We will go on into the sermon. Tonight's message is about the vine and the Lord's vineyard. Because the next two weeks, I don't know if we're going to do two or three weeks of it, but chapter 27 talks about the vine. It says, in that day, sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine. I, the Lord, do keep it. I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. Fury is not in me. Who would set the briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them. I would burn them together. Let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom, and bud, and all the face of the world, and fill the face of the world with fruit. Had he smitten him as he smote those that he smote him, he is slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him. In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it. He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. By this, Therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin. When he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten asunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. Yet the defensed city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness. There shall the calf feed, and there shall be He lie down and consume the branches thereof. When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off. The women come and set them on fire. For it is a people of no understanding. Therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them. And he that formed them will show them no favor. And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall beat off the channel of the rivers unto the stream of Egypt and he shall be gathered one by one all ye children of Israel and it shall come to pass in that day that thou the great trumpet shall be blown and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt and shall worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem this is talking about his vineyard But we seem to be talking about ripened vines and ripened fruit. So in a vineyard we know would be some good fruit and some bad fruit. Just like within the churches there are good people of God and there are bad people that God has to purge from among us or whatever. But that vineyard, God says he'll water it. I guess that's symbolic of the word of God. He would give it that nourishment, the daily bread, the teaching and everything that's required. But there's a lot of work that's going on in a vineyard or tending to a vineyard or garden. So the vine and the vineyard, And we're looking at God's perfect vision. In other words, he was talking about the church. He looks in the church after this vanquishment in that first verse, the Leviathan being moved out. I was talking to Sister Jackson on the way here. What about the women or the men or people that are in the church and think they're better than someone else, always criticizing someone else? and not consistently examining themselves to make themselves better or pulling off some parts of their selves, that's tragic because none of us are perfect and we all do wrong things. So instead of getting a beam out of our, I mean a mote out of our brother's eyes, there's a lot of people in the church that's allowing that beam to exist in their eyes while they're taking a beam out of their brother's eyes. We notice that vine, I don't want to say synonymous, but in some parts when Christ talks about the branch, sometimes he says vine. But here we're talking about the people and not Christ, and we know he was the branch and he's the vine. But we have to be as Christ and like Christ, metaphorically and literally. So there's a figurative use of the word branch, of what the symbolism is, and I giving you that in your notes uh... coming from nate's topical bible but figuratively i want to just look at a few verses and talk about a few verses figuratively here to look at the verse of the branch uh... it says he that trusted in his riches shall fall but the righteous shall flourish as a branch those that are in the lord that's not trusting in what they have in their finances and their wealth, but they're trusting in the Lord, their righteousness, in the righteousness of the Lord. They shall flourish as a branch that's not dependent upon itself, but it's dependent upon the vine or the tree to which it's attached to. He who leans on and trusts in and is confident in his riches will fall, says the Amplified Bible. But the righteous, those who trusted in God's provision, will flourish like a green leaf. So that's a difference. Me and my daughter was talking about it when she was, we were talking about she was going to get the vaccine from Baton Rouge Clinic or whatever. And that she could have got it with the National Guard or whatever, but she would rather get it through Baton Rouge Clinic or whatever. And we were saying, even though the nation is suffering from a vaccine hesitancy, and a lot of people saying about herd immunity or whatever, they're not themselves getting vaccinated. Well, you got two problems with that, but I'm still gonna use that as an analogy because The problem with that, yeah, you could develop herd immunity, but you wouldn't be inoculated against the vaccine, I mean against the virus itself, so it could be possible for you to develop the virus over a period of time, at some point in time or whatever. But it's just like being a Christian. A lot of people look at themselves as good people, been doing good all their lives, and they do good. It's similar to the ones that says, didn't I feed the needy in your name? Didn't I cast out devils in your name? It's people that are in church, but they're not fully converted or not applying themselves to be converted. their energy and their pride, all these things come from themselves of what they're doing. They're relying on the wealth of what they have. Whereas those that are in Christ Jesus are like those that have been inoculated with anti-virus, with the virus, with the vaccine, then I'm not depending upon myself or my strength of my physical self to get me through life or to get me anywhere in life. I'm trusting in Jesus Christ. Okay, so everybody in that church, a lot of them are depending on the works that they do and everything, but in that final day when it comes to the coming at judgment day, coming into the kingdom, they would say, well, Lord, hadn't we done this work in your name and those works in your name? Hadn't we fed the needy and cast out devils? He'd go say, yeah. In other words, I don't mean to say, yeah. But he didn't deny that they had done those things. But he says, I never knew you. In other words, they hadn't been inoculated against the world. though they were in the world and people trusted in them and they wasn't evil or wicked or doing these other things. You don't have the vaccine. You don't have the spirit. You hadn't been born again. Because all Christians and non-Christians look just alike sometimes. It's like wheat and tares. You can't tell the difference or whatever. But are you born of the spirit as the spirit came and dwelt in you? have the spirit within you. That's what inoculates you against death and hell and all the things. It's that not of yourself. It's nothing you can do. It's no condition you can be in. That's what one of the ministers of this church used to be on. He always was hollering what he did and what he's doing. But all of this is conditioned on he trusting in himself and not in what Jesus Christ done and what Jesus did. So that's what we're looking at. So are you trusting in yourself, your own with, your own knowledge and your own understanding? So what if you never do get the virus? So what if this never do happen? You want to glory in the fact that you were smart. Some people say, I never will again. I know. OK, but what does that prove? You're not any better than anybody else. And something else could have been before you. Anything could happen. That doesn't make a difference. You have to learn to have faith and trust in something other than yourself. That's how it is in the spiritual world. You have to have faith and trust in Jesus Christ, because he's the way. Any other way, any other thing won't work. And he's the vine, and we are the branches. We must abide in him. We must be in him. Then Isaiah 60 and 21, it says, then all your people will uncompromisingly and consistently righteous They will possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand. In other words, like a branch or a vine, he had planted those. They had continued in his word. And that's the reason they're becoming fruitful and they're flourishing. Now, there are others that become fruitful and flourish even though they're not in the Lord. But trial, tribulation, a time will prove whether they were in the Lord or not. whether they're doing the works of doing this because of faith in Jesus Christ or whether they were self-motivated, because you can accomplish a lot by yourself or whatever, but it's not being in Christ. You have to be in Christ. John 15, 2 and 6 says, ever branched in me that barret, not fruit he take it away, but ever branched that barret fruit he purged it, that it may bring forth more fruit. the Amplified reads, each branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that continues to bear fruit he repeatedly prunes it so that it will bear more fruit, even richer and finer fruit. So that's why a lot of times in the church we go through different things. We're like a vine, a branch. As that branch grows and stick out its sucklings and stick out from the vine, unless we're talking just a tree that has branches, by pruning it, trials, tribulations, and sufferings that go through, as long as it go through them as in the Lord, in other words, according to the word of God. the way God directs it and shows it to do by abiding in Christ. Because if you're in church and you can't get along with your brethren in church and you can't get along with the world and people in the world, if you're not doing it the way God says do it, and I'll talk about that more Saturday because If some people in the church that has friction with one another, some people in the church jumping down other's throats all the time or whatever, well you have to learn. Sometimes it's not for me to jump down your throat about something, it's for me just to sit there. Just like I see it the pastor see if the teachers or the elders or whoever someone else sees it But most of all God sees that it may not be my place to do that I may not know how to correct people Some people are meant to be teachers and some people are meant to sort in everything So we have to do it in the way Christ would do it. That's why it says abiding in me Are you his type branch? Is this the way Jesus would handle that problem? He gives us that in how we handle church discipline. If we have something against somebody, shouldn't we tell that person personally? Shouldn't we go to that person individually and tell them? If they keep doing it or whatever, then take a second person, a third person. So we handle it the way the church do it. But it's not in a regular lay member's personal place to where they can rebuke that person openly before the church and do certain things. That's why you have confusion and you don't have unity in churches because only an elder has given that power to rebuke someone openly in church or whatever. So you may be forbearing and have long suffering in the church and that's why we see within that chapter we see by the enemies of God because sometimes we suffer persecution from those within the church. Sometimes you wish certain individuals are not here that you have to do this because you dying from friendly fire. It's like the people in your family. Sometimes it's your brothers and sisters that criticize you more than the people outside your family. Sometimes it's your children that criticize or talk down to the parents or dismissive of the parents or the parents talk down to the children or dismissive of the children. More than they love outsiders or whatever so god has to take care of the friendly fire That's why he says those branches those those that are no good for use those that are not improving themselves So are you consistently improving yourself the way you talk to people? Your resentfulness or bitterness or any of those things that are not fruits of the spirit? Are you trying to bring forth better fruit or whatever? Are you abiding in him? If anyone separates from me, he's thrown away like a useless branch, withers and is gathered unto a pile with all others, and burns." I called the brother that had visited us one week, and I told him, I said, well, we're meeting again tonight, and I'll let you know for about a month or two, I'll let you know when we're meeting or whatever, but I don't want you to think I'm harassing you or whatever or begging you to come to church or whatever. I've told you this several times or whatever. did that with an elderly gentleman that used to come sometime or whatever. But if you separate from the church and you fight in your battle outside, it's like Paul said, demons have forsaken him. There's a lot of people that are out in communities or whatever, but that don't belong to a body of believers or don't belong to a church. And it says, well, if that brain separates himself, it withers, it dies off. So when you're in your time of desperation or need, it's not you piling into the church at that time for us to give testimony that you were a good person, you was a good neighbor, all that. Yeah, but at the last minute, you're dragging yourself in the... up here, like you done read and studied the thief on the cross, and that's what you want to quote to me, that Jesus said, I'll be with you, but what about when you had the opportunity, when that was the day of salvation, that you come forth and do what you were supposed to do? Maybe you could have brought forth more fruit. Maybe you'd have been in a better prepared position than you are now. I'm not saying that there's not last minute salvation or whatever, but why would you keep putting it off or whatever? You tempting God like that? Isaiah 18 and 5 talks about pruning. It says, for the harvest when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks and take away and cut down the branches. will cut down the branches. It reads in another version, but before you have begun the attack and while your plans are ripening like grapes, he will cut you off as though with pruning shears he will snip the spreading tendrils. In other words, you're making plans, or you're in the church, or you're in a place with this body of believers, but you're not aware that Christ has been watching you. And there is a judgment coming, and that You know, you can't lay back on your laurels and depend upon everything else and not be busy working. My rose bushes have, the encore roses have finished blooming for this year. And so they bloom pretty good. But it's that time of year right after they bloom and brought full flowers and the flowers have died off. And I'm going to go out there and cut those back or whatever. One of the, you know, a lot of people have complimented me on it, say my wife has got some good looking roses there or whatever. I got one at the corner of each house and it's really large now, but I keep pruning it. The reason it does this, I prune it to make it stronger, to make it branch out more. and it don't have the weakly limbs on. So I go through and I cut off the weakly or the sick looking limbs or whatever. That's what happened in the churches a lot of times. God cuts off those that are not producing fruit, that are not growing in the Lord, that are not abiding in the vine because they're not partaking of the nutrients of the vine. And so they're setting the rest of them back. It's like a church full of people It's a lot of people within the church, but everybody's not paying or pulling their weight or whatever. So they're sitting there taking up free air and everything else and resources, and then Jim and Swaggart say they're hearing all that free preaching or teaching, and they listen at the radio or listen at preachers or whatever. But they never put anything in. They never witnessed for the Lord. Are you out there witnessing? The least you could do, if you're not putting in anything, the least you could do is witness for the Lord, or live for the Lord, let somebody see your life or whatever. So a lot of those branches he'd taken away. and after he'd take it away, he'd cast them in the fire. They're meant to be burned, and that's what a lot of the judgment of the fiery conflict, a lot of the people in the church, he said, is not his theory. Well, but he's trying you, or he's throwing you in the fire, he's cutting you off because You're not bringing forth the proper fruit, or you didn't abide in the vine, or something has caused you to move away from Christ as the sower that sowed the seed. He had sowed that same seed in all those different soils, but it wasn't the seed, and it wasn't the soil, it was the environment. Some thorns and thistles choke the Word of God out. Some that cares of this life They were rooted and the cares of this life stopped their growth. And some of them were stoned on the ground where they weren't well rooted. And I was talking to my wife on the way here, are we well rooted in the Word? Do we study the Word each day? I don't mean just read it to be reading it, but read it because it's the mind of God and it's helping have fellowship with God. That's the way God speaks to you is through His Word. Do we have a systematic reading theology where we read and study God's Word and systematically listen in God's Word? Systemically just go through with a set pattern when you read the whole Word of God and some days if I fall behind or whatever I have to catch up double my reading because I have Read through the Bible and it's certain scriptures. I should read every day but some of them I don't some things I get carried away or whatever because every day and you have to be real and It's not practical that you can do the same thing every day. Sometimes things will come up. Some days you might not be able to do your morning reading. Some days you may not be able to do this. What you are, that spiritually you're trying to catch up, you're wanting to please God and you know that's what strengthens you, studying your word of God or whatever. So that's where you endure at. I had something on my mind I wanted to say with me and Sister Jackson was discussing on the way up here, but it's been left before right now. It may come back later on and I'll come back to it. But we have to be faithful to God and consistent in what he says and what he's doing. That's where we can be fruitful vines. Because you remember he had something against his vineyard. That's why I said we're gonna be here a few weeks or whatever because just like in the Garden of Eden, there was a wildish serpent in the Garden of Eden. But of all the trees that he told them not to eat, that serpent led them to doing what they shouldn't have done. But I don't see the warning to beware of the serpent. All I hear is the teaching of the gospel saying, don't eat from that tree. Don't eat from that particular tree. So that's the trumpet. We're looking at chapter 27 and 13 is the trumpet. And that shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown. Are you blowing the trumpet? You may not can do anything else, but you could witness the word. You could live the word. You could testify the word. You could speak the word of God to others or whatever. So that's the trumpet that they will hear blowing, the gospel, the word of God. That's our sword. That's what admonishes people. In the book of Daniel, the fourth chapter and the 14 verses, it says, he shouted aloud and said this, cut down the tree and cut off its branches. Shake off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the living creatures run from under it, and the birds fly from under its branches." That's full of similar metaphoric language there. He was talking about Nebuchadnezzar because he had taken him out of the kingdom. And I hope I remember to add that to my sermon one of these two or three days. I have it wrote somewhere where Job said, if a tree be cut down, if it be watered, will it live again? We know Jesus came from that stump where the tree was chopped down. It's the branch that came from that stump of David. My wife was talking to me while I was pulling up, and she says, I thought those trees was gonna come back. She was talking about the two hibiscus out there or whatever. And I told her, I said, well, they may come back or whatever. I don't know, I said, but it's about time for me to get out there and chop down the dead. See, because that's pulling away from the nutrients that's in the root. Now, the freeze might have not have killed the root, but some in the church, God is laying the ax to the root of the tree. But we didn't have any time this year where we had snow on the ground, where we had ice on the ground. This was some cold days, but it wasn't like the year before then, and they didn't come back even in those years. But when I go out there this week or next week or whenever I can and chop those, the dead out of there, and the rain and the water coming, the nutrients in the soil, hopefully they'll spring up and come back. Those are just branches, but they're dead branches. Even though they're abiding in the root, they're abiding in the source. They are taking up room. It's like the tree that Jesus cursed and say, why I cumbered it the ground? It's not bringing forth fruit. Let it cut, whack it down. But divine justice say, well, look, let me water it, nourish it. So sometimes if you would preach the word of God and teach the word of God to your children or to the people around you, your neighbors and your people at work, sometimes you might get them converted or whatever. But at least the chance has been given to them. You've tried. But then after a while, it may have to be. We see Nebuchadnezzar was taken away from his government. But he was restored. God restored Nebuchadnezzar and brought him back. Romans 11, chapter 17 through the 21st verse says, but if some of the branches were broken off and you Gentiles, being like a wild olive shoot were grafted in among them to share with them the rich root of the olive tree. For if God did not spare the natural branches because of unbelief, he will not spare you either. So if a man's children are cut off, if you cut your relatives off, the people you know that are close to you, that what was natural to the tree. Then you could go out and adopt other churches. You could bring other, or transpose others. That's why I say, go to different people. Ask them to visit the church. Ask them, do you attend a church or something? Why don't you come visit with us sometime? Well, you can bring them in. Bring in other people that you see not living according to the Word of God. Get in a conversation of witnessing. That's the only way you can develop a skill in using the words, is learning to talk to other people about the Word. It's no use coming in here, learning all of this, and then just keeping it to yourself. The way to get skilled in the exercise of the use of the Word is use these scriptures, use the Word of God with other people. Talk about it when you're rising up. Talk about it when you're sitting down at the doctor's office, when you're anywhere. Try to talk about the Word of God. It's healing using the Word of God. And you can graph other scenes, whether they be of other denominations or where Like I told him, you don't have to join right away. Come listen to what we say. Sit in and see that you want to join in. And you'll grow. You could be grafted in. Because there are some natural branches that he'll cut off just because you're in the family. He says, I'm going to set mother, father, and sister, brother against one another. Different ones in your family will be against you. And they're going to say they're Christians or whatever. But they have to be cut off and it's something to say, well, you love them. You act like that's your brother. I'm your brother. I'm your natural brother. Blood is thicker than water. But no spirits they're talking now. The spirit is thicker than the blood. Because those are natural branches and that's what Jesus Christ with the Gentiles. He was showing that Israel fell on a massive natural scale. But the Gentiles were grafted in. He chose the Gentiles, all that would have faith to believe, those that would believe. But fruitlessness gets us cut off from God. In the book of John, 15th chapter, 2nd through the 6th verse says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that continues to bear fruit, he pruned so that it would bear forth more fruit and finer fruit. That's what I was telling you about the rose bushes. That's why we suffer trial and tribulation or whatever. It's not nothing we've done against God or what Job had did against God. God was just strengthening his faith. He was giving him a deeper knowledge and understanding of God. So his faith never wavered in God. He approached God the wrong ways and things, but he learned from that. That's why he's covered his mouth and said he wouldn't say anything because now he learned. You shouldn't approach God that way. You shouldn't approach other people that way. No matter how long you've been in the church, if you don't come there, if you're not learning and growing, Maybe you should talk to the Lord or consistently examine yourself and ask God, what's the problem? Because that's one thing about religion. That's one thing about the Christian religion. Either you're going forward and growing or something has stymied your growth. Something you're doing is quenching and grieving the spirit because it's no sitting still in the Lord. Nothing is just neutral in the Lord. Either you're growing or you're not growing. That's why Moses, he could have kept preaching and teaching. His eyesight wasn't damaged. Memory wasn't gone or bad or anything. And eternity, when you think about eternal life and eternity, nothing in God goes back It always goes forward. In church, no matter how old the tree gets, some of the older people bring forth more fruit. It's more patient. The older you get, the more experience you get in the Lord, the better. The fruit should be getting sweeter, not bitter. If you're becoming a bitter, a grieving old, a grumpy old man, old woman or something, you need to check your Christianity. Check your belief system. Check something's wrong there. But if anyone does not remain in Christ, that's where I say check the connection. You check what kind of connection. If my battery's in my truck, if the wiring system, if everything, if you don't have a proper connection. Are you not connected to Jesus Christ? Check all of the areas. With that truck, it's an electrical system there. But if something, some wire is loose or there's a rotten connection somewhere, the cigarette lighter may not work. A fuse is blown. The taillights might not work. Well, in your life, if something's going wrong, check your connection with Christ. Check your prayer connection. Check your Bible study. Check your obedience. It's a lot of areas that you can check. But the problem is that you're not fully connected to the divine. That resource keeps going. And if you have a bad connection, he has to keep lopping it off. until you get grounded and well grounded and well rooted in it. You might have to chop you or your friends off or whatever, but that weight of sin is besetting you from running the race. And then branch I told you is used symbolically sometimes. as to say like Joshua's name in the book of Zechariah, the sixth chapter in the twelfth verse, it says, Speaking to him and saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose name is the branch, he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. So there it was talking about a person's name, Joshua. It was talking about Jesus there, but it was talking about building the temple of the Lord. But something that branches out, it roots out, it brings forth fruit. And that's one of the things about being fruitful and multiplying. It brings about a way of life. It brings about obedience to God. So what about vines of disobedience? Those vines are hewed off. See, there are different vines, and that's what I say, within the church, within the Garden of Eden. That's why he put Adam in the garden, to tend the garden. It says in the dressing, it will go down. If you don't clean up your house consistently, it's going to get dirty. It's going to accumulate dirt. If you don't tend to yourself and keep yourself, it's going to go down. Same thing with a garden and he put out him and even a garden ten in the garden and we see where he says that in Chapter three it says I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every moment. Let's hurry That's any hurt. It will keep it and I will keep it night and day That's one of my jobs in the garden of the Lord within the congregations to feed his sheep consistently feed them Feed them the Word of God. He says, Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. That's why they come up with deacons, because it says, look, we couldn't be giving and serving tables and doing all this. Look throughout the people, or whatever, and ordain deacons to do this work. But we must give ourselves to studying and to prayer and to the Word of God. Psalms 80, 12 through 19, talks about divine disobedience. Disobedience obviously God's initial favor toward divine did not produce lasting peace and prosperity Something occurs in the meantime to change God's favor to anger You see here. He says he's not angry as fury at cease where he's not mad at his people anymore, whatever That's That's not applicable to all But it's a state of condition, and we'll find out that that's some of the deep sayings of God. And as Jesus told his disciples, he has a lot to tell them, but they're not able to receive it. So when preaching and teaching, there are some things I may not say, I may not be able to tell you at that time, because you can't receive it or understand it. You say, OK, Pastor, I can understand that. Well, if you did, you'd have heard it when I told you that. So I could sit you all night trying Sprecher didn't tell you, but if God didn't give you an understanding of it, He didn't give you an understanding of it. Isaiah 5 chapter 5 through 7 in the form of warnings and promises gives us some indications of what happened between God in those of his vineyard, because you remember he tore down his vineyard. He said he was going to let down the hedge of it and he removed all the things out. He says, and now please tell me, this Isaiah the fifth chapter, the fifth through the eighth, seventh verse, and now please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard. This is God speaking. I will take away its hedge and it shall be burned and break down its walls, in other words, its protection, insecurity, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned, nor dug." In other words, the fallow ground won't be where you can fertilize it or produce it to where it becomes fertile to grow anything. But there shall come up briars and thorns. And you remember he said he was going to burn the briars and thorns, that women would burn them in the fire. You know, there are some animals that eat up briar bushes or whatever. It's a lot of cows. You've been seeing cows and goats eating briar bushes or whatever. Because if they're not too dry, they're kind of green or whatever, but just briar bushes. Cows and goats and things eat those. They got some pretty heavy tongues and things, and that's nutritionist to them. I will also command the clouds that they not rain on it. For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel. But the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plants. What happened? Why did he turn this way? Why did his fury come out? Why did he turn against his pleasant vineyard? Why is he, in the book of Revelations, we see Jesus Christ complimenting the church, but he says, now unless you repent, I'm going to come back and fight against the church. It says, he looked for justice, behold, oppression, for righteousness, but behold, weeping, a cry for help. Something's not quite right here. And I don't know what they could have did or what happened or how it came about the other day when the police shot up this guy that had killed his girlfriend and her cousin or whatever. They shot up into all those bullets and everything, but they killed the 41-year-old baby that was in there. well you know maybe you know maybe you should have handled this a different way but y'all murdered that baby with that many shots up in that car or whatever and it doesn't justify that you know if you have a standoff for hours with O.J. Simpson or some of these other people and if the car was ditched and everything sitting there you could have waited this one out you know even if he started shooting You still shouldn't have did this shooting if you knew a four-month-old child was in the car, because just sitting there stuck in the median or whatever, you know, you could have waited this out, you know, you could have waited three or four days if necessary. But the firing, that car shooting, that car, you knew you was going to kill that child with that many shots. So what God sees the injustices in the earth he sees the injustices in the nation and in the home in the individuals That's what I say. It's in the individuals. That's why I say some will be fruitful and some prosper But God's dealing with his vineyard here and throughout the millennia. We'll see he deals with his vineyard Ezekiel the 17th chapter the 9th through the 10th verse in the 19th chapter of the 12th through the 14th verse speak of the dire consequences the planner allows us of causes of the vine's disobedience. If y'all would read those two. You'll see where the king turned on the people because of what the people had done or whatever. Sometimes you could turn what happened, you know, someone staying with you or someone you were helping or whatever. But all of a sudden you turn on that person and kick them out the house or whatever. And they wonder what's going on. Hey, what's going on? You can't, we doing this. Well, it's something about you that brought that about. Because of the bad characteristics it started to display was not in the image or likeness of God. Because if God was in this, this wouldn't have stirred about bringing forth you being cast out that way. That's Ezekiel, the 17th chapter, the 9th through the 10th verse, and the 19th chapter, 12th through the 14th verse. Fruits of the vine. Fruits of the vine. To know God thus includes a wide range of mental, emotional, and experiential knowledge. The fruit of this intimacy includes love, reverence, obedience, honor, gratitude, and deep affections. You know, because a lot of times, loving my neighbor and loving a person, it gives me such a forbearance that sometimes they're wrong and they do wrong things or whatever, and I allow it. I sit there and allow it, and I ask God to lead me and guide me, and sometimes he leads me until I don't say anything. I don't do anything, and we know you're wrong or whatever, but I love you so much, the reason I'm not saying anything. And that happens with my children, a lot of times with my sons more than my daughter. But a lot of times I don't say anything because it's going to lead to, they're not acknowledging they're wrong or they're not going to be perceptive to what I'm seeing or whatever. And we know a servant of the Lord mustn't strive. And we've been told people things over and over. That's why I say, sometimes the Bible tells you you have to second admonition, leave them alone. Well, it's people I'm around that I don't witness to about the gospel. I don't invite to church, and it's because I've done it so much, and just like I was telling you about this young man that I say I was gonna tell about our church meetings for about the next month, but then I was gonna let him alone because I don't want you to say, well, why you keep bothering me about this? I told you no or whatever. So it's the same thing with my children. They're doing this, and why are you allowing this? Because you get enough rope, you're going to hang yourself, and I've told you about this. I can't. If I keep telling you, it's going to cause an argument or confusion between you and I, because you're going to say, well, didn't you tell me about that? I must don't want to do it. It's going to lead to a harder and a harsher fight or whatever. So sometimes love is silent. You know, sometimes God keeps silent until you come around to his way of seeing things. We come to know him as sovereign ruler, master, parent, brother, friend, savior, and lawgiver. We would never know this mixture of his admirable qualities and authority without getting close to him. That's what I'm saying. Sometimes to be like God in His image and His likeness, you've got to see how God treats us and what God does. And all of these things are in Christ, so that causes me to humble myself, even though I see wrongdoing in the church, even though I see wrongdoing in different places. It causes me to say, God is sovereign and He'll take care of this. I'm not being led by the Spirit to do anything here. That's why you have to be led by the Spirit of God, because sometimes self gets out there and do things that you shouldn't do. And that's why I say, if you fall out in church over the color of the carpet or the drapes or what time this happens or different procedures in church, Maybe it's not a I have it down. Hopefully I Got it in my notes. I did to preach on your your door and Cynthia some people in the Philippian Church Paul told him about being unified in the church, but being unified there's not always uniformity You can you understand that? In other words, we all have different opinions and different ideas, but we try to keep the unity of the faith and the unity of the spirit. It's not worth falling out about. you know, because you'd have left the church because you said that we should have blue carpet, or you said you should have red carpet, or burgundy, or we should have this color, or what time should we sing the opening hymn, or whatever. That's why I tell people, you know, be led by the Spirit of God. Because a lot of these are personal opinions, or personal feelings, or personal things that get in the way. That has nothing to do. Now, you becoming the problem. The two women in the church were the problem. They were the problem. It wasn't what they were fighting about. We see Paul didn't even come down on one of them side of that. We don't know what the argument's about. But for the sake of unity, like the man that was going with his father's wife and Paul told him what to do and then when they did that in another letter Paul says, well this guy repented with sorrow. Leave him alone now before you have him in sorrow too much. If he's repented and changed of this, he's done what he's supposed to do or whatever. But some people say, well I would kick him out if he thought that I would just do this. Okay, but it ain't about your personal opinions or whatever. It's what the Bible says. That's why David, as a man of blood, God didn't allow him to build a temple or whatever. Because if you would see, sometimes David was impulsive. But as a king, we see sometimes David did the right thing. Just like the guy that cursed David. and said these bad things about David. And David told his cousin's son, he said, well, let me go over there and take this dead dog's head off. He cursed the king. He said, God must have meant for him to curse me. And God gave. But David, as king, he was keeping the unity at that time. He didn't tell him to kill a guy or whatever. But David, as king, knew that that wasn't right. He told Solomon before he died for Solomon to deal with this guy, that he had a problem. He had to deal with this guy. See, so you have to be patient and you have to learn to get along. Having five kids and everything, I couldn't come down on nobody's particular side, on this one side or that one side. The principle is I want y'all to get along. It ain't about which one of y'all are right and which one of y'all are wrong, but I want you to get along as brothers and sisters. You have to be unified in this. The principle is unity, not what one wants to watch on TV and who watched it this time or whatever. The fruit of the Spirit is learning to live like brothers and sisters, to live like children of God. That's why God says, do not kill. OK, now you want to get into why I said kill. But the thing is, I'm telling you, don't kill. To live as brothers and sisters, to love ye one another. This is fruit that develops. That's why I said it takes a long time to develop this fruit in God. We would never know the mixture of these admirable qualities without getting to know Him. They compel us to yield to Him with all of our heart while we strive to obey and glorify Him. In sum, this points to Jesus indicating that eternal life is not merely endless, though that is its dominant sense, but that though those who have it live intimately with God, and conduct their lives as God does, otherwise there would be no close intimacy with Him. So just because you feed the needy and heal the sick and do all these things, yeah, that is God-like in a way, but then there are other weightier matters that we should see, and that is you have no intimacy with Jesus Christ. You don't know Christ. So depending on the works to save you. I have another thing here on symbolism that I'll have to get to next time. I can finish off on it this time and give it to you. It's in Matthew, the 21st chapter, and the 33rd through the 44th verse. And it's about the parable of the landowner who planted a vineyard and went to get the produce of it, and they keep killing the people. I'm not going to read that whole parable here, but I want to take a few things out of that parable about the landowner there, those that were in that vineyard. And you remember, he planted a vineyard, and he leased it out to the landowners to bring forth fruit or whatever. That gives us the world, Sister Jackson. That gives us the earth. That gives us the Garden of Eden. That gives us the church. And they were supposed to bring forth good fruit. These verses contain another parable to the leaders of the Jews where Jesus uses the example of a householder leaving his vineyard. In other words, the way the false prophets and the people have did God's vineyard, his church. You with me, Sister Harris? When he was talking in the book of Amos, where the pastors had fleeced the flock. We see some preachers and things taking the vineyard, gosh, church people, and these people are willing to give. And that's why I tell y'all, I would rather you just give in a general offering, a give in tithes and offerings, because sometimes when you have dedicated funds or whatever, You have to end up going before the church and switching those dedicated funds for something else if you don't have a volume of other things. But what a lot of people have learned, and the false shepherds and the false pastors have done, they continually fleece the flock or whatever. They continually fleece God's people, and they build up giant purses. In other words, giant treasures and everything. take from the people and they misuse God's flock and God can't get anything for his own flock for himself because they're eating of all of the things or using of all the things of God. God had left these leaders of physical Israel in Moses' seat, but they beat his true servants and even rejected the Son of God. So we see they crucified Jesus when he came and told them about the weightier matters of the law, about mercy, about truth, about doing or maintaining justice or doing that which is right. And that's what the churches have won away from today. And that's why they're not looking for the return of Jesus Christ. They're looking for heaven right here on earth. that's what they're doing, they're earthly minded because of their jets and because they're living well or whatever and they're trying to get people well what they're doing is oppressing the people and let me not go too far on that because I don't want to stay on this parable it's not the one I want right now but in response God would reject these husband men So that's the branches, and I tell you, we all the same, whether it's the preacher, the teacher, or just regular lay members, we're supposed to be husbandmen of God's vineyard. When you say making disciples, teaching and preaching, that evangelical effort is for the people also at the church that you're to do the work of evangelists. Some of us may not be good at witnessing or bringing people into the church doing all these things, but that's a general commission is to be fruitful and multiply. But what these were doing, they were introducing, they wasn't good husbandmen, they wasn't bringing forth the proper fruit. Their characteristics wasn't right. That's why God, like I say, some branches that you lop off, it's not that they're not bringing forth healthy fruit, but they're bringing forth bad fruit, sour fruit, fruit that's to be rejected. That's why I was telling you, 80% evangelical, resources got our last president elected. But we see that the church was at fault, that the church, the people within the church, because they weren't all true believers. And that's why God judges the church, and that's why judgment begins at the house of God. Because the fruit that some of them bring forth is wild fruit. It's not fruit that comes from the Lord is coming from their father, the devil. These are the tares that are within the church because of the Great Commission and one of the parables where he says, allow the wheat and tares to grow together. Allow the wheat and tares to grow together. But at some point in time, he sends his angels, he sends different people to separate the wheat and tares, but that's not an easy thing. That's why we tell you not to judge anyone. You grow into judgments, you grow into the things of God, but it's not an easy task. That's why I say being a Christian is not very easy. He says, The chief priests and Pharisees perceived that Jesus was talking about him and noticed that they were the ones that crucified Jesus. And a lot of the churches, it's the deacons and the preachers where you have the problem. And they get certain people out of the church. You know, I've been cast out of two or three churches or rose up, you know, the people rose up, the leadership rose up against me or whatever because If they did it to Jesus, I know they would do it to me. If I did these things, you go to some places and tell people the truth, you in for a lot of trouble. People don't want to hear the truth. That's why he told Ezekiel, they're going to hear what you say, but they're not going to want to do it. That's a hard thing to do. That's why they say this is a hard thing to do. You don't have many true Christians out there when it comes to actually being a doer of the word of God. So he was removing them from office. They would no longer mean anything as physical leaders of Israel, for Christ would give their authority to others. You remember he told them, he says that. Pharisees, Jacob and Isaac, was going to sit down, but the children of the kingdom would be cast out in public, and harlots would come in. That's why Jesus himself illustrated this as one of the last tasks he did was the cleaning of the temple of the money changers. Because all of those people in the synagogue in the church at that time They had a wrong ideology or frame of mind, and he cast out them because they was there for money, position, power, and authority. And until you get that leadership and the people out, the church is not going to be what it should be. There are some churches, that's why he talks about the death of the churches and the people within the churches. And you know, it's like the people used to talk about the Crystal Cathedral or whatever. I don't even think it's a church anymore. You remember that big glass church, Robert Shuler's church or whatever? It's no longer there. It's no longer a church anymore, I don't think, or whatever. But people come and go and people change. And they attempted to call Christ, this enraged them to the point of killing him. And that's how that brought about, God allowed this to happen, to strengthen his followers or his believers. Those who had been in charge and seemed to be both first in importance would be last in order of both resurrection and influence. So the symbolism of the vinedressers or the bad vinedressers was there. Those who had been in the first marriage with Christ and rejected Him were no longer of any spiritual value until the second resurrection. That was Israel. You remember he cut Israel off, and he opened up the Gentiles. They were rejected. And we'll get deeper into that portion next time about he had cut Israel off and rejected them and was going to turn it over to the Gentiles and to the time of the Gentiles. And then the end would come. The Bible often compares Israel to a vine or a collection of vines in a vineyard. and I told you Psalms 80 80 8 through 15 in Isaiah 1 through 7 5th chapter 1st to the 7th verse divine justice represent the civil and religious leaders of Israel's time The vineyard being leased to them symbolizes their temporary possession and responsibility to care for it. So the vines, though they were grafted in, and the natural vines that were cut off, sometimes life is like a vapor or something. Somebody gets attached to it, and it happened in this very church. false prophets or false teachers that came along and the pastor allowed them to teach or preach or they came in and they got real strong and I know it's a lot of ministers here in Baton Rouge that you hear that flourish for a while but then all of a sudden they fall off. they're not, they don't endure to the end or whatever. It's a temporary possession. Once these shepherds don't realize that they're sheep also and that he's the, they're under-shepherds over God's flock and so they won't use God's flock or abuse them or lord it over God's flock. God has to come in and remove the shepherd. A lot of churches where he has to remove the pastor or remove the leaders of the church or remove the whole church. That's one of the reasons he left Delph here. We have to see ourselves as passing through in that some people come and go and it's taught in the book of Acts by different Friends or groups of cults get together within a church with something that sounds good, but don't endure for a long lasting time. And you've had the prayer of Jay Baez and WWJ, what would Jesus, all these little fads grow up. But we need to stick to sound preaching and preaching the word, something that will endure. to be strong branches and vines. We have to have a consistency of ourselves. But I was telling you about this parable about the landowner to show you that just because there's a church and there's deacons and different people, there's no reason for us not to remain faithful that our lay members are just regular members in the church or different offices of things. But we have to leave it in God's hand to handle this in its own in its own time, in its own place. God is sovereign over time in its own place. But don't just leave the church because of the preacher or because of these unless the Spirit of God leads your way at that time. Because like I said, God is in chaos and God sees and knows and understands. And I'll go deeper in that in two or three lessons from now, hopefully. The landowner, which is God, planted a hedge. In other words, the law and its ordinances. And that's what the hedge is. Just like Job, when he took down the hedge, he always talking about the hedge. The Old Testament, that's why we had it as a sample of what to do and what not to do. But when he takes down that hedge, unless you have Jesus Christ in you, the law of liberty, under the faith and grace of God, then you will transgress God's laws and be lost. The law was a hedge to show you the right way, but by faith we have established the laws of God. And I was talking to someone Saturday about what they was going to do that day or whatever, and he was talking about what all it was good to do and I said well you don't believe in the sabbath and you go to a sabbath day church or whatever because I myself have had to work on a Saturday. I had to do certain things. Okay, we understand that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, but that doesn't mean that you plan to clean out your garage. You plan some great work that you're going to do on Saturday. That's why he gave you the other six days of the week. The Sabbath is there for you, what, to rest and do the work of God on. But if you set that day of cleaning your garage working around your house or cutting your grass or something. Well, I don't even understand why you would go to a sabbath-believing church or what is the sabbath to you if you don't help establish the sabbath. It's just another day then. So that's where the church have gotten crossed up with, because they say Sunday is the Sabbath, but yet still you still could do all these things? It's not just a day of worship, but it's a day of rest, a day of memorial day under God. He had made that day different for one of them. But the churches have so convoluted the Sabbath, we forget why the Sabbath was designed. Why he designed it was a day of what? It said God rested. God rested and that's why I said when you become a believer in judging fruit judging different things yet if you had to work or something but that's not the ideal situation that deal situation here that if i could make it without working that it did it so happened that i don't do any work now it's a bit because baby god got me away from that because i was violating that you know i was paid that it wasn't worth me doing it that so he'd buy the prone me away from that He might have laid the axe to the root of that part of my problem to cut me off so I could be fruitful in other areas. around the vignette to protect the vignette from outside attack. So the law keeps you from these outside attacks. The law is given, and the law is holy and just and pure. So it's not in keeping the law, but it's in obedience to Jesus Christ and the Word of God that now I understand better. What the Sabbath also did, it kept Israel separate from other nations for God's special purpose. That's one of the things that distinguished Israel. But now it's not a distinguishing mark of the church because, like I said, They don't look at the Sabbath the same way. Those that hold the Sabbath, they're not growing greater spiritual. The Sabbath has become to them like the Pharisees, something the Pharisees had, and that was from a legalistic point of view. But can you enjoy the Sabbath, the rest of God, the way the Sabbath should be enjoyed? That's why it says the red one. So some people are protecting of Christ the way they should, but some haven't got strong, or they don't have the understanding, and some God may take away because they don't know God, and within the church, they're contaminating the other bushes. They're causing the other bushes to lose. In other words, it's like one rotten apple destroying the whole batch. and he says he built the power of the power symbolizes god's watchfulness uh... his oversight of the nation he'd be a look at how in the middle of that being it so this was something permanent within our heart dot stabilizes us and since the spirit that spirit makes us aware of god's law that's why i said i'm the circumcised you in give you a novel heart I'm going to give you a heart to obey God. This thing that you will do and you will want to do and you will grow in doing these things. So we see the establishment of God's vineyard and God establishing this vineyard, but it's much more than just vines and all of the vines within the vineyard are being blessed. No, that's not the case and it won't be the case. God hadn't designed it that way and that he will prove