And
what are great possessions? Anything that is too much to
give up to follow Christ. In their deceit they will rob us
of the 'pearl of great price,' as we will see a little
farther on. It was demonstrated before you through Ananias
and Sapphira. They held back part of the price and missed
the whole bargain. This will let you end up trying to feed
your soul on that which the flesh feeds on. Now, I want
you to get 'these two,' 'fresh in your minds,' before we
'go into this.' It will let you end up trying to feed your
soul on that which the flesh feeds on, and brother, you
are really deceived then. In fact, I don't believe there's
much hope for you. Somebody said, "What makes you
think so?" As soon as the rich man got 'in that kind
of shape,' God just required his soul. Why? Whenever a
person gets 'that far gone' there is no way of reaching
them.
The whole
trouble then, is in these things that Christ mentioned
here, the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of
riches, and the lust of other things. Someone says,
"How can it be stopped?"
The flesh
needs to be crucified, with the affections and it's lusts.
You can 'stop it all at once.' You don't have to nip one
thorn off at a time, but you can get rid of the whole
thorn bush. That is the work of the flesh. It's just an
'old thorn bush' and if you will give me time, I'll prove
it to you by the scripture. It is an old thorn bush, that
will grow in the human heart. Too many are trying to trim
it. God's different than that. He doesn't trim it -- He
burns it. Flesh, the Word of God would teach us is carnal.
God said in His Word when Adam and Eve sinned in the
garden, thorns would come forth on the earth. It came, in
the curse back there, (speaking of literal things) and
just as the thorns came forth on the earth, because of the
curse put on mankind, even so, there was a spiritual curse
that does the same thing within man that the literal
thorns do upon the earth. Let's turn to the 32nd chapter
of Isaiah and 'bring him to the witness stand.'
Let's
begin reading in the 13th verse as he tells us of the
pitiful condition of mankind. He uses symbols and
metaphors in his poetic language to teach us the pitiful
condition of mankind before Christ came, or before the
Spirit of God was given. Listen to him. "Upon the
land of my people shall come up thorns and briars."
Now we know he is speaking of spiritual things. Somebody
said, "How do you know?" Read on, "Yea upon
all the houses of joy in the joyous city, because the
palaces shall be forsaken." "The multitude of
the city shall be left. The forts and the towers shall be
dens forever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
UNTIL the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the
wilderness be a fruitful field."
Now
we know he is not talking about the earth and terra firma
because pouring the Holy Ghost out upon the earth does not
kill the thorns and clean the briars out-that is, the
natural ones. But friends, these thorns and briars are the
working of 'the flesh' (humanity without Devine strength).
That is what our lives were when Christ found us -- 'a
briar patch' and 'a thorn patch.' We never brought forth
the first fruit of righteousness. You see a field covered
with thorns and briars; You say it Is wasted. But if you
let them start, my friend, they will take the whole thing.
It is something like, the man that bought a farm and there
were berry bushes around the fence-row and every year he
let them grow. And after a while they got 'such a hold on
him,' he just gave up. The briars just took the whole
place, and the berries would come and fall off, and they
would get thicker. One day, some people went out there to
pick berries and he 'ran them off.' He said, "Get out
of here! If you weren't so lazy, you could grow some of
your own." 'This work' has a little beginning. All
you need to do is, just let it be. Every time you pet it,
you cultivate it, and give it more room -- until it will
spread out in your life and you'll just be wasted too;
just as wasted as a briar patch is 'out there' in a good
field that could be used to produce something. He shows us
man's pitiful or wasted condition; until the Spirit is
poured out upon him from on high. Well, what will happen
then? "The wilderness will be a fruitful field, and
the fruitful field will be counted for a forest."
Thank God for His Eternal Word.
