Matthew 13:24-30 – Protecting the Weak Wheat – Bible study

Matt 13:24-30 Protecting the Weak Wheat Notice that this is one of the many parables Jesus was telling to the people at this time. Jesus gave six parables in this chapter alone! Also take note that the reason Jesus spoke in parables was so that the believing would understand and the unbelieving would not. He said that to His disciples. Matt 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Since the disciples are asking that question at this time, it would seem logical that Jesus had just started teaching in parables. From this point forward, those who had determined that they would not listen to Jesus would not understand even if they did. Hopefully, that is not you, but if it is, you probably will not "get" todays message and if by some chance you do, what you do understand wont stay with you for very long. The old express, "Use it or lose it" turns out to be very Biblical indeed. I. For those who can, lets understand the basics of this parable. A. Parables are earthly stories with spiritual meanings. So this parable is teaching us something spiritual and something important. B. It is the story of farmer whose workers planted wheat but someone slipped some weed seed into the field. The servants ask if the owner wants to pull up the weeds. He does not for he fears the wheat would be destroyed too. Instead, he will let both the weeds and wheat grow together and separate the good wheat when it is harvested. What does this mean? 1. Jesus actually interprets the parable in \#36-43\. 2. \#37\ The interpretation centers on Jesus, His life, and ministry. 3. As I interpret the parable, I want to include some present-day applications. C. Each element in the story has a spiritual meaning. 1. The owner represents God. 2. \#37\ The worker is Jesus but since Jesus has left, lets widen to application to include anyone who shares the gospel, not just preachers but anyone who works to see other people come to Jesus. 3. The wheat is the crop of those who work to see people saved. They would be the newly saved people who are won. 4. The tares are those who pretend to be saved but are still lost. Jesus called them hypocrites. 5. \#38\ Jesus said the field is the world but for our sake today, lets just emphasize one portion of the world. Lets let the field be the church. 6. The enemy that sowed the tares is the devil. 7. The end-time harvest is the rapture and the Great White Throne Judgment. The wheat and the tares will be separated at the rapture. The tares will be burned at the Great White Throne Judgment. 8. Gods barn is heaven. 9. The tares will be burned in hell. D. Having the pieces, we can understand the central truth. II. This parable is a statement to say that where ever there are Christians there is going to be fake Christians. A. That is true in the world. 1. Fake Christians are the tares. 2. Where ever there are real Christians are always fake Christians. B. That is true inside the church! 1. Lost people are always welcome to come to our church services. 2. We invite them. We desire them to come. We are thrilled when they visit us. C. However, all they should be are visitors. 1. We want to make the unsaved as welcomed as we can but they can never be part of the church because they are not part of Jesus body. 1Corinthians 12:27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 2. In fact, unsaved people are actually enemies of God. Ro 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. 3. Part of the problems with the "church" today is that it is not only comprised but controlled by Satans tares! a. Lost people are the pastors, the deacons, the elders, directing the activities, writing the Sunday school material, and making the decisions for the church! (1) You have heard of "gay" churches – lost people. (2) You have heard of "denominations" who say that the Bible has errors – lost people. (3) You have heard of Christians who say "there are many ways to heaven" – lost people. (4) You have heard the Pope say Muslims and Christians worship the same God – lost man. (5) You have heard of preachers who say that they wont preach on sin – lost people. b. I have no idea how many churches have been compromised by unsaved people coming into the church, taking up positions of leadership and directing the church down a wrong path, but this parable is telling us that it happens and the American church is an example of it. 4. But Jesus is warning us, where ever there is wheat, the enemy will make certain that there are tares! a. That means there are tares in this church too. b. What keeps them at bay? Strong spiritual dependency and strong spiritual leadership. c. But if there is ever a crack in that strong spirit, the weeds, the tares, will grow through it! III. Lets consider some specific truths: A. The workers cannot always tell the wheat from the tares; that is, we cannot always tell the saved from the lost. 1. Wheat and Biblical tares actually look a lot alike. 2. Most of you have at least seen a picture of fields of wheat. It grows on a stalk several feet high and then grows husks of wheat on the top. 3. The tares being spoken of in our text is a weed called darnel. 4. Darnel looks much like wheat until it gets almost fully grown so it is very difficult to tell them apart. Only a worker with much experience could be able to do so. 5. So the field owner told the workers to leave the darnel alone. 6. Friend, most of the time you and I cannot either. a. So what are we supposed to do to keep the church pure? b. We are supposed to preach the Word and stick to it. c. It is the workers of the church that keep the church pure. It the preaching of the Word that keeps the church pure. d. Lester Roloff used to say, "The Word will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from the Word. 7. Preachers should a. preach on sin because the tares dont like it. b. preach on the changed life because tares dont have that. c. preach on standards because the tares can not do them. d. preach on Bible truth because the tares do not get it. B The owner allowed the tares to grow with the wheat for the wheats sake. I see a couple of thoughts with that. 1. While most of the workers would not be able to tell the difference between the wheat and the tares, the master could! a. He knew well before the harvest what was in His field! b. Friend, you might fool the preacher and the other church members but you will never fool God. 2. God loves the weak wheat, the fruitless wheat. a. The owner did not let the workers remove the tares because some of the wheat would have been destroyed. (1) What wheat would have been destroyed? (2) The fruitless wheat. The fruitless wheat is what I am calling the weak wheat. b. I dont think the Lord picked the objects of these parables, the wheat and the darnel, by accident. (1) I think it was with purpose. (2) Everything that makes the separation from the wheat and the tares obvious is in the wheats fruit. (3) Even so, God loved the fruitless wheat and did not want it thrown into the fire. (a) I am going to point out again how difficult it is for me to believe that God would ever cast away one of His children. (b) In this parable, it was His love for the fruitless Christian that kept Him from sorting the wheat and the tares. (c) God did not want any weak wheat cased into the fire! c. The darnel is actually a poisonous grass. (1) I dont think it kills but it causes sleepiness, dullness, drowsiness. (2) It is a sop-o-ri-fic weed. (3) How do you recognize a tare? He is dull, sleeply, unattentive to the things of God. d. There are four ways that wheat represents the Christian. http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/parable-of-the-wheat-and-the- tares-jerry-shirley-sermon-on-parable-sower-and-seed-100899.asp? Page=1 (1) The fruit is what proves what is wheat and what is tares. (a) Do you know when you can tell the wheat from the tares? (b) When the wheat starts putting on fruit. (c) How long before you start putting on fruit? Some of those that grow inside the church have been here a long time without fruit! (d) At the best, Id call that weak wheat. (e) I have news for you. God loves you too. (f) If not, He would have given the order to pluck up the tares but because he concerned about the unfruitful wheat, He said let them grow together. (2) Wheat does not root itself very deep into the earth. (a) Wheat will typically grow 3 to 4 feet tall but its roots are only half that deep. (b) That means wheat spends its energy growing upward not downward, toward God and not into this world. (c) I read a story about a 82 year old woman who lived in the same house all of her life. A disaster was coming and she was told she would have to leave. They gave her 15 minutes to gather what she wanted. She said, "Every bit of who I am is in this house. How can I pack up and leave that quickly?" So it is with tares, they invest in their earthly roots not in a heavenly destination. (3) Wheat has a short life span. (a) Wheat lasts only for a season then it is forever gone. (b) If it is to leave a mark on this earth, it must do so by the fruit it leaves. (c) Christians are interested in leaving a stump. They want to leave a harvest that will keep reproducing itself until Jesus comes. (4) When wheat matures, the weight of the fruit causes it to bow its head. (a) Wheat is humble before the God who created it. (b). That is the saved, humble before God. C \#28\ Consider that the master not only knew tares were in his field, he also knew who put them there. 1. The enemy is Satan and Jesus was revealing Satans number one way to weaken and destroy a church. 2. It is infiltration and false identification. 3. Satan sends his children in to infiltrate the church and to pretend to be one of the saved. 4. What can we do about it? a. Again, the master said nothing. b. We just need to be aware of it and stick to the Bible. c. The Bible will week the Gods garden! D. \#30\ However, there will be a harvest. 1. There will be a judgment. God is going to separate the saved from the lost and the lost will burn. 2. Some wonder if I believe in hell? I sure do! And I have also learned that denying a truth does not make it go away. E. Let me give you one more truth and this is the best one. 1. Unlike the real world, in the spiritual world, tares can be turned into wheat! 2. The same God who made water turn into wine can make tares into wheat!