THE WHEAT and the tares are to grow together until the harvest. The Lord will then send His angels to gather the tares — mere professors — and bind them in bundles to be burned. The wheat will be gathered in to the heavenly granary. The tares are being separated now into bundles—or groups in which the vital truths as to Christ and the Church are left out. They are to be cast into the fire, the terrible end of those who while professing Christ yet know Him not as Saviour. “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: and there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Earth, where once the Son of man was rejected, is yet to be the scene of the display of His glory. God the Father has decreed that His beloved Son will be honored in the very place where He was cast out.
Before He comes back in judgment the Lord is coming first to receive His own, those whom He has redeemed from earth, to be with Himself forever. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” Theirs will be a heavenly portion. What blessing and glory for them, and all because of Him that “loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” Well might we ascribe to Him everlasting glory and praise!
In the next three parables we have brighter pictures of the kingdom of heaven, as it is brought before us by the Spirit of God. It is not now a question of man’s responsibility.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” Christ has purchased the field — the world — and thus has established His right to work in the field. He has paid the price by giving Himself as a ransom, and thus has established His rights over this world. He gave all that He had to obtain it. He humbled Himself, laid aside His glories which belonged to Him as the Son of God from heaven, coming down to this earth as a man, God manifest in flesh. But He further humbled Himself unto death, and that the death of the cross. He bore the wrath of God for those who were to become His peculiar treasure, to wash them in His blood and to redeem them to God. God has raised Him from the dead, He has exalted Him above every name that is named, and as such He has the right to seek for His treasure.
This treasure — the Church — was a hidden thing at that time. It was not Israel, for Israel was well known, and His operations in this world, both past and in the time when he was here were well known, being objects of the prophetic word. So having accomplished all this, He is now absent in the heavens, and the Spirit of God is here, hovering over this world and directing these operations of grace, working through the servants of the Lord.
ML-07/29/1962