4. We are also representatives of some kind of soil. Our attitude toward these forces of evil will determine the amount of fruitage we bear. 5. Satan acts inmmediately in catch- ing away the seed (Mark 16:15). We should " b e instant in season and out of season," in sowing it (2 Tim. 4:3). LESSON XIII. Sunday, June 26, 1910. The Parable of the Tares (Matt. 13: 24-30, 36-43). Golden Text, Matt. 13:43. EXPLANATION. The Parable of the Tares was spoken by Jesus on the same day as the Pasa- ble of the Sower, which was studied last week, and of the five which come in our next week's lesson. These all belong to one discourse and should be studied as a whole, as well as separate- ly, to get the well rounded truth. Note also that the first four, the Sower, the Tares, the Mustard Seed, and the Leav- en, were spoken to the multitude, while the last three were spoken to the dis- ciples in private. This suggests that the first four have the broader applica- tion, and upon examination we find this to be true. The Parable of the Sower, as we learned last week, was given to us as a key with which all the parables were to be unlocked (Mark 4:13). INTERPRETATION. Among the active forces of evil which were operating to destroy the seed in the Parable of the Sower, Satan was first (Ys. 19). This Parable of the Tares shows us His working in the field, which is the world, where Jesus the King had come to establish His Kingdom and introduce the heavenly principles (Hatt. 5:7) but was rejected by His own (Israel) (John 1:11). This parable pictures to us how Satan's se- ductive activities will continue through all this age until the very end, when Jesus the King shall return in power and glory, and command His angels to clear the field of the tares and east Satan into the bottomless pit where he will remain a prisoner for one thousand years (Rev. 20:1-7). APPLICATION. (1) One Field—The World (Vs. 38). There has been a hot contest on for centuries over this field. God had made Adam and given him dominion in this world (Gen. 1:27, 27). But Satan came in and by deception cheated him
out of it (Gen. 3). Jesus, the last Adam, had now come to redeem it (buy it back). Satan had endeavored to deceive Him, as he did the first Adam, but failed (Matt. 4:8-11). But Satan had so effectually blinded the eyes of God's people, Israel, that in- stead of accepting their long looked for King, the rejected and crucified Him (Matt. 27:37). By this, however, they accomplished God's eternal pur- pose (Acts 2:23), " f o r God raised Him from the dead and set Him on high," where He is now waiting the fullness of time, when He shall eome to take unto Himself His own. Do not confound this field with the Church as found in the Epistles, and teach, as some do, that there should be no discipline in the Church, because the tares and the wheat should grow together.- This is a picture of the world, not of the Church. Rom. 16:17; 1 Cor. 5:1-15; 2 Thess. 3:4, 14, give instruc- tions for the Church. The two kinds of seed are sown in the same field; they produce of their kind and grow together until the end. (2) Two Sowers—The Son of Man and the Devil. These are the two contending forces operating in this world, two distinct and opposing characters. From the 3d Chapter of Genesis to the end of the Revelation, these two characters are seen. The personality of one is just as clearly defined and emphatically taught as the other. Both are active, deter- mined, persistent. There is eternal an- tagonism between them, and there can never be any cessation from this strug- gle until one of them shall be destroyed. There are - many deceivers in the world today, teaching that there are no con- tending personalities; no opposing forces; or principles, and no devil; but that all is good, all is love, all is God. This teaching is absolutely false. It is of the devil, and is one of the best evi- dences of his deceptive personality and power. These forces were never so ac- tive as today, and their activity will in- crease until the final culmination, when the Almighty One shall triumph glori- ously. All mankind is arrayed with one or the other of these supernatural per- sonalities. We are all sowers; we are always sowing; we are sowing for eter- nity; we shall all reap some day what we have sown. Note some of the differences between these two sowers. First the Son of
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