starting Matthew 13. The Lord wills. As the Lord gives
enabling, I hope to bring out some connections between a few
passages of Scripture found here in the New Testament as well
as in the Old Testament. As I said a while ago, it really
is amazing how the Lord orchestrates everything including our conversation
that we've had this morning for those who are just who are watching
and everything we're starting starting late because the Lord
just kind of been guiding us in conversation a lot of times
we discuss things uh before we start we just kind of let the
spirit lead us wherever wherever he wants us to go but uh it isn't
by chance it isn't by some random event. It isn't by some variant
jumping into the service and taking over. It isn't, you know,
someone else taking over the service or anything like that,
brother. It's all orchestrated by God. He's leading us in this. We pray that He leads us in our
worship. But just as we believe that this
morning everything that we talked about leading up to this point,
was governed by God, so is everything that has ever happened, that
ever will happen, that is going on right now, not just here in
this household, but outside, in every place, wherever God
has created, the Lord is governing according to His will, in accordance
with His purpose, and bringing all things about that he has
desired, that his pleasure has been pleased to have pleasure
in. And as I mentioned a while ago,
sometimes we are so focused on so many of the minute things
that we don't back up and see the big picture of a lot of things.
And that was one of the things that really impressed me about
some things that I listened to this week, some sermons that
I listened to. Brother Chet Dirks listed a few of his messages,
as I mentioned earlier. uh and just how that uh sometimes
we don't see the big picture of a lot of things uh and we
just see the random little seemingly random events that are going
on around us but god has orchestrated all things according to his will
and even this morning as i mentioned A lot of the things that Brother
Larry brought up this morning, the Lord had been dealing with
me about this morning in prayer and some of the things that I
would hope to be able to bring out this morning. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed at
the depth and the richness of the scriptures. And whenever I'm seeing that,
I'm then again overwhelmed in a different way with the ineptness
and the ignorance that I have, especially in the Adamic man.
How we so often read things, so often we hear things. We're
quick in the Adamic man to pick up on the traditions of men and
grab those hold to us But whenever the teaching of the Lord comes,
that spiritual teaching from above, we begin to see some of
the fallacies and some of the things that the Adamic man has
held so close. And that teaching that's from
above comes and liberates us from those traditions. Comes
and liberates us from those false understandings, those false doctrines
That's one of the ways that we hear and understand of a temporal
saving. And I don't mean to get into
a lot of this, and we know that there are sects of people out
there that believe that there is an eternal salvation, a temporal
salvation, and one is predestinated by God, the other is a synergistic
work between God and man doing some work together and everything,
which we don't believe. To deny that there is an eternal
salvation and then there's temporal deliverances or salvations would
be a gross misstatement to say that there's not, because we
see throughout Scripture there is different savings besides
that which is eternal, that which is the legal saving. We are saved from wrong knowledge
of God's Word. We're saved from the wrong knowledge
of who Christ is. We're saved from wrong doctrine.
We are delivered from thinking wrongly about what the scriptures
are putting forth. We're saved from self-righteousness. We're saved from thinking that
our self-righteousness is getting, I mean, so there are things that
we come to in this life, in this temporal realm of time that is a deliverance that God is
bringing His people out of as He grows them in the grace and
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the more that the
child of grace is taught by the Spirit of God in these spiritual
matters, the more we come to understand how much that we cannot
know in Adam. And one of the things that we
cannot know in Adam is that we are Adam. One of the things that
is hard for us to let loose of in Adam is the fact that we cannot
do anything, that we are unable to do anything righteous, that
there is nothing in us good, that everything about us is sin,
and the only righteousness that there is is the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Adamic man, and whenever
I say Adam, I'm not talking about the first man who was created,
He was our head, He is our natural head, and we are His natural
seed, and therefore we are like Him. We are created in His image,
after His likeness. We are Adam multiplied. And so, as Adam multiplied, what
I mean by whenever I say Adam doesn't receive these things,
Adam doesn't understand these things, I'm not talking about
just that first man, I'm talking about all of His seeds. the natural
man cannot perceive or understand or discern spiritual things. Therefore, since he cannot discern
them and with wisdom know them, because he cannot perceive spiritual
truth, then he's going to reject them. He's going to look for
things that suit his fleshly desires. He's going to look for
things that is going to accommodate the self-righteousness that he
is indwelt with by nature. And so those things that he hears
that are false, that are from the father of lies, that you
can be as God, that you can attain something of your own, that you
can do it, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, you can
make yourself pleasing to God, you can make yourself accepted
with God, whatever the case might be, the natural man is going
to gravitate towards those doctrines. And those doctrines are going
to be prevalent in the understanding. And to the man who has not been
quickened of God, who has not been taught of the Spirit, who
has not been given that treasure within to be able to know how
I am worthless, how I am evil, how I am wicked, and how I am
unrighteous, and how that the only righteousness that can ever
be attained is that which Christ has attained already and that
He is only righteous. The only way that anyone can
do that is if the Spirit of God brings him to know that, to teach
him that. So anything that we read in the
Scriptures that teaches of how God has done what He has done
only comes by the teaching of the Spirit of God. The natural
man wants to reject those teachings because it puts God up where
he deserves to be and it brings man down and so therefore he
rejects that because the natural man wants to do just the opposite. He wants to bring God down to
his level, exalt himself to that level which is God, if not above
God, and therefore he be the determiner of all things. I am
the master of my own domain. I am the one who controls my
own destiny. I make my own choices. I am responsible. I am accountable. My will is
the determinant factor in everything. Therefore, God has given me,
in His sovereignty, has given me free will to choose or to
choose otherwise, to do or to do otherwise, to receive Him
or reject Him. to be one of his children or
to not be one of his children. It all is left up to me. And
so the natural man will gravitate that because that bolsters his
pride. It bolsters that self-righteousness
that is ingrained in flesh that wants to have its own way, to
be its own God, to control its own destiny. Those doctrines
will bolster the religious zealot, the Pharisees. What bolstered
their religious zeal to be for themselves and to do for themselves
what Moses had said. If you do these things, you will
live. They believed that they had eternal life by searching
the scriptures and following after the law. They believed
that they had eternal life. And as long as they did that,
then they were going to receive eternal life. They believed that
because they were the children of Abraham in the flesh, that
they were going to receive the inheritance because they were
those people. But see, the flesh doesn't have
anything to do with anything. Matter of fact, the Bible says
that the flesh profits nothing. What we do in this flesh profits
nothing, brethren. The only thing that counts is
that which is done by the Spirit. That which is from above. That's
the only thing. All the things down here is temporal
and it's all going to fade away. It's all going to go away. Everything
is going to go away. We see that even in the top and
foreshadow of the tabernacle. God had Moses build that tabernacle
after the pattern that was in heaven, but that tabernacle was
not meant to be forever. And as we've seen, it's not here
now. And I don't believe that it's ever going to be rebuilt.
I believe that they're going to be trying these things. It
will never be the place of God's dwelling though. They may build
an edifice over there somewhere. They may institute sacrifices,
but God's dwelling will not be there. He has laid that waste. He has laid that desolate. That
was a type and a foreshadow to come of the people of God and
Christ. And that is no longer what God is doing. And I don't
know why people have such a hard time thinking that and why they
want to go a different route and pump something else up that's
not there. But brother, just as we've seen that, man wants
to build edifices to God. Man wants to do the Word. Man
wants to be involved. Man wants to have his hand in
everything. especially in the things of religion. But the spiritual man realizes
that we can't put our hand to anything. That whenever we put
our hand to anything, it corrupts it. I was reminded of this in one
of the messages that I listened to Brother Dirks this week, where
he was talking about whenever they were commanded to build
an altar, and the Lord commanded him, he said, don't hew nothing
out, don't use any tools, no hammers, no chisels, don't do
nothing. You take the rocks as they are, and you build that
altar to me just the way that it is. The reason he didn't want to
have anybody do that is because he didn't want to have anybody
be able to say, I made this, I was able to put this together,
to have any hands in this. God made those rocks, as Brother
Durst brought out, God formed those rocks to the exact shape
that he formed them, wherever they was found in the dirt. And
those men pulled those rocks and made that altar, and that
altar came up exactly the way that God wanted it to be, in
the exact shape he wanted it to be, with them fit the exact
way he wanted them fit, because he made those rocks exactly the
way those rocks were formed to form that altar in the fashion
that he wanted it to fashion. And man couldn't say that they
did something to do that. God did it. And that's the same
way with all things. God is not going to let man put
his hand to anything. God's not going to let man say,
I had a hand in this or I had a hand in that. Everything has
been done from the foundation of the world so that no man can
boast. God has finished all things before
the foundation of the world. And I know we're in time. I know
things are being brought out by God's providence, by Christ's
coming and bringing forth everything from that scroll that God has
written and His purpose and all the destiny of all things and
all the outworkings of all of God's purpose and plan, that
Christ is bringing that about in time. But, brethren, the Bible
says that all those things were finished from the foundation
of the world. They were finished. Nothing is going to change and
nothing can be put to them and nothing can be taken away from
them. It's all been finished. And all we are seeing is the
manifesting of God's eternal purpose being brought about by
the will of God in Christ Jesus. He is bringing all those things
about. And as He is bringing those about, that means that
me or you or anybody else isn't causing Him to do what He is
doing because He's bringing them about. If I do anything, it's
because He has brought about the things that are necessary
for the accomplishment of His purpose. So we are beholden to God as
Creator, as Sovereign, as the Predestinator, as the Ruler,
as the One who is the potter over the clay. We are beholden
to abide, to wait and see, to occupy. Now that's not things
that we are commanded to do as far as these are activities that
we must do. These are things that we are.
We abide in Him. How do we abide in Him? By resting
in Him. How do we wait? We wait not by
putting our hand to anything, but we wait and see how God does
everything. How do you occupy? Well, I'm
occupying this house. What do I do by occupying this
house? I live in it. We are watching God's predestinated
purpose, predestinated plan, predestinated desires and wills
being brought forth before our very eyes in everything that
we do and everything that we say and everything that goes
on. Whatever it may be, we have seen God unfolding everything
that He determined that was finished before the foundation of the
world but is being now made manifest to us in time. Now Jesus has taught these things
thoroughly while He was here. It's all through the Old Testament
we see this. But brethren, Jesus clearly portrays
some things about God's purpose and about God's predestination
and about God's finished before the foundation of the world purpose
that He is bringing about now. Just a side note, whenever you
look in the Old Testament and you see things prophesied in
the Old Testament, and the fulfillment of them later on down the line
somewhere. Those things are a testimony. Every one of those prophecies
are testimonies of God's predestination. And I don't know why some people
can say that God predestinated salvation but He doesn't predestinate
events or actions or He doesn't predestinate anything else. He
only predestinated salvation whenever everything in the Old
Testament that was prophesied said that in the New Testament
it said that the Scriptures might be fulfilled? That wasn't because
God said it in the Old Testament and that now it has to be done.
No, it's because God said it and purposed it before the foundation
of the world. He revealed it to men in the
Old Testament and prophesied of what is going to happen. And it is going to happen not
because God foreseen that future as we've talked about a lot here
lately. but because God had purposed it. So it was finished from the
foundation of the world. Why? Because God determined it.
It's finished because God determines it. Is everything going to happen
exactly the way that God has determined? Well, you would be
wrong to say no, not everything is going to happen the way that
God has determined that it would be. And there's a lot of people
that believe that. I've heard that. I used to believe
that. I used to believe that there was a determinative will
of God and a permissive will of God, that God doesn't want
you to do this, yet then some people do this, but He allows
that to happen against His will. So He allows something to be
against His will. Now, He allows something because He has determined
it. See, everything that happens,
happens because God has allowed it to happen. But He only allows
it to happen because it's His purpose. The only reason he's
allowing that to happen is because it works to his purpose. If it doesn't work to his purpose,
he doesn't allow it. Why did Joseph's brothers not
kill him? Because that was the intent.
Because it didn't work to God's purpose. So God restrained them
from killing him, but God purposed them selling him into slavery. And what they meant for evil,
God meant for good. What was evil in their activity
and actions, God, who allowed, who permitted, who predestinated
their actions, was actually good. Why? Because it was the out-fulfilling
the fulfillment of his purpose, the bringing forth of his purpose. He had a purpose. And someone
will say, well, yeah, well, it was the purpose so that Israel
might come about in Egypt and grow up to a large nation and
all this stuff, you know, that might be the fulfillment of what
he said to Abraham. So, yeah, that the outcome was
good, but everything leading up to that, that God didn't determine
that that was bad, that was evil. Well, God is the one who said
he meant that the evil part. for good. So don't change God's
words, don't rest the scriptures, don't lie about God. So we see
that all of this purpose and plan God has finished from the
foundation of the world, but listen brother, He will wrap
it all up and that purpose at the very end of all things will
have went, everything, the end from the beginning, everything
will have been done exactly according to his purpose. Look with me,
if you would, in Matthew chapter 13. I want to speak on a couple
of things here. Matthew 13, we know that this
is the portion of scripture where Jesus is giving a bunch of parables
to the people. And we know, and I'm not going
to dwell much on this, but we know that the parables were not
given to the people in easy-to-understand source so that they might be
able to grasp that. That's what I hear a lot of preachers
say. Jesus spoke in parables to break it down to their level
so they can understand it. And therefore, that's what fuels
the fire for their Sunday schools, that fuels the fire for their
evangelistic efforts to take the gospel and to put it in a
nutshell, to take the gospel and to bring it down to its basest
form so that people can consume it where whenever you preach
those big words like, we don't ever use those words like justification,
propitiation, sanctification, all that kind of stuff. People
don't understand those words. We don't talk about high doctrine
and things like that. People just don't understand
that. We just want the simple gospel. We just want to talk
about love and about Jesus dying for us and about our devotion
to Him. to bring things down to an understandable
and so they will give them stories. People can understand better
if you tell them in stories. Just like Jesus. Well, Jesus
was a life application person. He brought everything down to
stories. No, no. Jesus spoke in parables and He
even said it Himself. The reason that He speaks in
parables is so that they will not understand. The reason parables
was given is because there was a spiritual application behind
the parable. The people that were listening
were listening in a natural way, trying to put natural discernment
to what he was saying. What are you talking about, about
sowing seed, and about finding pearls, and about all this stuff? What are you talking about all
this? They were simple stories, but they were simple stories
that had a spiritual understanding, and only those who had ears to
hear could hear it, and understand it, and perceive it, and know
it. And he even tells his disciples, even in this discord that we're
here looking at, He said, it's been given to you to know these
things, but not to them. That's why he spoke in parables,
because there was a group of people that he was saving, and
there was a group of people that he was not saving. There was
a group of people that he had determined would be given spiritual
understanding and those who would not. He had already determined
from the foundation of the world that there would be sheep and
there would be goats, that there would be wheat There would be
tears. There would be vessels of honor.
There would be vessels of dishonor that God had determined before
the foundation of the world. Known unto God, Brother Larry
quoted this this morning, known unto God are all that are His.
He knows them. Their names are written down,
and then there were names that were not written down. That's
before the foundation of the world. It has already been finished.
It was finished before the foundation of the world, the names that
would be and the names that would not be. The names that would
be would be his sheep. The names that would be would
be his wheat. The names that would be would
be his seed. The ones that would be written
down would be his children, his generation. Those who would be
written down would be his people. And before the foundation of
the world, those names that were written, those sheep, those wheat,
those seeds, They would be not just from Israel,
but be from every nation. They would be from the whole
world. And so we see Jesus enters in and some parables talking
about a sower who sows some seed. And this seed we see is being
scattered. And it wasn't just scattered
into Israel, but it was scattered throughout everywhere. Look with
me if you would, Matthew chapter 13. Look at verse three, it says,
And he speak many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold,
a sower sent forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds
fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them
up. Some fell among stony places, where they had not much earth,
and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness
of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because
they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns,
and thorns sprung up and choked them. But other fell into good
ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold,
and some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him
hear. And the disciples came and said
unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered
and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not been given.
For whosoever hath to him shall be given, And he shall have more
abundance, but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away,
even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in
parables." See, it's to take away from them and to give to
others. He's taking truth away from them
and giving truth to others. He has taken away what is to be revealed in the
parables and has given it to some, but not to the others.
Therefore shall I to them in parables, speak I to them in
parables, because they seeing, see not, and hearing, they hear
not, neither do they understand. Now, brethren, that is who we
are in natural man. Natural man cannot see, cannot
hear, and cannot understand, and it is the Lord who has caused
that. How did the Lord cause that?
Did the Lord cause that actively in this moment to close their
ears, to thicken their heart, to shut their eyes at this moment? No, He did it back in Adam. How
did He close their eyes? How did He close their ears?
How did He close their understanding? He did it in Adam. Whenever He
created Adam, Whenever He made Adam of the earth, earthy. Whenever
He made Adam natural, He made Adam without the ability and
the spiritual discernment because He made him natural, not spiritual. Therefore, all the seed of Adam
coming forth from his loins has the exact same characteristics
in nature. They are unable to discern the
things of the Spirit of God. They are unable to keep the law
of God. They have no righteousness. They have no ability. They have
no way of taking hold of the things of God and to apply them,
to understand them, to receive them, to love them, to find joy
in them, to speak of these things. They have no ability in that.
Why? Because that's how God made us in the natural land. He made
us without that ability. So all these people, their hearts
have been hardened, their eyes have been closed, they have been
made these people. They have been made this way
because they are in the natural man and there has not been anything
done to them to cause a difference. Paul said, what is it that makes
you to differ? The only thing that makes me
differ from anybody else is the fact that there has been a treasure
from heaven that has been placed in this earthen vessel, and in
this earthen vessel, that treasure that's been placed is the Spirit
of God that is bringing me to knowledge of the Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. who has given me the truth as
God's Word reveals and has given me light upon what God has said. It has given me light upon the
testimony of God and His Christ. It has given me testimony of
the gospel and the salvation of God. That's the only thing
that causes us to differ. Because the flesh don't know
nothing, can't understand nothing, can't receive nothing, perceive
nothing. There is no wisdom in man. The only thing that we have
has been given to us And Jesus here is saying, listen, it has
been given to you to know, but it has not been given to them
to know. He says, and in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah, which said, by hearing you shall hear
and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and shall
not perceive. Yeah, they hear, they see, they
see all the activity that's going on, but they cannot perceive.
They don't understand. They don't know. For this people's
heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and
their eyes they have closed, lest any time they should see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand
with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal
them. What is he saying there? If you'll just put these into
action, if you'll just see, if you'll just hear, if you'll just
understand, then you would be converted, I would convert you,
but you're not doing that. No, that's not what he's saying.
Let me ask you this, can a blind man just see? I mean, that's what me, I used
to say and think, that's what Arminianism says, is blind man,
just see. Just look. Just see. Deaf man,
just hear. What's wrong with you? Open your
ears and hear. Dead man, come alive. See, that's what we think that
we can do. We have the power over all flesh to be able to
bring and give eternal life. But we don't have that power.
Because it is only by eternal life that has been given to us
that we know the things of God. We know the things of the Spirit
of God. It is that eternal life that
has been given to us that causes us to differ than those who do
not. And those who have been closed
in their eyes, closed in their ears, closed in their understanding,
or that way not because they choose to be that way but because
they have been chosen to be that way. There's a big difference. They have not chose to be that
way although they choose in their nature to continue in that way
They can choose to not glorify this God. They choose not to
glorify the Jesus of Scripture. They choose not to believe the
testimony of the gospel of God's grace alone. They choose not
to believe that God has predestinated all things for His purpose. They
choose to believe that God's sovereignty is somehow mixed
with man's responsibility. They choose to believe those
things, but they choose that because they cannot choose otherwise. Yes, they choose, but they choose
according to the nature that God has put them in, and they
cannot change that nature. So God has given them over to
this and not delivered them from this. Some He delivers, some
He does not. Some He has chosen to give sight
to. Remember whenever Jesus prayed,
He said, Father, I thank Thee. that thou hast revealed these
things unto babe that you have hidden them from the wise and
the prudent?" God has hidden truth from some people and some
people He has revealed it to. Is God unfair for doing that?
Absolutely not. Is God unrighteous for doing
that? Should be the actual question.
It doesn't matter about fairness. But is God unrighteous for doing
that? No. He's not unrighteous. Why? Because he can choose whatever
he wants to do with his creation. Whatever he wants to do, he can
do. And he says, verse 16, But blessed
are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
The only reason that anybody hears or sees is because they've
been blessed of God to be able to do so. So that tells me that
hearing, seeing, understanding, The very things that Christ is
talking about here, all of those are a blessing of God, not something
that we can attain in our own ability. Not something that we
can do of our own. It's something that only God
can give us. It is a blessing. Those who are
able to see, hear, and understand have been blessed to do so. Not that you are a blessing because
you can. Not because God has blessed you
because you have chosen it. No, you have it because you were
blessed. You were one of the blessed ones.
He goes on in verse 17, For verily I say unto you, that many prophets
and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye
see, and have not seen, and to hear those things which ye hear,
and have not heard them. Hear ye therefore the parable
of the sower. Drop down, if you would, with me down to verse
24. He starts with another parable. Well, I guess before I move on
to that, let me bear out this here. Verse 23. We've seen that the Lord sowed
seed, right? Now, don't drag all the parables
together in one long parable. The Lord's going to give us one,
two, three, four different parables, okay? And each parable stands
alone. They have some similarities,
they have some differences. We can't apply the same interpretation
on everything in one parable as it is in another parable.
We have to, if the Spirit would give us to understand, we must
see that there is a specific point that is being made in each
one of these parables. So we can't just say, well, if
it happened in this parable, then it happens in this parable.
Because we see right here that in this parable, the sower went
out and sowed seed everywhere. And some fell on, what does it
say there? It said it fell on some stony
places. It fell in some thorny places. It fell in those places. But
what happened? It didn't bring forth any fruit.
Nothing happened. It withered away. It died. It didn't have
any root. It didn't produce. It wasn't
genuine. What happened? So now we're saying,
well, there you go. God sowed every one of us. So all of God's creation are
his people. And therefore, it's our choice
how we react to our circumstances, whether we allow the sun to bear
down on us and take us away or whether the thorns come up and
we give in and go away, whatever the case might be. Right. But
notice, he says that there were some that received seed into
the good ground. But he that receives seed into
the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it,
which also beareth forth fruit, and bringeth forth some a hundred,
and some sixty, and some thirty." So we see here the only seed
that beareth forth fruit unto God, the only seed that was good
seed, that was The seed that brought forth fruit is the seed
that was planted in good soil. The soil has to be made good. The rest of them are not talking
about Christians who have under the weight of the things of this
world or whatever case might be, however you want to interpret
those other three seeds. We're not people who were apostates.
that were true people but then apostated. No, these are showing
that there are different kinds of people that whenever they
hear the Word of God, and I think the Word of God here is the seed
that is being talked about, they hear the Word of God, they have
different ways of reacting to it. There are some that come
among us that hears the Word and they get excited about it,
They say, hey, I love that. And they may even get them a
Bible, and they start doing Bible studies and all this kind of
stuff. But then again, after time, they may weary out. They may lose interest. What's
being preached is not feeding them. They want to hear something
else that their tickling ears want to hear. So they go find
churches that tell them how good they are, What is it? That I'm good, that I'm blessed,
that I'm whatever it is that Joe Holstein always has them
recite. Affirmations. What was that Saturday
Night Live skit? The Daily Affirmations. I'm good,
I'm loving, and people like me. Gosh darn it, people like me. The good ground is the only one
that produced fruit. and it only produced fruit because
the ground was made good. So we get that in this parable
here that the only ones who are going to produce fruit, who are
going to believe, who are going to receive, who are going to
see, hear, understand, that's the fruit that God is bringing
forth in us. That fruit is being brought forth
because there was good seed that was put in good soil, and that
good soil bringing forth fruit. The husbandman is the one who
dresses that vine. The husband one is the one who
fertilizes it. The husband is the one who brings
it. If we look in the New Testament, we see, I am the vine and ye
are the branches. Abide in me and ye shall bear
much fruit. The vine didn't do anything.
The branches didn't do anything. It's the vine, the life of the
vine flowing through the branches that produce the fruit. The branches
went out there going, I can't do it. I can pull out some fruit. No, all they did was abide. They
rested in the vine, and the vine produced the fruit as the vine's
life determined. Sometimes we see fruit come out
on trees. Sometimes we don't see fruit
come out on trees. Is it that branch's fault out
there? If there's fruit that comes out on it, sometimes we
see this magnolia tree out here. Sometimes there's nice big pretty
leaves. Sometimes there's not. Is it the branch's fault that
those leaves don't produce a nice big magnolia No, it's the life
of that tree that determines whether or not that thing is
going to bring forth a flower or not. Look with me down to verse 24
now. It says another parable he put forth unto them, saying,
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed seed.
So this is another parable. This isn't the continuation of
the previous parable. He's given another parable and
it's going to have Verbiage kind of like the other one, but there's
going to have meaning that's different than the other one.
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, 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 weak, and went his way. But when
the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the
tares also. Now that's odd and it's something
that just kind of come to my mind, something that maybe we
ought to pursue or maybe look at, but it says here, when the
blade was sprung up and produced forth fruit, then appeared the
tears. Isn't it true that whenever the
child of grace, dormant in the ground, just like the tear, dormant
in the ground, but whenever that blade begins to show forth and
it begins to produce fruit alongside the wheat and the tares coming
up together, whenever that wheat comes up and begins to put forth
fruit, it begins to reveal that which is fake. You know, I heard
the story about the wheat and the tare, that whenever a wheat
and tares grows up together in the field, you almost can't hardly
tell the difference. They look identical. I mean,
they look identical. The only difference between a
stalk of wheat and a stalk of tare is that the wheat, if you
look at it, that fruit at the top of that thing is bent over
and it's bowed, but the tare sticks straight up. And of course,
the person I heard talk about this connected that together,
that the child of grace has been humbled bows before the Lord
knowing not only who their Maker is, not only who their Sovereign
is, but knows their inability, knows their worthlessness, they
know their sin, and therefore is humbled and bowed before their
God, where the righteous stands up like that Pharisee and stands
straight up before God with his face towards heaven saying, I'm
glad I'm not like this guy. The difference between the wheat
and the tare is that we have been given to know our sinfulness,
and His righteousness, and therefore we are humbled before Him. And
so we see that the wheat and the tares come up together, but
whenever the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then
appeared the tares. The tares all of a sudden began
to start being noisy. Whenever you're in a group of people and you start
talking about religion, you start talking about the Bible, start
talking about salvation and the gospel, and you start bringing
forth the true gospel, righteousness by Christ alone, dead to the
law, sovereignty of God, predestination, election, you start talking about
all those things, it quickly becomes noticeable among those
people who the wheat is and who the tares are. Within a church,
the Bible says, heresies must come, divisions must come. Why?
Because it proves those who are His and who are not his. The
tares will be among them. Even here in our text, let's
continue on, it says, So the servants of the household came
and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy
field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them,
An enemy has done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest
while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat, with
them. See, with man, we don't understand,
we don't know. We're going to pluck somebody out thinking that
they're not Terry. That's why we say, me and Brother
Larry was having a conversation before we started this morning.
We were talking about how while we can see somebody who is, whether
they're believing the true doctrine of grace or not, whether they're
believing the gospel and everything, and if they're not, they should
be considered unbelievers until they begin to believe that. But
whether or not they're the elect of God or not, we don't know.
We don't know. To us, a lot of people are going
to say, oh, that person isn't performing to the perfect knowledge
that I think they ought to have or the perfect activity that
they should be doing. Therefore, I'm plucking them
up. They're a terror. Let's get rid of them and everything.
Now, that doesn't negate the fact that there should be some
discipline within a church when things arise. But what I'm saying
is a lot of times we start pointing the fingers of whose name is
written in the Lamb's Book of Life and who's not when we don't
have a clue. And we're quick to pull somebody
up because they don't look like us. We don't know. The Lord here is saying, leave
them, let them grow up together. Why? Because there is one who
does discern between the weak and the tears. There is one who
is able to know who are His and who are not, and that's the one
who needs to separate. He's the only one that has the
discernment to do so. But he says here, and he said
unto them, an enemy hath done this. The servant said unto him,
Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? And he said,
Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the
wheat that 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.
It kind of goes against the left behind philosophy, don't it? God's going to gather the church
up first, leave the tares behind. But what's happening here, he's
gathering up the tares and leaving the elect behind. Gather ye together first the
tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the
wheat into my barn. And down in verse 36, Jesus begins
to explain this parable. Look with me if you would. Then
Jesus sent the multitude away and went to the house. And his
disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of
the tares of the field. And he answered and said unto
them, He that soweth the good seed is the son of man." That's
Christ. The field is the world. So Christ
has sown his seed into the world. Every child of God, every elect little child, has been purposely
placed where Christ has sown him. Now we think of a sower
as just grabbing some seed and just indiscriminately just throwing
it everywhere. But the Bible tells us that God
has set our habitation. That God has placed us where
He wants us to be, whether it's here, whether it's across the
ocean, whether it's at the furthest reaches of known civilization,
God has sown His seed into the world, wherever the world may
be. He has sown it where He wants
it. He has placed it exactly where
He wants it, when He wants it. And that wheat comes up at His
appointed time. It begins to bear fruit at its
appointed time. And it will be gathered into
the barn at its appointed time. The field is the world, the good
seed are the children of the kingdom, the good seed, the good
seed are the children of the kingdom. But the tares are the
children of the wicked one. So here again we see that Jesus
himself is making a distinction. There are children of the good
seed and there are children of the bad seed. The bad seed produces
what? The tares. The good seed produces
what? The wheat. There are two seeds. God has
determined who those seeds would be. He planted the good seed. He knows those who are His. He
plants them where He wants them to be planted. They are in wherever
they are and they will grow up whenever He determines they grow
up in His determinative time. Why? Because it was finished
from the foundation of the earth. It was finished in His determinative
plan before the foundation of the world. God determined all
these things. And He had His bag of seed, and
He put His bag of seed wherever He wanted. Now, with me saying
that, that doesn't mean that the other seeds are not determined
where they're at by where God determined them. Because wherever
Satan has planted his seed, he has planted them at God's determination. If you remember in the account
of Job, whenever Satan was before the Lord, and he said, have you
considered my servant Job? And what did Satan say? He said,
I can't do anything to Job because you have put a hedge around Job. See, Satan wasn't able to do
anything that God had not given him to do. The lying spirit couldn't
go into the prophet until God said, you can go into the prophet
and cause him to tell these lies. See, God controls Satan. God
controls Satan's work within his own people. God controls
all of that. So to say what we're seeing here,
to say, well, Jesus is the one who sowed the seed and Jesus
is the one who knows his people and has put them wherever he
wants. But Satan, he kind of does willy-nilly whatever he
wants to do. No, God has control even over him. The fact remains,
what the point is, is that Jesus knows his people and his people
are separate, separated, sanctified, if you will, from those that
are not His people. They are set apart for His use. And the rest of the seeds that
are tares, they have been planted for a purpose. They have been
planted for God's purpose as well. And while Satan may be
their father, and while Satan may have sown them, and while
they may be doing all the will of their father, all of that
works according to the purpose of His good pleasure. All of
that is God working out all things according to His own will. So he says, The enemy that sowed
them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and
the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered
and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world.
The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do
iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father, who have
ears to hear, let him hear." So we see that God has determined
before all things who would be His and who would not be His,
where they would be located. They would be scattered abroad
across all of the world, not just within one little region
of the world, not just within one little nation of a people,
but it would be among every place. God had determined these things.
He is the One who has sown us. He is the One who will gather
us. He is the one who will bring forth the fruit in between those
two points. But notice if you would some
things. I know I'm probably going really long, but I want you to
notice something if you would, if the Spirit would give us to
know these things. Look if you would with me at
John chapter 11. And as I begin this whole entire
thing, I begin saying that these doctrines are hated by the natural
man. These doctrines are hated by
the religion of man. And whenever I say religion of
man, I'm not talking about just Buddhism and Hinduism and New
Ageism. I'm not talking about just the
Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons. I'm not talking about just them.
I'm talking about the Armenians who claim to be Christians, Catholics. I'm talking about everything
outside of the true religion of Jesus Christ. I'm talking
about everybody outside of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
The zealots for Jesus of some Jesus. The zealots of the Armenian
churches that are out there that are fully working to do the things
of God and to do all of His work and they seem to be such spiritual
people and things like that, but are actually anti-Christ.
They are deniers of the gospel, deniers of the finished work
of Christ, deniers of the sovereignty of God, even though they use
those words. They say they believe in sovereignty. They believe
that God has saved and they believe that all these things have happened,
but yet they deny Him. You say to me, Lord, Lord, but
yet you deny me. In John 11, if you would, look
with me over to... Sorry. Oh, it's verse 45. This is right after Jesus raised
Lazarus from the dead. It says, verse 45, that many of
the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus
did believed on him. But some of them went their ways
to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. Then
gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council and said,
What do we? For this man doeth many miracles."
See, they were worried about their status. They were worried
about, hey, you know, this guy This is getting out of hand.
I mean, all these people are starting to believe on Him. All
these people are starting to hear what they're saying and
not listening to us. Everything that we've stood for,
everything that we've done for these people, all the years that
we've taught these people, and they're now all of a sudden,
just out of nowhere, this guy comes on the scene and they reject
all their life long the things that we've taught them. What do we do? For this man doeth
many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all
men will believe on him. See, they thought they had it
in their own hands to be able to stop him. If we let him continue
on, then everybody's going to believe on him. Well, at least
one thing's true. At least one thing's true. If Jesus
controls all things, He can surely make all men believe. But he's
not chose to do so. He's not chose to do so. He says,
if we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him. And
the Romans shall come and take away our place in nation. How
many times I've heard men that I've talked to that claim to
believe in sovereignty, predestination, but yet they say, While I believe
that, I really don't talk a lot about that in our church. I don't preach on those. I don't
harbor on those hard doctrines because people can't really receive
that very well. Those are really for the conversations
among more of us more mature Christians. And so these other
people, we need to continue to feed them milk until they're
ready for that meat. And so they don't teach this
thing. Well, brethren, when it boils
down to it, what they're really saying is this right here. If
we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him and they
shall come and take away our place. What they're saying is
if I preach these things, these people are not going to like
it and they're going to leave. If I preach these things, I may
be out of a job. If I preach these things, my
preaching circle is not going to be as big as it used to be.
Listen, brethren, I can tell you, The circles of my preaching
have been narrowed way down. Whenever I traveled and sang
in that southern gospel group and used to be able to preach
and sing and have a platform to deliver what I thought was
the gospel all over the country, people would have me preaching
revivals. I would preach at my church. I would preach in other
people's churches, different things like that. They didn't
have no problem with that, but boy, I tell you what, whenever
the Lord gives me to understand sovereignty and predestination
and election and I begin to preach that, all of a sudden they start
saying, you know what? We just think we're going to pass on
you coming back. And I, brother, I know I'm not
the only one like that. I know I've heard the same testimony
by many of you guys, that the more that you preach these things,
the more that people begin to say, you know what? I don't think
I want to hear that. Why? Because it goes against what
we believe. It goes against what we think.
It goes against what we are trying to accomplish here. We're trying
to evangelize the world, and you're preaching that God's already
done it? We're trying to evangelize all of mankind because we're
concerned for their souls, but you're saying that the Lord's
already done that? They shall come and take away
both our place, and they see they were not worried about the
truth. They were not worried about God's glory. They were
worried about, how is this going to affect me? What am I to do? I mean, look what they said up
there. What shall we do? What do we do? What do we do? This doctrine is getting out.
This doctrine is flooding the place and everybody's starting
to turn to it. Well, they're only turning to it, number one,
because the Lord has given them to understand it. But second
of all, there's nothing that you can do about it. There was
nothing they could do about it. They thought they were going
to do something about it. Matter of fact, this whole scheme to crucify
Jesus, they thought was going to put an end to this. But it
was only, they were only, and I'm going to say it, and I'm
going to say it with no hesitation, no reservation, without any problem. They were puppets in the hand
of God to bring forth what the determinate counsel of God had
determined before the foundation of the world, because it was
finished then, They were puppets. They were robots in the hand
of God to do exactly what God... God determined to save His people
by the shedding of blood, by the innocent man, Christ Jesus,
by the wicked hands of man, and He determined before the foundation
of the world what time those evil men would live, what time
His Son would walk this earth, what time it would be for him
to go to that cross and by the determinate counsel of God he
caused those men by wicked hands to beat and torture and mock
and spit upon and pull the beard out of and lash him and say all
evil things of blasphemy against him and nail him to a cross and
think that they have done God a service and think that they
have gotten away with keeping their status as the religious
leaders of the day, and all they did was exactly what God had
determined for them to do, to bring forth the purpose and the
will of God in His determinate plan. They did exactly what God
wanted them to do. Continue reading with me, verse
49. And one of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same
year, said unto them, Ye have nothing at all, nor consider
that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people,
and that the whole nation perisheth not. And this faking not of himself,
but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation. What irony. He was telling the
truth even though he didn't want the truth. He was telling and
being a voice piece of God even though he didn't believe, even
though he didn't like it. He was being a prophet for God
although he was not a child of God, at least that we know of.
And he said, but here it is, this is what I wanted to get
to. that he should die for that nation, and not for that nation
only, but that also he should gather together in one the children
of God, here it is, that were scattered abroad. There they
are, brother. The good seed that was sown,
not just in Israel, but was sown into all the world by this man's
sacrifice would be what would gather in together into one all
of the seed that God had planted. Not one seed was going to be
left dormant. Not one seed was going to be
forgotten. Not one seed was going to burn
up under the sun, be choked out by the thorns, be covered under
by the rocky terrain. good seed was going to bear forth
fruit. It was going to come up, not
as a tare, but as a wheat, as God had purposed it and planned
it. They came up as a wheat, and they maintained and abided
until the day of harvest. And at the day of harvest, God
gathered them in as wheat, because He knew every place that He had
scattered them, and He gathered them together, sent His angels
to every place where they were located, and gathered them in,
into His barn, And it says, but whenever this
is known of men, whenever this is known of Adam, then from that
day forth they took counsel together to put him to death. Whenever
that gospel is being preached, the Adam man hates it. And he wants it put to death.
He wants this gospel destroyed. He wants these people that represent
this to be destroyed. His hand will ever be against
it. The natural man will not receive
it. The natural man cannot perceive
it. It will hate it because he's
at enmity with God. He will continue to shed the
innocent blood. He will continue to be the wild
man that hates Isaac. He will continue to be that man
that despises the birthright of Esau, I mean of Jacob. He will continue to be the seed
that will always be at disharmony with the seed of the woman. He
will always be the one who is at consternation with the Spirit
because the flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against
the flesh. It will never be able to perceive and understand and
find harmony and love for the Gospel of Jesus Christ because
it is just the flesh and it profits nothing. It cannot see the Kingdom
of Heaven, nor will it enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The
only ones that will enter in is those who have been planted.
He will gather His people. This isn't just a New Testament
doctrine. Brother Larry brought it up this
morning. The Gospel is preached in the Old Testament and the
New Testament all over the Bible. Look with me if you would at
Genesis 49. Genesis 49. Or excuse me, yeah,
Genesis 49. Look at verse 10 if you would. The Bible says, "...the scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the
people be." Listen, Israel becoming a nation
isn't what gathered the people back together. God gathering
an ethnic group of people back into a land that is not their
own anymore Gathering them back in is not the gathering of the
people. The gathering of the people are those seeds that God
has scattered all over, and there's only one who will bring those
seeds back in, and we just learned who it was. It was Him. The one
who was prophesied by Caiaphas that should die for the nation,
and not that nation only, but all the nations. He should die
for those seeds that are scattered out wherever He has scattered
it, and that He alone is the one who will gather it in. When
Shiloh come, shall the gathering of the people be." That's a hard
shall. Brother Mike says all the time.
Mike Fulton. That's a hard shall. They shall
be gathered. Not one will be lost. All that
the Father gives me shall come to me. Look at Psalms 112. This is an
interesting verse that I came across this morning in my preparations. I was praying that the Lord would
give me some further understanding of some of these things, especially
as it pertains to the tares, to Adam, as it pertains to who
we are outside of Christ, to that Adamic man. and even more
so as it pertains to the wicked, the seed of the wicked one. Psalms 112, look with me if you
would, down at verse 9. Now this psalm, this 112th psalm,
matter of fact, is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's
a lot of people that want to apply this to Adam. They want
to apply this to man. But this ain't man. As a matter
of fact, I'm just going to start in verse 1 and read down. It
says, Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth
the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. Now let
me ask you, is there any one of Adam that can do that? There
is none that fear him, the Bible says. In Adam, no one fears the
Lord. There is no fear of God in them.
That's why I believe that Cornelius was already born from above before
Peter ever came and preached to him. He was born from above
because the Bible says that he feared God. Only those who are
born from above fear God. It says, blessed is the man that
feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
Is that not the picture of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? It says, his seed, whose seed? The one that is blessed. the blessed man. His seed shall
be mighty upon the earth. Not that they will be strong
upon the earth, but that they might be great among the earth. They might be everywhere. Whenever
we talk about there was a mighty army, it's not just talking about
the power of the army, it's talking about there was a lot in that
army. His seed was scattered everywhere.
What did God tell Abraham? He said, your seed will be as
the stars. Your seed will be as the sands
of the seashore. It'll be mighty. There'll be
many of them. Everywhere. Scattered everywhere. The stars.
They're everywhere. They're scattered all over the
firmament. The sands of the seashores. There's
seashores everywhere. I mean, you think about If we
just go out here to some of the creek banks, there's sand all
over them. If you go over into the Grand Lake or down to Table
Rock Lake, there's sand all around those. And that's not even counting
all the other great lakes and the oceans and everywhere around
the world that there is. The sand's the seashore. God
is comparing that as His people were scattered everywhere. It says, His seed shall be mighty upon
the earth. The generation of the upright shall be blessed.
So that means His people are blessed. Ephesians chapter 1.
Blessed are, what does it say? Blessed be the God and Father
of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And the
one who fears God and delighteth in His commandments, whose seed
is mighty upon the earth. His generation is called the
upright. Why? Because they are in the
upright. They are in Him. And they shall be blessed. It
says wealth and riches shall be in His house. And His righteousness
endureth forever. Brethren, if not anything else,
just the fact that we have been blessed to have His righteousness
imputed to us is the wealth and riches that fills His house.
Not to mention all the other things that He has given us,
but just the fact that His righteousness has been imputed to us. But it
says, wealth and riches shall be in his house, and his righteousness
shall endure forever. It says, unto the upright there
ariseth light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion
and righteous. A good man showeth favor and
lendeth. He will guide his affairs with
discretion. Surely he shall not be moved
forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting
remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil
tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting
in the Lord. The Bible says that He set His
face like a flint. He went to the cross trusting
in God. He went to the cross, why? To
accomplish that which was given Him to do. The Bible says that it pleased
the Lord to bruise Him. The Lord said it was His perfect
purpose. It was by the determinate counsel
that He sent Christ into the world, that He sent Christ to
the cross, that by those wicked hands would be to do all that
thing. He was fixed, trusting in the
Lord. I'm going through with not my
will, but Thy will be done. His heart is established. He
shall not be afraid until He see the desire upon His enemy. He was set like a flint to the
cross to accomplish salvation for His people and to accomplish
the destruction and the devastation of all of His enemies. What does
the Bible say in the cross of Jesus Christ? That He put all
of His enemies under Him as a footstool. He put all of His enemies under
His feet. His heart is established, meaning
it's rooted, it's grounded, it's sure, its foundation is not going
to be moved. He is set like stone to go and
to accomplish that which was given to Him and His desire will
be done over His enemies. His enemies will not prevail.
Satan, all of his angels, all of the wicked, sin and death
are all going to be put away. It's going to be done away with.
It's going to be destroyed. They will be finished. His desire
for why and the purpose that He created them will be accomplished. The whole purpose from before
the foundation of the world that Satan was created and that all
those angels would follow after him and whenever his sin was
found in him and was brought manifest out of him and that
he was cast in this place and that he has been the father of
lies and the father of deceit and the accuser of the brethren.
and the One who has sowed His seed throughout all the world
and that they follow after Him in all of His lives, and that
ultimately one of these days they will all be gathered in
together as the tares that they are, as the vessels of dishonor,
and they will be done with exactly the way that the Creator created
them to be used for. It says right here, His desire
will be He will see His desire upon His enemies. Whatsoever
the Lord desires, He's going to get, right? I will do all
my pleasure. I will bring it to pass. I will
do it. He hath dispersed, He hath given
to the poor. His righteousness endureth forever. Here it is. His horn shall be exalted with
honor. The wicked shall see it and be
grieved, and he shall gnash with his teeth and melt away. The
desire of the wicked shall perish." I see that's exactly what happened
whenever Christ was crucified and we see all these Pharisees.
The wicked shall see this very thing. The horn shall be exalted. That account that we just read
was when Jesus was coming in on the asses cold. And they were
laying down palm branches and saying, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And they were saying,
save us, save us, save us. They weren't looking to the religious
leaders to save them. They were looking to Christ and
they were believing upon Christ and they were following after
Christ. They were hearing and seeing and understanding while
these others They could not understand and they were bewildered and
they were being frustrated because they were not given to see and
understand. They were not given to know.
They were not part of God's sheep. They were not part of God's fold.
They were even called the children of Satan. They were called vipers.
They were called the wicked. And how did they respond? to the
thing that should be the exaltation of Christ? How did they respond?
The wicked see the exaltation of Christ, and what do they do?
They're grieved in their heart. They gnash their teeth at it.
They melt away from it. But the desires of the wicked
to squelch it out, the desires of the wicked to put it to an
end, the desires of the wicked to rise above that and be exalted
of their selves, it will perish. It seems like the wicked are
getting their way now. It seems like, listen, we look
at our in this country today. And it looks like the wicked
are in charge and controlling all things. But listen, they
have their day, they have their purpose, they have their place
that Almighty God has given them. And in that purpose, God has
determined that they at this time be in charge of some things
to be doing all the evil that they are doing. And that the
people of God, wherever they are, they might be subjected
to this at the point in time for His purposes. But brethren,
listen, there will be a day whenever the wheat will be gathered in
and the tares will be gathered in. All things will be laid bare.
All things will be made manifest. And all judgment will be laid
out. And listen, He will not acquit the wicked. And I think about the preaching
of the Gospel and as it pertains to those out here who are the
religious, quote unquote, Christians of the day. whenever they hear
this message, whenever they hear predestination and election and
particular redemption, they see it and it grieves their heart.
Have you ever come across somebody, whenever you talk about these
things, the very things that causes us to rise up in worship
and exaltation of Christ, the very things that comfort us,
that bring us together and that binds us together, holds us together
as people of God. The very things that excites
us is grievous to other people. I see it all the time on Facebook.
talk about the glorious work of Jesus Christ alone and that
we didn't have any hand in this and hand in this. And then there's
always some detractor that wants to come on there who claims to
be a child of grace, that claims to be a Christian, that claims
to be a follower of Christ and a believer of God's Word that
comes on there and they get upset and they want to debate you about,
well, what about me? What about man? What about what
we're supposed to do? So you're just saying that we
just need to lay down and do nothing or you're just saying that we
shouldn't preach or you're just saying that we shouldn't Evangelizer, you're
just saying that we shouldn't do this. We we we look what we
do. Look what we do. I keep hearing
in my in my mind the very thing. What shall we do to do the works
of God? And what did what did he say
over here? What should we do? Captain said you can't do nothing. You don't know nothing. You can't
do nothing. Listen, It was even said earlier
than that, he said, listen, if this thing be of God, there can
be nothing that stops it. But if it is of man, it will
fail. And that is true, even though they were saying that
about them own selves. Listen, if it be of man, it's
going to fail. But if it is God, it can't be
stopped. It can't be stopped and it won't be stopped. Why?
Because the horn shall be exalted with honor. Look with me one last verse and
we'll be done. Back to John chapter 12. John chapter 12. Actually kind of got ahead of myself here I
think. In Matthew, I was mistaken, I was mistaken. The passage in
Matthew was not after Jesus had entered in. This is the passage
in John. What I want to read here is actually
where Jesus enters in. Look with me if you would at
verse 9. It says, Much people of the Jews
therefore knew that he was there. And they came not for Jesus'
sake only, but they that might see Lazarus also, whom He had
raised from the dead. But the chief priests consulted
that they might put Lazarus to death." See, this goes along
with what I've been saying here. Listen, those religious leaders,
whenever they seen Lazarus brought forth from the dead, and all
the people believing on Jesus because of Lazarus, everywhere
Lazarus went was a testimony to the sovereign will and actions
of God. God raised Lazarus from the dead,
which no man can do. God gave Lazarus life. That guy in the tomb next to
Lazarus, He didn't give him life, but He gave Lazarus life. God
called forth Lazarus from the tomb and fellowshiped with Lazarus. Went in and ate with him. communed
with him, blessed him. And everywhere that Lazarus went
was the testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Dead man can't
do anything. Only Jesus can give life. I was
dead four days and I stunk. I couldn't raise myself from
the dead. It was only whenever Jesus called me by my name that
I came forth from the dead. And that exalts the Lord Jesus
Christ. But the wicked hate that. It
grieves their heart. You mean I can't determine my
own destiny? You mean I don't have a choice?
God's going to draw me from the grave, kicking and screaming?
You think Lazarus was mad about God raising him from the dead?
Kicking and screaming? How dare you go against my will?
I wanted to stay dead. How preposterous. He said, But they might see Lazarus also,
whom he had raised from the dead. But the chief priest consulted
that they might put Lazarus also to death. The natural man wants
to put to death the things of the Spirit. It lusteth after
it. It wants dominion over it. And
it will take dominion over it any way it can, even if it means
trying to kill it. Not that it can. But the fleshly
man, the Adamic man, wants to rule. He wants to be as God. So anything that brings testimony
of God and His sovereignty, of His Creatorship, of His predestination,
His election, His particular redemption, His mighty work of
salvation among the people, Him as the potter, they want to kill. Verse 11, because that by reason
of Him, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. On
the next day, much people that were coming to the feast, when
they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of
palm trees and went forth to meet Him and cried, Blessed is
the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And
Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat there on as it is written,
Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, thy king cometh sitting on an
ass's colt. These things understood not his
disciples at the first, but when Jesus was glorified, then remember
they these things that were written of him and that they had done
these things unto him. The people, therefore, that was
with him when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him
from the dead bear record. For this cause the people also
met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle.
Verse 19 The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, Perceive
ye how ye prevail nothing. Nothing that we have done has
stopped this. Nothing that we have done has worked. Everything
that we have tried to do to squelch this movement, to squelch this
gospel, to squelch this activity, has not worked. It continues
to prosper. The gates of hell, brethren,
will not prevail. The church, and I don't know
why everyone says, well, that's talking about the church. Not
talking about the church, not the gospel. Well, the Bible says
that the church is the pillar and the ground of truth. The
Bible says that the truth will endure forever. If the truth endures forever,
and He has given the truth and put the truth within the church
of Jesus Christ, and the church of Jesus Christ, He said, the
gates of hell will not prevail against it, that means the truth
that it goes forth declaring will not, will not ever be put
out. That's why I know the Gospel
did not go dormant during some medieval age and be brought forth
by some fraught monks who thought they knew the Gospel. No, the Lord's churches has held
that truth and been the pillar and ground of it in every generation
wherever they were gathered together, wherever Christ met in their
presence and gave forth the testimony of Christ He said, we have not prevailed.
Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing. And look at here. Behold, the
whole world has gone after him. And there were certain Greeks
among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came,
therefore, to Philip, which was of the city of Galilee, and desired
him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. They were gathered. not just
from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. And when were they
gathered? When did He start to gather these
together? Well, they gathered together
right here. The procession of Jesus Christ coming in to that
which He was ordained to, to the cross which He had been prophesied
and hundreds of prophecies that He would come and be the one
to give His life for His people. And in the giving of His life,
that He would bring together of all nations, one people, one
generation, one seed, and that that would be His people, and
He would be their God, and He would no more meet them in this
mountain or in that tabernacle, but that He would be in them.
and that He would be their God and He would be in them and they
would make up the tabernacle in which God would dwell and
which God would be and that the functions and the workings of
God would be among. And brethren, all that was finished
from the foundation of the world because God said that He built
this tabernacle and fashioned it and it was the tabernacle
that was designed before ever an earthly tabernacle was erected,
and that for which it represented, represented where the presence
of God dwelt, and His people, and the church as it gathers
together, a tabernacle built unto God, lively stones, whose
foundation is Christ, the chief cornerstone, that cannot have
a foundation of any other, because if it is any other, then it is
going to falter and fail and is going to be destroyed. What beautiful pictures we see
of God's eternal work manifested in time and how God has intricately
throughout all of the years. Going back to this Old Testament
scene, that it was prophesied that the horn shall be exalted.
The horn shall be exalted. The wicked are going to detest
it. And we see it even to this day, and we're going to see it
until the end of the world. We will continue to see these
things. Why? Because that is the purpose of
God. He has dealt it that way. He has determined it that way. And may the Spirit of God give
us to see those things, to understand those things, to hear what He
says to His people, and that we may perceive it, that we may
receive it, and that by it we may exalt the horn, that we may
exalt the Christ, the Messiah of God. Alright, does anybody
have any questions or any comments? corrections or rebukes? Anything
you want to add, brother? Alright, let's pray. Once again, Father, we come and
we are so humbled and amazed at the complexity we find in
the Word of God, the deftness and the richness, the great glorious
nature that we find that the Scriptures show forth of the
testimony of Christ and the workings of God in all things. Father,
how feeble our minds are, how encumbered and enabled our mouth
is to even proclaim these truths, to proclaim these things. Father,
how gracious you are to even allow us to glimpse a little
bit, to see as in a mirror darkly, to be able to put forth these
things even now as I stand here. Lord, I know that I have no ability
in and of myself to bring forth this testimony unless you are
with me, unless you are with us to understand it, to receive
it. Father, we know that all things
work according to the purpose of your will and to your pleasure
and to being brought about by your design, but also by your
active work within this world to make all things according
to your plan. And so, Lord, we also are humbled
by that. And we have been made to submit
to those things. But yet, Father, we know that
in the Adamic man, these things are not what we desire to hear,
desire to experience, or desire to know, because we hate the
things of a sovereign God. We hate the things of the Creator. suppress those things. But we
thank you, Father, for the Spirit of Christ that is in us, that
causes us in the inward man to rejoice in the things of God.
And even now, Lord, we pray that as these things have been brought
forth and shown, Lord, we pray that you might continue to give
us not only faith to believe them, but Lord, that you might
give us a heart to rejoice in them. And Lord, we pray for these
brethren as they leave this place, especially as we I hear that
there are more storms to come later this afternoon. Lord, that
you would keep them safe. We thank you for the safety you've
given to us through the night. And Lord, we just pray your blessings
be upon us each time that we meet, that you might be there
with us. Thank you again for your grace,
your mercy, for your salvation. We thank you for the man Christ
Jesus, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the Father, of us all. Lord, we thank you that you have
given to him your people and that he, in his hand, has redeemed
us. Lord, we thank you for the time
that we have together today, and we look forward to the next
time we have to meet together as you desire. In Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.