So are we ready? Good morning, everybody. Good morning. It is good to be here. We've had some great weather over the last few days. Yes, sir. A little cold, but the sun was out. If it's 50 degrees and it's cloudy and wet, it's cold, but the sun's out like it has been. It's actually not bad. Brother Cody, you want to open this up in the word of prayer? Father God, we thank you for this day and your love and your blessings. Dear God, we thank you for everyone that's here. Dear Lord, we pray for the ones who are not here. Dear Lord, whether they're sick or traveling or anything else that's going on. Dear God, we pray that you're with them. Dear God, be with us today, dear God, as we do your lesson. Dear Lord, we learn how to draw closer to you, dear God, and be with the services today. I send you his name, amen. Amen. Anybody need one of these before we get started? If you've got a book or a handout, we're Chapter 16, The Power of God's Word, Part 3. And as we've been learning, the Bible uses several metaphors to demonstrate how it can transform our lives. In this chapter, as in the previous two, we will consider some of the metaphors and their meanings. If we go back to chapter 14, we looked at light and a counselor. It's the Word of God as a light and a counselor. And in chapter 15, we looked at the Word of God as a sword and a mirror, also a hammer and fire. And in this chapter, chapter 16, we're going to look at the Bible is like milk and solid food. Also, the Bible is like seed and rain. And I just took a little dive in to refresh my memory, but a metaphor is a literary device that uses an implied comparison. between two unlike things to help explain or expound upon an idea. Now that's different from a simile, right, because a simile compares two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as. So when it says like or as, it's not a metaphor, it's a simile. A metaphor, you're just You just have to understand it or figure it out for yourself that they're making a comparison. Like Jesus said in John 10, 17, he said, I am the door of the sheep. Well, that's a metaphor. He's not a literal door, but in what he's trying to convey is you have to come through him. So he said, I am the door of the sheep. But we know he's not a sheep door. He's Jesus Christ. So that's a metaphor. A simile would be, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly perils. That's Matthew 13, 35, but he says, like unto a merchant man. So the kingdom of heaven is not a merchant man. But it's like unto a merchant man. But it's obvious there in the simile, because he tells us it's like. So a metaphor is like a simile, but it does not point out that the writer's making a comparison. He said, you have to kind of figure that out yourself. Jesus said at one time, I am the bread of life. And if you go back and read that in the Bible, some people were confused when he said that. people are still confused today about Jesus being the bread of life. And he's not literal bread, and when we take communion, bread does not turn into Jesus Christ's flesh. It was meant as a metaphor. And the Bible has many more metaphors, and some of it's caused confusion, confusion over the years, when people take them literally rather than what they were meant to be as a metaphor, trying to convey a meaning or a deeper meaning. But I was just thinking about that and how the Catholics have gone off on that and some others, thinking of the communion and the in the Lord's Supper and bread turning into literal flesh. But it would be a sad thing to confuse a lot of people because you took a metaphor or something that was meant to be a metaphor as literal. And for thousands of years, well, I'm saying hundreds of years, people have been confused about things because somebody took a metaphor, taught it as literal, and made a doctrine out of it. And great divides have been caused because of that. If you look at the Fox's Book of Mortars, Fox's Book of Mortars, several people were killed or executed because they said, no, it's not literal. The bread's not turned into flesh. And because of that, they were executed by the Catholic Church. So, it could be a big deal. So, metaphors are kind of important, aren't they? So, it's a good deal we're studying metaphors. So, first one we're gonna get to is the Bible is like milk and like solid food. So if it's like, then it's really a simile, it's not a metaphor, right? And I'm going to start in verse 3 for a little context. And the tempter came and said to him, if you're the son of God, command that these stones become bread. Now, Jesus was led up into the wilderness by the Spirit after he'd fasted for 40 days. He was hungry, we can all imagine. And that's when Satan came to him, when he was at the crossroads, when he was in dire straits, you could say, and when it would be easier to tempt him. And he said, command that these stones become bread. But he answered, or Jesus answered and said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So Jesus makes a point that food is not the most important thing. The Word of God is. Now Jesus is quoting scripture as he says this. And the overarching theme, if you go back and read where Moses said that back in Deuteronomy 8, he was actually saying that we live by the grace of God and God's prerogatives are through the sovereignty of God. The most important thing in a in our Christian walk is the word of God. It's not an option, it's a necessity. We take it in and we grow and we thrive, or we neglect it and we dwindle and we die, or we revert back to the old man. As food is necessary for the body, the word of God feeds our spirit. or it feeds our new man. The flesh is always trying to be the most important thing. If you hadn't realized it, the flesh is selfish. It wants what it wants. It wants the priority. And the world perpetuates that by telling us that we should put ourself first, follow your heart, be yourself. But the Bible tells us to put God first, and the Bible reinforces this. As we consume the Word of God, our new man becomes stronger, our new creation. If you think you're surviving without consuming the Word of God, then you're really just deceiving yourself. You're getting by, but you're not thriving. I had a pastor one time that had a message, it takes three to thrive. He was talking about coming to church three times a week, but that's not even enough. You need preaching, you do need preaching, but more than that, you need to sit down at a desk or a table or in a nook with a book, and that book's the Word of God, and you need to meditate on the Word of God. So in Job 23, 12, and it's funny that, you know, Job was possibly one of the first books of the Bible written. It's old. But so he wrote this before even Psalm 119 was written. In verse 12, he says, 23, 12, he says, I have not departed from the commands of his lips. I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. So food is important, it's necessary for this temporal life we're living, all right? But this life we're living is gonna end someday. But the word of God is a necessity for our eternal life. It's eternal, it's not temporal. You leave food out, it's gonna go bad. You leave the word of God out, it lasts forever. Therefore, it's important it's important, highly outweighs that of food. And 1 Peter 2.2, he says, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. A Christian will never grow to maturity unless he receives the nutrients he needs from the scripture. Everybody agrees with that, right? Like newborn babes need milk. And by the way, we're not literal babes. That's an assembly, right? God tells us that we should desire the word so we can grow in our salvation. And, you know, you ever had a baby? They want milk. And if you don't give it to them, they cry, and they throw a fit because they want milk, or they want something to eat. And so, do we ever do that? When you don't get the Word of God, do you long for it? And if you don't, that's a good indication something could be wrong. Either you were never born again, or you're getting your substance from this world and you'd be what they call anemic. You're not growing. Your growth is being stunted. So Bible study, as we point out, is not just for preachers and teachers. It's a necessity for every believer. We've studied before, I think I taught on it, sanctification here. And sanctification is our growing in grace. We're becoming more and more like Christ. But the biggest part of that growth is the Word of God. If you're not getting the Word of God, you're not being sanctified. You have to participate in your sanctification, and you do that through studying the Word of God's Word. So as a baby must have milk to grow, and I even think the milk helps a baby grow teeth, right? Someone can correct me, but I think that's what helps them grow teeth. But if a child never switches over to solid food and start using teeth, he will not grow like he should. He will stay immature, his growth will be stunted, and that's what Paul, said was happening to the people at Corinth. They were babes in Christ, but they should have grown past this stage already because they were old enough to have grown past it. They were like 10 years old, but they still had a Bible, a bottle. They didn't have a Bible. They had a bottle in their mouth. 1 Corinthians 3, 1 says, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not able yet, for you are still fleshly, that means carnal. For since there is jealousy, or envying, and strife among you, are you not fleshly? Are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not mere men? I never really picked up on this before, I don't think, but ask yourself, what were some of the attributes of the Corinth Christians? Notice what Paul pointed out to the reason he was calling them carnal. What were they doing? They were envying. They had strife and they had divisions. That's hallmarks of people living in the flesh. That's hallmarks of carnal Christians. If you ever go into church and there's a lot of fussing and fighting, well, the problem is they're not consuming the Word of God. Word of God helps you realize some stuff's just isn't as important. The color of the carpet, the color of the pews, certain things, secondary things are not as important as people being born again and growing in grace. So, can we do that today? Can we put more emphasis on Bible teachers and our favorite things, rather than on what it should be put on, they were siding up behind their favorite preacher, or their favorite teacher, you could say. And we need to be careful that we don't do that today. And I do apologize. I cannot teach every Sunday. I know I've been requested, but it just, so just, we all need to teach. We don't need to take sides. So I appreciate y'all's backing though. So the Corinthians, their carnality could have been avoided. And how could that have been avoided? Well, they could read their Bibles, right? That would have fixed it. You say, well, they didn't have Bibles back then, Richard. Well, yeah, well, they had the Old Testament. They didn't have a neat little... Bible like we got, and we can carry it around with us, or we can click a button on our phone and we can have it read to us. When we're driving down the road, we can listen to Bible sermons or have the Bible read to us while we're driving, while we're doing other stuff. As we go to sleep, we could be listening to the Bible. But, so, if you compare us to the Corinthians, well, we've, We're without excuse. We are today. There's no way we should be hungry for the Word of God, because, well, we should be hungry, but we should be well-fed constantly, because we have all the means to do it. So Paul said they were carnal Christians, and they could have avoided that through more Bible reading. And in Hebrews chapter 5, it says, concerning him, we have much to say. And I think he's talking about Mekisteh. If we went back and looked at the context, but, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. So the writer of Hebrews tells the recipients of this epistle that they were dull of hearing, meaning they could not comprehend what he's needing to teach them. So by this time, they should have been able to teach, but they're still needing someone to teach them the basics. They needed milk or they needed the basic teachings because they have reverted back or they've backslid. Let me point this out that it's not like a history book where you read history book and you get some knowledge and then you grow in your study of history. The Word of God's not like that. You do read the Word of God and you grow in your knowledge, but you can meet some folks that know the Word of God and are backslidden, but they're backslidden because they're not currently reading the Word of God. The Word of God accompanies the Holy Spirit. And as you read, your sanctification is happening. And the Spirit of God is softening your heart so it can work on you. And when you get out of that and you're not reading, you're not spending time with God when you're not reading. And that's what transforms you. It's not so much the memorization or knowing certain things in the Bible, it's the Bible itself accompanied with the Word of God. Remember what the Word of God is. And the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was the beginning with God. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." That Word of God, that's God himself right there. And when you're not spending time with the Word of God, you're not spending time with God. Plain and simple. And that's what transformed my man. And when you stop spending time with it, you're going to start going back. You're either being transformed by the Word to God, or you're being conformed to the Word, to the world. One or the other. So, where was that? I'll just start here. 2 Timothy 2.15, he says, Let me back up to 14. He says, tell the others not to wrangle with the words. Some debates are not worth having." He goes on to say, prove yourself to God. In contrast, he's saying prove yourself to God but not to man. If you take in verse 14 into account, for the praise of man are is the only reason you would have to prove yourself to man, for the praise of man, or for the thrill of debate, or the satisfaction of being right. But remember, there's others watching. There's others listening to what we say. They're watching your walk. And we don't want to ruin the hearers. We want to edify the hearers. So we can accomplish this by more diligent Bible study, so we can accurately handle and divide the word of God, the word of truth, not being ashamed. And then next section is the Bible is like seed and ring. Two of the most important metaphors employed in the scripture to communicate the eminence and power of the Word of God in the Christian life are seed and rain. As a plant cannot exist apart from seed, it cannot grow to fruitfulness apart from rain, the Christian's life and growth to maturity and fruitfulness depends upon the Word of God. First Peter 123 says, for you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and enduring word of God. For all flesh is like grass and all its glory, like the flower of grass, the grass withers and the flower falls off. But the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you. The seed through which the Spirit of God accomplishes regeneration in our hearts is the Word of God. That is important. And that's the most important thing. Because as he points, pointed out, our salvation is secure because the word of God is not temporal, like grass, flesh, and flowers. It's not gonna fade, it's not gonna get old. The word of God is everlasting, it endures forever. And that is the seed that gave you the new birth, that gave us the new birth. That's what our salvation is written on, you could say. Parable of the soils. Some people say the parable of the sower, but the emphasis on the soils here. In Luke chapter eight, verse four, it says, when a large crowd was coming together, and those from the various cities were joining to him, he spoke by way of parables. The sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seed fell into the good soil and grew up and produced a crop a hundred times as great. As he said these things, he would call out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Verse nine says, his disciples began questioning him as to what this parable meant. And he said, to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest, it is in parables. So that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable of this, now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. Those beside the road are those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no firm root. They believe for a while, and in time of temptation, fall away. The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard as they go on their way. They're choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to maturity. But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance. So according to verse 11, the seed that was sown is the word of God, correct? Now, the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. The word of God includes the words that comes from God directly and the words that he's included in his Bible. In verse 8, some seeds fell among good ground and grew and produced a hundredfold. And we could say the emphasis of this parable is on producing fruit. In Matthew 13, 23, it says, and the one whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some 100, some 60, and some 30. Some produce a lot, and some produce a little. But the point is, they produce. And this is the lesson from the parable of the soils. All soils gossip seed, but only one out of the four comes to fruition, or bears fruit. While some may argue the meaning of fruit, and we can discuss what is meant by fruit, we can all agree that if you're a Christian, you should be bearing fruit. Even though the word of God is powerful, The parable of the sword demonstrates that its effectiveness within a believer is dependent on the condition of his or her heart. We also see from this parable some factors that keep the seed from growing, or keep us from producing, you could say. In verse 12, we see the devil taking the seeds away. In verse 13, we see temptation, or the flesh. I'll explain that in a minute. And in verse 14, we see that worries, riches, and pleasures, or you could sum it up by saying the things of this world, hinder us from producing. So why would the devil take the seed away? Well, just like birds take seeds away, that's their nature, right? That's what birds do. And let me tell you, that's Satan's nature. That's what Satan does. He's at war with God, and he wants his kingdom to reign. And remember, Satan's planting a crop of his own, and he wants his crop to be dominant, not God's crop. Remember the parable of the tares. He's casting out seeded also. In verse 13, we see temptation, and that could be hard times, it could be times of testing, or it could just be plain old temptation. You've seen people and everything's good, they burn again, they're coming to church, they seem like they're doing okay, but then something happens in their life, and they kind of have to make a decision. Are they going to go the way their flesh wants to go, the way they think they should go, or the way the Word of God says? And they decide to go the way of the flesh, or the way of the world. They choose that way. They choose their friends, or they choose even their family. They choose something that draws them away from God. And I'm not saying don't choose your family, but God comes first in your decisions. So, James tells us in chapter 1, verse 13, says, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted to God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So this person falls away from the Christian faith because they received the word only superficially. It never took root in their heart. Verse 14 says or talks about worries, riches, and pleasures. And although God is sovereign and his word is powerful, the outcome of our lives is also affected by the decisions we make. Many have allowed the word of God to choke out their lives, or their lives by the concerns and pleasures of this world. First John 2.15 says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passes away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. So to sum it up, things that hinders someone from actually being born again or hinders us from producing fruit, the devil, the flesh, and the world, or the world, the flesh, and the devil. It's those three. In Luke 8.15, it says, The heart in which the word of God can produce fruit of a hundredfold is an honest and good heart. And it holds the seed or the word of God firmly or tightly or fastly. But the seed is the good soil. These are the ones which have heard the word and in an honest and good heart and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance. I was reading something yesterday, the day before yesterday, on Adrian Rogers, and he I don't remember how he got to this point, but he was saying, you know, we've got a pretty good congregation and don't really have many problems. He said, but there's one fellow in the church, he's just giving me problems. He said, it comes up over and over. And he said, you know, sometimes I don't know what to do about this fellow. He says, but I usually don't mention people from the pulpit, I need to mention him. He's Adrian Rogers, is what he said. And he gives me a lot of trouble. And so we need to be honest. We need to have an honest heart, a good heart about who we are and what kind of sin is in our life. And we need to repent of that sin. And we need to keep repenting. When the Bible talks about repentance, it's not a one-time thing. It's a lifetime thing. As it comes up, you've got to turn from it. That word repent means turn. We're turning, turning, and turning. Isaiah 55 10 through 11 says, For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and the bread to the eater, So will my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. So this is a little different. This is not like a word-for-word metaphor, but this is two verses here in comparison to each other. So he's not using rain as a symbol for the word of God as much as he's saying as the rain and the snow or the water, they water the earth and accomplish what it's meant to do. If the water falls on the earth, it's gonna have a reaction. It's gonna do something before it's evaporated and before it goes back up to the clouds. And that's how it works for the word of God. the Word of God, where the Word of God follows, it's going to accomplish something. It's going to accomplish what God wanted to accomplish. And there's nothing that can change that. You could say, or I could say, I'd say this, it's either gonna work for redemption, repentance, or good for our faith, or it's gonna work for condemnation. It's gonna be used someday to say, you had the word of God right here, and you did not respond to it. So, Deuteronomy 32.2 says, let my teachings drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, and the droplets of the fresh grass, and as the sower, as the showers on the herb. So he said, let your teaching drop its rain upon us, let your speech distill like the dew upon us and the droplets on the fresh grass. So the moisture, he's saying these are similes and he's telling us that he's comparing these two items and I made another note here, but what is the rain, the dew, the droplets in the showers, what are they accomplishing? Well, they're watering the ground, and it's needed. Those plants, the earth, it needs it to survive. And similarly speaking, we have to have the Word of God to survive. Just like those plants need the water, we've got to have the Word of God. Hebrews 6 says, 6-7 says, For ground that drinks the rain, which often follows on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receive a blessing from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. Have you ever read the book of Hebrews much? You know, the book of Hebrews has a lot of warnings in it, and sometimes easier to understand, or some are easier to understand than others. This one's pretty plain in the context it's found. Those folks that do not produce fruit in their lives are in dangerous territory either way. You're either lost or you're backslidden. Either you're not converted Christian or you're still living in disbelief. And it says in the context here, you may have been right there close enough to taste it. You may could have tasted or smelled the salvation right there, but you turned away. You fell away and you're in danger of being pruned or you're in danger of being burned. You're in danger of being taken out. But to me, the worst thing, even worse than that, of being burned, is what he says there in verse eight. He says, it is worthless. I'd hate to be worthless in God's eyes, wouldn't you? I'd hate to be worthless for the kingdom of God. Remember Jesus, when he came to that fig tree, one fruit and there wasn't any fruit. He cursed it and it withered away right away. We're in dangerous ground when we're not producing fruit. And whether it's rain or whether it's seed, whatever the metaphors we looked at today, the end goal is fruit producing, fruition. And if we're not there, then we need to go back and ask ourself, am I reading the word of God? Am I studying the word of God? Is there something else in my life that's holding me, keeping me from growing fruit? Or am I just not born again? Am I not there yet? And Lord, we'll stop right there. We've got time to take some prayer requests. Anybody got a prayer request they'd like to mention? I've got a cousin. Her name is Iris Ragland. She lost her three-month-old baby girl. Is that what they call SIDS? That's sad. What's her name again? Iris Ragland. Okay. Remember her? Okay. Anybody got anything to add to that? I'll ask y'all to keep my mom in prayers and Claudia's mom in your prayers. She's healing up, seems like she's doing better. She just recently broke her shoulder or arm in that spot right there, so she seems to be doing better. And if there's no others, I'll go ahead and pray. Lord, we come to you this morning, we wanna thank you for the word of God. And Lord, we want to ask you just to help us to always be in remembrance of our need for the word and help us not to be negligent on our part of studying to show ourself approved unto you, Lord, not to others. And Lord, help us just to remember that we need to study and keep that in the forefront of our mind, Lord. As you tell the Hebrew people, pasted its frontlets of their eyes, Lord, to carry it with them always. Help us to do that, help us to remember to do that. Lord, we do want to, we do ask you to be with our church today, be with our services, be with us as the preaching happens, Lord, and we pray that the word that's preached would fall on good and honest hearts today, Lord, and it would find a fertile field to grow in. Lord, we do want to hold up our prayer requests that were made. Lord, we want to pray for Iris Ragland. It's got to be so tough, Lord, to lose a young baby like that. So we just ask you to be with her, comfort her, draw her closer to you, give her that kind of comfort that only you can. And Lord, we pray for the Wetzels and pray for their baby that's still in the hospital. We ask you just to help that baby grow so he can come out of that hospital and be home with his family. Lord, we just want to tell you, it's such a great comfort to having someone, having a great God that we can come to in our time of need. We just thank you for being that God for us. Thank you for calling us into your kingdom, allowing us to be your children. We pray in Jesus name, amen.