I cannot tell you what a delight
it is to be here. I feel like coming home. My great,
great grandparents were born in Missouri. They were married
in 1878 or 1879 in Oregon after traveling the Oregon Trail. My
grandfather was born in 1881 in Oregon. There are seven generations of
my folks in the cemetery there, so for Oregon, that's quite a
few. It's been a blessing to be with
your pastor and his wife, and we've just been so graciously
taken care of, and we appreciate that so very much. It's just
a blessing. It's good to see each one. Some
I've seen a few times in the past, some it's just a family
reunion with family you haven't met yet, so it's great to be
here. I would that you would turn with me to four verses in
the New Testament, and then we're going to go to the Old Testament
for our message. Would you turn with me to the
book of Luke chapter 16? Luke chapter 16 and verse 31. Luke chapter 16 and verse 31.
This passage of Scripture used to be used in the church where
I attended when I grew up, of trying to scare me into the kingdom
of heaven. They were either going to educate
me or scare me into the kingdom. And I made a profession of faith
as a young person and went and done all the things that most
of us have done. And then, by God's wonderful
providence, I heard the gospel. And I didn't like it at all.
And I didn't like the man who delivered it to me at all. In
fact, I shared with my wife, I hate that man. But I was in
a position that I couldn't get out of not going back. And I
kept going back and heard that man preach. And I despised him
and despised what he had to say because it tore up everything
I'd ever been taught and what I was hanging on to. They talk
about great tribulation. The greatest tribulation I've
ever had and probably I'll ever have is finding out that my religion
is worthless. in the eyes of God. And what
do I do now? Well, God did His work. He gave me the new birth. And
I was able to see Him as He is. And I was able to see Him as
He is always, the Sovereign God. Well, here in the book of Luke
chapter 16 and verse 31, we have an illustration that the Lord
gives to us, and he uses Abraham to make an answer to some questions
that arise. Luke chapter 16 and verse 31,
the scripture says, And he said unto him, If they will not hear
Moses and the prophets, remember what he had to say? Send someone
to tell my brothers, because I am in a terrible place. And
Abraham answered this to him, If they will hear not Moses and
the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose
from the dead. That's the truth. It was amazing
to me to find out that the apostles, Jesus Christ, and all of those
prophets before them, all they had to preach from was the Old
Testament. And they preached Christ. They
preached no different salvation than is preached by a grace preacher
today. They never preached works, they
always preached grace. We find in the Old Testament
that these words are recorded, salvation is of the Lord. We
find in the Old Testament these words are recorded, that just
shall live by faith. And we find in the Old Testament
these words, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him
for righteousness. Those are Old Testament verses
of Scripture that we find carried over into the New Testament and
we rejoice in them. Alright, turn with me if you
would to the book of John chapter 1. John chapter 1 and verse 45. What a wonderful statement is
made here with regard to Moses. Over here, Moses was the one,
the secretary that God used to write the first five books of
the Old Testament. Moses didn't write those books.
He was a secretary. God, the Holy Spirit, gave him
those words in the original language. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit, by the Holy Ghost. And Moses
was a secretary. He did not have liberty to go
to the right hand or to the left hand when he wrote the Old Testament,
those first five books. It was not His words, it was
not His thoughts, though He perfectly agreed with them in His regenerate
state. He agreed with the Word of God,
but they were not His words to write down. Just like we find
all the rest of the authors of the Bible, they were God's secretaries
at the time to write exactly what He intended to have written
down. We have a wonderful translation today, and I'm thankful. After
visiting with some people that do work on translations, I'm
thankful I've never had to be involved in it. It is a trying,
testing time to translate anything, and particularly the Word of
God, because so much counts upon it. Well, here in the book of
John chapter 1 and verse 45, Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law. Did you read that? We have found
Him whom Moses in the Law," then it goes on to say, verse 45 there,
"...of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets did write, Jesus
of Nazareth the son of Joseph." We have found the Messiah. Moses
wrote about Him. The prophets wrote about Him.
The Psalms are all about Him. And so, this is what they preached. Remember what, Philip? did there
in the book of Acts chapter 8, when that passage of scripture
was brought up by a pagan man, by a man from Ethiopia that came
up to Jerusalem to worship, and he went home worse than he came.
In reality, that's all religion can do for us. If we go to a
meeting, we're going to go home worse than we came. Well, he's
on his way home, and he's reading the Scriptures, the book of Isaiah,
the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah, and God sends him
somebody who knew something. That's what happened out there
in Oregon. A man from Kentucky came to Oregon
who knew something about the Gospel, and he preached it clearly
and succinctly and powerfully, adding nothing to it. And God
the Holy Spirit uses that seed. the gospel in a gracious way
to regenerate his people, and they acknowledge him as the Most
High God. Well, here we have that. Well,
one other passage. In John chapter 5. Would you
turn with me to John chapter 5 and verse 46? John chapter
5 and verse 46. Jesus mentions this with regard
to Moses. He says, For had ye believed
Moses, Ye would have believed me. Why? For he wrote of me. All right. Would you join me
in the Old Testament, the book of Deuteronomy? In the book of
Deuteronomy, would you join me there? Deuteronomy chapter 22. I've entitled my message this
evening, God's Farming Requirements. We're going to deal with some
farming practice. You know, it is much more than just a Farmer's
Almanac, though. Though many people would use
this just as a guide for their life. But that's not what was
intended here. We have spiritual pictures in
these passages of Scripture. And there were many people in
the Old Testament that understood that the sacrifices were not
salvation, but were pictures of it. There were some that saw
that just like people today. When they take the communion
service, they say, this is my salvation. This is my hope. And
there were people in the Old Testament that looked at those
sacrifices and said, there's my hope. And then there were
some that that had God revealed to them in the person Christ
Jesus, the Messiah, that had been promised in Genesis chapter
3, the Messiah had come and regenerated them, and they could look at
those things just like we look at those things, and say, this
is a picture of my Savior, the true Lamb of God. He is the true
sacrifice. He has the true blood. And He's
entered into the true holy of holies. with His own blood and
redeemed His people from their sins. This is what Jesus Christ
has done in all of those pictures. Well, here in the book of Deuteronomy,
we have some instructions that have to do with farming. And
in every one of these instructions that have to do with farming,
we find that there is some true statements made with regard to
our salvation. Here in the book of Deuteronomy
chapter 22, Deuteronomy chapter 22, and there in verse 9. Would
you turn there with me? Deuteronomy chapter 22, and verse
9. We have these statements made.
These passages of Scripture, we want to read 9, 10, and 11. Thou shalt not, Deuteronomy chapter
22, verse 9. Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard
with diverse seeds, lest the fruit of thy seed which thou
hast sown and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled. Verse 10, Thou shalt not plow
with an ox or an ass together. And verse 11, Thou shalt not
wear a garment of diverse sorts, as of woolen and linen together. Now keep your finger right there,
because we're coming back, but would you turn back to the book
of Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19, and I want
to pick up a parallel verse of scripture here in Leviticus chapter
19. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 19,
we have these words. Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle
gender with diverse kind. Thou shalt not sow thy field
with mingled seed. Neither shalt a garment mingled
with linen and woolen come upon thee." Well, we may say, what
does that have to do with our Savior? Let's look. There is much said in this passage
of Scripture that has to do with the glorious blood of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have here some statements
made that grace and works cannot and will not mix. You can't put
the two together. The Apostle Paul brings that
out in the New Testament. If it's of works, it's not of
grace. And if it's of grace, it's not of works. Because you
can't mingle the two together. And the writer of the book of
Deuteronomy, the secretary of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses,
led by the Holy Spirit, writes these words down for us these
many thousands of years later, and here we ponder what God had
to say to His people throughout all the Scripture, because all
Scripture agrees with itself. If we find a passage of Scripture
that doesn't seem to agree, we've made a mistake, because all the
Bible will agree with it. I have a friend, I've just got
acquainted with him, we've been visiting together, he's a pastor
of a church, I shouldn't use that word. He's a pastor. He
thinks he's a pastor of a church, but he's so willing to talk about
the things of God, and he will pick out, just like I used to,
one verse of Scripture and build my entire doctrine on that. And you know what I've had to
do with him? And he's been in agreement with it. We've read
the context. And you know what? The context
sheds a lot of information about the text. And he had just had
to say, I've never seen that before. I've never noticed that
before. Why? Because nobody showed him. And here we are, 4,000 years
after the writing of the book of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
and Numbers. And don't quote me on the numbers,
please, because it's probably wrong. But many, many years after
these words were penned, we find these words are not going to
conflict with Ephesians chapter 1 or chapter 2 when it talks
about grace. They're going to be in agreement.
Well, let's look at this. Thou shalt not sow with diverse
grains." The word diverse is translated from a Hebrew word
that means two kinds. Two kinds of grain. Now, I've
known of farmers today that will plant one crop and then another
crop, and one crop comes on first and they harvest it, and then
they take care of the other crop. That's not what he's talking
about. Diverse grain here. I have meant, and in fact I was
once, I was a Calvinist. I traded from free will doctrine,
free will doctrine, to Calvinism. I left Oregon, went to Dallas,
Texas, attended a Bible school, met some people that were Calvinists,
and I agreed with them when they showed me a few commentaries,
and my life changed. But I didn't trade anything.
I just traded religions. In that Calvinistic doctrine
that I was preaching, I believed that free will teaching and preaching
could be used to save people, and then down the road you heard
the doctrines of grace, you consented to them, and now you had moved
up the religious chain. It's more logical. It's more
intelligent. I used to feel more intelligent
as a Calvinist than I ever did in free will. I had moved up
the food chain. It was better. There was better
writers that wrote about Calvinism than ever wrote about free willism. And yet, I didn't know the first
thing about Christ. I just believed that I had reached
a higher plateau. And you know what? I continuously
meet Calvinists that believe that. That they have just come
along and met a higher plateau and now they're better off than
they were. But they don't know the first
thing about the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ
Jesus. They don't know a thing. I can
attest to it. I know about it. And I've met
people that are in the same boat I've been in. I have merely traded
religions. I drive a Ford. He drives a Chevy. He's got a Chevy truck. I've
got a Ford truck. And that's all I did. I traded from Fords
to Chevys. And that's all it was. It was revealed to me in salvation
after I'd heard the truth of the gospel that there is one
seed of salvation, not diverse seeds. You cannot mingle free
willism, doctrine with the gospel and come out with anything but
a monstrosity. The gospel of God's grace has
taught in this verse of scripture sharing with us that we're not
to mingle the seed They are so far separate from each other.
We're not to go and mingle the seed. We cannot mingle works
and grace. We cannot mingle those things. It is so far from Christ alone. When we mingle the seed, we do
not have Christ alone. We have our help along. This young man that I've been
dealing with, he constantly brings up that he had to help God and
I know where he's coming from because I've been there. And
that's mingled seed. I believe in enough grace, but
I've also had to have my will involved in it. And we find out
we're so dead in trespasses and sin that our will is in the same
boat it is, and we can't get out of the pit we're in by ourselves. We must be lifted out of that
pit. We must be resurrected from that
grave. We must be quickened by the Holy
Spirit. We have so many words and passages
in the Scripture that describe it. There's no end to it. but
there is a reality that the Holy Spirit must raise us from the
spiritual dead. Salvation is of the Lord. It
is by His blood alone. It is His resurrection and righteousness
alone. And it is by a new birth that
cannot be simulated by anything else. One of the things that
I mentioned to this young preacher was, how much did you have to
do with your first birth, your natural birth? Well, he answered
correctly, nothing. And then he said, uh-oh. Because that's how much we had
to do with our second birth. We're so dead spiritually, that
unless God raises us from the spiritual dead, we will never
acknowledge Him as the true Savior. We will end up our life rejecting
the truth. not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us." Any
message that puts an individual in charge of it in this position
allows any involvement whatsoever or any participation of any kind
is false seed. The seed is the Word of God,
and the true Word of God is Jesus Christ the Lord. He is the true
seed, and He must be preached in truth and in simplicity. I
used to love candy corn. I don't like it so much. Someone
gave me a five pound bag. Oh my goodness. Nothing to ruin
you on something than to overeat on it. But you can't grow corn from
candy corn. And you can't get someone saved
on a false gospel. And anybody that says they were
saved under it hasn't heard the truth yet. That's just all there
is to it. Alright. The fruit of diverse
seed only produces Pharisees. Have you noticed that? Free willism just produces Pharisees. A false gospel just produces
Pharisees. We have that throughout the New
Testament in particular. The Lord Jesus Christ dealt with
so many people that were religious and they were just Pharisees.
God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. God, I thank
you that I fast twice a week. God, I give, give, give. And that's what they have is
Pharisee-ism to the core, and we're always checking other people
along with what we see. Well, that's it. The true seed's
fruit is found in Galatians chapter 5. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
goodness, gentleness, meekness. That's the true seed's product. Well, it goes there in verse
10, it says, Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse
10, Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together. We
have no real problem with an attempt to mix the strength of
an ox and a donkey. But the real thing that is being
said here is that that oxen is sharing with us what it is to
be a servant. Did you know that the Lord Jesus
is called my servant? Mine elect. That's what God called
him. He is my servant. He is my oxen. We find Him treading the winepress
alone. We find Him in great strength,
under control, great power, under control. And the Lord says, don't
you dare mix this My Servant with what Job writes about or
is written in the book of Job. Oh man, be born like a wild ass's
colt. Now what is God telling us here
in the Scriptures with regard to an oxen and to a donkey? He's
saying, do not attempt to mix the influence and the religion
of religion with my son. They don't harness together.
They will not. God will not honor that work. He will only honor the work of
His servant. He will only honor the blood
of His servant. He will only honor the toil of
His servant. He is not going to have Anybody
else get honor in this. And when you look back on the
plowing of the wicked, it's sin. When you look back on the plowing
of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the straightest furrows ever
plowed. Because He plowed these furrows
for the glory of God Almighty in the covenant of grace to redeem
His people from their sin. There was no imperfection in
the service of this great servant. Several of us here are servants
of the Lord, but I sure don't want anybody with a grade book
right behind me. I'm a failure. I'm a failure. I wish I knew
something about this book. I do. I read the commentaries
of old preachers and find out they are neck and head above
me. I hear people that can quote
most of the Bible and I just say, I'm ashamed. I don't have
the gift of memorizing the Bible. I'm so thankful for Mr. Strong
and his concordance. and a friend of mine gave me
a little fire, that little tablet, and I put the Bible program on
there, and now I can look it up on there. I just don't have
a lot of capabilities that some great preachers have. But I know
this, that Jesus Christ sent His Son to the cross to die for
me, and to lay down His life a ransom for me, and He has proved
it by His own resurrection of me to a new life in Christ Jesus. I'm not what I once was, and
I'm not what I want to be, but I'm not what I'm going to be
either. Don't take this one and hitch
him with your works. Don't take this one and hitch
him with your religion. Don't take this one and try to
plow a straight furrow, because we will fail abundantly. He is
the only one that has the right the privilege and the grace to
do what He did at the cross. We're utter failures when we're
there. We're the ones that are looking
up and mocking Him to His face and saying, if you be the Christ,
come down. Behold My servant. And oh, we're
just like wild asses colts. That beautiful picture just before
the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, not very long. He told His disciples,
and it's a miracle. He told them, you go over there
and there is a mama donkey and her colt, and they're tied up,
and someone's going to ask you, what are you doing? He says,
the Master hath need of him. And you know what? They're going
to say, ok, take him. The Master had already worked. in the owner's
hearts to let him have those two animals. He gets that colt,
and it is very interesting that the Scriptures share with us
that it had never been ridden. Have you ever ridden a green
colt? Have you ever been bucked off a horse? Yep. It's not being
bucked off that's the bad part, it's the landing. Well, they took that colt over
there that had never been ridden, they laid their robes on him,
and my Savior got on that colt, and that colt didn't even buck. He takes control of his lost
sheep in such a capacity that they are at peace. He takes a
wild ass's colt. Now I know there is no way in
this world that the Bible ever teaches that He takes goats and
makes sheep. That is a monstrosity. But He takes people that are
in rebellion, not rebels, but rebellion against God, and gives
them Christ, and now they know Him. Alright, the next one that
is mentioned there. This is an interesting thing.
It tells us Don't check your tags, because how many of our
clothes are of two different kinds of cloth? A lot of it is
that stuff that's synthetic. Right here, this verse of Scripture
says, don't mix woolen and linen in the same coat, in the same
garment. Now what does that mean? Well,
it's the same thing that we find in the Garden of Eden just after
the Garden of Eden when Cain and Abel presented their sacrifices. One is man-made. One is man-grown. One is man-produced. And the
other, we have nothing to do with it but to watch it happen.
What is wool? Out in Oregon, they used to have
lots of sheep. And they'd spend in the fall,
they'd shear those sheep and take that wool and stuff it in
big bags and ship it out and turn it into wool threads, yarn,
cloth, make cloth out of it. What is linen? That's a seed
that you plant and you watch it grow and you water it a lot
and once it gets to a certain size you take it and cut it and
then you go through a big process and get some of the fiber out
of it that is called linen and you make linen cloth out of it.
It is so labor intensive and that's what it's saying. It is
so much labor in getting this linen to make this cloth, to
make this garment. Don't mix them because you can't
mix law and grace. You cannot mix works and grace. It will not work. I will not
accept it. It is not mine. I will not have
any honor in it at all. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. How much in that verse of Scripture
does it share that we're involved? He is the one, the author. He is the chief leader. He's
the one that gives everything to us and He's also the finisher
of our faith. He gave it all. If we have faith,
and we just mentioned a verse of Scripture over there in the
book of Genesis where Abraham believed God, gave Him faith,
Abraham had faith. Alright, he had faith. Where
did it come from? God is the author and finisher
of our faith. Jesus Christ is the author and
finisher of our faith. He is the one that produces it. He's the one that gives it day
by day. And He's the one that will give
us the last bit that we need to depart this world. Someone
said, I don't think I'll have dying faith. I said, are you
dying? He said, no. I said, it's not
time yet. When it comes, you'll be given
it. If Christ knows you and you know Him, He will deliver you.
That is a promise. In the book of Hebrews, He's
the author and finisher of our faith. In the book of Ephesians,
we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. So He's all the works. He performs
it in us. My goodness, we wake up in the
morning, someone asked me the other day, he says, what are
you going to do today? And I said, I don't know, the phone hasn't rang yet.
Then we know what God might have us do that day. But it is, we
are His workmanship. My goodness, and it is a good
work. It's not a faulty work. It's not a failing work. It's
an accomplished work. It will be accomplished by Him
and Him alone. We just get to be the recipients
of all that grace. Whereas we were working our full
heads off, trying to get ahead just a little bit in the religious
side, that someone might say, you're doing a good job. And
they say, you're not doing quite enough. Here's another task for
you to do. And then we find that when God saves us, have been
able to say on your behalf, it is finished. Take rest like God
rested on the seventh day. Take rest. From His works, He
rests. What does that mean? He gives
us the wonderful picture that when we're born again, we are
at rest in Christ. The work is over. The work is
finished. And I can be at rest in Him.
Some people say, you're not working enough. You know what? That's
God's business. These garments were of great
importance, and yet the Lord instructs through Moses, no diverse
threads. Woolen, natural product of the
lamb. My woolen garment is the natural
product of the Lamb of God. My woolen garment is the natural
product of the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation
of the world. This is a garment of righteousness
that He has promised to give me. What was it that He covered
Adam and Eve with? The coats of skins. I am convinced
beyond a shadow of a doubt, because of all the other examples in
the Old Testament, that He took some lambs, He took a sheep,
and He killed that sheep, and shed that blood, and took those
skins. He took that wool, and He covered
them with it. He stripped them of their fig
leaf garments, and put on this robe for them. A picture of that
robe of righteousness that He puts on us in Christ Jesus. He
is all our righteousness. with the fiber that is woven.
The wool is a wool by nature, a product of a sheep. And we
find out. Would you turn with me to the
book of Isaiah chapter 61? Isaiah chapter 61, this wonderful
passage of Scripture about that robe that God gives us in the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is His righteousness and not
ours. Oh, the only thing that religion
ever did for me was cause me to be self-righteous. It didn't
help me a bit. It made things worse all the
time. You just couldn't get enough done. But this robe of righteousness,
our righteousness, we just say, Lord, please, keep that down. Isaiah 61, verse 10, these Scriptures,
how glorious they are. The Old Testament to me used
to be, oh, I can't go there. Oh, they're for those people.
And then you find out this is what Jesus preached from. Isaiah
61, verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord. That capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D, that's Jehovah. That's how the translators let
us know this is Jehovah. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels." He hath given me a robe of righteousness, and
it doesn't have any linen in it. It doesn't have any man-made
impurities in it. There's a song that we sing,
and I wish I could remember the author. It says, if we have one
thread of our works in that robe, that robe is no longer His righteousness. One thread. One work that we're
depending upon. No human effort, no linen can
be added. It voids the whole. Christ or
nothing. So, no diverse seeds is so valuable to be somewhere
where you can hear the one seed. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Not what works we need, but what
Christ has done for us. One place. That is so valuable. Oh my goodness. We need that. That one seed. That preaching
of Christ. And no plowing with anything
but oxen. No service. No act by anyone
but the servant of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Only His act will
do. and no diverse garments. Oh,
my goodness, Lord, Your robe of righteousness, please. Only
Your robe. I would ask, what seed do You
trace Your line to? Oh, my. In religion, I could
just trace it back. I always had to go back to that
experience. I had to go back to that experience. You know,
now, I know... Someone asked me one time, Norm,
when were you saved? And I says, I know this, after
I heard the Gospel. After I heard the Gospel. I would
ask you, was the ox only helping in your salvation? Was the servant only a help?
Or is He your salvation? And I would ask, is your garment
part wool or part linen or both? If it's linen, it's of works
and it will not stand. If it's of wool, I'm talking
about the righteousness of Christ, it will stand.