This morning we come in our exposition of Hebrews to chapter 6, and we'll be considering with the Lord's help verses 7 and 8. Hebrews chapter 6, verses 7 and 8. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs, meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected. and is nigh into cursing, whose end is to be burned. Progress, perseverance, productivity. This captures the theme of Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6 is calling us to faith, to be brought into faith, and then to be brought forward in the progress and increase of that faith. the whole thrust from beginning to end, where he says, let us go on unto perfection at the beginning and to the end, in which he sets before us the hope of the anchor of our soul. The theme is progress and perseverance and productivity. Well, we've heard in verses 4, 5, and 6 something in answer to the question, what must we believe regarding this doctrine of apostasy? What must we believe? Well, that's been answered for us. But now we have the question, What else must we do in light of this doctrine? What else must we do in light of this doctrine? Verses 7 and 8 give some help in that regard. And so really, in terms of the context and flow of the passage, we're turning to illustration and application, if you will, from what was heavy in verses 5 and 6, to what is useful in verses 7 and 8 in terms of its implications for our souls. And this is important at a number of points, but I'll mention one here in the introduction. You know, we come to weighty doctrines, and they have depths, and they have complexity, and they carry heaviness with them. But we need to realize that with all doctrine, including those kind of doctrines, they can and must include evangelistic simplicity. You think by way of parallel, you know, the doctrine of predestination, right? It's common to hear Calvinists say, well, this is, you know, it's true and we believe it. They're almost embarrassed about it, right? We need to, well, let's not talk about it too much. Let's not emphasize it. Let's, you know, keep it in the background. Let's, you know, skirt around it and so on and so forth. But that's not what the Bible does with it. And that's not what the best Reformed preachers throughout history have done with it. I mean, there's Jesus in John chapter 6. And he's calling his audience to faith. And he's setting himself before them and so on. He introduces the doctrine of predestination. And he does so skillfully and with evangelistic simplicity. You can appreciate how this is the case, right? The doctrine of predestination sets forth the glory of God, right? It shows us the enormity of God's majesty, the invincibility of his sovereignty. Well, that's important for the gospel that sinners catch a sight of the transcendent glory of Almighty God, so that fits with evangelistic simplicity. But it also goes on to reinforce how desperate sinners are. Because the doctrine comes and it tells you, you're not just sick, you're dead. You're not just lost, you're hopelessly lost. It comes and strips all sorts of self-righteousness. You can't pull yourself up by your bootstrap. You can't do anything. You are dead in trespasses and sin, ignorant and unable to see or hear anything. That carries with it evangelistic simplicity in terms of the Lord bringing home the desperation of sinners' need. And then when they're brought to the bottom, the doctrine of predestination also comes and says, ah yes, but God can and does do what you are unable to do. And he delights to do it in order to gather glory to himself. He delights to come to sinners and to snatch them as branch from the fire. And lo and behold, he is doing it here and now in the preaching of the gospel. And we set forth the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the means that the Lord uses to draw his elect people to himself, right? So there you have the doctrine of pre-estimation, which always brings evangelistic simplicity with it. This is true everywhere. It's true with the doctrine of apostasy as well. We were brought last week under its weight, right? We were called upon by the Lord to shoulder it, to feel something of the heaviness of it. But we're not left there. The Holy Spirit in this passage brings us from that to some of the implications. Some of the implications that come to the souls of needy sinners in need of a great Savior. And we know that because verse 7 begins, as we are so familiar with, it begins with the word for. It is evidently drawing a lesson from this weighty doctrine that we saw in verses 4 to 6. And what it sets before us, as you see in the title of the sermon, is two crops. two crops in the days of harvest. And we note here that in these two crops there are points of similarity and there are points of dissimilarity. They are alike in some ways and disalike in others. But in setting forth this illustration for us, It's bringing home that searching, probing, haunting question about where we are ourselves. This isn't just giving us a theoretical idea about the world and about men and so on and so forth. The Lord comes this morning to search out your soul and mine, to bring the light of the Word, to bear into the dark recesses of our own souls. Is your fruit unto holiness? Is your fruit unto holiness or not? Well, we're going to consider these two crops, and we'll do so under three points. First of all, their shared benefits. Two crops. We begin with their shared benefits in verse 7. For the earth which drinketh in the rain, that cometh oft upon it. So the Lord is taking us from hearing some things to now seeing some things, right? The Lord is using illustration in order to produce illumination. In order that we might see more clearly the truths that are being brought to our souls. But it's not doesn't stop there. It's in order that that illumination might lead to application. to being brought home to our own bosoms. And so we're not just given doctrines in order to inform us, but also to edify us and to bring the spiritual good of building up our souls. Our souls are far too precious, far too precious for truth to be left unimproved in us and by us. And this is God's way. He brings illustrations. And that's what we have. We have here a picture that's set before us. The prophets did this, and the Word God put in their mouths. Christ always using illustrations in order to help us understand the truth. The apostles do the same. And so he draws a picture from a familiar scene, a familiar scene to all of us. He says, for the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it. The earth. This is to depict the souls of men within the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not the only time we see it here. We saw it recently, didn't we, in Isaiah 5. where the Lord comes into His own vineyard to inspect it, and He discovers that it is barren, that the earth has not produced the fruit that it should have. And the Lord brings a searching word in Isaiah 5. It's that same image which is repeated elsewhere in the Old Testament, used by Jesus in His parables in the New Testament. This earth is describing the souls of men men, women, boys, and girls within the church of the Lord Jesus Christ under the preaching of the gospel. You think, for example, of the seed of the sower, right? It's the same picture there. The seed of the Word is being sown into the soil, the earth, the soil of men's souls, into their hearts. It's that same picture that's being used here. And so he's saying that we find ourselves, all of us find ourselves here this morning, we find ourselves in that portion which has been carved out by God himself, that portion of earth, the field, the vineyard, the soil, in which the Lord has sent forth his word, as we'll see more in a minute. These are privileges we do not deserve. We do not deserve to be soil or earth that's receiving bounty from the Lord's hand itself. And you say, yes, yes, yes, we know, we know, we know that. But do we really? Have we taken it in? How often is it not the case for you that you think of being under the preaching of God's Word as something that takes place in the ordinary course of events? Right? Children, many of you think to yourself, well, of course we go and we listen to pastor preach and so on. This is what we do. And that's how you think about it. You think, well, okay, this is what we do. This is what our family does. And it's ordinary and it's commonplace for us and so on. We revert to that, whether consciously or unconsciously. And the Lord is coming, and He's saying, not by a long shot. We do not deserve any privileges. We do not deserve to be born in a place that's within the reach of the gospel. We don't deserve to be put in a place under the gospel. We don't deserve to hear about Christ, or the Bible, or the cross, or the gospel, or anything else. We don't deserve any of these things. They don't come as a matter of course to us. They are special, precious privileges that the Lord has been pleased to allot to us. You remember how our catechism in our confessional statements puts it in Larger Catechism, question 63, where it says, the visible church hath the privilege of being under God's special care and government. I could expound every one of these phrases, I'm not gonna. Of being protected and preserved in all ages. This is for the visible church. Notwithstanding the opposition of all enemies, and of enjoying the communion of saints, the ordinary means of salvation, and offers of grace by Christ to all the members of it in the ministry of the gospel, testifying that whosoever believes in him shall be saved, and excluding none that will come unto him. All of these privileges to everybody that finds themselves within the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's one thing, of course, to recognize this. It's another thing to be content with this. To say, well, alas, we're in the place that God provides for. We're in the place that God protects. We're within the walls of the kingdom where blessings are showered upon it, and so on and so forth. And we have the word given to us, and we know more than we would otherwise know, and so on. All of those are privileges, but they are privileges that must be improved. And a person can be in the visible church and look good and conform to Christian standards of lifestyle and can know lots of stuff. You know, they might know a lot about what the Bible teaches and doctrine and so on and so forth, like someone else knows about their hobby or something else they're interested in. But that's not all that's necessary, as this passage goes on to say. Well, the privileges include being in that portion where the Lord brings blessing, it includes the rain. "'For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it.'" The rain. This would be the analogy, the parallel in Jesus' parable to the seed, the seed that's sown. Here it's the picture of rain that falls, that the earth drinks in. You'll notice that this is something that God Himself sends. We know that because we can't even get out of the opening section of our Bibles. In the opening verses of Genesis 2, we read in verse 5, We read there, in every plant of the field, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth at that point. And then we look at all sorts of other things where, you know, throughout the Old Testament, the Lord gives rain, the Lord withholds rain. And we see him, the prophets, and in our various portions of the poetic books, this being brought out. You come to the New Testament, it's no different. I mean, the apostles use it. Acts 14, verse 17, where we read this. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven, fruitful seasons, and so on. The rain falls on the just. and the unjust. So this picture of rain, which is so familiar, we drove in with rain falling from the sky. We walked from our cars to the building this morning with rain that was falling. This is a picture of the word of God. This is a picture of the gospel. God himself sends, just as he sends rain or withholds rain, he sends the gospel or withholds the gospel. There are places where he has not sent the gospel yet. There are times when the apostles in the ministry, they seek to go to one place and the Holy Spirit prohibits them from going to preach the gospel in that place and sends them to another place. God's the one who sends it. It's the gospel that is being depicted here. And He causes it to come down from heaven. Just as the rain falls from heaven, the Lord causes His Gospel, His Word, to come from heaven to our own souls. This, again, know your Bibles, your Old Testaments. This is taken straight out of what we know in places like Deuteronomy 32, verse 2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." This is the picture that God is using to us of His Word coming. And here we are able to drink in, able to take in, to hear the Word of God. You can't do this. You can't produce this yourself. Jeremiah says, you know, can you produce rain? Can your false God send rain? The answer is no. A thousand times no. There's only one who can give rain. It's the God of heaven. And so too, the sending of the preaching of the gospel. It's a gift. Only God can give it. And it's a gift he gives. And it's a gift He causes us to hear and receive. We do drink it in. I mean, you can't go outside right now, children, and push the rain back up into the clouds. No one has the power to take all those raindrops and to stick them back in a cloud way up in the sky, right? The Lord is the one who brings it. And He brings it powerfully to us. The fact is you have heard the word. You've heard it. There are various responses and degrees of response to it. There are different receptions of that word, but it has gone into you. It's gone into your head, into your mind. It's gone into your conscience. It's gone into your inner being and so on. What's more, the rain comes to us free. You have to pay in order to mulch your yard. You never have to pay for the rain that falls upon your yard. Right? The Lord is the one who gives it freely. And so it is where the Lord comes in the gospel. He gives it freely. We don't pay to hear the gospel. We don't merit the ability to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't earn it. And this gospel, just as the rain quickens the seed that has been laid in the ground, so too the Word of the Lord. These are shared benefits. Benefits that all have in common within the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You notice, before passing from this, in Hebrews 6, he says, that often cometh Upon it that oft cometh upon it and it frequently comes upon He says cometh oft upon upon it these are These are this is another element if you will of Privilege a further privilege that the Lord has given to us Yes, God sent for it We know God sends the rain, so we pray for it. You know, we go through a long dry spell, and we pray, Lord, please send rain, because we know He's able to send rain. But the Lord has come, and He has sent His Word often to us, right? These Hebrews, They had had plentiful amounts of the Word. They had been singing the Psalms all their lives. They had access to the Old Testament Scriptures. They had read it and heard it expounded and so on and so forth. And we're no different. You're no different. You've heard it over and over and over and from different angles and different emphases and different parts of it and so on. You've heard often about who Christ is and his gospel and the truth and so on and so forth. You've heard it publicly in the reading and preaching and singing of the word. You've heard it privately in your private and family worship. Children, you've gotten it in your school. You've gotten it as well in your catechetical instruction. And the list goes on and on and on. Truly, it has fallen oft upon us. We've had plentiful diffusions of profuse amounts of the Word that has been given to us. God has sent showers of blessing upon our hard, parched hearts. All of these shared benefits. Shared benefits that those within the visible church enjoy. But then secondly, there is different fruit In the context of these shared benefits, there is different fruit. On one hand, we have in verse 7, and bringeth forth herbs, meat for them by whom it is dressed. And in verse 8, but that which beareth thorns and briars." On one hand, we have herbs. On the other, we have thorns and briars. These privileges, these benefits, they should rightly breed within us expectations. They should breed expectations. The Lord's giving us His Word. He's giving us lots of His Word that raises our expectations. We're expecting We're anticipating something that would come from this. Any other response is irrational. You have a garden, flower garden, vegetable garden, whatever it is. What happens? You go out there, you prepare the soil and you sow the seed and you feed it and you water it and so on. You expect a harvest. You go out and look for it. You look to see it growing and to be healthy. You look to see bud and bloom in some cases. You look to see the fruit coming and being sustained and coming into its maturity and so on. You look rightly Understandably, for a harvest. Well, the fact is, as we saw in Isaiah 5, the Lord also comes into His field, into His vineyard, into His garden, as the language is used in various ways throughout the Old Testament. He comes to see. He comes to see what fruit. He comes for inspection. You think, okay, we understand that. But please understand this. The Lord has come this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of the harvest, has come into this congregation this morning for the purpose of inspection. He is coming to see, to search out the hearts of all that are here, to search them out and to see what fruit is there, what has come of the rain of the word that I have sent so often upon them. Well, in the one case, in verse 8, he says, they are those who beareth thorns and briars. They beareth thorns and briars. They are unproductive. Right? These are obnoxious things. These are the things that you want to be rid of, not what you want to cultivate. It's describing the unbelieving. It's describing those who have received and drunk in the showers of God's gospel and word, and who have responded with unbelief and disobedience to the calls of the gospel. who have not by any means improved or benefited from that gospel. They are unproductive. Again, to revert to what's common in your own experience, you plant things in your garden, your vegetable garden, and you've put in okra and you've put in peppers and you've put in cucumbers and squash and so on and so forth. And after waiting and waiting and watering and all these other things, you go out and behold, Weeds. Weeds everywhere. The briars have come in, and there's thorns and so on, and there's all sorts of weeds, and you're pushing through it, looking, where are my plants? I've gone away on vacation for two weeks, I come back, there's nothing. All that watering and feeding and so on, it's produced a whole garden full of weeds. Here our passage says, this is the case for some, which beareth, which spit out, if you will, producing, cranking out nothing but thorns and briars. It's the language that's used in Genesis 3. So the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Hebrew, uses these two words to describe the curse that comes upon the world. And it's these two words translated differently in our translation, but in the original it's these two words. It's a picture that we were familiar with then, right? The result of the fall of man, the entrance of sin into the world, the consequences that come in the wake of that include the fact that the earth is going to bring forth these thorns and briars and so on. There's no profit. So for those who are sitting under the ministry of the Lord's Word, they have not profited from it. They haven't mixed their hearing with faith. They haven't received it with meekness. They haven't humbled themselves under it. They haven't come to feed upon it as those who are hungry. They haven't seen their need and so on and so forth. And the result is that what's been produced is of no use. The briars and thorns, you can't do anything with them. You can't boil them and eat them. You're not going to use them in order to like flax weave and create fabric and so on and so forth. No, quite to the contrary, they're hurtful. They'll cut you. They'll damage you. They're noxious weeds. This is the description of the unconverted. Right? This is the picture that the Lord gives. And you think to yourself this morning, for those of you in your unconverted state, and you think, well, I'm in the church and I'm part of the, I'm a member of the church, I'm baptized, I'm in the visible kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. I walk with upright character. I know many biblical truths and doctrines and so on and so forth. I have all these things. And yet you cannot see yourself. And the Lord's coming and He's setting in front of your face the picture of thorns. He's setting in front of your face and giving you a picture of briars. And He's saying, this is you. You're looking in the mirror this morning. And underneath all the outward, the outward veneer that you bring with you, there's pride there. There's pride, and there's the world, and worldliness, and there's covetousness, and there's selfishness, and unbelief, and so on and so forth. And truth be told, you haven't produced any gospel fruit. You're in fact hurtful in some ways to those that are around you. And your example, and attitude, and ambitions, and so on and so forth. These are dangers that the Lord is warning us of. He's saying, beware. He's saying, this is in fact the case of those that are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. You weave this together with the language of our Lord in Luke 8, in verse 14, when He's speaking about that seed that falls upon the unproductive soils. In the one He says, "...and that which fell among thorns, are they which when they have heard, heard the word, go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and bring no fruit, no fruit to perfection, Is this true of you this morning? I don't care what your profession is, right? Is this true of you this morning? Is this descriptive of the briar that the Lord is describing here? What is it that makes you tick? What is it that occupies your heart? What fills your thoughts? What are your pursuits and ambitions and so on? Are it the cares of this world? Is that what you get excited about? Is that what you are thinking about and so on? Is that what occupies your ambitions or the riches? Are you thinking about money? And it's a very big important priority in your life to make money, to get money, to find money, to use money and so on and so forth. The pleasures of this life. being a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God, the things that gratify your fleshly appetites, the things that you enjoy, that ring your bell, and so on and so forth. The Lord's saying, if that's true, if the Lord's coming, and He's searching you out this morning, with the spotlight of His Word, He's saying, you're a briar, you're a thorn, I've rained My Word copiously upon you, and behold, I find in you thorns and briar. He's probing you. He's probing me. He's probing us under His Word. But then there is different fruit from this. We find in verse 7, And bringeth forth herbs, meat or fit suitable for them, by whom it is dressed. bringeth forth. It's the language used elsewhere of a woman at childbirth bringing forth a child. It's the idea of giving birth. This is the picture that's given to us. It's saying that those who receive the word with faith, those who do indeed profit, those who come under that word, who are productive and so forth, they're giving birth to fruitfulness, to gospel fruitfulness. These are those who are herbs The plants that we desire to see produced and multiplied, the ones that are fragrant, the ones that are edible, the ones that are lush, that supply food for us, that we can be nourished by, and so on. This is describing those within the visible church who hear, yes, who receive, who drink in the word, yes, who understand it, who see and get what the Bible is saying. who rejoice over it, but more they keep it. And the root goes down into the soil of their hearts. And as a consequence, they produce fruit from it. And the fruit is born, it's evident. You remember the language of, there's several places like this, but in Philippians chapter one, in verse 11, being filled with the fruits. of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God." Hear the fruits of faith. Hear the fruits of faith. They see and hear and receive the reign of the Word of God, which comes like the distilled dew upon the tender herb. And they believe it. They receive it. They rest in all of the promises that the Lord is issuing in that Word. They behold Christ and run to Him. They cling to Him as all their hope. They profess and glorify Him. There's the fruit of repentance. Away with sin. No more with sin. I'm going to spend my days booking in the other direction from sin. And as I slide back in its direction to rise up and run to the Savior all day, every day, repenting of sin, convicted, exposed, shown one's self, one's sins to the point of sorrow and brokenness of heart, deep love for the Savior. to find in him all that is lovely, so that in comparison the people and things and events and tokens within this world lose their luster, as I like to say, are not as attractive in comparison. He is altogether lovely. And as a consequence, there is great love for him, love for his law. Thank God it's as high as it is. Thank God it's as deeply probing as it is. Thank God that it is as exacting as it is. We love every bit of it. It's wisdom unto us. We love the whole word of God. We love the people of God. We love the day of God. We love the kingdom of God. Everything that's associated with the one that is altogether lovely. There's love. There's obedience. Obedience is the fruit of that faith, the fruit of that repentance, a fruit of joy and hope, a fruit of the love for the Savior. Right? The fruit of obedience. Walking, obeying, saying no to self and yes to Him, conforming ourselves to His Word by the Spirit, through His grace, running in the path of obedience. This is fruit. Why? Because they had the root in themselves. And as the water came in the preaching of the Lord's word, and it sunk down into the hearts and minds of men, for the believing soul sprung up and their herbs, the beautiful. the beautiful, tender green leaves, the fragrant blossoms, the delectable fruit that comes from it, the nourishment that our bodies derive. It's an herb. The Lord comes to his believing people and he says, alas, a herb. And this is a word of consolation to some of you, because you come under the word of God and you say, look, so much ugliness because of sin. So much that is unbecoming, undesirable, unattractive, and so on and so forth. As I said to the other party earlier, the Lord comes and He sets an exquisite herb in front of your face this morning. Look at it. In looking, you look into the mirror. This is what Christ sees. Irresistibly attractive, fragrant, delicious. The Lord says, see what I have done for my own glory, for the magnifying of my son, for the eternal good of your sin sick, miserable soul. See what I have done. I have rained on you and I have brought forth herbs for my glory. Blessed be his name. Glory to God in the highest for the riches of grace and the gospel of his son. And so there's different fruit. There's thirdly opposite results in verses seven and eight. Opposite results, two crops. Yes. with two corresponding ends. Two results that are diametrically opposed to one another. I mean, you start at verse 7 and you think, so much sameness, so much sameness at the beginning. True. And so incredibly opposite at the end. This is true in experience. There's so much sameness in the visible church at the beginning. And yet the Lord says in these two crops, they are so incredibly opposite at the end. One, we're told, is suitable. The other, we're told, is rejected. One, we're told, has the blessing of God. The other, we're told, has the cursing. Suitable, rejected, blessing, curse. We'll start with the rejected. He says in verse 8, but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected. It's tossed. It's thrown away. It's deemed utterly useless. Jesus, in his language, says, I will come and I will cut it down, for it cumbereth the ground. What a terrifying thought that is. What a terrifying thought that should be to some of you. That the Lord of the harvest comes into the midst of his field this morning in the preaching of his word, and he's moving in and among you, and his eyes glance upon you. Is it that the Lord says to you, cut him down, cut her down, for she cumbereth the ground. Rejected. Rejected. The language of the gospel of Matthew chapter 23 and verse 38. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. This is what the Lord says to the Jews, doesn't he? He comes to the Jews and he says, they're cut off from the stock. They're left, after all of the water, they're left cut off. They're left desolate, this passage says. And if that's not enough, don't just think of this abstractly. It is Christ doing it. God Himself is rejecting the thorns and the briars. He's rejecting the unbelieving and the disobedient. The Lord Jesus Christ is disowning that which is within His own house. The Hebrews, this is very familiar territory to them. The unfolding history of the Jews, and the coming of the gospel, and the word taken to the Gentiles, and so on. Rejected. He goes on, and is nigh unto cursing. And is nigh unto cursing. I have to be honest with you. There's one word in this passage which has struck me more than any other. It has four letters. It's the word nigh. In meditating and preparing to preach this passage to you, I hung, I hung on that word nigh. Nigh unto cursing. Why? Nigh means near, near unto cursing. Near unto it. but not there. And for my own soul, it did me much good to think, oh, Lord, blessed be your name. Near, but I can preach this word to those who are not yet there. Nigh unto cursing. You think of the curse here, devoted to destruction, devoted to absolute decimation, devoted to what is left in the rubbish bin. of history. The Lord comes and Jesus speaks far more powerfully than anyone else on these sorts of themes. And he says in Matthew 25 and verse 41, then shall he say unto them on the left hand, the thorns and the briars, He shall say unto them this comes from the lips the mouth the tongue of the Lord Jesus Christ of whom you have seen and heard so much Jesus says these words depart from me ye cursed Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his his angels This is the barren fig tree, which Jesus noted, and he cursed that barren fig tree. It wasn't because, in that instance, it produced bitter figs. It's because it produced no figs. And the Lord says it is cursed, and it withers, and it dies. This is the picture, the Lord says, of covenant breaking. We have both blessings and we have curses. We have so many privileges in the covenant. Born and baptized into the covenant of God's grace. So many, many blessings that the Lord showers upon us. But the Lord says there are curses everywhere in the Old Testament, New Testament, curses that come with that covenant as well. There are warnings that come of breaking covenant through unbelief, through refusal to believe and receive the promises of the covenant. The Lord warns us that unbelief will result in something, that unbelief will cost you something, that unbelief will produce something. You think of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 27 28 the blessings and the curses the covenant and so on he actually uses this language verse chapter 29 verse 23 where he says and I heaven that is over thy head shall be brass and the earth that is under thee shall be iron and And the Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust. From heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed. Until thou be destroyed. The Lord says that some of you this morning, you are on the cusp. You have no idea how you are tinkering on the brink, that you are playing games with an immortal soul, a never dying soul, which God has created and given to you. And you are nigh unto this cursing, nigh unto leaving this world, nigh unto appearing before the august glory of the God of glory. Nigh unto coming before the Lamb, yes, but a Lamb that is covered in wrath towards you. Coming before a Lamb who will utter, not whimsically, but who will come woefully and pronounce authoritatively, you are cursed. Depart from me, ye cursed. Depart where? The passage says in verse 7, excuse me, verse 8, and is nigh in the cursing whose end is to be burned. Burning. Burning is always the picture of judgment. God sends fire from heaven to burn Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of the plain, to burn them to ash. Burning the body, burning people. A judgment that comes from heaven upon the souls of men. But all of those pictures and all of those temporal judgments, they're only small. They're only minuscule, little forewarnings, little pictures and pointers to what is ultimately coming. The judgment of God is fire. It's fire. And there's no way to wiggle out of this. There's no way to explain away this. And the liberals with their damnable doctrine will be damned in their doctrine. Because hell is a real living place. This is not something that is just merely a motivation to make us serious about our souls. It's telling us about a living reality. A place in reality that is as real and more real than the pew you're sitting in and the clothes you're clothed in. There are people you have known whose souls, at this very moment, are in hell. You talked to them. You laughed with them. You spoke to them. You walked with them. You hugged them. You lived life with them. It's not theoretical for them, my friends. They're in hell. As I preach, their souls burn. Awake from your slumber. Awake from your slumber. There's a day coming when the resurrection will include the unjust. And with a resurrected body, joined to a sinful, irremediably sinful soul, will be raised to dishonor. So that with body and soul, the whole man, the whole woman, the whole boy, the whole girl, the whole person, tormented in the presence of the wrath of an invincibly powerful and an invincibly holy God who with righteous indignation will never relent in the infinite satisfaction of his holy indignation. There is judgment coming And here's the fact, in a congregation this large, when we get to the judgment day, there are people here, people you can see right now, people you can speak with right now, who will be sent off into the lake of fire. Not all of you, undoubtedly, are bound for glory. For some of you, this will not be a thing told by a minister sent from heaven. It will be a thing that you experience in all of its living reality. The Lord comes and he says to us, arise, awake, be up and doing, be sober. This is no trifle. Take, in the words of our Lord, take heed how you hear. Don't just pay attention that you're hearing. I'm under the preaching. I'm in the house of God. The Lord comes and he says, take heed how you hear. This morning, this afternoon, Wednesday, whenever the word of God is preached, you to take heed how you hear it. that you would receive and drink in this rain that is coming from heaven this morning, in order that by the grace of God you might bring forth faith as the tender herb to the glory of God. Opposite results, the other side is in verse seven. And bringeth forth herbs, meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. Meet. It's fit. It's so incredibly suitable. It's not ever going to be rejected. It's perfect. It's according to design. It is in keeping with all that the gospel produces. It is indeed suitable. It's a fruit suited. Something to be desired. Something to be rejoiced over. Something that is productive and beautiful. And the Lord comes in and amongst his vineyard and he looks upon all of the diversity of the herbs within his garden, those who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, this one and that one, the big ones and the little ones, all of the different gifts and graces that are given to him. And he says to each one, so suitable, so fitted for the purposes for which I've sent my gospel. So pleasing and delightful to me. And He rejoices over the fruit of His harvest. Right? It is meat for Him by whom it is dressed. True of the Lord. True of His ministers who come and rejoice over the fruit. True of parents who rejoice over it. And their children and friends who see it. And their colleagues and those that they love and so on. joy for the angels in heaven, joy for the Lord's people on earth, joy for the Redeemer and Lord of the harvest Himself, above the highest heavens, enthroned in glory. These herbs receive the blessing from God. Those who are sent off with the curse, rejected and sent into everlasting torments in hell, are done so by Christ. But it is Christ who pronounces His divine benediction and blessing over the herbs of His garden as well. It's a blessing that comes from Christ. This is the blessing that results after the fruit. It's true to be in the place, in the earth, where the rain falls is a blessing. That's from the Lord. for him to send the rain of his word. That comes from the Lord too, to be able to spring up and to be a tender herb with fruitfulness. Every bit of that is from God's sovereign hand, all from God. But this blessing, which comes after the fruitfulness, is also from the Lord. It receives blessing from God Himself. The Lord comes to His people. He sees the fruitfulness. He owns it. He owns it. You say, well, there's so much sin. But the Lord comes to you through His Word and says, but here is fruit. And it's fruit that I've produced. The Lord comes to that fruit and He says, it's mine. I own it. I've produced it. I have brought this to pass. He owns it. That's what it means for him to bless it. He acknowledges it for all that it is, and he brings his blessing in preserving it. left to us, it would wither, it would get rot, it would fall off, it wouldn't come to fruition. The Lord says, no, I'm giving my blessing to gospel hearers who've been brought to faith in Jesus Christ. The fruit will remain, I will preserve it, I will multiply it, and I will glorify myself through it. The blessing of the Lord. He will cause His people to go from strength to strength. The Lord will bring His blessing to you, Christian. He will help you. All your struggles, all your disappointments, all of the consternation, all of the grief over your own sin and so on, the Lord will help you. He'll bless, He'll bring, He'll empower you to be brought forward by His grace. He'll do all of these things. And if that's not enough, the Lord will crown it. He'll crown you with His blessings. On the last day, what happens? We heard the words that come on the last day from the Lamb to those outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. But hear now the words of Jesus Christ to those who know the Lord. What does He say? He says, come. You think, Lord, I've heard you say it all life long. I've heard you say it. Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden. Come, you who have money. Come, all of you whose sin is like scarlet and crimson and so on. You said, come, all my life, but never like this come. When on the last day that same Lord stands before you and says in a way He's never said before, come. Come, ye blessed. The blessing of God. Come, ye blessed of my Father. Come into this kingdom that has been prepared by me. Come, enter into the joy of the Lord that has been prepared before the foundation of the earth. Bring it, bring all of that fruitfulness with you. Bring all of the fruit that I've produced in you through the water of my word. Bring it, the bushels, the handfuls, the truckloads. Bring it to my throne that I might magnify and glorify my own name with it. Come ye blessed. To be blessed in glory, my friends, transcends every earthly blessing. All of the trinkets, the garbage heap of this world, When the Lord comes and says, I'm going to bless you. How, Lord? How will you bless me? I'm going to reward you with perfect holiness. For the believer that resonates with us. Sin has brought so much misery to us. Sin has plagued us every day. We are so sick of ourselves. I am so sick of sin. What a reward. I'm going to reward you with this. I'm going to give you what your heart craved your whole life. I'm going to give you the gift of being perfected in holiness. Sin permanently banished, separated from the believer, never to be known again. Body and soul without sin. Blessed indeed of my father I'm gonna bless you. How so Lord? I'm gonna give you the blessing of beholding my glory Not in a glance not through the lattice not by faith merely through the mirror of God's Word with resurrected eyes and a perfected soul mental sight physical sight You're gonna behold my glory Not in a flash, not for a small portion. You're going to drink it in and you're going to drink it in without end for all of eternity. Your soul will be exquisitely satisfied and continue to be satisfied with the increase of that sight for all of eternity. This passage says all of that when it says, blessed from God. Blessed from God. And so the word comes to us. The Lord says, look, you have to come with me. Last Sabbath, you must come with me. I have to lay something having upon you. You say in meekness, I don't want it, Lord. You have to have it. You come under it. You receive with meekness that doctrine of apostasy. Lord, I'll take it. I'll receive it. I'll believe it. I'll own it. It's yours. It's your doctrine. It's heavy. But the Lord comes after that, doesn't he? And he says, do not leave this doctrine without its improvement. Do not leave this doctrine without its improvement. Life and death is being set before us. And let me say a parting word to the unconverted over whom I labor this morning in the ministry of God's word. There is a text that I have, I've gone back to many times and I've spoken at a few times as well. I want this text for those of you who are unconverted. to be burned into your souls. I want the Lord by the Holy Spirit to sow deeply and plant it in your mind. You can't get rid of it. When you're on your beds at night, when you're driving in your cars, when you're working in the yard, may the Lord cause these words to follow you. In light of the passage we heard this morning, listen to this word of warning. Jeremiah 9 verse 20 Three phrases the harvest is past The summer is ended and We are not saved The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. Do not allow that to be true of you. However, you came into this service this morning. To the glory of God, let it not be true of you in leaving the service. The Lord calls you in this text to arise and to flee to the Savior. Let's stand for prayer. Lord our God in heaven, the Lord of the harvest. The one who has brought the rain of the word of God to fall upon us for us to drink in as the earth. The one coming with a sickle on the last day to separate the wheat from the chaff. The one who gives fruit O Lord, gather weed into thy barns. Come, we pray, and save poor sinners. Give them the great Savior, we ask in Jesus' name.