Today we continue in our exposition of God's Word. And for any of you who are new, I would like to say that we want to welcome you very much in our midst. I don't want to say this by way of formality. Sometimes it gets a bit formal to say we welcome anybody new in our midst, but I want you to know that truly we love you and we welcome you in the Lord's name.
Now for those of you who are new, I would like to tell you that week by week we expound God's Word in a systematic way. Today we have come to Matthew chapter 13, verses 24 to 30. And then verses 36 to 43. Let me read this passage for you.
"Another parable he, that is the Lord Jesus, put before them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and the enemy went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the householder came and said to him, "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?" He said to them, "An enemy has done this." The servants said to him, "Then do you want us to go and gather them?" But he said, "No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, 'Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"'
Now the explanation of this parable follows in verses 36 to 43. "Then he left the crowds and went into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying, 'Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.' He, that is the Lord Jesus, answered, 'He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom.' I would like you to notice this point: the seeds are the sons of the kingdom. 'The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather' — notice the words — 'out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire. There men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.'"
Those closing words are always used by the Lord Jesus when he is saying something very important. Now before we continue, I would like to mention to you this: as you look at this parable, you can see at once that it deals with two kinds of plantings in the kingdom of God. One, the wheat; the other, the tare. I would like you to bear this in mind and to notice and ponder what is the observable difference between these two types of people in the kingdom of God.
So before we continue, let us sing a hymn. And bearing in mind, I would like you to realize that this hymn has a lot to do with this parable. We don't sing a hymn just because it's time to sing a hymn. This hymn, on the kingship of Christ, has a lot to do with this parable, as you will notice. Hymn number 31.
I hope that I have mentioned that this hymn has a lot to do with our parable, because it is a hymn about the kingship of Christ, the kingship of Jesus. Now this parable — notice how it begins. It says here in the opening words, "Another parable he put before them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven.'" The kingdom of heaven is Matthew's parallel to Luke's "kingdom of God." God's kingship is here in question. It's about the kingship of God.
Today lots of people are unfamiliar with the term "kingdom of God." They ask, does the kingdom of God mean the church? Or what does it mean? The kingdom of God means the rule of God, the kingship of God. The English version here translates correctly in John, where in the interview with Pilate the governor, the Lord Jesus says, "My kingdom" — the Authorized Version has, "My kingdom is not of this world." The Revised Standard Version has, "My kingship is not of this world." And that is the correct translation. "My kingship." "Kingdom" is a little bit archaic English. "Kingship" may be a little bit more understandable.
So this is a parable, like so many of the Lord's parables, about his kingship, about God's rule, God's government in the world. Now what is it saying to us? How do we understand this? To help us to understand, very briefly, what the kingdom is — because to expound on the kingdom could take me many sessions — but to try to put it as simply as possible, how we understand this kingship, we can turn for a moment to Matthew chapter 21 and verse 43. Here is what the Lord Jesus says: "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you" — that is, from the Jews — "and given to a nation producing the fruits of it."
This is a very good verse from which to understand what kingship means. I hope as a Christian you really do understand what God's kingdom or God's kingship means. If you read it again, instead of having "the kingdom of God," you read it like this: "Therefore I tell you, the kingship of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it." It will say the same thing.
What does it mean? You see, we can see that the church is not equivalent to the kingdom of God, because here the kingdom, we learn, can be taken away from a person, or rather from a nation, and given to another nation. The nation, this new nation to which it is given, the kingship of God is given — is of course the church, the holy nation that the church is called in the first letter of Peter.
So God's kingship is taken away from Israel. Now I would like you to bear in mind this very fact of the scriptural teaching: the kingship of God can be given to you, but it can also be taken away. Therefore the kingship of God is not some permanent possession that you can regard yourself as having for good. God gave the kingship to Israel, his own kingship, that is, to be king over Israel. But then he took away this kingship and he gives it to the church. That is exactly what Paul says in Romans chapter 9 to 11, isn't it? Especially in chapter 11, where he says Israel was cut down, and now you who were not part of the original tree are now planted into that tree. It's another picture to say the same thing.
What does it say? You see, to have God as king is a supreme privilege, because it means that you have entered into a special relationship with God. Just as Israel stood in a special relationship to God — no other nation had God as king. Only Israel had God as king. That is unique. Other nations had kings, but Israel had God, because they stood in a special relationship to God. They were his people. He was their God. It was through the covenant that he became their God, and they became his people.
So also we, through the new covenant, become his people. He becomes our God and our king. We then have received the kingdom of God. Have you received God's kingdom? That depends on whether or not he is king of your life. As we sang in this hymn, "Crown him with many crowns." It depends whether you have crowned him as king of your life. It depends whether or not, having done this, you enter into a living relation with him, because nobody enters into a living relationship with God unless they first crown him king in their lives.
Now, having Jesus as king of the life brings of course responsibilities, and it brings supreme privileges. What privilege? Only those who have Jesus as king of their lives have all the blessings that Jesus confers upon them — such as eternal life, a very basic one; such as all the fruit of the Spirit, which come from him ruling in your heart. King of peace, we saw there. King of love. All these things — because he is the king of peace, because he is the king of love, he brings these things into your life. He brings righteousness, holiness into your life, because he governs your life. But if he does not reign in your life, then you are not part of God's kingdom. So there are Christians and Christians, and that is the point of this parable.
I hope then immediately you can understand this: it is a parable about God's kingship. Here the Lord Jesus is saying, "The situation with God's kingship is like this," and he goes on to describe it. One more thing we need to understand about God's kingdom, or God's kingship, is that there are two stages: one is the present stage, and one is the future stage. Here we are talking about the present stage, and the last part of the parable speaks about the future stage, when all the evildoers will be gathered out and God establishes his kingdom in judgment and justice.
This is an exceedingly important parable. As we saw, it ends with the words, "He that has ears to hear, let him hear." There are those who have ears, but they don't hear. "He that has ears to hear." "My sheep hear my voice. My sheep know my voice." The question is, these words are addressed to those who have ears to hear, who are prepared to be his sheep, because they are prepared to crown him as king of their lives.
The next reason why we can see it's a very important parable is because this is the only parable, outside the parable of the sower, where you find that an explanation of the parable is given. The other parables are given with no explanation. This is the only parable where an explanation follows. He explains to them the parable, which means that it is a foundation parable, just as the parable of the sower is a foundation parable.
When I study the teaching of the Lord Jesus, I am more and more amazed with the depth, the riches, the power of the Lord's teaching. I am not going to be able to expound all the riches of this parable in one session. So we are going to simply today look at some of the main elements of this parable. The parables of the Lord Jesus are simply too rich, too deep, to exhaust in one session. But we are going to pick out the central elements and look at those.
The more I study the teaching of the Lord Jesus also, I am more and more amazed why his teaching is not expounded today. I wonder how many of you have ever heard the Lord's teaching expounded anywhere, and expounded in any sort of systematic fashion. I was a Christian for 20 years, and I never heard anywhere the Lord's teaching expounded. Everywhere you go, somebody picks a verse out from Paul somewhere, and it is usually much the same verses. It seems that preachers like to stick to a few handful of verses. They seem to be utterly without confidence outside those limited handful of verses.
You cannot preach the Bible like this, because you are going to be completely lopsided if you are just going to pick out and select the same few verses all the time. You must preach the whole Word of God, the whole counsel of God. That is why we go through the whole of the Lord's teaching, not selecting here and there, but just taking everything as the Lord speaks and seeking under the Spirit's teaching to understand.
What happens is, the more I study the Lord's teaching and I compare the church's teaching, the more I see the astonishing gap. The more I see that if you start out with the church's teaching, you are quite incapable of expounding the Lord's teaching, because your mind is already closed to that teaching. You have already come with certain fixed doctrines in your mind, certain dogmas that prevent you from understanding the teaching.
This is what I found would happen to me. When I first studied the Lord's teaching, I couldn't understand it. It was a closed book to me. It was closed to me because I found somehow it was speaking a language that I didn't understand. I didn't understand that language because my mind had already been taught certain doctrines and dogmas, which, when I read the Lord's teaching, seemed to conflict with my doctrines and dogmas. Therefore I shut out the Lord's teaching, which is too often what the church does.
I want to say this by way of warning: unless you come with an open mind and put away your dogmas and doctrines, you are simply not going to understand it. There are some pastors and churches today who keep saying, "You've got to teach dogma and doctrines." Oh yes indeed, you've got to teach dogma and doctrines. Whose dogmas and whose doctrines? That is the question. Whose dogmas? Whose doctrines? Have you ever thought about it? Are we going to teach somebody's dogmas?
Dogmas are formations of teaching made by man. You've got to bear that in mind. Man has made certain definitions about these things called dogmas. Once you accept these dogmas, you don't accept anything else. That's why they are so keen that you should have dogmas, because dogmas will just establish your thinking in a particular way. I wish we had only one dogma, if we have to speak of dogmas, and that is that whatever Jesus says is true. That's enough for me. I'm going to stick by this: whatever he says. His words, they are spirit and they are life. I am not going to allow anybody's dogma or doctrine to decide whether or not I accept Jesus' teaching.
If any dogma can be expounded in the light of his teaching so that it does not conflict with the Lord's teaching, that's wonderful, that's fine with me. But I am not going to anymore go back to these old days when my mind was so filled with doctrines and dogmas that I was unable to understand the Lord's teaching, because my mind was closed to that teaching.
If, for example, you come to the Word of God with a notion that something is true — the truth, for example, that eternal life is received only through, say, a faith which does not require any holiness, which is a standard teaching in the church today, that holiness is a second stage of the Christian life — it is going to be impossible for you to accept the Lord's teaching, because your mind has already been decided what is and what is not true. Since you have decided in advance, you are not going to listen anymore. This is a disaster.
Today, when we speak of doctrines or dogmas, too often the person who speaks of it means the doctrines of Calvin, the doctrines of Augustine, the doctrines of the Roman Church. Or if you are Roman Catholic, of course, you hold to the doctrines of Roman Catholicism, and then you don't want to listen to what the Bible has to say. You already believe in purgatory, for example. That's the dogma of the church. So when you come to the Bible, you don't find any purgatory there. So what do you do? You say, "I don't care whether the Bible says there's purgatory or not. The church says there's purgatory and I accept the dogma." No wonder they are so keen to teach dogma and doctrines. Not surprising, is it?
The Catholic Church also stated that outside the Roman Church there was no salvation. They have modified that statement since Vatican II, but that used to be a dogma. You see, human doctrines can be changed. So who was right? The doctrine before Vatican II or the doctrine after Vatican II? Alas, let us come to the Word of God, otherwise we are going to do strange things. Or else we are going to say we are going to be saved by faith alone with no need of holiness. And what is our definition of faith? And if we say that, then of course when I preach holiness, people say, "Hey, don't speak about holiness, otherwise you are preaching salvation by works." You see, our dogma has closed our minds to the teaching of the Lord Jesus.
I ask only for a person to come with an open heart. Whose dogmas or doctrines are we teaching? The people who speak about doctrines are saying, "Let's teach the doctrines of Calvin," as though Calvin's doctrines are equivalent to the Word of God. Or if the Roman Catholic says, "Let's teach the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church," as though the Roman Catholic doctrines are equivalent to the Word of God — indeed, superior to the Word of God. And then what happens is what the Lord Jesus says to the Pharisees: "You do set aside the Word of God through your doctrines, your traditions." Which is in fact — the traditions in the Pharisees' term means their doctrines. The doctrines set aside the Word of God. You need only look at the Mishnah to see just how they set aside the Word of God and turn the Word of God aside so as to keep holding on to their doctrines.
Let us consider then what the Lord's teaching is. I am going to tell you what the Lord teaches about salvation in very concise terms, and let you compare whether the church teaches the same thing. This is what the Lord Jesus teaches: we are saved through a faith that has to be defined as a total commitment to him as king. He expresses this in the words which cannot be mistaken, in the words like this: "Except a man take up his cross and follow me, he is not worthy of me." More plain than that you cannot get.
"Except a man take up his cross" — that is, he is prepared to lay down his life. He commits himself totally and without reserve to me, that is, king of his life, to do whatsoever I command him to do, even to the point of taking up the cross and being crucified. Except a man does that, he is not worthy of me. How plain can you get? These are the words of Jesus. Has not our doctrines closed our mind to such teaching? "The Lord cannot require so much. The Lord is a loving God. He doesn't demand that much from us." Our doctrines have already disposed our minds to reject the teaching of Jesus: "It is not possible that Jesus can demand so much from us. You see, Jesus gives everything to us, but he demands next to nothing from us." That is the teaching today. So we do not want to listen to Jesus' teaching.
That is the first point. I leave it with you to decide whether that is what the Lord said or not. The first point then is: total commitment is expressed in the words, "Except a man take up his cross, except a man deny himself, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Such a person is not worthy of me.
Now, a person who does that — what happens to him? What happens to him is when you come to him and say, "Lord, I repent of my sins. I take up my cross and follow you. You are king of my life" — he is born again of the Spirit of God. He is transformed. His life is renewed. God's life comes into his soul. That is regeneration in the Bible sense, and regeneration in the Bible sense means transformation. You are no longer the man or the woman you were before. You are a changed person. "If any man be in Christ," Paul says, "he is a new creation."
How we hear that preached today, but that seems to mean simply a new status, that's all. A new creation is not a new status. If I create something anew, that thing is changed in itself. A new creature means that is changed. It doesn't mean a different legal status before God, which is all that most preachers want to be limited to today.
So through this faith of total commitment, you are transformed, changed. You become a new person in Christ. That is the powerful, dynamic teaching of the Lord Jesus compared to the watered-down, feeble stuff that some of you may have heard. And what happens as a result of this change? As a result of this change, in the Lord's teaching about the new birth — I need not tell you, I mentioned to you John chapter 3 and verse 5 and verse 3, which is also often preached today, as I say, but it seems to mean simply a new status, not a transformation of life. But the Lord means a change, as Paul himself completely understands.
With the result of this change, what happens? The change is so complete in its inner depths — it doesn't mean you become sinless, but it does mean that God's Spirit is so working in your life that you produce the fruit of a new life, which is called holiness. That is why "without holiness no man shall see God," the writer to the Hebrews said. This verse I've got to repeat to you again and again so you get the message, because those words sum up so perfectly the teaching of Scripture. Without holiness, Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14 tells us, no man shall see God. Why? Because it means that your life has not been transformed. If your life were transformed, it will produce holiness, because the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit in you, you are bound to be holy.
"Be holy as your Father in heaven is holy." "Be perfect." The word "perfect" is another word for holiness in Scripture. "As your Father in heaven is holy, is perfect." Both these words, "be holy" and "be perfect," are used in the New Testament. Now that is a summary of the Lord's teaching.
Let's get to the parable, and to the central points, very quickly. First of all, let us notice that this parable is in effect a prophecy. It is telling us what is going to be the case with the kingdom of God. What is happening? The situation with the kingdom of God is illustrated in picture form by this parable.
In this parable then, we see right away that there are two kinds of growth. First of all, let us notice where the seeds are sown. First we notice that this seed that is sown is, unlike the parable of the sower, not the Word of God, but — as I pointed out to you when we were reading the passage — it is the sons of the kingdom. That is, those who are children of God, those who live under God's kingship. These people are the ones that the Lord Jesus sows into the world. You and I, if we are children of God, we are God's seed sown into the world.
I need not remind you just exactly how a seed grows. If you read John chapter 12, you will know. A seed grows by dying. A seed falls into the ground and dies. There is the total commitment again. Nobody who is not totally committed is prepared to die. The true Christian is one who is prepared to die. He is crucified to the world. He is dead to the world. He has finished with the life of sin. Only this kind of person can live the kind of life that represents the good seed, that represents God's Word to this world. We ourselves are God's Word. We are God's message to the world. People have to look at our lives if they are going to be turned to God.
Now let us notice, look at these weeds. What are these weeds? It is very important for us now to spend a few moments to understand the weeds. We have no problem understanding the wheat. The wheat is easy to understand. We know that this represents the true children of God who live under the kingship of God in a genuine way, who have crowned Jesus as king of their lives. That is easy to understand. But what does the weed represent? Here it is most important to come to an accurate understanding, and I mean accurate. We must never read our own ideas into the Word of God. We must expound the Word of God with absolute precision.
First of all, notice these things. The world is the field. The field is the world. In this parable, the Lord Jesus tells us in his own explanation of it. We are sown into the world to be witnesses for him, to bring forth fruit for his glory, as the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 5, that people may see — in Matthew 5:16 — that people may see your good works and give glory to God. That is how you are to shine. He is speaking in the context of shining.
Again, our dogmas in the church, our doctrines, have made us think of good works as a dirty word. Today, among evangelicals, the word "good works" is a dirty word. It is not a dirty word to the Lord Jesus: "That men may see your good works and give glory to God." Now, why should people give glory to God when they see your good works? Why don't they give glory to you? Do you understand the point?
Normally if people see your good works, they give glory to you. How is it here it says that they will see your good works and give glory to God? This is the distinction of the kind of good works we are talking about. The good works which come from holiness carry with them the presence of God. You see, this is the beauty of it. Because these good works are produced by the power of God, even the non-Christian can see that these good works are done by God's power — that this holiness in you is not something that you have, it is something that comes from God. They don't know about the Holy Spirit, but they do know that this holiness in you is not something that you generate in yourself, that you work up in yourself. It is something that God does in you.
So perfect are the words of the Lord Jesus, that even by this very statement he has already indicated what kind of good works he means. He means the good works that come by the Spirit of God, therefore causing people to give glory to God, not to you. Have you ever known a holy man, a righteous man of God? Do you give glory to him? No. Because you know that the holiness in his life, the beauty in his life, is the beauty that comes from God, the holiness that comes from God.
A godly man has in his very life, without saying a word, the capacity to deflect you towards God and away from himself. That is the test whether your holiness is a holiness that comes from God. If people praise you, there is something wrong. But if people look at you and say, "Wow, how wonderful God is," then you know you have got the right kind of holiness, the right kind of good works in you.
The next thing we have got to notice is that the weeds that are sown here are not the weeds that are originally in the field. For the sake of exposition, you must observe this most carefully. The field is the world. Do the weeds refer to non-Christians? Do they refer to non-Christians? Think for a moment. If it refers to non-Christians, the weeds were there in the field long before the Lord Jesus sowed any good seed in the field. They were, of course. The non-believers, the evildoers, were in the world long before the Christians arrived. No, these are weeds which are sown after the good seed has been sown. Notice very carefully. And they are sown — notice where — among the wheat. They are planted with a deliberate intention, not of being in the rest of the field somewhere else, but right there in the middle of the wheat, among the wheat.
That is why the words have to be taken "out of the kingdom of God" — that is, they are in the kingdom, and they have to be taken out. We see that in verse 41: the evildoers, the cause of stumbling, these have to be removed from the kingdom, which means that they are in it. There are no unbelievers or evildoers in the sense of non-professing people who are in the kingdom of God, are there? As we press on, we see this point emerging ever more clearly.
Another exceedingly important point is this: what here in the Revised Standard Version is called "weeds," and in the Authorized Version is translated as "tares," are in fact the kind of plant which greatly resembles the wheat itself. It looks like the wheat. It emerges like the wheat. Therefore, as we read this parable carefully, you'll notice that the servants only realize that there are tares in the field, and an awful lot of them, when the plants have grown up and borne fruit. You'll notice this in verse 26: "So when the plants came up and bore fruit, then the weeds appeared." The weeds didn't appear until the time when the fruit began to appear. That means they had been growing for a long time before the servants suddenly realized, "Look at this, the field is full of tares." They turned to the master and said, "Didn't you sow wheat in your field? How come you have tares in the field?"
Note this carefully. This means that these tares bear a very close resemblance to the wheat, so that they could not be easily distinguished from the wheat until they bore forth fruit. Up to that stage, they looked exactly like the wheat. After that, their real character came out and was seen. That's very important for understanding this passage.
I have to mention the thing about the translations. The Authorized Version translation of "tares" is quite inaccurate, of course. We can't blame them because that was back in 1611, and they obviously did not know enough about this word that is used in the Greek here. The word "tares" is inaccurate because tares is a form of beans. It belongs to the bean or pea family, and bears no resemblance to wheat. Anybody, even a non-expert like me, could immediately see the difference between tares and wheat. But here we are talking about a kind of weed that you simply cannot distinguish from the wheat until the fruit, the grain, appears.
The Authorized Version "tares" is quite inaccurate, and the same goes for the Revised Standard Version "weeds." Now weeds, as you can see, do not bear fruit. Have you ever seen weeds bearing fruit? Here you have a hopeless contradiction in your hands. Weeds don't bear fruit at all. The RSV deliberately probably uses this word because they know that the specialized name for this kind of weed is what the general public does not understand, since most of us are not botanists and we would not know a technical name. So they use deliberately this general word for weeds. But of course, if you are a thinking person, you immediately say, "Since when did weeds bear fruit?"
The Chinese translations have much the same problem here. The Chinese translation in the Mandarin is called "稗子的比喻" — the parable of the "baizi." Now "baizi" is in fact a form of weed that grows in the rice fields, not in the wheat fields. It's in the "daotian" — among the rice, you have a kind of weed that looks very much like the rice plant. So the Chinese translators have decided to speak of a rice field in which you have weeds coming up. Unfortunately for them, as they went on, they forgot that, and then they brought in the "maizi," the wheat, inside there. So suddenly you have rice weeds growing among the wheat, which creates all kinds of problems there.
But anyway, I mention this just so that you know. In fact, the word here — the technical plant is called the bearded darnel. Now what is a darnel? The Chinese term for it is most revealing. It's called "毒麦" — "dumai." "Dumai" means "poisonous wheat." That is a very, very good Chinese translation of darnel, and that is what all the experts tell us is what the plant here is.
Let us consider this darnel. The darnel is a very interesting plant. The darnel so closely resembles the wheat, and it usually only grows in wheat fields, that even an expert has difficulty telling which is wheat and which is the darnel, until they produce the ears, the fruit, the ears of grain. Why can you tell when the ear of grain comes up? Because the grain of the darnel is black. The kernels are black. That's very interesting — black. And the kernels are bitter. So they are black, and if you bite it, it's bitter. But you would be wise not to bite it, because the darnel is poisonous. That is why the Chinese name is so accurate: "毒麦" — poisonous wheat. It's "mai" because it looks like wheat, and it's "du," it's poisonous.
Here is what we are told by the experts about this darnel, this "dumai." It says it is poisonous, and the effect produces dizziness, sleepiness, nausea, diarrhea, convulsions. Convulsions means of course producing cramps and shakings. Gangrene, which is rotting in various parts of your body, and even death. Now this is very important for understanding this parable.
We realize we are dealing with two plants which look very similar, but are completely different in essence. That's very important for understanding this parable. How then do you know the difference between these plants? Exactly as the Lord Jesus says in Matthew 12, verses 33 onward: "By their fruit you shall know them." That's how you know. A good seed brings forth good fruit. A bad seed brings forth bad fruit. That's how you know.
But bear in mind — let's summarize what we have understood so far about this wheat, about these weeds, this darnel. These darnels grow among the wheat, inside the kingdom. They look like the wheat — that is, they look like genuine Christians, but they are not genuine Christians. What is more, they are poisonous. Their fruit is black compared to the wheat, which is of course whitish. Their fruit is poisonous compared to the wheat, which is nourishing. These are very important things to observe. And yet both of these grow in the church, in the kingdom of God, under the alleged kingship of God — alleged because we shall see as we go on that in the present time in the Lord's parable, there are evildoers in the kingdom of God, as this very parable tells us. Or like other parables tell us — the parable of the wedding feast, where this man, you remember, got into the feast without a wedding garment and was slung out of the feast, although he was already in it.
The next thing that I would like you to notice is the close relationship of the weeds and the wheat, the darnel and the wheat. They are intertwined in their relationship to each other, emphasizing the point that they function inside the kingdom of God. That is why the Lord Jesus warns that to pull up the darnel will result in pulling up the wheat. You've just got to leave it there now until the time of the judgment.
This all means, as we look into this parable, it means also: where do these darnel come from? The Lord Jesus says these are sown by the enemy. The enemy is Satan. Satan has, by his own strategy in fighting against the kingship of God, sown into God's kingdom these weeds. Now bear in mind that the weeds represent people. These are the weeds.
# The Parable of the Tares (Part 2)
Such a way among God's people that he will sow into the midst of them people who are in fact in essence not Christians but outwardly look like Christians. That means to say they will even behave like Christians up to a point. They will even speak like Christians up to a point. But they are in fact in essence quite different. They are sown by the devil.
This means therefore, as minutely as we expound this, we see that the weeds are simply not genuine Christians. But now this does not mean that they themselves think that they are not genuine Christians. That's very important to bear in mind. This is the next point we have to develop. As we study the Scripture and how these words are used, we realize there is the further tragedy: that these darnel in fact think that they are wheat. Precisely because they look so much like wheat, they even believe it themselves that they are wheat. Now that is the greatest tragedy of all.
It is not that this whole field of the church is full of people who deliberately are in there to destroy the church. Not at all. They are simply people who are not genuine Christians, who function inside the church and think themselves to be genuine Christians. Now that raises a vital question: how do you know? How do you know whether you are truly wheat, or whether you are darnel? How do you know the difference? Just exactly how are you going to tell? You may have the idea, the confidence that you are a true Christian. The question is whether you are a true Christian in God's eyes. That is the point — not whether you are a true Christian in your own eyes, whether I am a true Christian in my own eyes. Paul says, "I do not even judge myself." The question is whether I am a Christian in God's eyes. Let a man examine himself, Paul says.
How do we know? You see, as it goes on into verse 41 in the explanation of this parable, we read that these weeds are in fact stumbling blocks inside the church. And the Revised Standard Version translates "evildoers." Verse 41. Stumbling blocks is translated as "causes of sin," and the other Greek word is translated as "evildoers." Now, the word translated as "evildoers" is not accurate at all, because it gives the wrong impression. The word literally in the Greek means "doers of lawlessness." Doers of lawlessness.
When you listen to the term "doers of lawlessness," you will understand why they translate this as evildoers. If you do lawlessness, you are an evildoer. Quite rightly so. But now, as we compare how this word is used elsewhere in the New Testament, a picture which is very important for understanding weeds emerges. This same word in the Greek is used in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 23. In Matthew 7:23, when you check how this word is used, you discover that this word is not used of unbelievers, but of Christians. Indeed, it is used of Christian workers. Now that is something really striking.
Matthew 7 and verse 23. You remember it says in verse 21, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord.'" You see, here are people who say Jesus is king. They say, "Lord, Lord." These people do honor me with their lips, Isaiah says, but their hearts are far from me. They claim Jesus is king of their lives because they say, "Lord, Lord." "Lord" means king. But not everyone who says, "Lord, Lord," shall enter that kingdom of heaven — that is the future kingdom of heaven. Here is the future tense: shall enter the future. But he who does right now the will of my Father who is in heaven.
On that day — the very same day that this parable is talking about, the day of judgment — they will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name?" Now, these are people who worked in Jesus' name. They did mighty works in Jesus' name. And notice the frightening words in verse 23: "And then I will declare to them" — not to the unbelievers, but to these people who worked in my name — "I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers." It is exactly the same word in the Greek: evildoers. People who cast out demons, who prophesy in Jesus' name, who do mighty works of healing in Jesus' name, are evildoers. You see what I mean? There you see the parable of the wheat and the tares coming out. The evildoers are not unbelievers. These doers of lawlessness are in fact these tares.
These people who call Jesus Lord, and maybe they even mean it to some extent, but their lives are not lived in obedience to God's will. They do not do his will. That's biblical teaching. I don't care what kind of dogma you hold, what kind of theology you hold. I don't care what kind of theology anybody holds. This is the biblical teaching. You can go on teaching dogma, doctrines, whatever you like, but you best see to it that your doctrines are scriptural. Because if they are not scriptural, then your doctrines will get you right to where these people got: on that day of judgment, they end up in the flames of fire.
Did these people have faith? Remember this: they certainly had faith. Nobody does anything in Jesus' name who hasn't got faith. They cast out demons in Jesus' name. They had faith in Jesus' name to have the power to cast out demons. They believed in Jesus' name to have that power. Do they have faith? Do you have that kind of faith? They had faith. They could prophesy in Jesus' name. Do you have faith to prophesy? They had faith. But what they did not have was doing God's will. Prophesying is not equivalent to doing God's will. Doing miracles — and there are a lot of faith healers today — is not equivalent to doing God's will.
Doing God's will is what? It is living a life of holiness. Now you see why the Scripture emphasizes holiness. Living a life of holiness means simply this: that you live completely and truly and totally under God's kingship, that he is truly king of your life. That's scriptural teaching. Isn't that plain to us? Have we got ears to hear? Or has our doctrines blinded us to God's truth? I ask for the church: what's happened to us? Is not God's truth plain enough to us? Is it not clear?
Let me sum up again for you very plainly: unless you crown Jesus king of your life, you can do all the miracles in this world and you will not be saved, even if you do those miracles because you have faith in Jesus' name. You see, it's the faith which submits to living under God's rule that saves, not the faith to do miracles that saves. Distinguish carefully between faith and faith in the Bible.
That is why the apostle James says, "Show me your faith by your works." I want to see what kind of faith you are talking about. If your faith is the kind that does miracles, that's not going to save you. It's the faith that acknowledges him king in my daily life, moment by moment, day by day. That may not be as spectacular as doing miracles, but that's what God wants in the first place. In addition to that, you can also do miracles through the power of Jesus' name — that's wonderful. But the one cannot replace the other. I hope that by God's grace you can truly see what God is saying to us.
What you are is what matters, not what you do. It is what you are that matters to God. What you do is not very important to him. And I say this in warning to all those young people who think that by being very busy in the church, it shows how good a Christian you are — running around organizing this and organizing that. Some people who have just come to this church say, "I want to do something in the church." Then if they are not given something to do, they go somewhere else. That's fine with me. Dear brother and sister, by all means go. Because if you think in this way, you have not yet understood that first of all, God wants to see what you are, and I want to see what you are, before you have something to do.
It is easy to find jobs for people to do, but you can harm them more than being a blessing to them, because they think that by their many activities they are wonderful Christians. "I am president of this CCF, I am running this, and I am organizing that, and I am leading this Bible study, and I am doing that." Oh, you are very busy. I don't doubt you are very busy. But what are you in yourself? Are you wheat, or are you darnel? All the activities outwardly look like a true Christian. But what are you inwardly?
Notice further the great tragedy: these people in Matthew 7 thought that they would be saved. On the day of judgment, they are even presenting their works: "Lord, Lord, did we not do this in your name?" They had honestly thought that because they did all this, they could be saved. They really had faith in Jesus. Jesus turns them away. I tell you, the day of judgment will be a fearful day of surprises. There are many people who are going to get there thinking, "My seat is reserved for me in heaven." And God will say to them, "I don't know who you are. Depart from me." Who are you? You are not the wheat. And the tragedy of it is that they were led to believe that they were true Christians.
The devil is the father of lies. If you believe his lie that you are a true Christian, then you are in the most pitiful condition of all — that you can be a true Christian without holiness, that you can be saved without having his kingship in your life. Let me tell you, the parallel between these two is the parallel between two kinds of people in the church. To put it in a simplified way: the kind of person who believes in Jesus as Savior, and the kind of person who believes in Jesus as Lord and Savior — but in that order. If you are a Christian because you simply believe that Jesus is Savior, you have believed a lie.
A.W. Tozer, that great servant of God who wrote many wonderful books like "The Pursuit of God," in his book called "The Root of the Righteous," made this statement. He said, "The greatest heresy in the teaching of the church today is to separate between Savior and Lord, and to say that you can have Jesus as Savior without having him as Lord, and to have him as Lord at some subsequent stage of consecration." The people who say that think they are very clever. They think they understand theology. They think: first of all, you accept Jesus as Savior — you don't say a word about Lord — and you're going to be saved when you have Jesus as Savior. Then, if you fancy it one day, and if you please one day, if you happen to like it one day, then maybe you will crown him also as Lord in your life. But that is a higher stage of consecration. And even if you don't have that, you will still be saved.
Now that's what I mean by a lie of the devil. That is a lie. You see, there is no kingship there. There is no kingdom of God there. They want to make use of Jesus to save themselves, and maybe one day, if they feel up to it, they might say, "Well, I will also have Jesus as Lord." Maybe one day. But if not, it still doesn't matter. Alas, anyone who teaches such is teaching a lie of the devil, as even this great servant of God A.W. Tozer has warned again and again. But that is standard teaching today, is it not? You were brought up in this teaching. I was brought up in that teaching. That's what closed our eyes to the Word of God.
Many times when I preach the Word of God, they say, "Ha, he has confused consecration with justification." I have confused nothing. If anybody understands some theology, let me tell you, I have done enough theology in my time not to make elementary mistakes of this kind. There are a few people around these parts who have spent — if I must boast, and as Paul says, you drive me to it and I behave like a fool — there are not too many people who have spent as much time in theology as I have. I am not going to make elementary mistakes of this type. I confuse nothing. The scriptural teaching is so. And to separate that into two stages, the second of which is simply optional — up to you whether you want it or not, it is optional, take it or leave it — is simply Satan's lie. I beg of you to understand this, because your salvation is tied up in it.
This is what happened to these tares. I want you to understand that they were sown by Satan, but they honestly believed that they were saved, that they are Christians. And in the kingdom of God they were, at that stage, until they are thrown out. It is the same tragedy. Here they are called the sons of the devil. That's what the Lord Jesus says. The tares, the darnel, whatever you like to call them, are the sons of the devil.
But do you think the sons of the devil are conscious that they are sons of the devil? Alas, no. You need only read John chapter 8 to realize this. There the Jews say, "We are sons of Abraham." And what does the Lord Jesus say to them? "You are of your father the devil." He says this to who? To the Jews and the Pharisees — the most righteous of the Jews. The Pharisees wanted to excel in their own righteousness. John chapter 8, verse 44: "You are of your father the devil." The very people who are the most religiously enthusiastic people are described — not unbelievers, I beg of you to understand this — the unbelievers are not described as sons of the devil. It is these religious people. Read the Bible. Sometimes it gives you a shock of your life to understand these things.
And then the Lord Jesus said to these Jews, God's people, God's chosen people, and the Pharisees, the most righteous law-keepers of all: "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did." What did Abraham do? He crowned God as king in his life. "Whatever you say, I will do. Wherever you send me, I will go. You are king of my life." That's what Abraham did. He said, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do that."
But in fact — whatever you honestly think about yourself, let me honestly tell you, not by way of insulting you, but in the hope of making a correct diagnosis so that you can be saved. You've got to tell a sick man he's sick, otherwise he thinks he's healthy. You may have cancer in yourself, and up to a point, you feel very healthy. My father felt fine before he died of cancer. He felt wonderful. He was feeling fit. He just went for a routine check-up, and the doctor said, "What's this lump you got here?" He said, "What lump?" "This lump here." "Oh," he said, "it doesn't hurt me, it means nothing." Two months later, he was dead. He was feeling fine when he went for his medical check-up. That you feel good, that you feel you're alright, proves absolutely nothing. The question is: what is your true spiritual state? Do you know that the disease is there and killing you? No.
That's why when Jesus says to them, "You are of your father the devil," he is not trying to insult them. He's saying, "Come to your senses." Until you receive God as king of your life, you are still going to be sons of the devil, and you're going to perish in your sins. In another place, in John chapter 9, he says to them, "Because you think you see, because you say you see, therefore your sins are with you." They honestly thought that they could see. They thought everybody else is blind, but they are the ones that see. Nothing is so frightful in our lives as when we think we are something that we are not. That is the utmost tragedy. God help us to be safe from that. May I ever come before the Lord and say, "Lord, I just want to be open to you. I beg of you, just show me myself as I truly am, not as I think I am, but as I truly am."
How then do we know? Are we left to guesswork, to inner feelings, whether or not we are truly Christians? Thanks be to God, we are not left in that desperate state. What happens? Here the Lord Jesus tells us how you know. When the fruits came up, you could tell the difference. That means to say, again, what is the fruit in the Bible? I have expounded on this before. You know at once the fruit is the fruit of the Spirit. It is holiness in your life.
Have you got holiness in your life? Do you go back and quarrel with your brother and your sister? Do you quarrel with your fellow Christians, with your landlord or landlady? Whatever you do, you go to college and you behave like a non-Christian, and you are going to be saved? "By their fruit you shall know them." By your fruit you will know yourself. I know myself. You may think I am a wonderful Christian. I know myself whether I am a wonderful Christian or not. I look at myself and I see just how much I fail. But I also see how much, by God's grace, he has made me what I am. If I see any good in me, I can say only with Paul, "I am what I am by the grace of God." I know what I was before. I know what I am now. I know what God has done in my life, and I say, "Thanks be to you, Lord."
When other people can begin to see a change in you, and you honestly know that that change is God's work in your heart, you are bearing the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Then you know you are a true Christian. And the Spirit of God, as Romans 8 says, witnesses with your spirit that you are a child of God. You have assurance — powerful assurance — because God's Spirit witnesses with you. And his Spirit witnesses with you because at the same time he is producing, powerfully, the fruit.
Or do you keep losing your temper? How do you behave? Don't say these don't matter. That's what the people want you to do. That's what Satan wants you to believe: "It doesn't matter how you behave. You are going to be saved anyway." How you behave is an indication whether or not you are a new creature. That's why it's so important: without holiness no man shall see God. Without the holiness that the Holy Spirit works into your life, you shall not see God. Are you wheat, or are you a weed, a darnel?
And remember again, the darnel is poisonous. That is why it has to be separated from the wheat. It must be carefully separated. In fact, if any mistake is made during the reaping period and some of the darnel gets mixed up with the wheat and is ground into flour, people are going to get very badly sick when they eat this mixed flour. That's why it has to be carefully separated and destroyed — to burn it.
I pray that God will help you to understand this message, that God will open your eyes and my eyes, that we together may ever say, "Lord, search me and try my heart, and see if there be any wicked way in me."
One final point. Remember, these evildoers are not people who go around committing murder, committing adultery, and doing things like this. Don't say to yourself, "Well, I didn't commit murder, I didn't do adultery, so I am not one of these evildoers." Don't deceive yourselves. Remember, the evildoers — this word "evildoers" in the Bible is also applied to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23. And it refers, as I reminded you, to doers of lawlessness. That means to say, they do not submit to the law of Christ. They don't live under Christ's law. They do their own thing. They want to believe whatever they want to believe; they do whatever they want to do. They don't live under his lordship.
Paul twice speaks about the law of Christ: once in 1st Corinthians 9, and the second time in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2. The law of Christ. He says, "I am not without law. I live under the law of Christ." Why doesn't somebody preach on that? Bear carefully in mind these matters, so that holiness, as Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7, verses 1 and 2, that holiness be perfected in your life.
Let us be quiet before God in prayer.