

 By Emerson Wilson
CONTENTS:
(Covering the complete series)
Introduction It
Is Given Unto You To Know The Wayside Ground The Great
Suppers The Hiding Place The Stony Place A Heart Of Flesh
Given The Way To True Peace Some Fell Among Thorns Thorns
Cause Waste Thorns that Choke The Thorns Must Be
Burned Some Fell On Good Ground The Hundred-Fold Type The
Decline Of The Ephesian Church 33-270 AD The Parable Of The
Tares Sowing The Tares The Time Of Harvest The
Harvesters The Parable Of The Mustard Seed The Birds Lodge In
The Branches Fowls Are Fallen Ministers Compromise Brings
Chaos Hidden Leaven 1530-1730 AD The True Bread A Little
Leaven The New Lump The Way Out Of Darkness The Parable Of
The Hidden Treasure The Treasure Type The Buried
Treasure Selling All To Buy Sanctification In Type Result
Of The Infilling Of The Holy Spirit The Pearl Of Great
Price Mystery Babylon One Foundation Church
Doctrines Church Morals Half Truths The Church vs
Babylon Back To Zion The Good And The Bad The Furnace Of
Fire Love, God's Divine Instrument The Poor In Spirit The
Salt Of The Earth The Laodicean Church
PLEASE NOTE:
The following has been
selected to provide you, dear reader, with interesting and
challenging subjects for your consideration. You will find that much
contained herein, varies with traditional teachings and beliefs.
However, it is my 'burden' to encourage as many as will, to honestly
consider with an open heart and mind...then, trusting the Holy
Spirit to teach each one as HE WILLS. =)
FOREWARD...[ Part 1 ]
Paul said, when writing
to Timothy that it was the desire and will of God that all men might
be saved, and come to a knowledge of the truth. The second part of
that verse is being forgotten. Mass evangelism is working hard to
get people to God, and then leaves them to starve spiritually, or
because of no depth of a real experience, they get into a worse
condition than If they had made no profession of faith. It is the
desire of our heart that all men be brought to an understanding of
God's Word that they may be on a solid foundation and be able to
stand in this evil day.
In the 13th chapter of
Matthew we have the seven parables recorded. We want to teach you by
God's eternal Word and by His Eternal Spirit that these seven
parables coincide with the seven letters to the seven churches.
These seven letters, we have proven by the Word of God, cover seven
periods of time through the Gospel Day from A.D. 33 unto the end of
time.
Many people do not see
the kingdom. There are two main reasons. Jesus said: "Except a man
be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Many people are
trying to see it, and even teach it, who have not been born again.
Many are teaching large congregations about the kingdom, yet fight
the definite teaching of the new birth. Second, some have been truly
born again by the Spirit of God, having laid hold to a certain
extent of the truth thereby, and then because of erroneous doctrine
and false teaching they have been led astray to look for some
millennial or literal reign of the kingdom here on earth. We have
made the statement that these seven churches cover the Gospel Day in
its completeness and will give you the Bible reason for it. When you
begin to see that--you will begin to understand the message of God*s
Word in a greater way.
First, let me say that
the morning church was represented by a rider on a white horse who
went forth conquering and to conquer and the early church ate the
Word of God. We are living in a day and age when there is a great
deal of talk about the Word of God. The people say, "We must have
truth, for the truth will set us free." They say, "We must get back
to the Word," but fail to give the people the Word.
Also, we have many
people like Pilate, who, when Jesus spoke about truth, said, "What
Is truth?" In the 24th chapter of Matthew, Jesus was asked three
questions by the disciples. First, when the destruction of Jerusalem
would take place? Second, what the sign of His coming would be.
Third, what would be the sign of the end of the world? He answered
the last question first, and gave us a resume of the Gospel Day. He
said, "Beware" - Take heed that no man deceive you. Also, that many
false Christs would come claiming to be the true Son of God. He told
of the darkness that would come on the earth and of a time when the
Christians would be delivered up to their enemies and would be hated
by all men for His sake and there would be an apostasy and men would
betray one another. He was not talking about things that would be
among the worldly, but things that would exist among His followers.
He said also that
kingdom would rise against kingdom, and nation against nation. Radio
and TV preachers take hold of that and say that wars and rumors of
wars are a sign of the end. But He said that it is one of the signs,
and the sign of the beginning of despair and sorrow. In the 12th
chapter of Revelation you will see kingdom rising against kingdom.
The old dragon and beast kingdoms and that which Revelation calls
the kingdom of this world rose up against the Kingdom of God and the
Church went through the dark ages and martyrdom. False prophets
arose and deceived many. There were 1260 years of the Dark Ages and
then the day of the False Prophet or the deceptive teaching of the
Protestant Church for a period of 350 years. After that period,
what? Matthew 24:14, "Iniquity shall abound and the love of many
shall wax cold. But he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be
saved."
Some will say, "Will we
be able to make It?" Yes, turn to the 13th chapter of I Corinthians
and get the spirit of that message. "Charity endureth all things."
Those who endure until the end shall be saved. If you get the real
love of God in your hearts you can endure. If the last sign of the
end of the world is not wars and earth quakes, then what is the sign
of the end? "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all the
world and then shall the end come." We are right here on the
threshold of the closing of the Gospel Day and there is a renewing
of holy effort going forth to all men, then shall the end come..
Jesus declared it would
go forth as a witness. All men will not receive it, but it must be
preached for a witness before the end. There will be two witnesses
at the judgment bar of God. The Word and the Spirit were the two
witnesses all through the Gospel Day and when we come up to the
Judgment Bar of God, the Word and the Spirit will witness for or
against us according to our loyalty to God and truth.
When I was in the
services of the Armed Forces, I was a first sergeant and it was one
of my duties to have the articles of war read to the men at least
once every thirty days. They did not like to hear it. None of us
did. The reading of this material took about 45 minutes of our time.
We had the best lieutenant we could find who would go through it
quickly to mumble through it so we could say that It had been read.
When a man was court-martialed, the first thing they did was to look
up the record and see how long it had been since the articles of war
had been read. Then they could say, no matter what you had done,
"You knew better. You just had it read to you eight or ten days
ago."
Now, the same is true
with God. Man has led God*s people far from the 'way' of truth. God
is circling this old world once more with the pure unadulterated
Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that men cannot say that they have not
heard, or that they forgot, or that they did not know. It will be
fresh on our minds when Jesus comes.
I thank God that I can
live on this old earth one last time with the glorious Gospel of the
kingdom. We are being brought down to a time when the golden Gospel
is preached again. Three times it goes forth in the Gospel day. It
was preached in the morning time in all of its fullness, and the
darkness fled away. Again In the 14th chapter of Revelation (about
the year 1880) when God had gathered a people out on Mt. Zion, there
came an angel or ministry with the ever lasting Gospel to preach.
Now it is going out once more for us, but because of lukewarmness
and coldness there has been a compromising spirit and a turning away
from it as 'a whole' over the land. But, thank God, there is a
returning and this everlasting Gospel of the kingdom is going forth
again, and it will bring the same result if you hear It, see it, and
do it. I pray God will help us to see it.
Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION
We read in Matthew 13:
"The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.
And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he
went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the
shore. And He spake many things unto them in parables, saying,
Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he had sowed, some seeds
fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some
fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith
they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the
sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they
withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up,
and choked them: But other fell Into good ground, and brought forth
fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who
hath ears to hear, let him hear."
God used that verse to
awaken me to the fact that the seven letters of Revelation and these
parables belong together. He closed them with the same expression.
Let us read on.
"And the disciples came,
and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He
answered and said unto them, Because It is given unto you to know
the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more
abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even
that he hath. Therefore speak I to them In parables: because they
seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they
understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which
saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and
seeing ye shall see,, and shall not perceive: For this people's
heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their
eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed
are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear."
The Revelation says: He
(or she) that has part in the first resurrection is blessed and
holy. The first resurrection is the spiritual resurrection. When we
are resurrected from our dead condition of trespasses and sin we are
blessed as individuals. Blessed eyes, blessed ears, blessed feet,
and blessed hands. "Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears
for they hear, for verily I say unto you that many prophets and
righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and
have not seen them, and to hear those things you hear and have not
heard them."
Now when we deal with
the seven letters and the seven parables I am sure that you are all
aware of the fact that seven In the Word of God Is an Important
number. There are seven parables and seven letters, and we find
seven churches and seven angels, and seven lamps and seven seals,
and seven trumpets and seven thunders and seven heads and seven
horns. Go back to the Old Testament and we read about the seven
cattle and seven ears. It is all very important. The 11th verse
tells us why Christ dealt with parables.
Let us take our time
with this. I have a great burden to keep the simplicity of the
Gospel. God used these parables to teach the kingdom. Could we find
anything better? Let us look at the 11th verse. Jesus said, "It is
given unto you (His disciples) to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of Heaven, but to them It Is not given." Now, let us underline that
word, GIVEN, and get it fixed in our minds that it is a gift--it is
not earned. We are living in a day when a man is not qualified if he
has not earned certain things, but this, is something that Is given.
"It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven.
But to them it is not." That is, to those that have not opened heart
and mind to receive the blessed truth.
There are two words here
that we want to study in the beginning. He said to know the
"mysteries of the kingdom" of heaven (and He used the plural), and I
would like to say that for every mystery there is about the kingdom,
someone has given us a false teaching about it. But it is given to
us to know the mysteries and when something has been given to us
through a medium, we can understand the mysteries of the kingdom of
God and see It alike. Let us underline that word, mystery. Webster
says: That which is beyond human comprehension. We are going to
'leave off' that, which can be gained by Intellectual power, and try
to get hold of something Jesus tried to give Nicodemus If we ever
learn of the kingdom. He said, "You must be born again to see the
kingdom. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is
born of the spirit is spirit." We are surely agreed that there are
many mysteries, and we will mention just a few.
There are the mystery of
Christ, the mystery of the faith, the mystery of God, the mystery of
the seven stars, the mystery of iniquity, and the mystery of
babylon. We want to emphasize again to you as we study this lesson,
even as Jesus did, the necessity of the aid of the Holy Spirit of
God, to understand spiritual things. Paul said in I Cor. 2:9, "…Eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." And
most people quit there, and say, "We Just can't know." However, let
us read the 10th verse. "But God hath revealed them unto us by His
Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of
God." Then He went on to say in the 14th verse, "But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned."
Chapter 2 - IT IS GIVEN
UNTO YOU TO KNOW
When you see many people
running around, even when they call themselves members of the church
of God, who say, "That's just foolishness" - If it is the Word of
God, you 'mark' that fellow. He's a 'natural man.' We read in the
12th verse of the 13th chapter of Matthew: "For whosoever hath to
him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever
hath not, from him it shall be taken away, even that he hath." Also,
dealing with the same parable In Luke, the 8th chapter and the 18th
verse, it reads: "that which he seemeth to have". This is a give and
take proposition. Whosoever hath, to him there shall be more given.
Now, as we deal with
these parables, If you have truth and have truly been born of the
Spirit of God, more will be added to you, but if you have false
conceptions of God's Word, that which you have will be taken away.
If you ever get anything from God, you must trade something in. Too
many people want to be given things without giving anything
themselves. But we must turn something in to God. You are not going
to hold on to your old false conceptions of God's eternal Word, and
expect to get right. When you are ready to trade the other in and to
take it God's way, then He will deal with you.
We read In Revelation,
the 16th chapter, which deals with the same thought of the vials and
why they were poured out. They were given to take men's false hiding
places away. Men are hiding under the fact that they joined a church
and make some kind of profession. These vials were poured out so
that men may stand out naked with no place to hide and God can
better reach his soul. God is interested in dealing truth to men and
has always been since the fall. But there have been so many false
hiding places for them to hide behind that It was necessary to pour
out the vials of God's eternal truth and do away with the hiding
places and pull back the cover, as it were, that man may stand out
with no place to hide. Then God will deal with him through His Word
and give him the true experience he stands in need of.
We realize that a
mystery Is beyond human comprehension. The next thing to consider is
the parable. I want to refresh your memory for our common benefit.
Jesus said: "I spake unto them in parables". But for what reason?
That to some the lesson might be revealed and at the same time
hidden to others. He said: "I spoke in parables that I might get the
message to some people and it might remain hid to others." In the
10th chapter Jesus told the people that some of them were blessed
for kings and prophets and righteous men in their day desired to
hear the things they were hearing.
Parables are used all
through the Word of God. A parable is like a pillar of cloud and
fire. The same pillar of fire brought darkness on the Egyptians and
confounded them on their side of it, and on the other side it
brought light to Israel and lit their pathway. God deals in parables
and symbols. Why? I should like to express it this way: When in the
service, I operated a radio for the Colonel of the regiment. We had
what we called an MG-09 converter and when we would send messages in
enemy territory, I would just take the message from the colonel, set
up a couple of letters on that converter and run the message
through. When it came out it was just a jumbled mess of letters of
the alphabet. I would get the 'key' and send It over the air. The
first two letters that I sent were the 'keys' that I used to my
machine. The operator on the other end had a machine just like mine.
He would get those two keys. He would set it up on his machine and
send the message back plain. But the enemy couldn't make anything
out of it. That is why God deals in parables and symbols--He has the
enemy spotted. We know the devil is working today. Paul said that we
are not ignorant of his devices. The truth is hidden, but God
reveals it to us through His Holy Spirit. The parable is like the
pillar of cloud and fire. While it confounds the enemy, it lights
and comforts the children of God. In
the 6th chapter and the 11th verse Christ took the church down in
the valley of Nuts. The Word of God uses many symbols and
expressions. Why did He do this? So He could crack the shell and
give us the meat therein. The modern ministers of today are through
the revised versions and other means, looking over these expressions
of God's eternal Word, and they examine it and pick on it and see
nothing there and throw it away. I thank God I have been picking it
up and cracking the shell and finding meat for souls In it.
Not very long ago I
spoke to the congregation in Newark along certain lines and they
were thrilled and said, "Brother Wilson, we enjoyed that." I
answered, "If I had been preaching from a revised version, I could
not have preached that message because the scriptures I used are not
In there. But it contains spiritually rich food for the soul." The
great need of the hour is for the Church to 'turn back' to the
leadership of the Holy Spirit. He and He alone can open the
Scriptures.
Christ said: "It is
given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom. Then He
proceeds to give the seven parables. He shows us the preceding age
back of Ephesus, which we know was the sowing age.
And He presents here a
story of different kinds of ground that covers all mankind. Every
one of us is represented by one kind of ground or the other: That of
wayside ground, stony ground, thorny ground, or good ground. That
was Christ's way of beginning the teachings of the kingdom of God.
Looking at the seven
parables, we see that they compare with the seven churches of Asia.
Some people may say, "Those were just seven letters addressed to
seven congregations of the church at that particular location. Leave
it there." Let us think it over. There is the letter written to the
Church at Philadelphia. First of all, if these letters were just
addressed to this congregation, and was written for them and sent to
them, for them alone to read, why was it put in the Bible?
Paul wrote to the Church
at Corinth. Don't preach out of it any more. It was just written to
the Church at Corinth. He wrote to the Church at Thessalonica. Leave
it right there. It is not for you. When the Spirit of God sees the
people get into the same shape Colosse was in, the letters come to
you. And also, why did He close every one of them by saying, "He
that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
Church." Because those letters were written for the congregations
down through the generations and different periods of time.
The next thing we want
to consider is this: Why around the throne of God was the Holy
Spirit symbolized as having seven eyes, which are the seven spirits
of God? There is only one Spirit. Why did the lamb have seven horns?
Because it symbolizes God's Power of Salvation through these seven
different ages of time as meeted out as the light was given, The
seven spirits of God symbolize one Holy Spirit working through the
seven ages of time as was needed.
Now, we must have the
'letters' to understand the parables. Some will say: "I don't think
that you need the letters, for I have dealt with those parables." In
the fourth parable where the woman took three measures of meal and
put leaven in, you tell me who the woman is, by the Bible, and tell
me what the leaven is, and the meal. You can't do it unless you go
to the 'letter' and he'll tell you who the woman is, what the meal
is, what the leaven is, and what the outcome of it was. It all works
together and will show us the kingdom in its completeness right on
through.
We will deal here with
the Ephesus age after we consider the different kinds of ground.
Christ said: "A sower went forth to sow. Now, when He began to teach
about the kingdom, the Word of God tells us in the 13th chapter and
the 37th verse that Christ Is the sower. The 8th chapter of Luke and
the 11th verse says: "The seed is the Word of God." Also Matthew,
the 13th and l9th verse says:"the seed is the Word of the kingdom."
So, the Word of God and the Word of the kingdom is the same thing.
If we preach the Word of
God, we will be building the Kingdom of God. To build up anything
else besides the Word In the hearts of men and women, we will have
to teach them something else besides. In Matthew, we read that when
he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and
devoured them up. This is the wayside seed or the first kind of
ground that Jesus spoke of. But we must remember that four types of
people as well as four types of ground are mentioned. There is no
'middle place'--we are either wayside soil, stony, thorny, or good
soil. We shall locate them all in time.
I am glad that the
disciples asked about them. Some people never learn because they are
not humble enough to ask. The best way to find out about anything,
in which you are interested, is to Inquire. Jesus said, "Ask and ye
shall receive,"
Now, when He talked
about these parables, they did not understand, and He gave them
understanding. And Matthew wrote it down so you and I could get It.
He said that when any one heareth the Word of the kingdom and
understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away
that which was sown in his heart. This is he that receiveth seed by
the wayside.
Chapter 3 - THE WAYSIDE
GROUND
The wayside, as Jesus
would show us, are those who just happen to be around where the seed
was falling. He may be in a funeral service, or he may have just
visited the House of God on an Invitation of a friend. He might hear
it on the radio as he went on some errand or journey. The seed was
sown, but it did no good. Why? Because of the condition of the
wayside ground. There was no desire for the Word of God. It was that
of just falling upon ground, and it brought forth no fruit. It may
have made somewhat of an impression to the fact that they may change
their lives a little bit. They are not interested enough to come to
the place of getting an understanding of the Word of God. When you
don't understand the Word, you have not got it. You are open to all
of the attacks of the 'fowls of the air' and are liable to lose it
at any time and have something else put In it's place. We must
understand the Word of God if we would hold and keep it.
We are told of the one
that heareth the Word and understandeth it not, that the wicked one
comes or, as expressed in Matthew, the 4th verse, "the fowls come
and pick it up." The Individual is called 'wayside' here because his
life is taken up in other things. Just too busy to serve God. When
the Word is sown on him it merely falls by the wayside. The very
center of his life is taken up in earthly and human Interests. When
the Word falls 'around the edges,' it will never bring forth an
experience with God.
If the Word of God ever
takes root, the seed must fall in the center of an open, honest
heart. Wayside earth never did, never will produce an experience
with God. There needs to be much plowing done. This wayside ground
must be plowed up. Surely God does not want a lot of wayside ground
around the Church. The ministers and the lay members need to get the
ground in shape for the seed, so that when it falls, it can take
root and bring forth, for God.
Thank God, in the midst
of the very age in which we live, that I can make this statement
(faithfully by God's eternal Word), that we can understand the Word
of God. Many people think you cannot understand it, but Jesus said,
"Seek and ye shall find, knock, and It shall be opened, ask, and It
shall be given you." Many are putting understanding of the kingdom
of God, along with other rich things, until some other age. But we
can understand it now, thank God! People are asking, "Why is it
necessary to preach that?" People, once 'saddled in the truth,'
often make such remarks as this: "What makes the difference whether
there is or is not a millennium?" It makes all the difference in the
world. God has given us understanding and He wants us to ask of Him.
"If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given
unto him." Some are content to sing, "We'll understand it better by
and by." That song was written back in the days of confusion. The
true saints are singing, "Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ." We
can have an understanding if we look Into God's eternal Word.
When Christ spoke to
Nicodemus of a new birth, he could not understand how a man could
enter the second time into his mother's womb. That thought came from
an educated but a confused mind. People today look back and say,
"What was wrong with that poor fellow?" But at that he was ahead of
the educators of today. They can't even figure out how Christ, the
Son of God, was born of a virgin the first time. They are a step
behind Nicodemus. Yet, these men are the religious leaders of the
church (nominal) today. Only the Spirit of God can give us spiritual
understanding.
The only way to get a
real understanding of the precious Word is to get an experience of
salvation through an experience In the heart and be spiritually born
again and the Spirit of God will unlock and give you an
understanding, for these things are spiritually discerned. When men
don't have understanding they are open to the attacks of the fowls
of the air. We read in Luke, chapter 8, verse 5, "The fowls of the
air come to pick it up." If you do not understand the Word some one
can come along and take it away and give you something else in its
place. But when we understand the truth through the Spirit of God,
no one can rob you of it. Christ takes the material things to teach
us in the Word of God. He takes the natural things to teach us the
spiritual.
Man goes out and sows
seed on the ground where it has not been cultivated and worked and
it is still hard. The seed lies on top and the birds come along and
take it away. When the Word of God falls on hearts that are hard, no
understanding is gained and it is not hard for false ministers to
come along and take away the good that has been done with their
watered down teachings of the Word and so rob that soul of what it
did have. Unless the heart of man is open and receptive to the seed
and it is enclosed within it through the Spirit of God, and we are
born again, we do not gain an understanding and it can be taken
away. "And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a
loud voice, saying: to all the fowls that fly in the midst of
heaven." Don't forget that the fowls are false ministers coming to
pick up the true seed. Someone says: "How do they pick it up?" A
person can hear the Word of God and it will make some kind of
impression on them and they may become awakened. It may be they hear
the Word in a funeral message and see the condition of their souls.
They begin to talk to a friend and these take them to some false
preacher to get help. The person tells how he heard a minister tell
that If a man does not get right with God and be born again that his
soul will be lost in hell.
But, the modern minister
will say: "Tut, tut, there is nothing to that. You can't pay
attention to that fellow." Then he will put some other idea in that
man's mind in place of the simple truth. And he will pick up that
seed.
Again, people will hear
a message of how God's people are being called back to the oneness
and unity of the morning church. And some false one will come around
and pick it up and put something else in its place. Again, let me
repeat. "I saw an angel standing in the sun, saying to all the fowls
of heaven, come and gather yourselves together to the great supper
of the great God." Here is another supper table. Some one may say,
"How do you know it is a different table?" Because it has different
things on it. The other table had the true sayings of God on it.
What is on this table? Answer: "That ye may eat the flesh of kings,
and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the
flesh of horses."
Chapter 4 - THE GREAT
SUPPERS
Let us not forget when
we deal with kings, we deal with, In Revelation, the mighty men and
the captains. That is what God's people are having to eat today. Do
you mean the flesh of men? NO, the sayings of these men, their
beliefs and creeds, the heads of different organizations. The flesh
of horses also, the teachings that these men put out instead of the
true Word of God. All some of them have to say when they get in the
pulpits are words of other men and their opinions both of today and
the past.
In the 6th chapter of
John, Jesus said: "Except you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man you
have no life In you. But ministers today are trying to feed people
the flesh (or words of men rather than God). But, we must partake of
the body and blood of Jesus Christ if we would live. When we take of
His Word we partake of His flesh. In the Bible we read: "The Word
became flesh and dwelt among men." There is a great supper going on
and Babylon has her table spread. But there are some who won't sit
down to it. These are God's true children. Why not? Because they
have already eaten something better. Thank God!
In the 19th chapter of
Revelation, we read, "After these things" (after the fulfillment of
this 18th chapter), after the Word of God has been turned loose on
old Babylon and she is fallen and God reaps out of her a people (and
they are gathering together, and God's true ministry sets her on
fire with the fire of His Word, God's eternal Word and the Holy
Spirit). When we get Babylon on fire the saints start rejoicing the
holy saints of God, wherever they are. There is one thing the saints
rejoice in and that is old time, Holy Ghost fire and brimstone
preaching of God's eternal Word.
In the sounding of the
trumpets, you will find In the 9th chapter of Revelation that they
did hell fire preaching and put an end to the sin business. Through
that preaching men either died in their sins or they died out to sin
and became alive unto Christ. Reading further we find that they
"With their heads they do hurt." (I'm not preaching on that now, but
just carry the thought). You will be able to see what has happened
to us in the very day in which we live. Revelation 19: "After these
things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying:
Allelulia, salvation, and glory, and honor, and power to the Lord
our God. For true and righteous are His judgments: For He hath
Judged the great whore (old Babylon), which did corrupt the earth
with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at
her hand. And again they say, Allelulia. And her smoke rose up
forever and ever, And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts
(symbolizing the saints of all ages), which represent the four
dispensations Of time; Anti-diluvian, Mosaic, Prophetic and the Holy
Ghost Dispensation--for God had people under all four of them.
In Revelation, chapter
4, the four beasts had eyes before and behind. Those four beasts
symbolize the saints of all ages. Those back In the Old Testament
had eyes before. They looked forward to Calvary. They believed In
Him who was to come. Paul said that when Christ died on the cross
the transgressions of those under the law were forgiven. And they
had eyes behind. We who live in this side of Calvary look back to
Calvary. Ezekial saw them as living creatures, saw the same vision
that John saw in the Revelation, and the four and twenty elders
symbolizing the prophets and the apostles, twelve each. What did
they do? They fell down before God that sat on the throne saying,
"Amen, Allelulia," and a voice came out of the throne saying,
"Praise our God, all ye servants." That takes in you and I. "And ye
that fear Him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the
voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as
the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, "Allelulia, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth."
This is a glimpse of the
saints of all ages, a multitude that no man can number. In
Revelation 7: we see a group. Verse 9, "After this I beheld and lo,
a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and
kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne, and before
the Lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands". A group
that came out of Babylon in 1880. This was the group that John did
not know about. John had only lived in the morning time of the
church. John said (in so many words) who are these? I know about the
morning time church but who are these coming in white? These have
come out of the tribulation that came on the morning church. These
are the saints of the evening light.
In the next verse he
said, "Let us rejoice." When people come out of Babylon and
experience the victory that God has for His people, over the beast
and his image, and his mark, and the number of his name, standing on
the sea of glass mingled with fire, why should we not rejoice and
give honor unto Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His
wife hath made herself ready. And to her it was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, pure and white; for the fine linen
Is the righteousness of the saints.. And he saith unto me, "Write,
"Blessed, are they, which are called unto the marriage supper of the
Lamb. And He said unto me these are the true sayings of God."
Now, many People want to
take the Word of God in a literal way, especially millennialists,
who are looking forward to a big marriage supper at the second
coming of Christ. They seem to think that when Jesus comes we are
going to have chicken and beans. There is some flesh that needs to
be crucified. These are spiritual things. The marriage supper of the
Lamb is going on right now. What are the saints feasting on? The
saints are feasting on the precious word of God at the marriage
supper of the Lamb. We will have no literal marriage supper. But
some will say, "We are not the wife of Christ yet." The scripture
did not say His girl friend or His fiancee. She's Already His wife,
and has made herself ready.
Paul says In Romans 7,
that we are freed from the old law of sin and death that we might be
married to another, even to Him that was raised from the dead. I
Cor. 12:13 "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body ...
26 - And whether one member of the body suffer all the members
suffer with it; or one member of the body be honored, all the
members rejoice with it. 27 - Now are ye the body of Christ, and
members In particular."
Many are saying, "But I
don't believe we will have a marriage supper until the second coming
of Christ." they can put it off until 'then' if they want to, but
I'm afraid they will miss it both here and there. The marriage
supper begins for you when you sell out from all these false lovers
and cut out the spiritual fornication, swear allegiance unto Christ,
His Word and His Word alone, and let Him be your husband, governor,
and then you can sit down to the marriage supper. There is another
supper prepared at the close of the day. That supper took place
before the coming of Christ ever appeared in the vision.
We know that this is not
literal--that a time will come when men will sit down to a supper
and eat the flesh of men and horses. This is spiritual. John 6:53,
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat of the Son of Man and
drink His Blood, ye have no life In you. Whosoever eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at
the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink
Indeed. Vs. 56 - He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood
dwelleth in me and I In him. 57 - As the living Father hath sent Me,
and I live by the Father; so he that eateth Me even he shall live by
Me."
Now, here it is. This is
the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your Fathers did eat
manna. This is no literal something. They ate the literal bread and
they are dead. But this is a different kind of bread. It came down
from heaven. Vs. 63 - "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh
profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit
and they are life."
I speak with all
kindness, because of falling away and drifting from God's eternal
truth, and rejecting some principles of God's Word, many have gone
over to literalism until they are now looking for everything of a
literal nature. They are looking for Christ to come back and set up
His literal kingdom. We hear over the radio that He is going to
return and sit on a literal throne. Jesus feet will never touch
earth again.
The kingdom that Jesus
came to set up is in the hearts of men and women. He said concerning
it, "It cometh not with observation," and, "My kingdom is not of
this world, if it were my servants would fight." The Body of Christ
is assembling. The Church is gathering together for the time when
Jesus comes back to gather His bride. There are fowls that are
called together to gather at this supper table. Job 28:7. There is a
path that no fowl knoweth, which the vultures eye hath not seen."
There Is a place where one can hide this seed and where the fowls
cannot get hold of It. "There Is a path that no fowl knoweth." And
where is it?
Chapter 5 - THE HIDING
PLACE
Open your heart's door.
When God sows the seed, open the heart's door. Let Him sow the seed
in your heart and close it up. As He says, a little later, hide it
in the very center of your heart. That is the place where it cannot
be taken away from you. He that receives the seed on the wayside
ground is he that hears and has no understanding, and the fowls come
and pick it up. This type of person gets no experience with God.
God made very plain
concerning the kingdom, saying: "it is within you." It is a kingdom
of life. Paul said: "For by one man's offence death reigned, much
more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of
righteousness shall reign in life by one Christ Jesus." We open our
heart's door to God by old time repentance, confession of our sin,
and turning from sin. I would like to deal with the thought of
turning from sin.
Repentance changes the
purpose of our lives. Repentance means to quit sinning. There is
scripture telling us that God repented. Do you mean to tell me that
He quit sinning? No. He changed His purpose. So repentance means to
change purpose. Then we confess our sins unto God and He takes them
away. When Christ finds us out in the world, the purpose of our
lives is to satisfy ourselves. We live after the lust of the flesh.
We seek after the natural things. When we hear of the goodness of
God, it leads one to come to an altar of prayer, and that is when we
change the purpose of our lives. We then tell God that the purpose
of our lives will be different, we now purpose to do His will and
not to satisfy ourselves as of yore. When we confess our sins He
removes them as far as the east is from the west, never to be
remembered against us again. I thank God for His wonderful goodness.
Suppertime is at the
close of the day. The Revelation tells us there are two suppers
going on. God has sent the word out to gather in the people. The
enemy is using his unclean spirits to gather in the people also. We
are either being gathered in to the supper of the Lamb or to the
beast of the fowls of the air. Either we are gathering into the camp
of the saints or the camp of their enemies.
Some people are afraid
of the frogs, (the three mentioned In Revelation), but they need not
be if they stay alive; if your experience gets stagnant then the
enemy will see that a frog or two are there. But if you keep it
flowing, well, frogs can't live in moving, gurgling water. Let the
river of life flow right through you and there will be no frogs
there. The devil is working on people to let their experience get
stagnant. When your spiritual life begins to shrivel up, you are
very liable to inherit one of these frog spirits. If you will keep
your life open to God you don't need to worry about cleaning it out.
The river of life will do that. If we will own ourselves as we
really are, God will make a new creature out of us.
There are four kinds of
ground which covers all mankind--they are the wayside, the stony
ground, the thorny ground, and the good ground. We cannot mention
much about the church until we come to the good ground. God can
never bring forth a people or bring forth fruit unto Himself in
stony and thorny ground. When we come to the good ground then we see
the very body of Christ come into being.
Mystery is that which is
beyond human comprehension. Christ is teaching us in these parables
the mysteries of the kingdom. So every one of them (the parables) is
beyond that which the human can lay hold on. We must be born again.
One of the greatest reasons that we have so much confusion on the
thought of the kingdom Is because men that have never been born
again (who do not possess the spirit of God and so make light of the
new birth), try to teach the kingdom and tell all about it. "Except
a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
There are multitudes
that have never been born again, but they think they see it and try
to teach it. The other reason is that some have been born again, but
because of erroneous doctrine and false leadership they have lost
sight of the kingdom and would get so bold as to teach from Daniel's
prophecy that the 69 weeks have passed, but God stopped His clock.
We want to be able to see through these parables that Christ set up
a kingdom in His first advent, what kind of a kingdom it is, and if
it will truly never be destroyed. It is an everlasting kingdom and
will never be left to other people. [ End of Part 1 ]

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