Well, it's good to see you. Let's take our Bibles and turn
to the book of Revelation chapter 14. Revelation 14. In this first service, I'd like
to just look at a couple of verses. Before we begin, let's have a
word of prayer. Our Father, we ask you in the
name of the Lord Jesus to bless this word. Bless it to your honor
and to our good, for Christ's sake. Amen. We've been looking at the harvest
of this world. Now, we realize based on the
15th and 16th verse of the 14th chapter of Revelation that there
is going to be a harvest. Verse 15 says, And another angel
came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that
sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reaped. for the time
is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe
or dried. And he that sat on the cloud
thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped." There is going to be a harvest. And if there is going to be a
harvest, then obviously there was a planting. If there was a planting, then
obviously there was a planning. We used to plant a garden. When I was growing up, my dad
would set out a garden. And he knew just exactly where
that garden was going to be. lined it up, lined it off, put
up his fence. We had a garden. He knew where
that garden was going to be. Now, this harvest of the Lord
and the planting and planning of the Lord's garden. Song of Solomon talks about the
Lord. garden. God's got a garden. And
this garden is set forth, Matthew, Mark and Luke all relate, of
the parable of the sower that went to sow. And the Lord is
the sower and the seed is the Word of God. And God Himself,
He does what He does on purpose. It just is not There's nothing
ham-scam about God's garden. I don't go over and plant a garden,
my garden, at your house, Gary. It's my garden, my spot, my land,
my place. God Almighty does what He does
according to purpose, His will. You know, the harvest of the
Lord is not what God Almighty is waiting to see what's going
to happen. You that plant gardens, let me
ask you something. When you planted your garden,
did you know what you planted? You wanted to plant some corn.
You wanted to plant some tomatoes. You planted some beans. You knew
just exactly what you were going to harvest. There was nothing
insignificant, loose-ended. Whenever you lined out your garden,
you knew just exactly what you were going to plant. You planted
it where you wanted to plant it. In fact, you put it on the
rows that you wanted it on. Take that little bag that those
seeds came in, if you want to, put it on a stick, stick it on
the end of it, and you say, you know what's going to come up
right there? That right there is going to be beans. Beans is
coming up right there. And right here is going to be
tomatoes. Now, I can tell you this, whatever it took to plant
those beans and tomatoes and whatever else you got, you did
just exactly what it was going to take. And you knew just exactly
what was going to come up. And you knew just about the time
it was going to come up. There was going to be a harvest. It
was all planned out, you know. If somebody would say, where
is your garden? I don't know. Or what are you
planting? I don't know. Or when is it coming
up? I don't know. I don't even know
if it will. I don't really know if the seeds is going to allow
me to have a harvest. I don't know if the seed is going
to exercise its free will and let me have a harvest. You say,
well, I don't think you're thinking very right. You wouldn't be.
Do you think God is in control of this thing? Do you think the
Lord knows what's going on? Turn with me to Genesis 1.26.
Genesis 1.26. Let me show you how All of this started how the Lord's
garden started. Genesis 126, and God said, ìLet us make man in our image,
after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea, the fowl of the air, the cattle over all the earth,
over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.î God
said, ìLet us Now, here's a word that's very interesting. Let
us make. Let us make man in our image. Let us appoint. That's what that
word means. Let us appoint. Let us deal with.
Let us make man in our image. I've said before, who is the
image of God? Who is the express image of God
Himself? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That
verse right there says, let us appoint, let us deal with man
in our image, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us
make, let us appoint all men in how we see God, Father, Son
and Spirit, one God. Let us make man in our image. Let us appoint. man in our image. You just get it in your mind
about how you laid out your garden. How the harvest is going to be
for you. How you laid it out. How you made it. How you decided
what you were going to plant. How you planted it. How you fertilized
it. How you watered it. How you nurtured
it. so that the end result would be exactly what you decided was
going to be. That's how God has his harvest. Let us make man. Let us appoint
man in our image. Verse 27 of this first chapter
of Genesis says, So God created man in his own image. Now, there's
another interesting word. First word, let us make man.
Let us appoint man. Let us appoint man. So created
he them, that word right there, that word created means to cut
down or to make fat. To cut down or to make fat. What
are you saying? Well, let me show you. Turn over
to Romans 9. Romans chapter 9. We are going
through the book of Romans. We are not here yet in this particular
chapter, but I want to show you something. As I said before, when Almighty
God laid out His garden before the foundation of the world,
God Almighty did what He did according to His will and purpose,
power, His choice, His glory, His opinion, His honor. God laid
out what God was going to harvest. Romans 9. For this is the word of promise. Now, there is a good word. This
is God's word of promise. At this time will I come, and
Sarah shall have a son, and not only this, but one Rebecca also
had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac. For the children,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. Not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. But he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up." Now,
you go back and look at Pharaoh's attitude. You look at Pharaoh's
thoughts. You look at Pharaoh's and actions
against God's people, against God. The Lord said, I raised you up,
for this purpose I raised you up, that I might show my power
in thee, that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, on whom he
will, he hardened him. Leaves to themselves. He leaves
them alone. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find
fault?" Let me tell you what Paul just asked. He said, you're
going to ask me, well, then why does God find fault with me if
He made me like He did? Why can He find fault with me?
Not my fault. Listen to this answer. For who
hath resisted his will? Why does he yet find fault for
who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
unto honour and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known, endeared with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted, made up, to
destruction. Whose garden is this? Who planned
this garden? Who planned this harvest? Who
is in control? I suppose God says, Who is running
this show? God is. Not man. Not man's will. God is running this show. Well, I'll tell you, as surely
as God made, appointed and created, qualified, that is, cut down
or made fat, there is going to be a harvest. God is going to
have a harvest. Back in Revelation 14, the angel, another angel, one of
the same sort, that's what that word means, one of the same sort,
came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that
sat on the cloud. Who this other angel is exactly,
this Scripture doesn't say, but I can tell you this based on
letting Scripture bear witness of Scripture. I would say, if
I could say this as my assumption based on the Word of God, Who
but the Father would this be? One of the same sort. God Himself,
the Father, the Son, the Spirit, one God. One God. No man knows
but the Father, the Lord Jesus said. And whenever this other
angel comes out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him
that said, Thrust in thy sickle. What is this referring to? Turn
over to 1 Thessalonians 4. Just a few pages back, 1 Thessalonians
4.16, the Scripture says, For the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the
trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall
rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. This is
the harvest, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is it. This is the time. God has a harvest. Now, the Lord Himself, sitting
upon a cloud, verse 14, has on His head a golden crown, His
hand a sharp sickle, and another angel of the same sort, the Father
says, is time. It's time. Thrust in thy sickle. This is the harvest of God's
elect, of God's chosen. God has an elect. The elect,
that's what Ephesians 1, 4, chosen before the foundation of the
world. God who planned. God who ordered. God who ordained. God's garden. God's people. The Lord's bride. His own. Here is the harvest of the Lord's
elect. Until that time, they turn over
to Matthew 13. Matthew 13, verse 24. Until this time, this garden is growing, but there are some tears. Let's
end the Lord's among, let me say it like this, among the Lord's.
Matthew 13, 24. Another parable put he forth
to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven. Now you remember this. The kingdom
of heaven is the Lord's church. The Lord's bride. That's His
kingdom. His kingdom. The kingdom of heaven
is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. And
when the blade was sprung up, brought forth fruit, then appeared
the tares also. So the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed
in thy field?" Do you notice the possession here? It was good
seed in his field. This attitude of a ham-scam,
maybe, you know, everything. I was reading something the other
day and a writer was saying, I tell you, the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ has deteriorated to a point today to where it's,
you know, and I said, wait a minute. Wait a minute! No! The Lord Jesus Christ is in control
of His church, His bride. She is His bride. He redeemed
her, He loved her, paid her debt, imputed His righteousness. The
church of the Lord Jesus Christ is healthy. She is founded upon Him, upon
His righteousness. Didn't you sow good seed in your
field? From whence then hath it tares?
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servant said unto
him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? He said,
Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the
wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to the
reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles
to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." You go and
gather, that word first. You gather the tares first. That
is, gather the tares before Me. They're bound. They're held. God Almighty has all things in
control. This is His harvest, His church,
His bride. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. If I go to prepare a place for
you, do you know what's going to happen? I'm going to come
back, and I'm going to receive you unto Myself." How is it that
He will receive them unto Himself? They're His. They're His fruit. They're His beloved. They're
His bride. This is God's church, God's garden,
all that the Father gave the Lord Jesus Christ an eternal
election, what's going to happen to them? They're going to come
to Him. Why? He's going to give them a new
heart, a new mind, a new spirit. And in that new creation, they
have a new will. And they're willing to come.
They're willing to believe. They're willing to love. Willing
in the day of His power, And when He calls them by His Spirit,
they come. Are they robots? No. They do
just exactly what they want to do. Willing. Willing. Whosoever will. Do we believe in whosoever will?
Absolutely. The problem is before God gives
a man a new will, he won't. Who comes? Nobody. Who will come
unless God gives a man a new heart? Nobody. No man can come. He has no ability
to come. But I tell you this, when God
gives him a new heart, you know what they do? They act just like
a believer. They come. They love him. They look to him. And he, verse
16, that sat on a cloud, thrust in his sickle on the earth. And
the earth was harvested. That's His joy. That's His will. That's His purpose. The harvesting
of His wheat. The fulfillment of His joy and
their joy. In that day, when it's time,
when the fruit is ripe, that's what it says, the harvest of
the Lord is ripe. I'm talking about a garden. Whenever you plant, when that tomato was
just right. You know, those tomatoes and
those beans, do you know, Glenda and I went out and when it was
time, we'd go out there and pick. Now, sometimes I'd go out When
I was picking the tomatoes, I would pick them. Some of them were
really, really ripe. Oh, I tell you, they were beautiful. Now, sometimes they were a little
bit on the greener side, but I'd look at them and say, well,
I'll just pick that one right there. I'll just give it a day
or so, you know, and wait. But do you know, that picking
there was according to my thoughts. I picked what I determined was
right. My thoughts might be right and
they might not be. But when he says the harvest
is ripe, when is the harvest ripe? I'll tell you when it is.
When the last one that God Almighty, the Father, gave the Son, when
the last of God's elect have been called out of darkness,
the harvest is ripe. God will call them to Himself.
God Almighty will receive His own unto Himself. The harvest
of the Lord. It's the Lord's harvest because
it's the Lord's garden. It's the Lord's choosing. God
Almighty is in control of His harvest. Alright, let's take
a break and we'll come back in a few minutes.