Series: The Holy Bible

Sermon 4 of 7: The Symbols of Scripture

Speaker: Robert Morris

Date: November 21, 2009

I want you to turn to two passages of scripture alright? Ezekiel 34 and Mark 4. Ezekiel 34 and
Mark 4. We’re in a series called the Holy Bible, Beyond Words. God is really pulling us back
into the word of God. I want to encourage you, if you have children, that are young children, I
want to encourage you to buy them a bible. Here’s what we did. We ordered a whole bunch of
bibles for both book stores, Southlake and North Richland Hills. This is a study called
Adventure Bible, this would probably be for fourth through sixth graders. This is the NIV,
actually the NIV bible. This bible is probably for third grade and below, even down to one or
two years old because it has pictures in it like this and stories, and you could just read them a
story before they go to bed. One lady said to me, you know I tried that but he goes to sleep.
Well thank God, you found something to put him to sleep, that’s great. But here’s the point,
even after he goes to sleep, just keep on reading the story because his spirit is listening. I really
want to encourage you to read this to your children because it will bear fruit in later years. I
also want to encourage you to do something else. This last 10 days Debbie and I were very,
very busy, we had a board meeting, I started on a Board of Trustees at a seminary and spoke at
two churches and then had another apostolic meeting overseeing some churches, and things
like that. I had a lot of people say to me, Pastor Robert we really have been praying for you
because we know your schedule has been busy. And I thought for a moment, how do they
know? Then I remembered, twitter, the miracle of twitter and so I thought about this. I would
really like for every member of Gateway church to get on twitter and even if you are a
computer illiterate, you know someone who is computer literate. Have that person help you
and they will follow you, you can keep your anonymity, I promise you, because I wouldn’t have
done it if you couldn’t. But I think, in a church our size, it is a great way for me to be able to
communicate to you things that I want to communicate and for you to know where we are and
for you to pray for us specifically. So, just go to twitter.com, sign up and then go to Pastor
Robert Morris, P.R. Morris. That way, we can get a lot of people praying for us. I would love
that, and I appreciate all of you who pray for us on a regular basis.

Alright, we’re in this series called the Holy Bible. I want to tell you, I know you’re in Ezekiel 34
and I’m going to get there in just a moment. I want to tell you how I got so hungry for the
word. I had gotten saved and I started doing youth meetings and I was traveling with James
Robinson, most of you know James and Betty, they are members of the church here. I was
traveling with him and I was doing Junior High and High School assemblies on drugs and
alcohol and things like that and then I would invite the kids to the crusades. James met
someone that began to get him in the word and he had started changing his life and he could
not get enough of the word. He started preaching on demonic spirits and this spiritual warfare
that we all go through. I said to him one day, I don’t understand about all these things you’re
preaching about. He said, why don’t you and Debbie come over to the house, we’ll make some
homemade ice cream and we will just get in the word. That was his saying at the time, we’ll get
in the word. So we went over and we had some ice cream and James started reading some
verses, and I remember he read this verse…again I know we’re not there yet…but he read this
verse, he had been reading a bunch of verses, but he got to this verse, Psalms 74:3 says, lift up
your feet to the perpetual desolations, the enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary,
the enemy has damaged everything in the sanctuary. Say, “in the sanctuary”. And so James
said to me, who’s the enemy? Well I knew, everyone knows that, I said, “Satan”. He said, uh
huh. And he said, “Where does it say he is in?” I said, “The sanctuary. Everyone knows that the
devil has gotten into the church, I know that.” Then he said this to me…now what I’m about to
tell you might rattle you, because it rattled me. And this is what he said, point to the sanctuary.
And I said, wait a minute. I said, are you telling me I got demons. He said, oh man, you got a
whole lots of them. It rattled me. He said, let’s just keep reading. I said, let’s get them out. He
said, no, we just need to keep reading the word. Let’s just read the word, read the word. We
need to fill our houses with the word of God. Well as he kept reading, I remember this because
it is the first and the only time I have ever let homemade vanilla ice cream melt. But I was
rattled you know, it began to make sense to me. All of a sudden I started thinking, hey I was in
ministry, I had been saved a couple of years, I loved Jesus with all my heart. Now listen to me, I
still had a lot of sin in my life. It was bondage, I mean I couldn’t get rid of it. I was very insecure,
very fearful, very afraid, had a lot of rejection, had a lot of anger, bitterness, unforgiveness, had
lust, even had some sexual immoralities in my life, but I really loved Jesus, but I didn’t know
how to get free. And all of a sudden it began to make sense to me that we have an enemy and
just because we’re Christians doesn’t mean that the enemy isn’t going to not come after us, as
a matter of fact, we are the one that he’s going to come after. You need to be alert, the bible
says, your enemy, like a roaring lion, like a wild beast is coming after you, you need to watch
out for him.

So, here’s what happened, we started seeing some symbols in scripture. That’s the title of the
message today, The Symbols of Scripture. And I only have time to show you just a few. I do a
seminar that I’m thinking about doing again, where for 8 hours I take people through all the
spiritual symbols in the bible. Would you like to go through that many? So I’m praying about
doing that. So, I’ve just got a few minutes to show you just a few symbols.

Ezekiel 34 Verse 1

And the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of
Israel.
Now stop just for a moment, look at me for a moment. Do you think God is telling Ezekiel his
problem, to prophecy against literal shepherds? The guys that stand out there on the side of a
hill with a stick and a dress, do you think that’s who he’s talking about? No. Who do you think
He’s talking to? Pastors, right, spiritual leaders. Okay so here’s what you’re telling me. The
bible says shepherds but it doesn’t mean literal shepherds, it means spiritual shepherds. Now I
agree with you. My only point is that we do this with some words in the bible, but we don’t
look for the spiritual meaning in the other words. So I want you to watch this alright?

Woe to the shepherds, son of man prophecy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophecy and say
to them…this is Verse 2…prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord God to the Shepherds,
woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves, should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
Remember I told you that’s my main responsibility. You eat the fat, you clothe yourself with the
wool, you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.

Verse 4 goes through the five basic ministries of Jesus that are listed in verse 4. I don’t have
time to explain all of them, but I will mention them to you. The weak you have not
strengthened…that’s the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because we have power…Nor have you
healed those who were sick…that’s healing, nor bound up the broken, that’s inner
healing…Nor brought back that which was driven away…that’s deliverance, because they were
driven away to the land of the enemy…nor sought that which was lost…that’s evangelism.

Those are the five basic ministries of Jesus. Baptism of the Holy Spirit, healing, inner healing,
deliverance and salvation.

Verse 5

So they were scattered…now who was scattered, before we go on, who was scattered? Sheep.
But is he talking about literal sheep or is he talking about people? People right? So it has a
spiritual meaning. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, he’s talking about
leaders, spiritual leaders and they the sheep…watch…became food for the beast of the field
when they were scattered.

Okay, here’s what bothers me. When they say sheep, we say their not talking about sheep, that
means people and shepherds, that’s not talking about those guys watching over the sheep,
that’s talking about pastors. Now beast of the fields, that’s lions and tigers, no that’s spiritual
lions, that’s demonic spirits. And here’s what happens, when we don’t feed ourselves with the
word of God, and when we’re not in a good church where we’re being fed the word of God,
the beast of the field will get us, we will go into bondage. Now I’m telling you the beast of the
field represent, and I don’t have time to show you all the scriptures, and I would love for you to
take a concordance yourself and look up all of these scriptures in the bible. I’m telling you it
represents the demonic, it represents fallen angels who are demonic spirits who come after
God’s people. This is what got me so excited about reading the bible. This is why I read
Ezekiel, Hosea, Daniel, Joel, Amos, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Nahum, Zechariah, Micah, Malachi,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, because I saw all of a sudden that this was a spiritual book
written by a spiritual being, to a spiritual being. And it’s incredible when you see it that way.

Let me show you another scripture. We will get to Mark 4 in a minute.

Genesis 3 Verse 1

Now the serpent, now the serpent…now stop just a minute and look at me, this is talking about
the Garden of Eden, and it says now the serpent. Now I want to ask you a question, who’s the
serpent? Satan or the devil, right, everybody knows that. But what book, chapter or verse do
you have to read for that? Here’s why I’m asking, every symbol that I give to you, if I give you a
symbol and say this is a symbol that represents this, I can give you a book, chapter and verse
for it. So I’m not talking making up or thinking…I think this represents this…well the way you
find out is that you take that word and you read it every time it’s in the bible and let the bible
interpret itself, do you see what I’m saying? Now, let me just give you the verse by the way,
real simple, that we know for sure the serpent is Satan. I’m going to just give you one because
there are several of them.

Revelation 12:9

The great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan.

So I know for sure that the serpent is Satan. Now, before I go back to read Genesis 3, let me
show you something. It says the serpent. The bible says serpent, your bible says serpent, but
all of us think Satan, immediately. You already believe in spiritual symbols, because when you
read serpent, even though there might have been a literal snake in the garden talking to Eve, it
wasn’t the snake it was Satan talking through him and we know that, right? Now watch this
though, remember we read that when sheep are scattered they become food for the beast of
the field. We said beasts of the field are fallen angels and demonic spirits. Watch this.

Genesis 3 Verse 1

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
Is it possible that what that is saying is that the snake is smarter than any monkey, is it possible
that it is saying that Satan is the most cunning of all the fallen angels? See this book is really fun
when you understand that yes there is a literal meaning to it, but there could be a spiritual
meaning as well. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness who was tempting him in the
wilderness, who was there? Satan. Do you think any of the demons were there? Would you?
Come on, if you were Satan and you ruled over these demonic spirits and the Son of God
comes to earth, would you go by yourself or would you take a whole bunch of people with
you? You would take every demonic spirit you could get with you right? Now wouldn’t it be
amazing if the bible told us that and we just hadn’t quite seen it.

Mark Chapter 1 Verse 13

He was there in the wilderness 40 days tempted by Satan and was with the wild beasts and the
angels ministered to Him.

Now maybe that means the lions and tigers were with him in the wilderness, but maybe it
means something else too. This is what got me hungry for the bible. This is what I’m telling
you. I started seeing these symbols.

Mark Chapter 4 I told you to put a marker at Mark 4, let me show you Mark Chapter 4. I’ll show
you another symbol, it’s real easy to see it.

Mark Chapter 4 Verse 1

Again, He began to teach by the sea and a great multitude was gathered to Him so they got in
a boat and He sat in it by the sea and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. Then
He taught them many things by parables and He said to them in His teachings, listen, behold
the sewer went out to sow and it happened that as he sowed that some seed fell by the
wayside and the birds of the air came and devoured them. Now do you see that? Some seed
fell by the wayside and the birds of the air came and devoured it.

Verse 9

And He said to them, he who has ear to hear let him hear.

Now, apparently there were people during that day that did not have literal ears on the side of
their heads. Do you think Jesus was talking about physical ears? No, he was talking about
spiritual ears. Why would He be talking about spiritual ears unless there was a spiritual symbol
here?

Verse 10

But when He was alone, those around Him with the 12 asked Him about the parable.

Verse 13

He said to them, do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the
parables? The sewer sows the word…so seed represents the word, and we know in I Peter that
it is incorruptible, not corruptible seed.

Verse 15

And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown, when they hear Satan comes
immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. Okay wait a minute, what
did verse 4 say? Verse 4 says the birds of the air. Then they said to Jesus. You have to
understand something, this is Jesus, this is not my opinion anymore. This is Jesus, they said to
Jesus, what does that mean? Jesus said, what that means is when someone sows the word of
God, Satan comes and tries to take it away, but Jesus calls Satan and all of his demonic forces,
the birds of the air. So that clues me in when I start reading the birds of the air in other places
that it might mean something. Do you understand what I’m saying?

Daniel 4, now remember the beast of the field and birds of the air. Do you remember in Daniel,
where was Daniel when Daniel was written? Remember he was in a city. He was in the city of
Babylon. Babylon was a mixture of the world and the church. The children of Israel went
captive in Babylon, the city of Babylon for 70 years. And there was a mixture then and they
began to mix their worshiping practices other than a remnant. So is it possible that Babylon
represents a mixture of the world and the church or could we call it a worldly church? So watch
what happens. The king of Babylon has a dream.

Daniel 4 Verse 10

He’s explaining his dream…these were the visions of my head while on my bed. I was looking
and behold a tree in the midst of the earth. Its height was great, the tree grew and became
strong. Is this possible that this is talking about a worldly church, a worldly system? Its height
reached the heavens and it could be seen to the ends of all the earth. Its leaves were lovely, its
fruits abundant and in it was food for all…watch…the beasts of the field found shade under it
and the birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches and all flesh, not spirit, flesh was fed from it.
I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed there was a watcher, a Holy one, coming down
from heaven. He cried and said, chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its leaves
and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts get out from under it and let the birds leave its branches,
never the less, leave the stump.

Now, by the way, when Daniel interprets the dream he says, this is you king. This is Babylon,
that’s what this is. This is you. And he gives the interpretation of the dream. He said, here’s
what’s going to happen. This thing grows and gets bigger and bigger. And when it gets
bigger, the birds of the air come nest in the branches and the beasts of the field come under
the shade. Well we’ve already read Mark Chapter 4 what the birds of the air were, we know
what they are and represent. We read Ezekiel 34 about the beasts of the field coming after the
sheep. Are ya’ll following me? I’m telling you there are symbols and signs all over this book
that make it fun to read, and we just read over it. Now here’s a great thing. He says,
nevertheless I’m going to bring judgment against this worldly system, I’m going to bring
judgment against the worldly church. I’m going to bring judgment against it, I’m going to cut it
down, but I’m going to leave the stump. I’m going to leave the stump.

Isaiah 6:13

Whose stump remains when it is cut down so the Holy seed shall be the stump.

The Holy seed shall be the stump, which refers to the remnant of God. So I got all these
scriptures and I used to do this in an 8-hour seminar and I just figure that ya’ll are mature
enough to get it all in a few minutes. So I know I may stir up a lot of questions for you, but I
hope I do. I hope you get so many questions that you think, I’m just going to have to read the
bible to see if what he says is true. I’m going to read the whole thing.

Matthew 13 Let me read you this. You’ve read this parable but maybe you’ve never thought
about what the birds…now before I read this and if you want to turn to that is fine, but listen to
me, we read Mark Chapter 4 where Jesus said the birds of the air, and when they asked Him to
explain it, He said, that’s Satan. That’s Satan and his demonic forces. We know his demons
help carry out his work. Jesus said that, the birds of the air. Now watch this, Matthew 13,
maybe you’ve never seen it this way.

Matthew 13 Verse 31

Another parable He put forth to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds, but when it
is grown it is greater than the herbs and it becomes…this is very important…it’s supposed to
be herb, it’s supposed to be a small bush actually…but it becomes a tree, a large tree, so that
the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.

Is it possible that Jesus wanted us to preach the kingdom of God the way He preached it,
repent and come to Jesus, turn from sin and come to Jesus? Yes, preach grace. But is it
possible, you think about it, there are millions of people in the world that name themselves as
Christians that don’t even go to church, don’t read their bibles, live in sin and we’ve got a huge
worldly church? Is it possible that Jesus is saying, let me tell you what the Kingdom of heaven
is like? It’s really like a small bush, but when it grows it becomes a big tree. Remember
Babylon, the dream that he had? It’s the exact same thing. The birds of the air come and nest
in the branches. It would be good if we knew what the branches represented, wouldn’t it? You
got any scriptures on the branches, John 15:3. I am the vine and …are you getting a little
rattled, like I was that night? Listen to me very carefully, because you might be saying, are you
saying that I’ve got demons? You might have a whole flock. That’s why we believe in freedom
ministry here. It’s amazing to me how people say, Christians can’t be in bondage to demons.
Well who do you think the demons are going after? They’re not going after the world, the
world is on their side. They’re going after the church because if they can keep the church in
bondage then they can keep the church from presenting Jesus to the world.

There are some pretty amazing verses in the bible. As a matter of fact, Ezekiel 31 again talks
about a worldly church and this is what it says in verse 6.

All the birds of the heavens made its nests in its bowels under its branches, all the beasts of the
fields brought forth their young…now watch this phrase…and in its shadow all great nations
made their home. There’s a whole lot of scripture about the beasts of the fields and the birds
of the air. I’m going to show you two more scriptures.
Daniel 7:22

And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you little by little. You will be unable
to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

Now this is talking about when the children of Israel went in to possess the promise land and
they had all these enemy nations around them. Now let me explain something to you. We get
saved…the children of Israel got saved by the blood of the Lamb. They went through the red
sea, which I Corinthians says it represents water baptism. Then the cloud descended on them
and God wrote His law on tablets of stone. The cloud descending represents the Spirit
descending the baptism of the Holy Spirit because when the cloud descends, God writes His
law on the tablets of flesh. He writes His law on our hearts. So they did that and then they go
through this wilderness, this dry season, but then they entered the promise land. But when
they entered the promise land every thing wasn’t perfect. What happened in the promise land?
They had to drive the enemy out of their land. They had to conquer the enemy. That’s where
we are as believers. We have been saved, we’ve been water baptized, we’ve been baptized
with the Holy Spirit, we are now driving the enemy out of our land. If we drive the enemy out of
our land, we’ll have victor, we will possess the land that God has given us. By the way, I
Corinthians 3:9 says you are God’s fields, you’re God’s fields. So we’re driving the enemy out
of our land. And here’s what He says. Here’s how I’m going to let you drive them out, little by
little, little by little. And the reason why is, so that the beasts of the field don’t come to
numerous for you. We already know what the beasts of the field represents, right?

Let me show you now in the New Testament that goes along with this and again I think we’ve
missed it many times. We haven’t seen what it’s talking about.

Matthew 13 Verse 43

When an unclean spirits goes out of a man…now let me just say something, could this be any
clearer? An unclean spirit is a demon. This is Jesus talking. By the way, this is in red, okay.
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes to dry places seeking rest and finds none.
Then he says…this is what the demon of lust or the demon of pride says…I will return to my
house…notice he calls it a house, a person…from which I came. And when he comes…this is
very important…he finds it empty, empty…notice the word empty…swept…that would be
clean…and put in order, then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked then
himself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So
shall it be also with this wicked generation.

God said, I’m going to deliver you from the nations little by little so that the beasts of the field
don’t increase and become too numerous for you. That’s an Old Testament scripture. It’s an
analogy. Then we come to the New Testament and Jesus said, when an unclean spirit goes out
of a man, he will try to come back in, he’ll try to come back and if he finds that house…now
listen to me this is very important…clean, the house is clean, he has repented of his sins, put in
order, he’s put some things in his life in order, there are good things now…here’s the key
though, but empty, empty. He’ll come back, and he’ll bring seven more spirits. Now I just want
to ask you something, I could ask this about you, but I want to ask this about someone you
know. Have you ever known someone that was in bondage to something, maybe they had an
addiction and they got free and then they went back into bondage and it was worse than the
first time? You say well what’s the key, listen, it’s very very simple. When you get set free
you’ve got to fill your house with the word of God. This is the only thing that defeats the
enemy, God’s word. So as you’re getting free, little by little and we’re all getting free, little by
little, as you’re getting free, you just keep filling your house, just keep filling your house with
the word of God. So when the spirit comes back he can’t bring seven more. He can’t take you
into bondage and it’s even worse than before. This is exactly what happened the first time that
I realized that I had bondages in my life and James Robinson said to me, and I said, James let’s
get them out, he said no, let’s fill your house with the word of God so that when they leave
they stay gone. Can I just tell you again, the Holy Bible is beyond words. It is more important
than we think to read this book because this book is the key to set us free.

Psalm 107 Verse 20

He sent His word and healed them and delivered them. I know a lot of people that need
healing and a lot of people that needs deliverance. And Psalms 107:20 says it’s through His
book. He sent His word and healed them and delivered them.

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. I know this was a little different sermon
normally than what I preach. But I knew that I had to just get us in some scripture that would
create enough of hunger for God’s word because we need the word of God. We need the
word of God to get free and we need the word of God to remain free. So what’s the Holy Spirit
saying to you? What’s the Holy Spirit saying to you? We want to pray for you. No matter which
campus you’re attending, we want to pray for you. If you’re going through a difficulty, if there is
a bondage in your life that you need to get free from, we want to pray for you. In just a
moment we are going to stand and when we stand we’re going to have some leaders here at
the front, at both campuses, Southlake and North Richland Hills. And when we stand up in just
a moment, you simply stand up and step out and come and let us pray for you. No matter
which campus you’re attending, when we stand up you stand up and come, don’t be
embarrassed, you don’t have to be a member of Gateway church to come for prayer, you come
and let us pray for you.

Holy Spirit I pray you will draw every person, every person that has a prayer need, in Jesus’
name. Amen.