THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST __PARABLES !!!!!!

HEALING THE EPILEPTIC BOY!
MARK 9:17 __Why couldn't the disciples cast out the evil spirit? In 6:13, we read that they cast out devils while on their mission to the villages. Perhaps they had special authority only for that trip, or perhaps their faith was faltering. Mark tells this story to show that victory over sin and temptation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, not through our own efforts. 

THE MINAS (POUNDS) !!!!!!!! 

LUKE 19:11__27 __There are notable differences with the similar parable of Matthew 25:14__30. Likely Jesus told two parables using a similar theme. Here Jesus point, as He approaches Jerusalem and suspense builds, is to
keep His followers from expecting to much too soon. Many of the citizens, the Jews, will not acknowledge the nobleman, Jesus, as their Master. And there will be a period when servants will have opportunity to demonstrate their faithfulness and resourcefulness. Jesus by this instruction braces the disciples for some of the jolts and challenges just ahead__some of which are no less pressing today. 


ALTAR !!!!  MATTHEW    23:18__19
And, whosoever shall swear by the alter, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. : 19 _Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the alter that sanctifieth the gift?

THE PHARISEE AND THE RUBLICAN - LUKE 19:9__14
This house may refer just to the house of Zaccheus. The words seek, save, and lost all appear elsewhere in Scripture in a shepherd context. This verse may be taken as a kernel statement of the central theme of Luke: Jesus is the compassionte, searching Herdsman who seeks to save those who can by no means save themselves.


THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW !!!!!!
LUKE 18:1__8 _If an unjust judge acts in this way, how much more hope may God's children place in God? However, the issue is not God's faithfulness. It is whether believers will persist in supplication, or whether their patience and perseverance will give out by the time Christ finally returns.




UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS
LUKE 17:7__10 _If we have obeyed God, we have only done our duty and we sould regard it as a privilege. Do tou sometimes feel you deserve extra credit for serving God? Remember, obedience is not something extra we do; it is our duty. Jesus is not rendering our service as meaningless or useless, nor is he doing away with rewards. He is attacking unwarranted self-esteem and spiritual pride.



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS !!!!!! __LUKE 19:31
By this time Jesus was extremely well known. Everyone coming to Jerusalem for the Passover feast had heard of him, and for a time the popular mood was in his favor. "The Lord hath need of him" was all the disciples needed to say, and the colt's owners gladly turned their animals over to the disciples.


THE UNJUST STEWARD !!!!!!
LUKE 16:1__13 _LORD is often considered to refer to the steward's master. Yet it may well refer to Jesus, who commends the steward's readiness to reduce the bill when he realizes that he has been found out. In light of impending judgment, by the analogy of this action, men should spare no effect to right their wrongs. For similar uses of the word translated wisely, see 12:42; 1 CORINTHIANS 4:10; 10:15. the same quality of wisdom in the sense of being ready for judgment is seen also in the parable of the 10 virgins, Matthew 25:1__13.



THE PRODIGAL SON !!!!!!!!!!!!
LUKE 15:11__12 _The younger son's share of the estate was one-third (DEUTERONOMY 21:17). In most cases, he would have received this at his father's death, although fathers sometimes chose to divide up their inheritance early and retire from managing their estate. What is unusual here is that the younger one initiated the division of the estate. This showed disregard for his father's authority as head of the family.


THE LOST COIN !!!!
LUKE 15:8__10 _If a woman and her neighbors delight in recovering a solitary coin, and if a shepherd takes joy in rescuing a single sheep, how much more praiseworthy is the salvation of a sinner?? While some portray God as impersonal or aloof from human affairs, Jesus here teaches of His concern for every individual.

BUILDING A TOWER AND A KING MAKING WAR !!!!
LUKE 14:25__35 _Jesus audience was well aware of what it meant to carry one's own cross. When the Romans led a criminal to his execution site, he was forced to carry the cross on which he would die. This showed his submission to Rome and warned oberservers that they'd better submit too. Jesus gave this teaching to get the crowds to think through their enthusiasm for him. He encouraged the superficial either to go deeper or to turn back. Following Christ means total submission to him__perhaps even death.



THE GREAT SUPPER !!!!!!!
LUKE 14:16__24 _In this chapter we read Jesus words against seeking status, and in favor of hard work and even suffering. Let's not lose sight of the purpose of all our humility and self-sacrifice__a joyous banquet with our Lord! God never asks us to suffer for the sake of suffering. He never asks us to give up something good unless he plans to replace it with something even better. He is not calling us to join him in a labor camp but in a feast__the marriage supper of the Lamb (REVELATION 19:6__9), when God and his beloved church will be joined forever.

THE BARREN FIG TREE !!!!!
LUKE 13:6__9 _In the Old Testament, a fruitful tree was often used as a symbol of godly living. Jesus pointed out what would happen to the other kind of tree__the kind that took time and space and still produced nothing for listeners that God would not tolerate forever their lack of productivity. Have you been enjoying God's special treatment without giving anything in return? If so, respond to the Gardener's patient care, and begin to bear the fruit God has created you to produce. 

FAITHFUL AND WISE STEWARD !!!!
LUKE 12:42__48 _Jesus promises a reward for those who have been faithful to the Master. While we sometimes experience immediate and material rewards for our obedience to God, this is not always the case. If so, we would be tempted to boast about our achievements and do good only for what we get. Jesus said that if we look for rewards now, we will lose them later (see MARK 8:36). Our heavenly rewards will be the most accurate reflection of what we have done on earth and far greater than we can imagine.

THE FAITHFUL SERVANT AND THE EVIL SERVANT !!!!!!
LUKE 12:35__40 _Jesus repeatedly said he would leave this world but would return at some future time (see MATTHEW 24__25; JOHN 14:1__3). He also said a Kingdom is being prepared for his followers. Many Greeks envisioned this as a heavenly, idealized, spiritual Kingdom. Jews__like Isaiah and John, the writer of Revelation__saw it as a restored earthly Kingdom.

THE RICH FOOL !!!!!!
LUKE 16:21 _And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

A FRIEND IN NEED !!!!!
LUKE 11:5__13 _Good fathers, even though they make mistakes, treat their children well. How much better our perfect heavenly Father treats his children! The most important gift he could ever give us is the Holy Spirit (ACTS 2:1__4), whom he promised to give all believers after his death, resurrection, and return to heaven (JOHN 15:26).

THE GOOD SAMARITAN !!!!
LUKE 10:37 _The lawyer cannot even bring himself to say "the Samaritan." Jesus shows that racial considerations are utterly transcended by God's command to love Him, and thus to love others as He does, without prejudice or partiality.

THE ABSENT HOUSEHOLDER !!!!

MARK 13:33__37 _Months of planning go into a wedding, the birth of a baby, career change, a speaking engagement, the purchase of a home. Do you place the same importance on preparing for Christ's return? His return is the most imprtant event in your life. Its results will last for enternity. You dare not postpone preparing for it, because you do not know when it will occur. The only way to prepare is to study God's Word and live by its instructions each day.  

THE GROWING SEED !!!!MARK 4:26__29 _The point of this parable is that God causes the gospel to bear fruit and His kingdom to grow. Just how He does these thing we do not fully understand.__This parable about the Kingdom of God, recorded only by Mark, reveals that spiritual growth is a continual, gradual, process that is finally consummated in a harvest of spiritual maturity. We can understand the process of spiritual growth by comparing it to the slow but certain growth of a plant.

CLASSIC SERMONS - FROM THE 1800S

OUR MOTTO - CHAPTER #1
With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.
              (EPHESIANS 6:7)
THIS SENTENCE WAS expressly addressed to "Servants," which term includes, and first of all intends, those who unhappily were slaves. There were many slaves in the Roman Empire, and the form of bondage that then existed was of the bitterest kind.
I can imagine a slave becoming a Christian and so finding peace as to his former guilt, and obtaining renewal of heart. Then, although rejoicing in the Lord, I can well conceive that he would often be downcast in view of his sad condition as a bondsman. I see him sitting down and moaning to himself: "I am a bondsman under a tyrant master. I have already endured many cruelties, and may expect many more. I would be free, but there is no hope of escape, since there is no place to which I can flee, for Caesar's arm is long. It would reach me at the very ends of the earth. I cannot purchase my liberty, nor earn it by long years of faithful servitude; neither can my fellow-bondsman effect our deliverance by rebellion, for this has been tried and has ended in terrible bloodshed. I am hopelessly a slave. What shall I sustain my fate? My life is well-nigh intolerable: would to God it were at an end."
# 2 _I can imagine the poor bondman going to his cramped up bed under the star__for in any hole or corner the Roman slave might find such little rest as was allowed him__and there he would almost wish to sleep himself into another world. Being a Christian, as I have supposed, he pours out his heart before God in prayer, and in answer to his cry the Lord Jesus sets before him the rich consolation that he has provided for
all that mourn__consolation strong enough to enable him to endure to the end, and glorify the name of Jesus even under such hard conditions.
# 3 _While yet troubled in mind, this freeman of the Lord, who is yet in bonds to man, is met by the Savior himself. He appears to him__I will not say in such form as could be perceived by the eyes, but in vision clear enough to be exceedingly influential over his spirit. Jesus stands before him. The five wounds adorning him like precious rubies are infallible tokens; the face lit up with an unearthly splendor is still marked with the old lines of sorrow, and the head bears the throncrown still about its brow. The poor slave casts himself at his Redeemer's feet with astonishment, with awe, and with intense delight. Then I think I hear those dear lips, which are as lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh, saying to his poor servant, "Fulfill thy service bravely. Do it unto me. Forget thy tyrant master and remember only me. Bear on, work on, suffer on, and do all as unto me, and not unto men." Then I think I see the broken-hearted captive rising up refreshed with inward strength, and I hear him say, "I will even bear the yoke until my Lord shall call me away. Unless His providence shall open for me a door of liberty I will patiently abide where I am and suffer all His will. Hopefully and joyfully serve because He bids me do it for his sake.."

# 4 _THE MOTTO: I SERVE
A vision that would so greatly comfort the poor Roman slave in his extremity may well stand before each one of us. Let us each hear our Savior say, "Live unto Me, and do all for My sake." Our service is so much more pleasant and easy than that of Slaves, let us perform it "with good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not to men." Our princely motto is "I serve." Be this sentence emblazoned on our banner, and used as the battle-cry of life's campaign. Notice well that the Holy Spirit does not bid us leave our stations in order to serve the Lord. He does not bid us forego the domestic relations that made us husbands or wives, parents or children, masters or servants. He does not suggest to us to put on a peculiar garb and seek the seclusion of a hermitage, or the retirement of monastic or conventual life. Nothing of the kind is hinted at, but He bids the sarvant continue in his or her service__"with good will doing service." Our great Captain would not have you hope to win the victory by leaving your post. He would have you abide in your trade, calling, or profession, and all the while serve the Lord in it, doing the will of God from the heart in common things. 
# 5 _This is the practical beauty of our holy faith, that when it casts the devil out of a man it sends him home to bless his friends by telling them how great things the Lord has done for him. Grace does not transplant the tree, but bids it overshadow the old house at home as before, and bring forth good fruit where it is. Grace does not make us unearthly, though it makes us unworldly. True religion distinguishes us from others, even as our Lord Jesus was separate from sinners, but it does not shut us up or hedge us round about as if we were too good or too tender for the rough usage of everyday life. It does not put us in the salt box and shut the lid down, but it casts us in among our fellow men for their good. Grace makes us the servants of God while still we are the servants of men. It enables us to do the business of heaven while we are attending to the business of earth. And it sanctifies the common duties of life by showing us how to perform them in the light of heaven. The love of Christ makes the lowliest acts sublime. As the sunlight brightens a landscape and sheds beauty over the commonest scene, so does the presence of the Lord Jesus. The spirit of consecration renders the offices of domestic servitude as sublime as the worship which is presented upon the sea of glass before the eternal throne, by spirits to whom the courts of heaven are their familiar home. 
# 6 _OUR MOTTO: "AS TO THE LORD, AND NOT TO MEN"
I suggest my text to all believers as the motto of their lives. Whether we are servants or masters, whether we are poor or rich, let us take this as our watchword, "As to the Lord, and not to men." Henceforth may this be the engraving of our seal and the motto of our coat of arms; the constant rule of our life, and the sum of our motive. In advocating this gracious aim of our being, let me say that if we are enabled to adopt this motto it will, first to all, influence our work itself: and, secondly, it will elevate our spirit concerning that work. Yet let me add, thirdly, that if the Lord shall really be the all in all of our lives, it is after all only what He has a right to expect, and what we are under a thousand obligations to give to Him.
# 7 _THIS MOTTO WILL INFLUENCE OUR WORK
Our subject opens with this reflection, that if henceforth whether we live we live unto the Lord, or whether we die we die unto the Lord (ROMANS 14:8), this consecration will greatly influence our entire work. Do you say, my brother, that henceforth your whole life shall be a service to the Lord? Then it will follow, first, that you will have to live with a single eye to His glory. See how in verse 5 we are told, "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ." If we do indeed live "as to the Lord," we must needs live wholly to the Lord. The Lord Jesus is a most engrossing Master. He has said, "No man can serve two masters" (MATTHEW 6:24) and we shall find it so. He will have everything or nothing. If indeed He be our Lord, he must be sole sovereign, for He will not tolerate a rival.
# 8 _It comes to pass then, O Christian, that you are bound to live for Jesus and for Him alone. You must have no co-ordinate or even secondary object or divided aim. If you do divide your heart, your life will be a failure. As no dog can follow two hares at one time, or he will lose both, certainly no man can follow two contrary objects and hope to secure either of them. No, it behooves a servant of Christ to be a concentrated man. His affections should be bound up into one affection, and that affection should not be set on things on the earth, but on things above; his heart must not be divided, or it will be said of him as of those in Hosea, "Their heart is divided; now shall they be found wanting" (10:2).
# 10 _Next, to do service to the Lord we must live with holy carefulness, for what said the context? We are to serve "with fear and trembling" (verse 5). In the service of God we should use great care to accomplish our very best, and we should feel a deep anxiety to please Him in all things. There is a trade called paper-staining, in which a man flings colors upon the paper to make common wall decorations, and by rapid processes acres of paper can by speedily finished. Suppose that the paper-stainer should laugh at an eminent artist because he had covered such a little space, having been stippling and shading a little tiny piece of his picture by the hour together, such ridicule would itself be ridiculous. Now the world's way of religion is the paper-stainer's way, the daubing way. There is plenty of it, and it is quickly done. But God's way, the narrow way, is a careful matter; there is but little of it, and it costs thought, effort, watchfulness, and care. Yet see how precious is the work of art when it is done and how long it last's and you will not wonder that a man spends his time upon it: even so true godliness is acceptable with God, and it endures for ever, and therefore it well repays the earnest effort of the man of God. The miniature painter has to be very careful of every touch and tint, for a very little may spoil his work. Let our life be a miniature painting; "with fear and trembling" let it be wrought out.
# 11 _We are serving the thrice Holy God, who will be revered by all that come near to him, let us mind what we do. Our blessed Master never made a faulty stroke when he was serving his Father; he never lived a careless hour, nor let drop an idle word. Oh, it was a careful life he lived. Even the night watches were not without the deep anxieties that poured themselves forth in prayer unto God: and if you and I think that the firstthing which comes to hand will do to serve our God with, we made a great mistake, and grossly insult His name. We must have a very low idea of His infinite majesty if we think that we can honor Him by doing his service half-heartedly, or in a slovenly style. No, if you will indeed live "as to the Lord, and not unto man," you must watch each motion of your heart and life, or you will fail in your design.
# 12 _Living as to the Lord means living with a concentrated spirit and loving with earnest care that our one service may be the best of which we are capable when at our best estate. Alas, how poor is that best when we reach it! Truly, when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants, but that is seldom reached. Further, if henceforth our desire is to live "as to the Lord, and not unto men," then what we do must be done with the heart. "In singleness of your heart," says the context; and again in the sixth verse, "As the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart."
# 13 _Our work for Jesus must be the outgrowth to the soil of the heart. Our seivice must not be performed as a matter of routine: there must be vigor, power, freshness, reality, eagerness, and warmth about it, or it will be good for nothing. No fish ever came upon God's alter because it could not come there alive; the Lord wants none of your dead, heartless worship. You know what is meant by putting heart into all that we do; explain it by your lives. A work that is to be accepted of the Lord must be heart-work throughout__not a few thoughts of Christ occasionally, and a few chill words and a few change gifts, and a little done by way of by-play__but as the heart beats so must we serve God: it must be our very life. We are not to treat our religion as though it were a sort of off-hand farm that we were willing to keep going but not to make much of, our chief thoughts being engrossed with the home farm of self and the world, with its gains and pleasures. Our Lord will be out Caesar out nullus, either ruler or nothing. My Master is a jealous husband: He will not tolerate a stray thought of love elsewhere, and He thinks it scorn that they who call themselves His beloved should love others better than himself. Such unchastity of heart can never be permitted, let us not dream of it.
# 14 _We may not claim to be His if we give Him only lip service, and brain service, and had service; He must have the heart. Oh, our beloved Lord, You did not spare Your heart from agony for us. The lance set it abroach with all its costly double flood for our unworthy sakes; therefore You cannot be content to receive in return lifeless forms and cold pertences. You did live indeed; there was no sham about thy life. In all you did, You were intense. The zeal of your Father's house had eaten you up. You were clad with zeal as with a cloak with covered Thee from head to foot. Let us live somewhat after this glorious fashion, for your servant only truly lives when he lives as his Master. "He that is perfect shall be as his Master" (LUKE 6:40).
# 15 _If we are to live to the Lord, the fountains of our soul must flow with boiling floods, and our life must be like a great Icelandic geyser casting us its columns of water, which seethe and boil as they rise. As great earthquakes shake the very center, so must there be movements of life within us which stir our soul with vehement longings for Jesus and with intense yearnings for his glory. All our light and life must turn to love, and that love must be all on flame for Jesus. If we truly live unto Christ, it must be so.
# 16 _What else said the passage before us? If we say, henceforth I will do the will of God as to the Lord and not unto men, then we must do it under subjection: for note well the words, "doing the will of God." Some people's religion is only another way of doing their own will. They pick and choose what precepts they shall keep and what they shall neglect, what doctrines they shall hold and what they shall refuse: their spirit is not bowed into sacred servitude, but takes license to act according to its own pleasure. The freedom of a Christian lies in what I will venture to call an absolute slavery to Christ; and we never become truly free till every thought is brought into subjection to the will of the Most High.]
# 17 _Now if henceforth I live to God, I have no longer any right to say, "I will do this or that," but I must inquire, "My Master, what would thou have me to do?" As the eyes of the maidens are to their mistress, so are our eyes up to thee, O Lord. Believer, thy Master is to will for thee henceforth. It is idle to say, "I shall live as to the Lord and not unto men," when all the while we intend to live in our own fashion. Which is to be master now, self or Christ? On every point this question must be settled: for if on any point we assume the personal mastery the rule of Jesus is wholly refused. To go or to stand still, to suffer or to be in pleasure, to be in honor or to be in disgrace, is no more to be at our option. If we have a momentary choice, it is to be cheerfully resigned before the sovereignty of Him whom we have now taken to be our all in all. There is no being a Christian if Christ does not have the throne in the heart and life. It is but the mockery of Christianity to call Jesus Master and Lord while we do not the things which he commands.
# 18 _We must do all this under a sense of the Divine oversight. Notice in verse 6 it is said of servants, "Not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers." What a mean and beggarly thing it is for a man only to do his work well when he is watched. Such oversight is for boys at school and mere hirelings. You never think of watching noble-spirited men. Here is a young apprentice set to copy a picture: his master stands over him and looks over each line, for the young scapegrace will grow careless and spoil his work, or take to his games if he be not well looked after. Did anybody thus dream of supervising Raphael and Michaelangelo to keep them to their work? No, the master artist requires no eye to urge him on. Popes and emperors came to visit the great painters in their studios, but did they paint the better because these grandees gazed upon them? Certainly not; perhaps they did all the worse in the excitement or the worry of the visit. They had regard to something better than the eye of pompous personage. Likewise, the true Christian wants no eye of man to watch him. There may be pastors and preachers who are the better for being looked after by bishops and presbyters; but fancy a bishop overseeing the work of Martin Luther, and trying to quicken his zeal; or imagine a presbyter looking after Calvin to keep him sound in the faith. Oh, no; gracious minds outgrow the governance.and stimulus that come of the oversight of mortal man.
# 19 _God's own Spirit dwells within us, and we serve the Lord from an inward principle, which is not fed from without. There is about a real Christian a pervailing sense that God sees him, and he does not care who else may set his eye upon him; it is enough for him that God is there. He hath small respect to the eye of man, he neither courts nor dreads it. Let the good deed remain in the dark, for God sees it there, and that is enough; or let it be blazoned in the light of day to be pecked at by the cersorious, for it little matters who censures since God approves. This is to be a true servant of Christ: to escape from being an eye-servant to men by becoming in the sublimest sense an eye-servant, working ever beneath the eye of God. If we did but realize this, how well we should live! If now I recollect, as I try to do, that God hears each word I speak to you from this pulpit; that he reads my soul as I address you in his name, how ought I to preach? And if you go to your Sunday school class this afternoon, and picture Jesus sitting among the boys and girls, and hearing how you teach them, hoe earnestly you will teach. At home when you are about to scold a servant; or in the shop, when you think to do a rater sharp thing, if you think your Master stands there and sees it all, what a power it will have over you! Our lives should all be spent under the spell of "Thou God seest me" (GENESIS 16:13), and we should each be able to declare, "I have set the Lord always before me" (PSALM 16:8).
# 20 _One more thought, and it is this. If henceforth we are to serve the Lord, and not men, then we must look to the Lord for our reward, and not to men. "Knowing," said the eighth verse, "that whatsoever good thing any man does, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free." Wage! Is that the motive of a Christian? Yes, in the highest sense, for the greatest of the saints, such as Moses, have "had respect unto the recompense of the reward" (HEBREWS 11:26), and it were like despising the reward that God promises to His people if we had no respect whatever unto it. Respect unto the reward that comes of God kills the selfishness that is always expecting a reward from men. We can postpone our reward, and we can be content instead of receiving present praise, to be misunderstood and misrepresented. We can postpone our reward, and we can endure instead thereof to be disappointed in our work, and to labor on without success, for when the reward does come how glorious it will be! An hour with Jesus will make up for a lifetime of persecution! One smile from Him will repay us a thousand times over for all disappointments and discouragements. Thus you see, brethren, that if we do in very deed make this our rule and maxim__"As to the Lord, and not to men"__our work will be shaped and fashioned most wonderfully. May God grant that the influence of this motive may manifestly sway our whole life henceforth, until we close it for this world, and commence it anew where we shall no need to shift our course, but shall continue eternally to live to the Lord alone.
OUR MOTTO WILL ELEVATE OUR SPIRIT
May the Holy Spirit guide us while we reflect, secondly, that should this text become the inspiration of our life it would greatly elevate our spirits. What would it do for us? First, it would lift us above all complaining about the hardness of our lot, or the difficulty of our service. "Alas," says one, "I am worn out. I cannot keep on at this rate. My position is so terribly trying that I cannot hold on much longer: it strains not only muscle and sinew, but nerve and heart. Nobody could bear my burden long: my husband is cruel, my friend is unkind, my children are ungrateful." Ah, poor heart, there are many others who wear the weeping-willow as well as thyself. But be of good courage, and look at thy case in another light. If the burden is to be borne for Jesus sake, who loved thee and gave Himself for thee, by whose precious blood thou art redeemed from the pains of hell, can thou not bear it? :That is quite another thing," say you. "I could not bear it for a passionate, froward mistress, but I could do anything that I could bear anything for Jesus." This makes all the difference__"For Him I count as gain each loss,
Disgrace for Him, renown; Well may I glory in His cross, 
While He prepares my crown!"
# 22 _We are satisfied to bear any cross so long as it is His cross. What wonders men can do when they are influenced by enthusiastic love for a leader! Alexander's troops marched thousands of miles on foot, and they would have been utterly wearied had it not been for their zeal for Alexander. He led them forth conquering and to conquer. Alexander's presence was the life of their valor, the glory of their strength. If there was a very long day's march over burning sands, one thing they knew__Alexander marched with them. If they were thirsty, they knew that he thirsted too, for when one brought a cup of water to the king, he put it aside, thirsty as he was, and said, "Give it to the sick soldier."
# 23 _Once it so happened that they were loaded with the spoil which they had taken, and each man had become rich with goodly garments and wedges of gold. Then they began to travel very slowly with so much to carry, and the king feared that he should not overtake his foe. Having a large quantity of spoil that fell to his own share, he burned it all before the eyes of his soldiers and bade them do the like that they might pursue the enemy and win even more. "Alexander's portion lies beyond," cried he. Seeing the king's own spoils on fire, his warriors were content to give up their gains also and share with their king. He did himself what he commanded others to do: in self-denial and hardship he was a full partaker with his followers.
# 24 _After this fashion our Lord and Master acts towards us. He says, in effect, "Renounce pleasure for the good of others. Deny yourself, and take up your cross. Suffer, though you might avoid it; labor, though you might rest, when God's glory demands suffering or labor of you. Have not I set you sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich" (2 CORINTHIANS 8:9). He stripped Himself of all things that He might clothe us with His glory. O, brothers and sisters, when we heartily serve such a leader as this, and are fired by His Spirit, then murmuring, and complaining, and weariness, and fainting of heart are altogether fled: a divine passion carries us beyond ourselves.
"I can do all things, or can bear
All suffering if my Lord be there."
# 25 _Next, this lifts the Christian above the spirit of stinting. I believe great numbers of working men__I am not going to judge them for it__always consider how little they can possibly do to earn their wages, and for the wages?" that used to be; but, "How little can we give? How little work can we do in the day without being discharged for idleness?" Many men say, "We must not do all the work today, for we shall need something to do tomorrow: our masters will not give us more than they can help, and therefore we will not give them more than we are obliged to." This is the general spirit on both sides, and as a nation we are going to the dogs because that spirit is among us. We shall be more and more beaten by foreign competition if this spirit is cultivated.
# 26 _Among Christians such a notion cannot be tolerated in the service of our Lord Jesus. It never does  for a minister to say, "If I preach three times a week it is quite as much as anybody will expect of me; therefore I shall do no more." It will never be right for you to say, "I am a Sunday school teacher. If I get into the class to the minute__some of you do not do that__and if I stop just as long as the class lasts, I need not look after the boys and girls through the week. I cannot be bothered with them. I will do just as much as I am bound to do, but no more."
# 27 _In a certain country town it was reported that the grocer's wife cut a plum in two, for fear there should be a grain more than weight in the parcel, and the folks called her Mrs. Split-plum. Ah, there are many Split-plums in religion. They do not want to do more for Jesus than may be absolutely necessary. They would like to give good weight, but they would be sorry to be convicted of doing too much. Ah, when we get to feel we are doing service for our Lord Jesus Christ, we adopt a far more liberal scale. Then we do not calculate how much ointment will suffice for His feet, but we give Him all that our box contains. Is this your talk, "Here, bring the scales, this ointment cost a great deal of money, we must be economical. Watch every drachm, yea, every scruple and gain, for the nard is costly"? If this be your cool manner of calculation, your offering is not worth a fig.
# 28 _This was not the attitude of that daughter of love of whom we read in the gospels, she broke the box and poured out all the contents upon her Lord. "To what purpose is this waste?" (MATTHEW 26:8), cried Judas. It was Judas who thus spoke, and you know therefore the worth of the observation. Christ's servants delight to give so much as to be thought wasteful, for they feel that when they have in the judgment of others done extravagantly for Christ, they have but begun to show their heart's love for His dear name. Thus the elevating power of the spirit of consecration lifts us up above the wretched parsimony of mere formality. 
# 29 _Again, this raises us up above all boasting of our work. "Is the work good enough?" said one to his servant. The man replied, "Sir, it is good enough for the price: and it is good enough for the man who is going to have it." Just so, and when we "serve" men we may perhaps rightly judge in that fashion, but when we come to serve Christ, is anything good enough for Him? Could our zeal know no respite, could our prayers know no pause, could our efforts know no relaxation, could we give all we have of time, wealth, talent, and opportunity, could we die a martyr's death a thousand times, would not He, the Best Beloved of our souls, deserve far more? Ah, that He would. Therefore is self-congratulation banished for ever. When you have done all, you will feel that it is not worthy of the matchless merit of Jesus, and you will be humbled at the thought. Thus, while doing all for Jesus stimulates zeal, it fosters humility, a happy blending of useful effects.
# 30 _The resolve to do all as unto the Lord will elevate you above that craving for recognition which is a disease with many. It is a sad fault in many Christians that they cannot do anything unless all the world is told of it. The hen in the farmyard has laid an egg, and she feels so proud of the achievement that she must cackle about it: everybody must know of that one poor egg till all the country round resounds with the news. It is so with some professors: their work must be published, or they can do no more. "Here have I," said one, "been teaching in the school for years, and nobody ever thanked me for it; I believe that some of us who do the most are the least noticed, and what a shame it is." But if you have done your service unto the Lord, you should not talk so, or we shall suspect you of having other aims. The servant of Jesus will say, "I do not want human notice. I did it for the Master; He noticed me, and I am content. I tried to please Him, and I did please Him, and therefore I ask no more, for I have gained my end. I seek no praise of men, for I fear lest that breath of human praise should tarnish the pure silver of my service."
# 31 _This would lift you above the discouragement which sometimes comes of human censure. If you seek the praise of men, you will in all probability fail in the present, and certainly you will lost it in the future sooner or later. Many men are more ready to censure than to commend; to hope for their praise is to seek for sugar in a root of wormwood. Man's way of judging is unjust, and seems fashioned on purpose to blame all of bass, and the critics say, "Oh yes, a very fine bass voice, but he could not sing treble." Here is another prefer a tenor." When they find a tenor, they blame him because he cannot take the bass. No one can be candidly praised, but all must be savagely censured. What will the great Master say about it? Will he not judge thus__"I have given this man a bass voice, and he sings bass, and that is what I meant him to do: I gave that man a tenor voice, and he sings tenor, and this is what I meant him to do: I gave that man a treble voice, and he sings treble, and so takes the part I meant him to take, All the parts blended together make up sweet music for my ears"? 
# 32 _Wisdom is justified of her children, but folly blames them all round. How little we ought to care about the opinions and criticisms of our fellowmen when we recollect that He who made us what we are and helps us by his grace to act our part, will not judge us after the mode in which men carp or flatter. He will accept us according to the sincerity of our hearts. If we feel, "I was not working for you; I was working for God," we shall not be much wounded by our neighbor's remarks. The nightingale charms the ear of night. A fool passes by and declares that he hates such distracting noises. The nightingale sings on, for it never entered the little minstrel's head or heart that it was singing for critics. It sings because He who created it gave it this sweet faculty. So may we reply to those who condemn us, "We live not unto you, O men: we live unto our Lord." Thus do we escape the discouragements that come of ungenerous misapprehension and jealous censure.
# 33 _This, too, will elevate you above the disappointments of non-success__yes, even of the saddest kind. If those you seek to bless be not saved, you have not altogether failed. You did not teach or preach having the winning of souls as the absolute ultimatum of your work. You did it with the view of pleasing Jesus, and He is pleased with faithfulness even where it is not accompanied with success. Sincere obedience is His delight even if it lead to no apparent result. If the Lord should set His servant to plough the sea or sow the sand, he would accept his service. If we should have to witness for Christ's name to stocks and stones, and our hearers should be even worse than blocks of marble, and should turn again and rend us, we may still be filled with contentment, for we shall have done our Lord's will, and what more do we want? To plod on under apparent failure is one of the most acceptable of all works of faith, and he who can do it year after year is assuredly well-pleasing unto God. 
# 34 __This lifts us above disappointment in the prospect of death. We shall have to go away from our work soon, so men tell us, and we are apt to fret about it. The truth is that we shall go on with our work forever if our service is pleasing to the Lord. We shall please Him up yonder even better than we do here.  And what if our enterprise here should seem to end as far as man is concerned. We have done it unto the Lord, and our record is on high, therefore it is not lost. Nothing that is done for Jesus will be destroyed. The flower may fade, but its essence remains. The tree may fall, but its fruit is stored. The cluster may be crushed, but the wine is preserved. The work and its place may pass away, but the glory which it brought to Jesus shines as the stars for ever and ever.
# 35 __This lifts us above the deadening influence of age and the infirmities that come with multiplied years. What little we can do we do it all the more thoroughly for Jesus as our experience ripens. If we must contract the sphere, we condense and intensify the motive. If we are living unto Christ, we love Him even when our heart grows cold to other things. When the eye grows dim earthwards, it brightens toward heaven; when the ear can hardly hear the voice of singing men and singing women, it knows the music of Jesus name; and when the hand can do little in human business, it begins feeling for the strings of its celestial harp that it may make melody for the Well-beloved. I know of nothing that can possibly elevate our spirits as workers for Christ like the sense of doing all unto the Lord and not unto men. May the Spirit of God help us to rise into this perfect consecration.
# 36 __I have not time to say more than just this word. A due sense of serving the Lord would ennoble all our service beyond conception. Think of working for Him, for Him, the best of masters, before whom angels count it glory to bow. Work done for Him is in itself the best work that can be, for all that pleases Him must be pure and lovely, honest, and of good report. Work for the eternal Father and work for Jesus are works that are good and only good. To live for Jesus is to be swayed by the noblest of motives. To live for the incarnate God is to blend the love of God and the love of men in one passion. To live for the ever-living Christ is elevating to the soul, for its results will be most enduring. When all other work is dissolved, this shall abide. Men spoke of painting for eternity, but we in very deed serve for eternity.
# 37 __Soon shall all worlds behold the nobility of the service of Christ, for it will bring with it the most blessed of all rewards. When men looked back on what they have done for their fellows, how small is the recompense of a patriotic like! The world soon forgets its benefactors. Many and many a man has been born aloft in youth amidst the applause of men, and then in his old age he has been left to starve into his grave. He who scattered gold at first, begs pence at last: the world called him generous while he had something to give, and when he had bestowed all it this world blamed his imprudence.
# 38 __He who lives for Jesus will never have ground of complaint concerning his Lord, for He forsake not His saints. Never man regretted anything he dIid for Jesus yet, save that he may regret that he has not done then times more. The Lord will not leave his old servants. "O God, thou has taught me from my youth: and when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not" (PSALM 71:17, 18), such was the prayer of David, and he was confident of being heard. Such may be the confidence of every servant of Christ. He may go down to his grave untroubled; he may rise and enter the dread solemnities of the eternal world without a fear, for service for Christ creates heroes to whom fear is unknown. 
# 39 __Our Motto Helps Us Do What God Deserves __I close by saying, that if we enter into the very spirit of this discourse, or even go beyond it__if henceforth we live for Jesus only, so as never to know pleasure apart from Him, nor to have treasure out of Him, nor honor but in His honor, nor success save in the progress of His kingdom, we shall even then have done no more than He deserve at our hands. First, we are God's creatures. For whom should a creature live but for his Creator? Second, we are His new creatures twice-born of heaven; should we not live for Him by whom we have been begotten for glory? As many as have believed in Jesus are the produce of that divine power which raised the Son of God from the dead, shall they not live in newness of life? God has taken this pains with us, that He has made us twice over, and He has made a new heaven and a new earth for us to dwell in; whom should we serve with all our mind but Him by whom we have been made anew?
# 40 __Third, we are redeemed. We are not our own, for we are bought with a price. We dare not be selfish: we may not put self in opposition to God, but I must go further__we may not allow self to be at all considered apart from God. Even when it seems that self and God might both be served at the same time, it must not be; self in any degree will spoil all. We are never to be masters, but servants always; and to serve ourselves is to make ourselves masters.
 # 41 __Turn thine eyes, O my heart, to the cross and see Him bleeding there whom heaven adored: He is the light of glory, the joy and bliss of perfect spirits, and yet He dies there in pangs unutterable__dieth for me. O bleeding heart, my name was engraven upon thee! O tortured brain, thy thoughts were all of me! O Christ, Thou lovedt me and lovest me still, and that I should serve Thee seems but natural; that I should pray to serve with intense white-hot enthusiasm is an impulse of my life. Do you not confess it so, my brethren? 
# 42 __Besides, remember you are one with Christ. Whom should the spouse serve but her husband? Whom should the hand serve but the head? It scarce is service. Christ is your alter ego, your other self__no, your very self; should you not live for Him? You are borne of His bone and flesh of His flesh and therefore you must love Him. Let a divine selfishness impel you to love your Lord.
# 43 __No hand, counts it hard to be serving his own head. Sure, it can be no hardness to do service to Him with whom we are joined by bonds and bands of vital union. He is our head, and we are His body and His fullness. Let us fill up His glory; let us spread abroad the praises of His name. God help us to finish this sermon never, but to begin it now and go on preaching it in our lives world without end. For heaven shall lie in this: "Not unto us, not unto us, but to Thy name be praise" and the beginning of heaven are with us now, the youth, the dawn of glory, in proportion while we say from our very souls, "Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's" (ROMANS 14:8). And so shall it be henceforth and for ever. As to those that know nothing of this, because they know not Christ may the Lord being them to believe in Jesus Christ this day, that they may through His grace become His servants. AMEN and amen.

THE TEACHING OF PARABLES !!!!!!

THE TALENTS !!!!
MATTHEW 25:14__30 _The great mistake of the unfaithful servant is in misjudging the character of his Master: THOU ART A HARD MAN. He could not have known the Master well to assume him to be servere and merciless. He fails to understand the real generosity of his Master, who wanted him to experience the joys of service. Whereas the parable of the 10 virgins emphasizes personal preparation for the coming of Christ, the parable of the talents stresses the importance of faithful service during His present absence.

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN !!!!!
MATTHEW 21:33__45 _In the parable of the wicked husbandmen, the HOUSEHOLDER represents God the Father, and the VINEYARD is Israel, a symbol of the theocracy that was familiar to the Jewish leaders (PSALM 80:8__16; Isaiah 5:1__7). The HUSBANDMEN were the priests and religious leaders, and the FAR COUNTRY is heaven. The anticipated Fruit represents spiritual evidence of true conversion, which was to be the end result of the work of the husbandmen. The SERVANTS sent by the owner represent the Old Testament prophets who came to correct religious abuses in the nation and were also rejected by their contemporaries (though venerated by subsequent generations). LAST OF ALL indicates that Jesus was God's final emissary to Israel. None has ever appeared since Him, and none ever will until the Jews recognize Christ as their final Prophet and Messiah. The desire to kill the rightful heir of the Father had already been expressed by the Jewish leaders (JOHN 11:47__53). Jesus clearly foretells His coming rejection and death with the statement THEY . . . SLEW HIM.
MARK 12:1__12 _Israel, pictured as a vineyard, was the nation God had cultivated to bring salvation to the world. The religious leaders not only frustrated their nation's purpose, they also killed those trying to fulfill it. They were so jealous and possessive that they forgot the welfare of the very people they were supposed to be beinging to God.
LUKE 20:9__19 _The owner seeks to collect his share of the estate's proceeds. The tenants rebuff the messengers. Yet the owner shows forbearance in giving repeated second chances. :15__16 _Such rebellion must be punished and the owner's patience is equaled or exceeded by His thirst for justice. The wrongdoers receive their reward. The horrified response of the listeners likely stems from the shock of Jesus strong hint that the Jews, or their leaders, have so conducted themselves and are now standing at the brink of reaping the consequences. 

THE LOST SHEEP !!!!!
MATTHEW 18:12__14
Just as a shepherd is concerned enough about one lost sheep to go search the hills for it, so God is concerned about every human being he creates (he is "not willing that any should perish," 2 PETER 3:9). If you come in contact with children in your neighborhood who need Christ, steer them toward him by your example, your words, and your acts of kindness.
LUKE 15:3__7 _It may seem foolish for the shepherd to leave the 99 sheep to go search for just one. But the shepherd knew that the 99 would be safe in the sheepfold, whereas the lost sheep was in danger. Because each worthwhile to search diligently for the lost one. God's love for each individual is so great that he seeks each one out and rejoices when he or she is "found." Jesus associated with sinners because he wanted to bring the lost sheep__people considered beyond hope__the Gospel of God's Kingdom. Before you were a believer he sought you, and his love is still seeking those who are yet lost.

THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT !!!!!!!
MATTHEW 18:23__35 _The parable of the unforgiving servant (VERSES 23__25) is used by Jesus to reinforce the power and importance of the principle of forgiveness. A CERTAIN KING represents God, the sovereign Father (VERSE 35), to whom the debt is owed. The ONE who OWED HIM is a servant or satrap who had access to the king's money, and represents the individual sinner. TEN THOUSAND TALENTS was an insurmountable debt equivalent to millions of dollars in our currency. It represents the debt of sin, which the sinner cannot possibly pay by himself. The command that he be SOLD . . . AND PAYMENT TO BE MADE indicates his being placed in a debtor's prison. In COMPASSION the king releases him and forgives (cancels) the DEBT. The picture illustrates God's total forgiveness when dealing with our sins at the point of salvation. The debt has been paid by Christ and we are set free from it forever!!!

THE NET !!!!!
MATTHEW 13:47__50
The parable of the fishing net has the same meaning as the parable of the wheat and tares. We are to obey God and tell others about his grace and goodness, but we are not dictate who is part of the kingdom of heaven and who is not. This sorting will be done at the last judgment by those infinitely more qualified than we.

THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD !!!!
MATTHEW 20:1__16 _This parable reinforces Jesus teaching regarding true Christian service and riches. The HOUSEHOLDER is Christ Himself, the Master of the VINEYARD, the field of labor (service to the world through His church). EARLY IN THE MORNING: The first workers were hired at dawn. A PENNY (Greek denarion) represents a denarius, or a common day's wage. OTHERS STANDING IDLE IN THE MARKET PLACE were not lazy but were in the usual place to seek employment. From this unemployed group, the household hired additional workers at 9 A.M., noon 3 p.m., and 5 p.m. The pay scale will be WHATEVER IS RIGHT, indicating Christ's justice to His laborers. When even [evening] WAS COME, that is at the end of the day, every man was paid the same wage. Therefore, the first hired laborers MURMURED AGAINST THE GOODMAN. However, he reminded them that he had been just in paying them what they bargained for. The statement I WILL GIVE UNTO THIS LAST, EVEN AS UNTO THEE is Jesus interpretation of "the last shall be first, and the first last" (verse 16). There is here, perhaps, a sweeping view of church history, in which those working in the last hour are promised blessings equal to that of His original disciples. Thus, Jesus warns against jealousy and impurity of motive in serving Him.

THE TWO SONS !!!!!
MATTHEW 21:28__32 _The parable of the two sons (verses 28_32) follows as an expose of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders, as a vindication  of John's ministry, and as a vindication of the true work of God is general. The first son intially said I WILL NOT (verse 29), representing the immoral disobedience of the PUBLICANS and HARLOTS who later REPENTED under John's and Jesus preaching. The SECOND  son promised to go but did not follow through with obedience. Jesus asked, "Which DID THE WILL OF HIS FATHER?" By answering, THE FIRST, the religious leaders condemned themselves. This very effective teaching method is commonly used in the Bible as the judicial parable, whereby the answerer condemns himself by the obviously implied response.

THE FIG TREE !!!
MATTHEW 24:32__44 _The illustration of the FIG TREE is referred to as a PARABLE. The immediate context seems to refer to the fig tree in a natural (not symbolic) sense. While it is clear in Scripture that Israel is symbolized, at times, by the fig tree (chapter 21), the usage here simply seems to be that as these events reach the apex of their fulfillment, the actual and ultimate return of Christ follows immediately.
MARK 13:28__32 _The emphasis of this verse 32 is not on Jesus lack of knowledge, but rather on the fact that no one knows. It is God the Father's secret to be revealed when he wills. No one can predict by Scripture or science the exact day of Jesus return. Jesus is teaching that preparation, not calculation, is needed.
LUKE 21:29__33 _And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and allthe trees; :30 _when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. :31 _So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. :32 _Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. :33 _Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

THE WISE AND FOOLISH VIRGINS !!!!!
MATTHEW 25:1__13 _The parable of the 10 virgins explains the place of Israel's true converts of the Great Tribulation period in relation to the church. These VIRGINS (Greek parthenos 1:23) are the attendants at the wedding, not multiple brides. The one bride of Christ is the church, John the Baptist is the best man (John 3:29, friend of the Bridegroom), and the prepared virgins are the saved of the Great Tribulation. While all share as the people of God, the church is accorded a unique relationship to the Master. The LAMPS seem to refer to their lives light and may properly be illustrative of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. The fact that they all slept WHILE THE BRIDEGROOM TARRIED implies a period of Jewish inactivity during the church age, while the bride is gathered.

PARABLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CANDLE UNDER A BUSHEL !
MATTHEW 5:13 _The Beatitudes are followed by a summary statement of the basic character of the Christian's life as salt and light. YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH. Again the phrase "ye are" indicates that only the genuinely born-again person is salt and can help meet the needs of the world. Salt adds flavoring, acts as a preservative, melts coldness, and heals wounds. Thus it is a very appropriate description of the believer in his relationship to the world in which he lives.
MATTHEW 5:14__17 _YE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD describes the essential mission of the Christian to the world. He is the condition (salt) to meet the world's needs and he has a mission (light) to the world. His light is to clearly shine forth into the darkness of human depravity. He is to set his light upon a candlestick, not hide it UNDER A BUSHEL, that is, a basket. Darkness is the absence of light; and darkness alone cannot dispel the light, but the smallest light can dispel the greatest darkness.
MARK 4:21__22 _If a lamp doesn't help people see, it is useless. Does your life show other people how to find God and how to live for him? if not, ask what "bushels" have shut out your light. Complacency, resentment, stubbornness of heart, or disobedience could keep God's light from shining through you to others.
The light of Jesus truth is revealed to us, not hidden. But we may not be able to see or to use all of that truth right now. Only as we put God's teachings into practice will we understand and see more of the truth.
                                   (Read MARK 4:21__22)
LUKE 8:16__17 _When the light of truth about Jesus illuminates us, it is our duty to shine that light to help others. Our witness for Christ should be public, not hidden. We should pass the benefits on to others. In order to be helpful, we need to be well placed. Seek opportunities to be there when believers need help.
                                   (Read LUKE 8:16__17)

LUKE 11:33__36 _The light is Christ; the eye repersents spiritual understanding and insight. Evil desires make this eye less sensitive and blot out the light of Christ's presence. If you have a hard time seeing God at work, check your vision. Are any sinful desires  blinding you to Christ?  (Read LUKE 11:33__36 _ KJV - 1611)

A WISE MAN BUILDS ON ROCK AND A FOOLISH MAN BUILDS ON SAND !!!!!!!
MATTHEW 7:24 __27 _In drawing His concluding illustration of the two foundations, Jesus begins with the word THEREFORE. On the basis of all that He has taught and illustrated, He concluded that all who both hear and do His saying shall be saved. As a great Master Counselor, Jesus reminded His listener that hearing this message alone will not change his life. He must both hear and dowhat Jesus had said. The elements of the closing illustration are drawn from the simplicity of nature itself, the ROCK, the RAIN, and the WINDS. The man whose house collapsed was at fault, not because he failed to LABOR, but because he did not lay the proper foundation. The shifting sand represents human opinion and doctrines of men as opposed to "these sayings" (verse 28).
LUKE 6:47__49 _Obeying God is like building a house on a strong foundation that stands firm when storms come. When life is calm, our foundation don't seem to matter. But when crises come, our foundations are tested. Be sure your life is built on the solid foundation of knowing and trusting Jesus Christ.

UNSHRUNK (NEW) CLOTH ON AN OLD GARMENT !!!!!!
MATTHEW 9:16 _No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
The principle expressed here is that the Lord Jesus Christ has come to bring in a whole new dispensation, which cannot to be fitted into the forms of the old Jewish economy. The principle taught here by illustration is that the rule of the law must be replaced by that of grace, which will now have free reign in the hearts of all believers. NEW CLOTH means unbleached cloth. Bottles (skins) were frequently used in the ancient East as liquid containers. The strength of fermentation of the new wine would be too much for the partly worn, old, or inelastic skins and would cause them to break. (See MARK 2:22 for interpretation)
MARK 2:21 _No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece4 that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.
LUKE 5:36 _"Bottles" were goatskins sewed together at the edges to form watertight bags. New wine expands as it ages, so it had to be put in new, pliable wineskins. A used skin, more rigid, would burst and spill the wine. Like old wineskins, the Pharisees were too rigid to accept Jesus, who could not be contained in their traditions or rulers. Christianity required new approaches, new traditions, new structures. Our church programs and ministries should not be so structured that they have no room for a fresh touch of the Spirit, a new method, or a new idea. We, too, must be careful that our heart does not become to rigid that it prevents us from accepting the new ways of thinking that Christ brings. We need to keep our heart pliable so we can accept Jesus life-changing message.

NEW WINE IN OLD WINESKINS (BOTTLE)
MATTHEW 9:17 _In Bible times, wine was not kept in glass bottles but in goatskins sewn around the edges to form waterright bags. New wine expanded as it fermented, stretching its wineskins. After the wine had aged, the stretched skin would burst if more new wine was poured into it. New wine, therefore, was always put into new wineskins.
                                  (Read MATTHEW 9:17 _ KJV - 1611)
MARK 2:22 _And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be married: but new wine must be put into new bottles.
LUKE 5:37 _BOTTLES are winskins. They could be used but once for NEW WINE, which fermented and built up pressure in the container. If new wine was placed in an old skin, whose elasticity was gone, the skin would break and the wine would spill. For the meaning of this analogy, See MARK 2:21__22.
THE SOWER !!!!!!!
MATTHEW 13:3__23 _This section introduces a new subject, a new approach, and a new method of teaching by parables. HE SPAKE . . . IN PARABLES, a common method of teaching in the Near East, used to convey spiritual truth through a series of earthly comparisons. 
13:3__10 _The first parable is set in an agricultural context. 
A SOWER WENT FORTH refers to the ancient seed sower, planting a crop. Jesus later interpreted this parable Himself. The seed depicts the Word of God (Verse 19) and thus the sower is the gospel evangelist. The WAY SIDE is the path trampled through the field. It was packed hard and the seed found no root, thus the FOWLS (demons? Verse 19, wicked one [s] snatched it away. Here there was no response at all to the gospel. The second category is called STONY PLACES or the rocky ledge beneath a thin, shallow layer of soil. This thin crust wpould warm quickly casuing the seed to sprout instantly but without adequate rootage or moisture. Thus, the SUN . . . SCORCHED the crop and it WITHERED AWAY. The third group of seeds fell AMONG THORNS that had not been plowed. The thorns (wild growth) choked out the crop. The GOOD GROUND represents well-plowed and prepared soil capable of producing a large crop. The statement WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR goes beyond physical hearing and implies an inner spiritual reception of truth. This prompted the disciples to ask way He had spoken to them in parables. Whereas before, He had used parables to illustrate His message, now they formed the basis of the message.
MARK 4:2__20 _Seed was sowed by hand. As the farmer walked across the field, he threw handful of seed onto the ground from a large bag slung across his shoulders. The plants did not grow in neat rows as with today's machine planting. No matter how skillful, no farmer could keep some of his seed from falling by the way-side, from being scattered among rocks and thorns, or from being carried off by the wind. So the farmer would throw the seed liberally, and enough would fall on good ground to ensure the harvest.
LUKE 8:4__15 _Jesus often communicated spiritual thruth through parables__short stories or descriptions that take a familiar object or situation and give it a startling new twist. By linking the known with the hidden and forcing listeners to think, parables can point to spiritual truths. A parables compels listerners to discover the thruth for themselves, and it conceals the truth from those, too lazy or prejudicted to look for it. In reading Jesus parables, we nust be careful not to read too much into them. Most have only one point and one meaning.

THE TARES  (WEEDS) !!!!!!!
MATTHEW 13:24__30 _The young tares and the young blades of wheat look the same and can't be distinguished until they are grown and ready for harvest. Tares (unbelievers) and God allows unbelievers to remain for a while just as a farmer allows tares to remain in his field so the surrounding wheat isn't uprooted with them. At the harvest, however, the weeds will be uprooted and thrown away. God's harvest (judgment) of all mankind is coming. We are to make oueselves ready by making sure our faith is sincere.
THE MUSTARD SEED !!!!!!!!
MATTHEW 13:31__32 _The MUSTARD SEED is unusually small and yet grows to a great size. The idea seems to be that the tiny beginning of the church will eventually culminate in great growth. HERBS (Greek lachanon) are garden plants or vegetables. However, such numerical growth will come to harbor the BIRDS (evil one). The parable accordingly foreshadows the growth of the church into a world power. However, outward growth is not always a true picture of spiritual depths.
MARK 4:30__32 _Jesus used this parable to explain that although Christianity had very small beginning, it would grow into a worldwide community of believers. When you feel alone in your stand for Christ, realize that God is buiding a worldwide Kingdom. He has faithful followers in every part of the world, and your faith, no matter how small, can join with that of others to accomplish great things.
LUKE 13:18__19 _The general expectation among Jesus hearers was that the Messiah would come as a great king and leader, freeing the nation from Rome and restoring Israel's former glory. But Jesus said his Kingdom was beginning small and quietly. Like the tiny mustard seed that grows into an enormous bush or the spoonful of leaven that makes the bread dough double, the Kingdom of God would eventually push outward until the whole world was changed.

THE LEAVEN !!!!!!
MATTHEW 13:33 _KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is the spiritual form of the kingdom in the church. LEAVEN is a lump of old dough in a state of fermentation, which makes the bread dough rise. It is virtually always used as a symbol of evil (MATTHEW 16:6__12; MARK 8:15; GALATIANS 5:9). THREE MEASURES OF MEAL, a common baking quantity (GENESIS 18:6), equivalent to one-and-a-half gallons (Greek saton; Hebrew seah). The leaven is not just false profession of unsaved church members but false doctrine that they will attempt to bring into the church.
LUKE 13:20__21 _Like the tiny mustard seed that grows into an enormous bush or the spoonful of leaven that makes the bread dough double, the Kingdom of God would eventually push outward until the whole world was changed

THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE.
MATTHEW 13:47__50 _The parable of the fishing net has the same meaning as the parable of the wheat and tares. We are to obey God and tell others about his grace and goodness, but we are not to dictate who is part of the Kingdom of heaven and who is not. This sorting will be done at the last judgment by those infinitely more qualified than we.   

THE HIDDEN TREASURE
MATTHEW 13:44 _The MERCHANT MAN is Christ, who comes to purchase, through His atonement, sinners who shall become GOODLY PEARLS. The ONE PEARL OF GRACE PRICE is the church for whom Christ gave His life, that is, ALL THAT HE HAD. If the pearl is Christ or the kingdom, for whom a man must give all in order to obtain, then no one has ever yet given all that he has for Christ. While we recive Him as Savior, we also progressively continue surrendering areas of ourselves to Him as we come to know better His will for our lives. 
MARK 5:25 _This woman had an incurable condition causing her to bleed constantly. This may have been a menstrual or uterine disorder which would have made her ritually unclean (LEVITICUS 15:25__27) and excluded her from most social contact. She desperately wanted Jesus to heal her, but she knew that her bleeding would cause Jesus to be unclean under Jewish law if she touched him. Still, she reached out by faith and was healed. Sometimes we feel our problems will keep us from God. But he is always ready to help, and we should never allow our fear to keep us from appoaching him.