It is Time to for.....
Transplanting!    
                                                                                      By Pastor F. M. Riley
                                                                                      September 10, 2017

     "Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn," Matthew 13:30.  
Introduction
     My Mom and Dad always had a garden when I was growing up, and my Mom always had lots of pretty flowers in the flower beds in our yard.  When the weather began to turn cool in the fall, my Mom and Dad would select the plants and flowers they wanted to keep from being killed by the frost, bitter cold, and ice and snow of winter, and would transplant the chosen plants into clay pots, and bring them in the house, or our little greenhouse,  to preserve them.  The next Spring the plants they had saved, would be replanted back into the garden or yard.  
      As I was remembering these things from my childhood, the spiritual significance of this same truth, as set forth in God's Word, dawned on me.  In the parable of The Wheat and the Tares, the Lord basically taught this same truth.  
     At the harvest time, the garden was cleaned in preparation for the next year's crop.  The worthless, noxious, tares were gathered and bound in bundles to burn them.   But the wheat was gathered and taken into the Lord's  barn, in order to preserve it for future use.  Glory to God!  Every reader who is a true believer ought to be able to discern this beautiful spiritual truth.  
The Changing of the Seasons
     One doesn't have to strain or struggle to see this type.  The inspired Word, both in the Old and New Testaments is filled with Scriptures about sowing and reaping, or planting and harvesting.   In other words, terms that relate to agriculture.  As an example, see Israel's mournful cry as they face, spiritually, a barren winter, not yet redeemed by the Lord, Jeremiah 8:20.    
     As I went out of my home here in Missouri this morning, the temperature was 38 degrees.  Yesterday, here in Missouri, the temp reached 90 degrees.  Today it is forecasted to possibly reach 70 degrees.  Folks, this is the Lord's way of telling us, as big as a billboard,  that the seasons are changing and winter is coming, both literally and spiritually.  We can pay attention and prepare for what lies ahead, or we can suffer the consequences of our own "willing ignorance."   
     In thinking on this subject, my mind is on  spiritual truth, rather than on the actual literal seasons of the year.  I am now 83 years old and no longer physically able to have a garden, or take care of flowers in the yard, so that sort of transplanting is of no concern to me whatsoever.  But the transplanting of all true believers is very much on my mind.
The Season of the End-Time is Here  
     As I view the whole world system today, I see a world  steeped in sin, wickedness, and evil, just as it was in "the days of Noah," Luke 17:26-27. This entire world system has turned away from God who created it in righteousness and truth, Genesis 1;1-5; 9:8-11. Today what we see is the whole world system lying in wickedness,  evil, and spiritual rebellion against God and His Word, 1 John 5:19.   
     Therefore, I am made to believe that the end-time has arrived.  It is now time for our gracious Lord to harvest His believing children from out of "this present evil world," Galatians 1:4, by transplanting them into His glorious greenhouse in Heaven.  Oh, glory to God!  Praise the Lord!  Hallelujah!  
Our Present Clay Vessels
     The words, "vessel; vessels," are used repeatedly in the New Testament when speaking of the body of true believers, Matthew 13:47-48; 25:4; Romans 9:22-23; 2 Corinthians 4:6-7; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4.  
      How many of our readers have ever looked up the expression used in the inspired Word about the creation of Adam? "and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground," Genesis 2:7.  See also 3:19.  A Hebrew Lexicon will tell you that Adam's body was formed from  "the red clay."  Hello!   In other words your body which your soul lives in, is  a vessel made of red clay, just like the body of Adam, our original forefather, Romans 5:12.      
     indeed these old clay vessels we presently live in are subject to  weakness and death, just as are the red clay pots we use for transplanting.   The red clay pots used for transplanting are made weak by water, soil and gravel, rocks, fertilizer, and chemical plant food placed in them, and one day they just break or fall apart.  My Mom and Dad, knowing this, always used new clay pots every fall in order to preserve the life of the plants they were transplanting.  And dear readers, that will also be our Lord's solution when transplanting us to glory.  A brand new body!  Praise the Lord!  Glory to God!  
Our Future Vessels
     How many of our readers have ever sung that beloved old hymn, "I'll have a new body; praise the Lord, I'll have a new life?"  
     This is exactly what the inspired Word promises to every true believer.  In 1 Corinthians 15:53-55, the inspired Word tells us, "For this corruptible [body; vessel] must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  
     So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
     O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"  
     How can any true believer, having experienced the death of the body, sing this song?  Why, this song will be easy to sing at the time of our transplanting [rapture to glory], for our precious Lord God is going to give us a whole new body as the eternal dwelling place of our soul.  Our new body will "be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself," Philippians 3:20-21.
     The new body will not be old or weak, or even subject to aging or weakness.   Just as Paul said, it will literally be "incorruptible."  The old Patriarch Job, in the context of speaking about the future body of the  believer, explicitly stated, "His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth," Job 33:25.  We will literally return to the prime of our life, and our new body will never age.  
     The new body will also be "glorified," like the body of our Lord.  This means that our whole new body will glow or glisten with the light of Christ which is within each of us who are true believers.  
      The new body will be solid to the extent it can be felt and handled and touched by others, even as was the resurrected body of Christ.  There are some folks in glory that I am looking foward to giving a "heavenly hug" to when I meet them again.   Praise the Lord!  
      Yet the new body will be transposable to the extent we will be able to pass into or through material objects, or even through time and space as Christ did.   
     The new body will never know sickness, disease, suffering, pain, nor death.  It will literally be "immortal;  eternal.  
     Hallelujah!  Glory to God!  Praise the Lord!    What a "blessed hope" has been set before the true believer in Christ Jesus, Titus 2:13.  
The Time of Transplanting
     Folks, the time of transplanting has arrived!  It is here!  Every true believer who is serious about the study of God's Word, and living for the Lord, can see that the chill winds of wickedness and evil are blowing, threatening to destroy even God's people in this present evil world.   According to the inspired Word, the Lord God has no intention of allowing His Church and His people to be destroyed by the cold hearts and wickedness of Satan and his followers, 1 Thessalonians 5:9.   Yet even as I write there are demonstrations and movements taking place all over the world against God, Christ, the Bible, and Bible believing Christianity, as well as against Israel and the Jewish people.  
     In some places churches and Jewish Synagogues and cemeteries are being desecrated, and yes, some churches and synagogues are being bombed or burned.  There is a rising tide of hatred against  Jews and Christians by this whole world system.  The unrepentant leaders of this whole world system want, and some have actually advocated, a New World Order in which "Christians" who accept the Bible as literal truth will not be allowed to exist, Revelation 13:15.    
      Some readers don't want to believe this?   Well if this present world system can slaughter thousands of innocent unborn babies every single day that passes, why would they hesitate to callously murder Bible believing Christians?   It's been done before!  Remember "the Dark Ages?"  Carefully study Revelation 2:18-29.  
     The Lord Jesus has no intention of allowing His Church and His New Covenant believing people to be destroyed by the rising wrath, anger, and hatred of the wicked.  Therefore it is time for Him to come and  receive us  unto Himself, just as He promised, John 14:2-3.
      Neither does He intend for us to be destroyed by the judgments that He is even now beginning to bring upon the earth as a warning to the unbelieving  wicked.  As I write hundreds or even thousands of people along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast are trying to recover from Hurricane Harvey, and this very day Hurricane Irma is making landfall in Florida.  Pray for these people who have been and will be so sorely effected by these terrible hurricanes, and pray for the salvation of those who are lost unbelievers.  Folks, during the coming seven years of the Tribulation period, much worse judgments are coming on those left behind on the earth when the rapture occurs [when we are transplanted].  Any reader who is presently unsaved has been warned.  Take heed!         
     Just as the transplanting occurs in the fall of the year before the cold of the winter can kill and destroy the plants we want to save in our garden or yard, so the Lord has an "appointed time" to resurrect and rapture [transplant] all true believers out of this present world, and take them "home" to His great Greenhouse in Heaven to live forever with Him.  
     This "appointed time" for the transplanting of all true New Covenant believers is the time of the resurrection and rapture, as clearly recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.  And dear readers, we are living in that "time frame" right now!  
Two Closely Connected Events
     Let me make this very clear.  The resurrection and rapture are not the same event, yet the inspired Word clearly places them as occurring   in the same brief time period.  The resurrection is for "the dead in Christ," and will occur first.  The Greek word translated as "rise" in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 literally means to rise, stand up,  or get up out of the grave.  It does not mean that "the dead in Christ" will be raptured first.  Check this out in your own Concordance or Greek Lexicon.  The resurrected saints will momentarily appear right here on the earth with those of us believers who are still alive at the "appointed time" for the resurrection and rapture.  Glory to God!  What a grand reunion; to meet again, and see, and be "caught up"  together with our departed loved ones who have already died in the faith.  
The "Change"
       Then the resurrection will instantly be followed by the "change" of the bodies of all true New Covenant believers, both the bodies of those who have just been resurrected and the bodies of those "which are alive and remain," 1 Corinthians 15:47-52; 1 John 3:2.   
Then the "Catching Away" [transplanting]
     And then all those believers who have just been "changed" will all be "caught up together [raptured; transplanted].....to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord,
     Wherefore comfort one another with these words,"  1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.   
Conclusion
     Yes, I am well aware that this study is just a play on words, used to set forth again the truth of the resurrection and rapture of God's people.  I could see the parallel between transplanting and the rapture, and just made a choice to use it, hoping it would catch the attention of some who are not presently paying attention to world events.  
     The time of the Lord's appearing to resurrect and rapture His people to glory is here.  Don't count on getting saved tomorow, for tomorrow may never come for some who are still lost in unbelief and sin.  "...behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," 2 Corinthians 6:2.  I truly want to meet every reader in Heaven when the Lord comes to rapture us to glory.  Please don't disappoint me.  Read, believe, and act upon John 3:3-7; 3:16-18; 5:24; 14:6; Acts 4:12; 16:30-31; Romans 10:8-13; Ephesians 2:8-10, and many other New Testament Scriptures in which the Lord God is appealing to men and women, boys and girls, to come to Him in saving faith.  May God grant His GRACE is my prayer.  
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     Pastor F. M. Riley, 14275 County Road 8120, Rolla, Missouri 65401, or  by email at fmr7glrybd@yahoo.com
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