Matthew chapter 13. On this one
particular day here. Our Lord said many things to
a great multitude of people. A Sabbath day, it said in Matthew
12. And our Lord spoke quite a few
parables to people back to back all in the same day. He was just
parable and he just gave a parable and then gave a parable and then
gave a parable and gave a parable back to back all in the same
day. And this chapter begins with a parable that we looked
at a few weeks ago and it was the parable of the sower. A sower
went forth to sow. And I was thinking about that
yesterday. We did a lot of sowing, a lot of grass seed was sown
and we were planting and we are watering and such on and so forth.
And our Lord gave that parable to say that a preacher goes out
to preach the word. That's all we're doing is sowing
the word. And God had a particular people
in the parable that represents his people on this earth who
were made ready to hear the word. And don't we pray that for men
and women, Lord, make them ready to hear the word. I pray that
God will bring his people to the word Make them ready to hear
the Word. Plant a seed. Water it. Make it to grow. Bring forth
fruit. That fruit is faith in Christ. It's not good works. Let me make
this very clear. There are good works everywhere. The fruit of the Holy Spirit
is faith in Jesus Christ. And that leads unto good works.
Love makes us want to obey him. It makes us want to this and
that, but that fruit is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that is the means that God uses to save his people. He sends
that word out, it's sown, he causes it to grow and he calls
them to himself. Now, today we're going to begin
reading in verse 24 and he is going to continue his teaching
of his work of salvation with another parable. He gave that
parable and he goes right into another parable that has to do
with the fruit being grown. He was talking about a sower
went forth to sow seed and now he's talking about the fruit
being grown. Look with me at verse 24. Another
parable put he forth unto them saying, The kingdom of heaven
is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while
men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and
went his way. But when the blade was sprung
up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the
servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst
not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath
it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath
done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest
while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with
them. 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. Now let's
keep reading. Another parable put he forth
unto them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain
of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,
which indeed is the least of all seeds, But when it is grown,
it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree so that the
birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Another
parable spake he unto them. The kingdom of heaven is like
unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of
meal till the whole was leavened. All these things spake Jesus
unto the multitude in parables, and without a parable spake he
not unto them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables, I
will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation
of the world. Then Jesus sent the multitude
away and went into the house and his disciples came unto him
saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He
answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed
is the son of man, Christ. The field is the world. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom. But the tears are the children
of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil. The harvest is the end of the
world. And the reapers are the angels.
And therefore, the tears are gathered and burned in the fire.
So shall it be in the end of this world. 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, and shall
cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. Who hath ears
to hear, let him hear. Who hath ears to whoever has
been given by God ears to hear, let him hear. Now, I want to
point out three things for us to know and see in this. And all three of these things
are very important for us to know and see. Number one. This is in the Lord's hands. This is in the Lord's hands,
this whole thing is in God's hands. They said to him, Do you want
us to go weed everything out? He said, No. Don't you dare. I'm the one who sowed the seed.
I'm the one who blessed it and brought forth fruit. I'm the
one who will send the reapers. I'm the one who will do the dividing. In another place, he said, to
those that I put on my right, I'm going to say, welcome in.
And to those that I put on my left, I'm going to say, depart
from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire. I'm going to divide right
and left. So he said the sowing is mine,
the watering is mine, the giving of increase is mine, the reaping
is mine, the dividing is mine, the judgment is mine. This whole
thing is in the hands of the Lord. This thing of salvation,
and when I say this whole thing, that's what I mean, this thing
of salvation, salvation, saved, damned. Eternal life, eternal death. It's in the will. It's in the
work. It's in the purpose. It's in
the means of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of it is in
the hands of the Lord. That's important to see and to
know and to understand. Whose hand is all this in? It's
in his hand. It's all in his hand. The second
thing I want us to see and know is this. Christ in His people is the difference. Christ in His people is the difference. The Lord has put a difference
between those who are His people and those who are not His people. And here's the only difference.
Christ in them. That's the only difference. The
only difference in a week and a tear is the seed inside. That's the only difference. Hold your place right here in
Matthew 13 and go with me to Galatians 3. Galatians chapter 3. Verse 16, it says, Now to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds
as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. That's what
he was talking about. This promise is to your seed.
The promise of life is to Jesus Christ. Verse 26. For you are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. What did Abraham do? What did he that pleased God? He believed God. Abraham believed
God. Verse 26 says, you're all the
children of God by faith in Christ, not by the works of the law.
And that's what people think this fruit is, this fruit in
God's people. They think, well, it's, you know,
the fruit of the Spirit is good works. All right, look at verse
10. This is the truth. Look at verse 10. It says, for
as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse. If we're holding to the law to
try to be saved, we're going to be cursed. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Is the law sinful and bad? No. If we could obey that law
perfectly, we would walk straight through the gates of heaven.
But here's the problem. We can't. That's the problem. And what that just said is, if
you break one, you've broken all of them. It's kind of like
if the speed limit is 50 and you go 51, you could say, well,
50 of those miles per hour were good. I know, it's that one. You broke the whole law. You
break one, you've broken the whole law. And people are holding
to, well, I'm doing the best I can. A curse is coming. A curse is coming. If you don't
hold to all of them, a curse is coming. Verse 11 says, But
that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It's
evident. The just shall live by faith
in Jesus Christ. Hoping in Him. Hoping in His
perfection to the law. In His purging my sin against
the law. The just shall live by faith.
Verse 12 says, And the law is not a faith. But the man that
doeth them shall live in them. If you're gonna hold to the law,
then you better hold to the law. Verse 13, this is good news right
here. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangs on a tree. Look back at verse 26. It says,
You are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as
many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
That means if you've been immersed into Christ as he is, so are
you. As he earned, so have you. As
he has paid what justice demanded, so have you. Verse 28, there's
neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's
neither male nor female, you're all one in Christ Jesus. And
if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise. So what makes the difference?
Christ. Christ does. Go with me back
to Matthew 13. Now I am not a farmer. So I don't naturally know this,
but I Googled it. And this is what the all-wise
internet had to say. It said, when a wheat and a tare
first start growing, and it showed pictures of this. It showed a
picture of a sprouted wheat, sprouted tare. When a wheat and
a tare first start growing, you cannot tell them apart. They are identical. They are
absolutely identical. It's not until they mature that
you can see the difference in them. When they mature, the tare
has small black seeds in it. And the wheat has large grain
seeds in it. The small lightweight black seeds
will cause the tare to stand up proudly. And the large heavy
grain seeds will cause the wheat to bow down humbly. Now this
was just a factual gardening site. Can we see an illustration
in this here? How can you tell if the seed
of Christ is in a person or not? When Christ is not there, when
Christ is not there, that person stands proudly before God. Stands proudly in what he or
she thinks is His or her own worth and self-right. Look at
my works. Look what kind of person I am.
Look what I haven't touched and look what I haven't tasted. Look
at what I've given and look at all this religion. I am religion. In the dictionary, just put a
picture of me next to it. When the seed of Christ is in
a person, he or she is humbly bowed before God. Seeing a desperate
need for Christ. I need Christ. I need Christ. I don't see any worth. I don't
see any self-righteousness. I don't have anything to offer
you. The soul who has Christ in him
or her humbly bows in lack and in thankfulness. Oh, in thankfulness,
thank you for freely giving the gift of Christ to me. Thank you
so much. Thank you for freely giving the
salvation that comes with him through his blood in his righteousness. Thank you. That difference can
be seen. It truly can be. It can be seen
in the seed. And this is what the internet
said about the difference in the seed, okay? Those little
black seeds in the tear are poisonous. Certain countries have absolutely
banned any planting of them, not allowed to plant tears. They
cause dizziness, sickness. They have caused miscarriages.
They lead unto death. That seed leads unto death, but
the wheat seed leads to life. It causes bread. It's what it causes. It causes
fullness. It causes satisfaction. It causes
happiness. I'm happy when I eat carbohydrates.
Can't help it. It causes growth. It causes sustainment. It causes strength. And we're
not going to ruin the illustration by man's GMO in it. This is God's
wheat we're talking about. It leads to life. So This is
what I want us to see and understand from this parable of wheat and
tares. All right. Number one, this is all in the hands of the
Lord. Number two, Christ is the seed
of difference. It's not anything in us, it's
Christ in us. Outside of the growth of that
seed, you can't even see any difference in us. You can't even
see any wheat or tare outside of that seed. You'd never see
any difference. That is the third thing that I want us to get a
hold of. The Lord knows them that are His. The Lord knows
them that are His. This is something that I really
need to learn and I really need to get a hold of. And I mean
this. Don't make judgments on men and
women before the time. Don't make judgments before the
time. That is God's business. That really is God's business. You know, they said, you want
us to go root them out? I may be convinced that someone does
not belong to God. I may look at that person and
be absolutely convinced that person doesn't belong to God.
I may be convinced that a person does belong to God. Either way,
my judgment is irrelevant. It's totally irrelevant. That
is God's judgment, and He'll make it clear in His time. The
Lord knows them that are His. Just listen to this, but right
in the middle of giving this parable of the wheat and the
tares, and He gave it, and then He explained it. Right in the
middle of that, the Lord inserted two little parables. We read
them. And what he was saying in both
of those parables was, it doesn't look like the end result yet. He gave the parable of a grain
of a mustard seed. It's an herb, and when you plant
it, it's the biggest herb of all of them, so much that a bird
can land in it. You think about an herb garden. But he said it doesn't look like
what it's going to mature into, that little bitty seed. You just
don't know yet what it's going to be. And that little pile of
flour right there, you can't yet see when you put leaven,
it puffs up. You can't see what that big puffy
loaf of bread is going to look like yet. So what he's saying is, just
wait on me. You want us to go root them out?
No, no, no. Wait on me. Just wait on me. In my time,
I'll make it known. I'll tell you what we need to
do. We're going to need to root some things out. Wait on me. Just
wait on me. I'll make it known. Now, I want
to relate that to us in this way. We don't go around literally,
actually, physically rooting people out of the kingdom of
God. Well, you're not in God. You're
not going to be in heaven. We don't literally go around rooting
people out who we don't think are going to be a part of the
kingdom of heaven. All right. That's not our practice. But
we do sometimes literally go around rooting people out in
our hearts. We make judgments in our hearts
and we're just so quick to root people out. No, no, no, that's
not one right there. What I want to remind myself
of and all of us of is this is in the Lord's hands. This is
in the Lord's hands. It's not our sinful flesh that
makes the difference. It's Christ that makes the difference. Outside of Christ, everybody's
exactly the same. Now, here's where I'm going with
this. That ought to bring great comfort to us. That ought to bring great comfort
to us. The Lord knows who are His. And he said that all who
are his are sinners who look like all the other sinners. Sinners who from the very beginning
of their nature look like all sinners. You can't tell them
apart. And our Lord said, if we try
to make that judgment ourself, we're going to do much damage.
We're going to do much damage. He said, you'll end up pulling
up something you think is a tear, and it'll really be wheat. Do
you know where I'm going with this? Usually the person we're focused
on, God's people, I'm talking about God's people, usually the
sinner and the sin that we're focused on and judging is our
own selves. The sin inside ourselves and
our sorrow and our guilt and our unbelief. Our sin comes back
to us. It keeps coming back to our mind
and we just slay ourselves again and judge ourselves again and
condemn ourselves again and we root ourselves out. Lord, you
want me to go ahead and just root this one out? There's no way I could be one
of his. This happens to God's people. There's no way. Our Lord
says, wait a minute. Don't do that. This is in my
hands. This difference is in my hands.
I know them that are mine. And I declared them that are
mine. And the very thing that you're
just guilty sick over, that's the evidence that I came to save
you. I came to save sinners. I came
to save sinners. So the summary of all this is,
let's wait on the Lord. Let's wait on the Lord. He'll
make all things known in His time. Let's keep sowing the Word out there and in here. Let's just keep sowing the Word.
Let's just keep sowing the word. Let's keep feeding on the word.
Let's keep asking him, Lord, would you water the word? I'm
being serious. Ask him, Lord, sow the word into
my heart. Make me ground ready. Would you
water the word here? Water it there. Water it here.
Cause it to grow. Lord, feed me. Bless it. If he does, in his time in maturity. He'll make it known. He'll make
it known. In verse 43, the last verse we
read, Matthew 13, verse 43, it says, Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. Then
shall the righteous at that time shine forth as the son in the
kingdom of their father, who hath ears to hear, let him hear."
No matter what his people look like now, in his time, I know
we all look like tares right now. I know that. I know we feel
like all we have are these poisonous black seeds inside us right now.
But in his time, all of his people, in God's maturity of them, they're
going to look like Christ. As He is, they're going to be
seeds of Christ. And I was going to read Isaiah
44 to you. I'm going to close, but if you
want to read it, Isaiah 44, 1 to 6. He said, I'm going to plant
it. I'm going to water it. I'm God.
There's nobody else. I'm going to do it. All right,
you're dismissed.