The Wheat and the Tares, Part 2b

We've been looking at the kingdom parables in Matthew chapter 13, where Christ explains to his disciples what the kingdom of heaven is going to be like. It's called the mystery. And he details for them what that mystery is going to be like, so they will have a better understanding of the kingdom of God, that is a spiritual kingdom. He began by telling them a parable concerning a certain sower, who went out to sow in his field. And he threw that, seed on four kinds of soil. Some of that soil was cold.

Others were crowded, others careless, and some, some were clean and became converted. And those converted hearts would bear fruit. That fruit that they would bear would be some 30-fold, some 60-fold, some 100-fold. And he let them know that the fruit that the true soil would bear would be noticeable. In the meantime, the true believer would coexist, would co-mingle with the false believer. There would be the wheat and the tears. And Christ would give another parable. He would tell them about how people would receive the gospel, and then he would tell them about what would happen throughout that kingdom age as some would be rejectors and some would be receivers that they would live together.

They would, of course, until the harvest, and at the end of the age, which is the harvest, the reapers who are, the angels would come and they would gather up the tears and they'd be burned. They'd gather up the wheat and they of course would go into their father's kingdom. And the disciples would then ask a question. They would want to know about this parable of the tears. Lord, if these people are going to reject you and they're not going to give their life to you anyway, why wait until the end of the age to rid the world of them?

Just get rid of them now. Why wait? But there's an important lesson that all of us need to learn. And that is that the children of the kingdom are to influence the children of the devil. They are to plead with them to come to Christ. They are to persuade them to be a part of God's glorious kingdom. But the disciples wanted to ask a question. Back to Matthew chapter 13, as to what we do with these people, and Christ says they're going to live together until the end of the age.

That's the harvest. We'll pick up the narrative in verse number 37, The one who sows the good seed is the son of man. That's the Messiah. And the field is the world. And as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom. And the tears are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. And the harvest is the end of the age. And the reapers are angels. The Lord is saying to his men, don't be impatient. You're going to want to be. You're not going to want to be around the world.

You're not going to want to be associated with the world. because of its evil and wickedness, but be patient. To the end of the age. That's the harvest time. It's the ultimate consummation of judgment. Christ would speak of it later on in Matthew chapter 13. When he says these words, verse number 40, therefore, just as the tears are gathered up and burn with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. Down in verse number 49, so it will be the end of the age. The ages will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous and will cast them into the furnace of fire and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

In Matthew chapter 24, verse number three, the disciples ask Christ the question, give us the signs of the end of the age.

What is it going to look like at the end? And of course, Christ gives what is called the all-event discourse that begins to explain to us, man, what's going to happen during the tribulational period. As you recall in Matthew chapter 28, Christ says that, lo, I will be with you.

Until the end of the age, until the consummation of the age, until the harvest time, I will be with you. Go into all the world, make disciples. Go into all the world. Preach the gospel. Go into all the world and baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Coexist with the tears. Share with them the good news of Jesus Christ. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end. of the age. In verse number 28, as you recall, in the parable, the servants asked the householder, wilt thou then that we should gather them together?

Should we pull up the weeds along with the weed? And Christ says, or the landlord says, no. Literally, Christ says, no, don't do that.

Because you can't always tell the wheat from the tears until the end. And if you go around pulling up all the tears, you might pull some wheat up with them, and you might hurt some people who are true believers, so don't do that. Wait to the end of the harvest, the end of the age. We as believers are not called to be executioners. We're not called to attack the unbeliever. We're called to attract the unbeliever. And that leads us to number six of point number two, and that is the reapers.

The reapers are the angels. The angels are intricately involved in the judgment of God. And so we see that at the end of the age, Christ is going to return. And those who have rebelled against him will be destroyed. And Jesus says, in the parable of the wheat and the tears, the angels will do the reaping.

It's their job to separate the wheat from the tears. It's not your job. You're to coexist with them. You're to co-mingle with them. And then, then we'll come to harvest. What leads us to the letter C under our first point, that is the summation.

It says in verse number 40 of Matthew 13, these words, it says, therefore just as the terrors are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. Son of man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom, all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire. In that place, there shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth. Christ says, this is the way it's going to happen.

They'll be separated, and the tears will be in a place where there is nothing but turmoil, the weeping and gnashing of teeth. But the wheat says this, verse number 43, then the righteous, the children of the kingdom, will shine forth as a son in the kingdom of their father. The Bible says that in verse number 41, that the Son of man will send forth his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom.

That's the earth. It's his kingdom. It's his world. And he will gather out of his kingdom those who have rebelled against him. The Bible says in 2nd Thessalonians 1.

Verse number 7, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of God. His power. That will be the destruction of those who have not followed the Lord Jesus Christ. Augustine said it this way, that the people in this gathering are like unclean animals in the same ark with the clean, goats in the same pasture as sheep, bad fish in the same net with good ones, chaff on the same floor as grained, vessels to dishonor in the same house with vessels to honor.

All those that have committed lawlessness will be destroyed. Who are those people? The Bible defines them for us. Over in Revelation 20, verse 21, excuse me, verse number 8, the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, immoral persons, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Over in Revelation 22, verse number 15, outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices lying. Over in 1st Corinthians 6, verses 9 in following in Galatians chapter 5 versus 19 of following, you have similar lists. People who habitually sin, who practice lawlessness, who desire to use their sin to be stumbling blocks for others. Those people who have no concern and no care for God and His kingdom, those are the tears that would be separated from the wheat and cast into everlasting destruction and there were death will be the most horrible death a man could ever experience and that's the death in fire.

Scriptures speak of it in Matthew 13 of burning weeds over in Matthew chapter 3 as the burning of chaff and John 15, the burning of barren branches in Joel chapter 1, verse number 19, the burning of trees. The idea is that the ungodly will be in this fire that burns forever and ever and ever at the end of the age. It tells us there'll be a place of grinding teeth and shrieking noises by these people who are suffering for all eternity. But for the wheat, oh, the righteous will shine forth as a son in the kingdom of their father.

Daniel 12.3, the Bible says that the righteous will shine as the stars. Over in Revelation chapter 21 and in Revelation chapter 22, you realize that we are able to behold the lamb of God. And in all of his glory, and the whole city of Jerusalem is illumined by his great light, which at this point is unapproachable to all men, because 1st 176 says that Christ dwells in unapproachable light, unapproachable glory. But in the end, when the weed are gathered together to go into the glorious kingdom, there they'll shine as stars, and they will glorify their great father.

This is the point number three, the implications. We've looked at the introduction, the instruction. What are the implications? Christ says these words.

He who has ears to hear? Let him hear. That's a great phrase. Well, of course we got ears. Everybody's got ears. He has ears? That's us. That's everybody. Let him hear. The point being, he's telling his men, are you listening to what I'm saying? He'll go on and give another parable. We'll talk about that next week. The parable, the parable, of the hidden treasure. But we'll go back to the mustard seed because he tells the parable in between these two, the soil and the wheat and the tears, so we'll take them in order.

But the point being is that he says, do you understand what I'm saying? Do you get the gist of what I'm talking about here? You need to understand this. I'm afraid most of us don't understand it. Most of us don't get it. And so let me give you four principles.

in terms of the implications of this parable for your life and for mine. The first one is this. If God is going to come back, and he is, at the end of the age, which is the harvest time, and the reapers are the angels, and the children of the kingdom are to coexist with the children of the devil, we need to make sure, number one, that we impact our environment.

We need to impact our environment. the place which God has called us to live out our spiritual existence. God has put you right where you want you. Remember the parable that the Bible says in Matthew chapter 13.

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. The seed was placed in certain areas in the seed of the children of the kingdom. And God has placed you in a certain place. I don't know where you're at. I don't know where you work. I know what some of you work. But I don't know what you do with your day. But God has put you in an environment. He has surrounded you with people. He's surrounded you with tears. And he expects you to impact that environment in a very significant way.

That's why Christ says in Matthew 5, verse number 16, that we are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. Christ states a fact. He doesn't give a command. I want you to be salt. I want you to be light. No, he states a fact, this is what you are. You are salt and you are light. Don't lose your saltiness and don't hide your light. But you must understand that this is what you are. Salt and light are the characteristic of Christians. We have at the innermost part of our nature light. Because God is light.

And we are partakers of the divine nature, correct? So therefore we are to shine as lights. In a world that's what? Dark. The environment you live in. in the environment you go to work at each and every week is a dark environment. Someone's got to turn the lights on. That's you. Someone's got to shake the salt and shine the light so people will know that there's a kingdom. There's a king who rules in that kingdom. And you are subject to that king. So you need to make sure that you stand for God. You shine for God.

You speak for God. You serve God. the place that God has planted you as his good seed. Jay Verna McGee said it this way. God did not call me to clean up the pond. He called me to fish out of the pond. God hasn't called you, listen, to clean up the culture. That's not our objective here. We're not here to clean the culture. What are we here to do? We are not even here to condemn the culture. We are here to condemn the culture. condemn sin. We are here to stand for righteousness, but we are here to tell people about Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And we need to impact our environment. Just think of it this way. God puts you in your high school, you're at junior high school, your college. He put Don Scott in his barbershop. He put Tom Mason at Edison, that place that charges me all that money every month. You know, put him there. People go to Don's office. He's in the barbershop, in the barbers chair for 35 minutes. he's got their undivided attention with scissors at the throat. Tom has a Bible study at his workplace telling people about Jesus Christ and the impact our environment.

The Bible tells us that we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of God's own possession, and we are to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's who we are. That's what God wants us to do. He wants us to impact our environment. How are you doing it that? How big a dent have you placed in your workplace? It's without question who you serve and why you serve. Number two, invite your enemies.

Impact your environment. Number two, invite your enemies. Who are the enemies? They're children of the devil. There are two kinds of people in the world. Children of the kingdom and children of the devil, right? The saints of the aides. So what do you do? You invite the enemies. You invite the enemy to church. You invite them to your home. You invite him to listen on the radio. You invite him at the dinner. Because you want to impact them with the saving grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord. I love over in Matthew chapter 22 what our Lord says.

He says the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for a son. He sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. And again, he sent out other slaves saying, tell those who have been invited. Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, and my fattened, are all butchered, and everything is ready. Come to a wedding feast, but they paid no attention, and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them, and killed them, and the king was in raids and sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.

They said to his slaves, the wedding is ready, but those who are invited, we're not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways. And as many as you find there invite to the wedding feast. And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good. And the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. It's a great parable. I wish I had time to go into it this evening. The point being is that we need to go out and invite the enemy to be a part of what we're doing.

So they may see the kingdom of God at work in our church, in our home, and in our lives. So important, we invite the tears to become wheat. That's our job. The parable, literally a tear can never become a wheat. Can't do that. But in the spiritual realm, God converts the sinner and makes them into And that's a great thing. So we invite the enemy. We impact our environment. Number three, we need to increase our efforts.

We need to increase our efforts in several ways. And I want to explain those to you in a moment. Jeremiah 10, verse number 10 says, The Lord is an everlasting king. 1st 171.17, it says that Christ is king eternal, the only wise God. Listen, the people you invite, the environment you impact, Those people need to know of the kingdom of God. They need to know there's a king. And the only way they're going to know that there's a king is because you are the servant of the king. Live in submission to that king.

And you are willing to do whatever the king says. That is increasing our efforts. We need to increase our efforts personally. That is, we need to make sure that if there's any area of our life that we are unsubmissive to our king in, that we deal with that. That's maybe hindering my ability to impact my environment, and invite my enemies to be a part of the kingdom of God. We need to increase our efforts prayerfully, prayerfully. We need to be people who are committed to praying. We can all recite the prayer, our Father, who art in heaven, hollow it be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Listen, when you pray thy kingdom come, you are saying, God, I want your rule to come to earth. Now, a lot of people don't even pray that way, because they're not too excited about God coming back to Earth right now.

But the bottom line is, the Lord said, I'm going to teach you how to pray. And whenever you pray, you should be consumed with the fact that I'm going to return and you should be begging me to come back. We need to increase our efforts prayerfully. We need to pray for God's kingdom, his rule to come to earth. They increase our efforts evangelistically, looking for more opportunities to share our faith, more opportunities to give a track to somebody else, more opportunities to invite them to come to church.

You must increase your efforts. And lastly, and lastly, imagine their eternity. Just imagine. Imagine their eternity. Over in Luke chapter 13, he was passing through 1st number 22 from one city and village to another, teaching and proceeding on its way to Jerusalem. And someone said to him, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? And Jesus says, strive.

Make every effort to enter by the narrow door. Do you know why you got to do that? Luke 16, verse number 16 tells you, when it says this, the law and the prophets were proclaimed until John, since then the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is foreseen his way into it. And Satan will do everything he can to keep you from giving your life to Christ, and there is a spiritual battle unbeknownst to us that is so great and so grand We can't even begin to understand it. Christ says, strive to enter by the narrow gate.

For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Many will. Not going to make it. And once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, open up to us. Then he will answer to say to you, I don't know where you are from. Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence. And you taught in our streets. Lord, let us in. And he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evil doers.

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. There when you, what, see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out. You know what that's a picture of? That's a picture of the great white throne judgment. In Revelation chapter 20, when all the unbelieving dead is raised from the dead, and they are recompensed according to their deeds, and they're going to say, Lord, wait a minute, this isn't right. We were a part of you. I never knew you. And then he says these words, they'll be weeping and ash the teeth when you what?

When you see Abraham. They're going to see those who are blessed. And maybe the last picture they're going to see is a picture of their loved one, who told them the truth, who gave them the gospel, who preached the gospel to them. And they rejected. And the last thing they see is your faith. And the Bible says, because there are no tears in heaven, your loved one will not be crying because you're going to hell.

Because there are no tears in heaven. But the last thing that unbeliever sees through the weeping and gnash of teeth are those who presented to him the truth and they refused. Imagine. Just imagine the eternity of the tears. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word. And trust that all of us, Lord, would be reminded of the fact. fact that eternal separation from a holy God is the worst scenario possible. And I pray that all over hearts would be stirred this evening to remember what our responsibility is.

People need to know that Jesus is king, so they need to see us as subservient to that king. People need to know that that king is coming back again one day and going to recompense every man for his deeds. And people need to know that this king is Savior of the world, that if they give their life to him, turn from their turn to God that he will forgive them of their sins and transfer them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. We pray that all of us would be aware of that. More so tonight than ever before.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.