Alright, in that passage of Scripture
that Brother Joe just finished reading for his prayer, Matthew
13, I want us this morning to open
the Word of God here and pray that the Lord will unlock and
reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom. That's what these parables are
about. He said that to his disciples. He said, under you it is given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom. And that's what I want
to know, don't you? I want to know the mysteries
of the kingdom. Mystery, because it has to be
revealed from God, from heaven. It's heavenly truth. This morning
we're going to study the wheat and the tares. The parable of
the wheat and the tares, as our brother read. Now let me ask
you before we get started here, what is your greatest fear in
life and death. What is your greatest fear? I
was in a preaching class one time and the professor said that
the people's greatest fear is that the preacher will go too
long. And the preacher's greatest fear is that he'll go too short.
So you have a battle there. Well, I hope that's not your
greatest fear this morning, that I go too long. And I hope that's
not my greatest fear, that I go too short. I just want to preach
the Word of God. I want to pray that And this
message that God is glorified, that Christ is exalted, that
if God be pleased to bring His sheep into the fold, the sinners
will be saved, and that the people of God will be edified, that
you'll be built up, you'll be encouraged, you'll grow, you'll
be more assured, and you'll be rejoicing in Christ, that you'll
go out of these doors today not feeling like you've been beat
up on or whipped on, but that you've actually been pointed
to Christ, who is the Great Shepherd, the Savior, and the Redeemer.
And that's what these parables are for. But let me say this,
if your greatest fear is that when judgment comes that you'll
be found guilty, found without hope, then I've got good news
for you today. And that is a lot of people's
greatest fear. Now, they may not express it
that way. It may be just guilt feelings
or guilt-ridden conscience or whatever. And there's a lot of that. Somebody
said that there's a lot of that in the insane asylums. Guilty
consciences. Well, let me tell you something.
There's a lot of that in religion, too. There's a lot of that sitting
in a queue Sunday morning. And Sunday night and Wednesday
night. guilt-ridden consciences. Is there any hope? Is there any
remedy? Is there any way out of that?
Tim, we know for sure. Now, listen to this parable again. Let's pray that the Lord will
imprint this on our minds, what He's saying. He's speaking to
His disciples and it says, verse 24, another parable put forth
to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
that sowed good seed in his field. This is verse 24 of Matthew 13.
But while men slept, his enemy came, sowed tares among the wheat."
Tares among the wheat, now. You think about that, that's
a scary thought, isn't it? Tares among the wheat. Obviously, the
wheat here is a believer. That's the people of God. He
says that later on, the tares are just counterfeits. But he
says, and he went his way. He sowed tares among the wheat
and went his way. But when the blade was sprung
up, when there was growth, that's what that's speaking of, he brought
forth fruit. And then appeared the tares also.
They appeared among the wheat. So the servants of the householder,
the master, came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow
good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tared?"
Where did these tares come from? You sow good seed in the field.
Where did the tares come from? And it says in verse 28, He said
unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto
him, Wilt thou then? that we go and gather them up? Now, an enemy sowed these tares.
The servants, ministers, servants of Christ, they say, well, should
we go gather them up? And what they mean is gather
them up to be burned. That's what you do with tares.
And he says in verse 29, no, lest while you gather up the
tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Now, you might make
a mistake here. And he says, let them both grow
together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest I'll
say to the reapers, gather you together first the tares, bind
them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my
barn to be kept. Now here's the situation. Christ
is teaching His disciples. Look over at verse 36. It says, 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. Christ teaching His disciples.
Now, don't get the idea here that there's just 12 men sitting
there. The 12 are there, including Judas. But there are other disciples.
A disciple is a, you know, literally a disciple is a learner. It's
where we get our word discipline from. Disciple. Discipling. And
you remember when Christ said, come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He said, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. When he issued forth the
Great Commission, go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel. He said, making disciples of all men, teaching them, teaching
them. Disciples are ones who are taught. And so you're a continual learner.
But a disciple is a servant. He's a servant of Christ. There's
a minister of Christ, there's a disciple, a believer. And so
there were many there, but the twelve were there, but not just
twelve, but here he's teaching them these parables. And these
are truths taught to them for the first time. What you're hearing today, they
are hearing it for the first time. You may have heard many
messages on the parable of the weed and the tares. But they're
hearing this for the first time, and some of you may have never
heard anything about that. This may be the first time for
you. What's He doing here in the parable of the wheat and
the tares? Well, in all these parables, He's preparing the
disciples. He's preparing them. And in essence,
preparing us, because He's teaching us. I mean, it's almost like
we're right there with them. Because in essence, we are teaching
the Son. One faith. One Lord, one faith. You see, that's what we are.
And we're right there with the disciples here. And so he's preparing
them for things to come as the gospel is preached forth throughout
the region in Judea and then as it goes forth throughout the
world. That's what he's talking about.
He says, I'm preparing you for what's to come. And so we look
at these things and because they are set in preparation, we know
them beforehand. We've been taught them beforehand
if we've been taught it right. Then we shouldn't be amazed at
what he's saying here. In the book of Isaiah chapter
42 and verse 9, the prophet says, God says through the prophet,
he says, Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things
do I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell
you of them. Talking about the prophecy of
Isaiah to Jerusalem. So he's saying, the things that
I've spoken in the past, they've come to pass, they've been done.
I'm telling you new things now so that you know them beforehand. Before they spring forth, I'm
telling you, so that when they do come, you won't be surprised.
Now, the only way you're going to be surprised is if you don't
listen to what he's telling you. You understand that? You say,
well, I'm shocked at these things. Well, if you are, it's because
you didn't listen to the preparation. That's right. You didn't read
the the Word of God that's telling you beforehand what's coming
to pass. My point is this. Many people,
when they come to parables like these, especially the wheat and
the tares, they end up in the preaching being more like a parable
of desperation, leading people to wonder, am I a wheat or am
I a tare? Or can it be known? Or, well,
I guess I'll have to wait and find out in the end. But this
is not a parable of desperation. It's a parable of preparation.
And basically it says the same thing that the old prophet said
to the northern kingdom of Israel. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. And that's what I'm saying to
myself and to you today. Prepare to meet your God. Now
listen to me. There's no question that you're
going to meet God. That's coming. And you may deny
it. You may put it out of your mind,
you may laugh at it, but you're going to meet God. I'm going
to meet God. Now, how in the world can a sinner
like me prepare to meet a holy God? You know, it's not going to be
sitting in your living room just having a casual conversation
with an equal. It's not going to be just standing
on your hind legs, as one guy said, and looking up and saying,
hello God, old buddy. Not at all. Prepare to meet thy
God. That's the issue. And that's
what Christ is teaching these disciples. Well, what's He talking
about? Well, in this parable, let's
look at it. Look at verse 37. Now, they ask Him, they said,
declare unto us the parable of the tears of the field. What
does that mean? Now, you notice there are several parables that
He taught in between the actual statement of the parable of the
tears in the wheat, and the explanation. These other parables will help
with the explanation, but I want to just jump to what our Lord
said here, and we'll go to some other scripture, and we'll go
back and pick up those other parables, and they'll help us
too. Not today. I'm not going to do those today.
So, if your greatest fear is, I'm going to go too long, don't
worry. I'm not going to get all them today. I'm going to come
back and get them. But let's look at his explanation here.
First of all, he identifies the sower. Now remember, he said
a sower went forth to sow seed. We read about a sower in the
parable of the... a sower in the seed, the parable
of the soils. But this one's different. I'll
show you how. Look at verse 37. He answered and said unto them,
He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man. The sower
here is Christ Himself. He identifies himself as the
Son of Man. The Son of Man, sometimes when
you read the term Son of Man, it just simply means us, human
beings, simple human beings. But Son of Man here, and in many
of the Old Testament prophecies, is a Messianic title. So much
so that the Jews would recognize if you called one the Son of
Man, then you're talking about the Anointed One. You're talking
about the One Promised of God. You're talking about the Messiah
Himself. And the reason He's called the Son of Man is that
it specifically emphasizes His sinless humanity in union with
His deity. It's not denying His deity, but
it's emphasizing His humanity in union with His deity. You
see, here's the thing. The Messiah must be both God
and man in one person. That is a mind-boggling thought.
I mean, now that's some theology, isn't it? That's deep. That's
high. That's wide. We can't really
grasp it to the point to where our little old minds can get
wrapped around that and come out with a logical explanation,
but we know it's so by revelation from God. He is God and He is
man. Now, the reason He must be God
and man and one person is because that's the kind of person that
it takes to save sinners from their sins. You see, only God
can give and sustain life. Man cannot do that. He thinks
he can, he's trying to make it in a test tube, but he cannot
give and sustain life. Only God can do that. And here
is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, both God and man, who can and
does give and sustain life. Now, we attribute that to His
deity, but it's an act of His entire person. Now, in order
to save us from our sins, He must take our place under the
wrath and justice of God for our sins. He must become our
substitute. He must be our sin-bearer. He
must die because sin demands death. And God cannot die. You
can't kill God. Now, you cannot kill God. God
is life. But this person, Who is God did
die. Now that's to be attributed to
His humanity. Sinless humanity. But it's an
act of His entire person. But you see, this is the Son
of Man. He identifies with His people in our name and in our
nature, yet without sin. He is God-man. Man of sorrows. What a name. For the Son of God
who came. Tonight we're going to be studying
Isaiah 52 and 53. What a passage of Scripture to
describe the nature of our Savior. as our substitute. Well, He's
the author of life. He's the sustainer of life. And
He gives life in Himself, from Himself, by His Holy Spirit,
and by the Word, which is the Word of life. Colossians chapter
3 and verse 4 states that Christ is our life. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 10
speaks of Christ and the salvation that was given us in Him before
the foundation of the world, but now is made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death."
Man can't do that. He can't abolish. Now, he's trying.
He's not going to make it. And you know it's so. He can
extend it. I told, I think it was last Wednesday
or Sunday, I told the congregation, I read in the paper about a guy
who lived and he died and he was 111 years old. Now that's
amazing, isn't it? But you know what? He died. He was 111, longer than I'll
probably live, but he died. You see, only Christ can abolish
death. How did he abolish death? Through
his own death. John Owen wrote that That treatise,
the death of death in the death of Christ. That's the first pamphlet
that Brother Mahan gave me when I came here and was sitting under
Brother Fitcher was teaching through the book of Romans back
here. He gave me the death of death in the death of Christ.
I read it and read it and read it. See, Christ abolished death
by His death. because his death was a victory.
I love that in Luke chapter 9 when it's talking about the Mount
of Transfiguration and how the vision of Moses and Elijah came
there and they were discussing with the Lord his decease which
he should accomplish. That word decease there is exodus. His death was a taking out of
his people out of the bondage of sin and death and Satan and
the law. But he abolished death and hath
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Now the preacher The witness, we can preach Christ, but we
cannot give life to the dead. And even when the apostles raised
the dead, it wasn't their power that did it. And Peter and James
and John and Paul said that. When men wanted to worship them,
they said, don't worship us, we're just men like you. It was
by the name of the Son of God that this man was healed, or
this man was raised up from the dead. So we can preach Christ. I can preach to you, but I can't
give you ears to hear. I can't give you eyes to see.
I can't give you a heart and a mind to want to hear it. I
can't put the want to in you. Couldn't even do it to me. Can't
do that. Only Christ can do that. Remember over in Matthew 13,
verse 11, He told the disciples, He said, because it is given
unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom. He said in verse
16, He said, blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears
for they hear. Look at verse 23, He talks about
the good ground hearer we preached on last week. He that receives
seed into the good ground. There's no good ground in man
by nature. There's no good heart by nature. If there's a good
heart, God's got to put it there, doesn't He? That's what the new
birth is all about. We read in Ezekiel 36, He said,
I will give them a new heart, and I'll take away the stony
heart, the hard heart. So only Christ can do that. Look
over Romans chapter 8 with me. Look at Romans 8. He says in verse 8 of Romans
8, So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. To be
in the flesh is to be in unbelief. But you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. To be in the Spirit is to be in the faith.
If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any
man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin. That's his physical body.
But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Sin demands
death. Righteousness demands life. Where
am I going to find righteousness? In Christ. It's the only one
I'm going to find righteousness. In Christ. Now, I'm going to
find it in here. I can look for it in here all the day long,
and if I find anything I call righteousness, I'm just deceived.
Find it in Christ. Somebody said, well, the Holy
Spirit indwells us, and He's righteous. That's right. He is
righteous. But that's Him who indwells me. He hasn't changed
me in anything. I look to Christ. Now look back
at Matthew 13 now. The sower is identified as the
Son of Man. He's Christ. All for whom Christ
died and rose again shall be given life from God. Now look
here, he says in verse 38, now here's the field identified.
Now the sower goes forth to sow in the field. Now back in the
other parable, the seed and the sower, the sower was Christ and
his ministers preaching the word. The seed was the word of God.
And the field, the grounds there, was the heart. He gave you four
different types there. But here he says in verse 38,
the field is the world. Do you see that? The field is
the world. The kingdom of heaven, that term,
the kingdom of heaven, can be used in different ways. Basically,
and if we give the most general definition of it, the kingdom
of heaven is the rule and reign of Christ and various aspects
of that reign as He works His sovereign purpose and His sovereign
will in His church and here on earth in the world up until the
time of His second coming. In other words, what I'm telling
you is this, Christ is the ruler of this world. Do you believe
that? He's the ruler of this world. This is my Father's world,
we say. He's not just ruler of part of
this world. Now, the Scripture speaks of Satan being a usurper
of authority, but that's just what God allows him to do. It's all under God's control.
The earth is the Lord's in the fullness thereof, the psalmist
said. He owns it. The Bible says in Ephesians 1.11,
He works all things after the counsel of His own will. Is there
anything that's not in that? What would you leave out of it?
Would you say He works all things except? Now, what would you put
after the except? I won't put anything there. There's
no exception there. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. And that's a good thing, because
Romans 8.28 says, "...all things work together for good to them
that love God, who are called according to his purpose." So
the field is the world, that's the whole world over which he
is in control. Alright, look at verse 38 again. Here's the good seed identified.
Now, it says the sower went forth into the field, that's the world,
and he sowed good seed. Now, what is the good seed? He
says in verse 38, the field is the world, the good seed are
the children of the kingdom. That's who the good seed are. The Lord is sowing seed into
the world. That's his field. As the gospel message of Christ
and Him crucified, of God's grace and majesty in the person and
work of Christ goes forth, He's raising up His people whom He
redeemed, He's bringing His sheep into the fold, He's calling them
to faith in Christ and repentance of their own dead works, and
He's establishing His churches throughout the world. He's raising
up His witness. That's the good seed. Some commentators
claim that the field is the church and say both tares and wheat
are growing together in the church. But Christ said, here, the field
is the world. Some insist on making the field
the church, but you end up with confusion in trying to interpret
the parable. What does it mean? Some say, well, it's the church.
And then some say, well, no, it's the Baptist church. And
then some say, no, it's the Baptist church on this corner. But not on that corner. How do you get this stuff out
of these parables? What does the Lord say? He says
the field is the world. And then you can say to him,
remember he said when the tares are recognized, he said let them
grow together. Let them grow together. Now if
that's the church, then turn to Romans 16 with me. Let me show you what I'm talking
about here. Look at verse 17. Now here he's
talking within the Roman Church. When I say the Roman Church,
I'm not talking about the Catholic Church. I'm talking about the
Church of God in Rome at this time. Romans 16, 17. He says, Now I beseech you, brethren,
mark them, identify, name them, which cause divisions and offenses
contrary to the doctrines which you have learned, and avoid them.
For they are such that serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but
their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive
the hearts of the sinful. Now does that sound like let
them both grow together? Over in 2 John, he says, Separate
yourselves from them. In Acts chapter 2, he says, separate
yourself from this untoward, this evil generation. But now
here, he says, let both grow together in Matthew 13. He's
not talking about the church here. He's talking about the
world and the gospel going out through the world, God calling
out His people, raising up His churches in the world. Now, this
doesn't mean that there won't be false professors in the church.
There will be. We just read about that in the
parable of the seed and the sower. There's going to be the wayside hearers, there's
going to be the thorny ground hearers, there's going to be
the stony ground hearer. Yes, and the church here on earth,
until the Lord comes back, there's going to be true believers and
there's going to be false professors. But that's not what this parable
is talking about. That's what I'm telling you. He's saying this, and he's teaching
here in this parable, that he sows the children of his kingdom
throughout the world. He established his churches founded
upon his gospel. That's the good seed. But now
look at verse 38 again of Matthew 13. Here's the tares and the
enemy identified. In 38 he says, but the tares
are the children of the wicked, or the wicked one. That's Satan,
he says in verse 39. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil. Now notice here, there are two
sowers in this parable. The son of man and the devil.
The son of man is sowing his good seed. That's true believers. That's his children. That's his
sheep. That's his churches. The devil is sowing his seed. Remember in the parable of the
soil, there's only one sower, Christ and his ministers. One
gospel. But here there's two sowers and
there's two seed actually. You see, all sinners without
Christ are, in essence, children of Satan, brought about by the
fall of man and Adam. We're born that way. It's natural
to us. Born in sin, born dead in trespasses
and sin. Satan's goal is to keep sinners
from hearing and believing the gospel of God's grace in Christ. The one thing Satan wants to
do to anybody, is to keep them from seeing the glory of Christ
and His blood and righteousness as the only ground and way of
salvation. Men are born unbelievers, and
all that has to be done for them to be damned forever is for them
to stay that way. They don't have to be sown. But
here he's talking about a particular sower, Satan, who sows a particular
seed, and he says, they're children of the wicked one. You know what
these tares are? They're Satan's counterfeits. That's what the tares are. They
claim to be Christian, and in some ways appear to be so, but
they're not. Tares, back then, were known
by the people at that time as literally, it's a word called
darnon, D-A-R-N-E-L. It was a plant called the bearded
darnon. That's what it was. And what
it was, it was a weedy grass, and at a particular time it looked
just like what they would call an ear of wheat. We say ear of
corn, they'd say an ear of wheat, or a stalk of wheat. The enemy
came and sowed darnels among the wheat. The word among is
a very strong expression and indicates that the enemy sowed
the darnels all throughout the wheat, all throughout the world.
And after he was finished, he left. You know, the seed of that
darnel, the seed of that tear, was poisonous. If you'd eat that
seed, it would make you sick and nauseous, you'd vomit, and
you'd probably die. Now let me tell you something.
What is that? What is that a type of, the poisonous
seed? It's a false gospel. The true
gospel is not poisonous seed. The true gospel that was sowed
in the parable of the soils, The problem wasn't the word preached,
the problem was the hearts of the unbeliever. But here the
problem is the seed and the fruit of it. It's a false gospel. The Lord's teaching, here's what
He's teaching in this parable, that throughout the last days,
And that's the days from His ascending unto His Father to
His second coming, the days that we're living in. Throughout these
last days, He's preparing these disciples for this. This is going
to happen, He says. The world, throughout the world,
as you go out and preach the gospel and you see Christ sowing
His good seed, bringing His people to faith in Him and repentance,
establishing His churches in places like Rome and Ephesus
and Thessalonica and Philippi and Corinth and Galatia, as you
see all the marvelous work of God in giving life to dead sinners
by His Spirit, you're also going to see something else. You're
going to see false Christians, false Gospels, and false churches
pop up too. All over the world. All over
the place. Now look at verse 39. He said,
"...the enemy that sowed them is the devil." Now here he identifies
the harvest time. Now there's a harvest. The harvest
is the end of the world. And the reapers are the angels.
The Bible says when Christ comes again, he'll come with a great
company of angels, and they'll be angels of judgment. And he
says here, he says, as therefore the tares are gathered and burned
in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world, the end
of this age. Notice how the servants, over
in verse 27, turn back over there. You notice here how the servants
there, it says, So the servants of the householder came and said
unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? From
whence then hath it tares? Where did these tares come from?
Did you notice here that the servants recognized the presence
of the tares? They saw them and they recognized
them. Now let me tell you something
about that first parable, the soils. We don't recognize them
right off because we can't see into your heart. You may be a
stony ground here. You may be a stony ground here
this morning. Somebody stand up and point them
out to me. You can't do it. Now maybe in time they'll expose
themselves. That may happen. Or a thorny
ground here. Maybe in time that'll happen.
But now these were recognized. These pairs were. And they said
in verse 28, remember what they said? Well, he told him, he said,
an enemy's done this, and the servant said, wilt thou then
that we go and gather them up? Should we gather them up to be
burned? And he says, no. No. You know what he's telling
them? Well, you know, how are we to,
you know, we sing that song, stand up for, stand up, stand
up for Jesus. Ye watch, soldiers of the cross.
That's what believers are. soldiers of the cross. We're
soldiers in the army of Christ. And we're to go to war on the
world. You believe that? Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
10. We're to go to war on the world. Now, does that mean that we ought
to go out here and start buying guns and swords and tanks and
grenades and If we see a false church somewhere in this city,
let's go down there and blow it up. I hope nobody takes this
sermon out of context. Is that what that means? Because
we've got to separate wheat from tares. Well, the answer is no,
absolutely not. Because look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 10 and verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh,
in a physical body, We do not war after the flesh. Our warfare
is not a physical warfare. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, they're not guns and knives and grenades and bombs,
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. Our warfare is a spiritual
warfare. It's a heart warfare. It's a
warfare of the mind. And our weapon is the gospel.
We preach the gospel. Do you know every time I preach
the gospel on television in this world, I'm going to war against
Satan. I'm wielding the sword, as it
were. That's what it is. We're not to go out here and
try to pass laws and say, well, let's pass a law where it says
this group can't meet. Or this group can't form. Or
let's go out here and burn this church down or this building
down. No, sir. That's against that. Listen, that's wicked.
Did you know that? Back during the Spanish Inquisition,
the Catholic Church taking people and torturing them physically
to get a confession. That's the devil's work, my friend. That wasn't God's work. But here's one of the main reasons,
look back at the parable now, that we're not to do that. It
just may be that even out there in the world, in these false
churches, God has some of his elect there. Christ still has
some sheep there. Let me ask you this, before you
heard the word of truth, where were you? I know where I was. I was out there in the world
claiming to be a Christian before God opened my eyes to see the
truth. You see, that's not our business. Somebody said, well,
how can you know who's saved and who's not saved? Well, in
that realm we can't. All we know this is that God's
people, Christ's sheep, will hear His voice and they will
come out of that false religion. They'll be brought out. He's
the one who'll do it. He's not teaching here that there
are believers in every church. Don't fool yourself on that now.
He's teaching that He will call His sheep out of the world and
into His church. Now, when will He finally separate
wheat from tares? Look at verse 39 again. He says,
"...the harvest is the end of the world, the reapers are the
angels, and 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." Now, what that means, all things
that offend God. "...and them which do iniquity."
Who's he talking about? He's talking about unbelievers.
He says here in verse 42, "...and shall cast them into a furnace
of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth." That's when he's going to do it. Look at verse 43, "...then
shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their fathers." Now, who are the righteous? Those who are
righteous in Christ. That's who he's talking about.
They're not righteous by their work or by their efforts. They're
not any better by nature than the pairs who claim to be Christian
and who outwardly appear righteous unto men. Like the Pharisees. But their righteousness is in
Christ, and He says, Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now,
I want you to turn to Matthew 7, and this is what I'm going
to close with. Now, the Son of Man is going
to come in His glory, the glory of His Father with His angels.
We're told he'll send his angels, they'll gather together his elect.
The gathering of those to be judged will be done by the angels. He says the righteous are going
to shine forth. Now, who are the righteous? What's the difference between
the wheat and the tares? That's what I'm asking. This is what he was teaching
back here in Matthew 7. Now, some people say these are
parables here, and they may be. I mean, that's fine. But look
at verse, I want you to start off with verse 13. He says, "...Enter ye in at the
straight gate. For wide is the gate, and broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in
thereat. For because straight is the gate, and narrow is the
way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Now, what's the difference between the wheat and the tares? The
wheat, they enter in by the straight gate. What is the straight gate?
It's the way of Christ. It's the way of salvation by
God's free and sovereign grace in Him. It's the way of His blood
for the forgiveness and payment for all my sins. It's the way
of His righteousness imputed to me, accounted to me, whereby
I stand justified and whole before God. That's the straight gate.
That's a straight and narrow way. Straight there is like an
inlet. It's like a passage. It's too narrow to bring your
baggage in with you. It's too narrow to bring your
works in with you. It's the way of Christ and Him
crucified alone. That's the wheat. It's the way
of righteous. He said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. Look at verse 15. He says, Beware of false prophets
which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt
tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire, that's the tare, wherefore by their
fruits you shall know them." What's he talking about there?
Here's what he's saying. It's only under the preaching
of the truth of Christ and Him crucified, only under the preaching
of the gospel, which is the power of God and His salvation, That
good seed comes forth. Listen, nobody is saved under
the preaching of a lie. Mark it down. Not even Christ's seed. Now,
you're going to be brought into the truth and out from the lie. But nobody is saved. Nobody is
converted. Nobody is born again under the
preaching of a lie. Why? Because an evil tree cannot
produce good fruit. Can't do it. It's only under
the preaching of the gospel of God's grace in Christ that God
brings His sheep into the fold, plants His good seed, the wheat,
and raises it up. Well, how do you know the difference?
Look at verse 21. He says, Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Now, here's
a good passage that is an example of a tear right here. Look at it. Many will say to
me in that day, verse 22, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. Now, if
you ever saw a fellow like that, if you didn't know any better,
you'd look at that fellow and say, now, I know he's a Christian.
Look what he did. He preached in the name of the
Lord. And he cast out devils, it says. And in the name of the Lord,
he did many wonderful works. But look at verse 23. Christ
said, Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart
from me ye that work iniquity. Somebody says, wow, what's the
problem? Well, here's a man standing before
God at judgment. And God, in essence, says to
that man, what is your right to be here? What is your right
to enter into heaven? The heaven's glory. And this
man speaks up and he says, I preached in your name. I cast out demons
in your name. I did many wonderful works in
your name. What's the key to that? I. I. I. Did. Did. Did. I did this. I did that. Is that the sinner's
righteousness before God? Is there anything wrong with
preaching in His name? No. Is there anything wrong with
casting out demons? No. Is there anything wrong with
doing many wonderful works in His name? No. But let me tell
you something. That is not my righteousness
before God. That's right. I don't know how
many messages I've preached, but my friend, let me tell you
something. When I get to glory, I'm not going to stand before
God by His grace now. I'm not going to stand before
Him and say, well, Lord, I preached a bunch of sermons in Your name.
That is not my right or title to glory. What is? I have one plea. Christ died
for me. His blood, His righteousness
is my only hope. of salvation. Now, he carries
on there with the rest of that. He talks about the man who built
his house on sand and the man who built his house on the rock.
What is the rock? Christ Jesus. Christ is my only
place. I'm a preacher. I'm a Baptist
preacher. What does that count as far as
saving me or keeping me saved or getting me into glory? I'm
going to tell you, nothing. The only thing that counts in
that area is the blood and righteousness of my Savior. And that's it. I have nothing else. That's the
difference between a wheat and a tare. Right there. That's the
difference between a false church and a true church. Mark it down
and hear the Word of God. Alright, let's sing hymn number
46 as our closing hymn. Oh for a thousand tongues.