the tares. The tares are sown, not by God, but by "the enemy" (Matt. 13: 25), and these

are designated by the Lord as representing "the children of the wicked one" (38) and the

one who sowed them was the devil (13: 39, and see Gen. 3: 15; John 8: 44, 47, and

note the preposition ek again). We must distinguish what originates from God and what

originates from Satan. They must never be confused, otherwise we shall be led into

erroneous doctrine.

We must also understand that when God judges, it is the mind He examines first. The

Lord's words to Samuel stated truth for all time when He said "man looketh on the

outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart (mind)" (I Sam. 16: 7). Like

Himself, His Word is "a discerner of the thoughts and intents (intentions) of the heart

(mind)" (Heb. 4: 12), whereas man can only judge by the external action which may not

accurately reflect the mind.

God is therefore a perfect discriminator and all is open to Him. Because of this, He

can righteously discriminate between the sheep and the goats. He mentions their outward

actions which express their inward attitude of mind. In the case of the sheep, their minds

had been touched by the Lord, as they had been in His purpose since creation and He had

prepared the kingdom for them (25: 34-36). That great purpose wrought the works

mentioned in the lives of those who are counted as the sheep. The Lord calls them "the

righteous ones" (37) even though they had not realized that the physical actions of mercy

and kindness mentioned, were accepted by Christ as though they were done to Him:

Who are "these brothers of Mine"? The Lord was surrounded by Jews and was a Jew

Himself. He, as it were, pointed to "these brothers" which can only be the Jewish people.

In spite of their failing, Israel were certainly the people of God, chosen by Him, and those

who minister to their physical and spiritual needs are serving the One Who chose and

redeemed them, Christ Himself. We must remember that at the beginning God stated He

would bless those who blessed Israel and curse those who cursed Israel (Gen. 12: 3).

In Matt. 25: the Lord did not mean any needy person anywhere. This should be

clear from the fact that He would have been teaching that the fatherhood of God relates to

all men. Although this is popular in religious circles, it is certainly not Scriptural and

therefore not true. This is proved from the teaching of John 1: 11, 12 and other

Scriptures. It is easy to base a social gospel on this parable, that if people are kind to

everyone else and help them in their difficulties, they will be saved. This produces a

gospel of works and human merit which is completely foreign to the sacred Scriptures,

and definitely is not the teaching of the parable of the sheep and the goats.

From this story Christ not only deals with a prepared people and a prepared place for

them in His kingdom, He shows clearly the destiny of the goat nations. They go to a

prepared place too, but not originally for them, but for "the devil and his angels"

(Matthew 25: 41). His conclusion is: