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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. 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 ]    |
