Wheat and Weeds: Present Torment of the Righteous and Future Torment of the Wicked (Matthew Sermon 61)

I. Struggling with an Impure World

We’ll be looking this morning in Matthew 13 at what’s commonly known as the parable of the wheat and the tares, or what I could call the parable of the wheat and the weeds.  Try boarding a plane these days.  All your belongings checked, your shoes removed in the lines, and sometimes you’re patted down and all because a few unbelievers— the tares, the weeds around us — who changed everything for everybody on 9/11 and now cause torment for us in this present world.  How can we can survive in this world when surrounded by wicked people who crash planes into buildings and change everything for everybody from then on?  It’s unbelievers in Hollywood, in New York that are thinking constantly of how to assault your mind with immoral images so that they can make a buck. It’s unbelievers that necessitate the passing of overly restrictive laws that cut off blessings from people for the public good, such as these terrorism laws. It’s unbelievers in foreign lands that arrest and persecute and torture and kill brothers and sisters in Christ. This is going on, perhaps even now while I speak. It’s unbelievers that make this alluring enticing sin-filled world that Bunyan called Vanity Fair surround us as we make our journey to the Celestial City. Yet, for all of that, it’s not the sin out there that troubles me as much as the sin inside me, and the fact that there’s something in me that actually responds and is allured and enticed by these things that causes me far greater grief.

And so as we come to the parable of the wheat and the tares, the wheat and the weeds, we come with questions, “Lord why, why would You do this? Why would You allow the wheat and the weeds to grow up together?” What about the present torments of the righteous as they have to kind of get along in a world where sinners who reject God’s laws flout them, mock them, and set the pace for everyone. This is an ancient question, it’s an ancient problem, it’s a problem that Abraham’s nephew Lot struggled with as he lived in wicked Sodom, surrounded every day by immorality and filth. It speaks of the struggle that he had in 2 Peter 2:8. It speaks of Lot, and it says, “For that righteous man, living among them, day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds that he saw and heard.”

We have the picture in Lot of the children of God in this present age, tormented by the wickedness around us and tormented because of the evil itself, that we have to see it. And as I mentioned before, tormented even greater, that there is evil inside us. Romans 7, “What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death that we might be freed?” Yes, it’s an ancient problem. Enoch, seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men, “See the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of His holy ones to judge everyone and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” Seventh from Adam, Enoch feeling this, the struggle the righteous have with the ungodly. And all of it comes from the fact that Adam’s descendants are a mixed race.

Now, understand what I mean, I’m not talking about every tribe, and language, and people, and nation. I’m talking about two basic divisions. There’s the children of God and the children of the devil. Right from the start it would be this way. In Genesis 3:15, it says, God speaking to Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and hers, and he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” So there’s the seed of the serpent, and there’s the seed of the woman who is Christ, and ultimately the children of God.  There’s a long line of struggle between the seed of the woman, the godly, the children of God and the children of the devil.  Proverbs 29:27 says, “The righteous detest the dishonest and the wicked detest the upright.” So there it is, two sides of the same coin. We just don’t like each other, we don’t get along, we see things radically differently, and it’s very troubling to us.

1 John 3:12 says, “Do not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one.” He was a child of the devil, that’s what it says. He murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.  And yet for all of this mixed situation, wheat and tares all mixed in together, we, God’s people, are called to be perfectly pure and holy. We’re called to stand firm and to be holy, to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. We’re commanded not only to be holy, but we’re commanded to thrive in this world, to grow rich in good works, to share the gospel with that mission field that appears very much like tares and nothing could ever change it. Yet the gospel has the power for the salvation of everyone who believes, and out of that field comes new people for Christ, the call to evangelize, because, the wheat looks an awful lot like weed, doesn’t it? And the weeds look a awful lot like wheat and it’s hard to tell the difference, so we’re called to reach out with the gospel.

What is the context of this parable? Jesus is in Matthew 13, explaining Kingdom life; He’s explaining what the kingdom of God is like. We’ve already seen one parable, the parable of the seed and the soils. This is a different parable, the parable of the wheat and the tares, and the basic concept here is that the kingdom of heaven grows and flourishes in a context of torment and suffering.  Believers and unbelievers surrounded in a mixed condition in this world that is going to go on to the end of the world. And it must go on to the end of the world. It is part of God’s wise plan. At the end, however, He will separate the righteous from the wicked, and the wicked will suffer forever in torment, weeping and gnashing their teeth. This is what Jesus says, “But the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” There will be, in the end, a perfect and final separation, but now in this world, the Kingdom of Heaven advances in a bitterly mixed situation.

II. The Kingdom and the World in the Present Age:  Wheat and Weeds Mixed Together

The parable is stated in verse 24-30. Look at it again. “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?” “An enemy did this,” he replied. The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” “No,” he answered, “Because while you’re pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, and then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”  Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand, so they come and say, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” And to them the secrets of the kingdom are unlocked and clearly revealed by Jesus.

Now I would say to you that this parable is not intuitively obvious. Without Jesus’ explanation, we would be very strongly tempted to go astray, to go wrong. We would misunderstand. Especially on the heels of the seed and the soils parable. In the parable of the seed and the soils, the seed is the Word of God, the fields are people’s hearts, and the outcome has to do with what each individual person does with the message of the kingdom. But in this parable, it’s very different. The seeds are people, either good seed, sons of the kingdom, or bad seed, sons of the devil, and the field is not individual people’s hearts, but it’s the whole wide world. If Jesus hadn’t told us that, we would actually probably go astray, we would not understand this properly. Martin Luther puts it this way, “Who could have discovered such an interpretation, seeing that in this parable He calls people the seed and the world is the field, even though in the parable preceding this one He defines the seed to be the Word of God and the field the people or the hearts of the people? If Christ Himself had not here interpreted this parable, everyone would have imitated His explanation of the previous parable, and the Savior’s object and understanding would have been lost.” Luther’s right, we need Christ to tell us what it means, and He does. He goes line by line and begins to explain the details.

The sower of the seed is the Son of Man. In verse 24 it says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.” You see that, so a man goes out and sows good seed in his field. Verse 37, Jesus says, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man,” so the man of verse 24 is the Son of Man, it is Jesus Christ Himself. The Son of Man is Christ’s preferred title for Himself, comes out of Daniel 7, “A vision of one like a Son of Man, who sits at the right hand of the Mighty One and comes on the clouds of heaven,” this is Jesus Christ. He is authoritative, He has power and He has the authority to plant churches, He has the authority to bring people to Christ, to save their souls, and then assemble them in local churches.

The vision in Revelation chapter 1 is of Jesus Christ, the glorified Son of Man, walking through the seven lamp stands that represent seven actual churches, the number of seven being the number of perfectiofn.  John “saw one like a Son of Man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest, his head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire, his feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars and out of His mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” That’s the glorified Jesus, the Son of Man, and in His right hand He holds the churches, He holds Christians, they are His. The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man, and at the end of the world, the Son of Man will have authority to judge the world. He’ll have the right to go through the whole world and separate them into good fish and bad fish, into wheat and tares, into sheep and goats. He has that right because He is the Son of Man [John Chapter 5]. He has the right to plant Christians and organize churches, and He has the right to judge the whole world because He is the Son of Man.

The next detail is I think a key interpretive principle to this whole parable. The field is  is the world. Why is this important? Because many have gone astray on this point. They say the field is the church and they’re wrestling with the question of unregenerate church membership, of mixed situations in a local church, but that’s not what Jesus said. The field is the world, the field is not the church. Early church fathers went astray on this. Constantine in his settlement after he came to faith in Christ, if indeed he did come to personal faith in Christ, I hope he did, but if he did, after that, he just settled it, that basically everybody in the Roman domain would be Christians, on point of death. There would be a division in that regard, so it wasn’t long after that that the division between the church and the world became blurred, and everything became mixed. There was a concept of Christendom.

Have you heard of that expression before? The kingdom of Christ. It was meant politically. Kings were political leaders and also leaders of the church, and the whole thing got all mixed up. Infant baptism was very much a part of that. We’ve got this whole mixed condition, and they relied on this text as support.  Even Calvin made a mistake in this point and said that the field is the church. But the mixed nature of the world is here established, not the mixed nature of the church, the fact that the world would be made up of wheat and tares, not the church. However, I will say this, surrounded so closely by unbelievers all the time, it does actually effectively end to unregenerate church membership. Eventually it trickles in and affects the church because it’s so hard for the church to resist the pull of the world,  but that’s not what the parable is about directly.

The next detail is who is it that plants the weeds? Where do they come from? Jesus said it’s the “evil one”, the devil plants those seeds. You may say, “Who would ever do this? In the middle of the night, planting weeds in somebody’s harvest? That’s a lot of work and motivated out of hate.” But the odd thing is that this was so common, or at least occurred enough that they had to make a law about it in ancient Rome. “Thou shalt not sow weeds in your enemy’s field at night”; it’s illegal. This was actually known, and you could imagine the havoc that it would cause, by sowing in those weeds in the middle of the field. The devil is constantly doing this. This isn’t a one-time thing, but he’s constantly sowing in the world, sowing people who do not believe in God, he’s the constant enemy of the kingdom,  and the greatest strategy is infiltration of the world in influencing the church.

The next detail is that the wheat’s fruitfulness exposes the true nature of the weeds. It’s only when the wheat sprouts and forms heads that the weeds become obvious. Up to that point, they’ve looked very much alike. It’s when the wheat starts to behave like wheat that the difference becomes obvious. That’s important, isn’t it? It’s like when the wheat sprouts and forms heads. What I’m saying is directly when you Christians behave like Christians and grow to full maturity as Christians, then the difference between us and the world will become stark and obvious. But not until.

The next point is vital. It is the master’s intentional strategy to let both grow together until the harvest time. It’s not an accident, he’s not overtaken by this, he’s not shocked or stunned. It is his intentional strategy that it be this way, that they both grow together until the harvest. Look at verse 27 and following. It’s a perplexed question by the servants. They come and they’re troubled. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ And he answered, ‘No. Let both grow together until the harvest.’”  It’s the intentional strategy of the master, that this should be the case, that the mixed condition will continue to the end.

I think it’s interesting that the servants are never identified in the parable, Jesus never tells us who the servants are. Are they other angels? Possibly. Are they Christians perhaps in prayer begging God to weed it out now? Perhaps. But the answer is no, there’s going to be a mixed condition right to the end. The church has tried to weed out the world. After Constantine, the Emperor Theodosius the Great defined Catholic Christian to be somebody who is not an Arian Christian; what we would know as Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe that Jesus is a created being, God’s greatest created being. Theodosius said that’s heresy. Theodosius said, “We order that adherence of this faith be called Catholic Christians. We therefore brand all the senseless followers of other religions with the infamous name of heretics and forbid their meetings and assembling as churches. Besides the condemnation of divine justice, they must expect the heavy penalties, which our authority guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict.” That included burning heretics at the stake.  From Theodosius the Great on, the Roman Catholic Church executed heretics. They killed them, trying to weed the fields. It wasn’t until after the Reformation, an Anabaptist like Balthasar Hubmaier came along and said “No”.  In “Heretics and Those Who Burn Them”, he said, “Let truth triumph, let God sort it out at the end, preach the gospel.” We Baptists believe in that, what we call the separation of church and state. We don’t use the arm of the state to weed the world, we let it grow until the end and let God do it, but we do preach the gospel.

But it wasn’t just those guys, the Roman Catholics. It was  also James and John, the sons of thunder, you remember they came to a Samaritan village, and the village wouldn’t accept Christ, wouldn’t allow Christ to go in because He was heading to Jerusalem. James and John said, “Should we call down thunder and lightning from heaven? Wipe them out. They’re Samaritans after all. Wipe ’em out. I think it was big of you, Lord, to even try to go visit a Samaritan city, but now that they will not accept You, wipe them out.” Jesus rebuked them, “You don’t know what spirit you have, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save, not to destroy.” And they went on.

Therefore, it is God’s settled purpose and His intention that the church should thrive and grow in this mixed condition. It is as the church suffers this torment, suffers temptation, suffers persecution, suffers the hard times, that we can be more than conquerors through Him who loved us. It’s not going to be smooth sailing. Did you think it would be?  Are you praying, “Lord, take all the evil out.” He’s not going to do it; instead the church must thrive and grow. What is the master’s motive? He tells us in Verse 29-30, saying, “No because while you’re pulling up the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.” Reason number one: Wheat and weeds are difficult to tell apart in the early stages.

Saul of Tarsus hated Christians, persecuted them viciously to their death, arrested men, women, and children and threw them in prison. If you had caught him at an early part of his career, would you have thought him wheat or tare? Wheat or weed? Which? Definitely weed. No question about it. George Mueller was a juvenile delinquent. He robbed his father’s government salary and used it for his own pleasures. If you had really known what was going on in George Mueller’s life, would you have thought him wheat or weed? You would have thought him weed and you would have rooted him up. John Newton was a slave trader, a profligate immoral man. Would you have thought him wheat or weed? You would have thought him weed and you would have rooted him up. If you choose to root someone out, you may root up the next great Saul of Tarsus.  God may want a man to die. He may pour him out even to death so that another man gets saved, just like he did for Stephen, pouring him out to death so that Saul of Tarsus could be saved. He’s willing and able and delights to allow this mixed situation to go on for His glory. “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself a single seed, but if it dies, it bears many seeds.” For this reason, he doesn’t want the wheat and he doesn’t want the weeds rooted up because you might root up both; you can’t tell the difference.

Second of all, it’s not best for the wheat because the root systems are all kind of woven together. If you try to just pull up the tares, you’re going to uproot more than just the tares. It’s impossible to tell the difference and it’s not good for the wheat. It’s best for us to grow in a situation of conflict, and difficulty and trial.  “Count it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of any kind, because the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you will be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” So we must have the weeds around us, making life miserable for us, and stand firm by faith and grow. It’s best for the wheat.  He lets them both grow together.

But it won’t go on that way forever. There’ll come a separation, there’ll come a time. Look at Verse 30, “Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, at that time, I will tell the harvesters, first, collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.” The mixed status is not permanent. It’s not going to go on forever. But there is a time set for the separation, and it’s not now. Verse 39 tells us the time set, the harvest is when? The harvest is the end of the age. And the harvesters are angels, and at the end of the age, the full history of good and evil will be revealed. Do you remember the tree that Adam and Eve ate from in the garden? Remember what it was called? The Knowledge of Good and Evil.  We’ve had quite a history with evil. We have books and books on the history of evil, we’ve seen it, and at the end of the age, the history book on evil will be closed. Praise God for that. At last the evil will be finished.

III. The Future Separation: Judgment Day

It says very plainly that Judgment Day is coming and the weeds will be pulled up by the root. The Son of Man will sit over that process. He will be Lord of that harvest just as He’s Lord of the harvest now, the harvest of evangelism, bringing people into the kingdom. He will be Lord over that harvest too, He will sit in judgment on all the Earth, and the wicked will be rooted out. He will give the command, He will send out His angels, and He will command them, “Weed out the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned.” Look at Verse 40-43, “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels and they will weed out of His kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Do not misunderstand, Christ wants a perfectly pure kingdom, and He will have it. Don’t misunderstand this mixed condition and think that God somehow tolerates evil and wickedness. His eyes are too pure to look on evil. He can’t tolerate sin at all, but He has a strategy in what He’s doing. In the end the kingdom will be pure.  He will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom everyone who causes sin and all who do evil, all the things that cause sin, all your stumbling blocks. You know what your stumbling blocks are, what you trip over in your walk with God, it’s going to be gone. All the temptations gone. All the evil people who hate Christ, gone, all of it removed forever. What a sweet condition, removed forever. Christ will sit as Lord of that harvest, and what some people think of as gentle Jesus, meek and mild, He will sit on a cloud, Revelation 14:14, and He will swing his harvest sickle over the earth, and it will be harvested, for He is Lord of the harvest, and every foul plant will be removed.

Matthew 15:13 says, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.” “By the roots” mean gone forever. Gone forever. He will weed His kingdom, and then He will gather the wheat into His barn. Matthew 24:31, it says, “He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” What a moment that will be, a ride with an angel as the angel comes and gathers you up. You are gathered together with all the true believers of all time into one place, brought into His barn so to speak, brought into the kingdom. He will send out his angels. In Matthew 3:12, John the Baptist said the same thing, “Christ’s winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering the wheat into His barn but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Now is the present time of torment for the righteous. It’s hard for us now because of this. He knows it, He knows that it’s hard. This is the present torment of the righteous, but then will be the future torment of the wicked and this is clearly taught in this passage. It maybe not be comfortable to talk about but Jesus did not shrink from discussing this. Look at Verse 42, “The angels, they, will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” This is unquenchable fire, an eternity of torment. Non-Christians, some of them, assume that hell will be a fun place where they can hang out with their non-Christian friends and have a party away from the restrictions of God. I don’t think it’s possible to do those fun things while you’re screaming in agony, while you’re wailing and gnashing teeth, it’s not possible. Why did Jesus talk about this? Because it’s real, and it’s coming. Jesus doesn’t waste words. He said that we would be afraid of Him who has power over both body and soul in hell. He has that power, God does. He wants us to fear.  Hell is eternal, it’s clearly taught. Revelation 14:11 says, “The smoke of their torment rises forever and ever, there is no rest day or night for those in the lake of fire.” None. Jesus said, “Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin, such stumbling blocks must come.” That’s our torment that we have all these temptations around us. “Such stumbling blocks must come, but woe to the man through whom they come. I tell you this, it would be better for that man to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be dropped into the depths of the sea then cause one of my little ones to stumble into sin.” What do you mean better? Well, I would rather be dropped in the depths of a cool ocean than be thrown in the lake of fire. Jesus doesn’t waste words. He said it’d be better for you to have that but you will not get that, but rather the lake of fire.

IV. The Eternal State: A Pure and Glorious Kingdom

Eternal torment of the wicked is taught here, but so also is the future glory of the righteous. This is one of my favorite verses in all the Bible. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” This verse convinces me that we will someday be glorious, shining brightly. It’s the best verse of all. There’s translation issues in some of the other verses, not on this one. When it says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us,” some people translate it to us, so that we’ll see God’s glory out there. This verse makes it plain, we will be glorious. We will shine like the sun, we will be radiant. And as I’ve mentioned before, CS Lewis put it this way. He said, “If you could see a brother or sister in Christ today, in their glorified state, you would be as tempted to worship them as John was to worship the angel who brought him the Book of Revelation.” You’d be on your face. Of course, the sister or brother would say, “Get up! I’m a fellow servant with you, don’t worship me.”   But there’s glory waiting for you if you’re a child of God, and it’s eternal glory too. Just as that was eternal torment, this is eternal glory. No possibility of a future fall from hell. All the temptations are gone. You’re internally transformed. And the things you used to hate, you love forever and ever, and the things you used to love, you hate forever and ever. There’ll be no change. You’ll shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father. This also speaks of the resurrection body, “The physical body is sown [1 Corinthians 15] in dishonor, it is raised in glory.” We will shine like the sun.  CS Lewis did say, “I’m troubled by the thought of being a kind of an eternal light bulb,” but that’s typical Lewis, I’m not troubled by it.

What happened to Moses when he saw God, just a glimpse of God, what happened to his face? He was shining radiantly. People were scared, so he put a veil over it. And that was just a brief moment seeing, in the Hebrew, the hindquarters of God. We will see Him face-to-face and we will be transformed by that vision. We will shine like the sun forever and ever, a pure and glorious kingdom. The field is the world, and it’s mixed. Then, the world will be the kingdom.  Look at Verse 41, “The Son of Man will send out His angels and they will weed out of His kingdom everything that causes sin and all those who do evil.” So at that point, the field becomes the Kingdom. It’s His kingdom, “It’s mine now.” He comes and claims it and He does a thorough weeding job. It’s going to be pure kingdom at that point. You know the Hallelujah chorus, “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He will reign forever and ever.”   That’s Revelation 11:15. They’ll become one in the same, the field, the world will become the kingdom,and the thing you’ve been praying for over and over will at last come true. “His kingdom will have come and His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”[Lord’s Prayer] The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

V. Application

What application can we make for this? First, pray for protection in this sin-cursed world from unbelievers. Pray that God would deliver  our persecuted  brothers and sisters from  evil persecution.  Pray, for protection in this world, protection from persecution, but also protection from pollution, from sin. “Religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless is this,” said James, “to look after orphans and widows in their distress, yes, but to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Be pure. 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers,” don’t, don’t… Yes, we have to live with them, but don’t yolk yourself together. Don’t marry an unbeliever, don’t go into business arrangements with unbelievers. And may I say directly, don’t do church with unbelievers in a committed covenant sense. Unbelievers should not be covenant members of local churches, that is the Baptist ideal. Unregenerate church membership devastates local churches, and so the church must be pure, and the way we Baptists do that is by baptizing only believers at the front and then doing church discipline along the way when unbelievers start acting like unbelievers. So we don’t… We’re not unequally yoked, we don’t do unregenerate church membership. Pray for protection.

Also, can I urge you to trust in God’s sovereign grace? It could be a little scary. You say, I’ve got years to go, probably, decades in this sin-cursed world. How am I going to make it? God knows how to get you through. He’s got his hand on you ,and He’s going to bring you through this world. You will safely make it through to the other side. “Now to Him who is able to present you before His throne, blameless with great joy, be glory forever and ever.” He can do it, He can get you through. He’s been doing it with Christians for centuries, He can get you through. Trust Him to get you through this Vanity Fair [ Pilgrim’s Progress]. Stay active in evangelism, be here next week, make time to come and witness with us, reach out with the gospel.

Can I speak to you if you’ve come here and you’re not sure whether you’re a Christian or not? Can I speak from my heart? Don’t leave this building today without being sure that you’re a Christian, without knowing for certain that you have eternal life. The issues are too great. Heaven, where you can shine like the sun forever and ever. Hell, where you would be tormented forever and ever. It’s literally that stark a choice. Don’t leave this building without being sure that you’re born again.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

I.  Struggling With an Impure World

Illus.  My anniversary date… tripping silent alarms set because of terrorists

Question:  How much suffering comes to us because of being constantly surrounded by unbelievers

·      It is unbelievers who make police forces, courts, laws, jails necessary in the numbers they are

·      It is because of unbelievers that so many laws need to be written

·      It is unbelievers in Hollywood and New York that plan how to assault us with immoral images to make a buck

·      It is unbelievers in foreign lands who arrest, imprison, torture and murder Christians

·      It is unbelievers that make the alluring, sinful, enticing system known in Pilgrim’s Progress as “Vanity Fair”

·      It is unbelievers that make even going shopping in the mall a potentially negative and maybe even dangerous excursion

A.  The Struggle of Righteous Lot

Abraham’s nephew, living in wicked Sodom, surrounded daily by immorality and filth

2 Peter 2:8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—

A picture of the children of God in this present age… tormented in our righteous souls by lawlessness

Tormented 1)  because of the evil itself; 2) because of the effect it has on our souls… constantly dragging us down, seeking to pollute us with filth and with lawlessness

An ancient problem:  Enoch, seventh from Adam:

Jude 14-15  Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”

Enoch “walked with God” every day… but he knew well the suffering of being surrounded by ungodly men who sought to drag him down and pull him away from God

B.  Adam’s Descendents:  A Mixed Race

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

1.  The Sons of God:  The Godly line who call on the name of the Lord

2.  The Sons of the Serpent:  The devilish line

3.  A Long History of Hostility

1 John 3:12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.

Proverbs 29:27 The righteous detest the dishonest; the wicked detest the upright.

C.  The Call to Perfect Purity

1.  Surrounded by a Filthy World We’re Not Called to Leave

2.  Commanded to Thrive and Be Holy

D.  The Call to Evangelize… for some wheat lives a lot like weeds

1.  God is not desiring to remove all the weeds

2.  In one sense, we all start out as weeds and are transformed to be wheat

E.  Context of this Parable

1.  Explaining Kingdom Truth

2.  Parables Both Conceal and Reveal

3.  Basic Concept

Kingdom of Heaven grows and flourishes surrounded by constant human opposition, advancing in a mixed world made up of children of God and children of the Devil, and it will be that way until the end of the world.  Thus the children of the Kingdom are tormented and tested daily by being surrounded by ungodly enemies of the Kingdom.  However, at the end of the world this mixed experience will end forever:  the wicked will be tormented forever in hell, while the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.

This parable explains the halting and struggling progress of the Kingdom… a mixed history of three steps forward two steps back… a constant struggle on the human level, surrounded by people who hate us, who seek to allure us away from God, who do damage and hurt to our souls by their ungodly example and clever enticements based on the lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and boastful pride of life.

II.  The Kingdom and the World in the Present Age: Wheat and Weeds Mixed Together

A.  The Parable Stated, Then Explained

vs. 24-30  “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'”

1.  Parables conceal… when not explained to the ungodly

2.  Parables reveal… when explained to spiritual beggars

3.  Jesus “Leaves the Crowd”… Very Significant Separation

4.  Disciples the Spiritual Beggars…

vs. 36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

to them the secrets of the Kingdom are explained

5.  Parable not intuitively obvious

In the first parable, the Seed is the Message About the Kingdom… in this parable, the good seed are the Sons of the Kingdom (i.e. Christians)

Martin Luther:  “…Who could have discovered such an interpretation, seeing that in this parable he calls people the seed and the world the field; although in the parable preceding this one he defines the seed to be the Word of God and the field the people or the hearts of the people.  If Christ Himself had not here interpreted this parable, everyone would have imitated his explanation of the previous parable… and the Savior’s object and understanding of it would have been lost.”

B.  Details Recounted

1.  The Son of Man Plants Sons of the Kingdom

vs. 24  “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.”

vs. 37  “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.”

a.  “Son of Man” is Christ’s preferred title for Himself

b.  comes from Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7

c.  after His resurrection, He has authority over the Kingdom to build it and to rule it

Revelation 1:12-16  And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance

d.  at the end of the world, He will have authority to judge every single human being

John 5:26-27  For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

2.  The Field is the World

vs. 38 The field is the world

a.  key interpretive issue… the field is NOT the church

b.  long history of misunderstanding on this issue

Early church fathers

Constantine’s settlement:  forced entire populace to convert to Christianity on pain of death… This set up the long blending of church and state and led to immense problems with unregenerate church membership, and led to medieval idea of Christendom:  the visible church completely mixed with earthly politics

Augustine’s battle against the Donatists:  (they were overzealous in excommunication of people who had compromised during time of persecution… Augustine went so far as to say mixture of good and evil within the church is a necessary sign of the church!!

John Calvin:  taught that the field was the church

Bailey Smith:   I am convinced that one of America’s greatest problems is that of unconverted church members. Our churches are filled with people who profess Christ, but who do not possess Him. They claim His name, but they have never submitted to His Person. They want His blessings without His authority.  They want His favor without His leadership. They want Him to accept their will for their lives instead of submitting to His will for their lives.  [In famous sermon, “Wheat and the Tares”]

The “mixed” nature of the world is here established… the church is not directly in view here

HOWEVER… surrounded so closely by weeds constantly, the church must make constant efforts against the infiltration of false believers into their midst… the fact they look so much like Christians makes it all the harder

3.  The Evil One Plants Sons of the World

Illus.  Common enough occurrence in ancient Rome that they had a law against planting weeds in someone else’s field

a.  constant, ongoing process

b.  devil is the enemy of the Kingdom

c.  greatest strategy is infiltration of the world and influence of the church

4.  The Wheat’s Fruitfulness Exposes the Weeds Fruitlessness

a.  it’s when the wheat sprouts and bears its fruit that the weeds are exposed

b.  spiritually:  when the true Christians grow to maturity, they bear the fruit discussed in previous parable… the tares never do

5.  The Master’s Intentional Strategy:  “Let Both Grow Together…”

a.  perplexed question by servants

vs. 27-29   “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

b.  note:  servants never identified in parable

i)  possibly angels… since the later servants (harvesters) are angels

ii)  possibly human leaders:  either government or church

Illus.:  Church history of efforts to “weed” the earth:

After Constantine’s conversion in 312, the official state religion of the Roman Empire was Christianity… but the Roman government was too absolutist to give up control over religion… it simply meant that now pagan religions would be persecuted.

Not long after that, Theodosius the Great became emperor, coming to power toward the end of the battle against Arianism (which we know today as Jehovah’s Witnesses… who teach that Jesus was a created being and not God).  In order to battle the Arian doctrine, Theodosius issued the following edict in 381:

“We order that adherents of this faith be called ‘Catholic Christians;’ we brand all the senseless followers of other religions with the infamous name of ‘heretics,’ and forbid their conventicles assuming the name of churches.  Besides the condemnation of divine justice, they must expect the heavy penalties which our authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict.”

This included burning heretics whenever it thought necessary

Thus began the practice of the Catholic Church trying to weed the world of weeds by burning people it deemed heretics

Balthasar Hubmaier (1480-1528) was an ordained Catholic priest who held a doctorate in theology.  In the mid-1520s he moved quickly from Catholicism to magisterial Protestantism and finally to Anabaptism.  He wrote “On heretics and those who burn them” in 1524

Not until Balthasar Hubmaier’s was there a cogent argument against burning heretics in Europe

Hubmaier wrote:  “Divine truth is immortal, and though it may sometimes be imprisoned, scourged, crucified, and buried, it will arise again in victory in the third day and reign in triumph through all eternity.”  Therefore, the church should not burn heretics, but should rather refute their false doctrines and leave their final punishment to God

In the end, the Catholic Church found this good brother guilty of heresy and executed him by burning on March 10, 1528.  Three days later they executed his loving wife by putting a stone around her neck and throwing her in the Danube River.

c.  the apostles John and James… “Sons of Thunder”

Luke 9:52-56  He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. 54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.

d.  it is God’s intention that the church should survive, thrive, do its ministry in a direct conflict and struggle with a constantly opposing world

e.  it is as the church suffers this abuse, this torture, this opposition that it shows its true nature and acts the role of “more than conquerors”

6.  The Master’s Motive:  The Survival and Benefit of the Wheat

vs. 29-30  “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest.

a.  REASON #1:  the wheat and weeds difficult to tell apart in the early stages

Illus.  “Tares” or “weeds” probably bearded darnel

Bearded darnel is an annual plant that occurs as a hated weed in grain fields, waste places, moist farm fields, and along roadsides. The stiff, round, hollow stalk grows to a height of 1 to 3 feet and bears long, linear, flat leaves that are rolled up when young.

It is a poisonous herb, and looks very much like wheat in its early stages

Illus.  Many Christians look just like weeds in the early stages of their lives

·      Saul of Tarsus was a blasphemer and a persecutor of the church, breathing out threat and murder against the Lord’s disciples

·      George Mueller was a juvenile delinquent… robbing his father’s government salary and being thrown in jail

·      John Newton was a slave trader, a drunkard, and an immoral man

·      BULLETIN PICTURE!!!

The mission field is filled with people who are not presently Christians, but who are elect of God and who will someday come to faith… if all the weeds were rooted up now, there would be no one left to evangelize

Also, the root system of the tares wraps itself and intertwines with the wheat… ultimately, it is to the wheat’s advantage to leave the tares in place

b.  REASON #2:  it is better for the WHEAT to leave the tares alone

the wise master knows the tares will not have an ultimately damaging effect on the wheat

Actually, it’s better for the wheat in the end… all of the trials we face that cause us to grow in our faith, to be purified from our independence and love for the world

James 1:2-4  Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

The horrible torture that weeds put the true children through provides the glorious context for the heroic martyrs to do their witnessing work

III.  The Future Separation: Judgment Day

vs. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'”

A.  The Mixed Status is NOT Permanent

1.  What is good for the present age is NOT good for eternity

vs. 39  The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

2.  At the end of the age, the full history will have been revealed… no further development permitted

3.  Judgment Day is coming… then the weeds will be pulled up by the root

4.  Angelic reapers… delighted in the purifying work to be done

B.  The Son of Man:  Lord of the Future Harvest

1.  Present harvest… children of God brought into the Kingdom

Matthew 9:37-38  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

The “Lord of the Harvest” at present is God the Son… who sends out His disciples around the world to bring people into the Kingdom:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…”

John 20:21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

2.  Lord of the Future harvest:  The wicked and evil weeded out of His Kingdom

vs. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'”

First… the weeds are gathered to be burned…

vs. 40-43   “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Christ wants a perfectly pure Kingdom, with no evil people and no “stumbling blocks”  (more about that in a moment)

The harvest time will come with a dreadful wrath poured out on the earth… and Christ is Lord of that harvest as well:

Revelation 14:14-19  I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one “like a son of man” with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested. 17 Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.” 19 The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.

Christ, seated on the cloud, swings His sickle and harvests the earth

Christ also sends out angels and they accomplish the harvest as well

3.  Every foul plant removed… forever

Matthew 15:13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.

C.  Wheat Gathered into the Barn

Matthew 24:31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

IV.  The Eternal State: A Pure and Glorious Kingdom

A.  The Future Torment of the Wicked

vs. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

1.  Unquenchable fire… an eternity of torment

a.  non-Christians assume that hell will be some kind of fun place where they can hang out with their friends

b.  no fellowship possible when they’re constantly screaming and gnashing their teeth

2.  The Eternity of Hell… clearly taught

Revelation 14:11 And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night

Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars– their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

B.  The Future Glory of the Righteous

vs. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

1.  One of the clearest verses on the radiance that will be ours in our glorified state

2.  This is the glory of the resurrection body… shining like the sun

1 Corinthians 15:43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power

Romans 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Romans 8:23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

ILLUS. C.S. Lewis Quote from “Weight of Glory”

3.  Moses’ face shone from being temporarily in God’s presence

4.  Our whole bodies will radiate with God’s glory in heaven

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

C.  A Pure and Glorious Kingdom

1.  Present world is terribly mixed

2.  Future kingdom is perfectly pure

Note:  “The field is the world

vs.  38 The field is the world

BUT THEN

vs. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

At last, the world and the Kingdom will be one and the same… perfectly pure!!

Revelation 11:15 The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”

The constant request of the Lord’s prayer is at last answered:  His will is done on earth as it is in heaven

3.  Eternal state… no more temptation

vs. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

a.  all “stumbling blocks” removed forever…

b.  the world, the flesh and the devil all gone

c.  internal tendency to sin tied to our old bodies GONE FOREVER

d.  the Kingdom will be pure forever

He who has ears, let him hear.

V.  Application

A.  Pray for Protection from the Unbelievers

John 17:11-12  I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name– the name you gave me– so that they may be one as we are one.  While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

John 17:15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.

1.  Protection from pollution for you and your brothers and sisters

2 Corinthians 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

2.  Protection from persecution for the church worldwide

Romans 15:31 Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there,

B.  Trust God’s Sustaining Grace:  Sufficient to Get us Through

1.  God is able to save us through this wicked world

2.  Trust that He will keep you protected

C.  Accept the Wisdom of God in Allowing the World to be Mixed

1.  God’s ways are not our ways

2.  God’s wisdom is perfect… thank Him for allowing the wheat and weeds to grow up together

3.  Rejoice that the church is out of the heretic-burning business

4.  Do not be surprised when the world hates you and rejects your entire worldview

D.  Never Accept a Mixed Church!!!!

2 Corinthians 6:17 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

1.  Strive that the church be as much as possible pure from unbelievers

2.  This is the very purpose of believer’s baptism and church discipline

E.  Stay Active in Evangelism

1.  You can’t tell the difference between wheat that hasn’t developed yet and tares

Bulletin picture:  God is willing to pour out His children unto death to bring about the conversion of persecutors

2.  Be active in preaching/living the gospel… let God’s amazing grace do its transforming work