“The Case for Christ - Christ, Lord of the Harvest”

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 13 and follow me as we look at this parable together this evening.

Jesus, in His graciousness, set a series of parables before his hearers concerning the kingdom of heaven.

And, I say, ‘in His graciousness’, because it is a marvel, that He - in all of His infinite knowledge - should condescend to open truths about His kingdom to us in ways we can understand and grasp.

‘Like the compassion of a father for his children, so the Lord tenderly treats those who revere Him.’ (Ps 103:13)

He tenderly stooped and used similes and parables, stories with pictures in them, to enlighten us, to ‘make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.’

In this story, which starts at verse 24 of Matthew 13, Jesus began telling about the end time and what would occur in His kingdom in the last days. Tonight, let us see some of the truths He taught of His kingdom for these last days.

In this particular story, Jesus told of a man who had sown good seed in his field. 

It was at night, the time when it was difficult to see the enemy, who, in his malicious, clandestine way, slipped into the field and sowed his seeds. And the Greek word suggests that his sowing was a thorough distribution of his seeds - it was a sweeping, complete dispersion. He left no corner of the field unsown!

But - there were two difficulties connected with these seeds. 
  
First, it was difficult to distinguish one from the other when the plants were very young since, as I understand it, the weed seeds were botanically close to the wheat seeds.

It was not until the plants matured sufficiently that one was able to tell which was which.

You will see, in verse 26, that it was not until the wheat blades sprung up and started to show its fruit that the man’s servants could tell the difference between the two.  

And, then, to try to pull the weeds as they were growing was the other problem. The roots of the two plants become entangled around each other. And to pull one means pulling the other as well, which, of course, would destroy the good seed planted. (v 29)

The owner’s servants came to him when they saw what had happened and said: ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?’

And the owner told them, ‘The enemy did this’. Then the servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

And the man answered, ‘No, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. But let them both grow together until harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters to first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; and then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’

Of course, the disciples did not understand what Jesus was telling them. So - once again, He graciously explained this to them in verses 37-43.

He told them that the field is the world. The owner of the field is the Lord Jesus Himself. The ‘good seed’ are His own people, the children of His kingdom. The enemy is Satan and the ‘weed seed’, or ‘tares’ that he has sown, are the children of the world. 

The harvest is the end of the world. ‘Harvest’ is a common metaphor for the final judgment. When the fruit ripens, the harvest of judgment falls. And the reapers, who are the angels, will do their work of separating the wheat from the weed at that time.  

Strangely, the servants are not identified. Their function in this story is nothing more than to consult with the owner of the field, to act upon His clearly revealed will. 

And the instruction was to let the plants both grow together - not to disturb them now - not to try to separate the weed from the wheat.

Now - what did Jesus make evident in this story of the end-times? There are at least three important truths that connect with the end-time happenings in the spiritual realm.

The first thing it makes clear is that the Kingdom of God is sown in the certainty that its seed will flourish in this present world right along with the enemy’s seed. 

Weeds have been sown covertly yet the seed God has sown is prospering among the weeds - it is increasing. The weeds cannot choke it out. 

The Lord’s seed is going to yield real, actual, true wheat at the time of harvest.

The prophecy, in Isaiah 53:10-11, will break into reality, as it is said of Christ: ‘...when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, [or, ‘His heirs’], He shall prolong His days, and by His hand shall the Lord’s will advance....’.

Yes - by His hand, the seed the Lord has sown grows and ripens to maturity among the hard-hearted and the scoffers. 

By His hand, it flourishes in spite of all the contending pressures pushing against it. 

And, by His hand, it increases even among the seeming defeats and attempts to abort its harvest.

But grow it does - right along with the weeds until the time of reaping. Now - that is a marvel! If you know anything about unattended weeds in a garden, you can see how miraculous this fact is!

Yes - miracle of miracles - the Lord will have His posterity, His heirs, His wheat right down for the time of harvest! 

Secondly, while the two plants are growing together, the servants are working the field, following the instruction of the Lord. They are not to try to separate the wheat from the weed - they were not given the authority to do that - that is left for the angels to do.

What divine wisdom is this! Can you just imagine what a muddle it all would be if the separating of the wheat from the weed were left up to us?  

What mistakes we would make! First, we really do not know all of the Lord’s wheat. We sometimes think we know - but we forget that only the Lord knows the heart of man - what is in the heart - what kind of heart it is.

We are likely to make some very grave mistakes in our choices - some of us would be far too lenient and some of us far too severe and harsh - believe me!

We have our own ideas of who is ‘in’, so to speak, and who is ‘out’ - do we not? Just recently, I heard of a preacher who determined a believer was not ‘in’ because he was not baptized ‘right’ - whatever he meant by that, I do not know!

Our judgments tend to shut some saints ‘out’ who are ‘in’ and some ‘in’ who may really be ‘out’. We can be very foolish in our human judgments - is that not so?

The fact is that we are neither called for, nor are we skilled for that job - that is why the Lord’s angels are the reapers! They are skilled and they know! Only they are given that authority!

When the Lord sends them out, it is they who will decide which is wheat and which is weed. 

And they will not fail to gather all the wheat and leave out every tare.

And the rule for them is to take out the weed plants, the tares, tie them in bundles to be burned. Then they are to gather the wheat together and put it into the Lord’s barn, for ‘...unto Him shall the gathering of the people be’, according to the Messianic prophecy of Gen 49:10.

So, the word from the Lord’s mind for this present dispensation is, ‘Let the good plant and the weeds grow together. Do not try to separate them. That is the Lord’s affair - not ours!

The third truth of this particular end-times parable is that certain aspects of the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan may look alike. The differences between the two are not always clear-cut to the human heart. They do not always appear at first. Only as the fruit grows and ripens does it become apparent.

I wonder if we realize that the night is closing in on the church right now. There is such a blending of the wheat and the tares that ‘Christianity’ [and I put that word in quotes] is becoming ever so much more indefinite.

The world has many enemy-sown tares, many look-alikes, if you please. If we were to regard things from a worldview, everything about us seems to be moving out of place. The things of the Spirit blended with the spirit of the world are becoming more indistinct, more uncertain, more doubtful as time progresses, it seems. 

This is a sure sign that we are coming to the ‘harvest’ time.
And this is the disturbing part of this truth for it must bring us to that time of division - to, not only the ingathering, but to the discarding, as well. That ruffles our hearts to no small consternation.

God is allowing the tares to grow right along with the wheat. But the day will come when the Lord will summon His reapers to the field and say: ‘It is harvest time now’ and will send them out to do their work of separation.

And He will instruct them to bind the tares in bundles to be burned and to gather the wheat into His barn for preservation.

There it is: the moment of disjoining, of division, the drawing of the line of demarcation. It will bring us to the time of realization that we do not all worship the same God. 

Two will be working in the same field but ‘one will be taken and the other left’. There will be those who cry out ‘Lord, Lord, open to us...we have eaten and drunk in Your presence and Thou hast taught in our streets.’ And He will reply, ‘Depart...I do not know you...’. (Lu 13:26-27)

Now - I know this causes a major disturbance. The sparks fly about freely at this point. There is great controversy and much scoffing in worldviews about this. But - here is where we must stay close to the Scriptures and know what it is that God’s Word declares of the end time.

Just as the master told his servants to go on working and let the separation be in his hands, so we Christians must do likewise. There is no need to argue about it, nor worry about it, nor be confused about it, and, most certainly, not be smug about it. 

We cannot involve ourselves in that endtime happening - we have nothing to do with it - how this is to take place, the exact way, when it is to happen, nor the circumstances that bring it about and under which it will happen. 

We cannot know all those details - we can only stand back and watch as the Lord does His work. In the meantime, we ‘work while it is yet day...’.

The wheat will be gathered into His barn and the weed will not be. When this moment is upon the world, there will no longer be any hope nor possibility of change - that is the really sad part of this all. 

The wheat - those ‘saved ones’, those who have been instructed by the Holy Spirit, those who have surrendered themselves - their wills and hearts to all that God found necessary to bring them into the mature, ripened wheat - they will be gathered in. 

While they were growing in the field along with the tares, they are the ones who refused to become entangled with the ‘affairs of this present world’. They refused to add to the world’s disorder and to increase the evil in it.

And why is this so? The answer is quite simple: it is because there is a difference of life. The wheat sown by the Son of man is of a distinctly different character from the  weed seed sown by the enemy. 

They are two totally different plants, and, so, a regenerate person and an unregenerate person are two altogether different beings. 

We cannot always see the difference at first, as I said earlier, but it becomes more and more apparent as the wheat ripens, and as the tares ripen, too.

There is in the one a life - the life of Christ - which is not in the other. The difference is so vital and so radical that it is vain to have just the name of ‘wheat’ - it is the nature of ‘wheat’ that makes the difference.

Oh - I hope you will never trifle with this! This is the chief and indispensable matter. There is no in-between ground here. The separation is as real as real can be! 

Now - in the light of this particular teaching given by Jesus, what are we to grasp?

First, we cannot be satisfied with just being in the field, of just looking like wheat. We must be wheat. There can be no shams and no imitations - we must become the ‘real thing’, if I may be allowed to put it that way.

Then, it is not up to us to judge others in this regard. That is strictly the Lord’s affair since He is the ‘Lord of the harvest’ and ‘the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His.’ He knows those who really belong to Him. (2 Tim 2:19).

In the meantime, we continue to grow and to fully mature.
‘...Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity, stand aloof from unrighteousness, and forsake evil ways altogether’, as that verse in 2 Timothy continues.

So - let me encourage each of us to ‘...be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might...’. Be strong in the Lord and be ‘made wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.’ So be it!  

Amen! Let us pray.