The wheat and the tares! God does not divide the world into Christians and non-Christians but into the wheat and the tares, the righteous and the wicked.

There are wheat and tares in the churches as well as in the world.

Matthew 13:41 may have already begun. There will be in our time, we believe, a removing of wickedness, and then wicked people, from the ranks of the Christian believers, and finally from the world itself; for "the field is the world."

Judgment always begins with those closest to the Lord.

We have spoken in other articles of removing sin from the Christians, of delivering believers from the "tares" of lawless behavior. While it is true that there still is deliverance in Mount Zion for all who repent and call on the name of the Lord, we think God may be going a step further in the present hour.

Perhaps the Lord has already begun the process of removing the wickedness, and then wicked people, from the one true Church. God may be placing an uncrossable barrier between His elect—those who truly have been born of Him—and those who appear to be Christians but who have not been born of God. Many individuals who assemble with Christians have been born of the religious activities of the churches, the fleshly efforts of the churches as they pursue the work of "church growth."

Let us consider for a moment the concept of Matthew 13:37-43. Jesus is speaking of the world. In the world there is the Kingdom of God, which (in the present hour) consists of the Christian churches.

In the Christian churches there are the true children of the Kingdom and also the children of Satan.

The Lord declares that during a period of time known as the "end of this world" the Son of man will send forth his angels (messengers). They will gather out of His Kingdom all that offends God and then those who practice wickedness.

As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end [completion] of this world [age]. 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; (Matthew 13:40,41)

Out of His Kingdom! Out of His Kingdom!

First the offenses, and after that those who are causing the offenses if they are not willing to be cleansed from their wicked practices.

In the day in which we are living it appears that the Lord Jesus has begun the work of removing from His Church, His Kingdom, all sinful, worldly, rebellious behavior. It is of the greatest importance that we cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He seeks to lead us to confess and forsake our sins. We, through the Holy Spirit, are to put to death the thoughts, words, and actions that the Scriptures define as sin.

For if ye live in the appetites of the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

To be continued.