Are There Tares in Your Field?

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ” Matthew 13:24–30.

Jesus taught in parables to help us understand the unknown by explaining something we understand. Jesus describes the spiritual world in terms of the physical world. He takes us from what we understand to what we do not understand.

“Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.’ He answered and said to them: ‘He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’” Matthew 13: 36–43.

The field is the world and the wheat and tares are both being planted in this field. In the Middle East there is a weed that looks like a wheat plant when it first springs up. There actually were people in Jesus’ day who took the seed of this weed, or tares as it was called, and scattered it in their enemies wheat field. Although the weeds could not be seen at first, as they grew you could see them all through the wheat. The weeds take nutrients and water and if there are too many of them they can actually choke out the wheat. The presence of tares represents a very dangerous situation.

The Field of the Mind

Here Jesus is talking about the spiritual world and illustrating it with the natural world. The field is the world—the spiritual world. What is the spiritual world? It is the world of the spirit working on the minds of men. God’s spiritual field are those who claim to be His children, or His professed church. “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field.” 1 Corinthians 3:9. [All emphasis supplied.] Each one of us who is part of God’s professed church, is part of this field. Our spirit, our mind, is part of this field. The aggregate of all the minds of all who profess to be God’s people in the whole world is the whole field.

The field is the world—the spiritual world. Then what is the good seed Jesus came to plant? The good seed is the gospel, the truth of the Bible. Jesus came to plant the gospel, the truth, in the minds of those that choose to follow Him. As this good seed grows up and matures in your mind, eventually it becomes an integral part of your character so that you are called the good seed. Jesus said the good seed are the children of the kingdom.

The Battle Over the Mind

What are the tares? Or what is the seed that produces the tares? The tares are spiritual ideas that are implanted in the mind by the devil. If this seed grows up and matures in a person’s mind, even though he professes to be a child of God, in reality, he is a child of the devil.

The devil cannot force himself on you, but you can open up your mind to him, and that is very dangerous. There are some statements by Ellen White on this subject. “If there is any way by which Satan can gain access to the mind, he will sow his tares and cause them to grow until they will yield an abundant harvest.” Adventist Home, 402. Notice that your mind is the field. If the devil can gain access to your mind, he is going to sow tares. “In no case can Satan obtain dominion over thoughts, words, and actions, unless we voluntarily open the door and invite him to enter. He will then come in and, by catching away the good seed sown in the heart, make of none effect the truth.” Ibid.

The devil is out there, friends. There is a battle going on in the world today and the battle is for your mind. What are you reading? What are you listening to? What are you looking at? The devil has gone all over the world sowing seeds. “Satan is their chosen leader. It is while men sleep that the enemy sows his tares in the heart.” Manuscript Release, vol. 10, 323. Satan is seeking access to your mind to sow these spiritual plants. They are poisonous plants and if they grow up, you will lose your soul. We want to study what these tares are that the devil plants in the minds of God’s professed people.

Safety in the Spirit of Prophecy

We are living in the time of the end when there will be all manner of deceptions. It is the most treacherous time in the history of the world. God knew and foresaw thousands of years ago that perilous times would come. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Malachi 4:5. This special reformation prophet is one of the two identifying marks by which you can identify God’s people in the last days. 1. They keep all of God’s commandments and 2. have the testimony of Jesus, the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 12:17; 19:10.

If we follow and stay close to the spiritual gifts God has given to His people in these last days, we will not be tripped up. The Lord has revealed to us what the tares are that the devil plants in people’s minds. If our minds were strong enough to understand everything that was in the Bible, we would not need the Spirit of Prophecy. But most of us do not understand our Bibles very well, and the Lord has given us some special help.

“The good seed represents those who are born of the word of God, the truth. The tares represent a class who are the fruit or embodiment of error, of false principles. ‘The enemy that sowed them is the devil.’ Neither God nor His angels ever sowed a seed that would produce a tare. The tares are always sown by Satan, the enemy of God and man.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 70. The tares are false spiritual principles, or teachings.

Let us look at some statements which will make it more specific. “The warnings and the messages that the Lord has graciously given me to correct the errors that would come in, and to set things in order, the people should have, for the enemy will continue to work to bring in false theories and to mingle with the truth strange suppositions. These appear as light to those who receive them, but they are deceptive theories that will be brought in as tares sown among the wheat.” Paulson Collection, 6. False theories are one kind of tare.

False Doctrine is Dangerous

“Satan has sown plentifully the seed of dangerous heresies, that will produce a harvest of corruption, and will be as tares among the wheat.” Signs of the Times, July 11, 1895. Dangerous heresies––another kind of tare. Is doctrine important? Have you ever met someone who said, “I don’t think doctrine is too important as long as you are sincere.” Martin Luther and all the rest of the Protestant Reformers thought doctrine was important. The apostles thought doctrine was important. Wrong doctrine can lead you straight to destruction.

Jesus, the great teacher, taught His disciples how to distinguish truth from error, how to distinguish a tare from the wheat. “He weeded life of its vanities and follies, distinguishing between the tares and the wheat.” Signs of the Times, March 28, 1895. That is why we need to be studying the Bible. The apostle Paul, writing to people who had just become Christians, told them to desire the sincere milk of the word. Then they needed to grow so they could understand the solid food of the Word. 1 Corinthians 3:1–4. One reason you need to attend church, is to associate with mature Christians and learn to tell the difference between truth and error, between the tares and the wheat.

I have observed that people who are fifty or sixty years of age and have been diligent students of the Word of God for thirty to fifty years, go and seek counsel from someone else when they find something new in their studies. They ask, “I found this in the Bible, what do you think about it?” The anomaly, the paradox of the situation, is that so often when someone who is around eighteen to twenty-two years of age and has been a Christian for five or ten years, finds something in the Word of God they have never seen before, they are ready to tell it to the whole world without going for counsel to anyone. One of the reasons God placed elders in the church was to be spiritual guardians of the flock, especially of those who are new Christians. Now an elder is not someone to lord it over another, but isn’t it nice if you need advice to have someone you can go to who is a mature Christian and can help you when there is a text in the Bible you wonder about. That is one of the reasons for the church, to help people so they will not be confused between the tares and the wheat. Heresy is dangerous. It is planted by the devil.

Coarse Manners

There are a lot of other things the devil tries to plant in the mind of God’s professed people so they will be ruined before the harvest comes. “They persist in carrying with them their objectionable traits of character. [She is talking about professed church members.] They have vulgar sentiments, coarse manners, low habits. They carry these to others through their school association, and through life they sow tares instead of precious wheat.” Signs of the Times, October 13, 1909. Vulgar sentiments, low habits, coarse manners––that is part of what the devil is sowing in the human mind. Jesus was a refined, courteous person. There was never any coarse or low talk that escaped out of His lips. He did not even think that way, so He did not talk that way. Those kinds of things––cheap foolish talk, coarse talk, vulgar thinking and acting in speech—are part of the tares the devil plants in the human mind that destroy so much peace and happiness in the family. If the tare grows to maturity, it prevents a person from having eternal life.

Unbelief and doubt––these are popular tares that the devil has scattered throughout the professed people of God all over the world today. Some people believe it is a good thing to be able to doubt, but Jesus never commended anyone for doubting, He rebuked them for it. Unbelief or doubt will be one of the special sins that develop among people in the last generation. 2 Peter 3:3–6.

Remember, tares are people who profess to be part of God’s people. “They do not love the truth, and it has not a sanctifying, refining influence upon them. The time will come when the sensual, the proud, the careless in heart, those who are opposed to the truth, will have to be separated.” Bible Echoes, September 18, 1899. The sensual, proud and careless––these things are tares the devil plants in the human heart.

Reap What You Sow

“It is anything but wise, my young friends, to seek your own pleasure, to sow a crop of tares in foolish, sinful actions, which will not only lead others to do the same but will bring forth a bitter harvest.” That I May Know Him, 236. Young friend, I want to ask you, What kind of seed is being sown in your mind? “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Galatians 6:7. What you are sowing today, you are going to reap tomorrow.

Jesus summarized what all the tares were like in Matthew 13. He said the time is going to come when the tares are taken out of the field. “The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness.” verse 41. Those who break God’s law will be separated out. That is a summary statement that covers all the different kinds of tares. All the weeds the devil plants in the human mind lead people to break God’s law—lawlessness.

The devil is the one who plants the tares. When did he plant them? While people were asleep. “It is while the husbandman sleeps that tares are sown; while the shepherds are neglecting their duty, the wolf finds entrance to the fold.” Sketches from the Life of Paul, 201. It is when the spiritual leaders are neglecting their duty that the tares are planted. How is it in your home? God wants parents to be the spiritual leaders of their family. Are you spiritually asleep? Is the devil planting tares in the minds of your children? “It is not by force that Satan takes possession of the human mind. While men sleep, the enemy sows tares in the church. While men are spiritually sleeping, the enemy accomplishes his work of iniquity. It is when his subject ‘understandeth it not’ (Matthew 13:19) that he catcheth away the good seed sown in the heart.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 353. What is happening in your church? Are the pastor, the Sabbath School teacher, the elder, the father, the mother, spiritually asleep? If they are, the enemy of all good is out to plant tares in the minds of your church, your family and your young people. Parents, we need to know where our children are and what they are doing. If we were more alert, the devil would not have so much opportunity to plant tares. There are some young people growing up in whose minds the devil is planting more tares than in others.

Planted While Asleep

“If faithfulness and vigilance had been preserved, if there had been no sleeping or negligence upon the part of any, the enemy would not have had so favorable an opportunity to sow tares among the wheat. Satan never sleeps. He is watching, and he improves every opportunity to set his agents to scatter error, which finds good soil in many unsanctified hearts.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 113. If you are asleep, there is someone out there who is planting tares in the minds of your family and church members. The more tares planted, the bigger the job in getting them out. Those tares have to come out if your family and friends are going to be saved.

How sad it is that so many spiritual leaders have been asleep, and in God’s professed church all over the world, tares have been sown and terrible delusive heresies have infiltrated. It is causing the loss of millions of souls.

We have a responsibility. You yourself can make a decision to open your heart and let the devil plant tares inside. Some people do that. For every new doctrine and teaching they say, “I want to find out about that!” They allow these new theories to get a foothold before they have carefully studied God’s Word. “There have been and will continue to be entire families who have once rejoiced in the truth, but who will lose faith because of calumnies and falsehoods brought to them in regard to those whom they have loved and with whom they have had sweet counsel. They opened their hearts to the sowing of tares; the tares sprang up among the wheat; they strengthened; the crop of wheat became less and less; and the precious truth lost its power to them. For a time a false zeal accompanied their new theories, which hardened their hearts against the advocates of truth as did the Jews against Christ.” Testimonies to Ministers, 411. There are some who receive lying reports, slander, against the messengers of God. If you receive a lying report against a true minister, a messenger of God, and turn your back on them, you have no promise in Holy Writ that God is going to send you someone else. It is very dangerous to reject a messenger of God. Spreading evil reports is one of the ways the devil sows tares and causes people to lose their souls. Some just live on these reports. Someone will say, “Do you know about this?” and they will say, “Is that so!?” Then they believe it. That is very dangerous.

Books of the Pioneers

We need to be opening our minds to the truth and find books that have been written by people who are mature and experienced Christians and love the truth. In the nineteenth century there was a man named J.N. Andrews. He knew several other languages as well as biblical languages. He made the comment one time to someone he knew that if the New Testament was lost, he could reproduce it from memory. He was an outstanding biblical scholar. He was also a student of history and wrote the History of the Sabbath, a fascinating book.

“I am instructed that the Lord, by His infinite power, has preserved the right hand of His messenger for more than half a century, in order that the truth may be written out as He bids me write it for publication, in periodicals and books. Why?—Because if it were not thus written out, when the pioneers in the faith shall die, there would be many, new in the faith, who would sometimes accept as messages of truth teachings that contain erroneous sentiments and dangerous fallacies. Sometimes that which men teach as ‘special light’ is in reality specious error, which, as tares sown among the wheat, will spring up and produce a baleful harvest. And errors of this sort will be entertained by some until the close of this earth’s history.” This Day With God, 126.

What are you reading? When we open our mind and read religious books, we need to know we are reading something by someone who has been born again and believes all the Bible and is following it. I have observed among new Christians, that when someone reads a book or magazine and they become confused, it takes a Bible worker weeks or months to help them to see again what the Bible says. There is a lot of that happening today. The devil is sowing all kinds of tares.

What Do We Do About Tares?

There is a lot of confusion in the Christian church today on the tares. Whenever you talk about this subject there are some people who say, “Well, they are just supposed to be left.” Notice what Jesus said about the tares when the servants of the owner asked if they should gather them up: “No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them . . . Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.” Matthew 13:29, 40.

We need to understand who and what a tare is. When a tare is just growing up, you and I cannot tell the difference between them and the wheat. Who is the tare? It is someone who professes to love Jesus and be a part of His professed people, but his heart is entertaining sins you and I cannot see. We cannot judge someone’s heart. Consequently, we cannot disfellowship or separate them from the church. You cannot interpret what Jesus said in a manner to make Him contradict the rest of the Bible.

In I Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul is very clear that if a tare grows up in a persons life to the point where they are living in open sin––if they are lying, stealing, committing adultery, taking their brethren in the church to court––we are to put them out from among us. But can you tell when someone is proud or covetous? You might guess, but you can not tell. Only God knows for sure.

Tares Kill Out the Wheat

No one can be uprooted or disfellowshipped from the church because of a motive or a sin of the heart, but they can and should be disfellowshipped if they are living in open sin among God’s people. Do you know why? Because, if you have too many tares and they grow too much, they will destroy the wheat. That is one of the greatest dangers in the church today. There are people who want to say, “Let’s keep all the tares in!” Friends, the Bible says when a tare gets to the point where the person is living in open sin, you had better get that tare out. If you do not, it will destroy the whole church. In the Christian church today, people who are living in open sin are allowed to be members of the church and it is destroying the whole crop.

“Tares have a lesson to teach. They are of Satan’s sowing, and if left unchecked will spoil the wheat by their rank growth.” Counsels to Teachers, 189. Have you ever had a garden and the weeds got away from you? “If the attributes of Satan are not expelled from the soul, the wheat crop will be stunted. The tares will come to be the crop, and will kill out the wheat.” Review and Herald, October 3, 1899.

Do you want the wheat crop to be destroyed? That is what will happen if the tares grow up and go to seed and become mature, and are not disfellowshipped from the church. If this is done the tares will destroy the whole crop. “The thorns of sin will grow in any soil; they need no cultivation; but grace must be carefully cultivated. The love of the world in the heart leaves no room for Christ. Those whose hearts are divided claim to believe the truth, but do it not. They wish the crown, but refuse the cross.” Ibid.

We would not be in as much trouble in the Christian world today if we had always been awake so the devil could not have planted so many tares in the church, but we have been asleep. “The earth was cursed because through disobedience man gave Satan opportunity to sow in the human heart the seeds of evil. The ground that in the beginning produced only good began to produce tares and their growth called for continual warfare.” This Day With God, 12. If there are tares in my mind, what am I to do? I have to fight a continual battle against them. If there are tares in my family, among my children, I have a battle to fight to help them to get those tares out; otherwise souls will be lost.

Getting Tares Out

How do you get the tares out? “When truth is received into the heart, the tares growing there are uprooted.” Youth Instructor, August 16, 1900. That is why we need to be studying the Bible. If I have the tare of impatience, as I study the Bible I find how I am supposed to talk and I can change. It takes work, but the Holy Spirit will help me to change my habits. No one in heaven will lose their temper. If I am going to heaven, I have to be that way, too; that tare has to come out of my life. I need to help my children get the tares out of their lives. If a child has Christian parents, they can help that child so that it will actually be easier to be saved. Help your children so there are not so many tares that get planted in their lives when they are young. If the tare is something in the heart, we are not to disfellowship, but people need to be warned about the tares so they can work to get them out of their life.

When you get involved in this warfare, to help people get the tares out of their life, an interesting thing happens. If you are a pastor in a church and begin preaching sermons to help people get the tares out of their lives, there are always some who do not like that kind of preaching. They have some darling plants they are growing in their minds. “If persons are as deserving of being separated from the church as Satan was of being cast out of heaven, they will have sympathizers. There is always a class who are more influenced by individuals than they are by the Spirit of God and sound principles; and, in their unconsecrated state, these are ever ready to take sides with the wrong and give their pity and sympathy to the very ones who least deserve it. These sympathizers have a powerful influence with others; things are seen in a perverted light, great harm is done, and many souls are ruined. Satan in his rebellion took a third part of the angels.” Testimonies, vol. 3, 114, 115. Can you imagine that, one-third of the angels! They were in a perfect place. There was no pain or trouble like there is here. Why were they deceived? It was because of sympathy. One of the problems pastors get involved in is when a parent comes and says, “I want to help my son or daughter overcome this bad habit. My spouse does not want to.” It is a big problem. “Satan in his rebellion took a third part of the angels. They turned from the Father and from His Son, and united with the instigator of rebellion” Ibid., 155. False sympathy is a problem to contend with when you want to help someone get the tares out of their life.

The reason we are interested in helping people get the tares out of their life is not because we want to be hard–hearted––we want them to have eternal life! None of us can have eternal life if any tare remains and goes to seed in our character. The tare will spoil and kill out the wheat. There is a danger of mingling voluntarily with tares. There are some who, when they casually read this parable of the wheat and tares, say, “They are all going to grow together anyway so we just won’t worry about it.” Have you ever noticed what happens to a wheat plant if there are tares planted all around it? It gets choked out.

We need to be thinking very clearly in our minds about the responsibility we have as to who we associate with. If you voluntarily associate with tares all the time, God will not work a miracle to keep them from having an influence upon you. “The tares and wheat are now co–mingled, but then the one Hand that alone can separate them will give to every one his true position. Those who have had the light of truth, and heard the warning message, heard the invitation to the marriage supper,––farmer, merchant, lawyer, false shepherds who have quieted the convictions of the people, unfaithful watchmen who have not sounded the warning or known the time of night,—all who have refused obedience to the laws of the kingdom of God, will have no right therein. Those who have sought an excuse to avoid the cross of separation from the world, will, with the world, be taken in the snare. They mingled with the tares from choice. Like drew to like in transgression. It is a fearful assimilation. Men choose to stand with the first rebel, who tempted Adam and Eve in Eden to disobey God. The tares multiply themselves, for they sow tares, and they have their part with the root of all sin.” Special Testimonies for Ministers and Workers, 6.

Are We In the Harvest?

The focal point in the parable about the wheat and the tares is about the harvest. What is the harvest? Jesus said it is the end of the age. Today we are still living in the age of grace. No matter how bad you have been you can be forgiven and God wants to help you take all the tares out of your life. He wants the seed of the gospel to grow up in your life. But there is a time when the age of grace will be over. That will be the harvest. When you watch someone harvesting a wheat field with a combine, you notice the harvest does not happen instantly. It takes a period of time; and that is the case with the spiritual harvest, too.

The spiritual harvest takes some time. There are two harvests mentioned in the parable. “Let both grow together [that is both the tares and the wheat] until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather together the tares.’ ” Matthew 13:30. The tares are harvested first. They are bound up in bundles to burn. After the tares are harvested, then the wheat is harvested. Notice, in the time of the harvest a separation takes place. All have professed to be the children of God, to be part of His church, but now a separation is going to take place. The angels are going to do that separation. When the harvest time comes the tares and wheat no longer look alike because now the plants are mature. Whatever plant has been growing up in the mind, will then be evident to the whole universe. The wheat and the tares are going to be fully distinguished and differentiated.

The tares are harvested first and are bound in bundles. This binding in bundles is happening right now! Here are some ways people are being bound into bundles today. “The world is leagued against the truth, because it does not desire to obey the truth. Shall I, who perceive the truth, close my eyes and heart to its saving power because the world chooses darkness rather than light? Shall I bind myself up with the bundles of tares because my neighbors refuse to be bound up with the wheat? Shall I refuse light, the evidence of truth which leads to obedience, because my friends and relatives choose to follow in the path of disobedience which leads away from God? Shall I close my mind against the knowledge of the truth because my neighbors and friends will not open their understanding to discern the truth as it is in Jesus? Shall I refuse to grow in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ because my neighbors choose to remain dwarfs spiritually?” God’s Amazing Grace, 6. There are many people who say, “Oh, my husband is not doing it, so I am not going to do it either.” They are binding themselves in bundles with their friends and associates who are going to perdition.

“The true people of God are now pulling apart [that is when a separation takes place], and the tares are being bound in bundles ready to burn. Decided positions will be taken. Satan will move upon minds that have been indulged, upon men who have always had their own way, and anything presented to them in counsel or reproof to change their objectionable traits of character is considered faultfinding, binding them, restraining them, that they cannot have liberty to act themselves. The Lord in great mercy has sent messages of warning to them, but they would not listen to reproof.” 1888 Materials, 995. If God sends me a warning, a reproof, and I will not listen and just go on my way, I am binding myself in a bundle with the tares.

This binding in bundles in our age of the world is happening with very rapid speed. There are large groups of Christians today that are already bound up in bundles. “Can we not see how earnestly Satan is at work binding the tares in bundles, uniting the elements of his kingdom, that he may gain control of the world? This work of binding up the tares is going forward far more rapidly than we imagine. Satan is opposing every obstacle to the advancement of the truth. He is seeking to create diversity of opinion and to encourage worldliness and avarice. He works with the subtlety of the serpent and, when he sees it will do, with the ferocity of the lion. The ruin of souls is his only delight.” Testimonies, vol. 5, 383.

There are many ways people are binding themselves up in bundles today. At His trial, Jesus said He did not do anything in secret but in the open. Today people are binding themselves in bundles in secret societies with other people who do not believe the Bible. People are binding themselves with other associations which cause them to break the law of God. We need to be careful we do not bind ourselves with those who are preparing themselves to be lost. It is happening all over the world. People are being bound in bundles.

The Shaking and the Harvest

There is another figure of speech used in the Bible to describe this separation process where the tares and the wheat are separated. In the Bible it is called the “shaking.” When you see the shaking taking place in the church, you know we are in the time of the harvest––and the tares are bound in bundles first. “The time of the judgment is a most solemn period, when the Lord gathers His own from among the tares. Those who have been members of the same family are separated. A mark is placed upon the righteous. ‘They shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels.’” Testimonies to Ministers, 234. Members of the same family are separated in the time of judgment.

“A new life is coming from heaven and taking possession of all God’s people. But divisions will come in the church. Two parties will be developed. The wheat and tares grow up together for the harvest.” Selected Messages, vol. 2, 113. When you see division coming, two parties developing in the church, where are you in the history of the world? You are at the harvest, the end of time. What we see happening in the Christian church today, in the Seventh–day Adventist Church today, should cause us to wake up and realize where we are. We are in the time of the harvest. The shaking is the beginning of the harvest.

“Trials are to come upon God’s people and the tares are to be separated from the wheat.” Review and Herald, March 19, 1895. The final separation is coming sooner than we expect. The signs of the times in the religious world and in the Seventh–day Adventist Church show us clearly we are in the time of the harvest when two parties are being developed. Don’t you hear everyone talking about it? There is a division in the church. The tares and the wheat are being separated. Soon the final separation is going to take place. Are you going to be bound in bundles with a group of people who may claim to be Christians but are going to lose eternal life, or are you going to be part of the wheat? Is the truth going to grow up to full maturity in your heart?

I have always looked at this parable as being in the future, but no longer. We are now in the harvest time. Divisions have come, two parties have been developed and the angels are doing a work that just a few years ago we did not understand. If there was ever a time to say, “Lord, I want all the tares out of my life and the plant of the gospel of truth to grow up to full maturity in my mind,” it is now.

I want to be gathered into God’s garner, in the harvest. It is time to get on our knees and say, “Lord, I want the Holy Spirit to take all the tares out of my life. I want the truth to grow up to full maturity in my life.” When we see Jesus, we are going to be like Him. The plant of the truth is going to have grown to full maturity in our lives.

The End