Parables On The Kingdom of God, Pt. 2 (01/30/2000) | NOTE: This sermon was split between two tapes.

The Purpose of Hearing the Word and Bearing Fruit

The person who not only hears it, but hears the Word and understands it because God has given him eyes that can see with this understanding and ears that can hear with this understanding. That person also bears fruit.

Some bring forth a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. Every part of the body of Christ is different. Every part is designed for a different purpose. Every one of us has a purpose for being here this morning.

God has given us a purpose within this world, but also within this church, within this body. And every one of us is as important as anyone else because no one else could do the thing you were put here to do.

Some bear thirtyfold, some sixty, some a hundred, but everyone bears fruit if they're this kind of soil. Now Jesus went to quite a bit of length to set up this before he taught it, and it helped a little bit when he was asked the question, why do you teach this way?

And he answered the question, and it's an answer that people still today don't like. If you go back into John chapter six in the passage that we were reading a little earlier that kind of links to this because he says, whosoever can behold him and believe shall be saved.

Just a few verses beyond that it says, and the Jews picked up stones to stone him. Why? Because no one likes that teaching. It's not humanistic. We like to think man's in control. Throw a big party, get the music adjusted where it's kind of earthy, we can get a bigger crowd in here and just teach it plain.

Get out of this old kind of biblical sounding language and just lay it out there like good news for the modern man so he can hear it. So we can have a bigger party, and Jesus comes in and says, I'm not here for a party.

I'm here to do one thing, the Father's will. The Father has some children that are part of this fallen race, and he wants them saved and delivered. And that's why I'm here, and I'm here for them and the things that I say are for them.

Blessed are your ears if they can hear this. Blessed are your eyes if they can behold this, Jesus said. Spend the day, maybe spend a few days this week praising God that you heard the words that were said from this passage this morning.

Praising God that you had that moment when your eyes were open. And also spend a little bit of time thinking about, could I be more like Christ and seek purely the Father's will in my life, rather than trying to make my program work?

Shouldn't I just do what he sent me to do? Blessed be the Lord, and blessed be your ears if they can hear. Next Sunday we'll get into the specific teaching of the different types of soil. You can take a look at it yourselves before next Sunday, and think about your church right here.

Think about the Christian school. Think about other churches, and realize that there are people all around you, but basically there are four kinds of people. And so we're going to talk about that next Sunday.

Let's stand and have prayer together. That's where I studied. And I marked in my Bible that we ended with verse 7. And Brother Otis and I didn't make up any rules for this. So that means I'm not cheating, I'm just going to do something different.

And if he doesn't like that, he'll have to make a rule where it can't be done this way next time. But I saw a passage of scripture coming up here that I wanted him to cover instead of me. So I'm skipping it.

And if you don't like that, you can skip it too and go on past it and we'll just skip it. But I really would like you to cover the passage from verse 7 through verse 15 or so in that passage. Thank you, sir.

I think you know why. We've had some discussions about it. And I want them to hear your insight into this passage because it is very interesting and also right. So if I were to teach it, I would be plagiarizing.

So I want you to hear Brother Otis teach that passage. So I'm going to skip down. And I didn't know, you usually cover a lot more verses than I'm able to cover. So I'm giving you a little bit of breadth here on this.

I'm going to start today on verse 21. Okay, so let's, we'll come back next Sunday afternoon and pick back up at verse 8. But today I'm going to skip forward to verse 21. I want to cover a little passage here that I really like to talk about.

So I think this will work well for us. So let's have a word of prayer and we'll begin. Father, thank you for your word and the beautiful picture that you placed in our hearts of seeing the people on the hillside this morning and you in the boat and speaking many words to them.

What an awesome day that must have been in the lives of those people. And Father, how blessed were they that had ears to hear. They must, I can just sense how it must have been to be sitting out there and have the light come on and just your heart filled with your words and your wisdom and your salvation.

And so thank you that some almost 2 ,000 years later that you're still doing that in our hearts, the hearts of your people. And Lord, give us understanding this afternoon as we study and we ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. Amen. All right, let's start with verse 21 and we're really going to be focusing on verse 25 this afternoon. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and serpefluity of naughtiness. That's a nice word, isn't it?

If you could figure out what that was, you'd lay it aside, I bet. And receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. Isn't that a beautiful phrase? And I just read that verse as kind of an introduction so we know what we're talking about here this afternoon.

We're talking about the word. And receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Now, I believe that thought is picked up again in verse 26.

So let me skip down and read that. If any man among you seem to be religious, and there are people, you'll run across people in your walk of life, churches, different places that seem to be religious.

They have this air of spirituality about them. Watch those people. And look at what the Lord says here. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue. So if you have a person that seems to be religious, but they are a gossip, and you know they are, then they seem to be religious.

But they don't fit God's definition of what true religion is. Because it says, but they deceive his own heart, and this man's religion is vain. They are not really, it's not biblical Christianity if they're a gossip, and if they're hurting others by the tongue.

So be very careful about people who have that problem. Now let's look on though, he puts it in the positive sense, pure religion, and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Two thoughts there, one where it speaks of visiting the fatherless, the orphans, and the widows, I think that is to be taken literally, but I also think it has a broader meaning than that. I think it has to do with the fact that false religion is always about outward things that can be seen.

So you get credit for the stuff you did for God. And there's a lot of that. And independent Baptist circles, they're eating up with it in many cases. I mean if you have 10 people walk the aisle, you got to make sure you write the soul of the Lord and have that printed, so the whole world can know that not one Sunday has gone by that we didn't have someone saved and baptized for the entire year of 1999, and they'll put that in print so everybody can read it, and then all of a sudden they lose the blessing for it, I think.

So this is talking about stuff where you don't get any credit for it, and where it has nothing to do with power, it has nothing to do with money, it has nothing to do with anything that the world would consider religious.

You're off somewhere talking to some little lady perhaps, giving her your time, because she just needs someone to talk to. Or you're helping some child who does not have a father at home, or an orphan, and those are not things that people are just really running to have that particular job in the church, where they can be up front and have all the glory and credit and all that.

And so it's interesting that the Lord would pick those two items, but I think he means things like that, things that can be done in secret for the Lord, those really are the most important things. And then this second whole idea, he keepeth himself unspotted from the world, and we're going to talk about that next Sunday morning when we go on into the parable of the sower, because that one particular kind of soil that has the thorns and the thistles in it is a vivid picture of what it's like to be spotted by the world.

That's not really the right way to say that, but this is true religion. So a person who really has true religion is a person who is in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was always separate from the world.

He was separate from the world, and so you will be too if your religion is pure. Now that's what that little section talks about, and verse 22 kind of leads into that by saying, be you doers of the word, not hearers, only deceiving your own selves.

There are people all the time who deceive themselves into thinking they're a pretty good Christian, but they want everybody to think that too, and that's a problem. Now let's move on into the main thing I wanted to discuss, for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass.

For he beholding himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetting what manner of man he is. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and I want you to put that in parentheses, the perfect law of liberty.

Very important phrase, and this is biblical terminology for the Bible. The Bible is the perfect law of liberty, and I want you to especially underline the word perfect. Perfect. So he that looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

The Perfect Law of Liberty and the Word of God

Now let me talk to you a little bit this afternoon about this perfect law of liberty. I'd like to take this opportunity to go back into 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and see if we can't discuss what some would call a difficult passage of scripture, and use our passage that we're in in James this afternoon to shed light on the more obscure portion of scripture.

And that really is a great principle in Bible interpretation. You should never use what some would call an obscure portion of scripture to set up a precedent in your doctrinal beliefs. You should always use the plain, the truths that you see throughout the entire Bible to interpret the few passages that are a little difficult.

Don't do it the other way around. Don't ever take the difficult one and let it change everything you've always believed that the Bible taught. You understand what I'm saying? They can't contradict each other.

So if you have a more difficult passage that you're really having difficulty understanding what God means by it, go to the simple plain passages that you know, that you have no trouble with, that you've just, God has taught you what they mean, and let them shed light on the more difficult passage.

And that's how you can literally learn what some passages mean when maybe for years you didn't know what they meant. And I want to do that this afternoon with this passage in 1 Corinthians 13, because it is the more difficult passage, but the passage in James that we were looking at is very simple and plain.

So look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 8. Now you have to understand, most of you have gone through this study I did recently on this passage. You know that chapter 13 is talking about love. It is a teaching on what God's agape love is all about.

It is not a teaching on tongues. It's not a teaching on prophesying, on words of knowledge and all that. God brings some of that in, but the main topic is love. Now with that in mind, look at verse 8.

And everywhere you see the word charity, by the way, that's the word agape, that's love. It would be a better translation, I suppose. Love never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.

And whether there be tongues, they shall cease. And whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect, and I want you to underline that word perfect because it relates to the word perfect we saw in the book of James a moment ago.

When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

And you're going to have to take a look at Galatians chapter 3 verse 23 and following to get any understanding of what that means. Don't just try to take this on its own. You'll miss it. You've got to go in and understand how the Jewish mind is thinking about this or you'll misinterpret this.

For we now see through a glass darkly. Now that ties in with James chapter 1 verse 25, right in the area where we are. We now see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I am known.

And now about it, faith, hope, love these three, but the greatest of these is love. Now this passage talks about some things that will remain and some things that will go away. The things that will remain are faith, love, I'm sorry, faith, hope, and love.

And the things that will go away are listed up in verse eight. And that is tongues and prophesying and knowledge. Now there's been a lot of debate about when these things go away, what does this mean and so forth.

But let me just say this. If you look down at the verse 13 and you see the word now, now abideth. That is an important word. And the interpretation of that one word can be what this whole passage turns on, oddly enough, a little word as simple as the word now.

If you were to interpret that to mean now, meaning this present age, which is the church age, then your interpretation of this passage would be one thing. But if you interpret it to mean just like forever, this just means used to it was this way, but forever it's going to be this way, then you would come up with a different interpretation.

Now so let me start with this and let you know what I think it means and why I think it means this. I think in this particular verse, the word now means now, okay? Very theological, wouldn't you say? I don't think it means just generally in the future and for all eternity.

I think it means in the church age right now. Who can tell me when the church age ends? All right. And that is exactly right. The general answer would be at the second coming. If you want to be real specific, what would you say?

At the rapture, which is what brother Otis meant by when he returns because he's returning for us at the rapture. But if you wanted to just be general, you could say the second coming, as long as what you meant by that was the whole idea of the seven year tribulation period, the rapture and at the end of that, the second coming.

But at that time, the church age is over now. Specifically, it's over at the rapture. Okay? So I interpret the word now in verse 13 to mean during this church age and that now will be over at the rapture and certainly by the time of the second coming, it will be over.

The reason I believe that is because there are two words found in verse 13 that I don't believe will exist in eternity future. That's an oxymoron, isn't it? I put a time word with eternity. Do you know what I mean?

What are the two words that you would think might not exist when we get on the other side of the rapture? All right. Why would you choose those two? I'm speaking in tongues now. That's ceased. You can't do that.

You won't need them anymore. That's right. Now if you want to see a Bible definition of that, Romans chapter 8, verse 23, we're not going to look at it, but just jot it down, Romans 8, 23 through 25, specifically define hope as being something that cannot exist if you're in the presence of God because hope by definition is the excited expectation of things to come while they're here at that point.

So hope's not going to be there. And faith obviously will not be needed. And as we've talked about the last few Sundays, faith is on loan anyway from Jesus Christ. It's his faith that you have. You didn't work it up because if you did, it doesn't work.

It's a gift from him and it's Jesus' faith and it's on loan until he comes back for us at which time you won't need it because you will see him and you will be like him for you shall see him as he is.

So wouldn't you agree then that now cannot mean all from now on out forever because two of the items in verse 13 will not exist beyond the second coming. And I'm going to use that generically to mean the whole thing, the rapture, the tribulation and the second coming.

So don't hold me to that because we know it means the rapture, but it won't exist beyond that for us. So it has to mean now abideth, that means right now during the age in which we live, the things that abide are faith, hope and love.

Now that's going to be important as we look at this. Now let's go back up to verse 8. There are some things that pass away and let's look a little bit at the Greek meaning for this. Love never goes away.

Isn't it interesting that out of the three mentioned in verse 13, love is the only one that says never goes away. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Now it's interesting in the Greek language that the phrase shall fail with respect to prophecies means that they will be stopped by God.

It's in the passive, it's something that happens to it that God does, he just stops it. But when you look at tongues where it says they shall cease, in the Greek language the ceasing is something where it just kind of ceases in and of itself when its purpose is fulfilled and it's no longer useful.

That's kind of an interesting difference, but the point is they both go away. So the Bible is saying that prophesying and tongue speaking and a word of knowledge, which does not mean just having knowledge like you learn in school, by the way, in the whole context of the scripture involved in the early church, they had a thing called a word of knowledge, which was really very similar to a prophetic gift where a person in the church could stand and proclaim scripture that they didn't have yet.

For instance, this church, the church at Corinth, did not have the book of Romans because it wasn't written to them, it was written to the Roman church. So at this point in time, in the year 59 AD, they didn't have the book of Romans, they didn't have the book of Ephesians.

So if God wanted the Corinthian church to know this truth, for by grace are you saved through faith and not of works lest any man should boast, they couldn't go pick up a book and read, I know I missed part of it, they couldn't pick a book up and read it.

They would have to have someone like Deborah stand up and say, well, and quote it properly. Maybe we still need that. Now, so that's what the word of knowledge was. Now notice, notice this, verse eight, love does not go away.

It never goes away. But prophecies will be stopped by God and tongues shall go away in and of themselves when their purpose has been fulfilled and whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away and that's the same idea of being stopped by God.

Now everyone would agree that that's true because God says it. I mean, I don't know anybody that disagrees with the fact that verse eight is true. The difference comes in in verse nine and 10. The big question that's debated is when will these things take place?

And I'll show you why we have a problem. Look at verse nine for we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. The whole question is what is this perfect thing?

When does it come? And certainly by that time, the above mentioned things in verse eight will no longer exist. So what do you think some of the answers to the question? Like if we were to ask, well, what do you think the perfect, whatever the perfect is, whenever the perfect comes, what would that be?

What is the perfect? That's what one would think. So there are several things people say. People will say the second coming when Jesus comes. People will say it's the word of God as in James that we're studying this afternoon, the perfect law of liberty, that that is the perfect.

And then there are two or three others, but those are the only two I'm going to address today because those are the main two. Now, it's interesting to look at this because whichever way you think it is might decide when you think these things passed away.

In other words, if you think it's the second coming, then you can still have tongue speaking going on in the church if all you have is a scripture. Now I will mention this though. If you remember the series I did on this on the tongues, I did not even address this passage.

And I pointed out that in modern times, this is where everybody wants to go and they say, here's the battleground, wherever this, the truth here is where it dies or lives, whatever your theory is. But if you go back 50 years, no one ever really dealt with this passage that much because there are so many other places in the Bible that prove that these things have ceased.

And so in my study on tongues and prophesying and these things ceasing, I never even discussed this passage. We used other biblical reasons why they have ceased. But it is interesting to look at this passage and see if it comes into bear.

So if this were the only truth we had, if we were on a desert island and someone had ripped out this page from an airplane and it went out the window and flittered down and it was on the island, and this is all the word of God you had and you got saved and you started reading this, when would you think this is?

Would you think it's the second coming or what would you think? And depending on what you thought, that's when you would think that prophesying would stop, tongue speaking would cease, and the word of knowledge would cease.

Well, let me tell you several reasons why I don't think it's the second coming and why I don't even think it's a reference to Jesus Christ. One is because it is in the neuter sense. It is not feminine nor masculine, it's neuter.

So it's talking about a thing. So when it says, when that which is perfect shall come, it is a thing that is coming, not a person. At least if you go by the fact that it's not masculine nor feminine in the Greek language.

Now to go beyond that, there are at least four reasons why I don't believe this is the second coming. The first is this, if you study the use of this word perfect, it's the Greek word telion, and you look everywhere it's used, especially in Paul's writings where the Apostle Paul is the penman, Paul does not use this word in the absolute sense of something being perfect.

He uses it to mean wholeness or maturity or completion. And in fact, in the common man's Greek, the Koine Greek, this word telion is never used in the absolute sense in English where we say something is perfect.

It's never used in that sense. It's always used to mean it's whole or it's mature or it's complete. And if you understand that, it helps a little bit. Now certainly Paul used it in that sense. So if you read it with that context or that meaning of the word, if you're talking about when that which is perfect has come, it's talking about something that has been brought to completion or wholeness or maturity.

That certainly would not be Jesus because he's never changed. He doesn't change. If it were Jesus, it would have to be used in the sense of absolute perfection, but it's very seldom used that way in the Greek language, this word telion, it would choose a different word if they meant absolute perfection perhaps, but this word is not used that way.

Now the second thing is this in the context of this passage. If you look at this phrase, let's find it here. Look at verse nine, for we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

You have a contrast in verse 10 between whatever this thing is that's perfect or complete and whatever this thing is that's in part. Now you'll understand, even if you didn't understand the definition of telion, you could pick it up in the context because it's obviously talking about something that's in part and something that's complete.

So the word perfect here has to mean this idea of completion or maturity or something that is finished or whole because it's being contrasted with something that's not yet finished. You have something that's in part and you have something that's in full or that's finished.

And so if you interpret this to mean perfection in the absolute sense and you think it's the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have a problem with the context because we're contrasting in the Bible here something that's in part versus something that's finished and that does not fit.

It doesn't make for a natural interpretation. So the context does not present an adequate opposite for quote in part that's found in the preceding verse. In part connotates quantity, not quality. I mean, if you're talking about Jesus Christ, that's quality.

You're not talking about how much he's perfect or he's more perfect than someone else. He's just perfect. I mean, they're just, you either are or you're not. But the way the word's used in this particular passage, it is talking about quantity.

You have something that's in part and something that you have more of it until the point where it's full. So we're dealing with quantity here apparently and not quality. Now a third reason is this. If you look at verse 13 and we kind of touched on this already, the natural interpretation of verse 13 is that we're dealing with things that are going to be remaining in the church age as opposed to some things that are going to go away.

Now whatever time period we're talking about has to be the same time period. So if the word now in verse 13, if we have deduced that it has to be the church age because some of the things listed in 13 do not go on off into eternity, that puts an end to the time period that we're talking about.

It puts it within a range. And so if that's true, then everything in this passage is dealing with some things that are going to stay and remain throughout that time all the way to the end and some things that are going to stop and not remain all the way to the end.

And that is the most natural interpretation of this particular verse. So when you look at the phrase and now, that's a real key to understanding this. Now if it's true that faith and hope are going to not be in eternity, then that puts an end time on it.

Now let me give you another reason I don't think is a second coming. Turn with me to Joel chapter 2 in the Old Testament. Somebody tell me what page it's on. There it is. Joel 2, 28, I think is where we want to start.

Joel 2, 28, and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. There is going to be a time in the future where we have the gift of prophesying.

Come in. Okay. I didn't know who that was, the door opened and there was no human there. There's going to be a time in the future where the gift of prophesying is going to be there. Now it says your sons and your daughters shall prophesy in the dreaming of dreams and the visions like they had in the Old Testament times.

They will have that at some time in the future. It says it shall come to pass that afterward these things will happen. So these things happen after some other time period when apparently they're not happening.

Now it goes on in verse 28 and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. Now verse 30 puts the time frame when these things happen. When this outpouring of the Holy Spirit occurs, it gives the time frame in verse 30 and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. That's the tribulation period. There is no doubt in anybody's mind that that's not the church age.

That is the tribulation period. So during the tribulation period, there's going to be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit where they do have prophesying again. And you may ask the question, well, why would God do that?

Well, number one, he can do what he wants to do. But there is some human logic in it for us to see is that the first thing, what do you think that Antichrist will do with these things that you leave behind when you go up in the rapture?

Oh, he'll burn them, you think? You don't think he'd want everybody to have one of these so they could read about him and figure it out? These are not going to exist. In the Old Testament, there's a verse that says, in the last days, they will go to and fro seeking his word, but shall not find it.

The reason that in the early church, you had the gift of prophesying and the gift of knowledge is because they did not have the whole Bible. They did not have the perfect law of liberty yet. They had little portions of it, but it was not canonized into one whole Bible.

And that is going to be true during the tribulation. They will not have a Bible. The church will not have the word. They will need someone to be able to speak authoritatively and say, this is what God has said.

And that gift will be operative again during the tribulation period because of a need of it. And so God will give that to his people. He will also give people who have the gift of discernment who can stand up and say, he's lying.

That's not, God didn't say that. All that has to go together, but you don't see that happening today with the counterfeit. So we see now we have from scripture very clearly that there will come a time period after which there will be an outpouring of the spirit and the sons and daughters shall prophesy.

The son shall be turned red and so forth. It's the tribulation period. So what is the time period that comes before the tribulation? And right before that, the church age. So that's the part that's afterward, afterward, then there will be an outpouring and these gifts will arise again.

But before that, during the church age, apparently they won't be there or they couldn't have been poured out again. So the problem with the interpretation that we still have all these things and that they will go away at the second coming.

See, if you say the perfect is the second coming, well, that's Jesus Christ. When that which is perfect has come, these things shall cease. And your interpretation is that means that the coming of Jesus, Joel contradicts that because he says at the coming of Jesus is when these things begin again.

And so it doesn't fit, in fact, none of these things fit if you interpret it that way. And then there are a fifth reason I don't believe it's the second coming is there are several passages of scripture that show us that there is no more direct revelation from God during the church age that he has given us the book and it has a front page and a back page.

In fact, the Bible says very clearly in Revelation 22. That if you add to or take away from the words of this book, you'll be under the curses of this book. I contend that if the Lord were to allow, if you want to put it in those phrases, someone to rise up and say.

God told me this last night. And I want the whole church to know this, and if God allowed someone to raise up and do that, he would at the same time be cursing the very person he calls to do that. Because a person who stands and adds to the word will be cursed, so it would make absolutely no sense for God to say that, and then at the same time for his own people to be rising up and cursing themselves by adding to the word of God.

So it's all confusion and it doesn't make any sense. You have Hebrews chapter one, verses one through two, Jude three and Revelation 22, verses 18 and 19, that all indicate clearly that direct revelation has ceased and that God is now speaking unto us through his son, the word.

And so that's what we have. So when we go into first Corinthians chapter 13, where it says that prophesying and tongue speaking and this word of knowledge will vanish away, will cease, will stop. In other words, fail or it means they will stop.

The time period when that happens is when that which is perfect is come. That happened by the year 90 AD, which is when John penned the book of Revelation. And at that same time period, just a few years before that, maybe 20 years earlier, Titus led the Roman legions through Israel and into Jerusalem and entirely destroyed the nation.