I want you to open your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 13. And I'm going to continue on
the subject of the mystery of wheat and tares. I started this
last week, and so if you weren't here, you'd be able to understand
this because I'm going to just recap just briefly. It's a short
parable. These are the parables of the
kingdom, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And let's
go back and let's read the parable. of the wheat and tares. Look
at verse 24 of Matthew 13, the mystery of wheat and tares. He says, another parable, this
is Matthew 13, 24, another parable put he forth unto them, saying,
The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed
in his field. But while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. And 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 thou not sow good seed
in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?
And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this. And the servants
said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
But he said, Nay, lest while you gather up the tares, you
root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I
will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares and
bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn. And then he begins some other
parables. But look over in verse 36. Turn to verse 36 of Matthew
13. This is where he declares the
meaning of the parable of the wheat and tares. As you know,
he was speaking to the multitudes. He's speaking these parables
of the kingdom. We've talked several times about
why he spoke in parables. A parable, as you know, is an
earthly story that has a spiritual lesson, comparing things that
are physical with spiritual things to teach the lesson. And it says,
he sent the multitude away and went into the house, verse 36,
and his disciples came unto him saying, declare unto us the parable
of the tares of the field. Tell us what it means. And he
answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed
is the son of man. That's Christ. That's a messianic
title. Christ is the one who sows this
good seed. Now last week I spent time on
helping us to understand that the seed here means children,
offspring. Not like the word seed in the
parable of the sower and the seed. You remember the parable?
The first parable of the kingdom had to do with the preaching
of the gospel in the Great Commission out to the world. Christ said,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. And then he
tells them in the mystery of the seed and the sower, he tells
them the mystery, what I call the mystery of gospel preaching,
the mystery of preaching the gospel. Somebody said, well,
you'd think there'd be no mystery there. Oh, there's a great mystery.
And here's the mystery. When the gospel is preached,
the gospel, the scripture says the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. Rowans 1.16. And that gospel message, the
preaching of the gospel in the parable of the sowed and the
seer, that's the seed that's sowed, like going out and planting
a seed of corn or something, like a farmer goes out and plants.
And he says, when you go out and preach the gospel, it's like
sowing that seed like a farmer does. And you want it to grow. But here's the mystery of it
that he talked about in the sower and the seed. Some are going
to believe it, and some are not. Now, why? Think about that. I talk about this on our TV program
all the time, you know, where people say, well, I'm saved because
I believe. Well, you have to put that in
perspective. You see, it's not our believing that saves us.
It's Christ that saves us. And if we're saved by the Lord
Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy
Spirit in the new birth, we're brought to believe the gospel.
That's what the scripture teaches. The new birth, which evidences
itself in faith in Christ, is not the cause of our salvation. It's not the ground of our salvation.
The cause of our salvation is the love of God and the power
of God. The ground of our salvation is the work of Christ on the
cross, His righteousness imputed, charged, accounted. The fruit
of His work is the new birth, life given by the Spirit that
brings us to faith in Christ. So whenever we talk about preaching
the gospel as the power of God unto salvation, it goes on to
say in Romans 1 16, it's the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek also.
How do I know if the gospel has been made the power of God unto
salvation to me? I believe it. But this believing is a miracle
of God's grace. He says, we believe it, to the
Jew first, 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. In other words, in that gospel,
that gospel, that good news of salvation is a message of the
righteousness of God, not the righteousness of men. You see,
false gospels are about the righteousness of men in some form, some way,
to some degree, at some stage. But the true gospel, which is
the power of God unto salvation, that seed sown in the sower and
the seed parable, is about the righteousness of God. Now what
is that? Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believe. So in other words, how do I know
that the gospel's been made the power of God unto salvation to
me? I believe it. What is it I believe? I believe
that Christ is all my salvation. Christ is all my forgiveness. His blood alone. What can wash
away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Do you really mean that? You really believe that? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus? Now come on. I was talking to
a gentleman years ago who was of the Church of Christ persuasion.
And he taught that you had to be baptized to be saved. In other
words, baptism was a necessary condition the sinner must meet
in order to be forgiven. And I told him, I said, well,
you don't believe salvation totally by grace. He said, well, yes,
I do. I said, no, you don't. I said,
you think you do, but you don't. Because you see, what can, I
asked him this, I said, do you ever sing that song, what can
wash away my sins? Nothing. I said, you don't believe
that. You'd have to say nothing but baptism in the blood of Christ.
But see, we really believe this, what can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. You really believe that, see?
I believe that Jesus Christ is all my righteousness before God. Nothing else, no one else. And
that's what the seed and so, but there are some who don't
believe it. Now, why? Am I better than them? Am I less
stubborn? No. And so he explains the mystery
of preaching the gospel. There's the wayside hearer, there's
the stony ground hearer, there's the thorny ground hearer, and
then, lo and behold, a miracle of God's grace, there's the good
ground hearer. That's the heart. See, that describes
the hearts of men. Three of them describe the natural
man. One of them describes that one. who's been given a new heart.
That's the good ground hearer. So that's what the seed is in
the sowing seed. But now here in the parable of the wheat and
tares, the seed here is not the preaching of the gospel. The
seed here is the true children of God, His offspring, His issue,
His generation. That's what the word means. And
I showed you several scriptures, and I didn't get to this one
last week, but I want you to go to this one. Go to 1 John
chapter 3. If you understand this, it'll
open up a lot of the scripture to you. The wheat, that seed which is
identified as wheat, when it sprung up it was good wheat,
That refers to a true child of God, chosen by God before the
foundation of the world, whose name was written in the Lamb's
book of life, redeemed by the blood of Christ, justified based
on His righteousness alone, imputed and received by God-given faith,
regenerated by the Spirit. That's the good ground here. That's the wheat. That's the
child of God. But look at 1 John 3. What is John's subject here?
Look at verse 1. He says, Behold what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Now that's his subject. You know,
this whole portion of scripture is talking about the distinction
between the true sons of God, the true children of God, and
the children of the devil. In fact, he says that over in
verse 10. In this, the children of God are manifest and the children
of the devil. But look at verse 9. This is
one that trips a lot of people up. But I'm going to show you
what it means now. I want you to listen to me. He
said, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Now, what
does it mean to be born of God? That's the new birth. We've been
talking about that. You must be born again. And he
says they don't commit sin. Now what does he mean by that?
Does he mean they're no longer sinners? Well didn't he say back
in 1 John 1 that if we say we're not sinners or we don't have
sin, we make God a liar and the truth's not in us? Would that
disqualify the Apostle Paul when he said, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? He said this
in Romans 7. He said, I can't do the things
that I would do because of sin that dwelleth in me. What are
we if we're saved? We're sinners saved by the grace
of God. So what does he mean? He's talking about something
specific here. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin." What sins is he talking about? He's been talking
about it all along. He talked about those who claimed
to believe the gospel and they left it. They left Christ. They claimed to believe Christ,
but then they turned their back on Christ and they apostatized. That's what the word is. They
fell away from the faith. And he says they were never saved
to begin with. He tells them that. But whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin, they won't leave Christ
for His seed. Now that word seed there is the
same word used in the parable of the wheat and tares. It's
His children. The true children of God. True
sinners saved by the grace of God. His children remaineth in
Him. They remain in Christ. They won't
leave Christ. I won't go into all this. They
can stray for a while. They can do like David of old
and lose the joy of their salvation, but they'll never lose salvation.
They'll never totally turn their back in apostasy upon Christ
and call Him accursed. They remain in Him. And He cannot
sin. He cannot leave Christ. Why? Because He's born again. He's born of God. He's got a
new heart. He's got a new spirit. He's got the indwelling presence
of the Holy Spirit Himself. And he can't totally leave Christ.
He can't forsake Christ. As my old buddy up in West Virginia
used to say, he can run a wheel off sometimes, but he can't leave
Christ. He just can't do it. And then he says, Now that's
what the wheat is. Back over in the parable of the
wheat and the tares. They're the true children of
God. And they bring forth fruit. Now he talked about that in the
good ground here, remember. And they bring forth different
degrees of fruit. And as I said, that's not a competition.
That's not something that we need to get in and try to examine
ourselves in the sense of trying to find something in ourselves
that aren't there. But it has to do with our looking to, resting
in, following, serving Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
That's who we are. It's not just once saved, always
saved, even though that's so if you're truly saved. It is the eternal security of
the saved. If God saved you, if you're saved
by grace, you're kept by grace, and you'll enter glory by grace.
Isn't that right? What would happen to me or what would happen
to you if God would remove His hand of grace and mercy from
you for even a minute? Well, we'd be lost forever. And
if we don't believe that, we don't know ourselves, don't know
our sin. So that's the wheat, that's the
good seed. Now, he that soweth that seed, look back here at
verse 30, Matthew 13, verse 37. He that soweth the good seed
is the son of man. You see, only Christ, the Lord
of glory, can sow this good seed. Now, we can preach the gospel,
I can preach the gospel, but let me tell you the results of
that. Some will believe and some won't. Who determines that? God
does. God determines that. I can't
do that. I'm like John the Baptist. I can baptize you in water, but
I can't baptize you with the Holy Spirit. I can't give you
a new heart. Only Christ can do that. So you see, only the
Son of Man sows this good seed. Only Christ can make a sinner
saved by grace. We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained.
So if you're a believer, if you're one of these wheat, the true
seed, you're a miracle of God's grace. And you're accepted of
God based on His righteousness alone and not one of your own.
It's all mercy. You didn't earn it, you don't
deserve it. I didn't earn it, I don't deserve it. Isn't that
right? Nothing else. All right, now look back here.
Look at verse 38. He says the field is the world. Now this
is in the world. In this world, there's the good
wheat sowed by Christ, sinners saved by grace, righteous in
him, washed in his blood. And he says, the good seed are
the children of the kingdom. That's who he's talking about
there. But the tares are the children of the wicked one. Now
the wicked one there is Satan. Now these tares, what is that
word tare? I told you this last week. If
you transliterate it in English, it would be darnel. D-A-R-N-E-L. And what it is, it's a kind of
grass that looks like wheat. And it's really indistinguishable
from wheat until it's fully grown. You can't tell the difference
until then. And it's the only species of grass that has poisonous
seeds. What he's talking about here
are false Christians. That's the tear. False churches,
false Christians. That's what he's talking about.
In the world there are believers and unbelievers. We know that. But he's explaining here, now
think about what he's doing in this Matthew 13. He's giving
parables of the kingdom, showing the mysteries of the kingdom.
This is how it's going to be in the last days. That's what
he's saying. And in the last days, as you
go out and preach the gospel, you're going to have believers
and unbelievers. You're always going to have that. The believers
are the good ground hearers. They're the ones whom the gospel's
been made effectual. But he says, but you're also
going to have false Christians that look like wheat. They look like wheat. They have
a profession of faith. But they really don't possess
Christ, they're children of the devil. You remember the Pharisees,
they claimed to be children of God, didn't they? They didn't
claim to be Christian, obviously, but they, in their day, they
claimed to be children of God. You remember what the Lord said
to them in John 8, 44? He says, you're of your father, the devil. John, in 1 John 2, we read that
1 John 3 a while ago, but in 1 John 2, remember he said this, Before he went to 1 John 3, in
verse 18, he said, little children, this is 1 John 2, 18, little
children, it's the last time, the last age. As you've heard
that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists
whereby we know it's the last time. Now listen to what he says,
they went out from us. See, they went out from us. They
went out from the church. They were at one time under the
true gospel, claimed to be Christians. He said, but they weren't of
us. He said, if they'd been of us, they would have remained
with us. They're false Christians throughout the world. Satan's
counterfeits, that's what these are. Satan's counterfeits. And they're throughout the world.
They're the children of The wicked one. He says in verse 39 of Matthew
13, the enemy that sowed them is the devil, the accuser of
the brethren, the deceiver. Remember his deceptions now. His deceptions of false religion.
That's what he's talking about here because these are those
who look like Christians, but they're not. The enemy has sowed them, verse
39. And he says in verse 39, the harvest is the end of the
world. In the end of the world, the reapers are the angels. They're
the agents of God and bringing down God's wrath. I believe this
is talking about his second coming. But think about this. False Christians
throughout the world. Now, among false Christians,
think about it, there are some who are easy to expose. Aren't
there? I mean, think about it. Paul
had to deal with some of them, John had to deal with some of
them that came in the early church. For example, in the book of Galatians,
there were false Christians coming in preaching another gospel.
That word literally means another of a different kind. Remember
Paul said that though we are an angel from heaven, preach
unto you any other gospel than that which we have preached,
let him be anathema, let him be accursed. There are those who are not so
easy to expose. I'll give you an example. Modern
day, you've heard of the name David Koresh. Remember him? From
Waco, Texas? Now here's a man who claimed
to be a Christian. Not only that, he claimed to be Christ himself. Did he fool any believers? Now he fooled a lot of people,
didn't he? You know, remember the name Jim Jones? He, I don't know if he actually
claimed to be the Messiah, but he was pretty much there. But
he was a deceiver. He fooled a lot of people. He
fooled a lot of people into killing themselves, didn't he? Of course,
David Koresh did, too, after he stood up against the government. Now, my question to you is this.
Did those guys fool any, I'm not talking, did they fool any
true believers? No. You didn't have any trouble
exposing them. That's a false Christian. But
then there are others who get closer and closer and closer
to the truth. But in some way, maybe a deceptive
way, maybe a subtle way, they deny Christ. Look over at Galatians
chapter 5. I'll show you an example of it. And I could show you a lot of
scripture here, but we don't have time to go into all. But
look at Galatians 5. Look at verse 1. He says, Stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of the bondage. He says, Behold,
I, Paul, say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. Now, why did he put it that way?
Why did the Holy Spirit inspire Paul to put it the way he put
it? Christ shall profit you nothing. Because he's talking about false
Christians. He's talking about people who
claim to be saved by the grace of God in Christ, but they said
You have to be circumcised to be saved. And here's what he said, well
if you believe that, Christ will profit you nothing. In other
words, Christ is all there is or there's nothing. If, listen,
you claim to be a Christian, But you claim that you have to
do this or do that in order to be saved, in order to be righteous
before God, to be accepted. You have to put your part in. Christ will profit you nothing.
See what he's saying? He says in verse 3, For I testify
again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole
law. Listen, if Christ is not all your righteousness before
God, If your salvation is not secured and earned by His righteousness
imputed alone, you know what you are? You're a debtor to do
the whole law. That's right. He says in verse
4, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are justified,
made not guilty, made righteous by the law, you're fallen from
grace. That doesn't mean you lost salvation.
It means you're denying what you claim to believe. You claim
to be saved by grace. That fellow who told me you have
to be baptized to be saved, he says he's saved by grace. He's
fallen from grace. He's denying grace. The moment
you put any condition on the salvation of a sinner, other
than what Christ accomplished 100%, you've fallen from grace. Remember he said over in Galatians
chapter 2, verse 21, he said, I do not frustrate the
grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. You claim to be a Christian, but you say you
have to do this under the obedience of the law in order to be really
saved or really righteous, that's saying Christ died in vain. Let
me show you one more. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
11. You see, that's the kind of people
that Christ is talking about in the parable of the wheat and
tares. False Christians. Look at 2 Corinthians 11, verse
3. He says, but I fear lest by any
means as the serpent begot Eve through his subtlety, so your
mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Do you know what the simplicity that is in Christ is? It's basically
understanding from the scripture that Christ is all. Christ is everything to a real
Christian. He's everything. He's not just
part of it now. He's not even 99 and 44 100 percent
of it. He's all of it. Somebody said, well, what are
we to do? Thank him. Worship him. Honor him. Serve him. Not to earn God's
favor, but because he earned it. Not to establish righteousness,
but because he is my righteousness. That's the simplicity. Verse
4, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, that's a false
Christian. He preaches another Jesus. Now,
I'll give you an example of that. Take the Jehovah's Witnesses. Who is Jesus Christ? What does
the Bible say? What does a true Christian believe
about who Jesus Christ is? He's God in human flesh. He's
Emmanuel. Here comes a person that says,
well, I'm a Christian, but I don't believe that. I don't believe
he's God. Now, is that another Jesus? It is, isn't it? That
means another of a different kind. That's the same word Paul
used for another gospel. For if he that cometh preacheth
another Jesus whom we've not preached, Or if you receive another
spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you
have not accepted, you might well bear with, and that should
be me there instead of him. The King James translation there
got it wrong. That's in italics. It's an objective
pronoun. It should be me. Paul's not saying
bear with them. Look over at verse 13 of 2 Corinthians
11. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ." That indicates a temporary transformation there. And what
it means is, at times, they can say the right things, but they
can't stay there because their heart's not there. They change
back. He says in verse 14, no marvel,
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. You know,
Satan, think about Satan. He quoted scripture to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Somebody says, well, that fella
knows the Bible. Let me tell you something. He may know the
words, but if he doesn't know Christ, he doesn't know the Bible.
That's right, isn't it? If he doesn't know the true righteousness
of God, he doesn't know the Bible. He may have memorized a lot of
it. I wish I could memorize more of it. But if you don't know
Christ, you don't know the Bible. He says in verse 15, therefore,
it is no great thing if his ministers be also be transformed into ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. That's false Christians. We'll
go back to Matthew 13 and I'll hurry. You remember they asked when
he first said this parable, the servants, they asked, who sowed
these tares? And he said, Satan has sown them.
And they said, well now, do you want us to go out there and gather
them up and put them in the fire to burn? And he said, no, you
let both grow together until they come to full growth and
he said I'll separate them in the end look back here verse
13 and verse 39 he says the enemy that so them is the devil the
harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels
those are agents of God's wrath and his judgment verse 40 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," all scandalous things, that's what that means.
"...and them which do iniquity," remember like those who stood
at the judgment in Matthew 7? He said, depart from me you that
work iniquity. Now what that means is they have
no righteousness before God. You see, if you stand before
God in Christ, you have a righteousness. And in Him, there's no iniquity.
That's what that means. But if you stand before God without
Christ, you don't have righteousness. You have nothing but iniquity.
Even your best works are iniquity. 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. And he says, then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their fathers. That's
those who are saved by the grace of God, clothed in the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they will be made righteous
in themselves as they're glorified. We'll stand before God in Christ
and we'll be in ourselves without sin, without contamination, in
a new body. He says, who hath ears to hear,
let him hear. Now let me close with this. We're never to take
matters in our own. This is one thing that shows
it. We as true believers are never
given any command or leave from God to go out and kill or torture
those who do not believe the gospel we preach. We're to pray
for them. We're to preach the gospel to
them. We're to talk to them. We're to warn them to flee from
the wrath to come, but we're never to take up arms against
them. That's Muslim theology. Go out and kill them. But we're
never to do that. We simply preach the gospel.
He says, let them both grow together. First of all, let me give you
this point. There are some who are so close to the truth that
in our attempts to pluck them up, we could be mistaken. You
remember in Matthew 24, he talks about in the last days, he says
some will be even so close that if it were possible, they could
deceive the very elect. Secondly, listen to this, as
long as this world is existing, God still has some sheep that
he has yet to call into the fold, isn't that right? Where are some
of them now? They're out there in the world,
still deceived by Satan until God reveals Himself. In our attempts
to go pluck up the tares, you think we might get a few of them?
Now I know all of God's elect are going to be saved, don't
get me wrong. They're going to come into the fold. But there's
some of God's true children who are still lost in their sins
and residing among the tares at present. So what are we to
do? Preach the Gospel. And one thing this brings to
our mind is the necessity of understanding the difference
between the wheat and the tares. And I'm going to talk about that
next week. What are we to do? Well, basically two things. Number
one, let's make sure that we're able students of the word of
God so that we can know the difference between what we're hearing, whether
or not it's the truth or a lie. That's number one. I want to
make sure that I'm preaching to you the truth and not a lie.
You want to make sure that I'm doing that. You want to test
the preachers. And secondly, we're to examine
ourselves to see whether we be in the faith. Don't be content
with just a profession of religion. But seek the word of God. Am
I really looking to Christ alone for all my salvation? That's
what that self-examination is all about. We'll look at that
next week.