A lot
of people think David took a walk in the valley of the
shadow of death. No. He said "yea, though I
walk" -- we all walk in it. The very minute we are
born, the shadow of death is over us and it is over us
until we die. We are all in the valley of the shadow of
death. That is where this light came, right down in the
valley of the shadow of death. That is where we are
living. The very minute a little babe is born, the shadow
of death comes over him. Born to die physically; that is
the kind of people that light came on. Somebody said, that
is spiritual death. No, they were already spiritually
dead; they were not in the valley of the shadow of
(spiritual) death, they were dead spiritually when Christ
came.
Thou hast
multiplied the nations. Thank God, here we begin to see
the church. To multiply the nations you must have two
nations, and this thing that we are preaching about takes
in all of them, "And not increased the joy: they joy
before thee (how do we joy, let's get this straightened
out, how do we joy in this experience we have with
Christ?) They joy before thee according to the joy in
harvest." Now let's think about that. This lesson is
before us. My friend, what causes the farmer to go out and
ride that old tractor around for days and days, hours and
hours a day. While he is bouncing around over the ground
he is thinking about the joy of the harvest; that is what
keeps him on the tractor. But, he said that when Christ
comes we would rejoice in Him as in the joy of harvest as
people that divide the spoil after the battle. We reap a
harvest we have never sowed. That is where grace comes in.
There was not one of us 'fit for Christ,' we were lost and
undone, but thank God, we may reap a harvest that we never
sowed.
Our
rejoicing is in dividing the spoil of the battle, so go
back and study about Abraham -- when they won the battle
back there, the joy was sitting down and dividing what
they had captured, but thank God, we've been credited 'the
winning' of a battle we have never fought. 'This' may seem
a little hard to understand, but it is true. Why, none of
us could have fought our way out of sin. Jesus bought our
way out of sin. He just let us 'divide the spoil.' He came
down here, whipped the devil, got victory over sin and
devil -- and the grave; and said, there she is, take it.
So, we sit down and divide the spoil, and realize all that
is ours through Jesus Christ. We didn't earn it; he just
gave it to us. He walked up and down the shores of this
old earth and sowed His precious seed; stayed right there,
if you please, and kept the tares out of it. How did he do
it? By laying down God's eternal Word and keeping the
light going and then, when He was ready to leave, He said
unto them, "Look out there, I have sowed the wheat.
It is all white unto harvest. Go on out. Pray the Father
to send you out." When were they sent out? Jesus said
before He left, "This Gospel must be preached in all
the world, but tarry at Jerusalem until you be endued with
power from on high.
Friend,
you cannot go out there and pull them up with your hands.
Now do you understand the difference between pulling them
up, here? Stay at Jerusalem, until God gives you a
'sickle.' Now, why did he not let the servants go when
they wanted to? They said, "Let us go out and pull up
the tares." He said, "No," to the servants.
"I cannot let you 'go out,' because if you do, you
will pull up wheat with it. Now who were the servants?
Another parable teaches us, the servants of the
householder were the Jewish nation. Why wouldn't He let
them go? Because they had their lamp 'under a bushel;' as
far as they were concerned, all the Gentiles were tares.
And God knew, and Christ knew that he had sowed some good
seed in the hearts of Gentiles, and they were ready to be
harvested. But, if you let them Jews go before Pentecost,
they would pull up every Gentile and throw 'em out for a
tare. "My Father will send the reapers out." He
sent them out on the Day of Pentecost.
Peter
still had that bushel about half way over his light. God
had to take him on the roof and give him a lesson. Then
take him right down there where he would have liked to
pull up a bunch of tares (Gentiles), and throw them out.
What did he say? "I perceive a new truth. God has
poured His Spirit on the Gentiles just like He has the
Jews." Now, he could not let the Jews go before
Pentecost, because they did not have that Holy Ghost
discernment, If you please. They could not tell 'a tare
from a wheat.'
The next
reason He couldn't let them go until the harvest, when the
tares and the wheat are growing, no man can tell them
apart, but when the harvest is white, the tares are
another color. On the Day of Pentecost He washed them and
made them white through the blood of the Lamb and the Holy
Ghost. They walked with Christ in white and you can pick
the tares out every time. That same Peter, if you please,
that did not have any discernment; when the Holy Ghost
came and put them in their white robes, could pick out
those tares every time. Then came Annanias and Sapphira;
the devil had sowed a couple of tares among the wheat.
Peter said, who told you; whoever persuaded you to lie to
the Holy Ghost? He picked them up and put them out. God
does not want tares among the wheat.
Then
there was Demas, and another fellow, Simon, but there was
Paul, if you please, that would pick them up and turn them
over to the devil.
We went
through a dark age, but look at your Revelation. A
Marvelous time came again, didn't it? God does not want
the tares among the wheat. They grow that way in the
world, but not in the Church. Somebody said, "You are
coming from the world to the church. I'm doing just what
Jesus did. He would not let them go before the Day of
Pentecost because they did not have that discernment.
Now, let
us come down a little farther to the 40th verse, 13th
chapter of Matthew: "As therefore the tares are
gathered and burned in fire, so shall it be in the end of
the world." The Son of Man does not say a thing about
His coming, brethren. He'll send forth his angels. The
Greek says 'his messengers.' He sent them forth on the Day
of Pentecost. They have been going forth ever since. Some
may say, I thought that was at the second coming of
Christ, He was going to send His angels. Why angels? God
bless your heart, the angels don't know too much about
this redemption. The Scripture said they desire to look
into it, but blessed are our eyes. Glory be to God,
blessed are our ears. We love to sing the old Church hymn:
when we get up there and sing, Holy, Holy, Holy, the
Angels will have to fold their wings, because they don't
know what we are singing about, but we do. No, Angels are
not going to come from Heaven and pull the tares up.
Many have
come to the place where I even hear them say; "I
don't see where It makes much difference if there is a
millennium or not -- I don't mention it" That doesn't
sound like God's reapers. It makes all the difference in
the world whether there Is a millennium or not. I say
'this' with love and kindness, but 'that teaching,' if you
please, kills the vital truths of the Kingdom from
beginning to end. Somebody said, "Bro. Wilson, it was
the whole world, how are you going to 'narrow it down?'
I'm going to narrow it down just like Jesus did; read the
Scripture. I told you to read it slow. The field was the
world, in the beginning of this. But listen. The Son of
Man shall send forth His angels, or in another place He
said, His reapers or the Greek says, His messengers; and
they shall gather (and now we are narrowing it down), out
of His Kingdom. The tares and the wheat will grow in the
world together, but not in the Kingdom of God. We are
narrowing it down now, from the world to the Kingdom.
They
will gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend and
which work iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of
fire (Oh, looks like we are in bad shape again,) Some may
say, "That, is bound to be the end of time." No,
the Word of God teaches a definite difference between the
'lake of fire' and the 'furnace of fire.' We forget about
the fire that John said Jesus brought. Read the 3rd
chapter of Matthew and the 12th verse. "On the day of
Pentecost the Kingdom will come with power." He said
they would see it come with power. It came with power.
Brother, when it came with power, God required a
hundredfold. He required it individually and collectively.
It may be argued, "I cannot see it that way. I
believe you should just leave people to themselves."
He said, "Teach them to observe." He addressed
the letters to the "messengers" of the Church.
It sounds to me like they were responsible for the church.
He wrote to the messenger of the church, "Because you
allow, Who? Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess; what
is that a type of? It is a type of a ministry, which Calls
itself to the ministry, using it as a vocation. The true
ministry or angels are to reap the wheat and bring it into
the barn, but to burn the tares with God's Holy fire, the
truth.
