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.
Later Jesus explained the parable to His disciples. He said, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world [the spiritual world, the church], the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.” Notice, the tares are not part of the kingdom of His grace—they 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.” Matthew 13:37–40.
The Planting of the Tares
In this field, the church, the devil comes to plant seeds. He does this by bringing unconverted people into the church. They are not the children of the kingdom—they have not been baptized with the Holy Spirit, they are not part of the body of Christ,—but they are planted in the same field. They make a profession. From a human point of view, you cannot tell any difference. Ellen White calls them false brethren, and pretended believers.
The idea that you can profess to be a Christian, but not keep the law, and still be saved is the great deception of the last days. If your character does not harmonize with your profession, your profession is worthless.
It is too close to the end of time to be playing games of pretend. If you have been making a profession, but your religion is not real—if you have not really been baptized by the Holy Spirit; if you are not joined to the Lord as one spirit with Him; if you do not have a missionary spirit; if you do not have any sense of urgency to finish God’s work in the world—you need to go to your closet and pray, and say, “Lord, please take away this pretended religion and baptize me with the Holy Spirit. I want a real experience.”
The Tares and the Wheat Grow Together
The question that arises is: “How am I to deal with the tares around me in the church?” Some are quick to answer, “We just have to let the tares and wheat grow together, we know there is all this wickedness in the church, but Jesus said you have to let the wheat and the tares grow together, so you just have to put up with it.” Is that ever one of the Devil’s lies! The parable of the wheat and the tares does not apply to open sin. A tare illustrates a pretended believer who is counted with the true. You cannot tell the difference on the outside, but in his heart there is something that is not right.
One example of a tare is Judas. Was Judas numbered with the rest of the disciples? Yes. On the outside he was a follower of Christ. Was he a criminal? Not on the outside—his sins were secret, but on the inside his heart was not right. Did the rest of the disciples know what a mess he was in? No, they did not. Jesus did tell his disciples in John 6 that one of them was a devil, and John says he was speaking of Judas; but if Jesus told His disciples, “Now one of you is not converted, please get him disfellowshipped,” they would probably have disfellowshipped Peter! They did not know which one was not converted. It was something inside the heart. That is a tare. On the outside they are living according to all the commandments of God, but inside there is something that is not right. For example, could you tell me tonight if I am proud? No you cannot. And I cannot tell if any of you are proud, that is something of the heart.
Open Sin
What about open sin? Friend, we must never use the parable of the wheat and the tares to excuse open sin in the church! God forbid! That is a terrible perversion of the Scriptures. Where did we get such an abominable idea! Ellen White says if we permit open sin in the church it will crowd out the wheat, and destroy the whole crop!
Paul had the following to say about open sin: “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother.” Who is a brother? That is a church member. Now here is the problem—one is being called a brother “who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner.” Paul says, “not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore ‘put away from yourselves the evil person.’” 1 Corinthians 5:9–13. The apostle Paul says to disfellowship the person who is living in open sin.
Another text that shows what the Bible says about dealing with open sin is 2 John 7–11: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” Then a person who does not have apostolic doctrine—the doctrine that Jesus came in the flesh just like you and I have, and overcame the Devil—do not invite them into your house and do not even greet them. If you do, you are partaking of their evil works. Open sin is to be put out, but we cannot disfellowship the person who is good on the outside, but whose heart is evil, because we cannot read his heart.
Disfellowshipping the Faithful
We have come to such a sad day of gigantic apostasy in Adventism, that we see people being disfellowshipped who are keeping God’s commandments. The people who are to be disfellowshipped, according to the Bible, are those who are living in open sin—commandment breakers. There are just two sides. A commandment keeper is on God’s side. If people get together in a church business meeting, and decide to disfellowship one who is a commandment keeper, they have just told the whole universe that they are not on God’s side of the great controversy. That is very serious, friends!
Following a desperate attempt to silence the true and faithful by disfellowshipping them, the former brethren will, no doubt, turn them into the authorities—the government authorities. The wheat will be cast out as evil; and those that believe that the organization is the church will say, “Yes, we are going through the shaking time, and we have to allow these sinners to be sifted out of Zion; because they are rebellious to properly constituted authority, they won’t submit to the council of the community of faith.”
What is really happening is that those who are casting out their former brethren, are separating themselves from those who still believe the three angels’ messages and practice the truth. They are the ones who are being sifted out of Zion by their actions in disfellowshipping their faithful brethren.
When the Tares Have Full Control
When Jesus was on the earth the tares had taken control of the professed people of God, and they had gone to seed. They were living in open sin. Ellen White says the office of the high priest was sometimes acquired by murder—that is living in open sin, isn’t it? The Lord showed Ellen White over and over again that the experience of the children of Israel just before the first coming of Christ would be similar to our experience just before the second coming. (Selected Messages, vol. 1, 406–407.) People are coming to me now, saying, “Brother John, I can see that what you are saying is true, but please tell me, I am mixed up and confused. Tell me how should I relate to church organization?” I tell them to relate to it the way Jesus did. We are living in very similar times, so we relate to church organization just the way Jesus did.
How did Jesus relate to church organization when the tares had control of the church? Matthew 15 is talking about the tares. “Then His disciples came and said to Him, ‘Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’ But He answered and said, ‘Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted [a tare] will be uprooted. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.’” Matthew 15:12–14. “Let them alone.” Jesus did not go and get permission for what He was going to do, neither did John the Baptist. They did not even let the leaders know what they were going to do. It was too dangerous. Jesus said, “Let them alone.” You can spend your whole life time in dialog over all kinds of problems in the Adventist Church. If that is what we do, when is the gospel going to be given to the world? Jesus and John the Baptist could have been dialoging with the priests, Levites, scribes and lawyers, and if that would have happened, we would have been eternally lost.
When the tares had control of the church Jesus said, “Let them alone.” It is time today friends, the hour is late. It is time to organize with the faithful, loyal, and true, wherever you are, and say, “Lord, show us what to do to finish Your work here in our area.”
“I was shown the necessity of those who believe that we are having the last message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily imbibing new errors. I saw that neither young nor old should attend their meetings; for it is wrong to thus encourage them while they teach error that is a deadly poison of the soul and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. The influence of such gatherings is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has set us free and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will not keep us. The angels cease their watchful care over us and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness.” Early Writings, 124–125. Oh, friend, if there are tares all around who have gone to seed, and if they are in control of the church, teaching false doctrines, Jesus says, “Let them alone.” Join with the loyal, faithful, and true, and ask the Lord to show you what to do to get the work finished.
Ripened for the Harvest
There is coming a time when everyone’s true character will be revealed—the harvest. But before the harvest, everyone will go through situations that will ripen them for the harvest, that will show which side they are on. Just before the close of probation, God sends a message of purification to the Seventh-day Adventist church for the last time, to give one last chance to be purged of all dross. This message is called the straight testimony, and it will result in a terrible shaking. Concerning the straight testimony, Ellen White says, “Some will not bear the straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this will cause a shaking among God’s people.” Notice, it is not the straight testimony itself that causes the shaking—it’s those that rise up against it! “I saw that the testimony of the True Witness has not been half heeded. The solemn testimony upon which the destiny of the church hangs has been lightly esteemed, if not entirely disregarded. This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified.” Early Writings, 270.
Friends, the straight testimony, through the revival and reformation movement, has been going to the entire Seventh–day Adventist church for a number of years. It has gone all around the world; and has caused a division, and people have risen up against it. This division is often seen as the tares being shaken out of the church; but the question is, “Who and what is the church that they are being shaken out of?” Those that believe the inspired definition of the church see that multitudes have been shaken out of the truth; therefore they have been shaken out of the church.
“Those who separate from God and lose their spirituality, do not fall back all at once into a state which the true Witness calls lukewarm. They conform to the world little by little. As its influence steals upon them, they fail to resist it and maintain the warfare. After the first step is taken to have friendship with the world, darkness follows and they are prepared for the next. At every step they take in the downward course darkness gathers about them, until they are enshrouded. As they conform to the world they lose the transforming influence of the Spirit of God. They do not realize their distance from God. They think themselves in good case because they profess to believe the truth. They grow weaker and weaker, until the Spirit of God is withdrawn, and God bids his angels, Let them alone! Jesus spues them out of his mouth. He has borne their names to his Father; he has interceded for them, but he ceases his pleadings. Their names are dropped, and they are left with the world. They realize no change. Their profession is the same. There has not been so glaring a departure from the appearance of right. They had become so assimilated to the world that when heaven’s light was withdrawn they did not miss it.” Review and Herald, November 26, 1861. [Emphasis in the original.] Notice that even though they are spued out of Jesus’ mouth, they realize no change and their profession is the same.
Two Groups
Here is how Ellen White describes the two parties that the shaking produces. The first party—company A, is the people that are shaken, but they are not shaken out. “I saw some, with strong faith and agonizing cries, pleading with God. Their countenances were pale and marked with deep anxiety, expressive of their internal struggle. Firmness and great earnestness was expressed in their countenances; large drops of perspiration fell from their foreheads. Now and then their faces would light up with the marks of God’s approbation, and again the same solemn, anxious look would settle upon them. Evil angels crowded around, pressing darkness upon them to shut out Jesus from their view, that their eyes might be drawn to the darkness that surrounded them, and thus they be led to distrust God and murmur against Him. Their only safety was in keeping their eyes directed upward. Angels of God had charge over His people, and as the poisonous atmosphere of evil angels was pressed around these anxious ones, the heavenly angels were continually wafting their wings over them to scatter the thick darkness. As the praying ones continued their earnest cries, at times a ray of light from Jesus came to them, to encourage their hearts and light up their countenances.” That is the group that is not shaken out; but they are going through a terrible shaking struggle.
The group that is shaken out is company B: “Some, I saw, did not participate in this work of agonizing and pleading. They seemed indifferent and careless. They were not resisting the darkness around them, and it shut them in like a thick cloud. The angels of God left these and went to the aid of the earnest, praying ones. I saw angels of God hasten to the assistance of all who were struggling with all power to resist the evil angels and trying to help themselves by calling upon God with perseverance. But His angels left those who made no effort to help themselves, and I lost sight of them.” Early Writings, 270.
Notice, company A is mightily shaken, and where are they when they are mightily shaken? In the church! They are shaken as a result of company B rising up against the message that they bare. Again we see opposition to the message of truth—to the straight testimony. This straight testimony results in a shaking by those people that rise up against it.
As a result of the earnest message to the Laodiceans by God’s faithful people, plus the Sunday law pressure, the shaking sifts the church. Some members who had been true and faithful are shaken out. Most people think that this means that they leave the organization of the Seventh-day Adventist church, but this quotation does not say that. The subject matter is not the organization of the Seventh-day Adventist church, but the straight testimony of the true witness. It is a controversy not over whether you belong to a certain organization, but over the truth! That is what it is all about. Some of the true and faithful who at first accepted the testimony of the true witness are shaken out. When they are shaken out, who do they join? They join company B who are already shaken out; but they still profess to be part of the true church. Company B was the largest group, and as they receive more of those who are shaken out from the true and faithful, eventually it is going to appear like the true and faithful are just some little lunatic fringe, some fanatical offshoot sect. They will be the offscouring of all things.
Here is the way the Lord purifies the church: “God purifies His people through the voice of warning and reproof.” What if I will not listen to warning and reproof? I am stuck! By these very words of warning and reproof the chaff is separated from the wheat.
Here is the description of this purification process: “He [God] brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel: ‘God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people.’ Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus.” Testimonies, vol. 1, 187.
Do you love Jesus more today than you did yesterday? Are you spending time in His Word? Are you growing up spiritually? Friend, you and I are going to come to maturity one way or the other! We can become tares or we can become wheat, but we are going to grow to maturity to be one or the other. What kind of spiritual maturity are you coming to? What group will you be numbered among. Let us pray that we can each be faithful to the end, and will be guided by the Holy Spirit so that we will not be deceived and be sifted out during the shaking.
The End