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The
Parable Of The Tares
We
are studying the seven parables in the 13th chapter of
Matthew that deal with the Kingdom from the time that
Christ set it up until the time that He delivers it up.
These parables coincide with the letters (in Revelation)
and clarify each other. We've come down through the four
different types of ground, which covers all humanity. We
said that He will not 'put up with' anything less than a
hundredfold. God will not put up today with bearing of
thirty or sixty-fold in 'this' evening time of light.
We
might 'rest assured' that it has been true in all ages,
that when God began to work a good work, the devil came up
with something. The devil is never going to stand still
for an individual or a group of Individuals, to go 'clear
out' for God, without doing some kind of a work in the
midst to hinder that thing. He knows today, that he cannot
prevail against the church that Jesus built, but he is
going to do his best to hinder it and slow it down every
way that he can. We also know, by studying the Word of
God, that no outside force can stop the church, I want
'that' to be settled in your minds. You know that every
force, (outward force) that the devil could use -- to come
against the church, she subdued it and overcame it, but
the way the devil has brought the downfall upon the
(professed?) church and hindered her in a greater way was
to get a work on the inside of some kind. Someone may say,
"I don*t think any kind of an evil work can get in
the church," You don't? What wrecked it in the
'morning time?' Men crept in unaware.
Now
we know, in the thought of the body of Christ -- with
Christ, the head/the door; none can enter any 'other' way
and get saved but, I am speaking now of how we are going
to 'branch out.' We have been speaking of individual lives
thus far. In the parables, we are going to 'branch out'
and 'take in the whole world, and that which calls itself
God's people in the morning time. We have already studied
it a little bit, that men crept in unawares and did an
inside work, and because of it, brought ruination among
the people of God and opened up the way for the devil to
come forth with that powerful first beast and dragon power
and tear it asunder.
Not
long ago I was in a camp meeting and a man preached on
"What Is sin?" He kept dealing on "What Is
Sin" and left the people in 'a vacuum' and most every
one to decide for themselves what sin was. He began 'way
back' with the reformation -- they used to think it was a
sin to wear a necktie, and we found out it was not. And we
once thought, that 'this thing' and 'that thing' was sin;
and found out it wasn't -- and little by little left room
for everything, and nothing was sin. And at the end, said
the church was going to go to pieces.
He
said Jesus built a church that the gates of hell cannot
prevail against. That's right. The gates of hell cannot
prevail against it, but men can rise UP in the midst of
'it' preaching perverse things, and 'tear her to shreds.
So, let's not be deceived with 'this business.' I still
preach that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the
church, but we have got to 'own the fact,' the devil
couldn't do anything from the outside, but he did work it,
my friend, to get people to let the standard down and let
them get in the inside, and it happened again in the
evening time, whether we want to admit it or not -- just
like it did in the morning time.
We
need to, as never before, get a hold of something here and
see what God has in store for us. We deal with the second
parable and we desire your prayers. This is one of the
hardest parables, as far as I am concerned, to get clear
in the minds of men, because this parable has more
preconceived ideas about it than any of the rest, but God
is able to make it clear. I don't gather a lot of
Scripture and try to prove it. I trust the Spirit of God.
We can read what Matthew and what Henry Clark says, but if
the Spirit of God doesn't convince you, you will never be
convinced. We can 'turn around the other way' and speak
the truth in clarity and love and the Spirit of God will
honor that truth and where there is an honest heart, He
will convince them of it, even if they haven't got a dozen
other Scriptures to 'back it up.'
In
the 24th verse, we have come down in the 13th chapter of
Matthew, and we have covered down to the 24th verse.
"Another parable put He forth unto them saying, the
kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good
seed it his field: But while men slept…" I would
like to say this; I just feel it 'gouging me' a little. I
thank God we are seeing many people 'come out' of holiness
movements, and take their stand for truth in the last
couple of years -- in this city -- and they are fightinng
in every way. You know, the devil will just 'work himself
to death' to try to get a scripture and twist it around
and hang on, or a false or erroneous doctrine, especially
that of the millennium. Now, the cry is around here, that
there is a difference between the Kingdom of God and the
Kingdom of Heaven. Haven't you heard of that? You will
'run into it,' if you get to preaching the kingdom
'straight,' and when you 'fight them down' to where you
get them 'pinned down,' they begin to hunt a 'little limb
to hold on to,' and now, they tell us there is a
difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of
Heaven. That Jesus did set up a Kingdom in the hearts of
men -- that's the Kingdom of God, but when He comes again,
He is going to set up a literal kingdom -- that will be
the Kingdom of Heaven. Tut! Tut! Tut! The Kingdom of God
and the Kingdom of Heaven, is the same thing. Matthew
called it 'here,' the Kingdom of Heaven. Luke, right in
the 'same setting,' said the Kingdom of God. Right in the
same parable, my friends. Let us not 'get off' on some of
these 'fur traps.' Go back to old Daniel, and he called it
both, the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God.
Someone said, "How do you know?" In Daniel, the
second chapter, he said, "In the days of these kings
shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom…” So, it is
the Kingdom of God, and it is the Kingdom of Heaven --
both the same Kingdom.
He
said, "The kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept,
his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went
his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought
forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants
of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not
thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it
tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The
servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and
gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up
the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both
grow together until the harvest: and in the time of
harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together
first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them:
but gather the wheat into my barn."
Some
Bible teachers would say that 'this lesson' has nothing to
do with the present, but rather has to do with the second
coming of Christ. Well, I'm trusting the Lord will help us
see that 'that' was to be done in Christ's first advent.
Lord, help us! "In the high time of the harvest I
will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the
tares and bind them in bundles to burn them and gather the
wheat into my barn. In the 36th verse, Jesus gave the
explanation.
Now,
you remember, I said every little verse in these parables
is significant of something. The first verse said Jesus
went out of the house and brought the multitudes. But
listen to the 36th verse. "Then Jesus sent the
multitude away, and went into the house:" Now, if
we're ever going to learn anything about these parables
from now on, we must get into the house. While He was
sowing, He was out sowing to the multitude, but when He
went to give the truth of the matter, He sent the
multitude away and went into the house and told His
disciples to come on in, and "I am going to tell you
the truth about this thing." You know what the house
is. If you ever see the truth about the Kingdom you are
going to have to get into the house. People sitting around
'on the doorsteps' and the 'front yard' and trying to tell
us how and what is going on. This is where you get all
your theories today. People out in the front yard trying
to theorize and tell you what is going on in the house.
So, we see here in the 36th verse, Jesus sent the
multitude away and went into the house and His disciples
came unto Him saying, "Declare unto us the parable of
the tares of the field." "He answered and said
unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of
man." This is not anything that the disciples sowed.
'Look out now,' not anything that the early apostles
sowed, not anything that we sow in this evening light; the
Son of Man did this sowing. Now, we must 'let the parable
be' where it belongs.
Someone
says, Ah, Bro. Wilson, "That happens to be at the end
of time." That Is right. We've got the end of time,
but we need to understand when the end of time begins. The
Son of Man is the one that did the sowing. Now, when did
He sow? Already we have said that He sowed when He
literally walked up and down the shores of this old earth
preaching the Gospel. That is when He did the sowing, so
that is the harvest we are dealing with in this parable,
not something out at the second coming of Christ.
Well,
we read it again. "The field is the World."
Should I back up? "He answered and said unto them, He
that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is
the world;"(not the church). Right here at this part
of the parable, the field is the world. The good seed are
the children of the Kingdom: but the tares are the
children of the wicked one." I want to repeat, that
the field is the world--as far as the world is concerned,
God wants the wheat to grow beside the tares. He wants a
saint to live beside a sinner. He wants a saint to work
beside a sinner, Why? That is the only way a sinner will
ever get any help. But, when we narrow it down to the
Kingdom or the Church here in this parable, we will show
you that God does not want tares and wheat growing side by
side. Remember, that in the beginning of this parable, it
reached out to the whole world, but before we get done, He
narrows it back to the Kingdom. "The field is the
world; the good seed are the children of the Kingdom, the
tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that
sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the
world; and the reapers are the angels." The Word of
God says that it is the end of the world. That is
absolutely when it is, but let us see when the end of the
world is.
We
must take time and read this Word slowly, or we will
become confused. Well, they say you only get a third of
what I am saying so I repeat it three times--the things I
want you to get. The first is the world, the good seed or
the wheat--later on spoken of, is the same thing; now you
begin to get a picture in your mind, if God still wants
the wheat and the tares together, then the Church has got
no place in the religious world. May we see the field, or
the world. Next, may we see the wheat coming up together
as the Kingdom, that seed, which Jesus sowed, which the
Scripture tells us is the Word of God or the Word of the
Kingdom. He sowed it and it began to come up. Next, may we
see an enemy going right in among that wheat. He had the
whole world to sow his seed in, but where did he want to
sow it? Right in among the wheat.
Let
us get this picture. He had the whole world. The field is
the world. Jesus sowed the good seed and here came up the
wheat. Now it had already come up because the Scripture
said He sowed it among the wheat. Jesus was bringing on a
beautiful harvest with this Word of God and the devil had
any place to sow the tares he wanted to except where
Christ had sowed the wheat, but He came and sowed the
tares right in among the wheat. That is where he wants it
yet today.
As
we already studied, when God was ready here, and we are
backing up a little--this parable overlaps the other.
Remember, we were dealing with individual lives up to a
hundred-fold. When one hundred-fold came we were ready to
burst out in the good ground and bring forth the church
and here she comes. But when the devil saw this
hundred-fold business he didn't want it to yield a
hundred-fold, so he put some tares among the wheat.
Hundred-fold is when there are no tares in it. You go out
here into a wheat field and if it is reaping a
hundred-fold, there is not a tare or a weed in the thing.
Every bit of the ground is producing wheat. That is one
hundredfold. That is the picture that Jesus gave us of the
Church, and the devil doesn't like it. This wheat, this
portion of the world, or this portion of the field, is
wheat coming up together, it is a picture of the morning
church, in the world. The field is the world, but not of
the world.
Let
us go a little farther. I want to repeat. The devil is the
same today. He wants the tares among the wheat, does not
want the harvest to be one hundred-fold. When we see, my
friend, it is wheat coming on, or symbolizing men and
women bearing one hundred-fold to God, we know the devil
would do something. He wants to kill the beauty of the
harvest. He hates that one hundred-fold business. He will
let you bear thirty-fold and sixty-fold right along, and
go right along with you. He will let you quit the habits
of life, make restitutions and go along and play with
God's eternal truth, but when you come to a place of full
consecration, putting father, mother, houses and land,
children, and everything on the altar and sell out for
God, he gets mad. Why? You have cut him off completely. He
wants to kill the beauty of the harvest today as much as
he ever did.
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