Right, so we're on to Matthew 13 and part 2, and in verses 1-23 we did last week, which was part 1,
we saw Jesus was preaching to these unsaved multitudes from a boat whilst they were on the
seashore, and that was a pretty impressive sight. I mean, he tells them this parable of the sower,
they're separated by the water, aren't they? His disciples were able to come to ask why he's
talking to the multitude of pals, you know, maybe there's a picture there of that water being sort
of like the word of God there, they're separated by this, the disciples were able to come to him.
Matthew 13 and 11 says, 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. And he then explains these people
have rejected God and he has rejected them, he talks about like their heart, you know,
waxing gross, basically they're prideful, they're there, and as we see as we go through the Gospels,
you're seeing a lot about this sort of, ultimately these people being rejected, they're given that
chance, given that opportunity at the beginning of his ministry, and they're rejecting him and
they get rejected by God, these people are reprobate, concerned the faith. We then,
after that, we looked in depth at the parable of the sower and were able, I believe, to understand
it once we put the three Gospel accounts together, and I found that really interesting that Jesus
Christ says, right, I'm going to explain it to you, but we, you know, it's not that you just go
to one passage and understand the whole thing, once you put it all together, I think you really
get a picture there, and obviously we are told to study, aren't we, study to show thyselves approved
unto God. So that was part one, and that obviously, that parable of the sower, famous
passage, clearly all about soul winning. I did hear from someone last week that someone was trying
to say it wasn't one of his old pastors or someone, but clearly about soul winning, and clearly about
those different types of people that get saved, but like I said last week, just because you're
soul winning now doesn't mean that those thorns can't grow up, doesn't mean that you might not
be offended by persecution or tribulation, that you don't hit stony ground with those roots or
anything else, so we want to maintain that good ground, don't we. Now we're going to continue now
from verse 24, which reads, another parable put forth unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is
likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. I'd like to just pray quickly before we
continue with this passage. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for these parables,
and thank you for helping us to understand them. Help me to preach this accurately, Lord. Help me
to preach this as you'd want me to preach it. Help everyone here to just have open ears, attentive
ears, Lord. Fill them with your spirit. Fill the room with your spirit, Lord, and just help all
these things to be done in Jesus Christ's holy name. Amen. Okay, so this next parable is known
as the parable of the tares, and we're going to start from the verse above. What we're doing,
notice it said the kingdom of heaven, and this is a term that we see here in Matthew's gospel,
and interestingly in Mark's gospel, we see, we don't see this passage, but we see later on the
kingdom of God, and I say that just because there's all this dispensationalist nonsense out there
trying to say these are different things. They're the same thing. He talks about the kingdom of
heaven here in Mark's gospel, referring to the same parable. He talks about the kingdom of God,
okay. This parable, no, but we're going to see that this later in the next couple of parables
we looked at, look at as well, but the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God, okay, and here it
says the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field, but while men
slept his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way, and but when the blade
was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of
the householder came and said unto him, sir, did not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence
then hath it tares? He said unto them, an enemy hath done this. The servant said unto him, wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, nay, lest while ye gather up the tares ye
root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in time of harvest
I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them,
but gather the wheat into my barn. Now, like with the parable of the sower, there's an explanation
to this one, which is pretty handy, isn't it, to have. But unlike the sower, like I said just a
second ago, this parable is only recorded in Matthew's Gospel, so we're really going to have
to try and understand what we can from the explanation for this one version of the explanation
here. So jump forward to verse 36. We're going to hit this parable first for the explanation.
So that's from verse 36, where it says, Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house,
and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
He answered, said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the son of man. The field is the
world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the
wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world,
and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned into fire,
so shall it be in the end of this world. The son of man shall send forth his angels,
and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity,
and shall cast him into a furnace of fire that shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father,
who have ears to hear, let him hear. Now with that in mind then, so bearing that in mind,
that explanation afterwards, we're going to look again from verse 24. So verse 24 says,
Another parable put forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field. So this is Jesus Christ sowing children of the kingdom into
the world. What does that mean? Well, Galatians 3 26 says, For ye are all the children of God by
what faith in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ, death, burial and resurrection, and really the word of
God, Jesus Christ is the word of God, sows believers into the world, doesn't it? Okay,
that's how we're sown into the world. So we obviously we don't look through this, look at
this through Calvinist glasses or something else. We're sowed by faith in Jesus Christ. Okay, now,
verse 25 says, But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
Now, the men sleeping, we don't see an explanation as to who they are. They are either the rest of
the world, you could say, you know, the rest of the world does seem to sleep when all this stuff
goes on. They don't really seem to have a clue, do they, about what children of the devil are,
which is what we're going to see, what what real believers are, anything else seem to be completely
asleep to it all. Or it could even be believers here, couldn't it as well? Could be the men or
the believers who don't. And again, like the world, the vast amount of believers seem to
be asleep to all of this as well. Don't really seem to have a clue what a false prophet is or
any of the rest of it. And I'm talking about genuine believers as well. The vast majority
of people who get saved will never sadly get to the point of really understanding most of this.
Now they're able to, they just don't sadly do that. His enemy is the devil and the tares are
his children. So the devil sows his children among God's children. That's what it says, doesn't it?
What are tares? Well, this is talking about a weed called a darnel, apparently,
which is a common, this common weed that looks identical to wheat until the fruit appears.
Okay, so it's until the fruit appears. So what can we learn from just this from at this point now?
Well, the obvious thing is that the devil sows his children amongst God's children.
Okay, that's the obvious thing, isn't it? And look, I say that, and before I do,
in case you're just wondering, well, who are his children? Who are the devil's children?
Is this some offspring of Eve? Yeah, no, it's not some offspring. I mean, that is ridiculous,
isn't it? Is it basically everyone over seven foot tall? Are they the children of the devil because
some sort of, you know, strange giant breeding? No, this is talking about reprobates. Specifically
here we're talking about the false prophet types, but children of the devil reprobates.
Turn to Acts 13. Let's have a look at this quickly. Well, I read John 8 44,
where Jesus said in John 8 44, you're turning to Acts 13, John 8 44, Jesus said to these Christ
rejecting reprobate Jews, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. Now, these Jews aren't seven foot tall. No, they're not some sort of offspring of the devil
and Eve. Well, no, he says here, he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth,
talking of the devil, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
own, for he is a liar and the father of it. He said to them, Ye are of your father the devil.
They then tell him that he has a devil, something that Jesus said hath never forgiven us. Yeah,
okay, this is something that reprobates do would call Jesus possessed by devil. Now in Acts 13,
where U-turn Paul and Barnabas are preaching in Cyprus, and when they had gone through the
island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus.
So this guy's a false prophet, his name apparently means the son of Jesus, and you can imagine
there are probably some false prophets out there claiming this sort of thing, don't they? This guy
is a false prophet, it says here, he's a Jew, he's a false prophet, his name's Bar-Jesus, which was
with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man, who called for Barnabas and Paul
and desired to hear the word of God. But Elemis the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation,
withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. So what is this false prophet's
goal here? To turn away the deputy from the faith, yeah, that's his goal. What a wicked life, isn't
it? And you really have to be, you have to be really a child of the devil, you would think
where your life is just spent, I know some, look, I know there are unsaved people that will just do
that to some degree, but your life is spent just trying to prevent people getting saved, prevent
people from hearing the truth, turn away people from the faith. And is the deputy saved yet, by
the way? No, okay, if you've read this story, we're going to see in a second, he gets saved later.
Turning him away from the faith, just so you understand, sometimes you can read that in the
Bible and think, oh, this is talking about losing salvation. No, it's stopping someone getting saved,
turning them away from the faith, from the truth, from getting saved, yeah. So his goal here is to
prevent him getting saved. So it then says in verse nine, then Saul, who also is called Paul,
filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief,
thou child of the devil. See that, he calls him a child of the devil. Thou enemy of all righteousness,
wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord. So he's a child of the devil, agreed?
Okay, that's what Paul calls him, or Saul, you know, whichever you want to call him here, he's a reprobate
false prophet. What are his characteristics? Subtlety. He said he's full of all subtlety.
Yeah, look, they're not just blatantly out there with horns on their head.
Subtlety, full of all mischief as well. So he's trying, and this isn't talking about, you know,
cheeky chappy, like naughtiness, you know, sort of pranks and things like that. This is talking about
basically like he's full of wickedness, okay, he's full of all mischief. He says, wilt thou not cease to
pervert the right ways of the Lord. So again, what's one of his characteristics? This false
prophet, this child of the devil, perverting the right ways of the Lord. Now notice how it said the
right ways, plural of the Lord, because again, I think sometimes there's a common feeling out there
that, well, a false prophet, all they're really doing is preaching a false gospel. That's what
a false prophet does, preach the false gospel. Otherwise, you know, they're really a false prophet.
But it's the right ways of the Lord. Now look, just to get this right, everyone who
preaches is going to preach things wrong sometimes, okay. I'm going to preach stuff wrong. I'm sure I
preach many things wrong already, okay, from this bold bit. But there's a difference between purposely
trying to pervert the right ways of the Lord and being human and sometimes getting things wrong,
yeah. And someone who's purposely doing that, it doesn't just have to be the gospel. And yes,
they're unsaved, okay, they're unsaved. But it's not always just that. They can be very clever
with it, yeah. For example, the Calvinist sounds like he's, you know, he sounds like he's got the
gospel right, yeah, grace through faith, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But he's perverting the right
ways of the Lord, isn't he? Okay. And these guys preach this stuff of false prophets all day long.
How do you stand there and preach that wicked false God? It's wicked, isn't it? Or, you know,
many different, you can think of many different types, can't you? Many different types of people.
And as we're seeing here and we're going to talk about is those sown amongst appear to be like
believers. And for us, obviously, they'd have to appear to be pretty much like believers. In other
parts of, you know, parts of Christianity in inverted commas, you know, some believers who've
got saved by you, who you knocked on the door, they might go away and believe that that completely
queer as you like Catholic priest is actually saved. But that is a type of false prophet,
isn't it? Okay. It's quite an obvious one to us, but not to everyone. Okay. So here, this guy,
though, he's full of all subtleties and mischief and he doesn't cease. He says,
Wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways, plural of the Lord? And, you know,
just quickly on that, like we've seen and we've seen here in many churches, we'll see when people,
these types of people, it won't just be the gospel. They'll be in there trying to pervert
the right ways, trying to encourage people into all different types of sin, trying to encourage
the church into certain things which are against the doctrines of the Lord, of the word of God,
against what's being preached, against the leadership, all those sorts of things that
pervert the right ways of the Lord. Okay. Verse 11 says, And now behold,
the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking
some to lead him by the hand. So I think perhaps a picture of the spiritual blindness of these
people here. That's what I believe that is. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, maybe it's just
something miraculous that Paul did, but I think that's probably what it is there.
Because, you know, these guys, they are spiritually blind. See, they can talk a good game.
And many people can talk a good game. We've seen this with people, you know, I remember one guy
once stood up here and by all accounts he basically just re-preached a part of a sermon
of a pastor that someone happened to have seen preached before. And so you can appear to be
right. Yeah, you can appear to preach, you can appear to know what you're talking about and
everything else. But ultimately here this guy needed leading by the hand. They need leading.
They need, because they don't really understand the word of God. They can't really open their
Bible and preach clearly, accurately the word of God. They have to just copy. They have to just
pretend to be someone else. They need leading by the hand like we see this guy here,
because they don't really understand. He says thou shalt be blind, not seeing some for a season.
Immediately they filled him and missed the darkness and he went about seeking some to lead
him by the hand. And they have to do that. They have to copy. That's why you might have seen
some of these guys and you might have sat in a sermon and gone, oh that's pretty spot on. And
then kind of a while later, months, years, maybe later, you find out that guy was an unsafe. Wow,
that's weird because he's really spot on with this, this, this, this. Because they're just
copying it. And some of these guys will get, I mean, they're just given sermon nights from
Bible college and stuff like that. And they'll just go to, you can just go online it seems and
just get, get all sorts of stuff. You're just going to copy and take it from someone else.
People can do that. It doesn't really mean that they're, oh, well they must have, you know,
they must be full of the Holy Spirit because they could preach accurately maybe the power of the
soul or something else. Right. Okay. They need to be led by the hand. I think that's what we're
seeing here. Verse 12 says, and the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed being astonished
at the doctrine of the Lord. So that's when he believed. Okay. He tries to turn away from the
faith, but he gets saved at this point in verse 12. Okay. Look at, look at, uh, go back to Matthew
13 with that in mind. Okay. That's just some good characteristics of children of the devil,
showing what a child of the devil is, a false prophet, a reprobate. Back to Matthew 13 in verse
25 says, but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
So these particular false prophet infiltrator types here look just like the children of God.
Okay. They look just like him. He said here, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and
went his way. Matthew 7 15, they said, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they're ravening wolves. Notice it's inward, inwardly, not outwardly,
inwardly. They are ravening wolves. Okay. The field though, just to make this clear,
because you could look at this passage and just want to just kind of shove it into church life.
But what was the field? It wasn't the church. The field was the world. They're everywhere.
These people are everywhere. Okay. It's not just in the church. They infiltrate everywhere. We
were talking about it on, um, the other day with, uh, just with brother Hoonah, I think maybe,
maybe brother Dan as well. There's a couple of us just talking about the early UK soul winning days.
This is long before church. And there were just false prophets popping up left, right, and center.
One trying to pull a group this way. Another trying to pull a group that another one just
rebuking, reproving anyone on group chats. Another one trying to, trying to subtly sow seeds about
this pastor or about this doctrine, just nonstop. I actually looked through some of it a little while
ago. I just, just out of interest because of some recent events, obviously that went on here,
I was just looking and seeing some of the stuff these guys did a long time ago and some of the
little subtle comments, subtle little seeds of doubt on certain doctrines, little, little lies
about so-called just salvations when these people didn't even know at that point how to preach the
gospel, all this sort of stuff. And these people, they're, they're everywhere. And because there's,
again, I was, I was guilty. I remember when I, when I first started, you know, finding some other
believers who were preaching the class life, you know, great, great. There's, you know, just these
people that they're out there listening to the right, pretty, they must be saved. They must be
good people. Then it started becoming a bit shocking, you know, and you see these people get
kicked out, kicked off the group. You're seeing just all these weirdos popping up and you just
don't expect it. You don't really, you're not looking out for it either. And it's just bizarre.
It's, and that's before you even have a church, before we even had a church. And look, these,
you know, that's everywhere. So just because someone, oh, well, they soul win in so-and-so
country. Oh, and they've got, oh, well, they must be all right. Oh, it must be all right because
they're a soul winner. They must be all right because they, they're getting together and going
out, so it doesn't mean nothing, does it? It really doesn't. And we're going to see this in a minute.
So, okay, like I said, it's not just the church. They are everywhere. Okay, it says here, but when
the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So when did the
tares appear? When the fruit was brought forth. Now, apparently the darnel, the tare that we
talked about here, this, this, this plant is only distinguishable from, from wheat when the fruit
appears. So it's when the fruit appears. I said here, but when the blade was sprung up and brought
forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. See, and this is true to life, obviously, talking about,
you know, what, what this example is of these, these tares and the wheat. But turn back to Matthew
chapter 12. Matthew 7 16 said that ye shall know them by their fruits, didn't they? In Matthew 12,
we saw that those fruits are what come out of the mouth. Let's just look at it again. Verse 33
says either make the tree good and his fruit good or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt
for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye being evil speak good things,
speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the
good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure
bringeth forth evil things. But I sound to you that every idle word that men shall speak,
they shall give account of in a day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified and by
thy words thou shalt be condemned. Okay, so it's clearly talking about what comes out of the mouth.
With that in mind, go back to Matthew 13, where verse 26 said, but when the blade was sprung up
and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the, the tares start to become apparent
by the difference in their fruits, right? That's how we know them, that's how we recognize them.
But how's that clear? It's only clear by comparing them to the fruit of the good seed, isn't it?
And I say that because there are those obviously that, that just wouldn't have a clue. So unless
you, unless you're living for the Lord, unless you're reading your Bible, unless you start to
be around other Christians, you're not going to see those fruits. And there are people out there
who are going to be, who are saved, and if they're not around God's people, they're going to find it
harder to spot those who have wicked fruit, because they've got nothing to compare it to.
To the point where there are saved people that will hear someone talking about repenting your
sins and stuff like that and not really understand and just start to even maybe
parrot it off themselves if they don't even know what they're saying or anything else,
because they're not around God's people. And that's why being in church around God's people
is so important, isn't it? Because then you start to see the wicked, then you start to see the
wicked fruit, and it's not always damnable heresy like that. When you're around people of God and
God's people and you're in a church and everything else, then you're more likely to recognize,
you recognize the false prophets more. Everyone here who's been listening to good preaching,
and I'm not talking about myself, but before they came to this church, everyone here that's
in a church around other people, they've recognized those false prophets out there more.
And the more we're in church life, the more we start to recognize it, the more we start to see
it, agreed? Okay, but without being here, without any of that, without listening to good preaching
or anything else, it would be hard, wouldn't it? It'd be hard. So here it's when they bring
full fruit, and here's what's also so good about this parable, the darnel, okay, the tare that we
see here. The tare's fruit seeds are apparently a strong soporific poison, soporific being something
that induces sleepiness and drowsiness and everything else, which is quite interesting,
is it? Because the false prophet's fruit is poison, isn't it? It is poison, and if you're saved,
that poison will induce sleepiness, it will induce drowsiness, and it will basically limit you and
stop you being alert and being lively for the Lord, won't it? Just amazing, isn't it, the parables of the
Lord and amazing. But yeah, just like the false prophets out there, the children of the wicked ones.
So look at verse 27. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not
thou sow good seed in thy field? For whence then have it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done
this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? Now who are the servants
here? Well these are those serving God, and now some could say, well that's the angel, he did say
the angels are the reapers, and he does say to them, he does say to them after this I think in verse
30 maybe, I think he says, he says, Let both grow together until the harvest in time the harvest I
will say to the reapers. Now he's talking to the servants here, now it might be the same
people, I think probably not, I think these are those serving God. The servants, the servants said
unto them, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? And it makes me think of just, just believers
in general, believers in life, where a lot of the time we're looking at these false prophets aren't
we, and I don't know about you guys but I know myself a lot of the time, God just destroy them,
just smash them, just, just cut them out, what you know, and sometimes early on you're just looking
thinking how are these guys, how are these people alive, how like, how are these, these wicked false
prophets, you know, especially the ones that are really influencing a lot of people, these mega
preachers and stuff, why aren't they just being struck down, why don't you just kill them? And then
it also makes me think of those, especially in church leadership, where sometimes you, you want
to yourself pluck them out, don't you want to just fling them out early on, you're like, I know what
you are, I want to get you out, but, but you can't, can you, you can't, because it says here,
says in verse 29, but he said, nay lest while you gather up the tares you root up also the wheat
with them. Now like I said, obviously the field is the world, so primary application here is what
he's talking about, it's just, just in all aspects of the world, these being sowed amongst God's people,
and ultimately we all just want these wicked people to be, I hope you all do, but I do, I want them to
be gathered up and burnt, yeah, okay, but, but he says, lest while you gather up the tares you root up also
the, the, the wheat with them, and there's a couple of problems here, because,
and this is what he's explaining, is even though the fruit is showing at this point, so we can
recognise them, so sometimes at that point you can see what they are, you can see their fruits,
they're so close to the wheat aren't they? Okay, so now he's not saying that the wheat are going to
get burnt with unquenchable fire, but they're going to get rooted up, what are they going to
get rooted up from? Well, for me, I would say probably thinking about, you know, I've turned
there Psalm 92, 13, says those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts
of our God, we want to stay planted in the house of God, we want to stay planted, we want to stay
planted in the things of God, rooted, you know, strong in the things of God, and, and you could
say that maybe if you're seeing just these people that you believe are real, say Christians,
you believe, and you're seeing them just getting destroyed and everything else,
maybe, maybe that's gonna, gonna uproot you a little bit, maybe that's gonna affect you.
In church leadership, if you look at it on that small scale, another application of this,
and let's be honest, if I'd started kicking out some of those people several months ago,
and even if I, well I've got a second witness to, say for example, I'd kicked out Ben Franklin
because I'd had a couple of witnesses to his attempted trading with people in church,
you're telling me that maybe not more people here would have been like, no that was harsh brother,
he's a good guy and the people that have been conned by him, okay, because look, that's not
a slight on anyone, look, that's what their goal is, is to, people would have been like, no, no,
that's not enough. If I kicked out, say I'd kicked out Dorian and Elena because of her breaking rules
week after week after week, just blatant in everyone's face, and I'd just gone like,
right, that's enough, you're causing division in our church, get out, yeah, do you think that
a lot of the church wouldn't have maybe started to question my leadership then and gone, bit harsh
brother, come on, people can be like that, some people just find it hard, you know, to adapt,
you know, they're just quite strong personalities, etc. Now I knew I could see the fruits of them,
hello, I didn't, you know, it wasn't 100, 100, you know, you're always trying to give them the
benefit of the doubt, give them the benefit of doubt, but deep down, you know, but it wouldn't
have been enough, would it? Yeah, if I'd kicked out Alex for a lot of his kind of pervy weird ways,
you think that, look, people here wouldn't have been like, come on, man, he's just a bit different,
he's just very like touchy feely and everything else, and those people would have then possibly
been uprooted from our church, yeah, and it's the same in all areas of life with that because we
don't always know who they are, we don't always see them, do we, and it's the same if God just
uproots them and rips them out, again, that's going to make people question, but that great
Christian, I can't believe what happened to them, they just got struck down dead,
they just got smashed, you know, out of nowhere, just a thunderbolt just came and lit them,
I don't even know what once this life as a Christian about, you know, because we get conned
by them, we all do get conned by them, we will continue to get conned by them, okay, so that's
ultimately why, that's what I think it's saying there, and obviously we can look at it on a church
scale, but the field is the world, okay, so what does he say instead? He says, let both grow
together until the harvest, and in time of harvest I will say to the reapers,
gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
a bun, now just to make this clear, okay, this isn't talking about church discipline, the field
is a world, okay, the field's a world, and there will be people that, you know, who, you know,
will get through church life and other things and maybe not get exposed their whole life,
I don't know, but that's not what it's talking about here anyway, because really it's talking
about these people not getting plucked up by God and thrown into hell early, yeah, that's what it's
talking about, now that doesn't mean that we don't kick them out, because the Bible's very clear about
what to kick people out of church for, so you'll have like some will go, oh look, you can't, you
know, it says let them grow, let them, let them grow, you know, it's not for you to do that, no,
no, that's, we're not talking about church discipline here, we're just talking about in the
world, and we're talking about eternal judgment, and that will come at the end, and obviously that
ultimate judgment in the lake of fire will come at the end of the world, yeah, the harvest is the
end of the world, the reapers are the angels, now jump forward to verse 39, jump forward to verse 39
now, where it says, the enemy that sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world,
and the reapers are the angels, as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall
it be in the end of this world, the son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall
gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them
into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, now this is referring to
the great white throne judgment, and again you'd have to turn there, but when revelation 20 verse 15
says, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire,
because with many of these false prophets that's when they will be probably ultimately finally
getting exposed to all, because yeah we might have clocked certain ones, but there are believers that
probably look at somewhere like, I don't know, even someone like Joel Osteen probably, and think yeah
it's a man of God, because they've never really developed probably past the spiritual milk phase,
okay, and that's when really, you know, maybe there'll be a lot of believers around the world
would be like wow I couldn't believe it, and some of us might have knew that one, yeah,
I clocked him ages ago, but there will be ones that we didn't know, yeah, there will be ones
that are like wow really, you know, that will happen I believe, you know, we don't, we're not
going to know it all right, but that's when it's, that's when the kind of ultimate exposing will
come, yeah, now what happens to the wheat, the good seed, as they're gathered into the barn,
verse 43 said, then shall the righteous shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father,
who hath ears to hear, let him hear. What's the ultimate message there of the whole thing,
it's just to be patient isn't it, is to be patient, live your life for God, do the right thing,
be patient, people, these people will get their comeuppance in the end, and it can be frustrating,
it can, you can, you can look at it, obviously in church leadership kind of that's kind of a,
you know, a kind of smaller scale sort of application of this, it can be frustrating,
but obviously just in the world in life and all these, they're everywhere, there are false
prophets everywhere aren't there, I mean the more you go out and you're just knocking doors, the
more you come across them, you're knocking doors, I mean we had a one today, I mean you're walking
down the road, brother John Cornell ends up trying to preach the gospel to a so-called pastor and
they're just everywhere aren't they, and they, and they're trying to backtrack and sound like
they're saved, you know, they say one thing and then when they realise oh no this guy actually is
saved, I'll then change to oh yeah, yeah, yeah, of course you can't lose your salvation, even though
I just said I can, you know, because, because I don't really know, even though I'm a pastor,
and I'm just, just they're everywhere aren't they, okay, so look at verse 31, verse 31 then says,
we're going to move on now, it says, another parable put you forth unto them saying,
the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his
field, which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs
and becometh a tree so that the birds of the air come a lodge in the branches thereof. So we've
moved on, we've done the parable of the tares, he then puts forward another parable, now the
parable of the tares, great parable, good reminder for us, something we need reminded of a lot,
something the Bible reminds of a lot, just to, just, just to kind of finish that off quickly
there because, you know, and obviously we, you know, gets preached quite a lot, we've been doing
Bibles so it just comes up, I mean, so far, you know, at this church we've gone through
first Corinthians, okay, and, and that sort of stuff's come up a bit, we've gone through the
book of Romans and it comes up, we, we, we went through the Gospel of John, it's just coming up
all the time, we're seeing all these kind of things of Judas and the way he does certain things and,
and, and, you know, obviously we're now going through the Gospel of Matthew and it just comes
up and comes up and comes up and I know it's not always easy going listening to that sort of
preaching but the Bible's constantly warning us, tares, tares, this type of people, many false
prophets, you know, sowed among you, no, they're in, wolves in sheep's clothing, all these sorts
of things, Paul warning them, night and day with tears, time and time again, now, and now he moves
on and he's in the, and he says, he then gives this parable but we don't have an explanation for
this parable, okay, and I, you know, you can look at the other versions, I don't think there's any
necessary gems in the other versions of it or, you know, here you've got kind of Mark and Luke
as well with these and, and so this is kind of open to interpretation and I would imagine many
people have interpreted this in different ways and I, this is how I'd like to interpret it,
I might be wrong here so bear with me with this but I would like to look at this parable in light
of the parable of the tares because he has given us an explanation to the parable of the tares and
there's some similarities to some of the, some of the characters in this, yeah, we've got a sower
here, well the sower in the parable of the tares which she's just said is the son of man Jesus
Christ, yeah, the mustard seed here, well this, the seed we just saw is a child of the kingdom
and the field you could say is the world, right, so you've got the sower here, maybe that's Jesus
Christ, the mustard seed, the child of the kingdom, the field, the world, the child of the kingdom, a
new believer is sown by faith in Christ but for me is often the least of all men, yeah, you turn
to first Corinthians and chapter one, the child of the kingdom, that new believer, that believer in
general, especially when a new believer is often the least of all men, first Corinthians chapter
one and verse 26, first Corinthians 1, 26 says, for you see your calling brethren, how that not
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called but God has chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise, God has chosen the weak things of the world to
confound the things which are mighty, he's talking about believers here and base things of the world
and things which are despised, base is basically at the bottom there, hath God chosen, yea, and
things which are not to bring to naught things that are the least of all seeds, Mark 4 31, just
stay there though, when relaying the parable says, it is like a grain of mustard seed which when it
is sown in the earth is less than all seeds that be in the earth, yeah, he says it's less than all
seeds that be in the earth and that's the new believer I believe, verse 29 where you are says
that no flesh should glory in his presence, okay, but what happens when we grow, we'll look at verse
30 now where you are, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written,
he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord, okay, so if you go back now to the parable where we are
in verse 32 in Matthew 13 says, verse 32 says which indeed is the least of all seeds but when
it is grown it is the greatest among herbs and becometh the trees that the birds of the air come
and lodge in the branches thereof and mustard plants, mustard plants get really big don't they,
they get apparently very big, they're kind of the greatest ones, they can look like trees
and I believe that this parable is about the growth a believer can achieve, oh it didn't say
the kingdom of God, well it also said the kingdom of God about the the parable of the tares,
okay, and that's talking about wicked ones getting sown amongst believers, okay, it's just truths of
the kingdom of God, okay, truths of faith, yeah, and here I think it's the growth a believer can
achieve, Psalm 1, you have to turn now, I think everyone knows these verses, blessed is a man that
walketh not in accounts of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the
seat of the schoolful but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his Lord hath he meditate
day and night, this is a blessed man and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth
shall prosper, that's how I see that, I think that's just kind of the the showing the difference
that comes from someone who's the base amongst men, the lowest among men and ultimately they
become really full of wisdom because so many here can testify for that, no we're not all great, no
it all comes from the word of God but how much I hope has everyone grown here, just reading the
word of God, just doing the things of God, just living for God and growing in in so many aspects
of your life and ways your life that you probably couldn't have imagined before and that's what I
think it's talking about here to the point where the birds in the air come and lodge in a branch,
so obviously it's talking about just being basically like a shelter for many, I don't think,
I know some would try oh it's talking about the fowls or something, it's not, it's not, I don't
think you could relay it to them that the fowls as we saw in the parable of the sowers, so that's
what I believe there, then verse 33 he then says another parable spake unto them, the kingdom of
heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was
leaven, now leaven being a sourdough type starter, basically yeast you know, meal being flour,
now the analogy for me is how the leaven can multiply okay, not just one measure of flour
but three measures here isn't it and it's the same obviously leaven's used when talking about sin and
again you could look at this and go well isn't leaven constantly talking about sin, yeah it is,
but sin does that as well, sin multiplies and ultimately it's talking about the multiplication
here sin, yeah sin multiplies a little leaven leaven of the whole lump but in the same way here
I think it's talking about well it says the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a
woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leaven, it basically keeps
multiplying and multiplying and that's what you see when you kind of put yeast in something and
the now leaven dough can also be used as leaven so that's kind of what this sat this this leaven
they use it's basically dough which is which is so sort of like ultra fermenting that that it can
be used to then just ferment big amounts of flour and then that can then be used to become this
this sort of like a sourdough starter yeah. Now with that in mind multiplying and multiplying
Romans 1 17 says for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is
written the just shall live by faith so our multiplication as as believers comes from us
going and getting others saved doesn't it okay that's how it comes and and like here where the
leaven has contact with the rest of the meal the grain and it just ferments and rises in the same
way when we go out and we preach the gospel we get other people saved and the kingdom of heaven
multiplies right that's what I think it's talking about and it was something I just did it quickly
on a calculator I'm sure I've heard this preached somewhere before but if one Christian got 10
people saved yeah and they might have got many other people saved but if 10 of those people saved
went and got 10 people saved each and those people went and got 10 people saved each yeah
if everyone did that it would take I think only 10 10 times that to basically get the
whole world evangelized it would take you could say 10 generations but it doesn't even have to
be generations if I went out and got 10 people saved and those 10 people each got 10 people
saved and those people each got 10 people saved it would only take 10 lots of that to get the whole
world saved that's that should be shouldn't it so it should be but how many Christians how many
believers will even listen to this and even listen to preaching like this and listen to people tell
him go out and preach the gospel preach the gospel preach the gospel and still not preach the gospel
and that's how people get saved that's that's how the kingdom of heaven multiplies like hiding a bit
of leaven in three three what's it measures of meal here measures a large amount as well
and yet still uh well soul winnings for other people soul winnings for someone else
oh what a difference we could all really make and so often we don't and it's sad isn't it
now that's what I believe that that's about there again you could probably apply it in different
ways maybe he did he hasn't given us an explanation so you know I don't think there's
necessarily 100 right interpretation of those two two parables if anyone's got their own
interpretation I'd be really interested afterwards that's what I thought um okay then verse 34 says
all these things spake Jesus to the multitude in parables and without a parable spake he not unto
them that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying I will open my mouth in
parables I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world
right so turn to psalm 78 which is what he's referring to here this is from psalm 78 he just
said what spoken by the prophet I will open my mouth in parables I will utter things which have
been kept secret from the foundation of the world psalm 78 verse 1 says give ear oh my people psalm
78 and verse 1 psalm masculine asaph give an ear and owe my people to my law incline your ears to
the words of my mouth I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings of old so Jesus
called them things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world this says dark
sayings of old now is that because he wanted them secret now some of these things and we saw that
yeah he doesn't want those people that are basically reprobate to know and understand
these things but it says here in verse 3 talking about these particular parables he said I'll open
my mouth in parallel I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our fathers
have told us we will not hide them from their children showing to the generation to come the
praises of the lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done so and I
obviously this is prophetic but the children of Israel should have been like the psalmist here
yeah showing the next generation the praise of the lord his strength here it says his wonderful works
and it said in verse five for he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel
which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children yeah so they
were commanded to do that as well weren't they verse six that the generation to come might know
them even the children which should be born who should arise and declare them to their children
they failed to do this didn't they which is why when Jesus arrived it was such a spiritual mess
and it's not just because of yes there were some wicked people yeah there were some false prophets
yeah the enemy so tears amongst the wheat yeah but there was a lot of people there that just failed
they just failed to to educate those the next generation the next generation it says in verse
seven that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his
commandments and might not be as their fathers a stubborn and rebellious generation a generation
that set not their heart to right and whose spirit was not steadfast with God and this was
unfortunately what was the status quo in Judea wasn't it Jesus is talking in parables uttering
dark sayings but for many of these it's too late isn't it for many of these people that he's
talking to they're done it says that they've they've shut their ears they've shut their eyes
he's done the same to them they're done they're reprobate now they can't understand now like I
said they've chosen to reject yeah but who was commanded to teach them right as children
their fathers their fathers that's what it said here that they were commanded to do that right
said said we saw earlier it just said it said earlier it said in verse where are we verse um
five he established a testament jacob appointed law in Israel which he commanded our fathers that
they should make them known to their children it says that the generation to come might know them
even the children should be born who should arise and declare them to their children okay so they
didn't do that and look this is prophetic really as well that's our responsibility isn't it that's
our responsibility now and was the responsibility just to get them saved is that what he said oh
they just didn't get them say well look at verse four it says we will not hide them from their
children showing to the generation to come the praises of the lord and his strength and his
wonderful works that he had done verse seven said that they might set their hope in god
and not forget the works of god but keep his commandments their hope in god is only one of
those isn't it they were also to to they were they were told to teach the praises of the lord
his strength his wonderful works that they should set their hope in god i believe that's
talking about salvation and not forget the works of god but keep his commandments
and that's our responsibility as well that's why deuteronomy 6 7 you don't have to turn this is
talking about the word of god and thou shalt keep them diligently so teach them diligently
unto thy children shall talk to them when thou sits in thine house when thou walks by the way
and when thou lies down and when thou risest up okay that's what we're told to do that's what
we're commanded to do otherwise what happens further down the line and what happens is what
we're seeing here with jesus in front of the unsaved reprobate multitudes and that can easily
happen to our line can't it and because it's not just getting them saved getting them saved is one
thing teaching them the praise of the lord his strength his wonderful works not to forget the
works of god to keep his commandments talking about them diligently until our children talk
then when we sit in our house when we walk by the way when we lie down when when we rise up
it's so important isn't it because if they don't grow as strong christians if they're just saved
and maybe a little bit weak what's going to happen to their kids maybe get them saved maybe get them
saved hopefully get them saved are they going to grow up as strong christians going to be weaker
aren't they are their kids then going to get saved now it's getting a little bit less less
chance isn't it next generation down i'd say no and that's sad isn't it sad if you think about
your own line and think well and here you know that was this is a result that we're seeing here
in matthew 13 you're just seeing all these like multitudes multitudes of people that were from
a nation that had the oracles of god given unto them that had the word of god that now at this
point have got jesus christ walking in the flesh in front of them and it seems that the multitudes
have had their eyes closed their ears shut their hearts have waxed gross they're waxed
fat they're they're they're done and how sad that is isn't it and and although yeah they
a lot of these are wicked people that have obviously you know rejected the lord clearly
said he's possessing everything else some of that responsibility still lies with their parents or
their parents parents their parents parents parents because they if they had all done as they
were told and they'd all strengthen that there's no reason like because i think sometimes we as
parents we can worry and think well you know let's hope that each child i've just got to keep praying
and make sure that that they don't end up being wicked right but there's no reason why they should
is there is there a reason why why a child at five six seven years old shouldn't just
hear the gospel and put their faith in jesus christ i don't see any reason why they shouldn't
so what's the issue the issue really is as you go further down the line is those
that then stop preaching the gospel stop even knowing how to preach the gospel yeah look all
of us here i hope that i i'd see no reason why all our kids aren't going to be you know
all going to be saved but are they all going to go on to save their kids
or are they all going to go on maybe that'll be all right maybe they'll go on to save their kids
but are they going to go on to inspire their kids to then live for god and save their kids and
that's what we want isn't it because that's another way that we'll multiply like we talked
about before like the leaven in the lump is by making sure that we raise our kids as godly
children godly kids that are going to go and keep doing that going further down the line
and go out and preach the gospel to others as well
if we go back to matthew 13 verse 36 it said then jesus sent the multitude away i mean that's pretty
clear there isn't it he just sends them away they're unsafe the rep rate just sends them away
wait a second what happened to you know jesus just peace love and arm around everyone and
no they're wicked they're wicked they've rejected him they've called him possessed
he's preached the parables they don't even understand he didn't even explain them to
him and then he sent them away he's like mate just made a point with them really hasn't he
just use them to make a point and went into the house and his disciples came unto him saying
declare unto us the parable of the tears of the field it's his disciples he declares it to right
and it's too late for most of these people now the rest of these these multitudes
and then verse 37 as we saw the answer said unto them he that soweth the good seed is the son of
man that's the title he gives himself the field is the world the good seed of the children of
the kingdom but the tears of the children of the wicked one the enemy that sowed them is the devil
the harvest is the end of the world and the reapers of the angels as therefore the tears
are gathered and burned in the fire so shall it be in the end of this world the son of man shall
send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and then
which do iniquity so obviously the tears are getting gathered and burned but by the way
so is everyone who isn't saved yeah and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be wailing
and gnashing of teeth and that is a reality that is the truth that is what we're saving people from
that's what we want to be saving our direct line from and that's what we want them to be saving
others in their life from as well and going out and preaching the gospel right because this is
this is a real truth this isn't something we just preach but we just hope that it's not really true
no he said they'll be wailing and gnashing of teeth yeah then shall the righteous shine
forth as the son in the kingdom of their father who have ears to hear let him hear
and like i said we want our children their children their children also to shine forth
as the son in the kingdom of our father don't we okay how do we do that by by making sure that we
raise our kids in their things of god and make sure that they're going to go on to do the same
and make sure that we're going out preaching the gospel and we're getting other people saved and
we just do what god wants us to do never god wants to do that's the only way we can do it
isn't it because we try and do it on our own in our own power and on our own wisdom it's all
going to go wrong isn't it okay and um on that that's the end of uh well matthew 13 part two
we'll be doing part three next week let's pray
father i thank you for um thank you for your you know these these great parables and and i pray
that i hope that that i've explained that as you'd want me to lord and i know we we can all
interpret at least some of these in in different ways um thank you for the explanations you have
given us there and and also thank you for the richness of your word that kind of gives us that
opportunity to try and sit down and think think about what you're trying to tell us there as well
that it's not all just given to us on a plate that um you know we should be studying we should be be
dwelling upon your word meditating upon your word lord um i pray that look we're all imperfect
people all of us as parents are in you know imperfect parents we're going to get things
wrong we're going to make mistakes we're going to make errors help us to all just raise our kids as
you'd want us to lord help us to to just try and get things right try and do things how you'd want
us to do things however hard that might be um with all the challenges we're all going to have the
individual challenges we're going to have lord help us to to do that help us to to to just be
inspired to try and just make a real difference in this world as we know we can and we can with
that line that we that we bring into this world and we can also by by going out and preaching the
gospel lord help us to want to do that help us to want to get people saved to want to to want to you
know make a difference and to want to inspire those as well to do the same lord um help us to
just be a church that will always do that help us to be a church that that just preaches out loud
and clear time and time again it doesn't shy away from these truths and and even though it's
uncomfortable for many for for those that maybe don't have a heart for soul winning help them
help us to encourage them inspire them to have that lord in Jesus name for all this amen