It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, for Lord, that could not be. Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library, located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. The text of my sermon today is
taken from Matthew chapter 13. I want to look with you at the
parable of the wheat and the tares. Let's begin reading with
Jesus' explanation of the parable in verse 37. He that soweth the
good seed is the son of man. The field is the world. The good
seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares 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. As therefore the tares 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
have ears to hear, let him hear. I've entitled this message, Tears
Among Wheat. There are at least four lessons
taught in this scripture, and I have one question. First, there
is one sower. He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Second, there is one enemy who plants bad seed in that field. It is the devil. Third, Christ
alone separates the false from the true. And fourth, only children
of God enter heaven. In light of what Jesus said,
I have a burning question. How can I be planted by Christ
in His kingdom? What must I do to be saved? First
then, there is only one sower. The one who sows the good seed
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Son of Man and He is
the Son of God. He is both God and Man. He is
all good. All that He does is good. He
owns the field. His seed is only good seed. He plants His people. His people
are the true church, His body. The body of Christ has pure seed
in it. There is no mixture. But throughout
time there is a visible church in this world. The visible church
has both good and bad seed in it. Yet here is our comfort. The foundation of God standeth
sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are His. 2 Timothy 2.19 Without fail, the Lord Jesus
Christ will bring all of his wheat into his barn. He will
save everyone he has planted. Not one will be lost. Question. How does Christ plant his people
in this world? The answer is that there are
two things required. First, he must make them holy
before God. Christ made his people holy by
his death on the cross. And second, He must give birth
to them by His Spirit. In this spiritual birth, Christ
gives His people a holy nature. In that nature, they believe
the Lord Jesus Christ, and they truly love God. Jesus said he
planted his people by his death on the cross. In John 12, 24,
he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die,
it bringeth forth much fruit. Christ is the corn of wheat who
fell into the ground by his death. By his death he brings forth
fruit. That fruit is the wheat, all
of his people who are planted in his kingdom. By his death
on the cross, Christ made his people holy. Because they are
holy, they are planted in God's kingdom as children. The Bible
says that God the Father adopted his sons by choosing them in
Christ before the world began. God the Father says of all his
children that he has chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
Ephesians 1 verse 4 and 5. God the Father planted his people
in Christ to be his sons when he chose them in eternal election. This is adoption, to choose,
to place among the children. And it is Christ who by his death
on the cross made all of God's children holy and without blame. All that God required from his
people, he put into the hands of Christ to fulfill for them. The Lord Jesus bore the sins
of His people and purged them from their sins when He hung
on the cross. Hebrews 1.3 says, When He had
by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of
the Majesty on high. When Jesus cried from the cross,
It is finished, all of the sins of all of His people were removed
from them. God gave His adopted sons to
Christ so that all He did would be done in their name. Because
Christ's death was obedience to God, therefore by His death
He established their everlasting righteousness. 2 Corinthians
5.21 says it very succinctly, He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Therefore, by his death, Christ made all of God's sons holy. By his one offering of himself
to God on that one day, he sanctified, made holy, all of his people. Hebrews 10.10 says, By the which
will, by the will of God the Father, we are sanctified, made
holy, by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all. once for all time and eternity. One sower, one offering, the
obedience of one, made all of God's adopted sons holy. This
is the good news of the gospel. God planted his sons by choosing
them in Christ, and Christ planted them by making them holy and
without blame before God. Isaiah 53 also establishes this
fact. In Isaiah 53, God prophesied
that Christ would substitute himself for his people. All of
the sin that his people committed was charged to him. And all of
the suffering and obedience of Christ was made theirs. The result
of his substitution pleased God. Because of his success, God says
in Isaiah 53.10 that he shall see his seed and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Because Christ made
atonement in one day, Because by his atonement all of the sins
of all of his people were removed from them, and they were made
holy to God, therefore there can be no failure. Leviticus
16.30 says, On that day shall the priest make an atonement
for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your
sins before the Lord. Thus it is prophesied, he shall
see his seed. By his success all of his people
will be planted as the children of God without fail. And the
second way in which Jesus plants his people is by their spiritual
resurrection. Having forgiven his people from
all their sins, he raises them from spiritual death to spiritual
life. Colossians 2.13 says, being dead in your sins, and
the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened, that is, made
alive, together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses. It is because we are forgiven
in the death of Christ that we are raised to life in the new
birth. Because Christ redeemed his people,
God sends his Spirit into their hearts to birth them as his sons. And this is the second way in
which God's people are planted in his kingdom. The Spirit of
God gives birth to all for whom Christ died because their sins
are forgiven them in Christ. And when they are born of God,
they look to Christ alone. They see that what God says about
him is true. They see that in Christ they
are holy. Christ becomes the only object
of their confidence. Seeing their sins are forgiven
in Christ, they love Him. God sees them holy in Christ,
and they come to God by faith in Christ. Thus, there is a mutual
looking to Christ. God views his people in Christ,
and God's people look to Christ alone as all their standing and
all their acceptance and all their justification and their
sanctification before God. The God-given faith of the new
nature puts God's children in harmony with the truth declared
in the Gospel, that Christ is all. The second lesson in this
parable is that there is an enemy who plants bad seed in the Lord's
field. There is a true church, and there
is a visible church. The true church contains only
good seed, the children of God, the body of Christ. But while
we are in this world, there is also a visible church. The visible
church always contains both good and bad together, and Jesus says
that it will be this way until the end of time. The best preacher
and the purest doctrine will not make the visible church pure
in this world. If the gospel of Jesus Christ
is not preached where you go to church, you are not even part
of a visible church. But even where the gospel is
preached, there will be a visible church that contains both good
and bad seed. The parable is clear. Christ
plants all of the good seed. The devil plants all of the bad
seed. Good seed are the children of
God. Bad seed are those who profess to know God but in heart deny
Him. But why does God save His people
and leave them in a congregation made up of both God's children
and the devil's children? Why doesn't He make it obvious
who is and who is not His own and simply remove the bad? First,
because it is Christ's Church. He acts according to His will.
His ways are not our ways. The world and the salvation of
His people are in the hand of our Lord Jesus Christ. We must
ever remember this. The church is His. It belongs
to Him. He plants His people in it. He
gives the increase. He alone knows who are His. The
gospel ministry produces fruit according to His will. Those
who preach the gospel are his servants. We must never think
to attract attention to ourselves. All glory belongs to Christ. Knowing we are in the hand and
at the mercy of God drives us to the Lord Jesus Christ. As
the poor leper in Matthew 8-2, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst
make me clean. And the second reason there is
a mixture in the church throughout time is that God waits to bring
judgment on the wicked. God waited in the days of Noah.
In his long suffering he gave men time to repent before he
brought the flood on the earth. 1 Peter 3.20. He waited in the
days of Abraham to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah until their sin
was grievous and the cry of it came up to him. Genesis 18.20-21. God waited over 450 years between
his promise to Abraham and the time he destroyed the Amorites
and other nations in the land of Canaan. God waited in the
days of Christ until the unbelieving part of the nation of Israel
filled up the measure of their sins before he destroyed them
in 70 AD. Matthew 23, 32. This waiting by God shows three
things. First, it shows God's long-suffering
with men before He brings judgment. Second, it shows that men will
not repent unless God grants them repentance unto life by
His sovereign mercy. Acts 5, verse 31. If any are
changed in their mind to believe Christ, It is God who gives them
that repentance. Second Timothy 2.25. And third,
it shows that God leaves men to fill up the measure of their
sins which he allows them to commit before he brings judgment
on them. Men treasure up judgment against
themselves in opposition to their own salvation. Romans 2.5. Even though God gives men time
to repent, They will not repent unless God intervenes in sovereign
mercy to rescue them from their own wickedness and self-destruction. God waits to judge the wicked.
Meanwhile, it says in Isaiah 310 that it shall go well for
the righteous. not those who think themselves
righteous, but those who God sees as righteous in Christ,
those he persuades that Christ is their only righteousness.
Romans 10 verse 3 through 4. Psalm 34 verse 17 to 18 says
this, The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth and delivereth
them out of all their troubles. Do you cry In the face of the
enemy of your own sinful nature, do you cry? In your utter weakness
against the enemy, do you cry? And do you with the psalmist
cry, Lord, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation? Psalm 35,
3. Third, God leaves a mixture of
believers and unbelievers in the visible church because he
will reveal the sons of God as a single body in Christ. God
will not make his sons known until he makes all of them known
together at once. Not until the church is complete
will the true church be revealed. Not until all of Christ's redeemed
sheep are safely folded and the last redeemed child of God is
born into the kingdom Only then will the end come. It was only
after Noah entered the ark that the flood was poured out on the
world. It was only after God removed Lot from Sodom that God
poured out his fire upon that city. And it is only when God
has gathered his adopted redeemed sons into his church by raising
them to life in the new birth that he will reveal them to this
universe. When that occurs it will be in
total Romans 11.25 says, When the fullness of the Gentiles
is come in, then all Israel shall be saved. All spiritual Israel,
all true Israel. All will receive their inheritance
together when the sons of God are unveiled to this universe.
Those who have gone before, who have died in faith, will not
be made perfect without us who remain until the coming of the
Lord. Hebrews 11.39 says, These, all having obtained a good report
through faith, receive not the promise, God having provided
some better thing for us, that they without us should not be
made perfect. And in the fourth place, Christ
leaves tares among the wheat because he will show himself
strong on behalf of his people. Though the enemy intended evil
by sowing tares among the wheat, And though we might think it
best that evil be immediately eradicated from the Church and
from ourselves, it is Christ's way of refining His people through
trials, through heresies and through persecution and affliction.
Great evil drives the child of God to Christ for great deliverance. This crying in trouble and God's
deliverance from it brings glory to Christ for His salvation. Psalm 50, verse 15, the Lord
says, Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me. Remember the church at Galatia.
False brethren had crept in unawares. As a result, God more clearly
revealed the gospel of His grace to us by the letter Paul sent
to them. In spite of the evil intent of
the enemy, we now clearly see that salvation is all of grace. And so it is with all New Testament
epistles. Which epistle of the New Testament
was not written to correct an error or to fend off the attacks
of the enemy? And what of the nearly 2,000
years of Israel's history? These scriptures are written for our
learning, to drive us to Christ with greater purpose to be found
in Him alone, just as Noah entered the ark ahead of the flood of
God's judgment. The mixture of tares and wheat
while we are in this world causes us to hold more firmly to the
gospel of Christ. The enemy always intends evil
for Christ and His people, but our Lord proves His wisdom to
be unmatched for that fiend. He always proves Himself strong
for His own who put their trust in Him. Christ uses the very
evil intent and works of the wicked as means in the salvation
of His people. Our Lord chose Judas to be His
disciple, knowing that he was a son of perdition. Yet he did
it so that the scripture might be fulfilled. That scripture
said that by the hand of Judas Christ would be betrayed and
in his betrayal would save his people by his own death at the
hands of those to whom Judas betrayed him. Remember Joseph? His brethren meant evil against
him but God meant it for good. Genesis chapter 50 verse 20.
God used their evil against Joseph to save their lives. Just so,
the world crucified the Lord of Glory, but God used that heinously
evil act to save his people, to destroy the works of the devil,
and to glorify all of his perfections, his sovereignty, his wisdom,
his power, his faithfulness, his justice, his grace, and his
love to his people. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. Romans 11, verse
33. In the end, Christ will send
his angels to separate and remove the wicked from the just. Angels
are servants to the children of God who are the heirs of salvation. Hebrews 1, verse 14. Though there
is an enemy, Christ will save his own. He will bring all of
his people to heaven and this is our salvation and comfort
that Christ is able and actually does save to the uttermost them
that come to God by him. Hebrews 7 verse 25. And Romans
5.10 says, if when we were enemies We were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. Amazing grace! We have no power
against our sin, against our enemy, against the justice of
God, against the hell we deserve. But Christ does. And that is
good news to this sinner. By His almighty grace, we are
made the very sons of God. The third lesson in the parable
of the wheat and tares is that Christ alone is able and has
authority to separate false brethren from true believers. Men see
only outwardly. They judge by appearance. Men
chose Saul and rejected David. Men approved of Judas who secretly
was a thief, but men would have rejected the thief on the cross. Men admire Pharisees but cast
out publicans. Men condemn an adulteress while
they clear themselves. Men love Esau's venison but despise
Jacob for his insatiable thirst to have the promise of eternal
inheritance in Christ. But God sees what man does not.
He sees His own purpose of grace. He sees the sacrifice and obedience
of His Son, and He looks upon Him for His people. He receives
them in Christ, and He receives them as Christ. He gives them
eternal life because of the righteousness of His Son. He saves the chief
of sinners. He preserves the weakest of saints.
He will not quench a smoking flax. He will not break a bruised
reed. Not a hoof shall be left behind. He will have all of his sheep.
He will separate the wicked from the just in his own time at the
end of the world. Truly, the foundation of God
stands sure. He knows his sheep, and they
know him. He calls them, they hear his
voice, and they follow him. This parable clearly teaches
that there is no such thing as universal salvation. Some will
be saved. Some will be lost. Not everyone
is a child of God. And the fourth lesson taught
in this parable is that only the children of God enter heaven.
We do not make ourselves children of God. John 1, 12-13 says, As
many as received Him, to them gave He power or authority to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name,
which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. We are not children of God
by our physical birth. We are not children of God by
our will or our decision, and we are not made sons of God by
the intentions of others. You are not a child of God because
you are in a covenant family. The so-called covenant family
is a man-made entity. God alone makes men his children. He makes them his own by his
choice, by Christ's redemption, and by the almighty operation
of his Spirit. Finally, I have a burning question.
How can I be planted by Christ? What must I do to be saved? How
can I know if I have been planted as good seed in the kingdom of
heaven by the Lord Jesus Christ? I do not want to be a tare. I
want to be wheat. I want Christ to plant me. I
want to be a child of God. Do you? If you do, you may cry
with the Philippian jailer, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Jesus
told Nicodemus that unless he was born again, he could not
see or enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus asked, how can these
things be? He was perplexed and frustrated. Jesus said that he could not
enter unless he was born of God, but he did not understand. He
could not make it happen. He saw his utter helplessness.
Then Jesus answered his question, No man has ascended up to heaven,
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is
in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life." John 3 verse 13 to 15. What does this teach us? It teaches
us that the Lord of glory must come from heaven. He must bear
the sin and curse of God in the place of His people. It tells
us that all who are bitten by the sentence of God's judgment
against their sin must look to Christ alone. It tells us that
all who look to Christ have eternal life. They have been born of
God. It tells us that the result of
the new birth is looking to Christ as everything in my salvation.
It tells us that our salvation is entirely the work of God. He chooses His own sons. Christ
came from heaven and took their curse. God's Spirit gives birth
to the redeemed and these look to Christ crucified. Are you
born again? Have you looked to Christ? Are you looking to Him now? May
Christ so plant you and me in His kingdom. As you have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Colossians 2 verse
6. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at ysgracechurch.com.