Parables of Jesus - Traditional Service First B Jackson 2022-05-16 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- I can hear you, Thin. But... Do you? Yes? Doy. Doy. Doy. If not, I will just sing like that. It's okay. Who just seen... Just like that. Oh, yeah. Actually, I'm gonna sing... Oh, better. Yes. Is that right? I'm sorry? Yes. Yes. The bass. I think it's a... Yep. No. No. It doesn't have to be. So it's it's just perfect like this. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. How are you? Hey, am on. We're working through stuff. The sound man is still on the stage. That's probably a sign. How are you all this morning? Good. Looking out. Looks like the crowd is pretty warm. Good. Would you stand with me? We're gonna sing a couple of songs, and then we'll have some announcements and a covenant ceremony, actually. So, praise him, praise him is what we're going to sing. Every and joyful song. Praise him. Praise him. Jesus, our blessed redeemer. Sing all earth, his wonderful love proclaim. Hail him. Hail him. Highest archangels in glory. Strength and honor give to his holy name. Jesus will guard his children in his arms. He carries them all day long. Praise him. Praise him. Tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him. Praise him. Ever in joyful song. Praise him. Praise him. Jesus, our blessed redeemer. For our sins, he suffered and bled and died. Be our rock, our hope of eternal salvation. Hail him. Hail him. Jesus, the crucified. Down his praises. Jesus, who bore our sorrows, love unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong. Praise him. Praise him. Tell of his excellent greatness. Praise him. Praise him. Ever in joyful song. Praise him. Praise him. Jesus, our blessed redeemer. Heavenly portals loud with hosanna's ring. Jesus, savior reigneth forever and ever. Crown him, crown him, prophet and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord belong praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness praise him praise him ever in joyful song Amen. We're going to move forward to hymn number six eighty eight, savior like a shepherd lead us. We in thy pleasant pastures for our use thy folds prepare blessed Jesus blessed Jesus thou hast bought us thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, thou hast bought us thine we are. Amen. And y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements. First of all, there is Monday night happening tomorrow night. Clickety clicker is just not cooperating at all this morning. But first B Monday nights at first B is happening down the hall. Carl will be leading on that. There will be meal, music and a message happens every Monday night. And then at the same time that that is happening, usually we do Awana, but Awana is gone for the summer. So if you want to bring the kids, you can bring the kids on down the hall. And our conversation will be meal music and a message and a little conversation with the Fuller family of God. Awana typically happens. But if you'll look, the ring has been removed from the floor for the summer. So the Awana is off for the summer, but that means tourists will be here soon. Alright. The clickity clicker's still not working. There are a lot of announcements. There are all kinds of things we need to announce. Nancy Baxter, would you come up and announce yours? There we go. Thank you, Max. That's good. Is Mike in here? He had a youth announcement this morning. There is a youth announcement. If you want to know what it is, contact Mike Demetrius, the youth leader, all right? I was running around trying to get notes together. Seniors? Fantastic. Okay, for seniors. Okay, I got you. Grad Sunday is coming up. Okay, that makes sense. Grad Sunday is coming up. If you have a senior in your family or if you know of a senior in high school and you'd like to share because we'll do a grad Sunday where we recognize them, getting pictures of them, knowing who they are would be helpful. Anybody that wants to be included. That'd be good. Anybody else? Any any other suggestions, complaints, anything? No, nothing. If you would, would you stand with me and we will sing another couple of songs? Tell me the story of Jesus. What a great thing. Tell me. Wait a second. Oh, call it off. I'm doing terrible this morning. Just have have a seat. Everybody except for Mark and Sue Miller. So... And this is this is... We have a great couple up in the booth this week, and they are working on this but that is the hardest job in this church. If y'all... Well, maybe nursery director is the hardest but that one's coming in a close second. Alright. Being up in the booth is kinda hard and if if I don't put things in the right place for my office, they can't find it. And this morning, when we got to the first service, the sermon wasn't in there. So there was a whole lot of talk amongst yourselves while we figure this out. I didn't put the slide in there for this. But these folks have been with us part of the year for several years, and they were neighbors with Frank and Judy before Frank and Judy moved down to Alpine. Mark and Sue Miller, if you don't know them, you need to get to know them. They're a great encouragement to me, and I just love you. And I appreciate it. And they came in a couple weeks ago, and we did a discovery class. So they kind of pretty much, if you come to the church, you get to know about the church. Hope to stay biblically sound and true and pay attention to what it says. That's what we hope to do. And so that was attractive to both of them. And I'm gonna just kinda go with our little covenant as members. And and at the various intervals, y'all will respond or y'all will respond. Okay? Basic to any growth in the things of the Lord is a commitment to Jesus Christ. First as savior, then as lord. Alright, both of y'all believers in Jesus as savior and lord. Amen. So, we've personally trusted in Jesus Christ as savior, believing that he died for our sins and rose from the dead. Do you believe that God has led you to be involved at First Baptist Church as an evidence of your desire to grow in the grace of Christ and in love and service for his glory. Amen. Do you recognize the authority of scripture in your life and endeavor to live by its teachings that express God's purpose for our lives and worship, fellowship, Christ likeness, service, and outreach? Amen. As members together in the body of Christ, will you endeavor to open your hearts to ministry, both serving others as well as receiving ministry from them? Amen. Now, that's for y'all too. Will you? Will you do that? Will you open your heart and your lives to live together in community under the call of God? Amen. Will you endeavor to grow in faithfulness to one another as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ? Y'all will. How about y'all? Yes. Amen. I love this. I just do. It's a it's a privilege. I don't spend a whole lot of time on church membership in sermons because I try to just stick really close to what it says but I am thankful that we have membership and that you all are a part. So thank you. Love you. I also might be anticlimactic to present it now, but I give you a chance. Say what you will. Amen. Thank you very much. That's great. Love y'all. Love y'all. And now, would you all join together and sing? We're gonna stand and we're gonna... We are really this time. We're really gonna sing this time. Tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart every word. Amen. Tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart everywhere. Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was peace and good tidings to earth tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart everywhere Tell me the story most precious, sweetest that ever was heard. Fasting alone in the desert, tell of the days that are past how for our sins he was tempted yet was triumphed until at last How about when I survey the wondrous cross? Y'all can have a seat. Florina, I think is going to move around to the guitar here and would you pray with me for this time of the worship through giving, our offering time? God almighty, you're so good to us, lord. So good to us and we just are here today gathered in your name, breathing in the air that you've provided and breathing out praises to you. I thank you that we can, lord, gather at the foot of the cross and survey it and see that nothing in our hands we bring. Lord, we don't have any claim upon this except that you gave. You presented us with your unmerited favor, and we have accepted it. Lord, may we be carriers of your love. May we be carriers of your peace. May we be carriers of your grace and mercy. I pray, Lord, that you would do your will and your way among us, that through these offerings and monies that are received lord and the time and the willingness to have a conversation and the willingness to spend time with other people. Lord, I pray that you take everything that we would offer and that you'd use it for the advancement of the good gospel of your love and your forgiveness available in Christ. In Jesus name, may we be surrendered and willing to be surrendered further as servants of the king. Amen. Amen. I'm thankful to be here this morning worshiping God through music. And in anything we do, we take his name and we glorify his name. Amen? The song... I think I sang it once, I think. One day at a time. Oh, I love this song. Such a beautiful song. I used to sing this one in Romania, a lot of times. As you will hear in the sermon, there's very important for us to take one day at a time to be part in the kingdom of God. Amen? And sometimes we can preach with the Bible in our hands, or sometimes we can just be ourselves, treat people nice with love and respect, and that's a good way to say God loves you. Amen. One day at a time in his kingdom. K. But as you know, being a Christian is not easy. It takes work. It takes dedication, and and takes patience to be at work with Jesus. Amen? Because we wanna be active in our faith. It's easy to to proclaim I'm a Christian, but I want God to work in my life so I can be a light in the community where I am at work, at home. Amen. I hope I am. Amen. See, I think I wanna preach again. Oh, I love this song. I'm just a human. I'm just a man. Help me be the That's all I'm asking of you. Just give me the strength to do every day what I have to do. I'm gonna put a little bit of Gypsy flavor in the song. Do you remember when you walk among men? Well, Jesus, you know, if you're looking below, that's worse now than there. Oh, there's pushing and shoving, and it's doubting my life. At a time. Amen. Thank you, Marcus. Hear myself breathing. I turned it off. Yeah. Parables of the kingdom. I am so thankful to be here this morning. And I I was thinking in between services, I ran into one of y'all and they said, you got some explaining to do because there are seven parables of the kingdom in Matthew. There's one additional one in Mark. I covered one, two weeks ago. I covered two last week and then I'm gonna cover the rest, the five of em this week but he said, I see those and I see a couple of em and I think, yeah, I got that one. I think I got that one but I see several more that I'm thinking, man, you got some explaining to do. Some of them, Jesus explained and I love it when he does that because I don't have to. I don't have to figure it out or find this deeper meaning but a parable, it actually literally means thrown down beside, right? Thrown down alongside parable. And so Jesus is throwing down these parables, and he's doing it one right after the other. He's sitting in a boat out on the Lake Of Galilee, Sea Of Galilee, and he's got a lot of folks gathered around. But as the numbers of people on earth go, that's a pretty small crowd, right, that's watching and hearing his words firsthand. And he didn't take three weeks to do these seven or eight parables. He did it right then. It does say he explained later when they were back in the house with the disciples. And at the end of this message, the end of these seven, it says, and Jesus left from there and went to his hometown. And so when he did, it's kind of mic drop. It doesn't go on with kind of a closing invitation. I'm going to try to turn towards an invitation to take what he said seriously. But the parables of the kingdom, here we are. So two weeks ago, I'm going cover them all today because he covered them all at one time. But I'm going to cover them hopefully a little quicker than I have in the last two weeks. So two weeks ago, we have this, the parable of the four soils. He told them many things in parables. He's throwing a lot of illustrations at them, laying stuff down alongside. And for me, I find that if I use an illustration, y'all will remember it just about forever. If I mention the banana sermon, everybody knows what I'm talking about. Does anybody remember the passage? But they know not to wrote... Not to let their bananas rot. Right? And if I say, you know, I ran a '60 nine Nova off in this ditch and then pulled it back up and landed in this ditch and couldn't get out. Y'all know that I'm saying, hey, the good old Gospel Way is right here. It's the roadway towards looking at the cross and you can get over there and legalism or you can get over there and people remember that and it helps. Jesus did it all the time. So here, he does it and he's saying at the very beginning, the parable of four soils that some of the seed that was sown is going to fall alongside the roadside. It's so hard that it will not penetrate and the birds will come along and eat it. Some of it's going to fall on rocky places where it doesn't have a depth of root and so it'll spring up immediately, but then it gets scorched by the sun. Some of it will fall among thorns. And when it falls among thorns, it just gets choked out by other things. And then some falls on the good soil and yields a crop, some a 100, some 60, some 30 times as much. And oftentimes when we read that, we think, okay, this is about salvation. It's about heaven and hell, It's kingdom of heaven. So we gotta figure out who are saved and who are not saved. I I don't think that's the point in this parable. I don't think it is. It can be. The good soil, you know, yeah, they're they're clear. They're saved. But I think that it's saying, listen, I'm about to tell you seven more stories. And you can let this sink deep into your heart and can change you and it can have fruit. Or you can resist it outright. It won't even enter in at all. Or let me let Jesus explain it. So the one who has ears, let him hear. It's a lead off parable of introduction for seven other parables of the kingdom. So, last week, we went through some of those others. When he explains it, the one that catches my ear, whether it's saved or not saved, somebody came forward two weeks ago and said, so what about those people among the thorns? Are they saved or are they not saved? I said, well, I think that since Jesus explains it and says, the thorns are representing the riches and possessions of this world. You can get distracted by things, and it's pretty easy to do. And so living where we live, living in the time that we live in, one of the richest times in human history and one of the richest places in human history, I think that we need to take that consideration and say, you know, the gospel can go in and grow up, but it can also get choked out. And so we don't want to do that. We want to be good soil. So cultivate your hearts in humility. Throw the rocks out of the way and allow the seed to go deep. Here we go with the last week. There were two of them. Mark covers this. It's just a couple of verses. Three verses it says, and he was saying this also, the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil. He goes to bed at night and gets up daily and the seed sprouts and grows. How? He he himself does not know. I love that. Because honestly, I don't know how this works, really. I mean, I know I know the content of scripture and I know that it has the power to transform lives. I know whom I have believed, as the song says. But I know not a lot of things. This one says, he himself does not know. I'd call this the parable of inexplicable growth because it's right there. The seed sprouts and grows. How? He himself does not know. But it's not just inexplicable growth. The soil produces crops by itself. It says spontaneously, First the stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. And now when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. So not only is it inexplicable how it grows, there's also an imminent harvest. And looking forward towards the time of harvest is, I think, the point of this little parable. Matthew follows it up with this one. Sowed weeds. Wait a second. Let's start from the beginning. Jesus presented another parable to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed. Starts off like Mark in his field. That's a different parable. While his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. Now, I spent a lot of time on this last week and on what the weeds, the Darnall there was and I'll mention it today but I like and I didn't bring it out last week. While his men were sleeping, whenever the church starts concentrating on other things, other than the gospel, other than Christ, when they start looking for political power, when they start in fighting, when unity is cast aside, While we're asleep, weeds get sown by the enemy. And we've seen it. Actually, I could name a lot of examples throughout the history of the church. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then left. And when the wheat sprouted and produced grain, the weeds also became evident. And slaves of the landowner came to him and said, sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Well, of course he did. How then does it have weeds? That's the example right there, a picture of wheat and darnel. Now they look pretty close together. They look a lot alike. And from a distance, they look even more alike. It looks like one's just grown a little more than the other and the other's a little bit lesser grown. But they're two different things. Sisania wheat, a kind of darnel that resembles wheat but it is spurious wheat. Darnel, a plant that grows in Palestine and other places too, which resembles wheat in many ways but it's just worthless. In fact, if you treat it like wheat and you try to cook it the same way you cook wheat, it's poisonous. So it's worthless and not just worthless, but poisonous. So he said to them, an enemy has done this. The slave said to him, do you want us then to go out and gather them up? Can you imagine examining every single one of those in a whole field? You know. He said, no. No. While you're gathering up the weeds, you're gonna uproot the wheat too with them. So allow both to grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest, I'll say to the reapers, first, gather up the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn. There are two groups. They're very distinct groups. It's one is going to be burnt, one is going to be gathered. So he then gives an explanation. I love that he gives an explanation to the disciples. They're the ones who are asking the questions. And here it is. Then he left the crowds behind. He went into the house. Matthew gives a reason for why he tells everything in parables. It's like Isaiah said, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. If you approach God's word with pride, God resists the proud. But he gives grace to the humble. If you approach God's word with humility and say, would you show me your way, oh Lord? I bow before it. He will illuminate his word to show you the way. He left the crowds. He went into the house and his disciples in humility came to him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. And he said, well, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. Jesus' favorite self designation. And the field is the world. And as for the good seed, these are sons of the kingdom and the weeds are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil and the harvest is the end of the age. This one too is pointing towards the harvest at the end of the age. And the reapers are angels. Angel means messenger. Anytime you see angel, it means messenger. So there is a message that they are carrying. And in this case, that message is a message of judgment. There will be a great divide into two groups. So just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The son of man will send forth his angels. They will gather out of his kingdom all the stumbling blocks. Considering that angels are messengers and there is a message, if we are paying attention to the message of the word of God, it should be helping us to remove the stumbling blocks. And the angels will also remove those who commit lawlessness and they will throw them into the furnace of fire in the place where they'll be meet... Weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their father. The one who has ears, let him hear. That's a heavy message. It's straight up. Universalism, I mentioned last week, is the most popular heresy of our day because that's more comfortable than thinking about a great divide that is coming. But both of those parables point towards an eventual harvest. So continuing with the rest of them. I've got five more to cover in short order here today. Matthew and Mark tell of the first one, The Mustard Seed. In Columbus, Georgia where I went to college, there was a Christian bookstore called the Mustard Seed. It was so cute, you know. This little bookstore. He presented another parable to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a person took and sowed in his field. And this is smaller than all of the other seeds. Now, it's not smaller than every seed in the whole wide world, but it is smaller than the seeds, agricultural seeds that were available and the crops that would grow at that place at that time. Jesus says, if you've got an NIV, it says it's smaller than all of your seeds. This is smaller than all of the other seeds. But when it is fully grown, it's larger than the garden plants and becomes even a tree, 10 to 20 feet depending on who you listen to. So that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches. Mark says almost the same thing. It's interesting the way he starts off. And he was saying, how then shall we picture the kingdom of God? Let me find an illustration that you can remember. It's like a mustard seed, which when it's sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil. Yet when it is sown, when it is broadcast, it grows up and it becomes larger than all the other garden plants. And it forms large branches that... With the result that the birds of the sky can nest under its shade. This is interesting too because the last time we heard birds was just above that, and the birds were representing the devil. And he's coming to pull the seed off the roadside so it doesn't penetrate. Seeds, they're all different kinds. If you ever go to The Middle East or North Africa or anywhere really, you can go to seed stores here, seed stores here. But you see all different types. But isn't it odd that the littlest one at that time produced the biggest payoff? So he's speaking to his disciples. He's told the parable for everybody. But when he comes back and explains it, he's explaining it to this little bitty band of people that has made an immense difference in the course of the history of mankind in this world. Jesus is the center point of it and he he is the center point of all history, not just human history, all history. And this little band that he's talking to are the mustard seeds that are gonna... The word is a mustard seed. They're growing up in them. So how is this so? This is the splaining to do. If you see a blank slide up here, I'll follow it up with what I think it is. But I want you to consider it. I want you to consider how is this so? What at first looks inconsequential grows into something that is quite profound, productive, and meaningful. That's mustard seed, right? Mustard seed turns into the biggest plant of the garden. To the point that it blesses even those that are not directly related to it. Actually, I might say blesses even those who are absolutely opposed to it. If the birds had come along and seen the mustard seed before it went into the soil, they'd snag it up. And they were represented not that they do absolutely have to represent the devil here, But I just think that the birds can even rest in that. God does cause his reign to fall on the just and the unjust. I think we're guilty in the family of God sometimes of just hoarding the blessing just like the people of the Old Testament, Israelites, would hoard the blessing of God rather than being a light to the nations and rather than sharing with them the gospel of God. So I think that we could take a lesson from that, that our blessing does not just have to remain within the church, but it should be a blessing to all of those around. If not, how will they ever see? Matthew thirteen thirty three continues with this. Just in Matthew, he spoke another parable to them. The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which woman took and hid in three sata of flour until it was all leavened. Okay. King of heaven is like leaven. Usually, when it shows up, leaven shows up in the Bible. It usually shows up and it's representative of something sinful or evil. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Right? In this case, that's not the case. He's restating, I believe, restating the similar teaching from the last parable. But it's funny that he said, a sower went out to sow and as he sowed seeds on his field, and then this one says, he spoke another parable of kingdom heavens like 11, which a woman took and hid and three sata of flour. It was something that was accessible for him, but it was also something that was accessible for her. Three sata of flour. A sata is about 21 pints. I don't usually measure flour in pints or gallons. But if you were to measure three sata, it'd be like two five gallon buckets and then some. So over 10 gallons of flour. That's a lot of bread. That's a lot. If you're preparing, that's a lot of bread. And it says that she put it in there. She hid in there the leaven, which is just a little bit. Out here, I think of sourdough pancakes and sea of lamb sourdough mix that save year to year. Then we do the Easter breakfast and we put that in as the leaven and it goes forward. It doesn't take much of it, just takes a little bit of starter to get going. But the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, a woman took and hid in this immense quality of quantity of flour until all of it was leavened. I looked up in Smith's Bible Dictionary. I went through the office and cleaned out the closet this week with all of my old books. And Smith's Bible Dictionary in there. I thought, I'm going look up leaven and it says, how is this so? Well, it sources from without. Right? That flour or even kneaded into the other ingredients in bread without the leaven, it doesn't rise and it doesn't expand. It doesn't make what it could make. So it sources from without its secret in its operation. So you can't really see what's going on. Especially at that time. You didn't see it. Spreads by contact, particle with particle. I like this. I like this. The spreading particle to particle. You know the vast, unchronicled witness is the way the gospel advances. It is Christians who have accepted Christ for who he is on the terms of God that though we are sinners, in humility, we can accept the grace, the unmerited favor that God has offered in Christ, and he will transform our lives in such a way that he will bear fruit. Inexplicably so, he will bear fruit by our living out the gospel and using our words. It's widely diffusive. One particle of leaven being able to change any number of particles of flour. It doesn't take much leaven. And that's why he says beware of the leaven of the pharisees. It doesn't take much legalism to get you completely off the gospel. But that's mixing the metaphors. I'm gonna try not to do that. It's not like water. Water can only moisten a certain amount of flour, but it is more like a living plant. It changes the particles and comes in contact. And it changes them into its own nature with the propagating power such that next year, you can take a little bit of those pancakes and that will be your starter for next time. Right? So if I were to shorten it down, I'll just have four. The kingdom of heaven works through the Holy Spirit internally, invisibly. You can't tell the difference by looking whether someone has been transformed or not. Irresistibly and irreversibly. Once it's been leavened, it's been leavened. Mustard seed and leavened. I I like the fact that Jesus, if you just note it, he gave one example and it was for those that were traditionally related to the male. They're the ones planting the plants and one that is traditionally related to the female. It doesn't have to be, but it was at the time. And he made it accessible for the whole audience. From here, this isn't a parable but it's talking about how Jesus spoke to him. All of these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables and he did not speak anything without a parable. He did not speak anything to them without a parable. Mark says it this way and with many such parables like this, he was speaking the word to them so far as they were able to understand it. Ain't that good? Like somebody said between services, you got some explaining to do. I don't get all of these. He did not speak to them without a parable. Jesus knew how well illustrations work. Right? We can access stories better than we can access eternal truths. Sometimes they're elusive and ephemeral. It's hard to get there. But he was also explaining everything privately to his disciples. If you will go into your prayer closet and ask for wisdom, ask for enlightenment and illuminating of the scriptures, God will do it. This was so that what was spoken through the prophet, and in this case, it's a Psalm of Asaph, would be fulfilled. I will open my mouth in parables. I will proclaim things hidden since the foundation of the world. That's Psalm seventy eight two. Jesus is quoting from the Psalms because he knows it. He knows what a treasure it is, what a storehouse it is. I'll open my mouth with a parable. I will utter hidden things, things from old. Actually, if you read, this is 70... I think it's 72 verses in Psalm 78. And it tells of all the mighty deeds of God, and it tells of the resistance of the people. But if you'll just read the first four, Jesus was quoting the second one, but when someone quotes a refrain or they quote a little lyric, don't you just start singing the whole song? I do. My people, hear my teaching. Listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable. I will utter hidden things, things from of old. Things that we've heard and we've known. How many of y'all have heard these parables before? We've heard them all before. Things our ancestors have told us. Tell me the story of Jesus right on my heart, every word. Things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them descendants, from our kids. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders that he has done. Amen. Lord, may we have it in our hearts and have it in our minds and have it always on our lips. May we proclaim the mighty deeds that you have done. Personally, may we stand up at Ebenezer Stones metaphorically. Ebenezer Stones where we remember, this is where God acted. This is where God intervened on our behalf. Calvary first and then so many times throughout our lives. He goes on. Matthew thirteen forty four, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field which a man found. He happened on this treasure, found it, and was like, oh, wow. And he hid it again. And from the joy over it, he goes and sells everything that he has and he buys that field. That field including that treasure. So how is this so? Like that great treasure. I think the kingdom of heaven is of surpassing value. It is so valuable that it is rather to be obtained than anything and everything else that we have. Sold absolutely everything else and went and bought that field. He wanted to lay down all of his possessions for that one. It's and again. So the again right there kind of says these are paired. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant that was seeking fine pearls, quite a treasure. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls. And upon finding one pearl of great value, he went out and he sold everything that he had and he bought it. I think that we could say, how is this so? I think we could say, well, the kingdom of heaven is of surpassing value and rather to be obtained than anything and everything else. Actually, we could say it like that or we could say it like this. Again, whenever scripture says something twice in succession, explains it two different ways. When I'm standing up here and I say, are you with me? I'm looking around. I'm seeing the look on the face like no. Then I try a different way, right? I think Jesus is doing that. He's saying, no, really. It's it's like this. And if they get, you know, confused by land acquisition, then maybe he says, oh, okay. Let me try again. It's the same message. The kingdom of heaven is surpassing value so that it's rather to be obtained than silver or gold, right, than anything else. And the things of earth will go strangely dim, right? Okay. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet. Now they again at the beginning says, I've already taught this lesson one time. But I'm going teach you to get. Again, kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet. And if I'm honest, the first thing I thought of when I saw that was this, Joe Friday. In a radio show in the fifties and in television show in the sixties, just the facts, ma'am. Right. Actually, he never said that. Can you believe that? He never actually said those. This is what he actually said. All we know are the facts, ma'am. Or in a different occasion, all we want are the facts, ma'am. We're not looking for all of your opinion. We just want to know the facts. And I think that's a good thing to keep in mind. And looking to the scriptures, looking for the facts, that's really good. Joe Frotty or anybody else. So discard my mixing of metaphors again. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet. It's like a dragnet in fishing terms that was cast into the sea. A seine, right? It's a net that is designed to catch everything That was cast into the sea. It gathered fish of every kind. The way that that is stated, it looks like of every race or every nation. It's kind of weird to use it of fish, but it's not weird to use it of people. Ralph Winter might say, it was designed to cast a net into the sea and gathered folks from every people group. And when it was filled, they pulled it up on the beach, and they sat down and they gathered the good fish in the containers, the storehouse, and the bad fish they threw away. And so it will be at the end of the day. So Jesus goes right from parable into explanation right here. So it will be at the end of the age. There's always a harvest that is coming. In these parables, harvest is evident. So so it will be at the end of days. The angels, messengers, will come forth and remove the wicked from among the righteous, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire in the place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I said that again up top says he's taught this lesson before, if you think about it, from last week and the introduction today. In that place, there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Exact verbiage. Now in the wheat and the tares, it's really concentrating on the now. It's really concentrating on not as much on the harvest, but in the let them grow up together. They are good and they are bad. They're growing together. But there is a harvest coming and then they will be separated into just two. There will be the good and the bad, the righteous and the unrighteous. And they will throw them into the furnace of fire. In that place, there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is just the facts, man. This is the way that it is. So how is this so? In this world, there are various groups of people. And we have been commissioned to go into all of them. And from every one of them, every tribe, tongue, and nation, Pontus Guinness. It'll be from all of the nations, all of the races, all of the peoples. In this world, there are various groups of people and all with their own peculiarities and they're all allowed to swim about freely. But there is indeed a judgment day that's coming where God's angels, his messengers, will separate into just two groups. And I see these groups in scripture over and over and over again. I see them. Since God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble, should we not live accordingly? If we know that God resists or opposes the proud, but that he gives grace to the humble, should we not live accordingly? I I think that when we realize, I have been standing in pride. It should force us to our knees. It doesn't have to. If we read the Old Testament and we look and we see, man, those were stiff necked people. I wouldn't have been like that. You're kinda being like that right now. Right? Should we not live accordingly saying, Lord, help me not be like that? Live in the light. Shouldn't we live accordingly? So in the last one that we have, the head of household parable, the very last one we're gonna cover today. This is funny to me. Jesus says, have you understood all of these things? And they say to him, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We got it. Did you all get them all? Did I get them all? I've been studying this for weeks, you know? But have you understood all of these things? And they said to him, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We got it. That's that's funny to me. Yeah. We got it for sure. And Jesus says to them, good. Therefore, every scribe who has become a disciple... Listen to that. Every scribe is not a disciple. When I mentioned at the very first of this message, I said, if we approach scripture with a humble heart and say, Lord, show me your will and your way and allow me the faith. Allow me the illumination to believe it and hold on to it and live it. He'll do that. That's up to him. It's inexplicable how exactly he does it, but he does it. So we see a lot of scribes though in the New Testament. Almost every time that we see a scribe in the New Testament, it is the Pharisees and the scribes. And the Pharisees and scribes, they are like lawyers. They know every jot and tittle. They understand it from their own understanding, but they're not necessarily seeing it from a hermeneutic of God's goodwill for all. He's... They're not understanding it that way. So he says that, therefore, every scribe who has become a disciple, a true student, someone who analyzes the scriptures and then learns from them. Every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven he's like a head of household to be respected. Somebody who has studied and found something of surpassing value that they can then share. He's he's like a head of household who brings out of his treasure new things and old. Now, Jesus is uncovering things that were hidden since the very foundation, Psalm 78 says. He was things of old. Some of your translation would be sharing riddles since the beginning. You know, sharing things that have confused people for a long time but Jesus was showing them in the flesh what God's grace looked like. So every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of household who brings out of his treasure new things and old. So how is that so? I think that the world around us often will throw up all kinds of opposition. And I think in pride, maybe just confusion, but I think in pride. They bring it up and go, this Old Testament, New Testament, that looks like two completely different gods. This one's angry and full of wrath and just slaughtering people all over the place and this one is love and everything's cute and wonderful. That's a misunderstanding. What Paul says, the Old Testament... I defy you. I defy you to read the Old Testament and find a good guy that doesn't have any flaws. And don't bring up Joseph. Everybody brings up Joseph. That's not nose little brat. My goodness. Favorite of his father and aggravating all his brothers all the time? How is this so? Paul says in first Corinthians, now these things happened to them. This is specifically about the wilderness generation of the Israelites, but more broadly, it's the whole Old Testament. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written down for our instruction. Our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. We're living in an age of grace, But we have many examples from the law. We have many examples from the time of the prophets. And they were written down for our instruction. God's heart for people has not changed. It might seem that his message have because we have the cross to look back to and we have the gospel to share. God's message of love and forgiveness. Romans. Paul in Romans 15 says this, for whatever was written down in those former days, Old Testament stuff, was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. God's mercy endures. Right? It endures. And though we sin, he forgives. He is cognizant of us. He cares about us. This says, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony, brothers and sisters, with one another in accord with Christ Jesus that together, together, you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. The way that he welcomed us in is he forgave us. He stood ready to forgive and when we in humility said, I cannot do this on my own. I have failed at that old covenant. My only hope is you, lord and Jesus said, this is the new covenant in my blood. You take this. Remember me. Take this. That covenant is available. The grace of God is available. If we have accepted of it, should we not be sharing it with everyone else? So how is this so? We, as believers, have access as students of God's word to eternal truth, the eternal truth of the gospel, the message of God's love and forgiveness. Let us be living it out. I'm gonna go back to end with Psalm 78, just one through four. If you want to read the rest of the 72 verses, you're welcome to. My people, hear my teaching. Listen to the words of my mouth. I'll open my mouth with a parable. I'm gonna see examples around me that I think makes sense, and I'm gonna share them with you so that you can see what I'm seeing. I'll open my mouth with a parable. I'll utter hidden things, things from of old, things that we have heard, and things that we've known. They're not necessarily new. Things that our ancestors have told us. I love Mike, our youth director. I love him but I love some of the things he says a whole lot too And he says, there is no new news. There is only old news happening to new people. Right? Things we have heard and we have known, things our ancestors have told us. We will not hide them from their descendants, our children. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord. He is still under attack. The claims of Christ are still under attack. Yet, we still will share them with the next generation. The praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, his wonders, all that he has done. Why? Because I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the fact that Christ says, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I'll give you rest because he says in first John one nine, for whoever is confessing their sins, I'm faithful. I'm just to be forgiving their sins and cleansing them from all unrighteousness. If you think about that, the gospel is the message of God's love and forgiveness available through Christ. When we bow the knee and humble ourselves before God and say, I need you. I accept the grace that you've offered. Though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be as white as snow. He will throw your sins into the sea of forgetfulness and remember them no more. He will throw them into the abyss. He will throw them as far as the east is from the West. There's a Cory ten Boom quote that somebody shared with me between services as he throws them into the bottomless sea and then puts up a sign that says, no fishing. Ain't that good? For I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the only hope. And you know what we are required? I know that Christian apologetics is great, and I like being able to have the answers when people comes to me and ask scriptural questions. I want to. I wanna be a good scribe and a good student that is a disciple. But the the thing that we're asked to defend is the hope that's within us. You seem to be at peace. How is it that you live in this world and you hear the same news that I do and yet you can get up with praise on your lips and joy in your heart and go forward? You can you can have peace that surpasses all understanding. I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. To the Jew first because they had that whole Old Testament and all the stories from their ancestors, but also to the Greek. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, and it's from faith to faith. Just as it is written, this is Habakkuk two four quote, and it's quoted several times throughout the New Testament, a couple times at least. The righteous shall live by faith. I love that. It is a mind blower. If you if you get this, it's really good. The righteous one is added in whenever you see italics in the New American Standard. The righteous will live by faith. So the righteous one will be living out the faith. By the faith, living it out, that person will be righteous. It works every kind of way you can make it. There are a lot of combinations. The righteous one will live by faith. Lord God Almighty, I pray that every soul here in the room would be bending the knee and asking for your wisdom and instruction that you would, Lord, that you would inexplicably grow that up in them, that the seed would find good soil, and that there would be, Lord, not just for our benefit, but for everybody around the community around us that those seeds that have gone in would be sown towards the harvest. May we be faithful and humble before you to do your will, lord, and your way. In Jesus name, amen. Now, would you stand and we're going to close with a song? We'll sing whatever comes up on that wall. And I think it's gonna be, I need thee every hour. How true is that? Can be so full. Need thee. Oh, I need thee. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Amen. And as a benediction today, I'm gonna look back to James again. James one five says this, if there is any of you out there that lacks wisdom and I think it covers all of us, honestly. If there's any of you out there that lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you. Lord, we ask for that collectively and individually right now. Would you show us your way, lord and give us the strength by your Holy Spirit to walk it out. Amen. Amen.