Loyal Subjects

"Loyal Subjects" – Matthew 13:30 “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” This is the time of the harvest, and at the end the separation will be made between the wheat and the tares. The tares are easier to accommodate because they look like the seed, identical; they grab the root and choke it. The study walks through the interpretation the Lord Himself gives to the parable in Matthew 13:49-50, the order of the times in Revelation 20:7-15 —the rapture, the seven years of tribulation while the church is at the marriage of the Lamb, the millennium in which Satan cannot touch humanity, Armageddon, and the final judgment—, the three classes before the throne in Matthew 25:32, the fixed gulf of Luke 16:26, and the separation of Luke 17:34, where one is taken and the other left. It closes with the call to be loyal subjects: to escape for our life, and to fight for our own salvation so that we can fight for our children’s, because a cold life stands on the edge of disgrace.

I. The time of the harvest (Matthew 13:30).

A. Then the separation will be made between the good and the evil: the seed and the ear, the wheat and the tares.

1. A separation will be made between what is fruit and what is tares.

2. “Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them.”

B. The tares are easier to accommodate, because they look like the seed, identical.

1. They grab the root and choke it; they choke the planting as if it were nothing.

2. “They confused me”: you are letting yourself be confused. “They told me”: there they have you choked and bound.

3. The Word is what teaches me. And who teaches you?

II. So shall it be at the end of the world (Matthew 13:49-50).

A. “The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

1. Our Lord interprets His own parable: the time is the consummation of the age, at the end of the period of tribulation.

2. When this verse was spoken the times were not known, and to this day we still do not know them: God’s times are infinite.

3. The more you know, the more you fear God; and the more you fear God, the more you teach your children.

B. It is the moment of the second coming of Christ, and the reapers are the angels.

1. The tares are the unjust, the unbelievers of every race; the just enter into the kingdom of their Father.

2. There was opportunity to be converted, to repent, and to be established as holy men and women.

3. The good fish are the just and the saved, both of the Jews and of the Gentiles.

C. The net is cast into the sea, and the sea represents the nations.

1. The parable refers to the preaching of the everlasting gospel as it will take place during the great tribulation.

2. In the great tribulation the two witnesses will be working great miracles on the earth: those are the seven years.

3. While the church is in heaven at the marriage of the Lamb, the earth will be in the great tribulation.

4. The separation of the good and the evil is made by the angels, as is seen plainly in Revelation.

III. The order of the times (Revelation 20:7-15).

A. The rapture comes; then the antichrist is fully manifested and the seven years are lived out, three and a half and three and a half.

1. The eyes of the Jewish people will be opened: they will understand that the Messiah came and they did not receive Him.

2. After the seven years comes the great battle, and those who were marked will already have their condemnation.

B. Afterward come the thousand years, and that is called the millennium.

1. In those thousand years the lion and the lamb will be together, because Satan will not be able to touch humanity.

2. Everything will be under the Lord’s control, and the heavenly armies will keep the earth.

3. But after the thousand years they will be loosed again, and even with peace and abundance the human being returns to evil.

C. Then comes the great war of Armageddon, and afterward the final judgment.

1. The final war of the earth will be in one single country, and it is not the largest on earth.

2. It is said, so that we may understand it, that there will be so much blood and so many deaths that the blood will reach the feet of many.

3. I read the Bible because the Bible makes me tremble: that is the best thing we have, when we learn from the Scriptures.

IV. Three classes before the throne (Matthew 25:32).

A. “He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.”

1. The first two classes, whom Christ judges, are Gentiles who will live during the tribulation.

2. The third class are the faithful Jewish brethren of Jesus who refuse to deny His name in spite of overwhelming persecution.

B. That persecution will be so hard, physically and mentally, that people will want to lose their minds and will not be able to.

1. They will be persecuted and will have to hide; in order to eat, many will let themselves be marked.

2. Scripture says that people will cry out and will not die.

3. If you are lukewarm and you are not preparing your life in holiness, that is what awaits you: life is not a game.

C. Why did Jesus pay so dearly for you? He paid with His life.

1. Costly was the life of the Messiah, of Emmanuel, God with us; He gave it to deliver us from everything that is coming.

2. Troubles come and go; but if Jesus leaves, where are we going to escape?

3. If the rapture happened right now, those who remain have no solution. Is it so easy to sell your soul to the enemy? Very easy.

V. The decisions of this life (Luke 16:26).

A. “Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot.”

1. The decisions taken in this life determine our eternal destiny.

2. The decision not to want the Lord, not to pray, not to be sanctified, not to gather with the church.

3. Once death has taken place, that destiny is fixed: there is no more deciding.

B. Our actions will determine where we are going.

1. “I have so many problems, at home there are problems”: am I going to live troubled? My joy is the Lord.

2. I want to see the Lord, and if He came now I want to be caught up: to have nothing weighing on us and sinking us to the floor.

VI. One shall be taken and the other left (Luke 17:34).

A. “In that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.”

1. The coming of the Lord will be a time of separation: one taken in judgment, and the other, a believer, left to enter the kingdom of Christ.

2. “Two women shall be grinding together”: the one, an unbeliever, taken in the tempest of God’s wrath; the other, a daughter of God, left to enjoy the millennial blessings.

3. Those two grinding are the wheat between two stones; then it is winnowed, and the weight of the wheat falls and the chaff blows away.

4. Since the earth is round, on one side it is night and on the other it is day: hence the two examples, those in bed and those grinding.

B. What must we recognize? That we not be unbelieving, and that we must escape for our life.

1. The church is not an obligation to attend; but it is where we hear the word of God, pray, and are perfected.

2. We must fight: if you do not fight for your own salvation, neither will you fight for your children’s.

3. When I examine myself in prayer, what matters to me is to be right with God and for God to be at peace with me.

4. Circumstances and troubles come and go; but a cold life stands on the edge of disgrace.