Cling to the cross, burdened
with hope, Christ hath redeemed us once for all. Good. Okay, go back to Matthew 12. Look at verse 6 again. Matthew
12. The Lord says, I say unto you that in this place is one
greater than the temple. In this place. The Lord just
walked through a cornfield. I had a title, I believe it might
be that. The Lord walking through a cornfield.
Or walking with the Lord through a cornfield. Amazing. God was manifest in the flesh. The Lord of glory of the universe
came walking through a cornfield. And he said in verse 7, if you'd
known, if you had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy. If you'd have known what this
meaneth, I will have mercy. You'd be crying for mercy. You'd
be asking for mercy. But like he said to the woman
at the well, if you knew, you would ask, and he would give
it to you. If you knew who this was who
came here, you would ask, and you wouldn't be in these talking
to the Pharisees principally, because these Pharisees were
accusing him of breaking the Sabbath. They were Sabbatarians.
They were very careful about keeping a day. And our Lord said,
if you knew who I was, who I am, you wouldn't be worried about
a day. You wouldn't be trying to keep the law. You would be crying unto Me for
mercy. And I don't think we fully realize. I really don't. They didn't realize
who He was then. They don't realize now. Nor do
we. The God of heaven and earth.
When Solomon built that temple, and dedicated it to the Lord
in 1 Kings 8. He said, Will God indeed dwell
on this earth? He was building a temple according
to God's purpose, according to God's blueprint. God told him to build this temple.
He said, I will come down and I will dwell between the cherubs
over the mercy seat. I will dwell with you. And Solomon
said, Will God indeed dwell on this earth? He said the heaven
of heavens cannot contain Him. Will He dwell on this earth?
Yes, He did. Solomon, He came down here. And
that's Him walking through the corn. God manifests in the flesh. But as John read in Isaiah 45
tonight, He's a God that hides Himself. He hid himself from
the wise and the prudent. He disguised himself in flesh. But, and we read there, no man
knoweth the Son but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son. He to whom the Son will reveal
Him. And the Lord had to reveal Himself to Babes and had to reveal
Himself to us. And how blessed we are. How blessed
we are if we know who He is. And cry unto Him for mercy. Go
back with me to chapter 9. Do a little review with me. Who
this is. If you'd have known who this
is, and if you knew what this means, I will have mercy. I wish
I knew more of what that means. I will have mercy. The Lord delights
to show mercy. Back in chapter 9, it says in
verse 35, Remember this? He went about all the cities
and villages teaching in their synagogue, preaching the gospel
of the kingdom. Every city and village. Not just the big places,
but the little ones. And he's come into this little
town. And he's come into little towns like Silicon, Fairmont,
West Virginia, and other places, preaching the gospel, healing.
Look at it. Healing every sickness. every
disease among the people. It didn't matter what it was.
Anybody that came to him, he'd heal them up. And he says the
same today. All manner of sin shall be forgiven.
If people do this walk, that he will have mercy. That he's
not interested in your sacrifice. He's not looking for a sacrifice
from you. He's not looking for you to keep the law. People only
do that. May it ask for mercy. We were
driving here Sunday morning, Mindy and I. And we got to the
40 West intersection there where we turned left to come to the
church house. And there was a couple in a van in front of us, a German
Baptist couple. An old, old man over in the left
on the passenger side and a young woman driving the van. And they
passed us the old man, you know, had a big long white beard and
had his hat and all his clothes in perfect order. And she had
her bonnet pulled real tight and her clothes just right. And I don't know where they were
going, going somewhere to some kind of meeting and all, but
I said to men, remember what I said to you? I said, that could
be us. That could be us. That could
be you and Earlene, John, couldn't it? But for the grace of God,
most people, and I feel sorry for them. We ought to. Because
they don't know. I know they're guilty. They're
going about to establish their own righteousness. But they really
do think that they are righteous. They really are trusting what
they do is going to give them some favor with God. And men
and women are so deceived and have such a refuge in that that
they're going to stand before God someday and plead what they
have done before holy God and be so shocked when He casts them
out. But that couldn't be us, could it? Oh, blessed. How blessed
we are. How blessed our eyes are to see
what we see. He that seeth the Son believeth
on Him. We see, don't we? We hear. We've
heard His voice. He's told us. He's told us. Come unto Me. I'll give you.
I'm your Savior. And I'm getting way ahead of
myself. But he went into every village
preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Verse 36 of chapter 9, he saw
the multitudes who moved with compassion because they fainted,
they were scattered. He moved with compassion. Then down in chapter 10, remember,
he called twelve men. Bless our Lord, he called out
twelve men and he gave them power, he gave them wisdom, and he told
them so many things in the course of three and a half years that the world couldn't contain
the books written. So he had them write books later
and recalled things that he said to them later. And we had some
of those books. We had all we need. We don't
need any more. But the Lord gave us these blessed words through
his Remember what he said in his high priestly prayer, he
said, blessed are they who are going to believe through their
words. The Lord called out these men and they preached the word.
I love that verse of Scripture that says, the Lord gave the
word and great was the company that published it. The Lord gave
the word. It's his word. The good news
and great was the company of them that published it. He sent
out twelve men and he called seventy more and then he sent
out, he covered this earth with the gospel. How merciful is our
Lord. How gracious is our Lord. How willing to save it. He sends
this gospel out. He said you go into all the world.
Go into the smallest little village. You go into the highways and
the edges and compel them to come in. They will not come.
You go fetch them. God bless you. How blessed we are, huh? My,
my. The gospel usually comes to us,
doesn't it? And then chapter 11, verse 1,
again it says, came to pass he made an end of commanding his
twelve disciples. He departed hence to teach and
to preach in their cities. He went everywhere preaching,
it says, The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel. Blessed
is he, verse 6, whosoever shall not be offended in me." Most
people are. They are offended in his royal,
sovereign claims, aren't they? They are offended in him. They
don't believe in him. I do. Do you? I believe him. Are you offended in anything
he said? Margaret, anything the Lord said
offends you, bothers you? to take issue with. How blessed
are you? You're so blessed. There's so
much of what our Lord said in His Word that so many people
don't want to wish wasn't in there. How blessed we are. Blessed is
he or she that's not offended. Then you know how He upbraided
the cities where His works were done, so many of them. The text
we read in chapter 11, the last few verses, he said, Come unto
me. Come unto me. It's not an invitation,
but it is a right that he gives. Come, come, come unto me. See, we're not come to a mountain
that burns with fire and smoke and blackness that nobody can
come unto. the mediator of a new covenant. And he says, come unto
me. Come unto me. Anybody, all, whosoever labors
and is heavy laden, I will give you rest. I will give you rest. He didn't say, do anything. He
didn't say, meet this condition. If you're this, if you're that,
he said, just come unto me. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst. Blessed are those that are heavy laden. Blessed
are those that come. Oh, my. He said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of me. Oh, my, I want to grow in grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't you? And I want
to come to Him. And He says, you'll find rest
for your soul. Rest. See, my yoke is easy. Not a heavy
burden at all. It's not something... He's not
a hard taskmaster. like the law, a cruel husband,
but he's a kind husband. In fact, he does more serving
than being serving. I've always been amazed at the
thought of our Lord in glory. Someday, when we see Him, it
says He's going to serve us. I don't know how, but He's going
to. Well, then in chapter 12, here's where we begin. Chapter 12, at that same time. See, it's all connected. There
weren't chapters and verses. At that same time, he went on
the Sabbath day through the corn. I just talked about resting.
You know what Sabbath means? Rest. And he went on through
the Sabbath day, on the Sabbath day through the corn. He'd just
been talking about rest. Come unto me and I'll give you
rest. And this happened to be Saturday. Saturday. That was the Sabbath day. He came walking through a cornfield. Now, look at verse 23. It says, all the people were
amazed and said, is not this the Son of David? And in a minute, he's going to
tell us a story about David. How David did this exact same
thing. Well, similar. He went into the
temple and took bread that only the high priest could take and
gave it to the men with him. And they all ate this bread.
He goes walking through this cornfield on the Sabbath day
and gives this corn to his disciples to eat. permission to do that. Walking through a cornfield.
Look at the next chapter, over at chapter 13. Look at this.
Verse 24. Very soon we're going to look
at these parables in chapter 13. He gave this parable in verse
24, the kingdom of heaven. Another parable put he forth
unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field. He sowed good seed in
his field. And look down at verse 37, it
explains it. He answered and said, he that
soweth the good seed is the son of man. Field is the world. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom. So what this is, the Lord is walking through
his field. The earth is the Lord and the
fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell therein. One
time he came into the temple and the Pharisee said, who gives
you the right? It's his temple. That's what
Malachi said. The Lord shall suddenly come to his temple. This is his world. This was his
cornfield. He didn't ask anybody permission
to walk in it. He didn't ask anybody. He never
asked anybody anything. He always gave command. He always
gave command. And that's what David did when
David went into the Temple, he said to the high priest, give
me bread, give me five loaves, five loaves to feed my men. He
didn't ask him, he gave command. The Lord goes walking through
this cornfield. This is the Lord of the harvest.
This is the one that planted it. We just read that. He's the Lord of the harvest.
He planted it. And he walks through this cornfield.
And some fellow who owned this cornfield was just renting it
from him, unbeknownst to him. The earth is the Lord. Whatever the Lord has planted,
He plants it for the sake of His children. You know that?
Those businesses that you work in, jobs you work in, the Lord
had some man or woman or whatever, start that business for you to
eat a pair of ears of corn. It's His business. It all belongs
to Him. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. I want you to look at Deuteronomy very quickly. Deuteronomy 23. I've never seen
this before until looking and studying this. But this is good. Deuteronomy 23. The Lord is not
breaking the law here. He's doing what's lawful, eating
this corn. Are you there? Deuteronomy 23. Look at verse 24 and 25. When
you come into your neighbor's vineyard, then thou mayest eat
grapes thy fill at thine own pleasure, but thou shalt not
put any in thy vessel. In other words, you come into
a grape arbor, a vineyard, just eat all you want, but don't fill
a sack up there. Look at the next one. When thou
comest into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest
pluck the ears with thine hand, that thou shalt not move a sickle
under thy neighbor's standing corn. Don't take a bushel home
with you, but you can eat what you will. Now, you might not
want to try this with your neighbor's field. But the point is, here's
what the Lord is saying. It belongs to me. And if somebody
comes in there and they're hungry, you better give it to them. Because
I'm the one that grew it. We're talking about this rain
and sun and everything. The Lord... Boy, we've had a
banner year for corn and hay and all that heaven. People giving
Him thanks. Look at these empty pews. No, no, they're not. They're
complaining. They're complaining. And we don't
have a better reason ever to meet together other than that
just to thank the Lord for His goodness. We were driving down
the road the other day and down 220. You saw my truck parked
on the side of the road. I was out there picking raspberries. 220 is covered at this time of
year with raspberries from before you get to Boone's Mill all the
way to Rocky Mountain. Free for the picking. And I have. I've picked a bunch of them.
Who grew those? Who have they grown for? Me.
The earth is the Lord, and the fullness thereof. Everything
is for His people. It's free for the taking. And
the Lord walked through corn. How fitting to see it. The Lord called
Himself a grain of corn. He said, except a grain of corn,
and corn is one of the most widely used fruits in the world. Used more than any other except
rice, I believe. Corn, all over the world. Corn grows everywhere. Corn will
grow where nothing else will grow. Go down to Mexico and in
the midst of those rocky fields, you know, there's no soil to
speak of. They'll stick a stick down in
that ground and do that and put a grain of corn in and it'll
grow well. Why? Because it has people down there.
But our Lord said, I'm a grain of corn. He's the grain of corn. And except the corn of wheat
fall in the ground and die, it'll bite at the lung. But if it dies,
it'll bring forth much bread. Oh, my. Well, He did this on
the Sabbath day. The Lord did this on the Sabbath
day. This was His field. This was His corn. This was His earth. These were
His disciples. This is His day. It's the day
that the Lord made. This is the day, Sabbath day,
that the Lord long before gave to Moses, set aside a day to
worship Him. Not a day. It was a day, merely
a day of rest for their benefit, for our benefit, to rest, but
not to make a day of rest. Not to make it our rest. what
we worship. We don't worship a quiet, we
worship a person. It's his day. What do we do on
that day? Careful to observe that day.
No, careful to worship the Lord. Do what we do as unto the Lord.
Well, the Pharisees, verse 2, the Pharisees saw this. They
watched this. And interestingly, back in that
story of David, there was a man over the side named Doeg. And
he watched David go in and he watched him come out. And he
ran and told Saul about it. And they came and killed 85 priests
that gave David bread. Well, that's what these Pharisees
are. It's just like those Pharisees. And the Pharisees saw this. You
know, the Lord will have mercy. He's so merciful. They had no
mercy on the Pharisees. No. Very few Pharisees. Two that we know of. Just two
that we know of. Nicodemus and Saul. Do you know
of any other? Have I left any of that? Maybe
Caiaphas. I don't know. I doubt it. He
had no mercy on Pharisees. These Pharisees, they weren't
hungry. They weren't listeners. They were accusers. They saw
this, verse 2, and they said, Behold, thy disciples do that
which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. They were observers,
they were watchers, they were catchers trying to catch him
at his word, to condemn him, self-righteous. You know, everybody thought the
Pharisees were righteous. Everybody did. Everybody but
God. No one that mattered. And everybody thought the disciples
were unrighteous. Everybody but God. That's the
only one that matters. I used to be more conscious of
what I do on Sunday. The older I get, the less I care. Verse 3, He said unto them, Have
you not read? This made them furious. You know
it did. Oh, they read it all right, but
they didn't read it. They couldn't understand it. Have you not read
what David did? when he was hungered, they that
were with him, how he entered into the house of God, did eat
the showbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither
for them that were with him, but only for the praise." Have
you not read that? And I wanted you to go back and
read that with me, but go back and read it for yourself sometime. But what happened there, and
I'll tell you what happened, is David, Right after he made
a covenant with Jonathan, right after he made a covenant with
Jonathan and promised Jonathan, and they hugged, it says they
got up on their knees, both of them wept and embraced each other. And David promised him, I will
be true to that covenant. I will be merciful to thy seed. God be between me and thee forever,
and thy seed and my seed forever, and I will keep this covenant.
At that time, Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth, three years
old. At any rate, David, right after
that, he's being pursued. Our Lord was pursued like David
all his life. He made a covenant before he
came here with the Father to come here and to fetch all his
Mephibosheth. Well, David was on the run from
Saul, and he went straight to Nob, to a temple. And when our Lord came into Jerusalem,
the first place he went was to the temple. But David came into
the temple where Nob was, and Ahimelech, I believe his name,
was the high priest in that temple. And David came to him, and he
said, Give me bread. He didn't ask him. He said, give
me five loaves of bread. He says the high priest was afraid
at David's coming. He said, what are you doing here
alone? And he was afraid. The high priest knew who this
was. This is God's King, and he feared the King. And he said,
what are you doing here alone? Oh, it's all such a picture of
Christ. Christ came, you know, when He
left He had twelve disciples. He left them, took three with
him up on the mountain. Then when he went to the Calvary,
he went alone. He did this work by himself. But the high priest
said, what are you doing here alone? He said, I'm sitting here
on business. The king is sitting there on
business. And the Lord, when he came here, said, I must be
about my father's business. And David went into that temple
and told that man to give him that bread, and he said, This
is not common bread. This is hallowed bread. The high
priest, he said, the men with you can't eat this unless they've
been consecrated. David said, they're with me.
They're consecrated. That's what he said. He said, since I left, since
I came out three days ago, these men with me are holy. Give
me that bread. And he gave it to them. And they
ate it and they were hungered. And they were no more hungry
after that. And our Lord brought that up.
That's what He said. Have you not read what David did when
he was a hungered and neither were with him? What did David
do? He did what only the priest could
do. Went into the temple and took what belonged, took holy
bread and gave it to his men. That's what the Lord is doing
here. Son of man, have you not read? Over in Luke's account, it said
after all this, and we're going to see maybe Sunday about the
man with a withered hand. But after he did that on the
Sabbath, it says they were filled with madness. Filled with madness. And they took counsel how they
might destroy him. Just what Doeg did right after
David came out of the temple, how they might destroy him. This
is not just the son of David. Well, look at verse 5. He said, Have you not read in
the law that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple proclaim
the Sabbath and are blameless? Have you not read? Oh, they do. And as Paul said, they desire
to be teachers of the law, but understand not what they affirm
or what they say. Have you not read how that on
the Sabbath days, the priests in the temple proclaim the Sabbath
and are blameless? In other words, the priests are
working. On the Sabbath day, the priests are working. They're
cutting wood, and they're killing the sacrifice, and they're doing
all these work. And God never quit working. On
the Sabbath day, on the Sabbath day, when God says cease from
His work, if God quit working, everything would stop. The world
would quit spinning. The sun would quit shining. See,
He holdeth all things together by the word of His power. When
it says that God rested from His work, and so many people
are ignorant of this. That means it was complete. It
was finished. It was complete. There was nothing
left to be added to it. When God made the garden, He
finished it. And Adam was not supposed to
plant one more plant. Don't plant one seed, Adam. It's
all there. All you've got to do is eat. And thank me. And our Lord said,
look at verse 7. He said, What this meaneth, I
will have mercy and not sacrifice. Oh, we need to go and learn what
that means, don't we? The Lord has mercy. You know,
it's by His mercy that we're saved. It's of the Lord's mercy
that we're not consumed. That day that the Lord made was
for worship. We worship God for His great
works. work of creation, his work of
salvation. We worship God from the heart.
We worship him in a true understanding of what he's done. We don't worship
a day. We don't observe a day. And the Lord didn't change it
to Sunday. We know that. And there's a lot
of people that don't know that. Our Lord came to this earth.
is to do a work for His people. He came to fulfill the law, to
keep the law, not show us how to keep it, but to fulfill it
for us, to finish the work of salvation. When He was on that
cross, He said it's finished. It's finished. Complete. There's
nothing for you to do but to trust Me. Believe Me. And do
you remember when our Lord hung on that cross? The veil of the
temple was rent in two. It means we can come boldly unto
the holy place. Not by anything we do, but by
the blood of Christ. And that's why he said, come
unto me, up there in chapter 11, come unto me, I'll give you
rest. You see the connection there? I'll give you rest. You
can't. No day can give us rest, can
it? People work harder trying to
keep a day than anything else they do. They make a work out
of a day, don't they? The so-called seven-day Adventists work harder
at keeping that day. And they come to see a land to
make everybody see, try to see an error, a lie. And our Lord
said in verse 8, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.
Lord of the Sabbath. He is the Lord our Sabbath. He
is our rest. He said, come unto me and you'll
find rest. We're not under the law, thank God. That's why we
sing that song. Free from the law, O happy condition.
Free from the law. Mary said at one time, what are
we supposed to do? Mary said it early on. She said,
whatever he saith unto you, do it. But if he didn't say it,
you don't have to do it. And he'd tell anybody ever at
any time to keep the Sabbath day. Really? He kept it. He kept it. Every Sabbath done,
he kept it. Not like they probably should.
He wrote it. He's the one that said it. He
can do what he will. But he kept it. Kept the Sabbath
done. He worshipped God in spirit.
And on that day, he worshipped God every day. With all his mind,
heart, soul, and strength. He's the one that kept it. And
Mary said, whatever he says, you do it. Now, Christ never
told us to keep that day. He's God. Christ is Lord of heaven
and earth, author and finisher of the law. If he says it, we're
to do it. If he doesn't tell us to do it,
we don't have to do it. That's good. He said, if you know these
things, oh, you're happy. And we rejoined. He said, I will
have mercy, not sacrifice. He said, if you'd known this,
you wouldn't have condemned the guiltless. Who's he talking about?
condemning the guiltless? Well, Him, number one. But He's
also talking about His disciples. And you know, that's who I get
my peace from, the Lord. I worry about offending people
and all, and I go to the Lord, and He's the one I get my peace
from because He's my defender. You wouldn't have condemned the
guiltless. Read on. The Son of Man is Lord even of
the Sabbath day. even of the Sabbath day. And
when he was departed thence, where did he go? He went right
back into their synagogue. There's a man with a withered
hand in there. We worship a person a lot of the day. Thank the Lord
that he fulfilled the law. Thank the Lord that he came to
this earth to do for us what we could not do. Thank the Lord
that He freed us from the curse of the law. Cursed is He that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. Christ was made a curse for us. He did them all. Went
to the cross. Suffered under the penalty of
that law. Was made a curse for us. Freed us from the requirements
of that law.