"THE TARES AND THE WHEAT"

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 4

"THE TARES AND THE WHEAT"

Hara is anothar illustration Jesus used: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a farmer sowing good seed in his field; but one night as he slept, his enemy came and sowed Urea among the wheat. When the crop began to grow, the tares grew too. The farmer's men came and told him, "Sir, the field where you planted that choice seed is full of tares!" "An enemy has done it," he exclaimed. "Shall we pull out the tares?" they asked. "No," he replied. "You'll hurt the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest, and I will tell the reapers to sort out the tares first and burn them, and put the wheat in the barn." (Mat. 13:24-30) There are three main features in this parable, The Two Sowers, The Two Crops, The Two Harvests.

1. The Two Sower* — (a) The Son of Man, Jesus, He came to sow the word. Jesus said, "Whoever listens to My message and believe* in God who sent Me has eternal life." (John 5:24) He died to make salvation possible. Jesus also said, "I must die Hke a kernel of wheat that falls between the furrows of the earth. Unless I die I will be alone — a single seed. But my death will produce many new wheat kernels — a plentiful harvest of new lives." (John 12:24) He lives to make effectual the salvation He provided. "Jesus is able to save completely all who come to God through Him. Since He will live forever. He will always be there to remind God that He has paid for their sins with Hi* blood." (Heb. 7:25). (b) The second sower is

Satan — the enemy of men. Satan is a great counterfeiter. He seeks to imitate Christ and, by this means, delude people into hearing his gospel, believing his religion and serving him, and all the while imagining they are serving God! Is Christ a sower? So is Satan. Does Christ sow seed? So does Satan. (Gal 1:8) Does Christ have "Ministers" or servants? So does Satan (2 Cor. 11:13-15) Does Christ work miracles? So does Satan. (2 Thes. 2:9) Behind modernism with its bloodless Gospel, and every false cult and religion is Satan with his host of wicked spirits, seeking to delude and enslave the unwary man. Satan lives to sow evil. “Satan was a murderer from the beginning and a hater of truth — there is not an iota of truth in him. When he lies, it is perfectly

normal; for he is die father of liars." (John 8:44) Hence aU the false cults of today, Satan always seeks to spoil the good. 2. The Two Crops — (a) Children of the kingdom — the saved. The crop presupposses, ploughingconviction, the sowing — conversion, the crop — fruit to the glory of God, proof of real salvation. (b) The unsaved — The children of Satan. The tares are very similar in appearance to the wheat, but no fruit. "No one can serve two master*. You will hate one and show loyalty to the other, or else the other way round — you cannot serve both God and money." (Luke 18:13)

3. Th* Two Harvests — (a) The saved, with Christ at His coming. Jesus said, "There are many homes up there where my Father lives, and I am going to prepare them for your coming. When everything is ready, then I will come and get you." (John 14:1-3) (b) The unsaved, with Satan in th* lake of fire. "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, polluted, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolators, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake of fire — which is the second death." (Rev. 21:8) Think on all these things and what the endtime harvest will mean for you?