"Gather the wheat into my barn."--MATTHEW 13:30.
"GATHER the wheat into my barn." Then the purpose of the Son of man will
be accomplished. He sowed good seed, and he shall have his barn filled
with it at the last. Be not dispirited, Christ will not be disappointed.
"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." He
went forth weeping, bearing precious seed, but he shall come again
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
"Gather the wheat into my barn;" then Satan's policy will be
unsuccessful. The enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, hopeful
that the false wheat would destroy or materially injure the true; but he
failed in the end, for the wheat ripened and was ready to be gathered.
Christ's garner shall be filled; the tares shall not choke the wheat.
The evil one will be put to shame.
In gathering in the wheat, good angels will be employed: "the angels are
the reapers." This casts special scorn upon the great evil angel. He
sows the tares, and tries to destroy the harvest; and therefore the good
angels are brought in to celebrate his defeat, and to rejoice together
with their Lord in the success of the divine husbandry. Satan will make
a poor profit out of his meddling; he shall be baulked in all his
efforts, and so the threat shall be fulfilled, "Upon thy belly shalt
thou go, and dust shalt thou eat."
By giving the angels work to do, all intelligent creatures, of whose
existence we have information, are made to take an interest in the work
of grace; whether for malice or for adoration, redemption excites them
all. To all, the wonderful works of God are made manifest; for these
things were not done in a corner.
We too much forget the angels. Let us not overlook their tender sympathy
with us; they behold the Lord rejoicing over our repentance, and they
rejoice with him; they are our watchers and the Lord's messengers of
mercy; they bear us up in their hands lest we dash our foot against a
stone; and when we come to die, they carry us to the bosom of our Lord.
It is one of our joys that we have come to an innumerable company of
angels; let us think of them with affection.
At this time I will keep to my text, and preach from it almost word by
word. It begins with "but," and that is A WORD OF SEPARATION.
Here note that the tares and the wheat will grow together until the time
of harvest shall come. It is a great sorrow of heart to some of the
wheat to be growing side by side with tares. The ungodly are as thorns
and briers to those who fear the Lord. How frequently is the sigh forced
forth from the godly heart: "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I
dwell in the tents of Kedar!" A man's foes are often found within his
own household; those who should have been his best helpers are often his
worst hinderers; their conversation vexes and torments him. It is of
little use to try to escape from them, for the tares are permitted in
God's providence to grow with the wheat, and they will do so until the
end. Good men have emigrated to distant lands to found communities in
which there should be none but saints, and, alas! sinners have sprung up
in their own families. The attempt to weed the ungodly and heretical out
of the settlement has led to persecution and other evils, and the whole
plan has proved a failure. Others have shut themselves away in
hermitages to avoid the temptations of the world, and so have hoped to
win the victory by running away; this is not the way of wisdom. The word
for this present is, "Let both grow together;" _but_ there will come a
time when a final separation will be made. Then, dear Christian woman,
your husband will never persecute you again. Godly sister, your brother
will heap no more ridicule upon you. Pious workman, there will be no
more jesting and taunting from the ungodly. That "but" will be an iron
gate between the god-fearing and the godless; then will the tares be
cast into the fire, _but_ the Lord of the harvest will say, "Gather the
wheat into my barn."
This separation must be made; for the growing of the wheat and the tares
together on earth has caused much pain and injury, and therefore it will
not be continued in a happier world. We can very well suppose that godly
men and women might be willing that their unconverted children should
dwell with them in heaven; but it cannot be, for God will not have his
cleansed ones defiled nor his glorified ones tried by the presence of
the unbelieving. The tares must be taken away in order to the
perfectness and usefulness of the wheat. Would you have the tares and
the wheat heaped up together in the granary in one mass? That would be
ill husbandry with a vengeance. They can neither of them be put to
appropriate use till thoroughly separated. Even so, mark you, the saved
and the unsaved may live together here, but they must not live together
in another world. The command is absolute: "Gather the tares, and bind
them in bundles to burn them: _but_ gather the wheat into my barn."
Sinner, can you hope to enter heaven? You never loved your mother's God,
and is he to endure you in his heavenly courts? You never trusted your
father's Saviour, and yet are you to behold his glory for ever? Are you
to go swaggering down the streets of heaven, letting fall an oath, or
singing a loose song? Why, you know, you get tired of the worship of God
on the Lord's day; do you think that the Lord will endure unwilling
worshippers in the temple above? The Sabbath is a wearisome day to you;
how can you hope to enter into the Sabbath of God? You have no taste for
heavenly pursuits, and these things would be profaned if you were
permitted to partake in them; therefore that word "but" must come in,
and you must part from the Lord's people never to meet again. Can you
bear to think of being divided from godly friends for ever and ever?
That separation involves an awful difference of destiny. "Gather the
tares in bundles to burn them." I do not dare to draw the picture; but
when the bundle is bound up there is no place for it except the fire.
God grant that you may never know all the anguish which burning must
mean; but may you escape from it at once. It is no trifle which the Lord
of love compares to being consumed with fire. I am quite certain that no
words of mine can ever set forth its terror. They say that we speak
dreadful things about the wrath to come; but I am sure that we
understate the case. What must the tender, loving, gracious Jesus have
meant by the words, "Gather the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn
them?" See what a wide distinction between the lot of the Lord's people
and Satan's people. Burn the wheat? Oh, no; "Gather the wheat into my
barn." There let them be happily, safely housed for ever. Oh, the
infinite distance between heaven and hell!--the harps and the angels,
and the wailing and gnashing of teeth! Who can ever measure the width of
that gulf which divides the glorified saint, white-robed and crowned
with immortality, from the soul which is driven forever away from the
presence of God, and from the glory of his power? It is a dreadful
"but"--that "but" of separation. I pray you, remember that it will
interpose between brother and brother--between mother and child--between
husband and wife. "One shall be taken and the other left." And when that
sword shall descend to divide, there shall never be any after union. The
separation is eternal. There is no hope or possibility of change in the
world to come.
But, says one, "that dreadful '_but_'! Why must there be such a
difference?" The answer is, Because there always was a difference. The
wheat was sown by the Son of man; the false wheat was sown by the enemy.
There was always a difference in character--the wheat was good, the
tares were evil. This difference did not appear at first, but it became
more and more apparent as the wheat ripened, and as the tares ripened
too. They were totally different plants; and so a regenerate person and
an unregenerate person are altogether different beings. I have heard an
unregenerate man say that he is quite as good as the godly man; but in
so boasting he betrayed his pride. Surely there is as great a
difference in God's sight between the unsaved and the believer as
between darkness and light, or between the dead and the living. There is
in the one a life which there is not in the other, and the difference is
vital and radical. Oh, that you may never trifle with this essential
matter, but be really the wheat of the Lord! It is vain to have the name
of wheat, we must have the nature of wheat. God will not be mocked; he
will not be pleased by our calling ourselves Christians while we are not
so. Be not satisfied with church membership; but seek after membership
with Christ. Do not talk about faith, but exercise it. Do not boast of
experience, but possess it. Be not _like_ the wheat, but be the wheat.
No shams and imitations will stand in the last great day; that terrible
"but" will roll as a sea of fire between the true and the false. Oh Holy
Spirit! let each of us be found transformed by thy power.
II. The second word of our text is "gather"--that is A WORD OF
CONGREGATION. What a blessed thing this gathering is! I feel it a great
pleasure to gather multitudes together to hear the gospel; and is it not
a joy to see a house full of people, on week-days and Sabbath-days, who
are willing to leave their homes and to come considerable distances to
listen to the gospel? It is a great thing to gather people together for
that; but the gathering of the wheat into the barn is a far more
wonderful business. Gathering is in itself better than scattering, and I
pray that the Lord Jesus may ever exercise his attracting power in this
place; for he is no Divider, but "unto him shall the gathering of the
people be." Has he not said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men unto me"?
Observe, that the congregation mentioned in our text is selected and
assembled by skilled gatherers: "The angels are the reapers." Ministers
could not do it, for they do not know all the Lord's wheat, and they are
apt to make mistakes--some by too great leniency, and others by
excessive severity. Our poor judgments occasionally shut out saints, and
often shut in sinners. The angels will know their Master's property.
They know each saint, for they were present at his birthday. Angels know
when sinners repent, and they never forget the persons of the penitents.
They have witnessed the lives of those who have believed, and have
helped them in their spiritual battles, and so they know them. Yes,
angels by a holy instinct discern the Father's children, and are not to
be deceived. They will not fail to gather all the wheat and to leave out
every tare.
But they are gathered under a very stringent regulation; for, first of
all, according to the parable, the tares, the false wheat, have been
taken out, and then the angelic reapers gather nothing but the wheat.
The seed of the serpent, fathered by Satan, is thus separated from the
seed of the kingdom, owned by Jesus, the promised deliverer. This is the
one distinction; and no other is taken into consideration. If the most
amiable unconverted persons could stand in the ranks with the saints,
the angels would not bear them to heaven, for the mandate is, "Gather
the wheat." Could the most honest man be found standing in the centre of
the church, with all the members round about him, and with all the
ministers entreating that he might be spared, yet if he were not a
believer he could not be carried into the divine garner. There is no
help for it. The angels have no choice in the matter; the peremptory
command is, "Gather _the wheat_," and they must gather none else.
It will be a gathering from very great distances. Some of the wheat
ripens in the South Sea Islands, in China, and in Japan. Some flourishes
in France, broad acres grow in the United States; there is scarce a land
without a portion of the good grain. Where all God's wheat grows I
cannot tell. There is a remnant, according to the election of grace,
among every nation and people; but the angels will gather all the good
grain to the same garner.
"Gather the wheat." The saints will be found in all ranks of society.
The angels will bring in a few ears from palaces, and great armfuls from
cottages! Many will be collected from the lowly cottages of our villages
and hamlets, and others will be upraised from the back slums of our
great cities to the metropolis of God. From the darkest places angels
will bring those children of sweetness and light who seldom beheld the
sun, and yet were pure in heart and saw their God. The hidden and
obscure shall be brought into the light, for the Lord knoweth them that
are his, and his harvestmen will not miss them.
To me it is a charming thought that they will come from all the ages.
Let us hope that our first father Adam will be there, and mother Eve,
following in the footsteps of their dear son Abel, and trusting in the
same sacrifice. We shall meet Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses,
and David, and Daniel, and all the saints made perfect. What a joy to
see the apostles, martyrs, and reformers! I long to see Luther, and
Calvin, and Bunyan, and Whitefield. I like the rhyme of good old father
Ryland:
"They all shall be there, the great and the small,
Poor I shall shake hands with the blessed St. Paul."
I do not know how that will be, but I have not much doubt that we shall
have fellowship with all the saints of every age in the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
No matter when or where the wheat grew, it shall be gathered into the
one barn; gathered never to be scattered; gathered out of all divisions
of the visible church, never to be divided again. They grew in different
fields. Some flourished on the hillside where Episcopalians grow in all
their glory, and others in the lowlier soil, where Baptists multiply,
and Methodists flourish; but once the wheat is in the barn none can tell
in which field the ears grew. Then, indeed, shall the Master's prayer
have a glorious answer--"That they all may be one." All our errors
removed and our mistakes corrected and forgiven, the one Lord, the one
faith, and the one baptism will be known of us all, and there will be no
more vexings and envyings. What a blessed gathering it will be! What a
meeting! The elect of God, the _élite_ of all the centuries, of whom the
world was not worthy. I should not like to be away. If there were no
hell, it would be hell enough to me to be shut out of such heavenly
society. If there were no weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, it
would be dreadful enough to miss the presence of the Lord, and the joy
of praising him forever, and the bliss of meeting with all the noblest
beings that ever lived. Amid the needful controversies of the age, I,
who have been doomed to seem a man of strife, sigh for the blessed rest
wherein all spiritual minds shall blend in eternal accord before the
throne of God and of the Lamb. Oh that we were all right, that we might
be all happily united in one spirit!
In the text there is next A WORD OF DESIGNATION. I have already
trespassed upon that domain. "Gather _the wheat_." Nothing but "the
wheat" must be placed in the Lord's homestead. Lend me your hearts while
I urge you to a searching examination for a minute or two. The wheat was
sown of the Lord. Are you sown of the Lord? Friend, if you have any
religion, how did you get it? Was it self-sown? If so, it is good for
nothing. The true wheat was sown by the Son of man. Are you sown of the
Lord? Did the Spirit of God drop eternal life into your bosom? Did it
come from that dear hand which was nailed to the cross? Is Jesus your
life? Does your life begin and end with him? If so, it is well.
The wheat sown of the Lord is also the object of the Lord's care. Wheat
needs a deal of attention. The farmer would get nothing from it if he
did not watch it carefully. Are you under the Lord's care? Does he keep
you? Is that word true to your soul, "I the Lord do keep it; I will
water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day?"
Do you experience such keeping? Make an honest answer, as you love your
soul.
Next, wheat is a useful thing, a gift from God for the life of men. The
false wheat was of no good to anybody; it could only be eaten of swine,
and then it made them stagger like drunken men. Are you one of those who
are wholesome in society--who are like bread to the world, so that if
men receive you and your example and your teaching they will be blessed
thereby? Judge yourselves whether ye are good or evil in life and
influence.
"Gather the wheat." You know that God must put the goodness, the grace,
the solidity, and the usefulness into you, or else you will never be
wheat fit for angelic gathering. One thing is true of the wheat--that it
is the most dependent of all plants. I have never heard of a field of
wheat which sprang up, and grew, and ripened without a husbandman's
care. Some ears may appear after a harvest when the corn has shaled out;
but I have never heard of plains in America or elsewhere covered with
unsown wheat. No, no. There is no wheat where there is no man, and there
is no grace where there is no Christ. We owe our very existence to the
Father, who is the husbandman.
Yet, dependent as it is, wheat stands in the front rank of honor and
esteem; and so do the godly in the judgment of all who are of
understanding heart. We are nothing without Christ; but with him we are
full of honor. Oh, to be among those by whom the world is preserved, the
excellent of the earth in whom the saints delight; God forbid we should
be among the base and worthless tares!
Our last head, upon which also I will speak briefly, is A WORD OF
DESTINATION. "Gather the wheat _into my barn_." The process of gathering
in the wheat will be completed at the day of judgment, but it is going
on every day. From hour to hour saints are gathered; they are going
heavenward even now. I am so glad to hear as a regular thing that the
departed ones from my own dear church have such joy in being harvested.
Glory be to God, our people die well. The best thing is to live well,
but we are greatly gladdened to hear that the brethren die well; for,
full often, that is the most telling witness for vital godliness. Men of
the world feel the power of triumphant deaths.
Every hour the saints are being gathered into the barn. That is where
they want to be. We feel no pain at the news of ingathering, for we wish
to be safely stored up by our Lord. If the wheat that is in the field
could speak, every ear would say, "The ultimatum for which we are living
and growing is the barn, the granary." For this the frosty night; for
this the sunny day; for this the dew and the rain; and for this
everything. Every process with the wheat is tending toward the granary.
So is it with us; everything is working toward heaven--toward the
gathering place--toward the congregation of the righteous--toward the
vision of our Redeemer's face. Our death will cause no jar in our
life-music; it will involve no pause or even discord; it is part of a
programme, the crowning of our whole history.
To the wheat the barn is the place of security. It dreads no mildew
there; it fears no frost, no heat, no drought, no wet, when once in the
barn. All its growth-perils are past. It has reached its perfection. It
has rewarded the labor of the husbandman, and it is housed. Oh,
long-expected day, begin! Oh, brethren, what a blessing it will be when
you and I shall have come to our maturity, and Christ shall see in us
the travail of his soul.
I delight to think of heaven as _his_ barn; _his_ barn, what must that
be? It is but the poverty of language that such an expression has to be
used at all concerning the home of our Father, the dwelling of Jesus.
Heaven is the palace of the King, but, so far, to us a barn, because it
is the place of security, the place of rest for ever. It is the
homestead of Christ to which we shall be carried, and for this we are
ripening. It is to be thought of with ecstatic joy; for the gathering
into the barn involves a harvest home, and I have never heard of men
sitting down to cry over an earthly harvest home, nor of their following
the sheaves with tears. Nay, they clap their hands, they dance for joy,
and shout right lustily. Let us do something like that concerning those
who are already housed. With grave, sweet melodies let us sing around
their tombs. Let us feel that, surely, the bitterness of death is
passed. When we remember their glory, we may rejoice like the travailing
woman when her child is born, who "remembereth no more the anguish, for
joy that a man is born into the world." Another soul begins to sing in
heaven; why do you weep, O heirs of immortality? Is the eternal
happiness of the righteous the birth which comes of their death-pangs?
Then happy are they who die. Is glory the end and outcome of that which
fills our home with mourning? If so, thank God for bereavements; thank
God for saddest severings. He has promoted our dear ones to the skies!
He has blessed them beyond all that we could ask or even think; he has
taken them out of this weary world to lie in his own bosom for ever.
Blessed be his name if it were for nothing else but this. Would you keep
your old father here, full of pain, and broken down with feebleness?
Would you shut him out of glory? Would you detain your dear wife here
with all her suffering? Would you hold back your husband from the crown
immortal? Could you wish your child to descend to earth again from the
bliss which now surrounds her? No, no. We wish to be going home
ourselves to the heavenly Father's house and its many mansions; but
concerning the departed we rejoice before the Lord as with the joy of
harvest. "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
_Funk & Wagnalls' Important Publications._
The Ethics of Marriage.