When we reflect on the parable of the wheat and the tares, righteous and wicked people come to mind. When we picture wicked people we think of murderers, thieves, drunkards, rapists, and so forth. When we consider righteous people we envision those who do not practice such things.

The record of the Scriptures suggests another kind of righteousness and another kind of wickedness. There is a righteousness of loving and seeking God and walking in His will. There is a wickedness of loving and seeking our own gain and walking according to our own desires.

It was not the murderers, the thieves, the drunkards, the rapists who crucified the Lord. It was esteemed religious people who loved and sought their own gain and walked according to their own desires. The original sinners, Adam and Eve, were not murderers, thieves, drunkards, or rapists. But they loved and sought their own gain and they walked according to their own desires.

Everyone who is born into the world has in his or her personality the seed of Satan. We all are born in sin and rebellion against God. Then God, according to His own wisdom and foreknowledge, sows the seed of the Kingdom in some human beings. Those who have been chosen to be the recipients of the seed of the Kingdom now have in their personality both the seed of the Kingdom and the seed of Satan.

At the end of the age the messengers of God will remove the seed of Satan from the Kingdom of God and cast it into the flames.

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:41,42)

The removal of the seed of Satan will take place in two stages. First, as we note above, "all things that offend" will be removed. After that, "them which do iniquity." First the bad seed is removed from the Kingdom, and then the people in whom is the bad seed. At first we have the tares in us. If we do not allow the Holy Spirit to remove the tares from us then we ourselves become tares. In this event our destiny is the Lake of Fire.

The Lake of Fire always retains authority over tares, even when they are in Christian people! If we would escape being injured by the Lake of Fire, which is the second death, we must, through the Holy Spirit, conquer the tares that are in us.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. (Revelation 2:11)

The first stage has begun now. The Lord is requiring of His people, those in whom is the good seed of the Kingdom, to confess and turn away from their sins. If they do they will be revealed as the sons of the Kingdom.

If they do not confess and turn away from their sin they will be cast into the furnace of fire.

To be continued.