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Online Text Sermon - The Parable of the Tares, Matthew ch.13 vv.24-30

Date02/12/2001
Time18:30
PreacherRev. Maurice Roberts, Inverness
Sermon TitleThe Parable of the Tares (End Missing)
TextMatthew ch.13 vv.24-30
Sermon ID358

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"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" (Matthew 13, 24-25).

This chapter in Matthew's Gospel consists of a number of parables taught by the Lord Jesus Christ. I think when you go home and count up how many parables there are in this chapter, you will agree that there are in fact seven, of which, this one we are looking at tonight, is the second. The first one we call the parable of the sower, and it is rather similar to the one we are looking at now. We must be careful not to confuse these two. We are not now looking at the parable of the sower but at a parable called The Wheat and the Tares. The word 'tares' means weeds. I shall try to say something about these weeds a little later on. So this is the second parable in the chapter where Jesus talks about the wheat and the tares.

Let me tell you again what a parable is. A parable is an earthly story which has a heavenly meaning. There are two parts to a parable; there is, first of all, the earthly story then, secondly, there is the heavenly meaning. Of course, it is all too easy just to listen to the story but not to understand the meaning. In this chapter that I read to you, Jesus gives first of all the story - in verses twenty-four to thirty; then beginning at verse thirty-seven down to forty-three, He gives us the meaning, the interpretation. Then you notice, right at the very end of all of that at verse forty-three, Jesus says, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (v. 43), which is another way of saying that it is important that you should understand not simply the story but the meaning of the story. We all have ears to hear the story but not everybody has ears to hear the meaning - that's different. So when our Lord says, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (v. 43), He means that we need to listen, not only with our outward ears, but with our heart and understand what God is teaching - the spiritual teaching and meaning, the religious importance of the story. There are many stories that have no importance or meaning; for instance, the programmes on radio and television which are called 'soap operas' - they are on weekly and sometimes even daily. Soap operas are stories which follow fictitious families in their daily lives - farming or running a public house or similar. The scripts have no real meaning; it is just fictional entertainment to keep people listening to the programme. A parable is different. A parable is not simply entertainment. A parable is to teach us important, spiritual, religious lessons and that is what our Lord is doing here.

It is so important to listen to the Word of God. That is what our Lord means when He says - "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (v. 43). You and I must ask ourselves if, when we are listening to the Bible being explained, we are really listening and hearing, or, are we simply hearing somebody's voice echoing round the room. That is no way to listen to the Word of God. We are to be asking God all the time that we might receive understanding. It is all too easy to sit in a church building or a room listening to the Word of God and thinking that it is very nice to sit and listen to someone talk for a little while. That is not enough! - "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear" (v. 43). The way to listen to the Word of God is to be asking the Lord all the time to teach you things which you do not know so that you may learn the lessons of the Gospel.

What then does this parable of the wheat and tares have to teach us? Look at verse twenty-four: "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field" (text). The interpretation for that you find beginning in verse thirty-seven: "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man" (text) - that is to say, Jesus Christ; so the parable is of someone who is sowing seed. In these days you would have had the basket in your left arm and your right hand would have been used to broadcast the seed with a sweep of the arm. You would have walked along the field releasing the seed in an arc movement; this is called sowing seed. Today it is done mechanically with tractors and so on but in Bible times it was done as I have said. Our Lord is referring to something that everybody had seen happening.

The spiritual meaning is this: "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man" (text) - Jesus Christ; Christ is sowing this seed. The good seed refers to Christians - they are His good seed. Christ is putting Christians into this world. In the days when He was speaking, the only good people were in Palestine - not all the Jews but some of them. After the day of Pentecost there were more; in the days of the apostle Paul, more still. The Gospel came to Europe, England and Scotland. Over the centuries the Gospel has been going to various countries more and more. This parable, therefore, has been happening literally over the centuries and it is still happening today. It is Jesus Christ who is sowing Christians in the earth. How good and how kind Christ is, placing His own children in this world. Christians are men and women who are converted, who have grace in their hearts; they are people who are holy, loving and kind. It is the greatest blessing that could possibly be given to society because where Christians are there in plenty then the influence is good. People learn the importance of living the Christian life by the example of others. Christians are called the 'salt of the earth' and the 'light of the world' because they are the ones who point other people to God and show them the way to be saved, to read the Bible, to pray and to come to church. When there are many Christians in any society it is a great blessing. There can't be too may Christians in a society. Where there are very many of them then a society becomes happy and strong; people are full of neighbourliness and kindness to one another - they help one another. When there are very few Christians then the opposite happens - the world becomes like a jungle again and the law of the jungle prevails.

There are many lessons to be learned from our Lord telling us that He puts Christians into this world and one of them is that we should never make too much of ministers. There are some people who are all too ready to say a great deal about ministers: one minister has so many converts, another has so many followers. Let's forget all of that. The only important thing is that Christ is the one who can make a Christian. We can't as ministers make anyone a Christian. We can speak and explain and preach, but only Christ can make Christians. We mustn't therefore make too much of ministers; it is Christ who does the work ultimately. Every true preacher knows that.

How then does Christ put these Christians into the world? It is said here in our text that it is the Son of man - that is Jesus Christ - who sows the good seed in the earth. How does Christ sow Christians into the earth? He does it by converting them to Himself. He does it by bringing to them the Gospel message and the Gospel message is a very simple one - you don't have to be clever to understand it. You don't have to go to university to be able to understand the Gospel; it is as easy as ABC. Let me give you the Gospel in ABC: A=accept that you are a sinner; B=believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and C=change from the kind of person you have been - living in the world - to the kind of person you ought to be, living for God. That is what a Christian is. He doesn't change himself, of course; it is the power of God that makes the change. However, our duty is to change and by the grace of God that is how Christians become believers: by this wonderful Gospel message. The Gospel tells us that Jesus Christ has died for our sins upon the cross; He died to take our sins away. He shed His blood upon the cross in order to remove our sin. There is no other way to get rid of your sin but only by believing in the blood of Christ. That is how Jesus Christ makes people Christians. There are all sorts of different ways whereby people become Christians but in the end it is all in the same way - through the Gospel.

Just before I came out to the church service I was reading a very good book. I hope you are all readers and read good books. When reading my book I came across a very interesting story as to how one man was brought to become a Christian, which is what we are talking about. His name was Martin Madden and he lived some years ago now. He was converted in a very unusual way. He was a clever man and he had a gift for acting - what we would call a mimic; he could imitate other people. One day Martin Madden went to where there was a very famous preacher - John Wesley. He went to listen to him and to watch him. He didn't intend to listen to the sermon but he went to watch how Mr. Wesley moved his arms so he could copy him and hear his voice so he could mimic him. As John Wesley was preaching he put some words of the Bible before the people: "prepare to meet thy God" (Amos 4, 12). Martin Madden was shaken by these words - he had never thought of this before: you have to prepare to meet God. When Martin Madden went home to his own friends they asked him how Wesley preached - they wanted him to mimic Wesley. Martin Madden said he couldn't. He said that he had tried to imitate him but he was struck down by the Word of God. He became himself a true Christian. He had been a scoffer and an unbeliever. He thought of all the things of God as being nonsense but when he heard John Wesley preaching he was changed. That is just one of very, very many different cases that you could show of how God makes people Christians - but it is Christ who does that; it is Christ who sows the good seed.

The next thing you see in the parable is this: "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way" (text). You have the picture now - this good man has a field and he sows it with good seed - wheat. When he and his servants go to bed at night, and enemy who hates him comes with a big basket of bad seed - tares, what we call darnel. When the darnel begins to grow in the early stages it looks very much like the wheat - you can't tell them apart when they are just an inch or two out of the ground. It is only when they grow bigger and begin to show their fruit that you can tell the difference.

This is a real custom - this is what people used to do in early days. If they hated a farmer they could spoil his crop by going at night to spoil his crop by scattering darnel seeds all over the field where the wheat had been sown. There are cases of that that we know about. It is literally something that was done in Bible days. That is what Jesus Christ is using here in this parable as part of His illustration. What does He mean? Who is this enemy? - "The enemy that sowed them is the devil" (v.39). Do you believe in the devil? You say you believe in God; I know you do but do you believe in the devil? There is not only God who is a good and a holy Spirit but there is a wicked spirit - an evil angel - and his name is Satan or the devil. Christ here is telling us about him. What are we being told? We are being told that the devil sows rotten seed into the field and the field is this present world. What does He mean? He means that the devil produces false Christians. He creates in society and in churches a situation in which people appear to be Christians but they are not real Christians, they are false Christians - people who are not really born again at all and yet profess to be; they can be members, elders, deacons, ministers or bishops. It is the devil who craftily sows these evil persons into the world and they do great harm.

I want you to notice the order of things. First Christ goes into the world sowing the good seed. After Him comes the devil sowing the bad seed and that has always been the case. Wherever Christ goes the devil goes after Him. You can see that very clearly whenever you read anything to do with the history of churches. Very few churches remain good and sound and pure for very long - maybe one hundred or one hundred and fifty years. Very few colleges remain good and sound and pure - preaching the Word of God and teaching it. What happens is that Christ gives good ministers and good elders and good people to a church and so it goes on for some hundred years or so. However, as sure as you are there, the devil will come later and sow these bad seeds into the ground. I don't know any church in the world of which this is not true - the devil is very, very busy. Notice also when it happens! It happens when men are asleep. Did you notice that point? When men were sleeping his enemy came and sowed tares.

Now that is a very great lesson for real Christians. It is a lesson for those of us who are preachers, of course; it's a lesson for the elders and for everybody who is an alive, real, spiritual Christian. The lesson is that we mustn't sleep; we must keep our eyes open as believers and as Christians, by which we mean, of course, that we are to watch and pray. We are to watch what is happening in all the churches. We are to watch what is being taught from the pulpit. If you hear things taught from the pulpit that are not the Word of God, then you must say, "Be careful now; I hear the voice of the devil getting in here! I am hearing something being taught today which I never heard from the bible before." When you hear that you can see the footsteps of the devil getting into the pulpit. Or, books that are written that aren't according to the Bible. If people aren't careful and sharp-witted they will be taken in by these things. Often they are very clever; let me give you an example referring to a city I know from my childhood - Manchester. At the beginning of the twentieth century Manchester used to have a very good college where they taught students for the ministry. These young ministers used to go all over the country preaching the Word of God to multitudes of people. They got a new Professor who was a brilliant man. When he was invited to preach in these churches of his connection, he would preach the Gospel because he knew very well that is what the people expected. He could use the good old-fashioned rousing phrases that he had heard from his childhood: the need to repent and believe in Christ and be saved.

But here is the point - when he was behind his desk in the college teaching the students, he used to teach them to doubt and deny the Bible. We call it liberalism or modernism. He was one of those. He didn't believe the Bible himself. When he was in the pulpit, of course, he pretended to because he knew if he didn't the people would spot him and expose him for a hypocrite. However he didn't do that; he was too clever. When preaching, he would give them what they expected to hear, but when he was preaching to the students in the college, he gave them this poison. He killed the whole denomination - they just faded into nothing. What had happened was that the leaders had fallen asleep. They should have recognised what was happening in Manchester in other places but they didn't do so. While men slept the enemy came and sowed these tares. These tares are worldly people who don't know Christ, people who make a pretence of religion but they haven't got the power of godliness in their own lives. And so you see how true our Lord's words are.

The damage wasn't apparent for some time. It was only as the plants grew to a certain height that the damage was to be seen: "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? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest" (v.27-30). So then the devil is always trying to sow his false Christians in the world; that has been his great work all through history. If possible he puts them in places of influence where they can poison other people's minds and do great damage. It has always been the case. As you read history you will discover again and again this is the devil's message. Christ goes and sows godliness in the earth and we get a crop of converts - spiritual people. After a hundred years or so, along comes the devil and takes advantage of those who are half, if not fully, asleep; and he sows these false Christians into that situation. Both were growing together and it's not clear at first, is it? For some years you don't notice the difference. It is only as time goes on and the influence grows and grows you see the wide difference between these and those.

What is the difference? It is in the fruit; the fruit is the difference. When you are harvesting wheat, you have something which is good for you - beneficial, helpful, and health-giving. You make bread out of wheat but you can't make bread out of weeds! You try harvesting field of weeds and dandelions. Grind the dandelions up and try to make bread out of it and see how you get on. Try eating that for a day or two and you will be very thankful that God made such a thing as wheat. No, weeds don't feed people normally - there may be a few exceptions but not many. Most weeds or worthless and indeed poisonous and that is the trouble with the tares here - they were actually poisonous and gathered a fungus round them. This fungus was harmful to beasts that ate it and harmful therefore to man. So also is the false teaching these sons of the devil bring into churches when they are not watched and carefully weeded out.

What is the difference then between the true Christian and the false Christian? The difference is in their fruit, in their life. Christ Himself gave us this test - He said, "By their fruits ye shall know them" (7:20). The fruit of a true Christian is that he wants to please God and to keep His laws. Is that you? The fruit of a true Christian is that he believes what the Bible teaches and nothing else. Is that you? The fruit of a true Christian is that he loves his fellow Christians - he loves his brethren, his brothers and sisters in Christ. Is that you? Another test is that he is ready to suffer for Christ's sake; he is not ashamed at telling people he believes in Jesus Christ. Is that you; or are you ashamed? That is the difference between those who are Christ's and those who are sown by the devil into this world. It is a great difference. Somebody said in my hearing recently, "All Christian churches go the same way. The first generation is spiritual; the next generation is clever and the third generation is worldly." Isn't that so like what you see always in history - spiritual first, clever next, and then worldly. When it comes to that third category - worldliness - you know it is the devil who has been sowing them.

These servants then come to their master and ask if they should go in to the field and root out all the tares and gather them up and destroy them. Our Lord says, "No, don't do that in case whilst you root out the weeds, you damage also the good wheat. Let them both grow together until the harvest time." What He means by the 'harvest time' is the end of the world. I shall come back to that. My friends, our Lord is teaching that as long as we are in this world we mustn't expect any perfect church. I'm sure you know this very well-used expression people say to one another: "If you find a perfect church," they say, "don't join it - you'll only spoil it!" That is true. If we found a perfect church in this world and became members of it, then, of course, we would immediately spoil it because we are sinful. A perfect church would immediately be defiled if you or I joined it. There is no such thing as a perfect church; we are all sinners. A church is like a hospital - we are all rotten and ruined. However, if we are true Christians we are all being saved and prepared for the harvest. The point of having a church is it's a place where we are preparing for the harvest day - for the end of the world. Churches are set up here to gather people together, to look after their souls and to prepare them for the day of death, judgement and eternity. You mustn't expect perfection. So, alas, alas; that is the condition of every church. How true it is and you know it. You know how many weaknesses I have and you know you have some of your own. We all know one another's weaknesses and that is part of the humbling experience of being Christians in a church where we get to know one another. We are all cracked pots - every one of us! Everything about us is depraved and we are rotten sinners saved by grace.

If you are here tonight with the impression that Christians are like angels, almost sprouting wings to fly out of this world, let me assure you that that is not the case. We are very, very far from being perfect. But this is the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. A Christian has his sins forgiven by the blood of Christ. He believes in Christ and he knows that when he dies he will be perfect then. He knows that at the end of the world when he gets his body back in beauty and glory, he will be fully perfect then. He is on his way to heaven and he will be perfect in heaven. He will be absolutely like his Master in heaven. Alas we have not got there yet and we cannot pretend that we have; no matter how much holiness any one of us attains to - it is very imperfect. If you are afraid of joining a church because you think you are not good enough; let me assure you there is none good enough - we are all fallen sinners. Never let anything discourage you from coming to profess your faith in Christ anywhere; that is our greatest blessedness. So our Lord said, "Let both grow together until the harvest" (v.27-30). In every church there are both those who are Christians and those who simply look like Christians, and you and I couldn't possibly read men's' hearts. We don't have a magnifying glass to see into men's hearts - if we did then we could say that one belongs outside and another belongs inside. We can't do it, my friend. The most spiritual ministers in the world cannot tell infallibly who are the Lord's people and who are not. We have to leave that aspect of the church to Christ.

Our Lord says concerning the end, "Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye 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" (v.27-30). Then our Lord explains: "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, and them which do iniquity; And 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" (v.40-43). He is clearly talking here about the end of history. "In the end" (v.40), says Christ. Do you understand that the world is going to come to an end? It is not going to go on and on and on for ever. The Bible nowhere suggests that the world is going to go on without stopping - it is going to have an end. God is going to stop the world and bring it to an end.

When you have a play on a stage - not that I am an enthusiast for these things - every play comes to an end when the curtain falls. Well, my friends, this world and the history of this world is going to have an end. God is one day going to bring the curtain down on everything that has happened since the world began and that will be the end of history. We have got to understand that! Some people are very afraid of atomic bombs and nuclear explosions and what they call a 'chain reaction'. There was a lot of talk of this some years ago: if you had an atomic explosion big enough it would create a chain reaction - all the elements in the world would suddenly go on fire and the whole universe would blow up and come to its end. I won't happen that way. The end is going to come when God brings it to an end. We know what He is going to do. God is going to say to His angel in heaven to blow the trumpet. The last trumpet will sound and the angel will shout with a great shout. Everything will stop - all the clocks will stop; there will be no more time. Eternity will come and God will send out His angels to the four corners of the world. They will gather out first of all, all the wicked and godless and those who are not true believers. He is going to gather them all out like weeds from His garden to burn. That is what is going to happen to sinners and wicked men, women and children in the end of history: they will be gathered up and bound in bundles. There will be bundles of hypocrites, bundles of swearers, bundles of drunkards, bundles of adulterers, bundles of fornicators and bundles of child-abusers. Christ's angels will bind them in bundles and then they will cast them in to the lake of fire and brimstone. That is going to be the end of them. There they will suffer eternal punishment: "And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth" (v.42).

'Wailing' means crying and making a noise as you cry because of the pain you are in. That is why they are wailing, because they are in terrific pain in this fire. They are gnashing their teeth because the pain is so dreadful they don't know how to relieve themselves of it so they grind their teeth together with terrible, exquisite pain. That is going to go on in hellfire for ever, and ever and ever - never going to stop. It is what the Bible calls Hell; a place of everlasting fire. You understand it is not me saying that, if it was you could smile and say, "This preacher is going too far." No, no, my friends. I am not saying these things out of my own mind - it is Jesus Christ the Son of God, with all the authority of the Son of God and His perfect knowledge of things that are true. He is telling us of this terrible furnace in His love and kindness because He doesn't want to you to go there. He is warning us before the event - sounding an alarm bell and saying we must escape for our lives. There is only one thing we can do to escape and that is to repent of our sin and believe in Jesus Christ as our Saviour. If we do, Christ says that as a hen stretches out its wings over its brood, so He will put His wings over all His people to protect them from the fire that is to come; they will never be lost or perish but have everlasting life. The destiny of the wicked however is hellfire. These angels are the last ministers of Christ. Preachers today are not the last ministers - we won't have the last word. Our duty is to preach to sinners to turn to God in this life but the last ministers will be the angels. They won't be preaching but they will be finishing the job and making it perfect. Out of heaven will come millions and millions of angels to gather all the wicked up into bundles and in to the furnace they will go - "wailing and gnashing of teeth" (v.42).

O tell me my friends, as you listen to these words of Christ, does this not stir you up to seek God? Do you not realise the truth of this concern?


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