Address—Doug Buchanan
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Perhaps we could open our meeting with #37 in the Appendix 37 in the back of the book.
The Lord of life is risen, Has left the darks and grave, and death by him abolished. He's mighty now to save. And we with him are risen, The fruit of all his toil, The first fruits of his harvest, His sufferings richest spoiled #37 in the back.
The Lord of life and dreams and the end of the end. And I've, I've, I've had and I've had a brother come praying.
Really, my emails will spread.
And bring my skin on breath and I'll let you know that I'm curious about all the hills and all I want to do.
Umm.
Yeah, that's fine. Maybe what I can do.
Uh.
And then whenever it's OK, and then.
Listen to my question.
And get my skin and information that I have here.
The subject I have before me is different.
I don't remember ever hearing anybody speak on it.
Umm. I hope that it will mean as much to you as it is meant to me.
And that is the subject of what wheat is a picture of in the Bible.
God has taken and used examples.
In His word to teach us His ways, and they are often related to things that are common to us in our daily life.
Like sewing and reaping.
And, uh, the Lord Jesus gave us that parable of the sower.
And.
In.
In Mark's Gospel.
Wait a minute, did I get it right? And one of the Gospels, he said.
If ye know not this parable, how will ye know all parables?
Seems to me that it's very fundamental.
To understanding what God speaks to us through parables, and that refers to the parable of the sower.
00:05:10
That's what the Lord said about it.
Now I'm a farmer and I'm not very knowledgeable as a farmer but I do appreciate.
Growing wheat.
I believe that there's some lessons for us in it, and these scriptures that we're going to read refer to that.
Wheat and barley. I see another wheat farmer here in this room. Umm, there's probably some others too.
Wheat is a interesting plant.
It's a plant that grows at a different time of year than most plants.
Driving over here, we saw the wheat fields are already planted.
And the harvest will come depending on how far North and South you are.
In some time between May, June, July, I think it's out in or even in August up in, uh, Washington, isn't it July or August?
It is a harvest that is different than other harvests.
Like apples, fruit, pigs, olives and so on.
Also.
We.
Every season you plant it, it grows and it dies as it gives fruit.
Apples don't do that.
Grapes don't do that.
God uses the fig, the vine, the olive tree.
Quite consistently to refer to Israel.
Whenever he refers to the church and the heavenly people.
Consistently.
Wheat or barley, this is a crop.
Now, isn't that interesting?
And I wanna say I believe every scripture in the Bible that refers to we refers to the heavenly harvest that the Lord gets at the close of this dispensation.
And that we are waiting for his coming.
And that very soon he will gather the wheat into the garner.
Let's read that verse. It's an announced by John the Baptist in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3.
Matthew 3, verse 11.
John the Baptist speaking, I indeed baptize you with water and repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly or thoroughly purge his floor.
And gather his wheat into the garner. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Interesting the communication that began here with in the New Testament early on.
John the Baptist, in announcing the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, distinguishes him in this way.
I don't believe John the Baptist understood all that implications that we should understand today about gathering the wheat into his barn or Garner.
I believe he understood the judgment that was Go was to take place.
Simultaneously with that.
And I don't believe that this verse really takes into consideration what we hope for.
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Well, let me rephrase, rephrase that. I don't believe that John the Baptist understood how the gap the Lord Jesus would gather his wheat into the garner. His view of it was the judgment and the separation that was going to take place at that time.
Because during this time of the Day of grace, when after the sower has sowed the seed and people receive the seed in their hearts, and depending on how they receive the seed, the seed in their hearts is the results and the growth and the fruit, We're gonna get into that.
In a little.
But what he did understand and emphasize was the burning of the chaff.
That is the judgment of the unreal.
We're living at the close of this dispensation of grace.
We are living in a time when God has forborn with the Christian testimony and all those who name the name of the Lord.
And there's a great mixture out there in the in Christianity of wheat and tares.
Real and false.
So much so that I suppose the Muslim that looked on the West, the Christian testimony would really not get a very good understanding at all of what Christianity was really about.
May I ask each of our hearts, what kind of testimony are we giving?
About what God is doing right now, what place we have.
Before God.
Our our hopes in this world or our our hopes in heavenly things?
The harvest that we participate in is a heavenly harvest. I looked through our Little Flock Him book to see if there was a hymn.
That talked about the heavenly harvest and I thought I wasn't going to find one, and I found this one. Mr. Fraser wrote that I believe he was gathered to the Lord's name, if I'm not mistaken.
We owe a lot to our older brethren who appreciated these truths and would put them in poetic form in a way that our souls and our hearts or our understanding can unite together and praise to sing in the Spirit and sing in the understanding of the hope of the Lord's coming.
Now wonderful.
So we are living at the close of this time after the sower has sowed the seed.
And God is bearing our forbearing with this great mixture of testimony that exists.
Earlier in this chapter, no, let's let's turn on over now to uh.
To Matthew G Uh Mark, Chapter 4.
Verse 26.
We wanna talk about this parable.
Of the sower and of the sea.
Mark 4.
26 And he said, So is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up. He knows not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of its herself. First the blade.
Then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.
This is the only place.
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Where the Kingdom of heaven is described in these three.
Terms.
First the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn of the year. Now I wanna talk about wheat a little bit.
There are when you plant wheat.
There are about 9 stages of its development and growth.
We're gonna condense it down to three.
These three that are mentioned in this verse, the blade and the ear and the full corner in the ear.
The blade is has to do with germination.
When you plan out wheat seed, well, this is true of any seed.
There is life, there is a germ in that sea.
And it is put down in the ground.
With water, nutrients and so on, it swells up.
And.
A sprout comes out.
That's life.
The Lord has sown.
His Word in our hearts.
You receive it, and if there's a right environment, it can grow.
The first thing.
A. A a center needs.
Because he needs life.
Without a new life we are dead in trespasses and sins, and so the Lord was that sower.
And he sewed.
He is the great sower.
Just to put it in perspective with what was before the Lord and how the Lord was introducing something new.
That stands in contrast with how the Lord dealt with Israel in the Old Testament.
He talked about Israel as being a vine, and he came and looked for fruit.
And he talked about Israel and Judah, and Judah was that pleasant plant. That's a nice area.
When the Lord Jesus came into this world and Israel, he found no fruit.
In basically a very short time, the Lord came to the conclusion that He must introduce something new.
Instead of looking for fruit from man, he was going to give of himself. And in Matthew 13, when he speaks about the sower, that's what he's doing. He's opening up to us what was about to be developed in Christianity, and it has to do with wheat, a sower.
And the seed is sown, and it falls into three or four kinds of ground.
Three of them don't produce fruit and one does the good ground.
Now those three places where the the where the seed may fall correspond to this verse that we read.
Going back to our our verse, the blade.
The leaf that sprout comes out.
If the sower sowed a seed and it fell by the wayside.
The birds of the air came and plucked it up and ate it. It never germinated.
It's gone.
There are people who hear the gospel.
And before they go out the room, Satan is already taken away the seed, and they go away.
And they continue. They never bear fruit.
No life.
Never had life, no germination.
Then it talks about.
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The ear.
Now, as the Plea wheat plant grows.
A blade, a leaf comes up first one.
And then it starts a thing called tillering. Is that right?
Not very many plants do that, but wheat does. It sets out these little other shoots and they also go, these shoots go out in the ground, they root themselves and they also.
A sprout multiplies out of them, and it one seed continues to do this until you have a whole clump.
Of wheat from one seat.
And I don't know what the average of them is. It might be 10 or 12 of them, uh, depending how thick you saw it. But it's possible as many as 20 or more could develop under the right circumstances. This is.
A picture.
Of growth.
This is what is called the growth stage.
And then and every one of those shoots.
That that it rises up.
There'll be an extension and growth as time goes on in the springtime.
We have a problem here in the spring of an early frost if a frost comes too early.
It can kill that hit. The head is the part that has the fruit on it. Did you know that the head starts out right at the base?
Of the plant and it pushes up as it grows and the head will keep pushing up on the inside of the wheat stock and so as it grows there somebody who knows what they're doing they can pinch those stocks and they pinch it and then they'll feel a little bump that's the head depending on how high the head is if it's too high and it frost.
It will not. It will. It will kill it.
The head will die. That's where the fruit is. This is a picture of Christianity. This is a picture of the word of God sowed in our hearts. And God is interested in a people for himself, and this is how he's going to get a people for himself.
And at the end, there's going to be some fruit for him.
But as we go through life.
We are tested.
And so the first enemy is the the birds of the air.
Then you have that which fell on the Stony ground.
Now what was the problem with Stony ground? The Stony ground inhibits that a root go down into the soil itself.
It can't.
And so.
That's a picture of a Christian who has no root.
No real faith and it cannot grow.
Then there's the third stage.
Among the thorns.
That is a picture of the cares of this life.
And that affects it in stage three of the growth of the wheat plant.
So that we farmers know that if you have weedy wheat.
We eat anything, any plant, it will choke out and uh, there will not be fruit.
So we have.
The the the 1St the blade that has to do with life.
Then the ear that has to be to do with growth in our Christian life. And the third stage is fruit. Interesting. That's the significance here of these three things. The sower that sows it. I'm talking about this process. Don't really know that much about that. I can even explain that.
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Last night in the gospel we heard you those words about Do you understand?
How this can happen?
And the answer was no. But I know what happens.
We can say that about sewing.
God put in the wheat or the barley plant this those genetics and it happens and it proves what God says.
So it's a wonderful thing to be a part of this harvest.
And my exercise in talking about it here is that we.
Appreciate what God is doing at this time, what His purpose is is, and what kind of a harvest is he looking for.
Now there was another parable and we, we're not going to have time to go to those, but where the Kingdom of, uh, of God is is likened to a grain of mustard seed that was planted. And this is another view of what's going on today in the harvest that God has before him. And the purpose of the God's harvest is to have a people for himself in heaven.
But if you misunderstand that and you think that Christianity is about this earth, you're going to miss the point.
Because that's exactly what the Lord told us ahead of time about the grain of mustard seed. The first purpose of a mustard seed was for it to be a herb.
But if you make a great tree out of it, you ruin the purpose.
People like to make Christianity a great thing in the world, to have an influence down here, to change this world, and it's not God's purpose.
The Lord is gathering a people for Himself in heaven.
How wonderful to have that.
You know, I re recently I had occasion to go back and read some of the history of the early settlers of this country. I'm talking about back about in the 16 and 1700s when this the the first colonies came over here. And I was surprised how much information and writings there are about them and what their religious beliefs were. And they were godly men.
I'm, I'm impressed, uh, with their godliness.
But I'm also impressed with their lack of understanding of what we're talking about here right now.
Of a heavenly harvest. They didn't know about that. That truth had not been recovered at that point of time.
It was largely disk unknown.
We're thankful that God used a group of.
Separated brethren to recover and to give us ministry along this line.
And my purpose in speaking on this is to in this way, is to add to our understanding what the wheat harvest is about.
And that we are a part of it and how it's going to unfold very soon here before us right now, because I believe we're at the end of this day of grace.
And the separating process of the wheat and the chaff.
Is starting.
Let's go on to, uh, Matthew 13 with that.
In Matthew chapter 13.
Oh.
Verse 24.
Alright.
00:30:00
Uh, let's just read a little bit here. Matthew 1324 Another parable. Put he forth unto them, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the weak, and went his way. When the the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tears also.
So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou so good seed in thy field?
From whence then hath it tears? And he saith unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt tell them that we go and gather them up. He said. But he said, Nay, lest while you gather up the tears, you 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 to gather first. The.
And bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.
Now let's go over farther down the explanation.
Umm.
Verse uh.
Verse 36 And 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 sowed the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world. The good seeds are the children of the Kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked One. The enemy that sold them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the world, or it should read the end of the age. And the reapers are the angels, as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire.
So shall it be at the end of this age, as it should read. Then the Son of Man shall send forth his angels.
And they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend them, which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, Let him hear.
Now we want to be very careful how we.
Decipher or interpret this these verses.
Because a lot of confusion, it looks like first glance, like the first thing that happens is that the tears are burned up. And that's not exactly true. It says they are gathered in bundles to burn.
And then it says, gather the wheat into the garner.
And then the bundles are burned. Now, I believe that's exactly how it's going to happen at the end of this dispensation.
We believe that our our our great hope is the Lord Jesus coming to take his home to heaven.
But at that time, before and after, there are the gatherings of the Bo of the of the tares into bundles.
I believe we're close enough to the time of the Lord's coming that we're seeing groups of people gathered together in various.
Groups.
Can be over doctrinal issues, it can be over political issues, it can be over a lot of different things, and there's a lot of bundles out there that profess to be Christian.
But they're bundles of tears.
It's an exercising question of who you're associated for with.
In that regards.
God purposefully does not put the separating of the wheat and the tares in the hands of men.
We're not smart enough. We're not good enough.
Back in the dark ages, there was an attempt made by the Roman Catholic Church to do exactly what the disciples said here. Let's root out, pull up the tares.
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And instead of rooting up tares, they pulled up and put to death many Christians.
That's not our place to do that. It's not talking about the assembly. It's talking about the world, the Kingdom of heaven. This is the larger sphere. Yes, the Church is inside of this and it's a part of it, but it's not that what we're talking about here.
So the angels gather these into bundles.
We see. Take that. Well, that will take place. What John the Baptist spoke about burning the chaff.
Notice in verse umm.
Notice in verse 41 The language. I wanna reread it.
The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his Kingdom.
All things that offend them and them which do iniquity.
I believe what this verse is saying is the Lord Jesus has already gathered his wheat into the barn.
And there is.
A testimony here on earth of Christianity that is composed of.
Bundles of tears.
And it professes to be Christian.
And it has as its object a Kingdom on earth.
And they are seeking to make the Christian testimony that and the Lord is going to look down on it and say that's not my Kingdom.
And he's gonna judge it and he's gonna take it out because it's about time for him to set up his earthly Kingdom, and that is not a part of it.
And those who will come and say, didn't we prophecy in your name? And so on. And he'll say, depart from me, workers of iniquity, I never knew you.
All of this will take place in the name of Christianity.
There should. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I believe every time that scripture is referred to, it's referring to the judgment at the end of this day of grace. Other judgments aren't so severe as that judgment. Why is the judgment at the end of the day of grace so severe? Because the privilege was so great.
Because Grace gives in this time. What?
No one has an excuse or reason not to receive.
Grace rejected is worse than the rejection of the Lord Jesus when He was here on earth, in a certain sense.
That's why.
Weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Well, it's a privilege to be lived at this time that we we are living in and to have a measure of understanding about this. And I, I hope the Lord will encourage us to be faithful to go on for him looking for the Lord's coming.
It's so important.
Her brother at the at the dinner table this noon was was referring to me. Let's just turn to it in Hebrews 10 Umm the what the lo, what the apostle said there the the writer of the book of Hebrews, what he said to those Hebrews who were were suffering. It's in Hebrews chapter 10.
Umm verse.
A34 I wanna reiterate this to us.
For ye had compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven. Notice those words that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore your confidence with hath great recompense of reward.
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For you have need of patience that after you have done the will of God.
You might receive the promise for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come and will not tear. How appropriate these words, the same words that he spoke to those Jewish believers in the very beginning, and they were a part of that people of Israel that had earthly hopes.
And now they had a better hope, and the Hebrews tells us about that.
I heavenly hope.
And they had to suffer the consequences, and many lost all their goods on earth.
Are we prepared to give up our goods on Earth?
Is that our focus? We need to be careful. It's not the goods that are the problem, it's our esteem of them and what they're used for that we need to be on our guard.
They can be used for the heavenly Kingdom. Wonderful opportunity to use those for things but.
Speaking from experience, it's easy to.
Have a tight fist on those dollar bills.
It's easy to hold back.
And did not use it for the heavenly things.
Let's turn now to umm.
John.
Well, John's Gospel, chapter 4.
I've spoken on this verse before, but I wanna reiterate it.
John 4, verse 35.
We'll reverse starting with verse 34.
Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look upon the fee on the fields, for they are white already to harvest, and he that reapeth.
Receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto eternal life, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is the same true One soweth, another reapeth.
I sent you to read that were on Ye bestowed no labor, other men labored, and ye are entered into their laborers.
It's a wonderful thing to participate in this harvest, this sowing and reaping.
The Lord Jesus what what told his disciples about that when He was here on earth? Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting, there were two harvest times in Israel. There was the early summer or late spring harvest of wheat and barley, and then there was a normal fall harvest when most crops mature and are gathered in.
The children of Israel were to gather together both of those occasion and go up to Jerusalem.
And to present some of those first fruits that they had gathered in on those two harvest times. A lot of people don't distinguish between these two harvests. That's the burden of my heart, is to distinguish the two harvests, the heavenly harvest and the earthly harvest, the wheat harvest and the fall harvest of grapes and olives and all the other.
Fruits that mature at that time.
And the Lord Jesus here was with his disciples, and I think their mindset was on what was pictured in the fall harvest.
And then the Lord Jesus is walking through this time of year, and it must have been spring and the wheat and the barley were ripe because they are the crops that turn white when they get over when they're ripe. Uh, it's a wonderful thing to see a field of wheat waving in the wind and actually when it gets white, it's over mature. It's really golden when it's ripe.
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It bleaches out in the sun and.
First, here on earth, I want you to be occupied with the heavenly harvest, the harvest of wheat. There are four months between those two harvests. Don't wait until Israel is going to be blessed to enter in and join in the harvest, because the Lord wanted Israel to participate as the heavenly people as well. And if you please, they got first chance.
For the gospel was presented to the Jew first.
And also to the Gentiles. And it really wasn't until the Jews rejected it that the Lord broadened it out and to include all nations. And that's where we have come in. And during this this dispensation that we're living in, it's largely been through to the Gentiles that the gospel has been blessed. But we're living down at the end of this dispensation. And even the Gentiles now are turning up their noses at the at heavenly things and.
Focusing back on what Israel the distinction of this dispensations is being given up and people are returning to the theology that our early forefathers that wrote the King James Bible only understood.
And replacement theology is taking away all hope of a heavenly harvest. That is the burden of my heart.
It's one thing to be ignorant of these truths. It's another thing to imbibe it and then give it up.
If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness? I believe that refers to the false Christian testimony that God will have to come down and judge. But that doesn't make any less the hope and the wonder. The Lord is going to get every soul that he died for with Him in glory.
And All Souls are going to be.
Gazzard in and so we know that and we're thankful for it.
Let's turn to Acts. Acts chapter 27.
Interesting little verse here.
I thought about asking this question at the beginning of the meeting. What was it?
That the last thing they cast out of the ship when Paul was shipwrecked.
What was it that they cast out of the ship?
After they had took their last meal. Let's read it.
Acts chapter 27 and verse 38.
Well, let's read ver yeah?
And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the wheat into the sea.
This is often been likened to a.
This shipwreck, this voyage of Paul has been likened as a prophetic picture of the history of the Christian testimony and how it would be end up in ruin at the end of the dispensation. And I like that. And then fitting it in with that.
What is pictured here in casting the wheat into the sea?
Giving up of the heavenly harvest.
Brethren from among us that I have known.
Have done so. Some of my dear brethren have done that.
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I believe.
It's a burden to my heart.
To give up our heavenly hope and be occupied with earthly blessings.
Is, I believe, pictured in this verse.
But they all did get safe to the shore. So wonderful. There won't be a soul left behind that is born again.
All those seeds that fell on good ground are going to bear some fruit. I believe every believer will have some fruit.
But there are those 3 stages in which we.
As to life, we can give up and not we as Christian, but the the hearers of the gospel can give it up or it can be taken from them. It can be rendered fruitless because they have no root, really no faith.
Or it can be the cares of life that a soul it gets so taken up for them.
In the later stages of what the wheat plant develops that there is no fruit.
First Corinthians, chapter 15.
When the Lord Jesus was here, he told his disciples, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die.
It bring us forth much fruit.
He was speaking that those words about himself and his desire, I believe the Lord was telling us.
In those words, because this is in the 12Th chapter, this was in the 12Th chapter of John and took place.
And that last week of the Lord's life here on earth, Even the last day or two, maybe.
He was saying I'm about to go back to heaven.
I don't want to go alone.
I want to have a people in heaven with me.
The only way that's possible is for me to lay down my life and to die.
And the result of that death will be?
Much fruit.
And the much fruit is through the sowing of the gospel.
And we who believe receive that good seed.
What's in the chapter that you took up here?
Being born again not a corruptible things.
But it how is it the?
I'm sorry, when you get old you can't quote scripture anymore.
See it?
Being born again, not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. That's the good seed sown in our hearts.
And it liveth and abide the tares work didn't we did never converts into tears, and tears never convert into wheat. They are two different origins.
You have to be born again. You have to receive the word of God in your heart to bear fruit.
And so.
The Lord Jesus, this is how he's getting.
Is harvest. This is how he's gathering his people in heaven.
This is what we are are partaker of.
Now in for First Corinthians chapter 15.
Verse.
35.
But some men will say, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.
00:55:04
And that which thou so was, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but bare grain. It may chance of wheat, or some other grain, but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him.
And to every seed, his own body. And so the Lord Jesus makes a comparison here with the sowing of a seed and the plant that grows out of that seed. And then a body is taken, and that plant doesn't look like the seed necessarily, but it's of its life and nature, and it grows.
And so.
The seed that's been planted in our hearts.
Can bear fruit when we receive it and allow it to have its way in our life. What a wonderful thing to bear fruit for God. And we're getting close to that time when the Lord Jesus is going to transform these bodies and he's gonna give us that new body like his own.
And that's compared to the process here that we're talking about.
Of the sowing of seed and the the life that comes forth out of that, and of the change that will take place ultimately when the dead rise.
And that's why when we gives fruit, it dies. We that are alive and remain are the exception to the rule.
In the Millennium, it won't necessarily be that way.
Only the wicked will die.
And they will live on.
The heavenly harvest is about all those who die in faith.
Along with those of us who are still alive when the Lord comes and we have that special transformation that's going to take place and He will clothe us with new bodies like His own.