The Time of Harvest is Coming! Be Ready to Meet God!

Revelation 14:14-20 says, "And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on His hand a golden crown and on His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the Temple crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the harvest of the Earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle and the Earth was reaped. And another angel came out of hte Temple which is in Heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar which had power over fire and cried with a loud cry to Him that had the sharp sickle saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the Earth for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the Earth and gathered the vine of the Earth and cast it into the great winepress of the Wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of hte winepress, even unto the horse' bridles, by the space of a thousand and one furlongs."

Here's an entry from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, "Warnings and judgments not having produced reformation, the sins of the nations are filled up, and they become ripe for judgments, represented by a harvest, an emblem which is used to signify the gathering of the righteous, when ripe for heaven, by the mercy of God. The harvest time is when the corn is ripe; when the believers are ripe for heaven, then the wheat of the earth shall be gathered into Christ's garner. And by a vintage. The enemies of Christ and his church are not destroyed, till by their sin they are ripe for ruin, and then he will spare them no longer. The wine-press is the wrath of God, some terrible calamity, probably the sword, shedding the blood of the wicked. The patience of God towards sinners, is the greatest miracle in the world; but, though lasting, it will not be everlasting; and ripeness in sin is a sure proof of judgment at hand."

It really sounds scary doesn't it? One can see that how the wicked are really getting punished. Yesterday, I began to observe how often it was for a good Christian to die in his or her youth while the wicked live longer. Ecclesiastes 7:15 says, "All things I have seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prologeth his life in his wickedness." But now, it's getting scary to think that by looking at the signs of the times, Jesus could be coming again anytime! Now what is the reason behind that? I just started to think about it that Revelation 14:14-20 talks about the greatest harvest against the wickedness of man. I just started to look at what is going on as of late to see how many of the wicked unsaved are dying young. We could be getting a preview of the Harvest that is due during the Tribulation Period.

One of the greatest examples of the old times when just men perish first and some wicked men last longer which is unjust isn't it? Let's just think of some Christian workers... Jonathan Edwards only died at 54 years old, Charles Spurgeon only died at only age 57. Some of the wicked men really live long. Another example is that Frank Sinatra died at 82 years old while the great Protestant preacher Billy Sunday died at only 72 years old. One may also think of the Bible where Abel died prematurely, Naboth died prematurely while Jezebel was allowed to live for 20 more years after the incident. Now why does that happen? The answer is simple - 2 Peter 3:9 says that God is not willing anyone to perish but all should come to repentance. The problem is however, not everyone is coming to repentance.

I just thought of this that for the past few years, I am observing the death of many wicked. Some of them manage to live very long lives while others who are genuinely saved, die so early. You might really think how one day a pastor who was so busy fighting against sin, renouncing the evils of society may one day be shot by people who love sin. Just think of the fate of John the Baptist - his head was soon on the silver platter while the adulterous and incestuous couple Antipas and Herodias had lived longer. Sometimes you can see some people dying quite young like Herod Agrippa who died at only 34 years old, having been struck down by an angel of God, he was later eaten by worms.

Let us understand yet another parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24-30. In this parable, we have the story where there was wheat. The enemy planted the tares or bastard wheat along with the wheat. The wheat represents the believers, the tares represent the unbelievers. In this world, the Christian is forced to exist alongside the wicked. Every day, Christians are battling sin and must battle it. I remembered through Dr. John F. Macarthur's discussion of "The Wheat and Tares" in pages 137 to 142. I will take some bits and pieces of it to discuss. I could remember these words he said were in relation to the wheat and the tares. Dr. Macarthur expositorily explains that "The landowner wisely told them not to pull them up because rooting out the tares might destroy them also." It is indeed true based on the truth of farming. Now remember, the reality was to wait until both the wheat and the tares were ripe unto the Harvest. One of the worst atrocities to happen are how so many who think they do God a favor as warned in John 16:2. The infamous Inquisition was one of the worst atrocities ever committed. All in the name of Christianity, many people were killed and many of them killed were real Christians. Those religious fanatics saw the real believers as their top enemy. Sometimes it was even weird how both Muslims and Catholics after their petty quarrel during the Crusades, at one point both agreed to massacre Christian evangelists!

Now it looks like the tares are becoming ripe and so are the wheat. As said both the tares and wheat will grow together and some will ripen. Some Christians had ripened so early that Jesus took them home. However the tares are also ripening. As said, we are all tares, we need a spiritual rebirth in order to become wheat. A lost man belong to Satan, no Faustian pact needed! Romans 3:10-19 describes the fall of man, the utter sinfulness of man and man's doom. Jesus came into the world to seek and save which was lost, seeking to convert the tares into wheat so they don't have to be burned away. The tares were destined to be gathered and burned. That is the symbolism of Hell... and unfortunately many people enjoy being tares. It's because of their love for sin.

A love for sin is a deadly thing. What is even worse is how many times I face sinful people who say, "I have done nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with..." and you can insert any sin into it. I know a woman who betrayed her own husband, went with a married man and worse, both of them had become openly an adulterous couple who claimed they love God, the both even had a child together while the woman's husband was still alive. Every time her boyfriend's son was preached to about adultery, he would consider such preachers as judgmental and not loving God. For them, nothing was wrong with what they did. If we go back to the Old Testament, I can also think of the House of Ahab and its infamy towards Israel and Judah. Who could ever forget that Ahab was a very wicked king with a wicked help meet? It's no wonder that Ahab called Elijah his enemy because the latter had rebuked him of his sin of idolatry. Ahab also had Micaiah locked up because he spoke the truth that such a decision to got Ramoth-Gilead was life threatening. As you see, a love for sin blocks people from seeing the truth!

The issue of repentance is this... an unrepentant heart that loves sin will refuse to savingly believe and it cannot savingly believe. A heart that loves sin can pretend to get saved but he knows he is not saved. Jesus said in John 3:19-20 saying, "And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light neither come into the light lest his deeds should be reproved." And this indeed had already pre-conditioned such sinners into awful judgment. Jesus already warned of the need of spiritual rebirth but hte problem is, so many sinful people not only love their sin but a lot of them as I encountered, think that there is nothing wrong with what they do. More often than not, an example is the atheist's utter hatred for God because it's a real moral problem. They also wish God did not exist because they want to continue in their sin. For them, nothing is wrong with sin even of the effects are clear. Sexual immorality is bringing sexually transmitted diseases to a higher level like 46% of AIDS transmissions are caused by sodomy. Sodom and Gomorrah became so infected God had to sterilize the land by literally raining fire on the two cities.

Now what are some signs that one can see that the harvest is coming? The preaching of the Gospel of course! Matthew 24:14 says, "And the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then the end shall come." God is patient and He isn't returning until the world is saturated by the Gospel. Matthew 28:20 says, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever, have commended you and lo I am with you always even unto the world of the world." which in context, one can see the very moment that Jesus fired the signal for evangelism... the end times had begun! The Book of Acts had is an account of Christianity now at spread... some have been martyred, lives were changed, some wicked men perish while others get saved... you can see that the preaching of the Gospel had begun to roll the red carpet for Jesus to return. The world hates the Gospel and they will do anything to prevent it from spreading. But the truth is you cannot stop the spreading of the Gospel!

The persecution of the saints of God did not stop the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6-7 says, "Being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform until the Day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye are all partakes of grace." Just think - what Jesus Christ had started, He will certainly finish it. That's why I believe in the perseverance of the saints. Those who are truly saved will certainly endure to the end. Many claim to have eternal security but are in reality, unsaved. How can anybody who is saved live like the rest of the world? That is indeed one of the worst garbage I throw out because it welcomes false converts. God is going to let the wheat grow and ripen. A Christian may for now deny their faith but later confess that denial and choose persecution over delivery. Instead of stopping Christianity from growing, persecution made it grow because Christians faced death so bravely. I wouldn't be surprised if today, the ISIS' attacks on Christianity will just end up making Christianity grow in the Middle East because Islam is nothing but fear and death... Jesus brings life and hope. And think of how many tortured Christians have died... yet has shown so great a bravery by the grace of God to endure to the end.

In preaching the Gospel, the wheats and tares are slowly placed apart. Some of the tares have become wheat by being born again (John 3:3). The line that famous Baptist preachers love to use is, "Except ye be born again, ye cannot see the Kingdom of God!" When asked, why do I express that line so much? It's because it's Biblical Truth! You cannot separate the need of spiritual rebirth from salvation. As said, you must be born again! You are a sinner to the core, rotten, depraved. You may have done good works but your good works are not good works, they are dead works. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace are ye saved through fait: and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast." The truth is no man can do any real good work unless they are truly regenerated. The righteousness of man is described in Isaiah 64:6 as dirty rags and in Romans 3:19 as condemned by the Law. James 2:10 says that you only need to break one of the rules to fall short of God's glory. Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." which indeed, it did not say, "For some have sinned and others have not..." but rather, "For all have sinned.." which proves man definitely cannot save himself.

As the Gospel is preached the wheat and tares will be made manifest. True converts will reveal themselves apart from the false converts. False converts may only last for a season but they move away. 1 John 2:19 says, "They went out from us but they were not of us... for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." In short, either you are really saved or not and your life will show it. True believers will remain and live for God and even if they backslide, they cannot totally fall away but are brought back to God for chastising (Hebrews 12:5-6). False converts fall away, they sin without remorse and you can see, God has left them to their destruction and the consequences of their sin.

Now the question is, are you a wheat or a tare? The final harvest may be closer than you think, make sure you are right with God!