Let's begin these services with hymn number 497. 497. Oh, help me, Lord, inspire my soul with thine immortal flame, and teach my heart and see I don't want to see your lovely face. You are the life and goodness of millions and billions of people. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Who are you? Who are you? ♪ Holy light divine ♪ ♪ Cross my heart ♪ ♪ My Lord, I lie ♪ ♪ I stand by the light ♪ ♪ My Savior ♪ God is great. Good morning. I'd like to invite each of you to open your Bibles to Psalm 96. 96th Psalm. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord. Bless his name. Show forth His salvation from day to day, or proclaim His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him all the earth. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also shall be established that it shall not be moved. He shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with this truth. Reading this morning in Jesus' name, we're thankful to be here among you this morning on this beautiful summer day. We're excited about the choice of that psalm this morning because every verse, it seems, just exalts the Lord, encourages us to praise him, and tells how wonderful he is. And I have the word wonderful, I guess, on my mind this morning, As I get older, I think more and more about how wonderful our God is. Let's sing the eighth hymn. This morning, high in the heavens, we'll just line the first stanza. High in the heavens, eternal God, thy goodness in full glory shines. Thy truth shall break through every cloud that veils and darkens thy design. I am the house eternal God, I'm good, I'm simple, I'm holy, I'm strong. Now the angels shall bring you every flower that I have. For evermore thy countenance shall stand, as now, and ever, and evermore. That's why I need Thee. I know of no place other than Thy face, Where I can fall, not broken, not broken free. Thou art the Lord of all creation. Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Where is love? How I wish to be free from the curse If I ever fall, I pray Isn't God wonderful? I see a congregation here, I think, that is gathered to meditate on how good God is. How wonderful he is. Sometimes the word wonderful is from the Greek, translated from just wonder or wonderful, and sometimes it's translated from the word miracle. As in Isaiah 9, 6, where it says, the Messiah, Jesus, when he comes, even his name shall be called wonderful. And the word means miracle. Our God, It almost seems like it brings him down to say that he is a miracle. But he is wonderful in every way. We like to behold nature and flowers and fields and the harvest, the crops as they grow. We just marvel at how from just dusty old ground there can emerge little plants that spring up and grow each after their kind as God ordained in the beginning and yield for us a bountiful fruit. We sat a couple of evenings at supper time and ate wonderful sweet corn with salt and butter. It was just so good. We had these same thoughts. Is not our God wonderful? I think it's eight times at least throughout the scripture that the Bible speaks of the wonderful works of God in various ways spoken of in praising him for his wonderful works. Those things which he does are so wonderful. And of course, we who have come to acknowledge by the Lord's grace and mercy of the salvation of our God, have even more reasons to marvel at the wonderful works of God, especially in redemption. So we could stand here, any one of us that have come to know the Lord could stand here this morning and speak on and on and on about the wonder of our God. All of us could. His redemption, his salvation, the forgiveness of sin, the glorious gift of his spirit, the fellowship of believers, the hope that is to come. As I get older, I think more and more about the hope that is yet to come. What that will be like when mortals, mortals, those that were just born of clay and raised up from the earth, will be given immortal bodies and brought into the city through the gates and allowed to live there in his presence, in the presence of God. I want our opening to be short this morning, but I'll leave you with this little poem before we go to prayer, entitled, What Wonderful Things. And all of us know about these things. that are gathered here today. I know that my Savior loves me. What a wonderful thing to know that his watchful eyes over my soul, this knowledge comforts me so. I know that he wants to save me. What a wonderful thing to be taught, to have teachers speak of salvation free and to help me then do what I ought. I notice his care upon me. What a wonderful thing to see. To observe his provision day by day as he feeds and takes care of me. The story of his great redemption. What a wonderful thing to hear. To be told of his saving sacrifice and the hope that removes all fear. I sense his spirit within me. What a wonderful thing to feel. to be given good thoughts and thought to love and have all of our sorrows healed. I have heard of a place called heaven. What a wonderful place to live. A place we all can go someday if our hearts to him we give. I confess that I'm not always thinking about these wonderful things. Sometimes I awaken in the morning and just feeling a little blue. Well, how can it be? Shame on me with all the wonderful things there are to think about. Sometimes our conversation among ourselves may not always be that uplifting. Well, how can that be when there's so many wonderful things to talk about? Our God is wonderful this morning, and no doubt we'll hear more about him We're expecting that. It's the truth we embrace this morning. The desire we have to know him better, to give ourselves wholly to him. It's a wonderful life to live. Let's come to prayer on behalf of this meeting this morning. Gracious God, Our Heavenly Father, we come to Thee in Jesus' name this morning. Thankful, so thankful that by Thy grace we have even come to know about Thy wonder. Help us, Father, that our hearts might be filled with thanksgiving always, day by day and moment by moment. May our hearts be lifted and cheered and help us that our countenance, our life, our way of living, and working with people, our speech and all that we offer and the way that we present ourselves will give a message to those about us of Thee, our wonderful God. Let our enemies, Father, never say where is their God. Father, Thou art near to us, close to us even this morning, we pray in behalf of this meeting and those that shall yet speak before us, give them word inspiration, a loosened tongue and clean hands to be clear before us this morning from thy word, from the scripture, the wonderful truths that are there that might be inspired to follow thee further. This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, But this day, as Dave said, again, he does not exist in this nation, but he lives in This morning, our brother has named the third chapter of Matthew to be read this morning. Matthew 3. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken by the prophet Isaiah saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make his paths great. And the same John had his rhema of camel's hair and a leather and girdle about his loins and his meat was locust and wild honey. Then went out to him Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance, And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose span is in his hand. And he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from heaven sang, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. How wonderful is your God? Is your God wonderful enough for you to sing a new song? We just read about in Psalm 96, as David admired and proclaimed the wonder of his God. How wonderful is your God? Is it enough to put a new song in your heart, a new song in your mouth, and to proclaim the salvation of the Lord unto the earth? Brothers and sisters, our God is that wonderful. David goes on a little bit further in that Psalm and he says this, he says, because God is so wonderful, give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. He's that wonderful that we owe Him something. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. What does that mean? How do we go about doing that? What is the highest form of worship? for such a wonderful God? And I would like to suggest to you that Paul answers that question in Romans 12, verses one and two. The highest form of worship is that we would present our bodies, present our lives, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto him. Our God is that wonderful. Thank you, Lowell, for your opening and your thoughts this morning. It's a blessing to be here. with each one of you today, a time of worship and praise to our God. I will confess to you though, I am quite nervous this morning. All of my life that I could remember, I have heard about harvest meetings and I've never been to one and here I am preaching at one. That's intimidating. So I would desire an interest in your prayers this morning. You know, as we got here Friday afternoon landed in Cincinnati and started driving up here from Cincinnati, I was in awe as I drove. I don't recall ever being in Ohio in the month of August. And there's a good reason for that. I'm in my own harvest. And me coming to Ohio in August is never really something I think about or plan for or intend to do. But I'm here. And I've never seen Ohio this beautiful. I just marveled at how pretty the corn is and how uniform and how tall it is. And the bean fields are even and they're full and they're lush. I had no idea that soybeans could be so full and so lush. And I was just in awe. But you know, one thing that struck me as I drove and I admired field after field, There's several things that I noticed. One of the things I noticed is at 70 or 75 miles an hour going down the road, I could see ears of corn hanging on the corn stalks. When I slowed down and was pulling in mom and dad's driveway, I could see some bean pods hanging on beans. And you know what that means? That means harvest is coming. Harvest is almost here. Because if harvest wasn't almost here, we wouldn't see ears of corn hanging there, and we certainly wouldn't see bean pods. Maybe we'd see stubble. I'm used to seeing stubble when I come back here, because usually it's in the winter or really early spring. Harvest is just about here. You know, as I thought about that a little bit, and I kind of admired that, I had to think about what the farmers in this area most likely are thinking. because there's a time in my season when I know what I'm thinking. When peaches are starting to swell up and they're starting to get some color, I know the harvest is almost here, and I know what goes through my mind. or the 1st of July as the almonds begin to crack, that hole gets a little crack in it as they begin to dry out and start to open up. And I know what goes through my mind. There's a lot of anxiety that I can experience as I begin to witness the approach of harvest. One of the big ones is, is have I done everything that I could have done or should have done to bring about this crop? because the reality is at harvest time, it's too late to change the crop. So as harvest time is right on the edge, it goes through my mind as a farmer, what have I missed? What could I have done to enhance the crop? And it can bring anxiety. You know, there's also anxiety about what is yet to come. The harvest isn't done yet. It is not in the barn. It's still hanging out here on a plant. And if corn and beans, which I don't know a whole lot about, or anything like peaches and almonds and walnuts, there's still a tremendous threat to that crop. Weather? I suppose you can have severe weather here that can destroy a corn or bean crop. Bugs? In the almond and peach world, bugs can show up the day you pull the harvesters in. Diseases, fungus, there's all kinds of things that can happen between this moment and the time that the harvest is sold. And that brings anxiety. You know, there's also always the question of no matter how beautiful the crop looks, really what's the crop worth? How much crop is really hanging out there? You know, I don't know the numbers in corn and soybeans. I guess you do it in bushels. I really don't know how many bushels you expect in an acre. And I couldn't tell the difference by looking at it. But some of you who farm corn and beans can probably look at this cornfield across the street and based on what you see right there can have a pretty good idea of how many bushels per acre that corn is going to yield. I can do that in a peach orchard. I can do that to some degree in an almond orchard. But my estimation and my idea is not necessarily reality. Sometimes I'm surprised. Sometimes for the better and sometimes not so. And that brings anxiety. What kind of crop is really hanging out there? Market conditions. What's it really worth? Just because it's harvested doesn't mean I've gotten paid yet. That price can change. All these things bring tremendous anxiety as we look at the approach of harvest, as we think about what is coming. But you know, there's a lot of excitement. as well. Harvest is an exciting time. For a farmer, he has worked all year. Tremendous amount of energy, and time, and anxiety, and investment has gone into that crop. And it's not worth anything until it's harvested. No matter how beautiful that corn looks, it hasn't done anybody any good yet, other than aesthetics. So it's exciting to finally be at the time of year when something comes back. There's a payment. There's a reward for what we have invested. You know, something else that I think is really exciting as we look at a crop or we anticipate harvest time being here is the recognition and the realization that this crop is the most important crop. Never stop and think about that, that this crop is the most important crop. You know why? Because last year's crop is gone and it doesn't matter anymore. There's nothing that can change last year's crop at this point. Next year's crop's not here yet. We have no idea. Maybe some of you farmers are planning what you're going to plant in this field or that. In the tree world, we begin to fertilize and do nutrition for next year's crop before we harvest this year's crop. But nonetheless, next year's crop, all kinds of things can happen, and it's really beyond our control to do anything about it at this point. So the most important crop is this one, the one that is right in front of us. And that is cause to be excited. This is the best and this is the most important crop of our lives right now. You know, as I was thinking about this message, the Bible is full of all kinds of different illustrations. There's illustrations of soldiers and armor and warfare. There's illustrations of athletes and disciplines. There's illustrations about wealth and investment and finance. There's all kinds of various illustrations in the Bible. But I can't think of any of the illustrations that are more predominant and more prevalent in the Bible than that of agriculture. We find agricultural illustrations from Genesis to Revelations. All through the Bible is illustrations and lessons about agriculture. We learn about good crops and crop failure. We learn about good farmers and bad farmers, those who are prepared, those who are not. Good seed, bad seed, good soil, bad soil, hard soil, all kinds of things. Hope and dread. All of these ideas are illustrated by agriculture throughout the Bible. The one that I would like to focus on today, though, as this is a harvest meeting comes from the book of John, John chapter four. And you don't need to turn there right now. I'll just read it to you. And we'll, we'll mention this several times through the message today. But the account here is, is Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well. And he shows up there and the disciples, first of all, can't figure out why he's there. And so he shows up and it must be lunchtime because they're hungry. And I don't know, I don't recall if Jesus sent them to find food or they just of their own will said, we'll go into town and we'll buy lunch. So they do so and they come back with lunch. They so kindly brought lunch to Jesus. And they get there and they offer him lunch. And Jesus said he wasn't interested. He says, I have meat that you know nothing of. And I'm here for a different purpose. And then this is what he tells them. In John chapter four, verse 35, say not ye that there are yet four months, and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest. And he that reapeth receives wages and gathers fruit unto eternal life, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. Lift up your eyes and look, for the fields are white unto the harvest." It's harvest time, and brothers and sisters, there's no greater harvest than that of the soul. There is a harvest of the soul for every man and woman that is coming. Every one of us in this room are facing a harvest time of the soul. Beyond that, as we begin to look around and live, every other human being is facing one as well. And there's nothing more important than that one, the harvest of the soul. And that's what Jesus was telling his disciples. There's something more important than a hamburger for lunch. And that is the souls of humanity. As Jesus sat there and surveyed that Samaritan village, He interacted with one woman. And we know from His interaction that she went back and told the rest of the village, and they all believed. I don't think there's any testimony of any village in Jerusalem or in Judea where they went back and they all believed, but this one did, because they were ripe for the harvest. There is another harvest of life. There's actually two of them. And I thought in the beginning that I would talk some about this. There's the harvest of the life. There's a harvest of, I'm sorry, there's a harvest of the life and a harvest in the life. A harvest in the life is the production of fruit as we live. How we live our lives and produce fruit. And we'll touch on that just a little bit. But today our focus is going to be on the harvest of the soul or the harvest of the life. As we begin, I would like to just ask a question for you to think about. If you knew that tomorrow you would experience the harvest of your soul, would you do anything different today? If you knew that tomorrow was your last day, that your soul would be harvested by God tomorrow, would you do anything any different today, or would you just continue to do exactly as you've always done? Would it be possible that we would suddenly discover a need to change a few things? Is it possible that our prayer life would get really, really fervent really, really quickly? Might this word of God suddenly have a new impact in our life if you knew that tomorrow was your soul harvest? Would we suddenly call out to God for salvation? Or might we sit back and say there's still a little bit of time? Tomorrow doesn't start till midnight. What would we do? What would our conversation with each other be like if we knew that today was our last day? Lowell talked about our conversations with each other that sometimes they're not very uplifting. Brothers and sisters, if we knew that today was the last day, we wouldn't worry about any of that stuff. We would have a message to proclaim. Because this is my final message. We don't know. What would you say to your spouse? What would you say to your children? What would you say to your parents if today was it? I suspect that for most of us, our conversation would be a little different today. You know, as we think about that, how excited would we be about presenting to God the fruits of the seeds that we've planted all of our lives? We've been planting them, and some of them have grown into big trees, and some of them have produced a lot of fruit. How excited would we be to present that fruit to the Lord? Or might we get a little concerned? Is it possible that Some of the things that we get so excited about, that we daydream about, that we enjoy doing, when we find that some of those things were simply distractions at best, and maybe questionable behavior at worst. What would change in your life if you knew that today was your last day? That your soul would be harvested tomorrow? This Psalm that we read, David gives a statement here. In the 13th verse, he says, before the Lord, before he cometh, the Lord is coming. One way or another, every one of us is facing a harvest in which we will, at least for a moment, be in the presence of the Lord. For he cometh, he cometh to judge the earth and shall judge the world with righteousness and his people with truth. If you knew that you were going to experience the harvest of your soul tomorrow, would you do anything any different today? Today it's I have no intention of being confusing, but I would like to share this. We read Matthew chapter 3 because there's three lessons in Matthew 3 that we want to glean for today that's our main points. But we're going to pick our theme verse from somewhere else, and we're going to circle another verse around and around today as we try to understand the three lessons given in Matthew chapter 3 as it relates to being prepared for the harvest of our soul. That theme verse comes from 1 John chapter 2, verse 28, and it says this, And now, little children, abide in him. that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. That's our theme today. And now, little children, abide in him that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. We're going to circle that verse again and again today as we go through. Three lessons today, three points that we wanna make that we pick up in Matthew chapter three. Number one, the harvest is imminent. The harvest is imminent. We see this also in our theme verse when he says, and when he shall appear. Harvest time is coming. And according to Jesus in John chapter four, the harvest time is now. Point one is the harvest is imminent. Point number two, The preparation for the harvest is urgent. The preparation for the harvest is urgent because the harvest is imminent. And you know, when you think about a harvest, anything that's going to affect the harvest has to be done before the harvest. When is the harvest going to happen? If today was the last day of your life, when was the time to fix anything? Well, I would say it's right now. If anything needs fixing, it's right now. The preparation for the harvest is urgent. And then point number three is the harvest reveals all the truth. The harvest reveals the truth. You know, we can look at this cornfield right here, and we probably can't see more than one or two rows in, and it looks really nice. But as far as we know, there may be a big old hole in the middle, a big old dead spot that's just a few rows in. But the harvest reveals the truth, doesn't it? The harvest is imminent. The preparation for the harvest is urgent. And the harvest reveals truth. I'd like to sing another hymn together. Hymn number 283. 283. And I will just line this first verse and we can sing it together. Planted in Christ the living vine, this day with one accord, ourselves with humble faith and joy we yield to thee, O Lord. And early in life, a living light is set before our throne. Our crown and all the glory and all the glory is ours, Lord. ♪ There was one woman, she stayed with me ♪ ♪ And I felt it in my heart, I felt it in my heart again ♪ ♪ And I felt it in my heart, I felt it in my heart again ♪ This is my dream, I want to follow it. This is my dream, I want to follow it. This is my dream, I want to follow it. I want to know from where I can reach out. From deep in my heart to great power. ♪ Come all ye people of Israel ♪ ♪ Come all ye people of Israel ♪ ♪ Come all ye people of Israel ♪ He's been waiting for a long, long time. He's been waiting for a long, long time. He's been waiting for a long, long time. ♪ This poor, poor land ♪ ♪ Poor land of God divine ♪ ♪ You call on me Lord ♪ ♪ In my life of need ♪ ♪ If the school brings me forth from the land of the dead ♪ ♪ Are you darkness, or the sparkling white as snow? ♪ ♪ Are you light in the black of the night? ♪ Isn't that the question? Are you washed? Because it makes all the difference. Brothers and sisters, harvest is imminent. A number of years ago, I was struggling to try to understand or get my mind wrapped around what imminent meant. Well, it's a very homely illustration. Maybe some of you older ones will recognize the name of J. Vernon McGee. J. Vernon McGee was a pastor for many, many years. Kind of a homely, folksy guy. And he had probably the best illustration of imminent that I had ever heard, and I understood it. He was a pastor from Los Angeles area, and he says, being imminent is like me getting on an airplane in Los Angeles heading to Florida. The destination is Florida. What is imminent is Florida. I'm going to Florida. But that plane might stop in a lot of places before it gets there. But the plane is going to Florida. Brothers and sisters, that's what the harvest is all about. The harvest of our souls is imminent. It is where every one of us is heading. Some sooner, some later. But we're all going there. It is our destination. The harvest of our soul. We get this point from in Matthew chapter three, verse two, and it's kind of fascinating. This chapter is the introduction of John the Baptist and Jesus. And you know, as we see John coming on the scene, as he starts to talk, and what is his message? His message is this in verse two, and he said, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The harvest is imminent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. That is John's first message. You know what's really fascinating? Is you know what Jesus's first message was? We pick that up in the next chapter. In Matthew chapter 4, verse 17, Jesus goes out into the desert. He's tempted by the devil. He comes back and it says that he begins to preach. Do you know the first recorded words out of Jesus's mouth? Matthew chapter 4 verse 17, from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The harvest of our souls is imminent. It is at hand. And now, little children, abide in him that when he shall appear, we shall have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. When he shall appear and at his coming. That's being in the presence of Jesus Christ. You know, it's fascinating. Maybe I over pick at word choices and phraseology. I'm not a linguist by any stretch of the imagination. But I do find it fascinating sometimes to look at word choices. In this verse, in 1 John 2, verse 28, John doesn't say that you really ought to abide in Him because He might come again. You see, when we change up a few words, it changes the meaning drastically. I was trying to think of how to illustrate that, and I have a really poor illustration, but I couldn't think of it any better. The word might might apply to something like Santa Claus. And we all know that Santa Claus isn't real, but Santa Claus might be real. And if Santa Claus is real, we might want to be nice because that might mean that we get a nice gift. You see, it turns it into a fairy tale or a wish. It's foolish. But John doesn't say that. He says when he shall appear. John also doesn't use the verbiage like this, that he, I'm sorry, the first one was if he shall appear. He didn't say if, that would be like Santa Claus. He also didn't say that he might appear. You know, might appear reminds me of the IRS. We just might tomorrow get home and look in our mailbox, and we might have a letter from the IRS saying that they want to audit our tax returns. It happens. We know it's real. Maybe some of you have experienced that. It might happen. Or I might have a jury summons when I get home. I might have a lot of things. But, you know, I kind of weigh out the threat level, and, well, I'll deal with it if it comes. Not that big of a deal. But John doesn't say that. John says, when he shall appear, he is coming again. And souls are being harvested every day. If Jesus could look out, as he sat on that well talking to that woman, if he could look out across that village and in his own deity look out across all of humanity and make the statement 2,000 years that the fields are white unto harvest, what would he say today? There's a number of billions of people more on the planet today than existed on the planet 2,000 years ago. And every one of them, for every single one of them, the harvest of their soul is imminent. You know, there really is two conditions that will bring about the harvest of our soul. There's only two that I know of. The first one, The first condition is death. Death is the harvest of a soul. And so far, to my knowledge, there's only two men, I think, that got out of life alive. One is Elijah. We know his story. He was caught up into heaven on a chariot. The other one, I think, is Enoch. And the Bible tells us that God caught him up, or God took him. That's the only two. Even Jesus didn't get out of life alive. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 says, For it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. You know, that verse is a tremendous picture of finality. We got a lot of choices we can make until the point of death, and after that, it's judgment. There's no do-overs. There's no mulligans. There's no I wishes, or I might, or could I. The harvest of the soul, is imminent. You know, Paul says it another way in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 8, he says, we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Death, a doorway into the presence of the eternal. Harvest is imminent. You know, for Paul, he had tremendous confidence. Paul was confident that he was not going to be ashamed before Jesus Christ at his coming. Now, obviously, Jesus hadn't come yet, and Paul was taken into his presence. He had tremendous confidence. But what about all of those who aren't too worried about it? What about these fields that are wide unto harvest that are not prepared for the harvest of their soul? What about those people? Is it real? I'd like to invite you to turn in your Bibles. We're gonna take a look at an account that Jesus gives in Luke chapter 19, Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16, very familiar passage. Probably most of you, even the little children know this story. However, it's not a story. Luke chapter 16, we're gonna begin in the 19th verse. It starts off, there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores. I want to stop for a minute. There's two things I want to point out here. Number one, this account has nothing to do with rich and poor. It had nothing at all to do with the fact that one man was wealthy and the other man was a beggar. There's something much greater going on here than those facts. That was just facts. But the most important thing I want to point out about this, this is not a parable. This is a true event. There was a rich man. We don't know his name. And there was a beggar by the name of Lazarus. This is an account. This is a real life account of something that happened in Old Testament times. Jesus saw it. Jesus knew about it. Jesus knew these men. and he relates the story. There was a rich man. He doesn't say that it's like unto, as he does in many of his parables. There was a rich man, and there was a man named Lazarus. Brothers and sisters, if there's anything we need to pay attention to, it's even beyond a parable, is when he gives a true account. These things happened, and it continued to happen. Let's read on. And desiring to be fed with the crumb, this is speaking of Lazarus, which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked the sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried." Now, I struggle sometimes with my imagination, and I kind of let it go a little wild sometimes as I think about accounts like this. And I kind of have to wonder, again, what's the wording telling me? What's here? It says here in this verse that Lazarus died. And then the next thing we know is Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom. But it does a little bit different with the rich man. It says the rich man died and was buried. Why the difference? Both men died. Why was one buried? Why does it tell us that one was buried and one was not? And again, this is my imagination, but I'd like to just share that with you. First of all, Lazarus was a beggar. Lazarus had nobody to claim him, so he got a pauper's burial. They hauled him outside the city somewhere, and wherever they buried all the beggars, and they dumped him in a hole in the ground and covered him up. The rich man had a fine funeral. I suspect that this rich man had a long line of people raising their hands so they could stand up and bear some kind of story about how wonderful the rich man was. I suspect that his eulogizing went on for a long time. Long funeral procession, lots of people wanted to help cover the grave as we do. Quite the show. But you know what? For that man, that was as good as it got. Let's take a look at the next verse. And in hell, and in hell, he lifted up his eyes. Can you imagine the shock of that man? Probably the shock for Lazarus too. One minute he's alive, the next minute he's in this foreign place that he's unused to, but a place of peace. This man, he's living life and he's enjoying life and his riches and whatever that entailed. And he knows, maybe he planned his own funeral and laid it all out, all the songs and all the finery of his own funeral. Might've marveled our recent Pope in his funeral, who knows? But then he woke up in hell. What a shock, because one man knew that the harvest was imminent and the other didn't care. That's the difference between these two men. Verse 24, and he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus. I find it fascinating. Again, it's my imagination that he addresses Abraham as Father Abraham. If I understand it correctly, this rich man didn't care a whit about Father Abraham when he was alive, but suddenly when he's dead and he's in hell, it's Father Abraham. I wonder if he ever said Lazarus's name in life, or if he was just the dirty beggar in the doorway. We got company coming, shoo him off. Here he knew his name. A lot of changes happened really, really quickly for this man. And hell, he lifted up his eyes being in torment. I'm sorry, I jumped a verse. Verse 24, and he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. I don't know quite how this works, but I'm amazed at the selfishness of this man in this spot. Would you please send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and put it on my tongue so that I might have some comfort? Aye, aye, aye. You know, it's also a little bit intriguing to me that he didn't ask to get out. Father Abraham, would you please bring me over to your side? Father Abraham, could you shorten this interval up a little bit? He didn't ask for that because apparently he realized he wasn't going to get it. He could just get the tip of enough water that one tip on the finger holds. I probably shouldn't illustrate it. Some of these other brothers might want to drink out of the cup. but your finger doesn't hold very much water. This man forgot or didn't care that the harvest was imminent. Verse 25, But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receives thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot. Neither can they come to pass to us that would come from hence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou would have sent him, Lazarus, to my father's house. Again, this man's still trying to give orders. I pray that you would just send Lazarus, since you can't send him over here to help me out, send him back to my father's house. Because why? For I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. I wonder how much this man cared about his brothers in real life, when he was alive. I suspect not much, they were just the brothers. But now all of a sudden he's all concerned about his brothers. Just send Lazarus back. And what did Abraham say? Abraham said it to him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear him. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Brothers and sisters, we have something better than this rich man, better than this rich man's brothers, because we have one that came back from the dead. This is an Old Testament account. It hadn't happened yet. They had Moses and the prophets, and so do we. If we can't find salvation, if we can't find and recognize that the harvest is imminent in the first three chapters of Genesis, even if one comes back from the dead, we're not going to be persuaded. We have something better than this rich man. We have Jesus Christ who came back from the dead, and more than that, he died so we wouldn't have to. The harvest is imminent. Do you believe it? Do you live that way? Does it change who you are and how you live? John told Nicodemus, or Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3, verse 3, that except a man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of heaven. The harvest of the soul is imminent, and the only way The only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight tells us that by faith you are saved, or by grace we are saved through faith and not of works, lest any man should boast that is a gift of God. I think I fumbled my phrase. Are you prepared for the harvest of your soul? That was the first condition. Death is the first condition. I think we have an understanding of that. We witness it. We see it. One of the true beauties of a funeral is the fact that no man can escape their own mortality as they go to a funeral. That's why funeral services are so important, is to remind us that death is imminent. The harvest of the soul is imminent. No matter how old or young, no matter what our health status is, Our soul harvest is imminent. But there is a second condition that I want to think about for a few minutes, by which we also may experience a soul harvest. And John is referring to that in this passage in 1 John 2, 28, when he says, and when he shall appear. That is the second coming of the Lord. That is the rapture of the church. That is the return of the Lord. I'd like to just look at a few different passages of scripture as we think about the fact that he is coming again. If you would, turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We're going to start there. I have three of them. They're all three of just a little bit long, but I think it's worth our time to look at these. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and we will begin in the 13th verse. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren. You know, as I look at that, Ignorance choice. Paul writes to this church, this Thessalonican church, and he's really saying, you have no excuse, no reason to be ignorant. Brothers and sisters, we have even less reason to be ignorant. We have the full word of God. This church in Thessalonica, I don't know what all they had. They had a letter, but they may have had other letters to other churches to look at. I don't know. But we have it all, and we're going to look at a couple of these. There is no excuse for ignorance. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep or dead, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." Now, you know, if you think about that a minute, what does that mean? That this group of dead that God is going to somehow bring with him? God's going to bring with them where? If God is just going to sit in heaven for all of eternity and not return, if Jesus Christ is not going to return, He's not going to bring anybody anywhere. He'll bring people to Him, but it says here that He's going to bring them with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. In other words, God's not going to favor the living over the dead. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort you one another with these words." Lowell again mentioned the words that we use, the conversations we have. There's probably no conversation that's more important other than the fact that we need to be ready because harvest is imminent than this one that the Lord is going to return again. Titus chapter 2, turn over there please. Titus chapter 2, and I just I love this passage. We're beginning in verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. In 1 Thessalonians we read that he didn't want to be ignorant. Here he's saying that the grace of God that bringeth salvation appears to all men. Ignorance is no excuse. Salvation has appeared unto all men. So we and they and the fields that are white are without excuse. Salvation hath appeared unto all men. And this appearance of salvation that we can see teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Looking for and hasting Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself the peculiar people zealous of good works. Again, these things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. Brothers and sisters, we have something to talk about. And that's something that we have to talk about, is that Jesus is coming again. One more, 2 Peter 3. 2 Peter 3, and I'm going to start at the first verse. This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance." Now, this is three times in three different passages by two authors, Paul and Peter, that they tell us that we need to be thinking about this. We need to remember there's no excuse for ignorance. That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. Didn't we just read that in the account of Lazarus and the rich man? That the rich man and his brothers had Moses and the prophets? And that should have been sufficient? Peter's saying the same thing right here, that be mindful to remember what the prophets said, but even more than that, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord Jesus, Lord and Savior. We have something better. We have one who did return from the dead. But do we even believe that? Abraham told the rich man that even if one returns from the dead, if they don't believe in Moses and the prophets, they won't believe in the one that returned from the dead. What do we believe? Verse three, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts. You know, these scoffers, I find very interesting. I believe that these scoffers are people that run around under the banner of Christianity. If they were not, if these were not people who consider themselves to be believers, there's a lot of other words that could have been used for these men. Peter could have called them Gentiles. He could have called them aliens. He could have called them, well, the Jews, because the Jews gave them all kinds of problems. He could have called them a lot of things. He could have called them idolaters. He could have called them pagans or heathens, anything. But here he labels them as scoffers. Why is that? because these people were inside the doors of the church. These people were having undue influence on those in the church. You know, most of us don't spend a whole lot of time or give a whole lot of credibility to people out there that are proclaiming whatever they want to proclaim, or we shouldn't be listening too much and giving too much credibility. But what happens here? Scoffers happen here. Our nation and our churches are full of what we're gonna read about here in just a minute, scoffers, powerful men, men who run large churches, they're scoffing. Verse four, it's saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. You know, Jesus has a came, or, well, since creation, but he hasn't came in the last 2,000 years. You know, it felt like at one point he told his disciples that he would return before they all died. That's what it kind of, how it kind of reads, but obviously that didn't happen. So it hasn't happened in 2,000 years, so what? That in no way takes away from the fact that it is going to happen. You know, to my knowledge, There's never been a large tornado that destroyed property and houses in the city of Modesto. In recorded history, I don't think that's ever happened. But that doesn't mean it's not going to. You've probably never had a high magnitude earthquake in the valley of Miami or the Miami Valley here either. That doesn't mean it might not happen. This is way more secure than that. He is going to return. It is going to happen. Just because it hasn't happened, doesn't mean it's not going to happen. But he goes on a little bit further, and he begins to compare some of the other things that have happened in history. Verse five, for this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the world that then was being overflowed by water perished. Okay, that's one example. We've got creation and we've got the flood. But the heavens and earth, which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. You know, I find it intriguing that these scoffers really scoff at three specific things. They scoff at a literal creation, they scoff at Noah's flood, and they scoff at the return of the Lord. Brothers and sisters, these things happened The creation happened. The creation happened all in a week. God said, and it was so, and it was good. Six days. Noah's flood happened. The earth was wiped out, and everybody in it except for six people. We got the rainbow out of that. You know, we got another promise out of that, and I didn't really notice that other promise that was given at that time. that these men forget about, these scoffers forget about. There was a covenant made with Noah by God. We're all familiar with the rainbow, that God wasn't gonna flood the earth, but there was another one. God said that as long as the earth lasts, there would be seed time and harvest, hot and cold, summer and winter, and day and night. You know what's happened in the 4,000 or so years since Noah? There's been seed time and harvest, hot and cold, summer and winter, and day and night. Why? Because God said so. That simple. Because God said so. These men are forgetting that by the word of God, these things are all held in place because he said so. But that in no way prevents him or stops him from coming again. Let's read on a little bit further. Verse eight. But beloved, be not ignorant. There's the word ignorant again of this one thing that one day is with the Lord is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. God doesn't really care about time. We're the ones stuck in time, not God. But here's the here's the capstone of it. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but as long suffering to us were. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God waiting 2,000 plus years to return has nothing to do with him kicking back or changing his mind or being careless or not caring. It has everything to do with the fact that God loves humanity. God sees the fields are white with harvest, and God is long-suffering, not willing that anybody has to experience what the rich man is experiencing today. And so he's waiting, and he's waiting. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of repentance. It all should come to repentance. You know, as I read that, that's troubling. And the reason that's troubling is long suffering is conditional. Long suffering is temporary. Long suffering is going to come to an end at some point someday. He's long-suffering today. He hasn't returned yet today. He might, but there is going to come a point in time when God says that's enough and there is no more long-suffering. What's troubling about that? It's exciting as a believer to think that that might happen in my day. We might see the return of the Lord. I firmly believe it. But where it's troubling is, is there's going to be some who are not ready. There will always be some who are careless about the reality that harvest is imminent. Someday there will be the last one. It's kind of like a countdown. We don't know what the number is, but someday there will be one last one. Because the harvest is imminent. But the day of the Lord, verse 10, will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth Also with the works that they're therein shall be burned up, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved. What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking forward, hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord? Brothers and sisters, the harvest is imminent. The harvest of our souls is going to happen, whether it's by death or whether it's by the return of the Lord. It doesn't really matter because it's going to happen. And we're either going to find ourselves in the presence of the Lord as the Apostle Paul, or we're going to find ourselves in misery as this rich man was. If you knew that the harvest of your soul was tomorrow, would you do anything any different today? Point number two, the preparation for the harvest is urgent. As I stated earlier, only what is done before the harvest can affect the harvest. It's only what we do today, it's only what is done ahead that will have any effect whatsoever. You know, the reality is, is if harvest is imminent, the preparation for harvest is the most important thing that any one of us can do right now. It is the most important thing for us to do right now. In our text chapter, in Matthew chapter three, John goes on and he says this, and when he saw that many of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee the wrath to come? Who told you about it? And then he goes on, he says, bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance. That word meat means something of value, an exchange. Bring forth something, do something to prepare for your salvation. The preparation for the harvest is urgent. In our theme verse in 1 John 2, chapter 2, verse 28, he says, And now, little children, abide in him that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed. Before him it is coming. Two phrases in there that I want to think about for a moment. The first one is the word now. You know, now is very unequivocable. It means exactly what it says. Now. This moment. Now, little children, not later, not when you have a chance, not when you have time, but right now. And he goes on and he gives instructions. What are they supposed to do right now? Abide in Him. You know, there's two groups of people in this theme verse. There's those who will have confidence and will not be ashamed, and there's those who will be ashamed. Two groups of people. The difference is those who prepared before the harvest, because the harvest is imminent, those who understood the word now, that now abided in Him. That's the difference between the two groups. One saw the urgency, one saw the necessity, and one chose to abide in Him, and the other did not. You know, we live in a time, in a culture that's busy giving us every excuse that we might possibly need to not act on now. You know, first of all, God loves us too much to condemn anybody. God is too loving to bring about some sort of judgment or damnation or hell. God just loves everybody. So God surely won't do that. We hear that all around us. There's plenty of time. I'm young. I'm healthy. Lots of time. All kinds of excuses. You know, for some of us, I had to think about for myself, do my toys, does my life, do all my distractions prevent me from operating in the now? Providing in him now. You know, it's pretty easy for me to think I will get to that a little bit later. Good morning, Lord. I know you're there. I'll see you. I'll talk to you a little later. I'm in a hurry right now. I got to get to work. Anybody else here ever done that? I do. That's foolish because there's nothing more important than and now abiding in him. And I find on those days when I rush out the door and kind of wave goodbye to God on the way by, I'll get back to you later. I don't do very good at abiding in him that day because I'm on my own. John is trying to instill a sense of urgency, a sense of focus. Essentially what he's saying here is wake up, wake up. It's time to do something right now. You know, Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 24 in verse 42 and verse 46, But it's acting right now because we don't know when the Lord's going to appear. We don't know when our death date is. And now abide in him. It's urgent. It's necessary. Paul says this in Romans 13, and that, knowing the time that now it is high time to wake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed. Brothers and sisters, today is one day later than yesterday. Today, we are one day closer, one day closer to our soul harvest than we were yesterday. We're soon going to be two hours later than we were when we started this service. And we've only got so many hours and so many days. And now, abide in him. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6-2, the latter part of that, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Now, today, this moment, the preparation for the harvest is urgent. So how do we do this? How do we abide in him? What does that mean? You've been turning your Bibles to John 15. We're gonna look at just a couple of things about that. As you're turning there, I find this word a little bit intriguing. This word abide, as we read it here in 1 John 2. It's the Greek word mino, M-E-N-O, and it's got a number of different meanings, but what I want out of it is the fact that it is a verb. It is an action verb. It means we get busy and we do something. We don't just think about it. We don't sit back. It is an action verb. This word, mino. And John is so into this word that he uses it 23 times in the book of 1 John. In John 15, he uses it eight times in 16 verses. And in the book of John, he uses it 34 times. John is into this word, abide. This word, mino. Now, get busy. Abide in him. John 15, verse one. I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. A statement of fact. Let's drop down now to the fourth verse. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. A couple of points I want out of this as we think about abiding in him. The first is a reality that we are all connected to a vine. Jesus makes the statement in the first verse, I am the true vine. That insinuates or it insinuates that there are many vines. And there are many vines which people are attached to. Every one of us is connected to some vine. Paul in Romans chapter 11 talks about it in a little different way. He says that we were wild olive trees. And then through faith, he took a wild olive tree and he grafted it onto a holy olive, a holy olive root, making it a holy olive tree. It was a move. It was a switch from one vine, a wild olive, to another. Every one of us is attached or abiding in some vine. The problem is, as believers, sometimes I think we deceive ourselves into thinking we can be attached to multiple vines. And I can kind of hook on to this one Monday morning and then hook on to this one Sunday morning. And the Sunday afternoon, I kind of unplug here and plug back in over there. And maybe in the morning for a few minutes, I kind of quickly plug over here. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6 that no man can serve two masters. No man can be attached to two vines at the same time. It doesn't work. He goes on in that passage in Matthew 6 verse 24, and Jesus says, For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and man. There is only one true vine that is of God. There is multitudes of vines available for man. The question that I have for each one of us is, which vine are you connected to? Or do you somehow do like sometimes I think that kind of hop onto this one for a little bit, hop onto that one for a little bit and deceive myself. Every one of us is connected to some vine. So the question is, which vine are you connected to? There's only one true one. The second point here again is there's only one true vine and there's only one true husbandman. You know, in our world today, that is not the gospel that is so often going out. That there's only one true vine and one true husbandman. Many pastors, many churches are busy saying that there's lots of ways. Here a few years ago, There is a pastor of what I think is probably the largest church in America, if not the largest, one of the largest churches, had an interview with Larry King live. And Larry King asked him, he says, do you believe that Jesus really is the only way to God? And this man fumbled around a little bit, stuttered around a little bit. Obviously, he was uncomfortable. And finally, his answer was, well, that's what I believe for me, but I can't tell anybody else that. Everybody has to discover their own way to God. You know, brothers and sisters, at best, that's heresy. At worst, it's blasphemy. And men are headed to hell very rapidly all around us. because of thinking and teaching just like that. There is one true vine, and there is one husbandman. There's lots of vines, but only one of them's true. There's only one vine that died for you. There's only one vine that gave up of himself and shed his blood so that you might have life. so that the day of your soul harvest you might be ushered into the presence of Jesus Christ. There's only one. But how easy is it for us to deceive ourselves and think that we can play a game and be plugged into multiple? Which bind are you abiding in? The third point is, is that all the other vines are false. If there's only one true one, then all the rest of them must be false. There's only two options, true or false. There's not a maybe, or a kinda, or an almost here. True or false. One true vine, all the rest of them are false, or I'm gonna call them faux vines. You know, the tragedy with these bovines is, is they all promise something. They all promise something in return to being plugged in there. They're shiny. They're flashy. They draw our attention. They attract our appetites. They're real, but they're not true. In Luke chapter 21, verse 8, Jesus says this, Take heed that you be not deceived. "'For many shall come in my name, saying, "'I am Christ, and as the time draws near, "'go ye not after them.'" I don't think people are necessarily running around and hooking onto vines that are waving the flag saying, I'm Jesus. But what they're doing is they're offering an alternative way to Jesus. And you can have all the pleasures that you want as it goes, as you go along. You know, if there's only one true vine and all the rest of them are false, How do we tell the difference? That's pretty important. How can we know? How do we tell the difference between a true vine and a false one? Well, as I understand it, there's only two ways, or there is two ways, there might be more, but two I wanna mention. The first one is to test the message. What is the message that's coming out of the vine? What message are they proclaiming? 1 John 4, 1 tells us to try the spirits. And then it tells us what to look for. It says, if any spirit proclaims that Jesus is the Christ, that's of God. And if any spirit proclaims that Jesus is not the Christ, it's false. So test the message. What is it that we hear coming from all around us? What are they telling us? What is their messaging? You know, as I thought a little bit about this messaging idea, it struck me a little bit that of an illustration, I'd like to share this. There's probably some in this house today who have severe food allergy. That you will get sick, or you will get hives, or you will have a reaction to certain types of foods. Maybe you're lactose intolerant, or gluten intolerant, or whatever intolerance. You have a food intolerance. And if that is you, you go to great lengths to ensure that the dish that you are eating does not have what you're intolerant to. If you're lactose intolerant, you don't touch anything that has milk. I think that's right. Lactose is milk, right? Gluten is wheat. However, that word doesn't matter. That's not the point. The point is you'll go to great lengths to avoid that dish because it's got something that you can't handle that will make you sick. How is it that in our lives we can spend more time, more energy, more focus on something we're going to eat? than something that could cast us into hell. We should have a healthy intolerance for the messages of the world because not only will they make us sick, they will kill us. And they will kill us for eternity. That rich man bought a false message. That rich man was plugged into a false vine. He thought he could have whatever he wanted, and he was grand enough that even God would accept him. He found out otherwise. What teachers, what messages, Do we accept into our life without any discernment, without any real discretion? They've got the label of a pastor. They've got the label of a Christian. They say the right things. They care about humanity. And we just swallow it. There's lots of messages. There's lots of messengers. But only true messengers will point to the true vine. All others point to death. The second way that we can discern a true vine from a false vine is to simply observe the fruit. Simply observe the fruit. There is fruit that is born out of every vine. Every type of vine bears some type of fruit. The Bible is very clear about that. In Galatians chapter 6, verse 7, it says, Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap. For he that sows to the flesh shall the flesh reap corruption, but he that sows to the Spirit shall the Spirit reap life everlasting. Every vine bears some type of fruit. You see, what a man sows is reflected in the fruit that he bears. What a man sows is reflective of the vine he's attached to. What a man sows is reflected in the fruit that he bears. And what a man sows is reflective of the vine he's attached to. So what kind of fruit is hanging on in your life? What kind of fruit is on the lives of the people that you follow, that you listen to, that you admire? Because that's really one of the only true tests is to look at the fruit. And as you think about that, I've got a list here that I kind of made as I was trying to just wrestle through this in my mind. What does this look like in real life? Well, I got a couple suggestions and you might have some better ideas, but if you're plugged into the vine of materialism, the fruit becomes about what we have. If we're plugged into the vine of individualism, the fruit becomes about our accomplishments. If you're plugged into the vine of wealth, the fruit becomes about what we accumulate. If we're plugged into the vine of religion, the fruit becomes about our adherence. If we're plugged into the vine of power, the fruit becomes about our control. If we're plugged into the vine of pleasure, the fruit becomes about our appetite. We can figure it out. If we study it a little bit, we can figure out in our own lives, and sometimes we can observe it in others, and certainly we need to be looking at that to those we listen to. What kind of fruit? Because it's going to reveal what vine they're attached to. It's impossible to be bearing two types of fruit. Galatians 5.19 says it this way, now the works or the fruits of the flesh are manifest. They are evident. They're hanging out there as a testimony to the vine that someone's attached to, including ourselves. You know, as we think about Think about this a little bit. We talk about observing and testing fruit of the flesh, and I just went through a list there of what those fruits might look like. What about fruit of God? How do we test the true vine? What does that fruit look like? Now we could go to Galatians chapter 5 and go through the fruits of the Spirit, that these things should be present in the lives of a believer. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, temperance, meekness, gentleness, goodness, self-control. I forget, maybe I'm messing it up a little bit, but there's a list of them. But I'd like to suggest to you that there is one fruit that is particular to Christianity. There's one fruit that is particular to the true vine that every single believer for all of the past, all of history, is going to show this one fruit. It should be evident in the life of anyone who is plugged into the true vine, and it cannot be emulated. One fruit. We learn about this fruit. In John chapter 13, as Jesus is teaching His disciples there in the upper room, and He delineates this fruit. And here's what He said in verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you. That ye also, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples. It is a visible fruit that should be clear to the entire world. If anybody observes our life, they should recognize that we are plugged in to the true vine of Jesus Christ. We are abiding in the true vine of Jesus Christ because the fruit of love is manifest. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have loved one to another. Now, you know, I get a little bit confused and a little bit fuzzy sometimes with this, like, words like love. It's a big word. It's a hard word to wrap your mind around. As I walked in church, I had an older brother tell me he loved me more today than he did yesterday. So my off-the-cuff response was, well, why didn't you love me yesterday? But that wasn't his point. His point was he loved me more today because he loved his Lord more today. That fruit of love is manifest in this brother, and he was sharing that with me. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have loved one to another. What does that look like? What's that look like in everyday life? What does that look like in reality? I'd like to suggest to you that that looks like exactly what some of us heard last night at a wedding that comes from Ephesians chapter 5. When we read it, it goes like this, verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. That's what we're called to, a love as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish, a love that is willing to sacrifice, a love that is willing to sanctify, a love that is willing to support each other. You want to know if that fruit is evident in your life, ask yourself, are you willing to go to that level for anyone else in this church house? Are you willing to go that far for your brothers? Because that's what we're called to. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have that kind of love, the kind of love that Jesus had, one or another. That's some heavy lifting. Because sometimes we're not that easy to like, much less love. Sometimes we're not very loving in return. But the fruit that's always visible to anyone who is abiding in the true vine of Jesus Christ is love. Love for his brother. A love that is willing to sacrifice and go as far as it takes. A love that's willing to sanctify, that's willing to use their words to encourage that the harvest time is imminent, that it's urgent that we be ready. That's what love does. I'm going to move on quickly to the last point, because it's time for me to be done. And that point is that the harvest will reveal the truth. You know, it's pretty hard to hide what kind of farmer you are at harvest time. You know, I know that nature plays a big role in the crop. You get frost, if you get an abundance of rain, or you get no rain, or you get pale, or there's all kinds of weather-related things, natural-related things that we can't, as a farmer, cannot beat that can take out a crop. But even in difficult crop scenarios, a good farmer will do everything he can to bring about the best crop that he can with what he has to work with. And when you get to harvest time, harvest time reveals the truth. In our text passage in Matthew chapter 3, John told this to those Pharisees. He says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with the unquenchable fire. As I understand it, as they harvested in those days, the chaff and the wheat, maybe even today, chaff and wheat all go in the same pile. And then it's worked over, it's ground. We saw in Asia, they would throw it up in the air and the wind would blow the chaff away. At that point, that chaff is worthless. But when it's all in a pile, it all looks pretty good. You know, I had to think a little bit about the parable of the wheat and the tares. The Bible tells us that a farmer went out and planted a wheat field, and the enemy went out and sowed tares into the wheat. And you know, I know that's not our lesson today, but there's several things about that that's fascinating. The first question I have is, where was the farmer when the enemy was out sowing the tares? Why was he not protecting his investment? Why did he not have a watchman? I think there's a lesson there for each one of us brothers, especially us men. Are we being watchmen? Because once the enemy's in the field and he begins to scatter tares, they're there. There's no way to get that seed back out. Can't vacuum it up. But that farmer forgot the set of watchmen. But you know, as those tares begin to grow, we know that the master says, no, don't go in and tear them out because you'll uproot the wheat, but let them grow together. You know, those tares experienced all the blessing of a good farmer. If that farmer was irrigating, the tares got irrigated, too. If that farmer went out and spread fertilizer, the tares got fertilizer, too. If the farmer treated for bugs or disease, the tares got treated, too. And I suspect that they look pretty good. I can see weeds in various fields around here, and the weed itself is not ugly in itself. Maybe some of them are, but some of them are pretty flowers. But it's still a tare, and it still has no value, and it still reduces the crop. And it's still a problem. But they got to experience all the blessing. But you know, the real reason I bring this up is, how often is it that we become comfortable with the tares in our field? We get used to them. We've been watering them. We've been fertilizing them. We've been taking care of them because they're there. And we become comfortable. And we begin to just be okay with it. But you know, at the time of the harvest, the truth was revealed, because what happens is the tares are gone. They go over here, they get burned, and the wheat gets gathered into the barn. What is growing in your life? There's a saying, probably many of you have heard this. It says you can fool some of the people all the time. And you can fool all of the people some of the time. But you can never fool all of the people all of the time. But that's not, I think that's incomplete. I think there's two more phrases that need to be added to that. The fourth, the next phrase is, you can never fool God. I can fool you, you could fool me, maybe for a short period of time I could fool all of you, but I never fooled God. But the other phrase I'd like to add into that is the easiest man to fool is yourself. He's the easiest one to fool. And we like to fool ourselves. The Bible, how many times does it say throughout Scripture, be not deceived? Think about what Paul said there in Galatians chapter six. He says, be not deceived. God is not mocked. You know what that tells me is that there is a man out there that has fooled himself into thinking that God's not going to get it. It's a man that thinks that he can fool God. Instead, he's the one that has fooled himself. The harvest will always reveal the truth. You know, we talked a little bit earlier about Lazarus and the rich man. In life, it looked like the rich man was the one who was the success. More than likely, that rich man had young men that would come to his house and ask him, how did you do it? What is special about how you do business that made you the rich man? That's what we do. Probably many of us in this house have done that, gone to someone who's been successful in some area, and we've asked them, how do you do it? I know up here, I've asked some of you maybe, how do you do it? How does it work? I want to do it like you do. I want to be like you. But you know, It's maybe a little easier to understand the rich man, but what about if it's a little closer home? The harvest will reveal the truth. Turn to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7, as we think about the harvest will reveal the truth. You know, it's one thing if you're looking at a man that has rejected God, a man who has chosen to be willfully ignorant, but what about those who are not quite there? Those who are among us, those who operate under the label of Christianity, those who call themselves Christians, what about then? Is the harvest going to reveal the truth there? Might it be something to pay attention to? In Matthew chapter 7, there's three different sections, at least in my Bible. In verses 12 through 14, we find out that there's only one way to God. There's one true vine. In verses 15 through 20, there's teaching about false prophets, false teachers, and how they're going to proclaim a false message. And how does it conclude there? It says, you shall know them by their fruits. But it's the next section that bothers me, beginning in verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Not everyone who operates and calls themselves a Christian or a believer is going to be entering into the kingdom of heaven. Why? You see, what we have here in this passage is we have that the harvest will reveal the fruit. It's harvest time for these folks, and they're standing in the presence of Jesus Christ, and Jesus is looking at them, and they're saying, Lord, Lord, O Jesus, Jesus. It goes on a little bit further. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name we have cast out devils. And in thy name we have done many wonderful works. These are Jesus people. They go around loudly proclaiming the name of Jesus. Jesus this and Jesus that. Then when they finally meet Jesus, they don't know him. They know his name. But what's even more troubling is, is what Jesus tells them. Look at the last verse there. And Jesus says, then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye workers of iniquity. You see, for the case of these folks, the harvest revealed the truth. They looked good. They had the right verbiage. They had the right clothes. They had the right religion. They had right everything. They were Jesus people. Only they weren't. They were a tare disguised as a piece of wheat. But the harvest will reveal truth. The time of the harvest is imminent. It is here. It's the next thing. The harvest of our souls is the next most important thing in all of our lives. And because the harvest is imminent, the preparation for the harvest is urgent. It needs to happen now. All we have is now. All we have is one more breath. All we have. And now, abide in Him. And the harvest is going to reveal the truth. How crucial, how vital is it that the truth that is revealed in our lives is that we will spend eternity in the presence of Jesus Christ? Because, you know, one of the tragedies of harvest, of the harvest of the soul is its final. There's no do-overs, there's no go-backs, there's no mulligans, there's no, there's nothing. At the time of the soul harvest, what you have reaped is what you will sow. Brothers and sisters, the time of the harvest is now. The time to prepare is now. And it's all going to be revealed in the last time. You know, there are two different phrases that every human is going, one of two phrases that every human is going to hear. The phrase that you don't want to hear is, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never do. The horror of hearing those words, when according to the Bible, salvation has appeared to all men, all men are without excuse. Every man has the opportunity. The horror of hearing that. But there's an alternative for anyone who is willing to prepare for the harvest because they recognize the harvest is imminent and they recognize the harvest is going to reveal the truth. There's another phrase that every one of us, I hope in this house, I hope everyone I meet hears this phrase. This phrase goes like this. Well done. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Two phrases and we get to pick it. Which will it be for you? If the day of your soul harvest was tomorrow, would you do anything any different today? He that believeth on the Son of God hath this witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave his Son, and this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. And he that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. What will it be for you? The Lord bless you. 328. And as we begin to sing this and look at these words, and what would you do different if you knew today or tomorrow was your last day? Can you really sing the God of harvest praise? And I trust you can. But I think that we've been touched in our heart. I know that we have been challenged in our everyday life and really sometimes in our belief and what we really would call priorities in our life. So let's sing this hymn. Just go ahead and sing that. 328. O come, O come, all ye faithful joyful and triumphant O come, O come, all ye faithful joyful and triumphant and sing for us and for the great God they serve, his great love, his great love. Take rest this holy day, and from this day, from this day, serve the Lord his Word. ♪ There's no place in heaven for love ♪ ♪ There's no place in heaven for love ♪ ♪ There's no place in heaven for love ♪ ♪ There's no place in heaven for love ♪ of our country, and by and for our country, we'll stay strong. And may we bow in prayer. Father in heaven, we bow before you just now in thanksgiving, in adoration, and just the very fact that through the Lord Jesus Christ, we could approach a wonderful God, a wonderful Savior that we have. Father, thank you for Jesus that makes it possible that we can meet together and we could hear The Word preached in clarity, and we understand it. Father, thank you for understanding mine. And Father, we would pray that no one here would be ignorant today of the facts and the gospel that's been preached, because we know that ignorance is not an excuse. So we are committed, Father, to a changed life, change priorities and they focus more on you as our God and Jesus Christ our Savior. Thank you for the Holy Spirit and the power and the grace that gives us by that we might follow you and glorify you as our God and our Father. We're thankful for each one here. Bless each one, Father. There's young, there's old. We just pray that we might all come closer together and show the love that's been extended to us through you, and that we might extend that to others as we go forth from here, Father. It's a big world out there, and there's need of a Savior. Thank you for Jesus. May we extol his name in our very life. We do ask forgiveness. We desire to be clean and white and pure. We just bleed the blood of Jesus Christ time and time again. And with that, Father, we rise up anew each day to walk in newness of life. Again, thank you, Father, for Jesus Christ, our salvation, our savior, our hope, our all. And in his name we pray, amen. Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.