Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Now, in the past few messages
I've been spending some time in going through this chapter
of the book of Matthew on the parables of the kingdom. I've
been spending quite a bit of time on the parable of the wheat
and the tares. The wheat and the tares. You
remember the Lord spoke that parable back in verse 24, beginning
of verse 24, and you understand now that what he's doing in these
parables is describing what the kingdom of heaven, which is the
church of the living God, true people of God, what it will be
like, what they will experience, what they'll go through, what
struggles they'll have. through the last age, the last
days, which are the days that we're living in. Those days started
back with the ascension of Christ and the inauguration and beginning
of the New Testament church. John, the apostle John made that
statement in 1 John 2. He says, now it is the last time.
And it continues on until the second coming of Christ. And
this is what he's describing. He described in the parable of
the sower and the seed, the preaching of the gospel, the great commission,
go in all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And that was a very radical concept
back in those days because there were so many of the Jews who
thought it would be confined to them and their nation. And
you remember the whole theme of the book, one of the major
themes of the book, the main theme of the book of Acts is
just like the main theme of every book of the Bible, Christ and
him crucified and risen, the preaching of the gospel. But
one of the themes of the book of Acts is the gospel going forth
into all the world without hindrance. No man hindering. Remember that's
how it ends. Paul was in his own hired house.
He was in bonds in Rome. But he preached the gospel and
no man hindered him because that's the providence and sovereign
prerogative of God. Man cannot stop the progress
of the kingdom of heaven. Man cannot stop the salvation
of even one of God's people. Now that's right. Because God's
going to have his own. He's speaking of his people in
2 Peter 3, that's what he says. He's not willing that any of
them should perish but that all should come to repentance. So
that's what we had in that parable. And then in this parable, the
parable of the wheat and the tares, we have the problem that
will exist in the last age of the fact of true Christians and
then false Christians. Now remember the seed in the
seed and the sower, the seed there was the preaching of the
gospel. The seed and the weed and the tares, here, he tells
us. Now, look over in verse 37 of Matthew 13. He says, and when they ask him,
what does this parable mean, this weed and the tares? Here,
a man sows good seed in his field, and then somebody else comes
along and sows bad seed. in verse seven he answered and
said unto them he that soweth the good seed is the son of man
that's christ himself that's a messianic term the son of man
now i know there are times for example in the book of ezekiel
ezekiel himself is addressed as the son of man but what that
is showing is his human sinfulness but here as it refers to christ
it refers to christ as the messiah sin of god to save his people
from their sins his name shall be called Jesus Matthew 121 for
he shall save his people from their sins his name shall be
called Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us that's who he
is he is God in human flesh without sin every bit God every bit man
and that's a that's a that's a mind boggling thing isn't it
When you think about the constitution of his person, Christ Jesus,
the Son of God. Here's the Son of Man. He's the
Messiah. So now Christ is the one who
sows the good seed. Well, look at verse 38. Now he
says, the field is the world. Now this is throughout the world.
and he says in verse 38 the good seed are the children of the
kingdom now the word seed there refers to offspring you see over
in the parable of the seed and the sower where he's sowing the
gospel the word seed there is the word like for a spore or
seed that you plant in the ground the word seed here is children
offspring his generation his issue that word there is translated
issue in one passage The issue of a woman giving childbirth,
her issue, that's her child. So this is the children of God.
He that soweth a good seed is the son of man, the field is
the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom.
That's true believers. That's sinners truly saved by
the grace of God in Jesus Christ. They are the ones who were written
in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world.
Chosen of God in Christ, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and regenerated
by the Spirit. That's what this sowing of the
seed is. God bringing his people into the kingdom. Christ calling
his sheep. What did he say in John 10? My
sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me.
He said another they won't follow. So these are true believers.
But the tares are the children of the wicked one. That's the
devil. Now these tares are false Christians. The word tare there,
as I said last week, it's the word, if we translated it into
English, it would be darnel. D-A-R-N-E-L. And what it is,
what darnel is, it's a weed that looks like wheat, and you can't
tell the difference until it's fully grown. That's what he's
saying. As I said last week, I want to
make this clear now. These are those who look like
true Christians, but are not until they're fully grown and
you see the fruit thereof. In fact, that darnel, someone
said it's the only grass that is poisonous. But it looks like
wheat. Now there are all kinds of false
Christians in the world. And some of them are so far away
from the truth that they never, never fool a true believer. You
remember I mentioned last week, somebody like Jim Jones, somebody
like David Koresh, if you remember those names. These were men who
actually not only claimed to be Christian, but they claimed
to be the Messiah. Do you think they would fool
the children of the kingdom? No, they fooled some people now,
they did. But not true children of the kingdom. And that's not
what he's talking about here. Here he's talking about those
who, as Christ said in Matthew chapter 24, he said that they
were so close that if it were possible they could deceive the
very elect. Thank God it's not possible in
the end of things. These are those like John mentions
in 1 John 2. They went out from us maybe. We can talk about that. Or as
Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount he said they're wolves
in sheep's clothing something like that We can take each one
of those passages and deal with them in a different in another
way But here's what he's talking about look at him He says he
says the tares verse 38 are the children of the wicked one verse
39 the enemy that sowed them is the devil all right now go
back to Verse 26 of Matthew 13. Remember when he first spoke
this parable? And he talked about how while
men slept, Verse 25, his enemy came and sowed tares among the
wheat and went his way. I've heard preachers make a lot
about when men slept, about the church being lazy and all that.
I don't know about that because you know, in the explanation
of the parable, Christ didn't mention anything about the men
sleeping. So I would just, since he was
silent, I think I'll be silent on that too. It just might be,
he's just using that as an analogy, it might not be that they were
lazy or negligent, it just might be they were tired and we have
to sleep sometimes. So, I don't know, but he didn't
make anything of that. But look here in verse 26, but
when the blade was sprung up and brought forth, then appeared
the tears also. And then he says in verse 27,
So the servants of the householder came and said unto them, Sir,
didst thou not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence
then hath it tares? Now, at some point in time they
recognized these tares, it seems, in this parable. And remember
what he said, when it sprung up. How long it took them to
spring up, I don't know. That's not an issue. But look
at verse 28, he says, he said unto them, an enemy hath done
this, the servants said unto him, wilt thou then that we go
and gather them up? You want us to gather up the
tares, get rid of them? And he said in verse 29, no,
nay, lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the
wheat with them, let them both grow together into the harvest.
Now, the title of the message this morning, I'm going to end
up on the wheat and the tares this morning, believe it or not.
But the title of the message this morning is The Mystery of
Final Harvest. The Mystery of Final Harvest.
So he says, let them both grow together until the harvest, and
in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather you
together first the tares, bind them in bundles to burn them,
but gather the wheat into my barn. Now go over to verse 38,
or verse 39 rather. He says, the enemy that sold
them is the devil. False Christians. What this teaches
us is this. In the last days, Satan will
operate not only on the outside of the gatherings, the groups
of the people of God, the church, but he'll work on the inside
too. The deceiver. Satan, who is Satan? He's the
deceiver. How does he attempt to deceive? You know what Satan's
main weapon in deception is? You know what it is if you read
the scriptures now? False religion. False assurances. False hopes. What was Satan's first message? when he brought about the fall
of man. I can sum it up to you, we can say it different ways,
we can go back to Genesis 3 and read it, we don't have time,
but he approached Eve, he's the deceiver, and he says, he says,
hath God said, doubt the word of God, you say, hath God said,
and then he went against the word of God, hath God said, And
you know what his first message was? You know what it could be
titled? You shall not surely die. False preachers have been preaching
that message ever since in different forms. And it's a message aimed at those
who are not truly, fully, by the power of the Spirit, looking
to, resting in, and depending upon Jesus Christ for all salvation,
for all forgiveness, for all righteousness, for all glory.
That's exactly right. It comes in this form too, peace,
peace, when there is no peace. And that's why I would ask you
the question, I ask myself the question, who are you trusting
in for all your salvation, not part? I know I used to preach a false
gospel. Christ has done everything he can do, now the rest is up
to you. Huh? Is that the case? Well, if you
read the Bible, You understand that if the rest is up to us,
we're doomed. You say, well, I'm better than
that. You don't know yourself. Read what the Bible says about
you and about me. There's none righteous, no not
one. Look here in the parable. Listen
to what he says. He says in verse 39, The harvest
is in the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. That's
the instruments of God's wrath. He says in verse 40, look at
it. Therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall
it be in the end of this world. The mystery of the final harvest. The Son of Man shall send forth
his angels. That's his messengers, his instruments
of wrath. They shall gather out of his
kingdom all things that offend." What's he saying here? Christ
is going to separate the wheat from the tares. He tells the
people of God, the preachers of God, let them grow together. Now again, as I said, there are
false Christians who are easily recognized to be false, but these
tares are so close to the truth that in our attempts to pluck
them up, we could be mistaken. Because they appear to be weak.
And also, I said this last week, we need to recognize that there
are some of God's true children who are still lost in their sins
and residing among the tares at present, maybe. I know I myself claimed to be
a Christian long before I was ever a true Christian. How about
you? Did I come close? Well, we could
talk about that, but that's not the issue. This is Christ's work
here. He's going to separate the wheat
from the tares. But look on now. He says, things
that offend and them that do iniquity. Did you see that? Verse 41. He's going to gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend. You might see in
your concordance there in the center, if you have a concordance,
it says scandal. Now in the Bible, what that means
is it's like a stumbling block. It's an offense, something you
trip over. An occasion of stumbling or falling,
like a snare or a trap. All things that offend. And again, it's talking about
false Christians who appear to be true, but they're not. And
then he says, them that do iniquity. Now remember what I said, what
does the Bible say about all of us by nature? It says there's
none righteous, no not one. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. It even goes as far as to say this in that same passage
of Romans 3, there's none that seeketh after God, no not one. Give you an example of that.
When Saul of Tarsus was saved, when he was converted, Where
was he? Where was he going? Was he seeking
the Lord? He was on his way to Damascus
to arrest Christians, put them in jail, put them on trial and
have them killed. You say, well, it's different
for everybody. There may be some different circumstances, but
it's the same truth for everybody. if you're one of God's people
you know what you were before God brought you into the kingdom
you were a lost sheep who did not know the way well I ask a true believer how do you know you're saved? and he said well I know the way,
I'm not lost, I know the way. And he said, well, what is the
way? And he said, it's the way of the cross, it's the way of
God's grace, it's the way of Christ and his righteousness
alone. If you know the way, you're not
lost, isn't that right? Now, there are a lot of people
who think they know the way, but it's the wrong way. There is
a way that seemeth right to men. The end of that is destruction.
That's stated twice in the book of Proverbs, isn't it? so he says in them that do iniquity
well think about that now what is iniquity well it's sin but
you know the bible has many words for sin to help us to understand
the reality of how bad it is sin for example is missing the
mark we miss the mark for all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God that's missing the mark we don't hit the target
here's the goal We miss it. You say, well, what about the
religious person? Does he miss it? Yes. We all
know the immoral person misses it, don't we? We don't have any
problem with that. The crooks, the drug addicts, the drug sellers,
and all those people who are engaged in that lifestyle, they
miss it. But I miss it too. In my best days, I miss it. I
miss the mark. There's none righteous, no, no
one. Another word is crossing the line, trespass, transgression,
breaking the law. And then this word inequity.
What does that mean? It doesn't balance out. It's
inequitable. It's not equal. In other words,
whatever I do does not equal righteousness. The best efforts I do of obeying
the law, inwardly, outwardly, it's inequity because it doesn't
measure up. Lord, Lord, haven't we preached
in your name? Lord, Lord, haven't we cast out
demons? Lord, Lord, haven't we done many wonderful works? Well,
you may have done all those things, but it doesn't balance out to
righteousness. It doesn't balance out the scales.
It's inequity, it's inequity. Well, aren't we all sinners who
do iniquity? Doesn't Psalm 5.5 say God hates
all workers of iniquity? Iniquity. Christ rejects all
who do iniquity. Who's he talking about here in
Matthew 13? Verse 41. He's going to gather
out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do
iniquity. You know who he's talking about?
He's talking about all who appear before him at judgment without
Christ. Without the blood of Christ. to wash away all my sins without
the righteousness of Christ imputed, charged, accounted to me. That's
what he's talking about. Turn to Psalm 32 with me. What is my hope in this final
harvest? I claim to be a Christian. Most
of you, if not all of you, claim to be Christian. But I know this,
I know that if God were to judge me right now, based on my best
efforts to keep the law, I would be damned forever. That's right. I would have no
hope of salvation if God were to judge me right now, based
on my works, What is my hope? Well look at
verse one of Psalm 32. David writes, blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven. Now how can God forgive my transgression? He's holy, he's just, he's righteous,
he must do right. He can't just look at me and
say forget about it. Or let's just act like it didn't
happen. He's got to do right. The judge of all the earth shall
do right. That's what he told Abraham. Shall the judge of the
earth do right? Yes, sir. He's going to do right. He's
going to act justly and righteously. You see, there's the problem
of the ages. There's the problem that true
Christianity in the gospel addresses that no other religion of man
addresses. God is merciful. Isn't that right? God is love. You know that passage
doesn't say God loves, He does love, but it says He is love. God is gracious. Now here's the
question though. Here's the problem. And I said
it's a problem that no other religion addresses even, let
alone answers. How can He love a sinner like
me and still be God? Not diminish his character, his
glory, his justice, his purity, his holiness. How can he be merciful
to a sinner like me? How can he forgive my sin? How
can he save me? And what's more, how can he embrace
me? How can he take me into his fellowship and still be God? Well, look at the next line.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Covered. Now in the English language
we just don't embrace or get the gist of that because when
people look at that, and I've had people tell me this too in
dealing with this passage, well God just looks away from it.
He just decides he's going to look away from it. He's not going
to look at it anymore. Is that what that means? Or God
just covers it over, hides it from view. You know, that's man's
way. Somebody commits a great sin
and what do they try to do? They try to hide it. Don't let
anybody know. Cover it over. That's good politics,
isn't it, today? Politicians, cover it over. God
can't do that. Why? He's God. He's a just God. That word covering
there is a reference back to the mercy seat covering, the
atonement covering which required the blood of a suitable, capable,
God appointed, willing, substitute to stand in the place of God's
people and take the punishment of sin and transgression and
iniquity that they deserve as their surety. That's what that
word cupboard means. It means satisfaction to the
law and the justice of God Almighty. Now where is God going to find
a suitable, capable, willing substitute? He's found one in
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Before the foundation of the
world, the scripture teaches, God chose a people and gave them
to His Son and His Son willingly became the surety of His people. I'll pay their debt. I'll die
for their sins. Was He capable? Yes, He was.
He's able to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father
by Him. I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that He is
able. You see, it doesn't have anything to do with my ability
or your ability. It's He is able to keep that
which I've committed unto Him against that day. What have I
committed unto Him? My whole salvation is committed
to Christ. None of it is committed to me.
If it were, it's a failure. It's all committed to Christ.
He's my mercy seat. He's my covering. It's by His
blood that God is satisfied in His justice. His love, God's
love provided for His people what His justice demanded. Christ met the requirements.
Christ fulfilled the conditions. Christ satisfied the stipulations. Not me, not you. It's not our
faith that does that. It's not our faith that makes
the difference. It's Christ and His blood. And what happened there? Look
at verse 2 of Psalm 32. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and to whose spirit there is
no God. God does not charge or impute or account iniquity to
His people. Now how can He do that justly?
He imputes it, charges it, accounts it to Christ. And what do we get in return?
His righteousness. Turn to Romans chapter 4. How do you know He imputes righteousness
to us that doesn't say anything about that in Psalm 32? Oh yes
it does. Let me prove it to you. Turn
to Romans 4. Here's what David meant when
he wrote those words in Psalm 32. Now the question comes, and
it's a good question. Preacher, how do you know what
David meant? I'll tell you how I know. I know it from God's
own testimony. Look at Romans 4 verse 6. Look
at it. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. When did David testify of that?
Look at verse 7, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. That's the Holy Spirit's commentary
on what David wrote in Psalm 32. Did you notice that? What
does that mean? If God doesn't charge me with
my sins, which he doesn't, and he's a just God, It means three
things. It means, number one, He charged
them to Christ. Christ took my debt. He was bruised
for our transgressions. Our iniquities were laid upon
Him. He was made a curse for us. He
was made sin for us. That means my sins were charged
to Him. And His righteousness is charged
to me. To all of His people. And as
a result, what happens? We're given life by the Holy
Spirit in the new birth to believe in Him. That's the fruit. Now, with that in mind, go back
to Matthew 13. You say, well, is there any other
place in the Bible? There's all kinds of places, but the one
I quote more than any is Romans 8. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
is risen again, is seated at the right hand of the Father
ever living to make intercession for us. Now look back here. Now he's going to remove all
who do iniquity. But you see, what does God say
about His people? Based on the death of Christ.
Based on the blood of Christ. Based on the righteousness of
Christ. He says, their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. Doesn't He say that? What does
it mean He doesn't remember them? It means He won't charge us with
them. He won't bring them back up. And he says in verse 42, shall
cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. That's eternal damnation. But look at verse 43, then shall
the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their
father. Now, who are the righteous there?
When you look at passages like I quoted in Romans 3.10, there's
none righteous, no, not one. You say, well, that doesn't include
me. By nature, it includes all of us. So when he says, then
shall the righteous shine, who's he talking about, righteous?
He's talking about those who stand in Christ, clothed in his
righteousness, imputed, washed in his blood, sinners saved by
the grace of God. That's who he's talking about.
And then he says, who hath ears to hear, let him hear. One thing this brings to our
mind is for us to understand the difference between the wheat
and the tares. Think about it. How can I know
right now that I truly stand in Christ, that I'm righteous
in Him? Is it even possible for us to
know? Does this mean that really we
can't have any assurance of salvation? We'll just have to wait and find
out at the end? Does it mean that we have to live our lives
in the fear of being found out at the end? Well, look at 2 Corinthians. I want you to turn to two passages,
and this is the way I'll conclude the message with these. Look
at 2 Corinthians 13. Second Corinthians 13. Now basically,
here's what I'm going to say. There's two things that I need
to be assured of from the Scriptures. And I emphasize that from the
Scriptures. I was writing our brother Frank
Jones and on email, we were talking back and forth, and I concluded
my little note to him saying, take care, brother. And Frank
wrote me back and he said, I love it when you call me brother.
I don't think he'll mind me using this. He said, I love it when
you call me brother. And I wrote him back and I said,
well, that's exactly what you are in Christ, you're my brother.
And it's good to hear that. It's good to hear my brethren
call me brother, and I'm sure it's good for me, for them, for
me to call them brother. Brother and sister in Christ.
Because that's an expression of love, an expression of grace. But my point for this message
is this. The assurance that I need doesn't come from you, or doesn't
come from me. The assurance that I need must
come from God's word. Now, mom and dad, they'll always
tell you what you want to hear, or most of the time, especially
in religion. When it comes to religion, let's put it that way,
your wife, your husband, your grandma, your grandpa, I mean,
we can always find assurances from people. But in this matter,
I need assurance from God himself, not from you. And look here in
2 Corinthians 13, here's what we need. We need, number one,
to know that we're sitting under and believing the true gospel.
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first and the Greek also. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. When I hear the preacher preach, is
he telling me about the righteousness of God? the merits of the obedience
unto death of Christ, or is he talking more about the righteousness
of men? Because I want to tell you something,
the righteousness of men will do you no good in the final harvest. I need the righteousness of God,
one that is perfect, pure, cannot be contaminated, and cannot be
taken away. So it says here in 2 Corinthians
13, 5, examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. That's important. The faith. What am I hearing? What am I
believing? I claim to be a Christian. Am I hearing the truth from the
Word of God? Whether I like it or not? I tell
people on TV this all the time. You may not like it, but here
it is. Your argument's not with me, it's with God. This is what
the book says. You say, well, I don't understand
that. Well, join the club. There's a lot of stuff I don't
understand. You say, well, that's a paradox to me. There's a lot
of paradoxes in the scripture. And you know what that says to
us? There is a God and we ain't him. We're human. We're finite. We're limited. God isn't. In
the faith. Prove your own selves. That means
test your own selves by the word of God. Know you're not your
own selves. How that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates,
disqualified. I want to know that what I'm
hearing lines up with the word of God. Now I know people say,
well, you believe it means this. There are rules of interpretation.
I preached a whole series on that. How to interpret the scripture. I'll give you just several questions. Does it glorify God and not man?
Does it exalt Christ and the power of his person and the finished
work that he accomplished to save his people? Does it put
us in the dust where we belong? And then one more scripture,
turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. Now let me show you this. This
has to do with iniquity of false doctrine.
Two men, Hymenaeus and Philetus came in claiming to be Christian.
They were within the group of believers and they were preaching
false doctrine claiming the resurrection was already passed. There's all
kinds of false doctrine. The Bible deals with that. Any
salvation that puts salvation conditioned on man in any way
at some stage to any degree is a false message. But here's what he says about
them. He said, these men preached that the resurrection has passed,
and he mentions them, verse 18 of 2 Timothy 2, who concerning
the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection has passed
on and overthrow the faith of the Son. They made shipwrecked
of the faith of the Son. In other words, they weren't
true believers. John says, if they'd been of us, they would
remain with us. But here, their faith was made shipwrecked. He
says in verse 19, now listen to this. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ
depart from iniquity. Depart from iniquity. Study the
word of God. Am I hearing the gospel? And
if what I'm hearing is not the gospel, what do I do? Depart
from it. That's what he says. You say,
well, I've been going there all my life. It's sad, but it's true. You read the rest
of that in 2 Timothy 2. He talks about in a house, there's
vessels of gold and there's vessels of bad vessels. How he separates,
you see, that's the mystery of the final harvest. Listen, who's
going to stand? That's why I had Mark read Psalm
1. Who's going to stand in the day of final harvest? And who's
going to fall? Well, all who do iniquity will
fall, but all who are righteous will stand. Now, how's a person
like me going to stand at the final harvest and hear God say,
righteous? There's only one way. That's
by His grace in Christ and in Him alone. All right.