The Bible speaks about a Harvest that will be provided due to the EARLY RAIN AND THE LATTER RAIN.

1.The early rain occurred after the last harvest to prepare the soil for SEEDING.

And the RAIN is said to be the WORD OF GOD GIVEN FORTH.

It will not return VOID.

• It will accomplish what it is sent forth to do.
• It will cause FRUIT TO BE ABUNDANT for the day of Harvest.
• The Master is coming back to His vineyard to FIND SOME FRUIT.

Comparing man to a plant that is planted to produce fruit, Paul said:

1Cor 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

TO WATER a person is to continue to MINISTER so that the person planted will produce FRUIT.

Thank God that His WORD will accomplish what it is sent forth to do.

• As a preacher, my responsibility is to preach the WORD.

• It will accomplish what it is set out to do.
• THE PROBLEM IS THAT SOME WILL NOT PREACH THE WORD.
• And that means that what God wants accomplished will not be accomplished.
• There will be no fruit if there is no EARLY AND LATTER RAIN.
• But if the Word is preached, it will accomplish a work.

2Tim 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

• We are not to lower ourselves, as ministers, to preach about social issues.
• God will use people to do that who are not preachers.
• But we must preach the WORD.
• THE BIBLE.
• The things of the Kingdom of God.
Deut 32:2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

THE FIRST PASSAGE WE READ TODAY IS VITALLY IMPORTANT:

Isai 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

Isai 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.
 

• NO.
• Those will occur, but that is not the CRUX of the latter rain.
• The latter rain is WORD OF GOD that is sent forth to accomplish something in our lives.
• PREACHING that causes FRUIT TO GROW IN ONE LAST PUSH towards harvest.
• Without that preaching, there will be no fruit.

Did you know that the LATTER RAIN does not come on a person simply because the TIME IS RIGHT for it?

• The Bible teaches us that we must be obedient to God for the rain to come.
 

Levi 26:3-4 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Zech 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; [so] the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

If you do not pray to have WORD preached to you that will make you produce fruit, then YOU WILL HAVE NOT -- BECAUSE YOU ASKED NOT.

Do you realize how important it is for you to know the truth?

• When you get a fear of God, like you should have it, then you will pray that God will give you the words that will cause you to PRODUCE THE FRUIT THAT GOD IS LOOKING FOR.
• He is not looking for whatever WE THINK He should look for.
• He is looking for what HE CHOSE TO LOOK FOR, and we better figure out what that is, and correct any false opinions we might have on the issue.
• What we think its true does not change God’s mind as to what he chose to be true.

Pray that I always PREACH THAT WORD that you are going to need in order to produce the fruit that He is going to return to receive.

And if I am preaching it, then YOU NEED TO MAKE SURE YOU OBEY IT AND BELIEVE IT.

• Not because it is ME who is preaching it, but because you prayed for RAIN that you might produce fruit, and you need to receive the RAIN so it can do its work in you.

• Today is Thanksgiving in Canada.
• I know the Lord is interested in using this day to speak to us because without thinking of the day at all, the Lord led me to study the issue of rendering fruit to God when the great day of Harvest arrives.
• Jesus looked over at a farmer sowing seeds and compared that to the Kingdom of God.
• He used social issues of His day to preach the Kingdom.
• There is a great day of Harvest coming.
• That day is the rapture.
 

Reve 14:14-16  And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud [one] sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.

• Sheaves of souls will be gathered that day.

God planted a Garden one day.

Gene 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

• After going into some explanatory detail of what we just read in that verse, we read this reiterating that basic thought of putting man in a Garden.
 

Gene 2:15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

• Husbandmen were people who tended farms and gardens and vineyards.
• Their basic duty was to KEEP the Garden and maintain its purpose to produce fruit.

Zech 13:5 …I [am] an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.

• “Man taught me to keep…”
• This idea of man being a husbandman is continued throughout the entire Bible.
• It is so often repeated that we know there is a MAJOR issue we are dealing with when we refer to a Harvest and the Fruit the Lord desires to obtain.
• God put a husbandman in the Garden in order to see that husbandman produce in that Garden what God intended it to produce.

Phil 4:17Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.

 

Psal 1:3And 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.

Matt 21:33-35Hear 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: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 

Matt 21:36-39  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].

• The Old Testament prophets warned the deceitful Hebrew leaders of how they were to present the fruit to the householder, but they were not doing their jobs.
• Finally Jesus Himself came to Israel, and they killed him, by crucifying Him.
 

Matt 21:40-41 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.

• The hearers of the parable knew what recourse to take should husbandmen not render the fruits to the householder.
• And the Church will render to God the fruits He set out to recover in the first place.

• The Church will do it as a whole.
• But the question is, Will you be a part of that Church, and part of the ones who render fruit to God.
• Every single one of us must concern ourselves with whether or not we will bear fruit to the Lord.
• As Jesus said in John 15, he is the vine and we are the branches. If we do not bear fruit we will be cut off and cast away.
• I WANT TO BEAR THE FRUIT THAT HE WANTS ME TO BEAR.

John 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

A life that brings total praise and Glory to God and God alone is a life that is bearing the fruit that He is coming for.
 

Don’t miss that point!!
 

This is the whole point of telling us we MUST bring forth fruit.

• It is FRUIT OF GIVING TOTAL GLORY TO GOD.

• What God did in the Garden was very good.
• All that the Lord provided for Adam was all that Adam would ever need.
• He made the trees good for food and pleasant to the sight.
• Adam was complete in the Garden.
• And He simply had to KEEP it that way.

• It was able to make one wise.
• Satan tempted Eve to ADD to what God provided for her and Adam.
• But God told Adam to KEEP it the way God made it.
• Satan knew that by ADDING one small addition to what God provided, man would lose out with God.
• IT WOULD ROB GOD OF PRAISE.
• That single addition was something that would cause man to exalt himself.
• And every addition to what God has provided to his people will be additions that cause us to remove glory from God onto ourselves.
• Notice the nature of what Satan added to the work God already provided for Adam.
• “A TREE ABLE TO MAKE ONE WISE.”
• It was a tempting thing to think she would be greater and more wise.
• Satan always adds things that exalt yourself instead of God.
• He knows that such a thing will bring you down as it brought him down.

• But being gods, glorifies ourselves.

The Gospel is set up in such a way by God that all glory will go to Him if we get saved AND KEEP IT THE WAY GOD SAVED US.

• As Adam was to KEEP the Garden, we are to KEEP OURSELVES.
 

Jude 1:21  Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

 

1Joh 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

• They will not render to us the proper RAIN that will cause us to produce fruit God wants.
• They are the products of MAN’S OWN HANDS, and therefore man will invariably WORSHIP himself to some degree if he worships the idol.
• THEY CANNOT GIVE RAIN.
 

Jere 14:22  Are there [any] among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? [art] not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these [things].

 

Acts 15:29That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

 

Josh 6:18And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make [yourselves] accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

• Once we are IN CHRIST, and saved, like in A GARDEN, we must KEEP THE GARDEN.
• KEEP OURSELVES the way God saved us to be.

• You cannot be more saved than what you were when first saved.
• You can lose that salvation, but you cannot become more saved than being saved.
• Your robes are white as snow when you are saved.
• You are as righteous as Jesus Christ, because He gave you His righteousness when you were saved.

• DON’T THINK THAT YOU HAVE TO BECOME RIGHTEOUS after you are saved.
• You have been fooled to ADD to what God did.
• The only changing there will be after we are saved, is simply ESTABLISHING OURSELVES IN WHAT GOD DID FOR US, so we cannot be convinced to add anything.

• The enemy will try to steal you as a trophy out of the Lord’s salvation by GETTING YOU TO ADD TO WHAT GOD DID.
• If he can convince you that God did not provide all you need in Christ, and that you MUST ADD something else, then he will succeed in removing you like a trophy captured in a battle against the Church.

• They took these things as trophies of the victory.
• Paul told us :…
 

Colo 2:8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Satan spoiled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, stealing them out.

• Jesus came and SPOILED you from the devil when He saved you and took you back to the Garden again.
• Colo 2:15 [And] having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
• And now the devil wants to once again SPOIL YOU this time from the Garden of being in Christ.

Gene 2:15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

• Read it carefully.

Colo 2:6-7As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, [so] walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 

Colo 2:8-10Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

• Standing firm on the fact that all the salvation that could ever occur, already occurred the moment you were first saved is giving glory to God.
• Standing on the fact that you cannot save yourself any more than when you were saved the moment God did the work in your life, is saying YOU CANNOT ADD ANYTHING TO WHAT GOD DID, BECAUSE HE MADE YOU COMPLETE IN Him, AND THAT GLORIFIES GOD!

• Keep living like that and you will bear much fruit to God when the harvest occurs.

• DRESS IT.
• Dressing the Garden is similar to what Paul said when he told the Colossians to get established in the faith.
• Getting established is not just being saved.
• It is being saved and then taking steps to assure that you REMAIN SAVED.
• You get rooted in Christ.
• (None of this would be necessary if the doctrine of “once-saved-always-saved” were true).

You have got to be careful!

• There are people who are building houses without any foundation beneath them.
• Jesus said in Matthew 7 that the fool built his house on sand and the storms threw it down.
• The foundation is Christ crucified.
 

1Cor 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

All the church-attendance and all the Bible reading is going to be tainted with worship of self if we do not totally seek to glorify God.

• We will pray so that people will think we are very spiritual.
• We will worship exuberantly so that people will be impressed.
• (I believe in exuberant worship, but only in total glory to God).
• We will attend church faithfully, only to impress people.
• WE MUST BE CAREFUL TO GIVE GOD ALL THE GLORY!

To think that they cannot ever live victoriously IS TO CHEAPEN THE GOSPEL.

• They look at themselves, and are so beaten down within that they base the likelihood of their entrance into Heaven UPON THEMSELVES.
• SINCE THEY FEEL THEY ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH, they believe that their salvation is not good enough.
• They are PLAGUED by the thought that they do not line up to par like they need to in order to be raptured.
• AND WITHOUT REALIZING IT THEY HAVE NULLIFIED THEIR FOUNDATION.
• THEY MADE THE WORK OF GOD SEEM INSUFFICIENT.
• Most of these people have no concept that God makes people BLAMELESS AS SOON AS THEY ARE SAVED.
• And these people have some twisted story in their hearts believing that they must ACHIEVE blamelessness through some extreme effort of their own that they do not believe they can ever accomplish.
• AND THE Y DON’T KNOW THAT THE DEVIL ADDED A LIE TO THE GOSPEL IN THEIR HEARTS.
• And these people won’t be saved.
• NOT BECAUSE OF WHAT THEY THINK, THOUGH.

• We need to learn to live more righteously.
• But that does not save us any more than what we already are saved.
• For example, when we sin, we simply are to repent and truly be sorry and believe God will wash us white as snow once again like He did when He first saved us.
• The same blood of Jesus that originally washed us also is there for us to deal with trespasses we commit after we are saved.
• There does not have to be any more work done for that provision.
• Its from the same sacrifice of Jesus that saved us.

The True Thanksgiving Day will be the Day when Jesus appears and our lives have been totally based upon WHAT HE DID to save us, and a refusal to add to anything that He did.

• We did not yield to the temptation to USE JESUS to show ourselves off, as though we were so good and so holy.
• We hated the very thoughts of WANTING people to glory in us since it is that much glory that will be removed from Jesus.
 

Phil 3:7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

• THAT is the fruit of the harvest He is coming for.

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