Matthew 13:1-9 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears let him hear.

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Matthew 13:24-30 Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? 'An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' "'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvester: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'

I once was very much a child of the enemy of Christ. I walked in darkness and I loved the darkness for my deeds were evil. In me were many, many tares and no wheat at all. I did not know God and could not produce that which is of God. Then the Word was planted in me and in me the Kingdom of God began to grow. This is the true planting of God, the soil being the hearts of women and men. Some of the Words that fell around me were snatched away by evils of the world and devoured. Those seeds produced nothing in me as I barreled down the broad path to my own destruction. Some of the seeds sown fell on the rocky places in my heart. Rocks formed under the intense pressure of a world filled with sin and made yet harder by my own sin. There the soil was thin and what was produced in me by the planting of the Word was short lived. In my life were also many thorns and thistles and their reality was much more significant to me than the Hope that is in the Word of God; those precious seeds of the Kingdom. Though those Words planted among the cares of my life seemed beautiful, the weeds overwhelmed me and the Promise of the Word was choked out. I was not yet ready for planting and unable to make myself ready. When the Holy Spirit brought me to the place of repentance, the preparation of the soil began and in the good soil that is the product of the Holy Spirit, as rocks and thorns were removed, the Word began to take root in me and grow. The Word, that is the seed of the Kingdom, grew and became the Living Word in me and it is by the continual renewing of my mind, which is the mind of Christ I have been given, that the seed of the Kingdom in me has been nurtured and watered and in the fullness of the dispensation of time, God will harvest the increase of His Sacred planting. Not only in me but in all who are called out in Jesus to serve the purposes of God; just as Jesus came to serve the purposes of God. It is God's purpose that fills the needs of human beings.

God in His Holy Word, the Bible, commanded His Chosen People, the Jews, to separate themselves from the world and to be holy as He is Holy. Jesus commands those of us who are called out in Him to also live holy lives by living in the world but not of it. The first is physical separation that suited the purposes of God for His chosen people, those through whom the entire world would be blessed. The second is that of spiritual separation that also serves the purposes of God in that process that will bring Life to all who have been held under the curse of sin and death under the first Adam. That Life is in Christ Jesus who is the Second Adam and a prototype of the new man who will live in the new world that is and is to come.

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In me, at the moment of belief in Christ, were many tares. A wild crop sown by the devil, his seeds, sin. At the moment of indwelling by the Holy Spirit, the gathering of those tares began; the gathering for later burning. With each conviction of sin,is each tare of my mind gathered; and gives more space for the true wheat, the produce of the planting of the Kingdom, to flourish in me. In my life also has been the burning of those tares that were of me. That burning by the Holy Spirit that is the Consuming Fire that is God as God lives in me through faith in Jesus Christ. When I pass from this mortal life, the gathering and burning in me will be complete and the bounty of the Harvest in me fully known. I will be fully redeemed and like Jesus, ready to serve the purposes of God in a future age. That age being the righteous rule of Jesus Christ in the long held hope and promise of the full Kingdom of God on the earth. An age in which the Will of God will truly be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Matthew 13:36-40 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the Kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. "As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

In the process of my sanctification, I have spent many days weeping and gnashing my teeth as all that is not of God in me is gathered and burned. However, at the end of the burning, God wipes away all of my tears and I see the wisdom of what He has taken from me and my sorrow is replaced by Joy in knowing that all that is of God will stand. While all that is of me, which is also of the world, will be burned. This is the full purpose of God that serves the good of those who are in Christ Jesus.

When God's Kingdom comes in fullness on the earth, I and others who are in Christ will enter that Kingdom fully redeemed and like Jesus. We will be there to serve the purposes of God as workers in Christ's Righteous Rule. However, the subjects of the Kingdom will have been made spiritual by faith in Christ Jesus but they will not be yet fully redeemed. The redemption process that is sanctification of believers now, will in that future age, be poured out over all the earth. As Christ Jesus rules with a rod of iron by another operation of the Holy Spirit that will be without and within. This age is the completion of God's plan on earth for restoring His Creation fully to Himself. The world will be sanctified by the same process as those in Christ are being sanctified today. At the end of this future age, will be the final gathering of tares and then wheat and then the burning that brings weeping and gnashing of teeth; as that burning by the Consuming Fire that is our God will consume all that is not of God and finally consume also Hades and Death itself. The death of Death, the second death, that those who are in Christ will not suffer, will cleanse and purify the Creation as that which is mortal and carnal is folded up and put away and all will be made eternal. At the end of that burning, weeping, and gnashing, God will wipe away all tears and free all from all sorrow and pain. Just as in my life, He has been faithful to wipe away my tears, and replace all of my pain and sorrow with Joy that is indestructible. This is the eternal state of the Creation in which nothing evil may enter.

This is the process of spiritual separation in Jesus Christ. It is not a separation of ourselves from others that are also sinners but the process of separation from our own sin, from the world that lives in us. As the Word was planted in us, that is the Kindom of God in us, so too are we planted in the world. The end of this age is not the full Harvest but merely the first fruits, the early taste of the future bounty that is yet, in an age to come. A bounty enjoyed as all men shall see it together.