2004-01-09
Good Morning Cherished Readers,
We have all understood that the sanctification process brings on a kind of sifting out and separation of those who are true believers who trust and obey God from those whose profession of belief is nothing more than a sham. This has been brought out in MT 25: 32-33, “…And the people of all the nations will be gathered before Him. Then He will divide them into two groups, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the righteous people at His right and the others at His left.” The consistency of God’s message about this can be seen all over the Scriptures. Today, I am led to compare the Parable of the Wheat and Tares with things we learn from the Sermon on the Mount, which is another example to demonstrate this truth.
The Parable of the Wheat and Tares is found and explained in MT 13: 24-30, 36-43. The length of this passage brings the necessity of my paraphrasing it here, but it is my hope you will read it directly from the Bible. Tares is another word for weeds. This is the story of a man who plants good seed in his field. In the middle of the night, the enemy broadcasts seeds of tares amongst the good seed and stows away. Once the heads began to form in the growing process, it becomes clear that tares are growing along with the good wheat. The servants of the owner of the field ask what they should do. They are told not to pull up the weeds, but instead, to let the plants come to maturity ready for harvest. Then, the harvest workers can pull up the tares first, bundle them, and then burn them. Then they can harvest the wheat and store it in the barn. In verses 36-43, Christ explains that God is the Owner of the field, the Man Who sowed the good seed is Jesus Christ. The enemy who sows the tare seed is the devil. Those who reap the plants are the angels. The harvest is the end of an age. The tares of those who reject God, and the wheat are those who are faithful to God.
It is no accident that there is a great parallel between this story Christ told and our lives. When the seedlings in the field are still young and are growing, it is pretty hard to tell whether or not an individual one is wheat or tare. The reminder here is that we must leave the final judgment to our Lord and not usurp that right for ourselves. That’s because the plants haven’t differentiated yet, nor have the people made their final decision about faith yet. From our own experience, we know that at some point God, who initiates His invitation to repent and come to faith, will take each person to a point of decision. Will he come to faith and believe, or will he reject God? The Parable tells us that there is a time limit, one that comes upon us sooner than we think for us to make this decision. It also tells us that God is willing to wait only so long, before refusal to come to faith leads to horrific eternal consequences. This leaves us with an urgency to take the steps necessary to make a righteous decision and act upon it. MT 24: 36 really brings this point out. It is Christ’s response to the question of His disciples in MT 24: 3, “Tell us when all this [referring to the coming glory] will be and what will happen to show it is time for Your coming and the end of an age.” Christ’s response comes after His recitation of the coming events, “No one knows, however, when that day and hour will come-neither the angles in heaven nor the Son; the Father alone knows.”
The Sermon on the Mount tells us the righteous shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Those who endure in their faith, recognize their utter need for the Lord’s leadership in their lives, are humble and merciful, pure in heart, work for peace, are willing to be persecuted in their stand for the Lord-they are the ones who will inherit the Kingdom. How can we know if we are living godly lives? We must look at the kind of fruit our lives bear. We must see if we live unselfishly or if our lives are driven by our bodily appetites. We must see how willing to witness to our faith to others we really are. We must examine our own willingness to place our trust in the Lord, especially when we can’t see exactly how the outcome of doing this will play out for us. Think of Abraham, who left Ur of the Chaldes without ever knowing where God was taking him or even why [GN 12: 1-3; HE 11: 8-9]. The same can be said of Moses and Jeremiah, both of whom had deemed themselves unworthy and unprepared to do a God-sized task such as was being asked of them by the Deity [EX 4:10-17; JER 1: 4-10]. And yet, they still obeyed God faithfully, leaving the places which were comfortable to them. A true believer doesn’t necessarily have to leave his home to leave what is comfortable to him to serve the Lord. We can do that right here, because we live in a world surrounded by unbelievers. Our willingness to overcome natural shyness and speak the truth of God to someone who hasn’t heard it before or who needs his faith strengthened certainly qualifies. The important part is that we engage in self-examination without guilt and that we spend our lives obeying and serving God not only as His servants, but also as His friends.
PRAYER: O Lord, the devil would like us to doubt the truths You give us and the promises You make. He wants us to doubt that we are really saved when we have repented of our sins and become faithful in Christ. It is the devil who puts lies in our heads, ones that wreck havoc in our relationships with others and with You. His very name, Satan, means “accuser,” and he is known to accuse us all [REV 12: 10]. He is the “father of all lies and a murderer” [JN 8: 44]. Today, we acknowledge Your great power in all of us who believe to defeat the devil at his own game in Christ’s name. It is only through the grace You extend that we are given this power by Your Son, Jesus Christ. We don’t have to give in to Satan’s lies or accusations, because of both Your power and Your love for those who love You. Not only can the enemy make those who are saved doubt it, but he can also make those who aren’t save believed they are. So the question becomes: how do we know for sure? The answer to that question rests with knowing You and Your plan for us from the Scriptures and from prayer. You teach us to look at the circumstances of our lives in the context of Your commands. We often must make major changes in our lives to conform to Your standards, obeying Paul’s words from RO 12: 2, “Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by the renewal of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God-what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect.” We must remember, Dearest Abba, that You loved us enough to initiate the invitation to join You in Your work of harvesting the faithful, that You have told us essentially that FAITH + NOTHING = SALVATION. Nothing the devil tells us will ever change that amazing, remarkable truth. You know the content of our hearts, no matter what words we say. This is not an invitation to say hurtful our lewd words, because You also know us by the fruits of the Spirit we bear. 2 COR 5:17 reveals the importance of a real and personal relationship with You. “When anyone is joined to Christ, he is a new being, the old is gone and the new has come.” Our pledge is to obey you, so that we can experience the blessings that come from real fellowship and service to You. Our trust is placed in You, and we offer ourselves as living sacrifices on Your altar, to please, serve, worship, obey, thank, be loyal to, be diligent for, to confess our sins to, and to praise You forever. In Christ’s name, amen.
Next week, I’m led to discuss Christ’s sending of the seventy-two and how He is the fulfillment of the law. We will also see how Christ fulfills the third promise of the Abrahamic covenant, the King. As I look over my life, I know that God still has many of my faults at which to chisel away. He has made me aware of many of them though the circumstances of my life and through the other three main portals of His truth, daily study of the Scriptures, prayer, and the life of my congregation. I have often said that I am surrounded by great believers who teach me how to be a more godly person. Our congregation is blessed to have great pastors who deliver sermons full of life-changing truths given to them by the Holy Spirit. Moreover, I am learning how to be in physical pain and transfer my attention away from it to helping others. What I have not learned yet is how to do this without complaint and times of impatience. God is teaching me slowly, because I am learning it slowly, to lean on Him when trouble comes. He is enduring my somewhat feeble attempts to cope with financial changes and other change that stems from them. In JN 21: 18-22, Christ after telling Peter, “Feed My sheep,” prophesies how Peter will die. He was crucified [upside down at his own request, so as to not compare himself with the Lord]. The then impetuous Peter asked the Master, “Lord, what about this man [referring to the beloved disciple, John]. Christ rebukes Peter, saying, “If I want him to live until I come, what is that to you? Fellow Me.” The message, as I see it, is for me to concern myself with Christ’s commands for me and not with what another person may appear to have. That is how I am trying to learn to please the Lord, and it is how I believe we all need to please Him. Number one for me is not to believe the lies and deceptions of Satan, not to let the pain he sends me deter me from listening to and obeying the Lord Who loves each of us so very much. We must never forget the message of EPH 1: 18-20 that each true believer has the power to overcome the devil’s attempts to swerve us off God’s path. God has given us the ears to hear, the eyes, to see, the words to speak, the thoughts to have, the decisions to make which will lead us to eternal life with Him. That’s how much He loves each of us.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn