begin to grow. Some seeds grow quicker than other seeds do. Some people in our Christian lives even though they might be exposed to the same truth ever service after service; some people grow at different rates spiritually. It may because of many different things. It may be because we never went to church much. It may because we got saved when we were 40 years old and we never went to church any. We can’t expect someone that has never gone to church to grow at the same rate as someone that has been going to church all of their life. When I got saved, I didn’t know Matthew, Mark, Luke from John; I didn’t know anything about the Bible. My cousins and all those kids had gone to church from the time they were born. Spiritually speaking we were on two different levels because they had been exposed to the truth; they had been exposed to a lot more truth. They knew more than I knew.

Growth comes by exposing our self to the truth. Growth comes in our life as we expose ourselves unto those things that God said that would make us grow as Christian people. When I expose myself to that more and more then I will grow. I will grow at the rate that I need to grow at. I will not grow at a rate that I will shoot up here real quick and be flimsy and the first time a wind comes along it will blow me over. I won’t grow at that rate. God will allow us to grow at a rate that we can stand on our two feet and that we will be able to learn and discern some things and do some things for ourselves but He won’t let us grow at a rate that we cannot receive, that we cannot accept. God won’t do that. It would not do us any good. Spiritual growth is a good thing. Spiritual growth has nothing to do with man. The man was sowing the seed but the growth came because of the power that was in the seed. The gospel has power in it. When the gospel is spread it is the most powerful thing in the world.

The reason I want us to read and to know what is in this Bible is because I know the dynamic explosive power that is contained in this Bible. I want you to do more than read it; I want us to live it. Just like you sow seed in the ground, I want us to receive the seed. I also want us to take the seed deep down within our hearts so that we can experience growth in our life. The more I expose myself unto those elements that God said would make me grow spiritually the more I will grow. Many times the reason that we don’t grow is because we don’t expose our self to what God said that we need to expose our self to grow. We don’t grow up any. That don’t make us lost, that just makes us spiritual babies.

The seed is sown in our lives. We should be scattering it. We should be sharing the gospel with people. It is the seed/gospel that is going to change their lives. If they never receive the gospel, if they never receive the seed then their lives will never be changed. Your family, my family, your kids, my kids or whoever it is; if they never receive the gospel, then they will never go to heaven. The power is in the gospel…

…Devotional books are great, but make sure that we do not substitute a devotional book for a Bible. That is great to read those things, but let’s make sure that we are reading our Bible because it’s the Bible where the power is at. It is the Bible that is going to make you grow. It is the Bible that is going to change your life, not books about the Bible, but the Bible.

I have a whole room full of books; you probably couldn’t get them in the back of a pickup truck. I love books. Some of the books up there, I have learned some things by some great men that devoted their lives to studying the Word of God; had I not read some of these things by some of these men; there are some things that I would have just missed out on in life. Be that as it may, if I don’t know what is in this book [Bible], then all the other books that I read about the Bible is not going to help you any. The power is in the Bible. The power is in the Word. The power is in the seed.

Let’s sow it, not what you think about it. Just don’t tell people, I believe this or I believe that. Let’s sow the seed. Let’s sow the truth. When we do that then some good things can come.

Our spiritual growth, if we have received the seed and we are one of those that have received the seed upon good ground then our growth is guaranteed. Get that! If you have received the seed upon good ground then growth is automatic. You sow good seed in good ground; it cannot help but automatically grow. That is what the Bible says. If you sow good seed in good ground it will grow. In our spiritual lives, if our spiritual life; if I am good soil, I have received the good seed, it is deep down in my heart then I cannot help but bring forth fruit. I am going to grow and you are too.

Some grows at different rates. Some produce 30 fold, some 60 fold, and some a 100 fold. Not only is it automatic, if good seed is sown upon good ground it will automatically produce fruit. It is constant. It is something that is going to happen. It is spontaneous. It is automatic and it is sure. You can count on that. Not only in my life… I know sometimes in our testifying with people we get discouraged because we don’t see anything happen, if we are sowing good seed and it falls upon good ground it is going to bring forth fruit. That should encourage us to sow more seed in more places.

Seventy-five percent of this guy’s sowing as in the parable before fell upon ground that didn’t bring forth anything. However, in that twenty-five percent that brought forth fruit, some 30, and some 60 and some 100. Not everybody is good ground. Not everybody is going to hear us. However, there will be some that will fall upon good ground. If we will sow good seed, some is going to fall upon good ground and it is automatic, what I mean by that is that it is going to grow; if it is on good ground and it is good seed then there is going to growth there. I know that we are going to have to do some hoeing and some chopping and some fertilizing after it comes through the ground, but I’m talking about seed germinating and coming up through the ground. If you will just let seed alone after a while, weeds will take it. Seed will germinate automatically. If it is in good ground and it I good seed then it will germinate and it will start to grow because that is the nature of seed. When it comes through the ground and it starts grow then we will have to do some other work. I’m not talking about that work; we will get to that later.

Seed will germinate automatically when it is exposed to the right elements. Good ground and good seed with moisture; it will automatically germinate. That should encourage you and me not only in our own lives, in what we should receive and accept down in our hearts but as we testify to people, as we spread the Word of God with people. That is going to bring forth some fruit. Somewhere down the road it is going to bring forth some fruit.

Not only is it something that is sure and automatic, but also it is going to be gradual. We don’t sow seed today and go out tomorrow and pick tomatoes off of that. People don’t get exposed to the gospel today and then start preaching tomorrow. People don’t get exposed to the gospel today and accept the gospel today and we put them in as Sunday school teachers tomorrow. We cannot do that.

Growth in our Christian lives is gradual. Some people may never be preachers. Some people will never be Sunday school teachers. Do you know what we all can do and what we will do if we are good ground and we have received good seed; we are all going to bring forth some fruit.

Growth is sure. It is something that cannot be changed. Good seed falls upon good ground it is going to grow. It is constant. It is gradual. Seed grows at its own rate. Let’s don’t try to make it grow. Let’s don’t go out here and try to dig it up and say, “Seed grow. Seed, grow.” We cannot do that. We cannot do people that way.

Everyday, every week I talk to people all the time that have spiritual problems and the problems are because of their lack of being spiritual and other problems, but you cannot make people grow up. You can point them in the right direction. You cannot make people grow up too quick.

The little baby here tonight, you cannot take a pork chop and stick it in his mouth. You will kill him. That is the same thing with people. We try to force things on people sometimes and we kill them spiritually sometimes. Good seed when it is sown upon good ground it will bring forth good fruit. First a little shoot will come through the ground and after a while if you are sowing corn then you will see a cob start to grow and after a few weeks of that you will see a full ear. You can go out and….the full ear of corn will be there.

He says this:

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

Get this!

When you get ready to pick corn, you will go out and look at it. You will pull the shuck back and look and see how much has matured. You may pull several ears back in the whole patch to make sure that it is all mature before you start picking it. When it is all mature and it has grown all that it is going to grow, when it has done all that it is going to do then you put the corn picker in and you pick it.

God wants us to grow here on planet earth. He wants us to grow spiritually. He wants us to receive the good seed. He wants us to be good soil. He knows that if we will receive the good and we are good soil then He knows that seed will automatically germinate when it is exposed to the right elements. When I get saved God will make sure that I am exposed to the right elements to grow. That don’t mean that I will grow, but God will make sure that I am exposed to it.

God wants us to grow. There will be a time in our Christian that we are just like a little sprout sticking through ground. That may go on for a few years. As we expose our self to the truth then we should get up to our lives after a while, we can see an ear starting to grow there. After awhile, as we mature and we get in our golden years, if we live that long, we should be a full ears. God wants us to come to a place in our life that we are totally and completely mature. When that time comes, then life is over and He uses the word “harvest” here. We leave here. That is a great story.

I want us to be people that will receive good seed. I want us to be people that are good soil people and when we receive the good seed, let’s expose our self unto those things that God said will make us grow—and that’s the Bible—let’s expose our self to that and as time progresses we will grow. As we expose our self to more truth, more light, more rain; after awhile a stalk will grow up and there will be an ear on it. As we expose our self to more truth, light and rain there will be a full ear there. After that, at some point, the picker will come along and pick us and we will be gone. That is what I want to be. When the Lord comes to get me, I want to be a full ear.

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