We were talking about how that everything God does according to this parable and all the word of God he does for his glory And that our salvation the life that we have in him is Is the same thing is that it's integral to his glory Moses said show me your glory and in the Lord said I'll have mercy on I'll have mercy on sinners. That's the greatest glory that the Lord Jesus has ever seen fit to reveal to us.

What did He say when He was going to the cross? When Judas was there to betray Him, He said what? Now is the Son of Man glorified. He's glorified in hanging On the cross, he's glorified and being spit on and his beard ripped and the crown... I thought about it the other day. The Lord was bleeding from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet where the nail pierced his feet. His back, his sides, his head, his face.

And that's his glory? Yes. Because How do you even express the glory of how that God can take a worm like you and a worm like me and set us among His most prized princes? That He can take a wretch, a vile, wretched sinner and make us sons of God? Unspeakable. Joy unspeakable and full of glory.

In Romans 9, Paul said that God made from one corrupt, evil, worthless lump of clay some vessels of honor and some vessels of dishonor. And that when He did that, when He had mercy on the vessels of honor and calls them also the vessels of mercy in that same Context, he also declares in that chapter, Romans chapter nine, that God did this to show forth the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy.

The riches of his glory is found in those beautiful words where God said, I will have mercy. And His glory is not diminished in the last part of that, it's magnified on whom I will have mercy. He didn't leave mercy up to us. His mercy is His to give to whomsoever He will. Mercy is everything for me, and it's the very glory of God Almighty. Those two truths are marvelous beyond description.

So He does everything. In this garden, what does He do? He gathers His good seed and He plants them in good ground. And He waters them and He shines His sun upon them. He takes care of them. He hedges them about. They abide in Him. and find their life and strength from Him. He does all of that for His good. Why is all of that done? The end result of all of it is fruit, which is what? How He's glorified. This herein is my Father glorified, that everything that He did culminates in success.

And that's true of any gardener. This is a simple, a simple illustration, isn't it? Like I say, even if you don't have a green thumb, first of all, not having a green thumb doesn't mean you're not a gardener, because I don't have one, and I still love to garden anyway, in spite of it. I'm determined. One of these days, I'm going to have the perfect tomato, and you're all going to see it, because I'm going to put pictures of it on the internet.

But it's true of any gardener. I have just a small garden in my backyard and we work hard on it. I say we because Vicki, by the way, Vicki's sick this morning. she gets out there and waters it and pulls weeds too and I built a raised box and I filled it with good soil and I put a framed structure a cover over it so that the birds can't eat my tomatoes because as soon as they start getting a little bit pink even here they come and it's no coincidence that That the Lord in the parable of the sower, he compares the birds to Satan, because that's what they are when it comes to my garden. He talks about the birds coming and stealing, that's Satan. I agree, amen.

But why do I do all that? Why do I pull weeds till I get dizzy bending over for so long? Why do I do all that? I want some fruit. I'm determined if I possibly can as a gardener to have success. That's why our Lord does it too. It's just that he can't fail like I do. I was thinking the whole time I'm doing all that, I'm thinking of the tomatoes and the peppers and the cucumbers and all the stuff that I'm going to get.

Nobody weeds because they like to weed. It's the plants, it's the fruit, the box, the raised bed is for the plants, the soil is for the plants. The frame, the covering, the netting is to protect the plants. And I don't do any of that for the weeds. I water the garden a lot in the summer, because you know how hot and dry it can get. I water it a lot, and when I do, the weeds are so happy, it makes me sick. But I didn't do it for them, did I? I didn't do it for them. God causes his rain to fall on the just and the unjust. It's not because he loves all of them.

He loves his garden. And you know, when you're watering your plants, you don't put it on like hard spray, just like shoot the plants with water. And you know, that's in the scripture. I have a watering can and It causes the water to fall gently on the plants. In Job 36, 26, it says, Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years be searched out, for He maketh small the drops of water. They pour down rain according to the vapor thereof, which the clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly.

He waters us gently. He takes care. He's gentle with His garden. He plants us tenderly and lovingly. And in Matthew 5 45, the Lord said that he makes his son to rise on the plants and the weeds and his rain falls on the just and the unjust, but he's watering his good plants, not the weeds. And he's going to tear the weeds up and burn them. Now here's a clear example of this. Turn with me to Matthew 15 12, please. It's just plain, isn't it? It's just clear and plain. Matthew 15,

12. Then came his disciples and said unto him, knowest thou not that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up.

We don't plant weeds, do we? We plant the good plants in good soil, the good seed or the good seedlings in good soil. We don't plant the weeds. What do we do with them? We root them up. This is so simple, isn't it? And this is in answer to their question. They said, don't you know the Pharisees were offended? His answer to that is, if my father didn't plant them, they're getting rooted up. Let them alone. Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Our Lord is not who this religious world thinks he is. He's a very serious gardener. And he is an unfailing gardener. He is the master gardener. When the Lord rose from the dead and Mary was there around the tomb and she saw him, she supposed him to be the gardener. And all through the scriptures, that's exactly who he is.

Now, tares and wheat look very similar. Our Lord makes that clear when he says, if you start pulling up tares, you're going to pull some wheat up thinking that they're tares. The difference is wheat produces fruit and tares do not. The servants of the householder, they had some discernment. They knew that there were tares growing up among the wheat because they didn't all look exactly right. They didn't look right. The Lord said in Matthew 7, 16, you shall know them by their Wheat stalks produce wheat. Do men gather grapes of thorns? The tares weren't bearing it. You're not getting any grapes or figs of thistles. You've never seen a weed produce anything that you wanted, that you could eat, that would sustain life.

Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire wherefore by their fruits.

You shall know them. That's the difference. Wheat, the staff of life, tears, worthless, less than worthless, because we don't just tear them up, we burn them, because they're a nuisance, they're a detriment. Paul burned his old self, didn't he? He said, everything that I counted as gain, it was lost for Christ. He denounced himself and burned down everything that he counted dear once. There is discernment that's necessary and profitable.

They knew there were terrors growing, but it's not our business to tear up the weeds. It's not our business to do that. Let them alone, we just read. Let them alone. They were offended. Let them alone. Don't compromise the gospel so that they won't be offended. Let them alone.

In our parable, the Lord shows us that we are not qualified to do the work of separation. We'll tear up some wheat now if we do that. The gardener's going to take care of all that. the gardener will take out. He'll send out people to gather this, to spread the seed, to dispense the seed, but he'll take care of the separating the two.

The outcome of this thing, nextly, because I don't remember what point it was. I just made up a word, nextly. The outcome is not in question in this parable, is it? It's not in question. And, you know, people will say, you know, well, God planted some seed and Satan planted some seed and there's this epic struggle. No, there's no epic struggle. God said there's nothing to do right now. There's absolutely nothing to do right now. When the time comes, there'll be something to do and I'll do it. So clear.

He reveals exactly what's going to happen. We know what did happen. We know why God has a world to plant good seed in. We know who the tears are, we know who the good seed are, the children of the kingdom and the children of the devil. And they were those things before they were ever planted in this world. God's purpose is eternal.

The fact that there are weeds in my garden, do I love my garden any less? Does that discourage me from planting a garden to begin with? I've never once sat there, like about this time of year is when I start thinking about my garden. I've never once said, you know, if I plant a garden, there's going to be weeds in it. I'm just not going to do it. That's never crossed my mind.

Are the weeds going to stop me from picking my tomatoes and my squash and my peppers? joying them. The weeds and the one who planted them are not going to thwart God's purpose of grace toward his elect. There was a weed sown among the very 12 and God used him for his glory anyway. He didn't shed his precious blood on Calvary in vain.

There's gonna be fruit in spite of the tears, and God's gonna gather it into his barn, and it's gonna shine. It's gonna shine. He said, I lay down my life for my sheep, and they shall never perish. They've always been sheep, And they're going to be sheep to the end. All for whom my Savior died are redeemed by his precious blood. The outcome is not in question.

They shall be redeemed. I love this. We are redeemed. Ephesians 1, 3 through 14. And that word redemption there means release or deliverance effected by the payment of a ransom. Isn't that beautiful? There was a price to pay. There's blood, sweat, and tears involved in making a garden produce. And our Lord sweat great drops of blood in the garden and the result of his blood is fruit unto his glory, eternal fruit, innumerable fruit, boundless success, perfect, complete success.

Christ, Galatians 3.13, hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. And everywhere you find the concept of redemption in any form of the word in the scripture, you'll find it to be a certain outcome of the shedding of his blood. He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? He had made a curse for us. But also we're redeemed in another sense yet to come. Romans 8 23 and not only they but ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the spirit even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body the seed good ground all of that Results in a certain outcome at harvest time.

He said at the time of the harvest Nobody knows when that is except God The weeds have always been weeds the wheat have always been wheat He said to those self-righteous ones in Matthew 23 who in the very face of God said look at our good works Look at our good works He said to them, I never knew you. I never did. You never were wheat. You never were a sheep. You were a devil from the beginning, as he said of Judas. And in the book of Jude, verse 13, it says the blackness of darkness forever is reserved for them. They have a reservation. to be cast from the very presence of God Almighty forever and have his wrath poured out on them for eternity.

But look how our Lord again describes the good seed, and let's rejoice together. Again, this is not about exclusion. It's not about calling a weed a weed, because we don't know the difference that much, do we? We kind of do. They can tell there were terrors out there, but we're not going to call a single person, he's a terror, he's a wheat. We don't know that.

For one thing, somebody may look a whole lot like a terror now, but then the Lord sends his gospel to them, and they're revealed to be wheat. We look a lot like terrors sometimes, don't we? Did King David look like a terror? when he murdered Uriah the Hittite and took his wife? But how beautiful, Matthew 13, 43, then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father.

God didn't plant them on a venture. They shall shine forth. They shall. He shall gather them into his barns and they shall shine and the Lord shall be glorified forever in them. He didn't plant them in vain. The blood of his son was not shed in vain. And I'll tell you this, his word, his gospel is not preached in vain. And the same analogy is used.

Regarding the preaching of the word for as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither But water at the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth It's gonna go forth out of my mouth today, but it went forth out of his mouth first and And He said, so sinned I you, so sinned I you, as the Father sinned me, so sinned I you. And so it's going forth now, and it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. That one phrase right there ought to be enough to shut down every free will Baptist church in this world. It shall accomplish that which I please. and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I seek.

That's the God, that's the Son of God to which sinners are bid to come and find in Him life everlasting. What a blessing and encouragement and a joy it is to know what God's doing, what He's done, what He will do in this world. what this world is and what's happening in it and why. And what a blessed honor to be in on it, to be in on it by His grace.