Thank you, John, Sherry. Now let's go back to Matthew's
Gospel, chapter 13. Matthew 13, our Lord said in
verse 34, this is written of Him, verse 35, I'm sorry, it
was fulfilled, spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open
my mouth in parables. I will utter things which have
been kept secret from the foundation of the world. So what the Lord
is saying is a secret that must be revealed. Mystery. This parable. And down in verse 43, He ended
this parable by saying, Who hath ears to hear? Let him hear. Now that makes it of great significance,
doesn't it? It must be vital. For the Lord
said, Do you have ears? Hear this. And he gives this
parable of the wheat and the tares. He said the wheat are the children
of the kingdom, the children of God. He calls them good. And then he calls the tares the
children of the wicked one. And he says that children of
the kingdom, children of God, will be gathered into his barn,
Garner, and it will be a wonderful thing. But the children of the
wicked one, the tares, will be gathered and burned. And he said there will be great
wailing and gnashing of teeth. So that's how serious this is.
That's why he says you need to listen. And it behooves us to
find out, am I a weak or am I a tear? That's how important this is.
This is not just a parable, but this is life or death. That's
why the Lord said that. He that has ears to hear, Let
him hear. There's no place in between.
There's no gray area here, okay? The reason Paul said one time,
work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Find out. Give diligence to make your calling
and election sure, didn't he? Alright, who are these weeps
and tears? Am I a weep or a tear? Look at verse 37 and 38. The Lord answered the disciples
who asked Him about the parable. He answered and said unto them,
He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man. That's Himself.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. And He said the field is the
world. He puts them in this world. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom. Children of God. But the tares
are the children of the wicked one. Alright, let's look at this
good seed. He calls them that, doesn't he?
He says they're a good seed. Good people. Scriptures throughout
God's Word calls His people righteous. Doesn't it? If you'll read the
Psalms especially, it talks about the righteous And the wicked,
look at verse 43, it says, "...the righteous shall shine forth as
the sun in the kingdom." Throughout the Scriptures, it speaks of
the righteous and the wicked. Now, why are these seed, or these
children, or these people, good? Why are they called righteous? Scripture plainly tells us that
there is none that doeth good. Not one. Doesn't it? Not by nature. Nobody's born doing good. Scripture says there's none righteous,
doesn't it? But one. There was one man who
walked this planet who was perfectly holy. harmless,
separate from sinners, undefiled. He was so holy, so pure, so spotless,
so glorious in his holiness that God Almighty from heaven spoke
out loud and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. Or Isaiah wrote, The Lord is
well pleased for his righteousness sake. Well pleased. There's a psalm that says, Open
the gates of heaven. Someone is walking in. The King
of glory. Now, he's the good man. He's the righteous
man. He's the holy seed. Christ is
the Son of God. Why did Christ come to this earth? To show us how to live. To show
us how if we keep the commandments, if we do good, then God will
let us into His heaven. That God will say, you're doing
good and therefore you can come into heaven. No, no, no, no. With man, it's impossible. Impossible. Christ came to do
that for His people. Scripture talks about Him coming
to establish righteousness. All of sin comes short of the
glory of God, which is living a holy life. But the Lord Jesus
Christ didn't come short of that glory. He glorified God in every
jot and tittle. The law, He kept it perfectly. Not just in outward deed, but
in thought, in motive, in word. He kept it perfectly. And God
was well pleased. He glorified God as a man. Nobody
else had. Nobody can. But He did. Why did
He do that? This is more than a doctrine.
But He did that to charge that to His people. Because they can't do it. God's
elect. His people. They cannot do it. Christ could. He did. And He did it for them. And somehow, mysteriously, God
Almighty gave them, charged to them, the righteousness, the
goodness that was Him. Gave it to them. And just as
mysteriously and amazingly, He took their guilt and their sin
and their shame and put it on Him. And that's why Christ went
to that cross. He wasn't a helpless martyr at
the hands of men. God Almighty made Him guilty. Made Him to be sinned for these
sinners, these chosen ones. And God Almighty punished Him
on Calvary's tree in the stead of as the substitute of these
sinners. And they go to heaven because
He gave them His righteousness. Because he lived this perfect
life. And everyone that believes and
looks to him is counted for righteous. And they go into the presence
of God, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in God's sight.
Why? Because of that man. Now that's the gospel as clear
as I can make. As clear as I can make. We don't
go to heaven because we did good. We go to heaven because He did
good. We don't go to heaven because
we worked out a righteousness. No, we go to heaven because He
worked out this righteousness. He's the righteous man. And our
Lord said this in a mystery. He said, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it does,
it will bear much fruit. The fruit of righteousness. When
Christ died, His people died. When Christ arose, they arose.
And then there's this mystery of the new birth. They're good,
they're righteous because Jesus Christ made them righteous. He said, the good seed, they're
from Me. Didn't He say that? He said,
the good seed, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man. I did that. I did that. Their righteousness is of Him. And these good seed are good
and they're righteous by a new birth. A new birth. Now everything I'm
saying is way over my head, but it's the truth. It's the truth. It's a mystery. Christ said to
that religious leader Nicodemus, He said to him, now this was
a moral, upstanding man who knew the Bible and was very devoted
and all of that. And our Lord said to that moral,
religious, orthodox Jew, He said, You must be born again. You ever thought about that,
Brother Stan, in that way? He was talking to that man. And
He said, You must be born again. You haven't been born. again. Although he was outwardly moral. Right? Well, this new birth. James said, of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth. Peter said, we're born again,
not of corruptible seed. He said, not by your works, not
by your tradition, not by your religion, not by your anything.
We're born of incorruptible seed, the Word of God which liveth
and abideth forever, and this is the Word which by the Gospel
is preached unto you." Which you just heard, what I'm doing
right now. This is a mystery. This is a miracle that through
the foolishness of preaching, what the world calls what we're
doing right now, declaring God, declaring Christ, declaring what
sin is and declaring what salvation is, the Holy Spirit of God takes
this life-giving seed, the Word of God, at a time only known
to him, not to the soul winner, not to the preacher, not to anybody
but God. The wind bloweth where it lifteth.
And he takes this preached Word, the Word of God. It's not the
preacher, not the preaching, but it's the Word. And in the
fullness of time, he takes that seed and puts it in a heart of a human
being. It goes through here, but it's
got to hit here with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And then what happens? Something
comes forth, breaks forth that's alive unto God that was once
dead. Something that calls on God,
a new creature that calls on God once used to curse God, once
used to ignore God. God wasn't in His thoughts. Now
God is in all his talk. Something or someone, a mysterious
creature that believes God, praises God, worships God, is thankful
to God, hated God, didn't want there to be a God. Something
or someone who needs, who sees their need of the Lord Jesus
Christ, His blood, His righteousness, whereas before, it was nothing
to them. A new creature that begins to
love to hear this gospel that they once tried to ignore and
did everything they could to get away from. A brand new creature. Creating the image of Christ. Alright, listen to this. We talk about good and righteous. They are good and righteous in
their life. the fruits of righteousness.
I want you to turn over to Psalm 33 with me. Psalm 33. And before
anyone gets discouraged about that, they're good and righteous
in their life. Let me say this. What is true goodness? What is
true righteousness? There are many things that people
out in the world do that seem to be good deeds, don't they?
Charitable deeds. There are many things that even
unbelievers who have no care for God, for Christ, that they
do which seems to be the right thing or the righteous thing.
Right? And we look at people in the
world and say, well, there's a fine man, there's a fine woman,
person and all that. They seem to do good things and
so forth. But if good deeds and righteousness
is only what you see, then that means people who don't
care about God whatsoever are good people. Righteous people. But now this goodness and this
righteousness has to do with three things. Okay? These good seed. What makes them
good? There are three things. Three
things. I've already said in Christ and by this new birth. But there are three things. There's
fear, there's faith, and there's fruit. Fear, faith, and fruit. This is goodness. This is righteousness. Okay? Fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. And God Almighty puts this in
every one of His people. They fear Him. They fear His
name, the Scripture says. They use it fearfully. They don't
talk about God as you would another man. They don't use His name
as you would just a common man. When Paul wrote in Romans about
this modern world, his modern world and ours, he said, how
you know that they're wicked is there's no fear of God before
they're out. And how you and I know that this
world is coming to an end is that the name of God is upon
everybody's lips, not in praise and thanksgiving, but in blasphemy
and taking his name in vain down to little children. No fear of God before their eyes.
And the fear, John, the fear of Scripture says, their fear
of me is taught by the precept of men. What they call fear is no fear
at all. whom the Lord calls workers of
iniquity. He said, they have told people
for so long that I love them. There's no fear of me before
anybody except God's people. And God's people fear him. They
fear his name. They fear Departing from Him,
the Lord said, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. It's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Let us fear, therefore, a promise
being left us. Any of us should come short of
it. Fear. Fear. Fear. Sitting against Him.
Fear. Departing from Him. Fear. Look
at Psalm 33, verses 8 and 9. Let all the earth fear the Lord.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him, for
He spake. We're talking about the Creator
who upholds all things by the Word of His power. God who speaks,
and it's done. God who spoke the world into
existence, and the very reason we breathe is because He says,
Breathe. And all He has to do To give
life is to say, live. And to pardon us. All He has
to do to pardon us is say, not guilty. Justified. But, sad to say, look at verse
18. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear Him. Upon them that hope in His mercy.
Mercy? Yes, the Lord is merciful. And
his eye is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his
mercy to deliver their soul from death. Keep them alive in famine. Read on. Our soul, David and
all his people in this good seed says, our soul waiteth for the
Lord. He's our help. He's our shield.
Our heart shall rejoice in Him. We've trusted in His holy name.
Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in Thee. What is that? That's this faith
we're talking about. Fear and faith. They hope. They trust in Him. His mercy. What is His mercy? It ain't a
what, it's a who. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
mercy of God. We talked about that lamb hanging
on that cross. That's the mercy of God. That's
why God put Him there. That everyone who would look
to Him shall live. and not die. Faith. Faith is the gift of God. Faith
is the work of God. Faith is by the will of God.
Faith is the operation of the Spirit of God. Faith is not of
yourself. It's the gift of God. Nobody
ever decides, I'm going to believe God one day. God decided that. God purposed it. God in the fullness
of time says, believe and you believe. Salvation is up to the Lord.
From first to last. But do you know what it says
about, and I've already quoted it, everyone that believeth? It says,
Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. So this is what I'm saying here,
this good seed, this righteous seed, why are they good and righteous?
They believe God. Why? Because God gave them. It's all come from Him. Faith
believes God's Word. Faith believes His testimony
concerning Christ. Faith believes what God's Word
says about us. And it's nothing good. Faith
believes what God's Word says about Christ. And they look to
Christ and Him alone. Look at Psalm 32. Go back there
quickly if you're still in the psalm. This is wonderful. Psalm
32. Look at this. Faith acknowledges
sin. and looks to Christ for forgiveness.
Verse 5, David and all his people, the good seed, say, I acknowledge
my sin unto thee against thee and thee only. Am I an iniquity?
Have I not hid? I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord. And he forgave them. Thou forgavest the iniquity of
my sin. And verse 6 says, Everyone that
is godless This is what they pray for. For this shall everyone
that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be
found. When is that? Right now. Today. The gospel is being prayed. And
he says, surely the flood of waters will not overflow them
like Noah. They'll be in Christ the ark. Look at Psalm 33, verse 1. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous,
For praise is comely for the upright. They rejoice in the
Lord. Do you remember what Paul wrote? He said, we're the circumcision
which worship God, rejoice in Christ Jesus, His
salvation, and have no confidence in His flesh. They say, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. And all my goodness comes from
Him. That's what they say. And they
rejoice in the Lord, in His salvation. Look at Psalm 34. Quickly, verse
1 and 2. I will bless the Lord at all
times. His praise shall be continually in my mouth. My soul shall make
her boast in the Lord. We boast in Him. There's no room
for boasting. anywhere else, but only in the
Lord. And Psalm 35, 28, David says,
My tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise
all the day long. What is faith? It's to believe
God. Believe God's Word. It's to worship
God as God. Not this weakling that men are
preaching today. But God who is God. in whose
hands we are, all are in fear of the Lord. What is faith? It's to believe God's Son, to
look to Him and Him only for salvation. Not to yourself, not
to any flesh, not to the preacher, not to the priest, but to the
great high priest, to the great justifier, Lord and King, Redeemer,
to Him and Him alone. And I said this goodness and
this righteousness are three things. Fear, faith, and fruit. In Matthew 13, our
Lord said, this is how you know the difference between tares
and wheat. Tares and wheat. This is how
you know. Wheat, bear, fruit. Tares don't. And they may look alike for a
while, but tares don't bear fruit. Where would you find, if I would
ask you to go someplace in Scripture, to find where it talks about
fruit? Galatians 5, okay? Go over there with me. Galatians
5, and I'll close with this. Fruit. The good seed. The children
of the Lord who are created in His image, they bear fruit. Fruit. Our Lord said, this is
the difference. Fruit. Our Lord said, herein
is your Father glorified that you bear much fruit. We're going to compare the wheat
and the tares here. Galatians 5. Go over there. Galatians
5. Fruit of the Spirit. Fruit doesn't bear itself. Where
does it come from? Didn't our Lord say in John 15,
except you abide in Me, you won't bear fruit. I'm the vine. You're the branches. I'm the
root. You're the fruit. You don't produce this. You don't
let them say one day, we've tried that. No way. I'm going to bear
fruit. You can't do it. It's the fruit
of the Spirit. But it's in there. Alright? Don't
hang your head. Okay? Let's see here. if this
fruit is in us. If so, you must be a wheat. Galatians
5, verse 22. Now, the fruit of the Spirit
is love. Love. A lot of talk about love, isn't
it? Romans 8, verse 28 says, We know
that all things work together for good to them that love God. Right there is the first love.
Didn't our Lord say, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." Do you
love, and this is what the Holy Spirit puts in every one of His
people, do you love that God is God and man is not? Do you love that God Almighty
worketh all things after His will, not your will, Not man's
will, not the will of the flesh, but all things is by His will,
according to His good pleasure, that God Almighty, whatsoever
the Lord please, that did He in heaven and in earth, that
none can stay His hand and say unto Him, You can't do that.
That God does as He will, with whom He will, because He will,
because He's God, and He giveth not account of His matters to
anyone. Do you love that God? Huh? That's not of yourself. Most
folks don't like to hear about a God like that. Huh? Do you
love the truth? All God's people, John, receive
a love of the truth. The truth. What the truth says
about you and me is not a pretty picture, is it? But it's the
truth, isn't it? And you know the truth It will set you free. It will set you free from looking
to yourself for anything. You'll look outside of yourself
and start looking to Christ, won't you? What God's Word says
about all mankind is none good, not one. No, you can't get there. By the deeds of the law, no flesh
be just. No, no. It can't come to me.
There's only one way. One truth. One life. Look to
my Son. Everybody that comes to me by
Jesus Christ. Forget yourself. Look to Him
and Him alone. That's the truth. Christ said,
I am the way. There's no other way. I am the
truth. You're evil, He says, I'm good. Come to me, I'll make
you good. That's all there is. I'm the life. You're dead, I
must call you life. Do you like that? That's true. Love the truth. Love His people. Love His people. Tares don't. Tares love themselves. Tares Scripture says, hate that
God and hate the truth. Joy. Look at the next thing.
Joy. Joy in the Lord. Joy in the Gospel. They find
great joy in the Lord and His salvation. They rejoice in His
salvation. Let such as love thy salvation. that salvation is of the Lord.
Let them say, the Lord be magnified. Do you come here because you
rejoice to hear and joy in the Lord Jesus Christ? You don't
come here to see me. You don't come here really to
see one another. You don't come here to see the choir because
you'll be waiting a long time if you do. You don't come here
for any program. You come here to hear Jesus Christ
exalted. Joy and rejoice in Him. Do you? That's the fruit of the Spirit. Every one of God's people joy
and rejoice in Jesus Christ. Not in their church, not in their
denomination, not in this and that and the other, but in Him.
Can you say that? Look at the next thing. Joy.
Say this Saturday. Love, peace, joy, peace. Peace. God's angry with the wicked every
day. God's going to destroy this planet. He really is. That's
not a fairy tale. But Lord Jesus Christ said that. He can't lie. How are we going to have peace
with God? We need peace with God. Do you know how to have
peace with God? Every one of God's people do.
The Holy Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows it to them,
and they realize He is our peace. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. And they're not now at enmity
against God. They're not rebelling against
God and His truth. They stack their arms. They bow
the knee. They confess with the tongue.
He's our Savior. Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. Let the blood of Jesus Christ be propitiation, be the
peace offering on the mercy seat for my soul. And by that, Nancy,
they have peace that passes understanding. All of God's people go through
trial. They're in the world. They're
not out of the world. They're in the world, and in the world
they have tribulation, but they have peace. Are you worried about
the economy? Are you worried about terrorism?
Come on now. Are you worried about whatever?
Well, let's put it this way. We're human beings and we do
worry at times. But when it's all said and done,
are you really worried about those things? Do you not have
peace that God Almighty is God over this world? Nobody and no
one else is. Terrorists can't lift their finger
unless God says so. They're just a bunch of men on
camels. Remember that? And that all the gold and the
silver is his, Mac Torrance, if you run out of it, he's got
plenty. You'll never get hungry in McQuire because God is God. Always has been, always will
be. Peace. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Peace!
Our Lord didn't have a roof over His head and had one suit of
clothes. Did He make it? And so shall you. Peace. Peace. Oh, I've got to quit. Long-suffering. Why are you ready to forgive
your brother? If you don't, Scripture says,
the Father won't forgive you. But, you know, we put up with
sins of our brothers. Why? Because the longsuffering of
the Lord is my salvation. Is it yours? How long has the
Lord put up with you, Henry Sower? You're pretty old now. How long has He put up with you?
Your sins and so forth. How long? That's your salvation,
isn't it? He said, I'll bear with you,
I'll suffer with you, my mercy will endure forever. As long
as you need it, you'll have it. So he says, in light of that,
you be merciful. That shouldn't be hard to do,
should it? Read on. Long-suffering. Gentleness. Oh, David said, they're for war.
I'm for peace. Gentleness. Harmless as doves. Scripture says of the tares,
their violence covereth them like a garment. Gentleness. Goodness. Goodness. Yeah. Holy, just, pure. They love.
Good things, more excellent things, but the people of the world call
good evil and evil good. God's people really do hate sin
and love goodness. They really do. They love it.
They love holiness, don't they? That's their desire. That's their
heart's desire to be Good. Just like Jesus Christ. They
hate it. They hate sin. Mostly in themselves. They like a lot of different
things. And faith? We've looked at that. Meekness? The thing that characterizes
the world more than anything else. Pride. Pride. The thing that characterizes
God's people. more than anything else, humility, meekness, meekness. Read on. And temperance, meaning
having food and rainwater. And you know, really, we're covetous. We want things all the time to
our shame. And yet, if you dig down into
the heart of a believer, A good seed. What you'll find there
is a need for Christ and Christ only. And if you take away everything
and everybody from them, it'll be alright with them and they'll
say, I have all I need and I have Christ. Temperance. So, and our Lord said, The tares,
they're all being bundled. Right now, as we speak, they're
being bundled. I believe right now, quite a
few wheat are being gathered into his garner, in his barn.
What's his barn? It's a church. The world tares
are gathered together. They agree on most things. They're
gathered together, all together. Gathered together against the
Lord in His knowing. But God's people are all together. They're
bundled together. They're gathered together into
His barn. And David said, gather me with the saints. Let me be
with the congregation of the righteous. Because that's when
the Lord is going to take them all up. And he said, they'll
shine like the sun. Have you ever seen a wheat field? I mean a vast wheat field. Been
out in Kansas or out west or whatever. This wheat field when
it's all in full bloom, it's golden in it. It looks like a
sea of gold. And the sun on it and the wind blowing it, like
a sea of gold. That's the way it is going to be with God's
people in heaven. Like a sea of gold. Wheat. Under the sun who shines in all
His strength. And it will be a great day. A
great day. Alright. Brother John, you come
up and lead us In closing, hymn number 514. Hymn number 514.
We'll stand and sing a few verses there. 514.