Good morning everyone from Hawaii, to all points of the world. Welcome to The Church Ministries 49th Church Service. We are all glad to welcome you all, all visitors and return bothers and sisters and our members, it is good to see you all back again and we all welcome you to our Bible Truth Christian Church. We have as always gone through another trials and tribulation week, the devil is out there roaming like a lion seeking someone to devour, and we are standing on the Word of our Gracious God and His promises, we know that some of us are going through great turmoil and we all understand that these actions and tests are supposed to improve our relationship with our Lord and His people. We are to become better Christians, stronger and more patient and more loving through these troubles, we are to learn and live the sufferings of Christ, to become more like Christ and to fully understand what He went through for us. Remember 2000 years ago Christ’s own people let a murderer named Barabbas go free, and lead Pontius Pilate to have our beloved Jesus suffering an endless torture that no man on this planet could have bared, most of you all have seen the Passion and actually have seen what they have done to our Lord and Savior. So the troubles that we have now are supposed to happen, and we are supposed to be hated, just like our Lord.
Dear Heavenly Father, Father we welcome you into our hearts this Sunday, we need Your guidance today, some of us are broken and perplexed and we have been under great amounts of attacks and stress, and we call upon Your Name Lord daily and consistently, we reach out to You in truth, and we need that simple serenity of love to return our way. Please hold us all Lord, please teach us Your Word through Your Scriptures and lead us to understand Your precepts. Father we believe in Your Son Jesus and we all know He is in our hearts, please open all of our minds this day and give us the mind of Christ. We want to give You the worship which You so much deserve, we want to do more than we can as a church, and we want to love You the way You love us. We don’t want to be just a lukewarm church we want to be on fire for You. We have so many faults within these bodies of flesh. We try to overcome our carnal minds and make them pure by Your grace, we all have been facing all different trials, and we are trying to make You proud of us by the way we have been handling these day to day conflicts and troubles. I know I am falling short, and I am asking You for forgiveness, I am trying to be a good Shepard and I need Your Spirit in me to please You, all I want to do is make You contented, I have been getting foolish and hurt through all these trials, and some of these trials are coming directly from evil. Sometimes I go back and study all the situations and I shake my head, how much can a man of God take, when evil is out to destroy me and this church and I continue to focus on this church for others to be saved, get educated, learn a bit of discipleship, and learn the warnings of the falling end times. I am always concentrating on how to make this church at one with Christ. I ask and plead please help this church, help this church bring glory to You, we understand that we are all human, and humans make mistakes and sometimes we just miss the mark. Father please grant us all peace, strength, and aid each and every one of us to follow Your lead, we need Your Holy Spirit to come upon us all and to anoint us all, we all need that special touch of Your Love in this fallen world and surroundings, we can’t do anything without You, You are everything to us. We need You, we can’t go on with just our own hopes we need Your hopes and Your direction, we seem to be all struggling to find the victory we need to find the joy and refreshment to lead us to Your heart. Please talk to us all through Your Word, and this teaching today, we need to stand before You and worship You in pure Spirit, we need to release all the evil of the world out of us, and to just hold on to You and the anointing we get from You. Father, help us to rise above all this evil and compounding sufferings so we can worship in joy and happiness, instead of sadness and tears. Jesus has done so much for us already we need to give back to You both our truth from within our deepest parts of our souls. That is why our opening prayer today is one of mercy, and it so important to us to please and worship You, and we need to ask You to assist us, we need Your faith Father, we are weak and simple humans, please be with us this day to bring joy to the heavens. In Jesus Name, Amen
"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matt. 5:10-12 NASB
"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
"If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.
"Remember the word that I said to you, ' A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. John 15: 18-20 NASB
Jesus has told us that many times that is why we must all get over what happens to us here on this planet and don’t even pay attention to what we have to go through here. This world is nothing that will be compared to the glory that we will see when we enter into the wonderful rooms of our mansions and live with our Lord Jesus an we will be in awe with the Father and living with the light of God in a pure peace and happiness, it makes you want to go now, and some of us just cannot wait. But we still have to go through our tests here we all have to endure to the end, no matter what we are going through now and in our future years on earth. It is all how we handle suffering that is what our Lord is watching, we also know that God permits all the things that the evil one is getting away with, and he is not a creator he is a copier and a liar, so my bothers and sisters we just have to bite the bullet per say. Some Christians out there are living in victory and happiness, I hear about them but I truly have not met any face to face, maybe there are some preachers here and there that have gone through there share of tests and trials. I guess they have just had that purity of faith to live and worship on pure faith, no worries no fears just pure faith. I believe that is all of our goal, maybe that is why we study and have a relationship with our Lord to become strong and with purity of mind, to have the strength, to not be bothered if someone comes up to you and takes away lets say your farm and all your animals like 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 oxen and 500 female donkeys, and then your children die instantly 7 sons and 3 daughters and most all of your servants, and your oldest son’s house was gone, then you receive sores all over your body, nightmares, scabs that peeled and became black, became disfigured and had a horrible appearance, bad breath, fever, and pain day and night and never said anything bad with your lips. Well my bothers and sisters if Job did not say anything bad loosing all that, I would believe we are sinning every time that we open up our mouths and saying any sort of evil. Look how bad we sin when we just stub our toe, or when someone cuts us off in traffic on the way to work, or your child comes home all bruised and bloody from a school fist fight. So I guess we all are pretty bad sinners, just imagine what type of man Job was like. Then just imagine what Jesus was truly like.
Most of you all know me and that I truly love the Lord and I have to say that I have been going through an intense battle. I know that Satan is out to attack my mind, will and emotions. He has attacked my body with weariness and all sorts of disease and sickness. He continues to send his lies and I would figure he is enjoying tormenting me. But through faith and prayer and the word, I have learned to be victorious over all the evil that is set before me, we all understand that the Lord thy God is permitting him to do these actions. The reasoning we might never know in this life time and when I finally sit down with Jesus, then He will tell me what it was all about, the thing is I am cautious of all these things and you see I have blown it several times with my words, and a lot of frustration, especially last week on the phone with all those people and most of them did not even care one way or another, trying to fix my main frame computer, all they cared about is getting my money so that I am aloud to talk to them, and finally when I do, they send me through a horrible experience, if you did not read the sermon last week you are so welcome to do so. Now I have done so mush reading on suffering I am just going to give everything to God, even this suffering has gone for 1 year to be exact with this extreme pain in my mouth, not been able to eat, running a fever, watching my fully trained athletic body turn into a bag of bones, plus being humbled continually by not being able to where my teeth and watching my face change and I cannot talk or smile and have proper fellowship with anyone, I have also lost my ability to sing and play my instruments with the praise and worship team, which hurts because that is something you much enjoy and do for the Lord. I guess that isn’t what the Lord wants me to do, for now he just wants me to have fellowship with Him and just write these sermons every Sunday. You also have to realize that my life has been manipulated and changed from each doctor changing my medications and that does put a damper on your personality and thinking and over all, they are not good for you, I don’t want to rely on pills for all these medical reasons, I wish I was back the way I was years ago, going to school and doing other studies and spending about 2-3 hours every morning with the Word and God, back then I new chapter and verse backwards and forwards, now I know where everything is but I am not as sharp as I used to be. It is understandable when any man is put through a trial for such a long time and you never get any answers, you don’t even know what to pray for, because you are living in the unknown. You don’t know what is going to happen next. Like the C-Scans for Monday I don’t know what they are going to find, I mean the tests are good and this might help out my surgeon because he knows I have had not so good insurance and I have to follow what they tell me, and I have had a fever for so long that this man wants to know what to expect if he has to open me up. He told me I don’t want any surprises plus the appointment messed my whole life up, because my neurologist had to speak at a seminar and my life is generally on the line, I can’t have the surgeries done with my hernias until I put on some more weight, and I can’t put on more weight until my mouth gets fixed and at least find out what is wrong be diagnosed and follow the next procedure. I have already waited since September 30th when they took the MRI of my head and I had to wait till now to get the films looked at and I still need another referral to the brain surgeon that has a two month weight. So I am in a race against time and to tell you the truth I need prayer, from all of you. I don’t want to talk about myself, I have read all the other sermons and I seem to talk about the medical problems I am having but I just want to let the world know what is going on and to send out a prayer request. Besides people have been telling me to read the book of Job for the last 10-15 years, and just this year I was hit with my health. Before I could handle the attacks, but to continuously go on like this, God is training me for something.
Today I would like to go over the book of Matthew Chapter 13 with the 7 Parables of Jesus and I don’t want to start with the first one, I would rather start with the second, I am going maybe a bit backwards but that is where the Spirit is leading me, I feel the warning is more important now than just speaking of the sower and the seed, many know this parable and it is the first of the seven parables which I believe all 7 of these parables have a unique teaching all within themselves and they all help everyone to know the truth and life and the teaching of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Timing is important and I don’t know when I will be in the hospital so please open your bibles to Matthew 13 verse 24
24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'
28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' “Matt. 13: 24-30 NIV
24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30 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, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Matt. 13:24-30 KJV
36Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
37He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. Matt. 13:36-43 NIV
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
41 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;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Matt. 13:36-43 KJV
The Parable of the Tares supplies an explanation of Christendom as it has existed all through these nineteen centuries, and as it is today; a mixed state of affairs; the true and the false side by side. We all know that the human ears hear all different things and when you listen by your spirit and fully dig deep into the bible and the scriptural meaning of the parables there is far more to learn and a great lesson to be learned from your inner being, we must look at the bible or the Word in a second way a spiritual one. That is why we pray before any type of study so we can open up our spiritual part of our minds. The Holy Spirit helps us read between the lines of scripture to find the authentic meaning of God’s word. And our inner spirit picks up the true knowledge that is meant for us to hear and see. That is why there are many non-believers that read the bible and they really don’t get anything thing out of it. They don’t get the living word the words in the bible are alive, and we can read a section over and over and we might go back a month later and find something completely new in that same spot. So when we read the word we find a deeper kind of listening that results in a spiritual understanding. So if you honestly go for the word and look deep within these words you will gain a spiritual understanding along with the spiritual hearing, seeing and comprehending. So these seven stories or parables will shed a new light and a new perspective.
10The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
11He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
”‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.' 16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Matt. 13:10-17 NIV
You see when Jesus was speaking in parables he was not trying to hide the truth from sincere seekers, but to amplify it. When you truly are seeking the words and meanings in these parables there is a spiritual application that is concerning to people that seek the true meaning. To others that don’t seek the words of God in depth they are just meaningless stories. It all makes sense why and what Jesus was doing if you fully wanted to learn, you had to work for it. So if you are truly seeking Christ you will find a greater understanding, teaching and warning of the future, present and past. So it is written very plain, for those who are open to His teaching, they will achieve more understanding and in turn will gain an abundance of knowledge. All of these 7 parables teach us about God and his Kingdom They explain what the kingdom is really like, not just what we generally think about it. The Kingdom of Heaven is a spiritual realm where we will have eternal life with God. Simply put we will share in that kingdom when we trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. Through the preaching of the Gospel under the blessing of God, the cause of Christ will extend, until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. But Christ here plainly declared that the wheat and the tares should grow together until the harvest, which He defined as the end of the age. He gave no hint that the tares would gradually die out, or that they would decrease in numbers; but announced that, at the end, they would be found in such quantity as to need binding in bundles. When the young weeds or tares or darnel, and the blades of wheat all look the same and you can’t tell them apart and they all look the same, until when they start to mature you can see the wheat will start budding fruit or grain. Don’t forget the time when he worked, this was while men slept that is, at nighttime. In other words, it was under cover of the darkness that the Devil sowed his tares. This is characteristic of Satan, for he hates the light: mystery, sneakiness, dishonesty, is his favorite tactics. But mark you; the Sower Himself did not sleep, he doesn’t slumber, neither is he weary, the same with Satan. He is ever on the alert, going about, seeking whom he may devour. He is the characterization of continuous motion.
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 2Pet. 5:8 NIV
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. 1John 2:18 NIV
For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Jude 1:4 NIV
For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 2Thes. 2:7 NIV
This parable, then, gives a remarkable representation of the methods employed by Satan. He seeks to destroy God’s testimony on earth by introducing an imitation Christianity, a clever reproduction of the real thing. And this parable reveals that he works from within, he sowed the weeds among the wheat. Satan has an artificial Gospel this is clearly implied in the solemn warning given in Galatians 1. It is more plainly intimated in 2 Corinthians 11, The principal agents of Satan are to be found, not in bars, casinos, the race tracks, or in drug houses, but in our seminaries and in the pulpits, this is where they can do the most damage. These are not supporting lawlessness, but are preaching righteousness but being ignorant of God’s righteousness they are going about to establish their own righteousness. It is a mixture of Law and Gospel, and the multitudes are deceived by this means.
Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Rom. 10:3 NIV
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. 2Cor.11:13-15 NIV
I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we have said before, I now say again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him! Gal. 1:6-9 HCSB
More or less it is the same in our world today believers and non-believers all look the same until the believers start to bud and bring forth fruit and you can actually see and feel the light of God in them. And then again we are to help the non-believers and witness to them because clearly here it tells them that they will be separated and thrown in the fire and burned, it is like wake up non-believers do you want to live in fire and be gnashing your teeth from the pain? But it is not our job to judge and it is all left up to our beloved Jesus, and it is not up to us of who gets saved it is up to the Father.
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44 NASB
Yes we are to plant seeds and maybe water and do a little cultivation but everything is still up to God.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God [all the while] was making it grow and [He] gave the increase.
So neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but [only] God Who makes it grow and become greater.
He who plants and he who waters are equal (one in aim, of the same importance and esteem), yet each shall receive his own reward (wages), according to his own labor.
For we are fellow workmen (joint promoters, laborers together) with and for God; you are God's garden and vineyard and field under cultivation, [you are] God's building. 1Cor. 3:6-9 AMP
So my bothers and sisters we must be aware of the progress of each and every blade because they are all different and they all change as they grow. So in this world the weeds and the wheat live side by side. The field represents the religious world, in which the wheat and the tares grow together. This mixed state of affairs has resulted from the work of the enemy at the beginning of this indulgence, the effects of which are with us till this day. God does allow this to happen just like the farmer, would let them all grow together, we can not start uprooting the weeds because it will change the growing foundation for the wheat and might even lose their ground entirely. First, we are told that the Son of Man sowed good seed in His field. Then we are informed that the Devil turned farmer. Satan is no creating genius, but is ever an imitator. He produces counterfeits of the works of God. It is important for Christians to know this, so that they may be on their guard. If we study Scripture we shall not be ignorant of his devices. It is to be carefully noticed that as the Enemy mimicked Christ he sowed neither thorns nor thistles—had he done so his work had been easily detected, and there had been no difficulty in distinguishing the false from the true. No, he sowed tares, darnel (genus lolium). This is degenerate wheat, and so closely resembles the genuine article that the one cannot be distinguished from the other until harvest-time. That the servants of the farm recognized the tares as soon as they sprang up does not conflict with our last statement, for it is the apostles who are here in view and they were specially anointed with the Holy Spirit, and so they had a greater measure of discernment than any at the time. As you have noticed our God is still ever so faithful and caring for His children even before they mature. So at the time of the harvest the weeds will be separated so at the end of the age or time of judgment, we as the wheat have to continue to grow with the purity of faith so we are able to stand out and not be mistaken for a weed. We must flourish and bring forth fruit or (grain) so when the harvesters come we will glitter in the sun and be plainly seen. I don’t think anyone of us want to be mistaken for a weed of sin. So my bothers and sisters we all must bring upon fruit and we need to be ready and have sincere faith with our flourishing grain.
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2Cor 2:11 KJV
Satan has an artificial Church. Christ is now building His Church, a Church which will include all the saved of this present dispensation, and none who are not members there of will be saved. The Devil has caricatured this also. Romanism professes itself to be the spouse of Christ, and her ministers insist there is no salvation to be found outside of their light. They profess the name of Christ, and hold some of the great fundamentals of His teaching. But artfully mixed with these are the deadly errors of Paganism. But so clever is the imitation, so subtly are the Scriptures appealed to in support of their pretenses, that millions are deluded by their soul-destroying system.
There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. Prov. 14:12 NASB
So as we all see again at the end of the age or the end of these allowances angels will come and separate the evil from the good. Don’t forget we have true and false believers in our churches today, they still may be classified as a believer or a blade of wheat, but still you might be mistaken for a weed if you are not flourishing grain or fruit. You can be a believer but one who is living in sin cannot be to fruitful, there is still time for repentance, and this may also act as a warning, we cannot pass judgments on people because of the damage that can cause the young believers while the wheat is still growing.
The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent. 2Pet. 3:9 NLT
Plus in verse 41 it also mentions that the angels will remove from the kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. So we must also look at some wheat that has taken on the appearance of the weeds. Plus we all know the next explanation the weeping is extreme sorrow and remorse, and the gnashing of teeth show extreme anxiety and pain. Just think of all the people who do not know Christ, and also the ones who think they are Christians and they are living selfish, indifferent to God, and in sin, they to will be separated and thrown into the fire also. These tares are to represent imitation Christians. When the servants first discovered what the enemy had done, they wanted to root out the tares. But the Master forbade them, saying, ‘No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. It is only when they are both fully matured that the farmer can with safety separate them, for it is not until then that it is seen there is no grain in the ears of the tares. Until the harvest time the tares present a just picture to the eye. As these imitation blades, green and prosperous, grow side by side with the real wheat, there is every prospect of an abundant yield. But appearances are deceptive, and much of the product will prove only a disappointment and charade to those who have spent so much time and labor on their cultivation. At the Harvest-time there is going to be a great lack of expectation. Then it will appear that Christ’s flock is a little one.
The Owner of the field did not let any interference with the tares. This is a point which has perplexed many. Why did the Lord permit the Enemy to sow his tares? And why has He permitted them for so long, to occupy the principal part of the field? In other words, Why has God allowed the devil such long-continued freedom? This is not so difficult to answer as many may suppose. They overlook the fact that the leaders of this world rejected its rightful Sovereign; that the Jews preferred Barabbas. Having chosen a murderer in preference to the Lord of Life, both Jews and Gentiles have reaped what they have sowed. The Devil was "a murderer from the beginning" John 8:44, and having refused the Savior, this great soul-destroyer has ruled over them ever since.
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. John 8:44 NKJV
Still we all have many unanswered questions that still remain. Only God knows why bystanders had to die in any particular event between the encounters that come about between God and Satan. We struggle with the fact that some are righteous and have short tragic lives while others who are wicked enjoy wealth and live a long time. One thing we can understand, what seems to be unfair in this life will be made right in eternity. All our problems will be resolved and many of our questions will be answered.
So let us return back to producing fruit, false converts, or professing Christians produce no lasting fruit. We must also take note that fruit is something which God produces in us, by His power.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Gal. 5:22-23 NASB
As a reference to the fruit we must remember it is a part of Christian character and is produced by the Holy Spirit, not by mere mortal discipline of trying to live by the law. Paul makes it very clear to us all that the Holy Spirit produces Christian virtues in the believer’s life. Now works is something a man can do on his own effort, singing, preaching, teaching, witnessing and general work for the church may it be from doing janitor duties all the way up to being the administrator, and any points in between such as Elders or ushers but having a deep seated inner joy and being at peace with all people. So you may see false believers doing outstanding works but they do not process any fruit. We all understand we cannot tear up the unbelievers because some may be evil and still some may be coming to the truth through repentance so we don’t want to disturb the saved and we still have to look at all of their future, God wants all people to be saved and come to repentance. The weeds are gathered and bound and burned first, and then the wheat is gathered and brought into heaven. There is something else to consider when you put to different plants together in the world one can adapt to the other and some can change to another through a word they call a hybrid and it could be a mixing of the values and the soil they share and the space they are occupying and there are ways through time there can be formed a cross breading technique and during the course of time things can change even though the weeds were planted by the devil and the weeds or the tares are considered poison, so if the weeds are surrounded by wheat there is always a chance the weed could be converted just by the nature of God. And we can look at it another way that the wheat can also be surrounded by weeds and then can be taken on a form of the weeds, and that is how we could possibly end up with false teachers or just simple Christians that have been brainwashed into the surrounding influence of Satan. Anything as we all know can happen in the world today, people defiantly change, and if they are around the wrong influence for a long time, just like our children if they are hanging around with the wrong group of people, they could possibly get in trouble, or fall into a crowd using drugs, so this Parable we could have a endless discussion on.
Gracious God, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ and also my dear Father, I thank You that You have permitted me to preach another sermon, we praise Your name Father, I am so privileged to be able just to express the views of Your Word, especially to such a large audience. You are my strength, Thank you for giving me the strength to finish this Sunday, please be with all our members and visitors for the rest of this day and the remainder of the week. With out You we can do nothing, You are our all in all. Please answer our prayers this week for the ones that we answer and pray to, and for. Father please direct us this week on Your strategy, please don’t let us be tricked or mislead into any wrong doings, or any sin, please lead us to the still waters of peace. Please Lord Keep us from the evil one, and protect us, and all of our families, we all love You Lord! We love You Jesus! We love You Holy Spirit! In Jesus Name, Amen and Amen.
The Church Ministries wishes to thank Providence Baptist Ministries (PBM) for the care, direction and permission and notes of A.W. Pink in conjunction with the public domain Christian Classics Ethereal Library. www.pbministries.org/PBMDTP/desktop_publishing_main.htm
