If you don't mind, I'll get you to turn to Matthew chapter 13 this morning. Just a few thoughts this morning that has come about over the past few weeks. We'll get there in a minute. We're kind of told we was a few weeks ago in the same verse. But I want to start this morning reading, starting verse 24 and thinking on the wheat and the tares. But if you will, before we start, let's ask for the Lord's mercy and blessings. Gracious Father, we come to You once again asking and expecting, Lord, that You would come and meet with us and that, Lord, You would open up Your Word and help us in hearing and seeing and understanding and granting the ability to speak for a moment. And I pray You'll be exalted and glorified in the midst of Your people. And help this people, Lord, as only You can, helping us to mature and to grow up in the knowledge and the grace of You. in becoming a people that you deserve, that have worshipped you. Exhaust yourself in our presence today. Help, I pray. For it's in your name I pray. Amen. If you will, I'll start in verse 24. We'll skip a little section and pick up in verse 36 to kind of You kind of get the idea. And as Toby mentioned, the natural things, and seeing that which is spiritual in them, the Lord used parables. He was always using that which we see with our natural eye. And that in hearing we might hear, and in seeing we might see. Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the household came and said unto him, Sir, does not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, gather you together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to barn them, to gather the wheat into my barn." And if you'll skip down to verse 36, then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came unto Him saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the son of man, the field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, Then shall the righteous shine forth as a son in the kingdom of their Father, who hath ears to hear. Let him hear. I guess my thoughts originated just observation. Throughout the week I talked with a lot of different people. And there's some, you know, some of the customers that I deal with are good people. They're generous. They're kind. Me and the boys were burning a brush pile this week and the fire got a little out of hand and I had a customer to stop by and probably spend an hour of his time just helping me. So in observation and just considering, and in no way this man, I don't have any one particular person in mind, but you wonder, who are the Lord's people? Occasionally there's conversation that when they leave, It does leave you encouraged. They can say things and tell you things that they've read. And you wonder, are they the Lord's? So in thinking on these things, it brought this parable to mind and I got to looking into it a little bit. And I like definitions. I guess because I'm a simple person and I need it. But I like looking at words. So I started looking into what a tear was. It's just a poisonous species of rye. And it closely resembles wheat in its early stages. In the earlier stages, from what I've read, it would take somebody that dealt with it a lot to discern between the two, between the wheat and the tare. And in thinking on that, I think you would all agree, there's a lot of resemblance out there. We should make us cautious. The Lord said, let no man deceive you, for many shall come in His name. There'll be many cries. Even the Apostle Paul said, let no man deceive you. But this morning, I don't want us looking at those out there. Because in the end, the one true issue ain't between me and them. It's between me and the Lord. The Lord said, let no man deceive you. And that's something that's been shared here. I think Tim shared it not long ago. That man can be me. Let no man deceive you. In the earlier stages, the weep and the tear resemble one another. And the dangerous thing about the tare to you that are His children, it says that the tares draw the nutrients and the sunlight from, they rob and they steal that from the wheat. Now when you apply that in the spiritual, you think, well how is that possible? How is it possible that those around me that may not be of the Lord, how do they rob spiritual nutrients? You'll have to answer that for yourself. Friends. Those that you come in contact with, they have an effect upon you. Do we become a little less strict around family because we don't want to offend them? And if so, maybe they've just stole some nutrients from us. I know that's not a comfortable thing to hear. But they rob us. Friends that are religious rob us. Another interesting fact, well before I get to that. A verse that come to mind in thinking on how the tare draws the nutrients and sunlight. Jude 112, come to mind, these are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees who fruit wither, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. There's spots in your feasts of charity. An interesting fact that I read about concerning the wheat and the tares, which I thought was pretty interesting, that when the wheat puts on its grain, it bows. And that's one of the ways that they can tell the difference between the two. The tare stands upright. but the wheat bows after it puts on the grain. I thought that was interesting, that if we bear fruit, we bow in humbleness and submission. But as that tear grows, it never bows. It reminds me of what the Apostle said in 2 Thessalonians 2 for these, as God said it in the temple of God, showing him or herself that he or she is God. It just produces self-righteousness. And that's one thing that I find among people that I come in contact with. They almost have an attitude that God owes it to them. He owes them salvation. So they never bow. Very interesting. that they draw those things that are precious for me. And I don't understand them in all ways, but I know that it's had an effect upon us. Religious society has robbed us of so much that we make excuses for our loved ones. If you will turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 2. A few verses here. I guess if I had a verse this morning, it would be giving all diligence. Giving all eagerness and earnestness. I was kind of thinking along these lines the other week when Toby shared his devotion. If you will, we'll start with verse 1 and read down through verse 10. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. I'm sorry, did I tell y'all the wrong chapter? 2 Peter 1, I'm sorry. Verse four, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren, barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling in election sure. For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall." He said, if we shall do these things. And what is that that he's talking about? He says, giving all diligence, with all earnestness and eagerness, adding to our faith virtue, which is excellence. It means manliness. And I looked it up to get a better understanding of it. And it comes from two Greek words, and one is great, And the other means to be fitting or becoming. Virtue is excellence. Greatness, to be fitting or becoming. And the only really definition I could find that made the most sense for me is just Christ-likeness. Maturing. And growing. And by that, adding to knowledge. And I think the more we come to know Him, the more temperance and self-control over this old nature we'll have. And adding to temperance patience in all things, learning to sit still and wait upon the Lord. And that adding godliness and holiness. and to that brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity, which is just a feast of love towards one another. You know, in making it right, searching my own heart, and looking, do these things apply to me? Can I give all diligence that these things are about me? We have the same word but a little different meaning in verse 10, diligence. It means to study and to labor. Study to show thyself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed. giving all diligence. I think we live in difficult times. A very dark day to where it almost seems like true Christianity It's just disappearing. The Lord's people are so scattered here and there to where you don't come in contact with many true believers. Difficult times. And you don't come across people throughout the day. And if you do, it's rare. That is provoking you to move forward. It seems like everybody's out to distract you. To bring you down to their level. It seems like more and more people are falling away. And ever since COVID, people haven't went back to church. It's giving people the excuse not to go. And you see more and more darkness coming out of them. As the tear grows, they become a little more recognizable. There's no submission, and there's no humbleness of heart. No bowing. You know, in thinking on this, I'm just a firm believer and I've mentioned it several times so I'll repeat it. I don't know where we're at in the little season. And I don't know really what to expect in it. And I've even tried to share that to some who They won't have it. I mean, I hate to say it, everybody's just... I guess they're waiting on the rapture, I don't know. They've got it off in the future somewhere. And I say it's all about us. I work with two different men and I can honestly say I have liberty among them. I don't hold back anything. I mean I don't force anything. But when I have the opportunity. But they don't see it. And I can see in their lives that There's no reverence for the Lord. And I don't mean that they're outwardly wicked people. They just have no respect for Him. Even though they profess to be Christians. And that has an effect upon you. You know, in some ways it wears you down. Because what you do share, it just doesn't go anywhere. It seems to have no effect. Everybody's content where they're at. But we can't be. It's not enough to be here today. It's not enough that if the Lord spares another day, I get up, I read my Bible, read a devotion, pray. It's not enough. The truth of the matter, either we are or we're not. And that's the point that's got to be made to me between me and the Lord. Between you and the Lord. The Lord's closing it out fast, it sure seems like to me. He's long-suffering. This can go on for a long time. But when I sit there and think about it, I don't know how much longer He'll wait. And unless you talk about what the religious crowd talks about as far as His coming, they're not going to listen to you. They've been brainwashed to believe that there will be all these signs leading up to it. And we're here. I think more and more about Noah and him trying to warn those people. Who knows, there could have been other people that helped him other than his sons. And He paid them, but they wouldn't listen to Him. Listen to Him. I have hope that the Lord will work an eagerness and an earnestness within us to make preparation. Christianity is a hard thing. It tries you. And these religious people that say you've got to know that you know, and I agree with that. We should be knowing that we know. But as Barish mentioned, it's not this easy plane. It's up and down. It's a lot of soul searching. If you get the chance, listen to the life and diary of David Bragger. That was a godly man. Now, I never see myself being Mr. Brandon, but there's a lot of his attributes that every one of us has got to get to. A life of self-denial, giving up dreams and ambitions here, and striving after true holiness. I'm sure there were other men and women like Mr. Brainerd that their story never come to light as far as being written down. I know there were. But a remarkable life for a young man who reached to such heights at a young age. When you listen to that, He was always giving diligence and true virtue, excellence. He excelled in spiritual matters. I just bring to you what I'm constantly going over for myself. I didn't come here with anybody in mind other than myself. I'm grateful that the Lord started dealing with me at a young age, but I can't rest in that. He that endures unto the end shall be saved. He will be. She will be. We've all got to start, but we do have to finish it. It's not enough. You younger ones, I hope you'll start someday, but you must finish just as I've got to. We've got to strive to win our end. Now when I talk about it, no one knows that when the Lord will retire. So I'm not saying, who knows? Nobody knows that. And you know, the next four years, if America has a good economy, you probably won't hear much about it. But when people start saying, peace, peace, then sudden destruction. May the Lord have mercy upon us. Give us a renewed interest in the Lord Jesus. Revive us. To where it's not just Sunday morning religion, it's truly who we are. of people striving after.