Wheat and Tares

Announcements:

I am so glad to be back in this church today

It feels like the first time in forever!

I want to thank everyone for their prayers for me

I was about as sick as I had ever been

We are looking at doing another fellowship opportunity with Salem Oct 30th.

Chili cook off

Hayride

Maybe a trunk-or-treat

Pastoral Prayer

INTRODUCTION

We are picking right up where we left off a few weeks ago in Matthew chapter 13 in the Kingdom parables.

This morning we are going to talk about the parable of the Wheat and Tares.

Does anyone remember the parable that we studied a few weeks ago? It was the parable of the soils. And the soils represent four different kinds of hearts.

The Hard Heart

The Shallow Heart

The Worldly Heart

The Fertile Heart

And the only heart that produced a crop was the fertile heart

Jesus tells the parable of the Wheat and Tares right after the parable of the soils.

The problem in the parable of the soils was the soils. The problem in the parable of the Wheat and Tares is the seed.

And though there are four kinds of soils, there are only two kinds of seeds that produce two kinds of plants: The Wheat and the Tares

This parable introduces us to an enemy who is trying to stop the work of God. There will always be spiritual opposition to the good things that God is doing in this world.

When God brings a person from death to life, one of the first things that person will experience is opposition

When God births a new church, opposition will come

When you start reading your Bible, praying, and getting serious about your walk with God, opposition will come.

When God begins saving souls, the enemy will do everything he can to put an end to it.

In this parable today, Jesus demonstrates one way the enemy opposes the work that God is doing and that is by sowing unbelievers in the midst of Christians.

And these unbelievers are often undetectable and slip into the church under the radar and into our lives.

And once they get into our lives and the church, they begin to influence the church, and pull us away from God’s mission and our personal walk with Christ! They cause division and strife and all sorts of problems that hinder and eventually stop the work of God.

THIS IS THE PARABLE OF THE WHEAT AND TARES

Matthew 13:24-30 “Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. “The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ “But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.” 

And then skip down to verse 36 and Jesus will explain the parable to us

Matt 13:36-43 “Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” And He said, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

We are going to focus on the parable itself this morning.

And all throughout this parable there is a comparison between two kinds of plants.

There is the wheat and there are the tares.

All of us know what wheat is. But we may not be familiar with the tares.

Tares look almost identical to wheat.

The DIFFERENCE: One produces grain and the other is a weed

Wheat represents the saved

Those who have been regenerated, who are in covenant with God, who have forsaken the way of this world and committed their life to Jesus Christ.

The wheat represents fruit bearing Christians

Tares represent the lost who pretend to be saved, or who think they are saved

These are the unregenerate, those who have not been born again, those who do not submit to the rule of God.

Those who do not produce any kind of spiritual fruit

The point of using wheat and Tares in the parable is this: We can not easily tell them apart. In fact, no one humanly speaking can be absolutely sure if someone else is saved or lost.

But we make a terrible mistake if we think everyone who professes Christ truly belongs to Christ.

WHY?

The enemy hinders the work of God by sowing counterfeit Christians among true believers

Matthew 13:24–25 (NASB95)

Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.

What is the plot of the enemy in this parable to oppose the work of God?

He sow tares among the wheat!

He plants lost people among saved people.

Most commentators today that I have read believe that this parable does not refer to the church, but to the world.

They says its primary teaching point is to explain the presence of evil the world today which will be eradicated in the final judgment.

I disagree and I want to explain why.

What is the point of the devil’s plot is to sow lost people in the world if every person of this world is already born a lost sinner. That thought really doesn’t make any sense to me. We know this world is lost.

And it is not Jesus sowing seeds among Satan’s field but Satan sowing seed’s among Jesus’ field.

Secondly, lost people who have nothing to do with God and look nothing like the people of God.

They live totally different lives!

They talk differently

They act differently

And they serve God, not themselves!

The point of Jesus using Tares and Wheat is to make the point of a an imposter among the people of God.

So, I believe that the primary teaching of this parable is a warning about Satan’s devices to sow counterfeit Christians among believers to hinder the work of God.

And that includes the church!

God raises up believers from the world, converts them, and brings them into the church. God does the majority of His work through the church.

God’s people have been gathering together and laboring for the Kingdom of heaven for 2,000 years and Satan would love for nothing more than to stop the church!

As the church grows through conversion, the Kingdom of God also grows. Ands to stop this growth, Satan brings lost people into the church under the radar and once they get inside the church, they can begin to influence the church.

They begin to serve in positions where they can highjack parts of ministry.

They teach Sunday school classes that water down the gospel and the need for repentance and faith.

They begin to make the church look like the world and do the things the world does.

They trivialize sin and holiness, and place great emphasis on things that will attract the world.

This plot destroys a church from the inside out, because outside persecution will only strengthen a true church.

What does this mean for us?

We must not be ignorant to the devil’s devices.

If the plot of the enemy is to sow the world within the church, then we must expect that to happen here as well.

Do not think Satan does not want to destroy this church by sending unbelievers through those doors who look like Christians

And do no think one of our greatest desires is to see people come through those doors and want to join our church

But to welcome them into the church without discernment, without a testimony, without some evidence of conversion can be a fatal mistake.

Secondly, Satan will hinder your personal walk with God by sending unbelievers into your life.

Scripture teaches over and over again that we are not to have close relationships with unbelievers.

What fellowship has light with darkness?

Friendship with the world is enmity with God.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers

Satan not only tries to influence the church on a corporate level, but he also wants to influence us on a personal level.

His tactics?

Sending lost people into your life to pull you away from God and lead you back into sin

Satan’s counterfeits become evident when believers mature and produce fruit

Matthew 13:26 NASB95

“But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.

When the wheat and tares are young they are identical.

So if a field was sown in wheat and then an enemy came behind the farmer and sowed tares, the farmer would not know until the wheat became mature enough to produce heads of grain

There is no way to tell them apart until they begin to produce grain.

So it is with believers

There so no sure way of knowing whether someone is truly saved or lost. The only evidence that we can go by is the Fruit in their lives.

Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”

Jesus said Himself, many will come to me saying Lord, Lord, but I will tell them depart from Me I never knew you.

We do not have the ability to see whether or not one’s soul is covered by the blood of Christ, especially when someone becomes a new believer, but we MUST be aware that not everyone who claims Jesus as Lord is not truly saved.

How does Jesus say the Tares became evident in the field? He says it is when the Wheat began to produce grain that the Tares become evident.

It is only when the Christians produce fruit that the unbelievers become noticeable in the midst of believers.

COUNTERFEIT MONEY ILLUSTRATION

Have you ever wondered how people are trained to spot counterfeit money? They are not trained by studying counterfeit dollars. They are trained by studying the real thing, and once they know what the genuine dollar bill looks and feels like, it becomes obvious when a counterfeit dollar is placed in front of them.

This is what Jesus is saying, when believers mature and produce fruit, the counterfeits become much more evident.

What does this mean for us?

We are a church plant. And what do we so desire to see as a body of believers for this church?

Growth!

Conversions!

People coming through those doors and God adding to our numbers daily!

And Lord willing, one day we will certainly see that!

Do not be too quick to accept a profession of faith

Many will come to Me in that Day saying Lord, Lord, and I will say to them, “depart from Me, I never knew you”

Many people profess Christ in our nation who have no evidence of fruit in their lives.

As Paul Washer says, “they live like devils!”

Just because someone says they are of Christ, does not always mean that they are.

The only reliable evidence is the fruit that is produced in their lives!

This is why to become a member of this church you must have a testimony of your conversion! To profess Christ is NOT ENOUGH!

There must be a time in your life when you departed from your sin and began to follow Christ!

There must be a time when something supernatural happened to you and changed your mind about sin!

2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Not some people but “if ANYONE be in Christ” new things have come!

Every true believer will have evidence of the passing of the old and the coming of the new.

But there is another application here:

Do not be too quick to write someone off as lost.

If wheat and tares look alike until they get mature, then we must also consider that an immature believer will still have a lot of the world in them.

When one comes to Christ, there is not an instant change from sinner to saint.

One does not live like the devil and then instantly become like Jesus!

There is a period of sanctification that takes place in one’s life and we must not jump to conclusions just because one is not as mature as another.

It will take time for fruit to appear, and we must be gracious and patient toward others or we risk damaging God’s people.

The work of the believer is not to be a detective but an evangelist

Matthew 13:27–29 NASB95

“The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ “But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.

This is another reason why I believe this includes application tot he church!

Since Jesus identifies the landowner as Himself, it can be safely presumed that the slaves are His disciples. It would make little sense for the disciples to go and uproot every unbeliever from the world!

But it makes far more sense that the disciples would desire to remove them from a congregation.

Notice what Jesus says: “No, for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them”

Our job is not to pull up the false Christians, but to raise up new ones. We will do more harm than good if we go on a witch hunt in the church!

It is a dangerous things because none of us can know for sure if someone is truly lost or saved.

Our job is not to do detective work in the church about how much fruit each person is bearing, but be far more concerned about sharing the gospel.

We are not detectives, WE ARE EVANGELISTS!

BUT, this does not mean that we ignore church discipline. Jesus will teach us about this in chapter 19 and a mark of true church is church discipline.

But the purpose of church discipline is not to uproot, but to restore!

When it becomes evident and factual that a member is living in habitual sin, it must be addressed. And it is addressed not to inflict punishment or cast someone out, but with the primary purpose of bringing them back into fellowship with Christ!

And church discipline is not only the work of the pastor. It is each of our responsibilities to admonish one another who has fallen into error.

Only God can and will separate the true from the false

Matthew 13:30 NAS

‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

The hope for a pure church is just not a reality in this life

There will always be some who slip in under the radar

There will always be some who look like the real thing yet do not know Jesus.

And this church is no different.

It was true in the early church, and it is true today.

When the field sown in wheat and the tares appear, the only right way to separate them is when it is time to harvest the crop.

When the harvest comes everything will be pulled up and separated

And the question will be of destination.

Wheat will go into the barn

Tares will be thrown into the fire to be burned.

The harvest is a metaphor for the final judgement

It is here that the separation will take place.

The only One who truly knows the hearts of men will divide the true from the Counterfeit

They will be thrown into the furnace and burned

Jesus describes hell much different than our culture does

Matt 13:42 “throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Many people think there is going to be parties in hell. They are going to see their friends in hell. They think life will continue somewhat as it does today, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Hell as a furnace. A place of intense heat far worse than the hottest summer day we’ve experienced this year.

And He also says there weeping and gnashing of teeth. The idea is pain and torment for eternity.

I can assure you there is not one unbeliever in hell, for every man thrown in hell immediately realizes all that Jesus said is true and I can only imagine every soul in hell wishes they had another chance to give their lives to Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

Where will you spend eternity?

What will happen when you die?

Do you know for a fact that you have been saved because of the spiritual fruit that Jesus Christ is producing in your life?

Your chance to get right with God is here and now. Every time you walk out those doors without turning to Christ, you chance spending forever in hell.

If your not sure about your salvation this morning, you come and make it right now. Repent of your sins, turn from your life, and start following Christ.

Make your calling and election sure because we do not know what tomorrow holds.

~PRAYER~