The Wheat, The Tares, And Fellowship In The Local Church

Introduction

I’ve got to say that some lessons for a preacher are easier to preach than others, not just because of the nature of the subject that you’re preaching about, but just as you try to explain what the Word of God is teaching, and I want to be understood. And that’s the thing about this particular lesson that’s going to be a challenge to me tonight. I want you to understand what I’m saying, so you’re going to have to buckle down, especially in light of the fact that my son got married over the weekend. I don’t know that the ambitious thoughts that I had last week and heading into this week of preaching this particular sermon on Sunday night was such a bright idea. But I’m going to give this the old college try tonight, and hopefully you will gain something from this lesson.

I’ve actually been talking about this lesson in a couple of comments that I’ve made in class, and I’m finally getting around to doing it. So let’s see where this goes. Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Well, let’s make it productive right at the very beginning. If you remember that Matthew 13 is all about parables that Jesus taught, that’s one thing you’ve learned tonight. And the most significant parable, the key parable, it says in Mark’s account of the parable, the parable of the sower. Because if you cannot understand this parable, how will you understand all parables? Mark says. Because it’s about listening. It’s about how you listen, it’s about the kind of art you bring to the table. And so what we have in Matthew 13 is the parable of the sower.

Then you have the parable of the wheat and the tares. Yes, that’s the one we’re talking about. Followed by the mustard seed and the leaven parables, which are a little bit shorter. Perhaps you could take time with the whole chapter this week and read the whole chapter. And the parables of Jesus, of course, are absolutely fascinating. And when the multitudes depart, the disciples want clarification. And the parable they want an explanation and clarification about is the parable of the wheat and tear. And so the good thing is that Jesus explains some of that parable for us as he explained it to the disciples. And following that, we have three more beautiful parables in Matthew 13. The parable of the hidden treasure, the costly pearl, parables that I wear out, because that’s how precious the kingdom of heaven is, and then the parable of the dragnet.

And so all of those parables found in Matthew chapter 13. But now let’s read this parable of the tares and wheat.

But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat and went away. But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. Not evident at first, but evident now. Apparently they resembled the wheat in some way. And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? And he said to them, An enemy has done this. And the slaves said to him, Do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, No, lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up.

But gather the wheat into my barn. We have to be careful with the parables. Not every part of a parable is intended to have an application in our circumstances or something that we’re supposed to do about that particular part. We have to understand what the point of the parable is, and that’s what we’re going to strive to do. Well, he tells this parable about wheat that’s been sown, and then the enemy comes and sows tares, and what are we supposed to do about that? This is the nature of the kingdom, he says.

So when the multitudes had departed, in verse 36, the disciples came to him and said, Hey, we’d like to know more about this parable. What is this parable of the wheat and the tares of the field all about? And he answered and said, and so this is pay attention to this. He’s telling you what the parable means. The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. Okay. We get that part. And the field is the world. Okay, that’s where the gospel is preached. And as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one. So we have two classes of individuals, wheat and tares. The product of the good seed is the wheat.

The product of the evil one is the tares. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. And the harvest is the end of the age. There you go, Ed. The harvest time is coming on. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, they are not useful in the product of the wheat. Whatever the tares were, most of them believed them to be darnal, but not really sure, but it resembled the wheat when it was first seen among them. The Son of Man will send forth his angels. And they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness. That would be the tares.

1. Son of Man Is the Sower of the Good Seed

And will cast them into the furnace of fire in the place where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then the passage we quoted this morning, I gave you a little preview. Then, when the tares are eliminated, and the wheat are harvested. Then the righteous will shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of the Father. He who has ears, let him hear. This may be one of the hardest parables that Jesus told, despite the fact that he gives the explanation. A few thoughts here in the very beginning. Simple points. Jesus says the Son of Man is the sower of the good seed. This is a messianic title. They understood it to be such, and the disciples understood that it was a reference to Jesus Himself.

The Son of Man is the sower of the good seed. What proceeds from God is good, and we desperately need it. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Linsky in his commentary here affirms all the teaching of Jesus has an ethical or spiritual aim. It seeks to save.

Of course, now, obviously, the product is the wheat.

Why? It represents food. It represents nourishment in their lives. This is a good thing. This is what the farmer labors toward. The produce, the harvest, the wheat, by which sustenance is found. And so wheat is a very positive figure. Of course, now our wheat has too much gluten in it, and that causes problems for some people. They didn’t have that problem in the first century, Juliet. Good to know, isn’t it. A product that indicated something positive to the minds of the first century disciple. I immediately thought of Matthew chapter 3, verse 11 and 12. In the teaching of John the Baptist, when he says, the one that is coming, who is greater than him, of course, that would be Jesus, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Now that is not connecting the two things. Fire has been associated with the work of the Holy Spirit, the cloven tongues of fire in Acts chapter 2. But that’s not the baptism of fire that John is talking about. He is talking about people being submerged in the Holy Spirit, beginning on the day of Pentecost and all of the product of the Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament, and he’s talking about an immersion in judgment when he talks about fire. And we know that from the next verse when he says a winning fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clear his threshing floor, and then this.

2. Wheat or Tares: No Third Category

And like I suggested, it is often equated with Darnell, and I had to look this up a weedy rye grass that may grow among the wheat and may even resemble the wheat in early stages of growth. Here’s the observation that I want to make here. Everything that is not the result of the good seed. What is it? Tares. Everything that is not the result of good wheat is tares. There is no third category presented in this parable. There’s not a category called sickly wheat. Maybe not everything God intended, but somewhat associated with good things, and so we have a sickly wheat category. That’s not here. It’s wheat or tares, and I would suggest to you that we’re in one of those two categories. And we need to think seriously about that.

Ultimately, everyone falls into two classes of people. What is this being sown together? How are we to understand that? Is he talking about the local church?

Though they are the product of the devil, and that’s what the tares are, they may find a niche or a place among the covenant people of God. Not sure that’s what the parable is talking about, per se, and we’ll get to that in a second, but it is obviously true that some people who are associated with the true people of God are not wheat but tares. Certainly, some New Testament Pharisees were tares, were they not? What about Nadab and Abaihu in the Old Testament? What about Judas?

What about Ananias and Sapphira in the church? Or Diocrophes. And of course, the story of diocrophies, I’m intrigued by that. I mean, here’s a man who wielded some influence in a local church. I mean, he had the preeminence in that congregation wherever it was, and John has to call attention to his deeds in 3 John. And so here is a man who wields some influence over other Christians, and yet he doesn’t have a heart, of which the Lord approves. And I would just say this. Even because of those examples that I just gave you, and because of what we know about the local church and experiences that all of us have, we cannot, with 100% accuracy, determine the heart condition of everyone who worships among the Lord’s people.

Read Psalm 44 to get the whole flavor of that. But God knows the secrets of the heart. The one we generally go to is Jeremiah 17 and verse 10. The heart is deceitfully sick. Above all else, who can understand it? The Lord search searches the heart. And we understand that. And we know that from the story of David being selected to be the king among his brothers. But is that, but is that really the point of the parable? Notice at the end of the parable, when the harvest time comes, he says that he will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and all those who commit lawlessness. And here’s the real puzzle here. And that’s the use of the word kingdom. He will gather out of his kingdom.

3. Is He Talking About the Local Church?

Is he talking about the local church? Linsky, in his commentary, if you don’t know who he is, he’s a famous commentator, and others argue that since the field is the world, that two serious errors are excluded. And here’s one of the errors that the sons of wickedness may remain undisturbed in the congregation. You know, if it’s talking about sinfulness in the local church, then is he saying, as he says, leave the tares alone? God’s going to take care of that at the end. So that would rule out church discipline. Don’t deal with the wicked ones in the local church. Now, if you’re going to go down that route, you’ve got a problem with Paul’s instruction in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. And so Linsky argues that’s not a true point to be made from this parable.

He also says the second point, the second error, that to be excluded is that the sons of wickedness may be removed from the world.

That is, to use the sword against heretics.

He is saying it would be wrong to use this parable to suggest that we could weed out every force that is against righteousness by military force. And that reminds you of what? The Crusades. Certainly that is excluded from this parable. Roger Williams, who was a Baptist theologian and founder of Rhode Island, used this parable to support government toleration of all the weeds or heretics in the world, because civil persecution would ultimately hurt the wheat too. Instead, Williams believed it was God’s duty to judge in the end and not man’s. And this parable went further to support Williams’ biblical philosophy of a wall of separation between church and state. Martin Luther, who was my great, don’t have time enough for all the greats’ granddad.

Yes, I’m a descendant. My dad is here. He is the son of Ida Luther, who is in the Martin Luther family tree, which I’ve mentioned before. Martin Luther, my great granddad, said, preached a sermon on the parable in which he affirmed that only God can separate false from true believers, and noted that killing heretics or unbelievers ends in the opportunity that they may have for salvation. You know, if you try to weed out all the heretics and kill them all, well, they could have obeyed the gospel if he didn’t kill them. That’s what Martin Luther argued. Well, those are all, I guess, positive thoughts that are consistent with the scripture, but I don’t think that’s what it’s about. And I was reading a fellow this week, R.

T. France, one of the commentators that I have, and this is what he says, and I like this. The parable is usually understood as depicting the mixed character of the church, in which true and false believers coexist until the final judgment. And we’re going to talk about that in a moment. But in Jesus’ own ministry, this was not yet an issue. And in verse 38, the field is identified as the world rather than the church. So the canvas is broader than the specific issue of church discipline. Many argue that this reference to kingdom is not to be seen as synonymous with the church, but simply a more general sphere of God’s rule. Okay, kingdom as it relates to church is a more specific sphere of God’s rule, those who have come under the King Jesus.

But in this reference to the kingdom, he is talking more generally about the world because the field in the parable is the world. And so then he goes on to argue, and this is interesting, that Jesus is ushering in God’s kingdom. Right? He’s the Messiah. He’s ushering in God’s kingdom, so many in his audience, and I think this is right on, might expect a cataclysmic disruption of society and an immediate and absolute division between the sons of light and the sons of darkness. That was their perception of the kingdom. Again, it was going to be an earthly kingdom. You would have immediate division, these are the good guys, these are the bad guys, and there would be wars that followed the ushering in of the Messiah’s kingdom.

And so perhaps the main point of this parable is that’s not the way this kingdom’s going to work. There’s not going to be an immediate declaration of good and bad, and then wars that result from that. As he goes on to observe, that God’s kingdom does bring division, and that division is final, but the ultimate and final outworking of that is yet future. When that day of harvest comes, that division will be made absolutely clear. The righteous who are dead, the righteous who are alive will ascend, and the wicked will be destroyed. The wheat will be saved and brought into the barn, the tares will be eliminated. And all of that will become abundantly clear. In the meantime, some of that may not be so absolutely clear.

Here’s one thing that I know. Jesus is not forbidding discipline in the local church by this parable. Because if that is the case, then Paul is not speaking for Jesus in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. So he’s not saying everybody tolerate everybody in the local church regardless of what they do. Paul says, remove the wicked man from among yourselves in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. And so, and I think that sort of is common sense, isn’t it? If you allow evil to go unchecked that is known, that’s going to influence other people. Paul says that’s an O in the local church. And so whenever Jesus is talking about in regard to wheat and tares and allowing that to go together until the judgment, and then God is going to take care of all of that.

4. Tares in the Local Church; God's Knowledge Is Unlimited

But there is an implication here, to me at least, with the concept of the intermingling of the wheat with the tares. There perhaps might be some difficulty distinguishing between the two. There was certainly a difficulty in the local church where a diotrophies was. Even if the kingdom is not to be understood as the local church, but a general reference to those under God’s rule. The fact is that some, even in the local church, will inevitably be tares and not wheat. And so I want to get to some more practical considerations in regard to this, because at the very least, I think it is appropriate to discuss the possibility of tares in the local church. Now, whether kingdom refers to the church or not, and I really don’t think that’s the concept.

Certainly the concept of tares in the local church is an issue that we need to consider. And I want to take you to 1 Timothy chapter 5 and show you that this is so. In 1 Timothy chapter 5, in this context where Paul tells Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach’s sake. Look at verse 24, the next verse. The sins of some men are quite evident. And I would say, like the fellow in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, those sins were evident. The sins of some men are quite evident going before them to judgment. For others, their sins follow after. Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed. Ultimately, everything is going to be revealed. Jesus says that in Luke chapter 12 as well.

And isn’t there an implication a couple of chapters earlier in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 6, when in the qualifications of elders, it says that you’re not to install a man who is a new convert. Well, let’s say someone who is installed who is not spiritually mature into the position of a shepherd in the local congregation. What is the possible pitfall there that Paul warns about? He says, Lest he become conceited or arrogant and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. Now that says something that could happen. Someone could in this position become conceited and arrogant and become a tear. Fall into the snare of the devil in the local church. Yes, that’s possible. Especially if you try to install one as a new convert in this position of shepherding and leadership in the local church.

But even if he’s not a new convert. That pitfall is possible. And so the point of the parable, the point of 1 Timothy chapter 5 is that ultimately all impurities will be purged. Whether we are able to decipher them all or not. Here’s the thing. And if you don’t get anything else out of what I’ve said tonight, here’s the thing. God’s knowledge is unlimited. The word of God pierces even to the joint and marrows. It goes right to the very heart of our problems. The very next verse says, and the eyes of the Lord. Everything is open and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Nothing is covered that shall not be revealed. It’ll be shouted from the rooftops. Jesus said.

Hey, this sinner over here, let me shout his sins from the rooftop. That’s not the point. The point is everything will be open and revealed. What is concealed will be shown. Everything will be manifest, and what is real will be real. Everyone will know it. So here’s what we need to understand. Our understanding is limited. We can’t take care ultimately of the problem of tares in the world. Yes, we have a responsibility in local church fellowship. But we cannot deal with the problem of all the tares in the world and all the charlatans who claim to be the people of God, but who are not. But God’s knowledge is unlimited. He knows the hearts of every person, and he will ultimately deal with those who are tares and reward those who are weak.

5. Fellowship Issues in a Local Church

Now, what does that mean for us in the local church? And I want to talk for you for a few minutes about this, and this is what I told you about several weeks ago, potential fellowships, fellowship issues in a local church, understanding that our knowledge is limited. We can only make judgments on the basis of what we know and what is evident, like in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. So often when sin becomes evident, we are shocked to the extent which it had been practiced privately up to that point. We were completely unaware. And since love believes all things and hopes all things, we should not be overly suspicious and see error behind every bush and be suspect of every brother in Christ. And believe the worst about everyone.

That’s not what love does. Love believes all things, hopes all things. But at the same time, what does that suggest about due diligence in terms of local church fellowship? And that’s what I talk, that’s what I want to talk to you about for a moment. In a couple of areas. Number one. It’s entirely possible because we do not know hearts that there will be in the fellowship of local churches. Those who are not in union with Christ. They never were wheat. They are tares. They’re the product of the evil one. They’ve never come out of his clutches. They’ve never come out of darkness and into his marvelous light. And I talk about that in reference to that which identifies us as belonging to the Lord, what we see people do outwardly with our eyes.

They’re baptized in water. They rise up out of the water. And by our understanding of the New Testament, that’s what is required to place us in Christ. But there must be something that accompanies that inwardly, right? There must be repentance. How can we judge that necessarily? We may see some changes in that individual’s life. But we don’t know all of the motives that people had or the reasons why they might have done this. It could have been insincere. It could have been not consistent with biblical teaching. And if that is the case, then you would have someone who is a member in the local church who is not in union with Christ. Oh no, that’s bad. We’ve got someone in our number who is not in fellowship with the Lord.

But we didn’t know. Again, our knowledge is limited. We are responsible to act upon that which we know. And so when we talk about people, for example, who were baptized in other places, and they say that they were baptized for the remission of sins, and perhaps they come from the standpoint of some denominational teaching. And we talk to them about the truth, and they agree that what is being taught to them is the truth about salvation. And they say, That’s what I did. And we say to them, now, you can’t be taught wrong and baptized right. For your baptism to be consistent with the scriptures, you have to believe that you are lost and that baptism is going to cause your sins to be washed away.

And we teach them all of that. And we warn them about what they think their salvation experience was. Is that consistent with what the Bible teaches? And we go to the, and let me just tell you, if you’ve ever been in any of those discussions, like elders are, on a somewhat regular basis, as preachers are, those are tough discussions. And when the fellow says, okay, what you’re saying is for you to accept my baptism that I’m going to have to be baptized again. And I’ve actually had this happen. I’ve actually heard it in the last few months happening somewhere else among the Lord’s people, where the person said, if I do this just to please you, I’m doing it for the wrong reasons. And that’s absolutely right.

Baptism for the remission of sins is someone who is coming to this moment and saying, I have sin on my account, and I need that sin to be washed away. If you’re not convinced of that, then you’re again you’re just being dunked. And yet they look at their baptism and they say, I believe that by my baptism, when that person immersed me, that my sins were being washed away, they are firmly convinced of that. Somebody says, Well, because of their where they’ve come from, we should not accept their baptism. Listen. It is not our place to accept their baptism. Ultimately, it is the Lord’s place to accept their baptism because he knows their heart. I’ll tell you all that we can do. All that we can do is instruct them in regard to what is right.

If they profess that they have done what is right, then we, if we have no reason to question what they are telling us, then we should embrace them. We can’t decide all of these things. Our knowledge is limited. There is a limit to what we can do. Another matter here. Those who are adulterers in marriage unions of which the Lord does not approve, those who divorce unscripturally. And here’s the point I want to make about this. Some churches take the stance, I’m just going to look the other way. If somebody comes to us who are divorced and remarried and they say, I’m in a scriptural marriage, okay, that’s good enough for us. Well, wouldn’t due diligence suggest that we ought to ask a few more questions and ask them the reasons why their first divorce ended.

Perhaps we have some additional knowledge about this person, perhaps not. But if we don’t have any additional knowledge, shouldn’t we probe a little bit deeper? Now you know the scriptures teach this and this and this. And that if you do not put away and not just remarriage, but even divorce itself, it is not for a cause of fornication. That is not consistent with Bible teaching. And yet they come to us and who knows where they come from, 10 buck two, and they say, I’m in a scriptural marriage. My first marriage ended for the cause of adultery. I put my mate away for adultery. That is my status. If we do not have any information to the contrary, what can we do? Let’s suppose they’re lying through their teeth.

Do you think that ever happens? Do you think people ever move around and the story becomes different than reality? Oh, yeah.

What if we find out after that? We’ve accepted them the fellowship. And we find out somebody else comes and say, now you know their marriage is unscriptural, right? Oh man, we’ve come across some new information. Somebody else who knows their particular circumstance or thinks they do. And so now we’re going to have to go to this person. This person is saying that you’re not in a scriptural marriage. And we dig that in a little deeper. Maybe a couple years later. We may have to take action in regard to local church fellowship because now it becomes apparent that they do not have a scriptural marriage. Now we have to do something because we have knowledge. We have to take action. But here’s my point. We may not always have all the facts.

We can only know what people tell us. And they may lie. We live in a society of pathological liars. And some of those are in the church. Well, not by the Lord’s Academy. But they are associating with the Lord’s people. They lie about their circumstances. Are we going to be held accountable? Because love believes all things and hopes all things and we believe these people are coming to us at face value. Listen, here’s the point. There may be in our fellowship somebody with an unapproved divorce. Somebody in an unapproved marriage. Now, if we have knowledge, if there are question marks that are raised because of information that becomes available to us, we can’t say, well, we’ve already made the decision, we’re going to look the other way.

Our responsibility goes to what we can know. And know for sure. So we said, well, man, it just sounds like easier. If people say they’re okay, they’re okay. Let’s just go on. And that’s what a lot of folks are doing. Yes, even the Lord’s people in some way. They say they’re okay. Let’s just go on. It gets messy. Yeah, it gets messy. I don’t like dealing with it. But here’s the thing. If you turn the other way, are you helping these people? If they’re in adultery, am I helping them by saying, ah, that’s a messy situation. I don’t want to deal with it. I’ll just let you deal with this on the day of judgment. They need to deal with it now. If they’re in an unscriptural marriage, if they’re truly cares, they need to understand what they need to do so that they can be weak.

And if I just put my head in the sand and ignore it because it’s messy, I don’t want to get my hands dirty. I don’t want to get involved. And I’m so afraid that’s the way we’re starting to think. I don’t want to get involved because it’s messy. Look, folks, this is what being a Christian is all about. Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. You’re going to get your hands messy. It’s not going to be easy. Somebody’s going to lie to you. This can happen. And yes, ultimately, it may not be all as pretty. Ideally, I hope everybody on the role of the Decorary Church of Christ is in a right relationship with God. But it is altogether possible that’s not the case.

And plus, people’s character does not remain the same. There have been elders who have been caught in long-standing affairs. And that wasn’t them when they were younger. That wasn’t them when they became elders. Gradually, over time, they’ve drifted away. Wheat becomes tares. Hypocrites. If a diatrophies can arise in the first century, people who were once with good hearts serving the Lord in genuine, committed lives can become unfaithful to it. And they can be going through the motions and they can be assembling every time the doors are open because sometimes people are more motivated by tradition, by the approval of men rather than the approval of God, and they want to be numbered among the they want to be seen as a good person. I’m a member of the church.

Or perhaps they’ve been fighting this sin problem that’s been plaguing them all the way along. And finally they’re not even fighting it anymore. They’re just giving into it, but they’re still going through the form of religion. That could happen in the local church. People lose their way. Now, I don’t know if that’s really the idea of the wheat and tears parable, but the principle is that not everything can be decided before the day of judgment.

6. Local Church Membership Alone Decides No One's Destiny

Ultimately, God, who knows everything, will be the final arbiter of man’s destiny. Now, here’s the point I really want to emphasize here at the end. Local church membership alone decides no one’s destiny. Some people find comfort in the fact that they’re numbered among the people who are the true people of God. Now, I hope that’s what we are. Because I’m numbered in this group. I believe we are, because of what we teach and practice. I believe these are the true people of God. But even that alone does not guarantee my future. It’s about everyone whose name is written, not in the Decor Prairie Church of Christ role, but in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Who goes to heaven? The local church is not the arbiter of people’s salvation.

Yes, we have to make decisions about local church fellowship. We must not compromise the principles and teaching of the New Testament as we make those decisions. We need to be careful. We need to be thorough. We need to care about people’s souls and not look the other way when sin is involved. We’ve got some very real work to do and understand that our elders do some very real work in this regard, and we’re fortunate to have them. And some tough decisions have to be made. But I know of places where, and in one particular issue about this, those not in union with Christ, where there was a big upset about this, and some sister was all up in arms and saying bad things about the elders, and she finally sits down with the elders and they explain the entire process that they went through with this person and all that they talked about, and she goes, Oh.

Oh, God, I guess you didn’t know all that. And in the process, you have besmirched the name of your elders. Now, you’re all concerned about this person who may not be in union with Christ. What about you? What about your union with Christ? So here’s the thing. Ideally, everybody here tonight is in a right relationship. That’s why we preach and teach to encourage that. But ultimately, on the day of judgment, the elders of the decoratory church don’t get to go to heaven and say, Okay, Lord, here’s our flock. Let us in. It’ll be each individual person standing before God. And in regard to our corporate work, we will be judged on the basis of how diligent we were to be true to God’s book. And elders bear an even greater responsibility as they shepherd the souls of people.

Conclusion

So the conclusion of this lesson is don’t just take comfort in the fact that you’re numbered among the redeemed. How are you living? It’s wheat or tares. And we want you to be wheat. I want to be wheat. I want to be gathered in the barn, the harvest. And let’s help others. Let’s sow the seed of the kingdom that they can be gathered in with us. Hope this lesson has been helpful. If anybody needs to respond to the invitation of our Lord to become wheat, we want to assist you. Let’s stand and sing.