Well, it’s that time of year again. Spring is here, and guess what else is here? You got it. Weeds. Thanks Adam. By the sweat of our brow is right.

As soon as the rain stops here and the ground dries up, I need to address the weed situation that has already started. Many of you will be doing the same. The weed eaters will be running at top speed, spewing weed clippings in every direction. I don’t like to weed eat. I used to work with a fellow who absolutely loved to weed eat. Not me. So a few years ago I chose another way to get around that little problem.

My weed eater comes in a jug. It’s called Roundup. I run it down the fence line, the driveway, sidewalk, and a few other spots. Yes, I also kill the grass that is on the edge of these areas, but I don’t have to weed eat either, so it works for me. I’ve noticed some of our neighbors are now doing this. Sure beats weed eating and it last about four to six months.

As far as weeds that may be out in the lawn itself, they will have to be dealt with individually by pulling them up.

I have no idea how many different weeds there are, but here are just a few you may have heard of.

Crabgrass, Pigweed, Chickweed, Quackgrass, Lamb’s Quarters, Morning Glory, Purslane, Buckhorn Plantain, Cannabis, Dandelion, Sumac, Ragweed, Dead Nettle, Speedwell (Veronica), Goosegrass, Wild Onion or Wild Garlic, Indian Strawberry, White Clover, Ground Ivy (Weeping Charlie). Sheep or Red Sorrel, Mouse-ear Chickweed, Carpetweed, Shepherd’s purse

The time is now upon us that many of you, and I, will prepare a small garden spot in the back yard just for the fun of it. I will till the ground up, mix in some cow manure, garden soil, a little lime, and some peat moss. Then I’ll cultivate this until the ground is ready for planting.

Much time will be spent, enjoyable time though, laying the rows and planting the plants. When the tomato plants, for example, get high enough, I’ll stake each one. Then … I’ll spend the rest of the Summer keeping it weeded. No Roundup here. Gotta use a hoe. Isn’t it amazing that you don’t have to do anything to get weeds to grow?

Jesus also had something to say about weeds in the following passage.

“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 uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ”” (Matthew 13:24-30 NIV)

Apparently the zizania of this parable is the darnel weed. Before it ears, it will have an appearance of wheat. Now we can understand why the owner told his servants to wait until the harvest to separate the wheat from the tares. Sure don’t want to pull up the wheat along with the weeds.

Jesus explains this parable in verses 36-43. We see from these verses that Jesus is the Sower (v.37). The good seed are believers (v.38). The tares (bad seed or weeds) are the unbelievers (v.38). The enemy who sowed the tares is the Devil (v.39). The harvest is the end of the age (v.39). The reapers are the angels (v.39).

Jesus said that this parable is an example of the kingdom of Heaven. The kingdom of Heaven, at this point, consists of those who are believers and those who are unbelievers, or wheat and tares (weeds).

The kingdom of Heaven has many tares growing alongside the wheat until the end of the age. However, the day is coming, perhaps very soon, that the harvest will separate true believers from those who are just believers in name only. At the harvest the wheat will be gathered and taken into the barn (go into the Millennium), and the tares will be gathered, judged and burned (thrown into the lake of fire).

Since part of the harvest refers to when Jesus judges the world in the Tribulation (Revelation 14:14-16), remember that the Church will be in Heaven. It was harvested at the Rapture. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

We’ve gone this far, we might as well take a short look at the two parables that follow the wheat and the tares. They are all about the kingdom of heaven.

“He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32 NIV)

The Church started out very, very small, but as the mustard seed, it has grown from just a few original followers of Christ to millions and millions of true followers along with those who merely profess Christ but do not know Him. Unfortunately, the “birds” have come and are perching in its branches. To understand who the birds are read Matthew 13: 4, 19. They are Satan and his minions.

Just as the tares have become mixed in with the wheat, so this parable is saying, for example, that many in the Church are not the true Church. They are Christians in name only. Jesus told the disciples to go into the world (Matthew 28:19), but since Constantine of Rome, the world has come into the Church. Only Jesus can separate true believers from those who are false, and this He will do.

He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Matthew 13:33 NIV)

Since yeast always represents sin in the Bible, this parable of Jesus is saying that false doctrine leading to apostasy has infiltrated the church.

Jesus said of the last days before His return, “… when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)

The apostle Paul warned his protégé Timothy, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV)

From the pews and the pulpits, the tares stand along with the wheat. Who can tell them apart?

The birds of prey have brought the world into the church while they nest in the rafters of the souls of men.

The leaven of false doctrine rises forth and appeases itching ears.

Laodicea, the church that has come forth at the end of the church age, is eaten up with apostasy (Revelation 3:14-19). The Lord knows who are His and who are not. He will separate them at the harvest and put an end to the bad seed.

Grant Phillips
Email: grantphillips@windstream.net
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
Rapture Ready https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html

Twenty six years, that’s how long I’ve had my trusty shovel. It has a short wooden handle, with a hand grip at the top and a rounded metal blade at the bottom. We go way back.

My wife and I moved into our house here in the sub-division 26 years ago, and this shovel was my first purchase for our dreams for the yard. We decided to plant a Bradford Pear tree in the front yard. To do this right, one needs to dig a fairly good-size hole. So I started digging. Soon after, Debbie wanted to dig awhile, so we took turns. By the time we’re done, I had noticed throughout all this back and forth digging one peculiar thing. When I was digging, no cars went up or down the street. When she was digging, there was always at least one or more cars to drive by. I told her that our neighbors were going to think I was a terrible person by having my wife do all the work while I stood there and watched. We got a good laugh out of that.

Anyway, I have used that shovel many, many times to plant trees, bushes, and other plants throughout the yard. When subtracting twenty six years from my current age, we find that I was a much younger man at the time; 44 to be exact. Just a few years ago, the shovel came back out to reverse all this stuff we had planted. It was time for them to go. I was approaching the years, quickly I might add, that it was just too much work to take care of everything. So most of it is now gone. Thank goodness.

Last night I got to thinking about how I always clean it after each use, as I do all my tools, and something occurred to me.

When using the shovel, of course it gets dirty. When I’m done working with it, I wash all the dirt off and dry it real well with a large towel I use for a rag. My 26 year old shovel has no rust and it has no nicks and bangs on the blade. Actually, the blade is somewhat shiny and sharper around the edge. From the tip of the blade to the top of the handle, it is nearly like new.

I’ve seen other shovels, owned by other people, that are never cleaned up and they are rusty, banged up and filthy. They’re shovels are much younger than mine, but you would never know it.

Now I’m not saying any of this to boast about my cleaning habits for my tools. That’s just me, but it has paid off.

We Christians are a lot like that shovel. We dig around in the dirt and get dirty. Some of us may be digging in the mud and others in the rich soil of a small garden, but we’re all digging somewhere, because none of us are without sin. We’re just saved sinners. Even at our best, we still get dirty. Isaiah put it this way.

“Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5)

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

Even though we are a Christian and our salvation  is guaranteed by the seal of the Holy Spirit within us (eternal security), we still get dirty (sin), and because of this, we need to be cleaned up after each use.

Jesus got this point across with Peter.

“Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath (who have been saved) need only to wash their feet (confess our sins to restore fellowship); their whole body is clean (we are saved). And you are clean, though not every one of you (referring to Judas).” (John 13:10 NIV) (My comments added)

The “bath,” (salvation) provides the relationship, and the “wash their feet,” (confession of sins), restores the fellowship.

Romans 10:9 provides our relationship with God. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (This we do but once.)

1 John 1:9 restores our fellowship with God. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (This we should do as often as necessary.)

Just as I wash the shovel and dry it off before I put it in the storage building, the purpose of the laver at the Tabernacle was for washing (cleansing) before entering the Holy Place.

When we Christians make a habit of constantly being washed, we remain more often in a state of being clean. We look shinier and have a sharper edge. We work better. The following verse has a lot to do with that also.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

Failing to keep ourselves washed clean leaves a Christian who begins to rust, remains dirty and doesn’t work as well as he/she should.

A lot of Christians have become nearly useless in serving the Lord, because they don’t keep themselves clean. They have become rusty, and have a dull edge. Oh, the relationship is secure. God is our Father and always will be our Father, but is there any fellowship between us and our Father in Heaven? Consider the analogy of my shovel and see what you think.

Grant Phillips

Email: grantphillips@windstream.net

Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com

Rapture Ready https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html