Are you Ready?

After yesterdays post, I decided that it was imperative that I ask this question of you all.
ARE YOU READY?

Back in the early eighties there was a song out by David Meece that bore that very title, here is a cool video of it...

Courtesy of Downing Media

 

Paul tells us in the book of Philippians chap 2 and verse 12 to; work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling. It is an awesome thing to fall into the hands of the Lord God Almighty, The Lord of Hosts, The Lord YAH-WEH. 

We need to take seriously just exactly where we are with Jesus. In the parables that were recorded by God the Holy Spirit, a few things really stand out that we should pay close attention to. As we will see, Jesus was very specific and most serious about what He spoke regarding our eternal destinies.

In Matthew chap 13, Mark chap 4 & Luke chap 8 Jesus talks about the "parable of the sower". This is near the chronological beginning of his ministry.

"Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But 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 sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

Here He is quite clear about what kind of ears His teaching will fall upon.

The first place His seed would fall upon would be upon the wayside. The wayside would be a heart that received the word, but the enemy easily swooped in and plucked it out because there was no desire in that heart to grow in the faith. That kind of heart might even believe in God, yet just have no desire to make a decision. 

The next kind of seed was the seed that fell on the rocks. That hard rocky heart actually received the seed and began to check out the faith, but while it was still very young and impressionable, the trials, tribulations and temptations that so easily beset even"true" believers, came and easily scorched out the infant seeker. 

The next kind of seed fell among the thorns. This heart received the word and really sprouted up, but it was within a body of other thorns, briars, stickers and tares, and it was choked out by the lowliness and sinfulness of those others around it. False teaching, back biting, bickering, gossip and the like. such are the sanctuaries of many of our churches. They are like the Pharisees of Jesus day. Matthew 23:15 says this;

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Ouch!

The last place the seed falls is in the good soil. The good soil is a heart that is ready to accept the engrafted word of God into his heart, mind and soul with all that is in him. This heart has a desire for the word of God, for Worship and for fellowship with like believers. This is a heart that is tapped into the vine of John chap 15; I am the Vine and ye are the branches, he who abides in Me and I in him, will bear much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing. This heart grows and produces other fruit, some thirty, some sixty & some a hundred fold. Is this the kind of seed that fell in your heart? Lets pray it is so.

Notice the progression in the parable above. Four types of seed, three are bad and one is good. While some may want to argue about it, based on the above parable, only 25% of those who may be in church are actually true fruit bearing believers. We will discuss this further as we peruse some more of the parables.
Hang in there, God is not finished with any of us yet. If we are still breathing, His Spirit is still moving in our lives. He loves us supremely and desires that we would all come into fellowship with Him. Revelation 3:20 says this; Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open that door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me.

   Please listen to this song before we continue.

  Courtesy of;Gateway Worship. Kari Jobe- Revelation Song

On to the next parable...

What do you see here? A Cross?? To be certain. But what else do you see? 

In Matthew chap 13 and verse 24-30, Jesus gives us a scenario that has been played out for centuries. Here is the story...  "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, an enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.  

A man(singular) planted good seed in his field. But while men(plural) slept, his enemy came and sowed tares(bad seed) among the wheat and went his way.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?' But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."

Jesus goes on to explain this parable to his disciples in this way...

"He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Yikes!

Hmm, It's really all pretty self explanatory. But how often do we look a little deeper to ascertain what this parable is really trying to bring out? Look at the picture of the Cross up above. It has six(6) different pictures on it, but they all look the same. When we think about tares, commonly known as "darnel,"  we think about these big ugly weeds that are easy to spot and pull out of the ground, not so. 
They look just like the wheat. 

Here is a definition from Wikipedia that you might be interested in; 

(Darnel usually grows in the same production zones as wheat and is considered a weed. The similarity between these two plants is so extensive that in some regions it is referred to as false wheat. It bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears. The ears on the real wheat are so heavy that it makes the entire plant droop downward, but darnel, whose ears are light, stands up straight. The wheat will also appear brown when ripe, whereas the darnel is (black)). 

What Jesus is letting us know is that "While men(We) are sleeping and not paying attention" Satan will plant lots of people in our assemblies that look and act the part, they may even seem genuine, but there will come a time that the true colors will shine through, and these plants of the wicked one will be exposed. Jesus loves us so much that He doesn't want to try and separate the wheat from the tares right now. He knows it would damage the wheat. Just think, there are people you love, maybe even love dearly, and they are not true believers. Wouldn't that be devastating to find out. It would hurt so badly to find out that maybe some of your closest friends or even family members didn't really love Jesus Christ supremely. But Jesus says that when we get to heaven, He will dry away all of our tears. He will be there to comfort and heal us when all of the truth really comes to light. Please understand, Jesus has made it quite clear that these false brethren are amongst us. These brothers are not going to change and become real. They have been planted by the enemy. We need to be wise in who we listen to and who we follow, and who we associate with. The time is short, lets make it count.  2 Peter chap 2 says this; even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways.

Wow, from this view they pretty much all look the same don't they. If you are not sure who you are listening to "or" you are not absolutely positive that the fellowship(friends) you are involved with have been "planted" by Jesus Christ, I would highly advise you pay attention. Jesus said in Luke chap 6 and verse 43 that A good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. While we have not been called to be fruit inspectors, we do need to use discernment and discretion with those we choose to associate. The Rapture is eminent. Will those with whom you associate participate in that event ?

It's starting to heat up a little... On to the next parable.