The Tares in the Wheat (Matthew 13:24-30)

I don’t have many hobbies … I don’t hunt … fish … or play golf.  Perhaps that’s the reasons that I haven’t retired.

One thing that I do like to do … if able … is to visit Cathedrals and Old Churches.  If I am traveling … I try to make it a point to visit a Cathedral or a Church building of different varieties.

I love the architecture … the craftsmanship … … the layout of the sanctuaries … stained glass windows … especially in some of the older buildings.

Our nations National Cathedral has been in the news lately.

If you’ve never been there it is truly worth the visit … 

When my wife and I took a tour years ago we were told that you could lay the Washington Monument down in the center isle … it was so long … almost 2 football fields in length!

My response was that a bride could change her mind 3 or 4 times as she walked down the aisle!

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Just prior to the inauguration of President Trump … the National Cathedral … which is technically an Episcopal church … hosted the funeral of the late President Carter.

It was mostly an evangelical service with classic hymns and parts of our Anglican Liturgy … which was interesting because President Carter was a life-long Baptist!

But why they ever sang the John Lennon song “Imagine” is beyond me …

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Then … a few days later … on the day after the inauguration of President Trump … there was a prayer service at the Cathedral … which has been a tradition for many years.

At that service a Bishop used the opportunity to chastise the President for his policies on immigration.  It was pretty despicable … if you ask me … and many shared that belief.

In fact … the Pastor who gave the benediction at the inauguration itself said that she committed theological malpractice.

It should not have surprised anyone! She … and that tells us a lot right there … is in a denomination where many that Jesus is the only way of salvation … among other things.

The are generally extremely liberal … and in my mind … unbiblical in their social views … on things such as abortion and alternate lifestyles.

And so … what we have … is an body calling themselves “a Christian church” … but clearly denying the things that define a Christian church …

… adherence to the Scriptures as the Word of God … and faithfulness to the historic creeds.

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This is exactly what we see in our Gospel lesson for today from Matthew 13:24-30 …  another of our Savior’s parables … where it describes two different kinds of people …

Earlier in the chapter, Jesus was asked by his disciples why he spoke in parables … and his answer was clear … 13:11:

““He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”” …

… These words of our Savior were also a fulfilment of prophecy as we read: 13:14-15:

“And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull.Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’””

… in other words some will believe and some will not and cannot believe … AND in the words of our Gospel lesson … the difference is between wheat and tares …

… the two kinds of people that we read about in the Scriptures … those who will believe and those who cannot and won’t …

… and remember … it’s important to know that there are ONLY two kinds of people in the world … those who know Christ as Savior and Lord … the wheat … and those who do not … the tares.

So … what do we see.

“““The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; …”” …

An interesting statement … to say the least … “The kingdom of heaven is like …” 

… now … remember this is a parable … The kingdom of heaven is like … that is … that it has a resemblance to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

It is clear from the context that the field is the world … and the good seed is the Gospel … which is … as you’ve heard me say …

… the Good News that Jesus came into the world to save sinners … that Jesus died and rose from the dead for the sins of those who believe in him as Savior and Lord …

This is the good news that has been proclaimed in the world … since the resurrection …

This is the good news that people have written about … since the resurrection …

This is the good news that we sing about …

This is the good news that people have suffered and died for …

AND … This is the good news that people need to hear … and by the grace of God respond to!

But then something happens to this field where the good seed has been sown … someone came in and sowed bad seed among the wheat …

““but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.””

… tares … was a type of false wheat … it initially starts to look like wheat … but does not produce something that is edible.

Now …if you have to ask … who is the enemy … it is Satan … the Devil … that has sowed this bad seed … in our case … false teaching … like the bishop at that prayer service … 

… Satan … from the beginning has distorted what God has said …

It all started in the garden of Eden … when the serpent told Eve … “you shall not surely die …”

When I was in Seminary … the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia ordained a man who denied the Deity of Christ … he denied that Christ was God … one of the central tenants of our faith …

Satan had deceived the powers to be … had sowed bad seed among the good … if you will … 

… AND NOW … this false teacher would be in the church … a false shepherd among the sheep … 

He would be a shepherd to a local flock … a local field … leading them astray! 

… tares among the wheat.

The Mormon church … which calls themselves another branch of Christianity … does not believe in the Trinity and other foundational teachings of the Christian faith such as those confessed in our Creeds … and so they too are the tares among the wheat!

Our parable teaches us that initially the tares look like the real thing … but as it matures … the truth comes out … it is a false wheat.

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I’m sure that we all know people who have been raised in the church … have been active … and now have fallen away …

… some have completely rejected the faith … some just can’t be bothered with it anymore.

I have told you about one of my professors in Seminary … he was my Greek professor … he even gave the charge to my graduating class. 

And while teaching … he was the Pastor of one of our churches.

Now … not only has denied the faith … but has become a Buddhist … divorcing his wife … lying about it and getting custody of their kids … and then raising them without the Christian faith.

… he was sowing tares among the faithful.

As I said before … I want you to think about those in your circle of family and friends … some of whom may raised in the church … 

… professed Christ as Savior … been confirmed … or those who have never done so … children … parents … relatives … friends … even former church members … 

and what we need to do … is pray for them …

One part of my personal prayers is that I pray for those among my family and friends who once professed faith … (or have never professed the faith) … who once were active in the faith and the church … and now, for one reason our another, have fallen away.

My prayer for them is that God would use whatever means to remind them of the faith that they once professed … or that he would reveal Himself to them for the first time!

In the book of Ezekiel … God tells us that He would give Israel new hearts … He would change their hearts of stone and give them hearts of flesh … that is … those who would follow Him!

Philippians 4:6 says: ““Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; …””

And in 1 Timothy 2:1, we read: ““Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, …””  

So we see that there are false teachers even within the church. There always was … and there always will be!

They look good on the outside … they may even say the correct things … but then they begin to sow tares among the wheat …

… they will constantly talk about the love of God … but fail to mention the justice of God!

This is what we see in our parable … and so the servants ask should we pull out the tares … and the Master says wait until the harvest … so that you don’t pull up the good wheat with the tares.

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What does this mean for us today as 21^st century Christians?

We know that God will separate the wheat from the tears … 

This is what the Scriptures clearly teach us … that our God and our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ … will … at some point in time … separate completely the wheat from the tares … he will separate the true believers from the non-believers …

We read the words of our Savior in Matthew 25: 

““When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:”” 

… now notice … that the true sheep are on the right … 

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We don’t know when it will happen … it could happen in our time here … it could happen on our way home … we don’t when … 

BUT … we know that it will definitely happen when our Savior returns in Glory.

So … what do we do in the meantime??

One thing that is a constant prayer on my part … and you can pray for me … and that is … that God would keep me faithful to Him and His revealed Word.

This is my prayer for our Bishops … and our clergy … that God would keep us all faithful to His Word.

I know that my theology and practice is not perfect … no one’s is. 

This is why we need to confess our sins each day … and this is why we need to stay in the Word … and to be faithful in Worship and prayer …

And while my theology is not perfect … I pray that nothing that I believe or teach would be wrong and lead you astray … 

We do change … we grow in our faith … as we study the word of God.

In a previous life … I followed “believers … or I prefer … professors baptism” …

But … as I read the Scriptures … as I compared Scripture with Scripture … as I heard the Word of God preached and taught … I came to believe that infant … covenant baptism was true to the Scriptures.

And so … we need to pray … pray that God would keep us faithful to Him … that we would never stray from faith that has been revealed to us.

In addition … we need to be in prayer for those in our circle of family and friends who don’t know Christ as Savior and Lord … 

… because we know that ultimately God is going to separate the wheat from the tares.