Now open your Bibles with me
to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. We'll begin
this morning in verse 24 on this subject. The mystery of wheat
and tares. The mystery of wheat and tares. Now remember these are the kingdom
parables. Parables are illustrations. They're used to illustrate and
instruct and enlighten the people of God. Those who have come to
the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation believe in him by the power of
the Holy Spirit have been brought by God to repentance of dead
works. Remember what the Matthew chapter
three there the brother Randy read you know how John the Baptist
confronted the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He said, bring
forth fruits that are appropriate to repentance. And that repentance,
you know the issue of repentance, that's a subject that men and
women need to be taught about today. Usually when they think
of repentance, they think of just mere reformations of life
and conduct, and those are needed. Certainly, I mean, we wouldn't
belittle those, but you know, a person can go through great
reformations of life and conduct and still not repent, still not
come to the repentance of life, which comes from looking to Christ
and Him crucified. But these parables are illustrations
of these very things. But another reason these parables
were given, remember this, they were used to confound and expose
unbelief remember what he told the disciples back in Matthew
13 verse 12 he said for look at it again for whosoever hath
to him shall be given hath what have eternal life salvation the
light of the glory of God and he shall have more abundance
that's not a stagnant state at all there's a there's a Blessings
from God untold. There's growth in grace and in
knowledge of Christ. All of those things and all by
the grace of God. Just like when we read about
The good ground here in verse 23, it says, they bring forth
fruit. Those who are saved by the grace
of God, redeemed by the blood, regenerated by the spirit, they
bring forth fruit, some hundredfold, some 60, some 30. They're different
degrees of growth, different rates of growth. He's not talking
about a competition here, you know, that I'm gonna beat you
in this race or something like that. That's not what it is.
This is the foreordained will of God. work of God. And if God has foreordained that
the Apostle Paul, for example, would bring forth more fruit
than me or you, that's up to him. I'm not in competition with
Paul. Paul's a sinner saved by grace, isn't that right? And
when we enter glory together, we will all equally be on the
same plane because we'll have one thing to plead, and that's
the righteousness of Christ as our whole salvation. Nothing
else. We're not gonna be there talking
about how much we've done for the Lord. If you wanna read about
people who talk like that, go to Matthew 7, verses 21 through
23. Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied
in your name? Lord, Lord, haven't we cast out
demons? Lord, Lord, haven't we done many
wonderful works? And what did he say to them?
Depart from me. I never knew you, you that work
iniquity. You see, what we do for, and
let me say it this way. Should we be obedient children? Yes. Should we do everything
we can to promote the glory of God, the honor of God, to be
the best we can be? Yes. But none of that contributes
to or adds to or makes up any part of the righteousness by
which we stand before God. That's all Christ. Isn't that
right? That's all of Jesus Christ. So
when we talk about fruit in these parables, that's mainly what
we're talking about. Now he's talking about something
different here, a little different here in the parable of the tares
and the wheat. But go back to Matthew 13 verse
12. He says, but whosoever hath not,
now he's talking about unbelievers, from him shall be taken away
even that he hath. Well, what does he have? Well,
he may have the light of nature. He may have a Bible in his hand.
He may have all kinds of blessings on this earth, privileges. But
without Christ, it's all temporary. That's what he's saying. It's
all going to be taken away. You think about the Pharisees
and the Sadducees. They were Israelites. They worshipped
at the temple. They had the Old Testament, the
books of Moses, the prophecies, the Psalms, they had these things.
And they had privileges. Think about the, there was like
1500 years between Mount Sinai and the cross. That was the time
of the old covenant. And think about how they were
privileged above other nations. Not because of their works or
their goodness or anything about them. It was just simply the
sovereign will and purpose of God. Isn't that right? And he
told them that. He said, I didn't choose you
because you were greater or better than any other people. It was
just God's sovereign choice. And you can wrestle all you want
with, well, why did God choose them and not the Hittites and
the Amalekites and all those otherites? But I'll tell you what, I don't
know, other than it was just God's sovereign purpose. I know
this, it wasn't because they were better than the Hittites
and the Amalekites and the otherites, because they weren't. But they
were privileged. Paul speaks of that in Romans
3 and Romans 9, what they did have, they had the oracles of
God, the word of God. But what happened? It was all
taken away. Why was it taken away? Because
they believed not on the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't submit
to His righteousness. They sought righteousness, as
it were, by works of the law, and not by faith, not by looking
to Christ as their righteousness. And that's what he's talking
about. Verse 13 of Matthew 13, Therefore speak I to them in
parables. This is why I'm speaking to them in parables. You see,
if you don't know Christ, if you don't know the gospel of
His grace, let me tell you about these parables. They're nothing
but confusion to you. Now you may not know that, but
if you don't see Christ in the Scriptures, you can read it from
Genesis to Revelation, you can memorize it, you can quote it,
you can carry it around in your pocket, but if you don't see
Christ in these Scriptures, you do not know the Scriptures. Isn't
that right? So therefore I speak to them
in parables. Actually, you can say it this way. The parables
were a judgment of God against those who rejected Christ. And he says, because they see
and see not. They've got physical eyes, they've got a mind, but
they don't see. What did Christ tell Nicodemus
in John 3? You must be born again or you
cannot what? See the kingdom of God. They
have eyes, but they don't see. They see not. They don't have
eyes to see. Hearing they hear not, neither
do they understand. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. And I read that, and I thank
God every day that the Son of God hath come and given us an
understanding that we may know Him that is true. Do you understand
these things? I think I mentioned this last
time, that means to stand under. That means I'm submitting to
what God says, not what I think, not what you think, not what
man thinks, not the opinions of men. I submit to what God
says. I stand under it. Well, if you
understand these things, you realize that you are blessed,
don't you? You realize that the understanding
that you have is not owing to your intelligence. And I'll be
honest with you, I think we've got a pretty intelligent group
here. I really do. I'm not just saying that. But
you understand that the understanding that he gives is not just owing
to your intelligence. It's not owing to your goodness.
It's not owing to your pliability. What do you mean by that? Well,
it wasn't because you were less stubborn, less rebellious than
the one who doesn't understand. It's a total 100% free gift of
God's grace. That hymn that we sang at Calvary. The chorus starts
out, mercy there was great. And I always think about this
when I sing that song. Oh, mercy is great if you know
what mercy really is. But mercy there was great, at
the cross, at Calvary. And it says grace was free. And
I always think this way when I sing it. Is there any other
kind? Is there any kind of grace that's not free? In reality,
no, but there are churches and people who believe and preach
a grace that is not free. They preach a salvation conditioned
on the sinner. That's not free. And in reality,
they're not preaching grace. They're preaching works, because
Paul dealt with that in Romans 11. Well, he says, therefore I speak
to them in parables. They don't see, they don't hear,
they don't understand. In verse 14, this is the fulfillment
of what God prophesied. Well, look over at verse 24. This parable here, of the wheat
and tares is in conjunction with the parable of the sower and
the seed. The parable of the sower and
the seed, you remember, that was about the gospel preached
to every creature and the different grounds that it falls on. Remember,
you had the wayside here, the stony ground here, and the thorny
ground here. Those are unbelievers and how
they react to the gospel. Some want to hear nothing about
it. Some receive it for a little while, and then persecution comes,
they leave it. Some receive it for a while, and then the cares
of the world and the seedfulness of riches take over, choke it
out. But there was the good ground hearer. Verse 23, but he that
received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word,
the word, that seed is the word, preached in the power of the
Spirit here. And the good ground is the ground that's prepared
by the Holy Spirit. in the new birth, conviction
of sin and righteousness and of judgment. It's the heart,
the new heart. Ezekiel spoke of that. Jeremiah
spoke of it. God said, I'll give them a new
heart, a new spirit, like a heart transplant. In other words, he doesn't just,
like me, they put stents in me. He didn't just put stents in,
he gives them a new heart. And he says, he hears the word,
he understandeth it. That's a saving understanding
of how God saves sinners, isn't it? How God justifies the ungodly. Remember over in Romans 10 how
he said that Israel that rejected Christ, they were not submitted
to God's righteousness. They were going about to establish
one of their own. They weren't submitted to Christ
as the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believed. Well,
these people, this good ground here, the born again person is
one who hearing the gospel understands this situation that God is holy
and he must punish sin and that I'm a sinner. And there's nothing
about me, nothing in me, nothing that comes from me that can recommend
me unto God. And I'm talking about my best.
My best is worst. My best is not good enough. It
will not equal righteousness. It always falls short. And therefore,
I understand that if I'm going to stand before God, not guilty
and righteous in His sight, I need a substitute. I need a surety.
I need one who can satisfy God's justice in my stead and stand
in my place and advocate for me. That's what I need. And I
understand from God's Word that there's only one person in this
whole universe, in the history of this world, that can meet
those qualifications, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, God the
Son incarnate. God the Son in human flesh. And
if I understand that, it's God the Holy Spirit that gave me
that understanding in the new birth. And therefore comes forth
fruit, the fruit of faith, the fruit of repentance, the fruit
of the Spirit, and other fruit that glorifies God. Now this
parable here in verse 24, the parable of the wheat and the
tares, shows the harvest at the end of the world when Christ
separates his true people from all others, especially false
Christians, what he's talking about. And that's why I had Brother
Randy read this passage from Matthew 3 when John the Baptist
when he's talking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees here. And he
told them, he said, bring forth fruits of meat for repentance.
Now what he's telling the Pharisees and the Sadducees is you need
to repent of your religion. Now these Pharisees and Sadducees,
they were the super moral majority of their day. Pharisees especially,
you know, they read the scriptures. The Sadducees, they were more
of a political group. They would be like the liberals
of today, and the Pharisees would be more like the fundamentalists,
the conservatives in religion. And he's telling them, you need
to repent of your religion. Well, what was wrong with their religion?
They thought salvation was something that they earned or deserved
because of three things. Number one, They were physical
descendants of Abraham. That's why he says that salvation
and the new birth is not of bloods. It doesn't matter your physical
pedigree. You may be purebred Jew. That doesn't matter. That doesn't
recommend you unto God. If you think that makes you righteous,
that's wicked thinking. And then they thought that they
were children of God because of their physical circumcision.
Paul wrote that in Christ, he said, God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross, the person and work of Christ, and
he said, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said, in
Christ, circumcision means nothing. Physical circumcision has nothing
to do with salvation, with righteousness, with the forgiveness of sin,
or with spiritual life. And then their third claim was
that they kept the law of Moses. Well, they didn't, but they claimed
they did. And Christ said in the book of
John, chapter 5, he said, Moses will be your judge. In other
words, the one you think that is your salvation will be your
judge and condemn you. He said, if you'd believed Moses
and followed his teaching, you'd have believed me. Moses wrote
of Christ. And that's what he's telling
us. And that's why he says here, think not to say in yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. How do you know good? We're going
to be talking about the seed of Abraham here in just a second.
And he said, don't think to claim Abraham as your father, that
means you're righteous before God or you're recommended unto
God. He said, he said, now I lay the axe to the root of the trees. In other words, what you are
saying at roots you in what you call salvation will do you no
good. That's going to be cut down.
You think you're a beautiful tree, but you're not. And then he tells them that Christ
is going to come. He's got his fan in his hand
and he'll thoroughly purge his floor. That's what this parable
is about. Look at it, Matthew 13, 24. He says, another parable put
he forth unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened
unto a man which sow good seed in his field. Now the seed here
is a different word than the word seed in the parable of the
sower and the seed. But let's read the parable and
I'll get to that. He says, verse 25, but while
men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and
went his way. But when the blade was sprung
up, when they grew up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the
tares also. The tares were revealed. Now
the fruit. And he says, So the servants
of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou, didst
not thou sow good seed in thy field? Now remember that word
seed's a different word in the original than the word seed in
the parable of the seed and the sower. Now didn't you sow good
seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?
Where did these tares come from? Verse 28, he said unto them,
an enemy hath done this. The servant said unto him, wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? Do you want us to go
out and gather the tares and throw them into the fire? That's
what the implication is here. Verse 29, but he said, nay, no,
don't do that, lest while you gather up the tares, you root
up also the wheat with them. And he says in verse 30, let
both grow together until the harvest. Remember John the Baptist
spoke of the harvest, the threshing floor. He said, 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.
There's the parable. Now turn over to verse 36. And we'll come back and get the
verses in between here. But in verse 36 it says, Then
Jesus sent the multitude away. There was a multitude of people
there listening to him. He sent them away and now he's
just talking to his disciples. Now some say this is just the
12 disciples. Some say there were others there.
It doesn't matter. He's talking to his disciples, his followers.
And his disciples came unto him saying, Declare unto us the parable
of the tares of the field. Now this is what he said. Here's
the meaning of it. He answered in verse 37, he answered and
said unto them, he that soweth the good seed is the son of man.
Now, who's the son of man? That's Christ. Christ is the
sower of this seed. He says the field is the world.
Now, this is the whole world now. Some say, well, this parable
of the wheat and the tares, that's talking about within the church.
Well, he says the field is the world and not the church. He says, the good seed are the
children of the kingdom. That's the truly saved, the true
children of God. Now are we the sons of God, John
said. But the tares are children of
the wicked one, that's Satan. The enemy that sold them is the
devil, the accuser of the brethren. The harvest is the end of the
world. The reapers are the angels. These are the messengers of God,
the instruments of his destruction in the end of the world. Verse
40, as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire,
so shall it be in the end of this world. So what's he talking
about? He's talking about the end of the world, his second
coming. Verse 41, the son of man shall send forth his angels
and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend
and them which do iniquity." You might have this in your concordance
when it says all things that offend is scandal. That's what the product of a
false gospel is a scandal. And then he says in verse 42,
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire there shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth Verse 43, then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. That's
the wheat. They're called the righteous. How are they righteous?
By the grace of God through the imputed righteousness of Christ.
And he says, who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Now, let's
first, let's talk about the wheat. That's the good seed. Now, as
I said, in the first parable, the seed was the word of the
kingdom. It was the gospel. The Apostle
Peter spoke of that, that we're born again by the Word of God. The Gospel preach, the Holy Spirit
uses the Gospel to give life to his people in regeneration
and conversion. That's how we gain that understanding,
that eyes to see, ears to hear. Blessed are your eyes, they see.
Blessed are your ears, for they hear. Remember he said, who has
ears to hear, let him hear. Do you have ears to hear? Do
I have ears to hear? And that word seed in the parable of the
seed and the sower is like a seed of corn or something you plant
in the ground, like a farmer would plant in the ground, and
it'll grow. It's like a spore. But the word
here is a different word. The word seed here in this parable
means children, offspring, generation even. His generation, the children
of God generated by the Lord Jesus Christ that came out of
His death on the cross. In one passage, the same word
is translated issue. That's the child that comes forth
when a woman has a baby. It's her issue. And that's what
this word seed means. Christ himself was first described
as what? The woman's seed. Genesis 3.15. Speaking of his humanity, he
was referred to in Galatians 3.16 as the seed of Abraham because
it was through Abraham And then, in Romans 1, as the seed of David,
actually in 2 Samuel 7, 12, in Romans 1, he was described as
the seed of David. That is, his holy, sinless humanity,
born of the Virgin Mary, the seed of Abraham, the seed of
David, the seed of woman, the child. That holy thing, as the
angel described it. That's not a term that's derogatory.
In fact, it's a term of uniqueness. There was never been anyone like
him and never will be anyone like him afterward. Jesus Christ,
God with us, Emmanuel. It's sinless humanity. He says
here in verse 38 that the good seed, they're the children of
God. The son of man is the one who sows them. Because the Son
of Man, Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, is the only one who
can sow good seed. You can't sow good seed. What
I mean by that, we can preach the gospel, but we can't make
a child of God. Only God can do that. I can tell
you the way of salvation, but I can't save you. Only Christ
can save you. I can tell you what eternal life
is and what it's about as the scripture tells us, but I can't
give you life. I can't give you a new heart.
Only God can do that, isn't that right? We witness to people and
we pray that God will give them a new heart, don't we? We pray
that God will give them life. All we can do is just preach
it out, speak it out, point the way. Now John the Baptist said
that, remember over there in Matthew chapter 3? He said in
verse 11, he said, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance,
but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes
I'm not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. In other words, John's saying
I can preach to you, I can take you in the Baptistry and I can
baptize you, but I can't give you the gift of life. I can't
change your heart, I can't regenerate you, I can't convert you, I can't
make you believe what I'm saying. Only God can do that. So he says
the Son of Man sows the seed. Only Christ can make a child
of God. And he does it by the grace of
God. He brings them into the possession of God, as they are
already possessed of God in divine electing grace before the foundation
of the world, but he brings them into by adoption, the adoption
of grace, and he does it legally by his death on the cross, wherein
he was made sin and where made the righteousness of God in him.
And then he does it in regeneration by sending his spirit forth into
the world under the preaching of the gospel, to bring them
out of the world and into God's family. That's a work of God. He's the Savior of His people,
and all who are saved are His offspring. They're His issue. They're His generation. They're
His seed. Christ sends the Holy Spirit
to plant the seed of the word in their hearts and they're born
again as true children of God. Now let me show you some scripture
on that and you may not have time to turn to all these but
I just want to show you several ones. First one is in Psalm 22.
In Psalm 22. See this seed are the true children of God.
True believers, truly saved, truly righteous in God's sight
based on the righteousness of God imputed to them, truly washed
clean by His blood. They're not fake. They're not
false Christians. Alright? Psalm 22, the psalm
of the cross. Here's the result of what happened
when Christ died on the cross. Look at verse 30. Because Christ
died and established the only righteousness whereby God can
be just and justifier, he says in verse 30, a seed shall serve
him. That's his children. It shall
be accounted to the Lord for a generation. This is his generation. They shall come and shall declare
his righteousness. You see it? How do you know you're
a child of God? You declare his righteousness
and not your own. You see, the Pharisees, the Sadducees,
many religions today, they declare their own righteousness, what
I did for God, or what I do for God. We declare His righteousness,
His righteousness imputed. And he says, unto a people that
shall be born that he hath done this, this is the work of God.
Salvation by grace, by grace you're saved through faith, that
not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works lest any
man should boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto, not because of, unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. That's what they declare. Let me show you another one,
look at Isaiah 45. This is where God declares Himself
to be a just God and a Savior. And He commands, through the
prophet Isaiah, for sinners, look unto Me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, there is none else. And He says in verse 25, Look
at verse 24 of Isaiah 45. He says, Surely shall one say,
In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory. That's his children. In the Lord. Justified. One more in the Old
Testament. Look at Isaiah 53. I could show you many more of
these, but there's... These are just some prime examples. Isaiah
53, verse 10. And of course, you know Isaiah
53 talks about the substitutionary work of Christ, his suretyship,
the suffering lamb of God who bore our sins. And it says in
verse 10, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, that's the
father bruising the son, for the sins of his people imputed
to him. He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his sow
and offer him for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He's going to see his seed. In other words, all for whom
he died, he's going to see them. They're going to come forth by
the power of God as children of God. No stillborn children
here. That's what he's saying. everyone
for whom he died. Let me show you, well, let's
just go to Galatians 3. This is in the New Testament.
And I'm just making this point now. I want it to be sealed in
our minds that this seed, they're the children of God. That's what
the word means. Like the word seed in the parable
of the seed, it's spora. The word seed in this parable
is sperma, and it means children. But look at Galatians chapter
3. He says in verse 26, look at Galatians 3, 26. He says,
for you're all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
How do you come to faith in Christ Jesus? By the power of the Spirit.
He says, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ. That word baptized there means
to be placed into Christ. You're in union with Christ.
And he says in verse 28, there's neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor
free, there's neither male nor female, and you're all one in
Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, if you
belong to Christ, then are you Abraham's seed, his children,
children of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise. Now,
I am not a physical descendant of Abraham, but I am spiritually
connected with Abraham in one way. And what way is that? That's right. We've been born
again by the Spirit and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what he's talking about. The good seed. Now go back to
the parable. And I could show you others. There's one more
I want to show you, but I'm running out of time. And I want to spend
some time on that. And just to give you a heads
up, if you want to read ahead of time, it's 1 John chapter
3. His seed shall remain. That's his children. But we'll
look at that next week. But go back to the parable now.
or the meaning of the parable in verses 36. He says, these
are the tares. Now, let me just say this about
the tares this morning. I'll deal with them more next
week. That word tares is the word darnel, d-a-r-n-e-l. That's the way we would transliterate
it into English. And what that is, it's a plant,
a weed, that looks like wheat. It has that. In fact, it's indistinguishable,
indistinguished from wheat. You can't tell the difference
until it's fully grown. And it's also the only species
of grass that has poisonous seeds. That's what that tare is. And
what is he talking about? I'll tell you exactly what he's
talking about. He's talking about false Christians. false Christians
throughout the world. Some of them are easy to expose. We can talk about different ones,
and I'll talk about some more of them next week, but talk about
the cults, things like that. There are false Christians who
just pretty much claim to believe salvation is by your works. That
doesn't fool us. That doesn't fool a believer.
Anybody who claims salvation is by works, and claims to be
a Christian, what are they? They're false Christians. Some
are a little more subtle. In fact, Christ warned of that
in the last days. He said they'll come saying,
here's Christ, there's Christ. He said some will be so close
that if it were possible, they could deceive the very elect.
And what Christ is telling the disciples here is this. Well,
should we just go out there and get rid of them? Should we use
our physical means and our view of it to get rid of them? He
says, no, don't do that. He said, you just preach the
gospel and I'll do the rest. You see, we have no mandate from
Christ to go out here and physically force or get rid of anybody who
doesn't agree with us. That's Muslim theology. That's
not Christian. See, our mandate is to preach
the gospel and pray for their salvation. We don't go uproot. Now that doesn't mean we speak
peace to them now. We don't speak peace where there's
no peace. And I'll get into more of that next week. But that's
what he's talking, he's talking about the difference. As Christ
is going about in the world through the preaching of the gospel,
bringing his sons into the kingdom, Satan is going about making false
Christians. And there's a lot to be said
about that. We'll talk about it, all right? Okay.