The Parables of Christ no. 32
Seeds
and Seasons
Rev. Brian Kocourek
Back on February 8th we took our text
from Matthew 21: and we read from verses 33-43. The title of our sermon was the Mortal Heir and
the Mercenary Husbandmen, and the message dealt with the
humanity of the Son of God, and the mercenary activity of the husbandrymen, or
ministry. We spent almost the entire message tying Hebrews 6 and Matthew 21
together, but we looked at only one side of the twins situation and that was at
the activities of those that crucified the Son of God Afresh.
Now, this morning I would like to again review this
parable, and look at the other side of this story, and share a more positive side of this parable.
Matthew 21: 33 - 43 Hear another
parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged
it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out
to husbandmen, and went into a far country:
Notice that this vineyard belongs to one who also prepared
a winepress in it. This tells us that he expected results from the harvest. And
he expected the winepress to be used. Now, wine presses are used to press the
grapes into juice, which then is turned into wine. And so this Great One
prepared the land, and he prepared the seeds which grew into grape vines, and
he even prepared a way for the grapes to be turned into wine, representing the
stimulation of revelation. He did it all, and then he let it out to men who
were supposed to carry on and do his work. But the sad thing is as we found out
in our study of this parable in Parables of Christ number 21, is that these men
were only hirelings, and were interested only in what they could get for
themselves. Now, the whole parable is set forth in this next verse.
And when the time of
the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it…
Now this was the entire purpose of the Householder
letting out the field to men to bring forth the fruit. Notice we read, when the time of
the fruit drew near… he sent his
servants to the husbandmen, that they
might receive the fruits of it…
So we see the whole purpose was to gather together
the fruit in its season. But instead of cooperating with the ingathering, these
husbandmen were more interested in their own little kingdom’s than in gathering
together the fruit in its season.
And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed
another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first:
and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son,
saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they
said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And
they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord
therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They
say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his
vineyard unto other husbandmen, which
shall render him the fruits in their seasons.
Notice what we are reading here. He will deal with
those who were not good stewards and will then give the field into the charge
of those that will render him the fruits in their season. And then notice what
Jesus Himself says… Jesus saith unto them, Did ye
never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same
is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous
inn our eyes? Therefore say I unto you,
The
Now, let’s compare Matthew 21 with Hebrews chapter
six again. Now, as I read these verse, I will read them also from the
understanding we have received from God’s Message that He Himself has come with
and presented to us in this hour.
Hebrews 6:4 For it is
impossible for those who were once enlightened, (This word once enlightened
actually means once for all enlightened. Therefore we should read it as: For it is impossible for those
who have been once for enlightened) and have tasted of the heavenly gift, (Now, this speaks of the
heavenly gift in contradistinction to other Gifts we receive from God.
In John
Then Jesus told us that it was expedient that He
must go away if we were to receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit to comfort us.
We see this also in ACTS
And again we see Peter tell us in ACTS
Now, we must understand that we were promised the
Gift of or out from the Holy Ghost and we were also promised that the Holy
Ghost would come to us as a Gift from God in the form of a Heavenly Gift. But
to understand the difference between the Holy Spirit during the church ages and
the Holy Spirit in our midst in this end time, let’s go to the Book of John.
JOHN 14:16 And I will pray
the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may
abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him;
for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.18 ¶ I will not leave you comfortless (That word comfortless is
the Greek word orphanos. Jesus is telling us, I will not leave you Fatherless.
I will not leave you as orphans. And when is an orphan no longer an orphan?
When it is adopted. So Jesus is speaking of the time of adoption, when we will
know our Father as we have never known Him before.
The Apostle John tells us in 1 John 3: 1-2 ¶ Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons
of God therefore the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of
God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know
that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall
see him as he is.
So John tells us at the Appearing, we will know our
Father because we will see him as He really is, and by seeing Him as He really
is, we begin to know and understand who we really are. And how does this affect us? He goes on to
say, 3 And every
man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. That means you begin to purge your
mind.
I PETER 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit …
(now,
I could go into a very lengthy teaching right here on the difference between
the Body, soul and spirit, but let me just say this. Brother Branham said we
have five senses in the body that contact the earth. See, taste, feel, smell,
and hear. And then we have five senses in the spirit to bridge between our Soul
and our body, and they are memory, imagination, reasoning, conscience and
affection, and then finally in our soul, we have free moral agency, and there
is but one thing we can do, and that is our choice. We can either accept the
Word of God or we will reject the Word of God. And that is how we purify our
souls, Peter said, by obeying the Truth… Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the
truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one
another with a pure heart fervently:
Now, the heart is our rational mind. Jesus said, “as
a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, and he said, Out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. So you think with your heart. And when we read of the
heart in the scriptures, we see that it is speaking of the mind. So we see that
Peter is telling us that we are to purify our soul by obeying the truth, until
we have a pure heart or pure minds and our love for one another is pure.
And Paul told us that we purify ourselves by the
washing of water by the Word, and King David asked the question, “How does a young man cleanse himself? And then he
answered, By Taking heed thereto according to Thy Word
o God.
So when we see the Father at this Great Appearing,
we become Like Him by the washing of water by the Word. And in so doing, we
become like Him, and enter into His Mindset. And that is what adoption is all
about.
Now, I want you to notice what the Apostle Paul
tells us in GALATIANS 4:1 ¶ Now I say, That the
heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be
lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of
the father. (Now, who is this tutor or governor? It is the
indwelling paraklete, the indwelling spirit of God that comes by being born
again by the Word of God. The Living Word becoming alive in your soul. As Paul
said, “And you
hath He quickend who were dead in trespass and sins.” Now, back to
Galatians 4:…) Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a
child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 2 But is
under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we,
when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But
when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. In other words, the whole
redemption story was for one purpose and that was to bring us into the proper
place for adoption as sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of
his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (That means only
those that are sons is God going to do this for. So what if you are not a son?
Then don’t expect the spirit that was in His Son to come into you.) And because ye
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, (into
your understanding, and therefore you cry) crying, Abba, Father. Now, abba is not another
name, but a more customary way of saying father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a
son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
So we are looking at the mind of the Father which
was in His Son coming into sons, and making us ready for the adoption.
AT THY WORD LORD
51-0928 E-4 A son was
born in
HIDDEN LIFE 55-1006A E-21 Now, here is one thing that I do believe,
that when a child... The Bible speaks back there, that when the child had been
raised, the tutor kept the Father posted on the conduct of the child. Now, the
Tutor in this manner has been the Holy Spirit to the Pentecostal and the
church. The Holy Ghost that give... And remember,
the child, no matter what would ever take place, it was borned a child; it will
always be a child. And when a man is borned of the Holy Ghost, he becomes a
child of God, for it is actually a second birth, a regeneration, that creates
something in the man that wasn't there to begin with. When every man is borned
into the household of faith, he becomes a child. Then the Holy Spirit follows
this man and brings word to God how he is progressing.
E-22
Now, after this child become of age... Now, he's still a child. But if
the child was reckless, and never paid any attention, and wasn't so interested
in the Father's work, that child never become adopted to that family. But if he
was a correct child, a good child, and loved the work of his father, and
was interested, and tried to do all he could to progress his father's
work, then the tutor brought that word to the father, and there was what's
called the placing of the son or as Paul gives it in--over in Galatians,
"the adoption." That we was predestinated into the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ, the adoption. Now, the same son that was born into a
family could be adopted into the same family, or placed in the same family, or
give a position in the family that he was borned into. And I do believe that
that is the work of the Holy Spirit today among the church, is trying to place
in the church positionally apostles, teachers, prophets, and so forth, as...
And we've seen many false alarms and so forth moving amongst the people, which
only indicated that the real genuine adoption was at hand. I believe it. God
has to place into the church. That's the business of God, not of man.
E-23
Now, when this boy became of age, and when he was ready then for his
adoption, and he had proved by--the tutor had told the Father that this boy was
eligible for adoption, he was taken out into a public place, and there he was
robed with a--a robe (a honor robe, perhaps purple, or some color of royalty),
and was set up, and the whole city, all the people around about, seen the
Father adopt his own son into the family. And then when he was adopted into the
family, already a son, already a child, already a heir of grace, but placed in
the family... You get it. Now, when he was placed in the family and given his
position, then that boy's name on a check was just as good as his father's name
on the check. Now, I believe that that is the time that the church has arrived
at today, that the next great move in the church is for God, after we've seen
the false alarms... But now, God will place in His church correctly, apostles,
prophets, teachers, evangelists, not man-made seminary boughten, but God will
place into the church. Not theology run-overs and overnights, but God will
place in the church, as God has chosen, as the Holy Ghost has tutored this
church and raised it up. And in there God will adopt into His--into the
position His sons. They're already His sons, but whether they are worthy of the
position that He has for them.
E-24
If you'll notice in a perfect type, God did His own Son the same way. He
taken three as a witness (where the mouth of two or three witnesses every word
to be established), Peter, James, and John: love, faith, and hope. And He taken
them up into a mountain apart from the rest of the world. And there before
official witnesses, God adopted His own Son. He was transfigured before them,
and His raiment did shine as the sun. And a voice out of a cloud said
"This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him." Set Him upon a mountain, put
the witnesses there to see it, clothed Him in a robe as bright as the sun shining
in the--in this... They even shined like the sun in its strength. And God spoke
out, "This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him. God adopted His own Child into
the family. "Hear Me no longer, but this is My Son Who takes over from
here on." Amen. That adoption is near the time in parable of the church.
It's time for that.
And when will this adoption time be? Jesus answers
this when he says, at the time when he says,) I will come to you. (So we see that
at the time of this coming He speaks of we are to be adopted and at that time we will know our
Father in a way we have not known him before. Now, keep this in mind because Jesus Himself
is speaking of the time of adoption..)19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye
see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
Now notice what Brother Branham said about this
verse from the message WHAT HOLY GHOST WAS GIVEN FOR 59-1217 14 …(Now, you that
would be reading from a Greek Bible would see it in here... "See"
there means "to understand." "For the world understandeth Him
not."
John 1: 1
- 4, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not
any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of
men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. notice verse 5 darkness does
not comprehend it. ( katalambano = to
take eagerly, to seize upon and possess, to apprehend and comprehend. Here
we are talking about Life and it says, that darkness will not seize upon it,
they won't apprehend it.
20 At
that day (what day? That day when we are no longer orphans. ) ye
shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 21 He that hath
my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself
to him. (this is exactly what brother Branham and the Apostle Paul
were saying as well concerning the adoption. ) 22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord,
how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23 Jesus
answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and
my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with
him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's
which sent me. 25 ¶ These things have I spoken unto you, being
yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Now, lets read a little bit further ahead in the
Book of John to see what else Jesus tells us about the comforter.
JOHN 15:26 ¶ But when the Comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27 And ye also shall bear
witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
JOHN 16:7 ¶ Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is
expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the
world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11 Of
judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. 12 I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 13 Howbeit when he,
the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:
for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that
shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me:
for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
And we see in Hebrews chapter 6 that we are to come
to an Once for all Truth, or enlightenment, and then there will come a falling
away.
Now, remember, Paul taught us that we are to receive
the spirit of the Son. And what did the spirit of the son act like? He said,
“The Son can of Himself do nothing, whatsoever the Father doeth, that doeth the
son likewise. And Jesus said the Spirit of Truth will be of such a nature that
whatsoever He heareth, that will He speak…
Now, that is the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit
that indwelt Jesus Christ, and showed Him what to say, and what to do, and what
to teach and what doctrine to teach, and He has come in this day to do the same
thing. Notice Jesus said, 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is
come, he will guide you into all truth:
WHY IT HAD TO BE SHEPHERDS
64-1221 210 Listen to
me now. "When He... (not a thought, 'He' is a personal pronoun)--when He
the Holy Ghost is come (the Spirit of Truth), He will reveal these things to
you that I have said unto you, and will show you things to come."
TO SEE JESUS
54-0718E E-5 I am very
thankful that this Spirit of Truth was to be with us to the end. And that
Spirit of Truth is none other, but the Lord Jesus, Himself, in spiritual form.
And so in getting back to Hebrews six, Paul tells us the Spirit of Truth, the heavenly
gift, the Holy Spirit Himself, will come back to us in this hour. And he said of those who ) were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And
have tasted the good Word of God, and the Powers of the world to come, (that’s
millennial power like talking to a horde of bees and having them depart or
talking to a raging bull and it goes and lies down, like the lion lying down
with the lamb, and things like an opossum coming to your home for prayer…That’s
millennium talk friends, those things are what we will see during the millennium.
But he says, having witnessed all this and the once for all enlightenment, and then
turn away? ) 6 If
they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; (and
repentance is a change of the mind) seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God
afresh, (look, they can not crucify the son of God because there is
already been a once for all sacrifice. But they crucify to themselves the Son
of God all over again. And how do they do that? By doing the same thing they
did back the in the alpha. They said, “away with him, crucify him…And so they
depart from him, and they deny him as son, and thus to themselves they are
crucifying him all over again.)
JOHN 19:15 But they cried
out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. (in other words, get him out of here, get him out of
our presence, how? By crucifying him.) And,
how are they crucifying to themselves the son of God all over again? By denying
that he existed. They deny the son is what they are doing. By making him his
own father they deny that he is a son.
I JOHN
And so after they have been once for all enlightened
and crucify him by putting him out of their presence, and out of their mind
denying he existed, or still exists. Oh yeah, there are some who claim to
believe the message who say he went back to gases. They scoff at the scripture
that says, He is ever living to make intercession for our confession. And so they
have come to the place of the great falling away, and will never be able to
repent (change their thinking) again. and they put him to
an open shame. That means they put him to a public disgrace.
Now this next verse is very important because it
ties with our parable from Matthew 21. Now catch carefully what Paul says
right after this... 7 For the earth (that’s the field
which the householder owned) which drinketh in the rain (The rain is the
doctrine, that’s Deuteronomy 32: 1 Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth,
the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall
distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb,
which
drinketh in the rain (the doctrine) that cometh oft upon it, and that produces a crop that is useful to
those who have sewn it…
And
who did the sewing?, the Son of Man)
it is this land which produces the crop which receives the blessings from God. But the land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless
to the one who sewed the land and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it
will be burned.
Psalm 1: 1 - 3 Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he
meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of
water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall
not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. So we see here that there
is a fruit that is to be brought forth in it's season.
Psalm 145
: 15 - 16 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou
givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
Galatians
6: 7 - 9 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well
doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
2 John 8
- 9 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have
wrought, that means Do not loose that
which we have sewn for but
that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.
He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Therefore you must abide in the doctrine to reap.
Then in pp. 231 -
233 He said, "And
if you was just baptized in water right, and then deny the Word, then you're
illegitimate; your birth wasn't correct. You claim that you believed Him
then, and you deny Him. How could I deny my family? How could I deny Charles
Branham being my father? A blood test on the door shows it. Uh-huh. My
action, and the vindication of God's Word in my life shows whether I'm a child
of God or not.
So what is our action
supposed to be? Doing the will of the Father.
Luke 1:
19 - 20 And the angel answering said unto him, I am
Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and
to shew thee these glad tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able
to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou Believest not my words, which
shall be fulfilled in their season.
John 6:
63 - 66 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are
life. Notice how that
just after He informed them Eternal Life is in His Word, they left.
Ecclesiastes 3: 1
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the
heaven: So
if everything has a season, we must ask ourselves this question? What
season are we in? What is my season? Why am I here? What is my end?
1 Peter 1: 3 - 7 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible,
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are
kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in
the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be,
ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with
fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ: now notice verse 5, the WUEST translation says, "You who are
constantly being kept guarded by the power of God through Faith, for a
salvation that is ready to be revealed in
a last season which is epochal and strategic in it's significance. "
again notice verse 6 & 7, the trials
will produce in you a crop that is in the image of the Life of the Original
seed.
Deuteronomy
Joel 2: 23 - 27 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in
the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he
will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter
rain as in the first..(in other words, as it was in Alpha it will repeat in Omega) 24 And the floors
shall be full of wheat, (when is this? At the harvest time) and the fats shall overflow
with wine and oil. 25 And I will restore to you(I will, not
someone else, but I personally will restore to you) the years that the locust hath eaten, the
cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent
among you. 26 And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name
of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall
never be ashamed. 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Thee, and that
I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
Hosea 6: 1 – 3 ¶ Come,
and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath
smitten, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days will he revive us: in the
third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3 Then shall we
know, [if] we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the
morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter [and]
former rain unto the earth.
Notice He will come forth to us as the Rain, the
doctrine, for He is the Doctrine. He is the doctrine of Christ. And if you do
not have the doctrine of Christ you do not have God.