In this section of the book of
Matthew, Christ speaking in parables, these are the parables of the
kingdom, showing by illustration and symbols, earthly symbols
that teach a spiritual lesson. That's what parables are. And
showing by these earthly symbols, the spiritual lesson of what
his kingdom is like, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God,
and how it's going to develop on earth between the times of
his first coming and his second coming. And what we're going
to be looking at this morning, beginning at verse 24, are three
parables that go together. The first one really explains
the last two, the very short parables. You have the parable
of the wheat and the tares. And I'm sure you're familiar
with that. And then after that you have
the parables, the parable of the mustard seed, and then the
parable of leaven. And that's the three parables
we're gonna look at this morning. So the parable of the wheat and
the tares simply states, and he gives the meaning of that
parable, and like I said, it explains the other two shorter
parables. Put them in perspective. And
the parable of the wheat and the tares shows us that while
the gospel goes out into the world, you remember in Matthew
24 when Christ was talking about the kingdom of heaven on earth,
he said the gospel must be preached in every nation. I believe that
it has been done and continues to be done, but while the gospel
goes out into the world, you remember it was pretty much confined
to Judaism, to Judea. Not totally, but in the majority. And then it shot out to the world
because they were persecuted and they went out, you can read
about that in Acts chapter nine and 10, how the gospel began
to go out into the Gentile world. This is the spread of the kingdom
throughout the New Covenant age, the age that we live in. And
so, as the gospel goes out in the world in the power of the
Holy Spirit, to bring sinners to a saving knowledge of Christ
and the glory of his person, the power of his finished work,
the revelation of the righteousness of God, the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation, Romans 1 16, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. And so, as the gospel
goes out, preached in every nation by God's ministers, God's church
standing for the truth, There's a big negative, and what I've
described so far is a great positive, isn't it? The gospel, believed
on in the world, Paul wrote to Timothy. Great is the mystery
of godliness. Believed on in the world. God
has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
That's his elect. That's his church. But the negative
is this, as the gospel goes out throughout the world in this
new covenant age, Satan will be actively deceiving multitudes
of people and establishing them in false, self-righteous, freewill
religion. And so the Lord explained this
parable. First of all, he spoke the parable.
Look at verse 24. It says, 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. Now the wheat
is the good seed and the tares is false. And he went his way. And it says, It says, 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? Where'd these tares come from?
Because they knew that the man that sowed the seed, we know
it's Christ, that he sowed nothing but good seed, but these tares
sprang up. Where'd they come from? And he says in verse 28,
he says, he said unto them, an enemy hath done this. And the
servant said unto him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them
up? Now what they're talking about
is gathering up to be burned, destroy them. And verse 29, he
said, no, lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also
the wheat with them. You see, only God knows everything. We can make a lot of mistakes
when we take matters into our own hands. Vengeance belongs
to the Lord. But anyway, verse 30. Let both
grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest, I
will say to the reapers, gather you together first the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn. Now that's the parable of the
wheat and the tares. Now he goes on and he expresses
the other parables. Verse 31, another parable put
he forth unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like to
a grain of mustard seed which a man took, sowed in his field,
it starts out small. which indeed is the least of
all seeds, a small seed, but when it is grown, it is the greatest
among herbs." Now he's using what we call hyperbole here.
He's using exaggeration to make a point. The mustard seed that
grows into a bush is not the greatest of all trees as far
as size, but as far as its potency and all of that. And so he says,
and becometh a tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge
in its branches and then In verse 33 he says, here's the third
one. He says, another parable he spoke unto them, the kingdom
of heaven is likened to leaven which a woman took and had in
three measures a meal till the whole was leaven. So there's
your three parables that explain the growth, how the kingdom of
Christ, Christ's kingdom is going to grow throughout this new covenant
age. And it will grow in some sense. So look at verse, what he does,
he explains all three parables by giving a detailed explanation
of the wheat and the tares. Look at verse 34, it says, all
these things spoke Jesus unto the multitude in parables, and
without a parable spoke he not unto them. Now we've already
dealt with that. Why do you speak in parables? And we know it was
a judgment to conceal the truth
from those who refused to believe it. But it was also an illustration
of truth to reveal more truth to his people. And he says in
verse 35, 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.
And that's quoted from Psalm 78. So his doing this is all
according to prophecy. So now, beginning at verse 36, He begins, it says, then Jesus
sent the multitude away, went into the house and his disciples
came unto him saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares
of the field. Now what does this mean? And
then he answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good
seed is the son of man. Only Christ can save sinners. The good seed is sinners saved
by grace. God's elect, his church, his
people, his sheep, and only Christ can do that. Preachers cannot
save sinners. I cannot save you, I can't even
save myself, but I'm just an instrument to preach the word
by which God sends the Spirit to save you. You understand that. So the good seed, that's the
children of the kingdom. Look at verse 36. He said, he
that soweth a good seed is the son of man. The field is the
world, okay? God has a people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. The good seed are the children
of the kingdom, believers, justified sinners. That means, what does
that mean? That means their sins are forgiven
by the blood of Jesus Christ. It means they are declared righteous
before a holy God who knows all about us. Declared righteous
based upon the righteousness of Christ imputed. That means
they've been born again by the Spirit and given life from above. You must be born again or you
cannot see or hear the kingdom of heaven. So the children of
the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one,
that's Satan. So the wheat, that's sinners
saved by grace, that's believers, saints, sanctified, washed in
the blood of Christ, clothed in his righteousness, given life
from above. But the tares are false believers. false religionist, sown by Satan. Now, one thing that's interesting
you need to see, turn to 1 John chapter three, and I want you
to see that. Now, in this parable of the weed
and the tares, you have seed, the good seed. And he says the
good seed are the children of the kingdom. Well, you remember
back in the first parable of Matthew 13, the parable of the
soils, the sower and the seed? Well, the seed there refers to
the word of God, the gospel, sown in the hearts of other people
who don't believe it, and sown in the hearts of his people who
believe it. Well, the word seed in the sower and the seed is
a different word than the word seed here in the parable of the
wheat and the tares. The word seed in the parable
of the sower and the seed, that's a spore, like a seed that a farmer
puts in a ground. But the seed here is offspring. Referring to his children, it's
the same word in 1 John 3 in verse nine, look at this. It
says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Now what
he's talking about here is the specific sin of apostasy. When we're born of God, we're
still sinners. And we will be until we leave
this life. till we draw our last breath and go on to be, or until
the Lord comes back, and then we'll be perfectly sinless within
ourselves because we'll have a new body. We'll be with Him. Sin will be totally gone from
us. Right now we're sinless only as we stand in Christ based upon
His righteousness imputed. But he's talking about the sin
of apostasy. I'm not gonna go into all that
here in 1 John, but the context tells you that. But look at it
in verse nine. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. That's his
children. If you're a true child of God,
you will not leave Christ. What is it I say all the time?
If the gospel is planted in your heart, and you're a true child
of God, you cannot ignore it, you cannot deny it, and you cannot
leave it. That's the bottom line. because
his seed, his offspring, his children remain in him, they
stay with him, and he cannot sin, he cannot leave Christ,
he cannot apostatize, he cannot go back. You know, some denominations
say, well, you can be saved one day and then lost another day.
Oh no, not if you're truly saved. And John dealt with that over
in 1 John 2. If they leave us, they never
were of us, he said. So he cannot sin, he cannot leave
Christ because he's born of God. He's the offspring of Jesus Christ. And that's what he's talking
about here in the parable of the weed and the tares. Look
back at it, verse 38 of Matthew 13. The field is the world, the
good seed are the children of the kingdom. Oh, to be a child
of God. We used to sing a hymn a long
time, but I don't think I've sang it in a long time. I don't
know if you all know it or not. It's called The Child of the
King. I'm a child of the king, a child of the king. In Jesus
my savior, I'm a child of the king. But he says, but the tares
are the children of the wicked one. And in verse 39 he says,
the enemy that sowed them is the devil. Satan, is actively
sowing tares. Now, there's something you need
to know about a tare. If I were to take that word and
transliterate it into English, it would sound like this, darnle. And I don't know if you've ever
heard that term, darnle. But what it is, it's a plant
that looks like wheat until it grows up. And then you see the difference.
But when it starts out, you don't know the difference. But when
it grows. And so what Satan is doing is
he's sowing these tares that look like wheat, but like he
said here, when they grew, it became apparent to the wheat,
the children of God, hey, these are not our brethren in Christ. These are false brethren. And
so that's what he's saying here. Satan is busy in this age sowing
false brethren and false churches. Now I know what I'm telling you
is not a popular thing to say. But look at it, he says in verse
39, the enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is
the end of the world. Now this is, what he's telling
us, this is the way it's gonna be until this world ends. And
then comes the judgment, and the reapers are the angels. Christ
is going to send his angels to gather his wheat unto himself,
gather his church, and to gather and bind up these tares to be
burned. And so verse 40, as therefore
the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in
the end of this world. Oh my soul, I don't wanna be
a tare, how about you? I don't wanna stand before God
at judgment without Christ, without being washed in his blood, without
being clothed in his righteousness. That's what it is to be a tare.
You remember over, we refer to this passage quite a bit, Matthew
7, 21 through 23, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached in your name?
Haven't we done many wonderful works, only to hear him say,
depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. You
see, our works, and we ought to be workers. We
ought to be diligent in good works. But they are not our righteousness
before God. Do you understand that? Our righteousness
before God is Christ. That's what I try to tell people
all the time. That's what I preach on TV. That's what, anywhere
I go. Yes, I ought to be the, I ought
to try to be the best person I can be for the glory of God.
In every way. But that's not my righteousness
before God. Christ is. It's all of grace.
Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. And that's what, God drills in
to the hearts and minds of His people. You know, let's say today I preach
the greatest sermon I've ever preached. Now that's probably
not going to happen, but if it were, Could I stand before God
and say, Lord, don't you remember on March 24th that sermon I preached? Didn't that just thrill you?
Is that what I'm going to say in judgment? If it is, he'd say,
depart from me, you that work iniquity. I never knew you. And how many times you hear me
quote, hear me quote Acts 1731? You all know it by heart, too,
don't you? appointed a day in which he will
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
and that he has given assurance unto all men and they raised
him from the dead. Oh my soul, I don't want to be
a tear. And I know you don't either. Children of God. Look at verse 41. He says the
son of man shall send forth his angels. They shall gather out
of his kingdom all things which offend. and them which do iniquity. Do you know there's nothing more
offensive to God than false religion? We can think of all kinds of
things that offend God. We can think of the immorality
that's prevalent in this world, the homosexuality, all kinds
of things like that, decadence. all the things that man in his
depravity is busy doing, but there's nothing more offensive
to God than false religion. And that was set forth in the
very first account of worship in the Bible. Remember who it
was? Cain and Abel. Cain brought the works of his
hands, and God would not accept him. Man's effort, how did Christ,
you know, he ate dinner with the publicans and the harlots.
Now he did not condone the greed and the cheating of the publicans,
nor the sexual immorality of the harlot. He didn't condone
that. He told him, he told the woman that was caught in adultery,
he said, sin no more. He didn't condone that at all. But he had his harshest words
for the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the scribes. You see that? Well, look at verse 42. He said, he 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. Well, who are the righteous?
That word righteous could be translated justified. Am I justified before God? If
I am, I'm righteous. And it's not by my works. It's
not even by my preaching. It's by the blood of Jesus Christ
alone. Isn't that right? Oh, my soul, what can wash away
my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other
fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And what does it say in the last verse? This is all my hope and
plea. This is all my righteousness. That's what we believe. Will
false religion, the religion that makes salvation, conditioned
on sinners and not on Christ alone, the religion that goes
by a sliding scale of holiness rather than the perfection of
righteousness that can only be found in Christ, the religion
that is based upon the works and the wills of men, In other
words, Christ only made you savable, but you have to kick it in gear
by your decision? No, no, that's the tares. Churches,
individuals, all of them. That's what it is. Well, let
me give you one more thing. You remember, he said up here
in the beginning of this parable when he spoke it, when the minister said, Lord,
what do you want us to do? You want us to go gather them
up burn them. Is that what you want us to do?
No, no, he says, you just preach the gospel. It's not my calling
to go up and destroy false churches by gathering up people and putting
them in jail and all that. You remember the Catholic Church
did that and probably still does in some countries. They had the
Spanish Inquisition. They get people and arrest them,
call them heretics, burn them at the stake. Who was it? Wycliffe, who was burned at the
stake for just translating the Bible from Latin into English,
things like that. No, that's heresy. And Christ
says, no, let them grow together. This indicates that when they
grow, you can tell the difference. Now, how do we tell the difference?
How do you know the difference? Somebody says, well, you don't
know everybody's heart. That's true, I don't know everybody's
heart. I know what you tell me. If you tell me you believe the
gospel I preach, what should I do? I should embrace you as
a brother or sister in Christ. Could you be lying to me or lying
to yourself? Yes, you could be. But what is
it that makes them recognizable in this life? Two things. Mark
them down, they're in your lesson. Number one, false gospels. False doctrine. Remember what
John said in 2 John? If they abide not in the doctrine
of Christ, they have not God. The doctrine of his person, the
doctrine of his finished work, all of that. Paul said if they
preach any other gospel than that which we have preached,
let them be what? Anathema. What were those preachers doing?
They were trying to mix grace and works. Oh, you're saved by
grace, but you've gotta be made holy and righteous by your works
under the law. Paul said, if you believe that,
Christ will profit you nothing. That's a denial of the gospel.
And then the second thing that exposes the tares is compromise. They claim to believe it, but
they'll compromise it for their own personal gain, whether it
be money. I had a preacher tell me one
time that he said he believed what I preached, but he couldn't
preach it to his church because they'd fire him. That's compromise. He didn't believe it. If you
believe it, you can't help but preach it. It's in you like a
fire. Like Jeremiah said, Jeremiah
wanted to quit, He said, but the word burned in me like a
fire and I could not stay. I could not hold back. So it's
false doctrine and compromise that will expose the tears for
what they're, so a person comes along and says, well, we're all
Christians. Well, we're all not Christians.
I wish that we all were. I do. I don't enjoy telling somebody
they're lost. I don't enjoy making people mad.
I don't enjoy just having a little congregate. I'd like to have
a big, but I'm not going to compromise to get it. Lord willing, Lord
keep me from the evil one. That's what John prayed. Well,
I hope that's helpful to understanding those parables. All right.