By Edwin Harper
There is a spirit in this world that to face, goes back to the same scripture; he sins and you don’t tell him, his blood hands. So, here is the destroying of the Harvest”
No one in here wants, if you see a man and will I require at your harvest. I want you to know tonight church, the reason why it’s so important that we keep Calvary Tabernacle in tact; one body, one
spirit, one unity, one direction, one heartbeat, one feeling from God, this has been the mother load of this city. As Calvary has gone, so has gone the Pentecostals, the revival, the move of God, this has been the
heartbeat of it. Now I see a great harvest field, now who would light a match that would burn the harvest? Who would be so simple minded? So arrogant? So interested in their own way that they would ever tear down the harvest field, the very reason that there was a Calvary was so this whole city could be saved, the very reason there was a palace hall was so this city could be healed, the reason there was a Gethsemane was so this city could be counted. Now who would waste all of the effort of the great sower if we would take that away from him? I feel the Holy Ghost in here. I hear a cadence from another world in this sanctuary right now, I feel a direction being taken that God wants us to know something. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. I’m talking about a lesson from the harvest. The same ground that grows good wheat,
grows good tare. “Tare and wheat look the same, until harvest is white.
The only way you can tell tare from the wheat, is when harvest comes, the wheat head fills up with grain and it bows over. But when the ole tare is empty it just stands up tall and proud. But you can’t tell that until harvestime. But then even after you can tell it, you can’t do anything about it. You got to go through that wheat field and harvest. When you harvest you get it all.
The third and fourth chapters of Corinthians tell me of what a sorry bunch of church members this Corinthian church is. The best way that it is described is this; Paul said, some are carnal and in this
church that means they still juke and jive when they should be singing amazing grace. But the value of leaving a tare alone is practiced in the life of Jesus Christ. Did not I choose 12 and one of you is a devil. He is not telling us to do something he doesn’t practice. We always think the Lord gives us commandments that none can live up to.
He was tempted in all points as we are tempted, yet without sin. Evidently, he thought plucking tares up was an awful sinful position to put ourselves in.
Simon is a very unique person. He is identified in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as Simon the Pharisee in one place. Simon the leper in another. So when it’s time for Jesus to have a great celebration just a week before the Passover, when he was on his way to Calvary, he stops by the little community of Bethany. When he gets to Bethany they finally break down and tell us who Simon the leper is. Who is the Pharisee? It says Simon the Leper was a title he wore because somewhere in his life he was a leper, but in order for him to entertain the general public, something had happened in Simons life that he was no longer an outcast, he was no longer diseased, no longer crippled, no longer wretched. Somebody had walked through his world and his name was Jesus. I don’t know if he found him outside the city or in the stone pile behind Bethany. Somewhere Jesus found Simon and when he looked at him he said go and show yourself to the priest, and
then go back home and show yourself to your family, because you are saved.
The Bible doesn’t tell us where Judas Iscariot came to the Lord, but I’m going to tell you what, there is a strong possibility that when the word spread, there never spake a man like this man. It’s an absolute possibility that, that was the day when daddy came home. His finger had grown back and his ear was back on the side of his face, and his nostril was cleared, but he walked in and put his arms around his wife. It’s altogether possible that that is the day Judas Iscariot said, “Where is he, let me find this man.” Jesus knows what he was.
Simon the leoper wasn’t in as good as shape as you people are here today, because he hadn’t received the gift of the Holy Ghost yet and spoken in other tongues. But Jesus is going to show us something, I’m
willing to tolerate death if it taketh, to tolerate the tare, because I’m not going to take the possibility of a man’s mama and daddy, brother, sister. Oh church there is nothing more precious than that person sitting down the pew from you. There is nothing more important to God than that fragile soul that is one heartbeat from eternity. We can either make them happy or make them sad. We can either encourage
them or discourage them. The Bible saith a letter kills but the spirit makes alive. My spirit affects how you feel. Somebody came to Mr. Lincoln one time and said, “Mr. Lincoln how do you feel about Mr. Douglas the debator?” Mr. Lincoln said, “absolutely one the finest men that ever lived, one of the greatest statesmen and orator that have ever graced the podiums of America.” The man stopped Mr. Lincoln and said, “Did you know that he thought that you was crummy and that you dressed sloppy, you were and old country hick that slaughtered the kings English? Did you know that he actually thinks that you are the most putrid thing that could every happen to the American public?” Mr. Lincoln stopped him and said, “sir, I thought that you asked me about how I felt him, not how he felt about me!” Oh God, could a president of the United States have a better spirit than I’ve got?
Could a man without grace in his life, be a better man of principle than you and I? When are we going to let this Holy Ghost we’ve got in us be all the Holy Ghost that we need? And so therefore, the world shall know that ye are my disciples. Because the choir sings the best in the state, because we can shout louder, because of our pew runners are longer. NO! But because we can talk in tongues louder and longer than anybody else. This old world is going to know that ye are my disciples. Love is a principle of heaven.
