Living As Wheat Among Weeds

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:22.980 Please turn in your bibles to Matthew Chapter Thirteen. Matthew Chapter Thirteen, and 2 00:00:27.059 --> 00:00:34.619 in the esv this is titled The parable of the Weeds. I may sometimes 3 00:00:34.780 --> 00:00:39.490 say parable the tears because I grew up with the King James version and that 4 00:00:39.649 --> 00:00:44.929 was the term that was used there. The word tear is not a common 5 00:00:45.090 --> 00:00:52.880 use word nowadays. I as a very young man, I was working in 6 00:00:52.920 --> 00:01:00.920 the bakery and I was given the task at one point to unload a railroad 7 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:11.109 card that had fifty pounds sacks of flower and after I had loaded quite a 8 00:01:11.230 --> 00:01:17.150 few, unloaded them and stack them, I was looking at them and there 9 00:01:17.189 --> 00:01:23.819 was a label on them and the label had the word tear and and that, 10 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:27.340 just like in the King James Version, that word tear, which was 11 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:34.170 word for wheat, for for weeds, and I made the mistake of reading 12 00:01:34.209 --> 00:01:42.409 it. This label, at this fifty pounds sack of flower that was going 13 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:55.760 to be used to make your bread, said not less than or not more 14 00:01:55.840 --> 00:02:07.750 than, excuse me, not more than point zero something or other percent rodent 15 00:02:07.590 --> 00:02:16.979 hair and feces. And as an AA, a eighteen year old, sixteen 16 00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:20.340 year old, somewhere in that age group, I was at that point. 17 00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:27.740 I said not less, that there shouldn't be any. That's what I thought. 18 00:02:31.770 --> 00:02:38.169 When you grow wheat, even to this day, you still get tears 19 00:02:38.210 --> 00:02:44.719 in it, you still get weeds in it, and this parable that Jesus 20 00:02:44.879 --> 00:02:51.240 tells us is talking about that. But the wonderful thing that we have before 21 00:02:51.240 --> 00:02:58.789 us here this evening is not only do I have before me God's infallible word 22 00:02:58.949 --> 00:03:06.870 to us, the parable that Jesus spoke to his disciples, but I also 23 00:03:07.069 --> 00:03:12.629 have down there in that second reading, verses thirty six through thirty four, 24 00:03:13.139 --> 00:03:21.659 and infallible interpretation. I never claim that for myself, but when Jesus interprets 25 00:03:21.819 --> 00:03:28.650 something, that interpretation is infallible, and that is a comfort to me to 26 00:03:28.849 --> 00:03:34.289 know that we can look at this passage and we don't need to speculate about 27 00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:42.960 this parable, but rather to know what it means. He put another parable 28 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:46.759 before them, saying the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who 29 00:03:46.759 --> 00:03:53.039 has sown good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, 30 00:03:53.759 --> 00:04:00.870 the enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when 31 00:04:00.909 --> 00:04:06.270 the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also, and 32 00:04:06.430 --> 00:04:10.580 the servants of the master the House came and said to him, master, 33 00:04:11.620 --> 00:04:15.860 did you not so good seed in the field? How, then does it 34 00:04:15.979 --> 00:04:21.339 have weeds? He said to them, and enemy has done this. So 35 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:26.730 the servants said to him, then do you want us to go and gather 36 00:04:26.930 --> 00:04:34.129 them? But he said no, lest in gathering the weeds you root up 37 00:04:34.209 --> 00:04:40.680 the wheat along with them. Let both grow together and tell the harvest. 38 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:46.040 And at harvest time I will tell the reapers gather the weeds first and bind 39 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:51.800 them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. 40 00:04:56.550 --> 00:05:01.149 Verse Thirty Six. Then he left the crowds and went into the house, 41 00:05:01.269 --> 00:05:06.500 and his disciples came to him, saying, explain to us the parable of 42 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:13.100 the weeds of the field, and he answered the one who sows the good 43 00:05:13.259 --> 00:05:19.500 seed is the son of man, the field is the world and the good 44 00:05:19.660 --> 00:05:26.970 seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the 45 00:05:27.089 --> 00:05:33.850 evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest 46 00:05:33.889 --> 00:05:42.759 is the end of the age and the reapers are angels. Just as the 47 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:46.160 weeds are gathered, gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at 48 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:51.589 the end of the age, the son of men will send his angels and 49 00:05:51.790 --> 00:05:59.389 they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and 50 00:05:59.670 --> 00:06:04.420 throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and 51 00:06:04.579 --> 00:06:13.699 gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom 52 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:49.670 of their father. He who has ears, let him hear. I need 53 00:06:49.750 --> 00:06:54.189 to confess to you this evening. This morning sermon was one that I spent 54 00:06:54.310 --> 00:07:01.779 the week preparing, and you're getting this sermon second time around. But you 55 00:07:01.899 --> 00:07:09.220 know, I find you less intimidating than the congregation in Sterling Kansas, because 56 00:07:09.259 --> 00:07:15.500 as I looked out over that congregation, I knew that there were farmers, 57 00:07:15.529 --> 00:07:25.170 active and retired, who had planted wheat all their lives, and so it 58 00:07:25.449 --> 00:07:28.250 was with a bit of fear and trembling that I got up in front of 59 00:07:28.290 --> 00:07:33.600 them as a city boy, spend some summers on my uncle's farm, but 60 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:45.829 not knowing everything about wheat like they would. I was comforted afterwards in talking 61 00:07:45.910 --> 00:07:49.870 to two men, one who's still in farming in one who has another occupation. 62 00:07:49.949 --> 00:07:53.750 They grew up on the same farm. They told me they thought I 63 00:07:53.829 --> 00:07:58.579 got it pretty right and have a lot of criticism of me. You see, 64 00:07:59.779 --> 00:08:05.420 wheat farming in Jesus Day a little different than in our day today. 65 00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:13.850 The fields were much smaller and when it came to planting the wheat, you've 66 00:08:13.930 --> 00:08:18.810 seen pictures of someone with a bag or a basket and and they reached the 67 00:08:18.930 --> 00:08:24.009 hand in there and they grabbed some grain and they they sew it, they 68 00:08:24.089 --> 00:08:39.679 fling it. Modern farmers use machinery to do that and I was curious and 69 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:46.070 I looked up the question that in modern farming, what is it that is 70 00:08:46.269 --> 00:08:56.100 most likely to plant weeds in your field? And I was shocked with the 71 00:08:56.220 --> 00:09:03.580 answer. There was a quote. If we can send a man to the 72 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:07.100 moon, why can't we make a combine that won't put weed seeds back out 73 00:09:07.139 --> 00:09:16.809 on the ground? A combine, a John deer combine, a brand new 74 00:09:16.850 --> 00:09:20.529 one, the kind that they use out there in Cansas on those huge fields, 75 00:09:20.049 --> 00:09:24.919 cost as much as a Lamborghini. I don't know if any of you 76 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:30.879 a price. The lamborghini one of the most expensive automobiles that you can buy 77 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:35.399 and drive on the street. You might spend more for something that wouldn't go 78 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:46.549 on the street. And so I told those folks there that today the devil's 79 00:09:46.590 --> 00:09:54.179 in the combine. You have to clean a combine carefully to make sure that 80 00:09:54.340 --> 00:10:01.299 it's not carrying weed seeds from one field to another. But when it comes 81 00:10:01.340 --> 00:10:03.460 to control, rolling weeds, well, we have these chemicals and all these 82 00:10:03.500 --> 00:10:11.009 kind of things, but you know there are still farmers today who go out 83 00:10:11.049 --> 00:10:15.889 in their fields, and there were even instructions that I found about this, 84 00:10:16.330 --> 00:10:22.879 to pull weeds, because you know, if you if you take your crop 85 00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:26.360 to market and there's a lot of weed feed in there, they dock you 86 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:33.200 for that. You don't get as much for it, and so it's good 87 00:10:33.240 --> 00:10:37.230 to eliminate as many weeds as you can. They said they were talking about 88 00:10:37.230 --> 00:10:41.509 having plastic bags and going out and putting them over the weeds and pulling them 89 00:10:41.549 --> 00:10:48.669 out. But you know, if you do that you'll pull up some of 90 00:10:48.750 --> 00:10:58.539 the wheat. But do you know that those farmers there in Kansas they do 91 00:10:58.779 --> 00:11:03.649 something where they deliberately cut wheat down on the edge of their fields where there 92 00:11:03.649 --> 00:11:09.769 are weeds growing? They will go along before before they bring the combine into 93 00:11:09.850 --> 00:11:15.009 the field and they will cut those weeds down and, along with them, 94 00:11:15.850 --> 00:11:35.470 some of the wheat but for them it makes sense. This story that Jesus 95 00:11:35.590 --> 00:11:43.149 tells to his disciples was strange to them and they couldn't figure it out because 96 00:11:43.190 --> 00:11:48.860 it would have made sense to pull the weeds before did get them out of 97 00:11:48.860 --> 00:12:00.620 the way. Friend of mine some years ago, he doesn't raise sheep, 98 00:12:00.740 --> 00:12:07.250 but he raised goats, and he talked to me about Jesus parable, of 99 00:12:07.529 --> 00:12:15.370 the Good Shepherd who goes out he's got the hundred sheep, one of them 100 00:12:15.409 --> 00:12:18.679 is strayed off. We've heard this time and time again preached, and he 101 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:24.720 goes out there and he risked life and limb to go find that sheep. 102 00:12:24.879 --> 00:12:30.629 That's straight away. You're my friend told me he's IT. If I had 103 00:12:30.669 --> 00:12:35.230 a hundred goats and one arm ran off, no way I'm going to go 104 00:12:35.309 --> 00:12:41.990 out there and do that. He's a disn't it doesn't make sense. And 105 00:12:41.070 --> 00:12:50.980 there's something about this parable that doesn't make sense either, unless you understand the 106 00:12:50.259 --> 00:13:05.610 personal concern that Jesus has for you. He is so concerned about the wheat 107 00:13:05.730 --> 00:13:09.610 that he has planted, and this is how you know if you're wheat, 108 00:13:09.649 --> 00:13:20.639 if you've received the gift of faith. That's his planting. If you have 109 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:26.509 received the Gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ, planted in your heart. 110 00:13:28.629 --> 00:13:37.269 You're his planting, you're his wheat, and Jesus doesn't take an attitude 111 00:13:37.269 --> 00:13:46.620 here in this parable of well, as long as I get the majority of 112 00:13:46.779 --> 00:14:00.970 them. He's concerned about each and everyone and we may complain. My sermon 113 00:14:01.090 --> 00:14:07.570 this morning was about complaining and it's a thing we do. We may complain 114 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:11.960 and wonder at times why is it that God doesn't take the evil out of 115 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:20.759 the world? Remember my my daughter, my second child, when she was 116 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:24.350 little, came to me one time and she said that she wanted to pray 117 00:14:24.389 --> 00:14:30.389 for the devil. Now, in her innocence, she told me. I 118 00:14:30.470 --> 00:14:37.190 said why, and she said if the devil will give up his evil ways, 119 00:14:37.149 --> 00:14:46.899 people will be so much better off. In her childish mind and I 120 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:52.419 had to sit unexplained to her that there's no salvation for devils, any of 121 00:14:52.500 --> 00:15:03.049 them. Jesus didn't die to save angelic beings. There are elect angels. 122 00:15:05.610 --> 00:15:13.600 Were told that, but the angels that fell, there is no salvation for 123 00:15:13.799 --> 00:15:41.980 them. They do not have a savior. Jesus tells us that he is 124 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:52.970 not willing that any of his wheat be lost, none of his sheep, 125 00:15:52.450 --> 00:16:06.519 none of his wheat. Jesus says that the harvest that's spoken of in the 126 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:11.679 parable is the end of the age. Now there's something I need to confess 127 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:18.909 to you. I'm a normal anialist. I believe that Jesus could return at 128 00:16:18.909 --> 00:16:26.429 any moment and I believe that when he does there will be no program after 129 00:16:26.549 --> 00:16:37.620 that he comes to judge. Jesus speaks of that end of the age here 130 00:16:40.419 --> 00:16:45.139 and he says that when he comes in judgment, he says the son of 131 00:16:45.259 --> 00:16:51.330 Man. Now, if you're familiar at all with the New Testament, you 132 00:16:51.450 --> 00:17:00.210 know that that's the term that Jesus used to to himself, and his disciples 133 00:17:00.330 --> 00:17:06.599 understood that when he said son, a man talking about himself. And so 134 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:22.269 he says the son of Man will send his angels here in Matthew, Chapter 135 00:17:22.470 --> 00:17:26.029 Thirteen. I don't know in Jesus Ministry how many of his disciples at this 136 00:17:26.269 --> 00:17:34.099 point had had fully grasped the concept that Jesus is God in the flesh. 137 00:17:37.259 --> 00:17:41.019 But it would have been one thing if he had said, AH, the 138 00:17:41.220 --> 00:17:52.849 son of Man will send God's angels or the Father's angels. But he says 139 00:17:55.049 --> 00:18:00.799 his angels. And what is it that these angels of his will do. 140 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:11.680 They will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law lawbreakers, 141 00:18:18.150 --> 00:18:21.390 and throw them into a fiery furnace. In that place there will be 142 00:18:21.509 --> 00:18:29.420 weeping and gnashing of teeth. And I want to tell you something else that 143 00:18:30.059 --> 00:18:37.059 may be shocking to son. I don't know. I believe in a literal 144 00:18:37.220 --> 00:18:42.170 hell. Now, the reason I believe it is a literal place is that 145 00:18:42.210 --> 00:18:48.970 I believe in the resurrection, and when Jesus comes, all of the dead 146 00:18:49.089 --> 00:18:55.569 will be raised, the righteous, those who put their faith in him, 147 00:18:55.609 --> 00:19:06.599 and the UNRIGHTEOUS, they will be, body and soul, cast into hell, 148 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:14.390 and that would require that it be a place, just as heaven is 149 00:19:14.509 --> 00:19:18.750 a place. Now again, I don't I can't answer all the questions about 150 00:19:18.789 --> 00:19:22.710 heaven. What's going to be like? There's talk of it in the New 151 00:19:22.789 --> 00:19:27.700 Testament. We know some glimpses of it. The wonderful thing about heaven is 152 00:19:27.859 --> 00:19:48.329 that Jesus is there, but somehow Jesus angels know who the elect are. 153 00:19:51.849 --> 00:19:57.000 I don't have that kind of knowledge. I believe that you can know whether 154 00:19:57.119 --> 00:20:03.599 you are elect or not. I remember sharing that with someone I'm when I 155 00:20:03.640 --> 00:20:10.710 was back at Geneva Collie. She was a secretary. She was not reformed 156 00:20:10.829 --> 00:20:14.109 in her convictions at that time. She later did. She and her husband 157 00:20:14.150 --> 00:20:17.950 both came to the reform faith. But she said to me, she said, 158 00:20:18.109 --> 00:20:25.099 Oh, Robert, you must be pretty proud of yourself if you think 159 00:20:25.180 --> 00:20:33.059 your elect. And I told her, I said no, because I didn't 160 00:20:33.059 --> 00:20:38.650 have anything to do with it, that being God's elect is not a matter 161 00:20:38.849 --> 00:20:45.970 to brag about because you had nothing to do with it. It's totally in 162 00:20:45.170 --> 00:21:03.319 his hands. And then he says of the righteous that they will shine like 163 00:21:03.559 --> 00:21:10.190 the sun in the Kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let 164 00:21:10.230 --> 00:21:25.579 him hear. Daniel, chapter twelve, the first three versus Jesus is making 165 00:21:25.700 --> 00:21:33.490 reference to this Janiel, Daniel Twelve, versus one through three. At that 166 00:21:33.730 --> 00:21:37.289 time shall arise Michael, the great prince, who has charge of your people, 167 00:21:38.210 --> 00:21:41.690 and there shall be a time of trouble such as never has been since 168 00:21:41.769 --> 00:21:47.559 there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall 169 00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:52.839 be delivered. Every one whose name shall be found written in the book, 170 00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:56.400 and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, 171 00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:06.029 some to everlasting life and some to shame. And everlasting contempt, and those 172 00:22:06.190 --> 00:22:14.029 who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those 173 00:22:14.190 --> 00:22:33.490 who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Know that if 174 00:22:33.970 --> 00:22:41.410 you are we you are precious, though you may find yourself in the ditch 175 00:22:42.450 --> 00:22:48.559 and surrounded completely by weeds. The people you work with may be that way. 176 00:22:52.799 --> 00:22:57.440 My sister has spent years working around a number of people who, clearly, 177 00:22:59.109 --> 00:23:02.269 by their own profession of their mouth, are not believers at all. 178 00:23:06.509 --> 00:23:17.220 And yet realize that you were precious, precious to God. Hebrews Chapter Ten 179 00:23:22.339 --> 00:23:37.210 and verses eleven through fourteen. Every priest stands daily at his service, offering 180 00:23:37.450 --> 00:23:45.279 repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when Christ had 181 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:52.119 offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the 182 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:59.390 right hand of God, waiting from that time till his enemies should be made 183 00:23:59.390 --> 00:24:07.750 a footstool for his feet, for by a single offering he has perfected for 184 00:24:07.069 --> 00:24:17.779 all time those who are being sanctified. We're going to be celebrating the Lord's 185 00:24:17.779 --> 00:24:30.410 supper. We're not resacrifice in Christ. We're not even offering Christ's sacrifice to 186 00:24:30.529 --> 00:24:37.049 the father. Christ already did that. It's done, it's finished. I 187 00:24:37.089 --> 00:24:45.680 remember reading a an article written by a Jewish convert to Christianity and he spoke 188 00:24:45.720 --> 00:24:52.549 about this particular passage and he said, if you're familiar with the Tabernacle and 189 00:24:52.750 --> 00:25:00.109 the temple, there was furniture in there is a table with showbred on it, 190 00:25:02.630 --> 00:25:11.740 there were lamps, there was a place for incense, there was a 191 00:25:11.819 --> 00:25:18.380 place in the holy of holies where the blood was sprinkled. But do you 192 00:25:18.539 --> 00:25:22.690 know that in that building there was no place for a priest to ever sit 193 00:25:22.769 --> 00:25:29.690 down? It's because his work was never finished. Like the brighter to the 194 00:25:29.769 --> 00:25:36.119 Hebrews says here, the priest stand daily at his service. He never finishes, 195 00:25:37.400 --> 00:25:45.799 but Jesus finished, and that's why we can celebrate the Lord's supper, 196 00:25:48.279 --> 00:25:56.470 not as a sacrifice, but looking to a sacrifice that was finished once and 197 00:25:56.630 --> 00:26:36.440 for all. And then also Hebrews chapter thirteen and beginning with verse seven in 198 00:26:36.599 --> 00:26:41.319 Hebrews Chapter Thirteen, remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word 199 00:26:41.400 --> 00:26:45.839 of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 200 00:26:48.269 --> 00:26:56.029 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day and forever. Do not 201 00:26:56.190 --> 00:27:00.109 be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the 202 00:27:00.349 --> 00:27:07.779 heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those 203 00:27:07.900 --> 00:27:15.019 devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent 204 00:27:15.299 --> 00:27:21.289 have no right to eat, for the bodies of those animals whose blood is 205 00:27:21.650 --> 00:27:29.809 brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are 206 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:38.480 burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to 207 00:27:38.759 --> 00:27:45.230 sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him 208 00:27:45.509 --> 00:27:53.230 outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured, for here we have no 209 00:27:53.549 --> 00:28:00.859 lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come through him. 210 00:28:00.900 --> 00:28:07.259 Then let's continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the 211 00:28:07.380 --> 00:28:14.410 fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and 212 00:28:15.410 --> 00:28:34.920 to share what you have. Such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Let's look 213 00:28:34.920 --> 00:28:36.759 to God in prayer,