The Parable of the Wheat & the Tares, Pt. 3 (03/19/2000)

The Mystery of the Kingdom and the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

I noticed it was a little loud a minute ago. Okay, that's good, thank you. Matthew chapter 13 this morning. And we're in the parable of the wheat and the tares. And so we're gonna go, now, let me go to chapter 13, verse 11, in case you have not been here for the previous Sundays when we started discussion of these parables.

In Matthew 13, verse 10, it says, let's go with verse 10, not verse 11, verse 10. And the disciples came and said unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? Verse 11, he answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

And that must be understood before you understand who these parables are written to. They are written to his children, that's you, if you have the Lord Jesus Christ for your own this morning. And if you do, this particular parable that we're studying about the wheat and the tares is a parable of encouragement to you.

We know from verse three there in chapter 13 that we have a job to do while we're in this earth. And he spake many things unto them in parables saying, behold, a sower went forth to sow. And in that parable, which was the parable of the sower, God's children are the sowers.

And so the next parable, which is the parable of the wheat and the tares is an encouragement to the sowers. Now, it's interesting that when we get into the wheat and tares, the symbolism changes a little bit and all of a sudden the sower is not us, it's the Lord Jesus Christ in the second parable.

And the seed as it was in the first parable, it was the word of God. So we're supposed to go forth into the world sowing the word of God everywhere. We're not supposed to worry about the soil. God tells us one out of four soils will be the right soil and the person will be saved.

But here again, that doesn't mean that that's the exact statistic. It doesn't mean 25 of all the humans will be saved. I don't believe that's what it means, but he's just pointing out that the soil is not always right, but it's not our job to worry about that.

Our job is just to throw the seeds everywhere we can throw them. And the seed is the word of God. But when you come into the second parable, the parable of the wheat and the tares, the seed is no longer the word of God.

The seed is people. And so let's remind ourselves about this story. I'll tell the story and then we'll start with verse 36 in chapter 13. But the story went like this. The son of man went out and began to sow good seed.

And then he sowed this seed into the field, which is the world in this particular parable. And then at night, an evil one came, an enemy came and sowed seeds into the field, which were tares. Now the parable teaches us that the seed, which the son of man sowed into the field are called the children of the kingdom.

And the seed, which the wicked one sows are called the children of the evil one or the children of the devil. So we saw from this parable that there are two seeds. There is the seed of Satan and the seed of the son of man.

And that's what we've studied. Now, last Sunday, if you remember, we kind of reviewed some other places in the Bible that taught the same thing, this idea or this concept that there are in fact two seeds.

Why do you think the Lord wants us to throw the word of God everywhere if not everybody is going to receive it? Is that contradictory? Is it contradictory to say that God knows who's gonna be saved and who's not, but he wants us to throw the seeds everywhere and to witness to everyone?

That's right, we don't know. And he didn't share that with us. Now, one thing he shared with us about the wheat and the tares, did he tell us to go out into the world and try to pluck out the tares and get rid of them all?

No, he didn't, did he? What did he say would happen if we did that? It would damage the wheat. It might damage a brother. That's exactly right. So it's not our job to tell the difference. It's our job to sow the seed.

But he's giving us some information that the world doesn't have. In fact, we wouldn't have this if not revealed to us by direct revelation from the Lord. And so he's telling us the fact is there are seeds that are sown into the world that are my children, and there are some seeds that have been sown into the world that are not my children, they're Satan's children.

And that's all talked about in this little parable, the parable of the wheat and the tares. Last time, we talked about some other verses in the Bible that verify, or I shouldn't say verify, but compare with this and bring out the strength of it.

In John chapter eight, starting with verse 18, when Jesus began to speak to some religious leaders of his day, he looked at them right in the eye, and he said these things. He said, you neither know me nor my father.

That's in verse 19. And I'm not gonna give you the verse for all these because I'm just reviewing. He said, where I go, you cannot come. And that was imperative, which means it ain't gonna happen in the grammar.

It's imperative. You cannot come where I'm going, he told them. He says, you are from beneath, and I am from above. He said, you are of this world. I am not of this world. He said, you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins.

And the phrase, ye shall die, is indicative, which means it is a simple statement of fact. It cannot be changed. He goes on and he says, the servant abideth not in the house forever. Now, all of these Jews considered themselves to be the servants of God, and Jesus so much as admitted that.

He said, yes, you are all the servants of God. In fact, Pharaoh was the servant of God. In fact, Judas Iscariot was the servant of God, and so was Pontius Pilate. But he said, not all the servants will abide in the house forever, but the children will.

Isn't it wonderful this morning to know you're a child of God? And if you are one, you know that with the depths of your heart this morning, because his spirit witnesses with your spirit, and you have the spirit that crieth Abba, Father.

So he says then that you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. And he says, I speak that which I have seen with my Father, and you do that which you have seen with your Father. So Jesus tells them they don't have the same Father that he has.

And he goes further in verse 41 to tell them that the deeds of their Father, they will do. That's imperative. It doesn't say they might do it. It says they're going to do it. In verse 10, I mean verse 42 says, if God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God.

Isn't that an amazing statement to think about right there? I proceeded forth and came out from God, and the Jews did not recognize him. These particular Jews didn't. And then he says, you cannot hear my word.

And then he says, you cannot believe me. And then he says, you are not of God. And then in verse 48, they said, you are a devil. They called God a devil. They committed the unpardonable sin. And a little bit later on, he says, you have not known him, the Father.

If I should say that I know him not, I would be a liar like unto you. Isn't that amazing? He says, before Abraham was, I am. And they took up stones to cast at him at that point, because he claimed to be God.

So there are two seeds in the world. The seed that is the children of the kingdom, and the seed that is the children of Satan, the tares. They are all planted here in this world. The son of man plants his seeds, and the devil came by night in darkness and planted his seed.

We reviewed Genesis chapter three, verse 16 last week, which is a verse that shows in the very early portions of scripture, how God made it to be so that the woman would bear more children than she would have had man never fallen.

Not that I'm saying that was an option, but humanly speaking, as we look at the options, had man never fallen, there would have been a certain number of children born. How can you tell that number? Go to heaven and look around and count them.

That'll be how many of them would have been born. And the rest of them that aren't there were the ones that were born because of the multiplication of the conception that's mentioned in Genesis 3, 16.

Now in Genesis 4, 8, it talks about Cain. And Cain is of this bad seed, and he slew the first preacher. If you go in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter 11, you'll find out Abel was a preacher. And he was probably telling Cain that his sacrifice was not acceptable, and why?

Probably trying to help the poor man. And so the man killed him. In verse eight, it says, and Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him.

And 1 John 3, 12 in the New Testament says, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one and slew his brother. It's interesting to look at the little word of in the Greek language. It is the word ek, which means denoting origin.

And it has been translated out of. When Jesus says, I proceeded forth and came out from God, it's the same word. And the Bible says in 1 John 3, 12, Cain came out from the wicked one, same seed as Satan is.

And that's why he slew his brother. Well, that brings us back into this explanation of the parable. So let's look at Matthew chapter 13 and verse 36. Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house.

And his disciples came into him saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said to 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 in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this age.

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 the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Then shall the righteous shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father who hath ears to hear. Let him hear. Anybody get goosebumps on that one? Luke chapter 16 and verse 19, I'd like you to turn there.

I want you to notice that at the end of the parable, the Lord talks about a great separation that happens at the harvest time. We have the destruction of that which offends and we have the place in which they are destroyed, a place called hell, a literal place.

And I wanna look at some passages in the scripture that talk about this place called hell. Luke chapter 16 verse 19, there was a certain rich man. Now notice the word certain because the word certain, as Jesus uses this, lets us know that he's not telling a parable.

He's talking about a historic person, a real living person. There's a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And this word fared in the Greek language meant put in a good frame of mind.

And the word sumptuously means brilliantly. So this man, this rich man had a good frame of mind and he lived brilliantly. He lived well all the days, every day. Things went well for him. And then there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.

Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. You think this is a specific story? Got some specific historic facts, doesn't it? And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

The rich man also died and was buried. Isn't that an interesting contrast in the way Jesus tells the story that happened? He gives some information that human eye didn't see, that the human eye missed.

But he says when this beggar died that he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. Now, remember this was before the church age, before the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ and the presentation of the blood at the throne of God in heaven.

And in the Old Testament days, the saved who passed away went to a place called Abraham's bosom. Sometimes it's called paradise. And the lost who passed away went to a place called Shoal which is the abode of the dead.

And this is gonna talk about this place. It doesn't really work this same way today because of the cross and the presentation of the blood and the fact that if you passed away today, you would be instantly with the Lord.

You wouldn't have to go by way of Abraham's bosom. But in the Old Testament, it was this way and he's describing how it was. And he says that the angels, the instant this beggar stopped breathing and the people on the earth from their vantage point, they said he is dead, which to them means he doesn't exist anymore.

At that very second, while they may have been thinking that, the angels were taking this man to this place, this place of paradise. And they took him there. And then it just says very abruptly, the rich man also died and was buried.

Isn't it interesting that it doesn't talk about what happened to him yet? It doesn't give any comforting word about this man. He was buried. And that's what the Old Testament word Shoal meant. It many times is translated grave.

So he goes to the grave. But I want you to notice something in verse 23. Those who were standing by and watching would have assumed he died. And in the human terms, die means to stop existing, which is not what it means in biblical terms.

Death in the Bible means separation. That's all it means. And so while they watched this rich man in their view cease to exist, he did not cease to exist. In fact, it implies that the very moment he died in verse 23, in hell, he lifted up his eyes.

He was never dead the way men think of being dead. When we think of death, we think of cessation of life. Death never means that in the Bible. It means separation of something from something. And in this case, the separation of the soul from God.

And this man is separated completely from God. It does not mean he ever ceased to exist, nor did his life ever cease. It just simply was transmitted to a different place. And in this place, he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

Now, one reason the scholars believe that in the Old Testament times, this place called Shoal was a place that was divided in two and separated by a great gulf. And on the one side was Abraham's bosom or paradise, and on the other side was what we think of as hell, but we might call it Hades.

The reason they believe this is because this man who was in Hades could look across that gulf and see stuff going on in the other place. To me, that would even add to the torture of hell, wouldn't it?

Well, it certainly seems that he was able to do this, and he is in torment. Now, the Greek word for torment is basamos, which means torture. It comes from the word touchstone, and it carries a connotation of stone being used in some way to torture a human being.

And so this man was in torments, and he could look and see Abraham afar off, and he could see this man, Lazarus, who had died and been taken to paradise. He could see Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. Look at verse 24.

He cried and said, hey, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he might dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. I want us to notice some things about this verse.

First of all, the word tormented has changed. It is no longer the Greek word basamos, which means the actual torture. Now it's a different word, which means the grief or the sorrow which comes from the torture.

And he says, I am tormented in this flame. It is the Greek word phlox, which means to flash or a blaze. And he says, dip the tip of your finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented. Now, let me ask you this.

From reading that passage in a very plain way, does it seem to you that that flame is literal? Is it a literal fire? Well, I believe it is literal, but I would be careful in my interpretation of it because when you go in the Bible and you read the description of heaven, and it's described as having streets of gold and all the different stones, beautiful stones that are described, do you think that's all there is to heaven?

Do you think there's any way we can even comprehend heaven? So God gives us a few little things in our language like streets of gold, as if to help us know that it's a good place. But do you think it really describes the glory of being in the presence of God in a place that he's prepared for you, perhaps for thousands and thousands of earth time years?

Can it come close to describing the bliss of heaven? Then I say to you, this flame does not come close to describing the torment of hell. So you can call it a literal flame if you want to, but it's more than that.

It's far more than that. In verse 25, Abraham said, son, remember that thou and thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted. And this word comforted is very interesting.

It comes from the Greek word parakaleo. Can anyone think of another Greek word that sounds like? Paraclete, who is the paraclete? The Holy Spirit, the comforter. The literal meaning of parakaleo means one called near.

That's why the Holy Spirit is the comforter because he is the Spirit of God called near by God himself and placed within us, which had never happened in human history. There had never been a time when we had the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

And this paraclete, this one who would come and live within us, he is called near. Isn't it wonderful that he talks about Lazarus being comforted and it's the same word. He's called near unto God. He's in this place called paradise, Abraham's bosom, and he is comforted.

He has this position of being near to God. But look at the contrast at the end of verse 25, and thou art tormented. This is probably the best opposite in the Bible to the word paraclete, to be comforted, because this means the grief and the sorrow that comes from the torment of hell.

And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great, and that's the word megas, which sounds big, doesn't it? Even if you don't know Greek. A great gulf, and that word could be translated chasm, fixed between us and you.

This chasm, the literal meaning of the word is vacancy. Now, where's Bill? Think about that from a physics point of view. These two places, a place called Abraham's bosom, which is where the saved were, and this place called hell, which is where the lost were, there was a vacancy between them of some kind.

It's called a great gulf, but it's just a, it's a way that you cannot go from one place to the other. It's a way that once you're in one of those places, you're not going to transfer back and forth. It is a vacancy of some kind, and it's fixed.

And this word fixed is terizo, which means to set fast. God has set this fast, just as fast as the shores are here in this world, and they do not let the sea go beyond them. This place is set fast so that no one can go from one place to the other.

It says so that they which would pass, they that wanted to pass from heaven, or Abraham's bosom, could not. Neither can they pass to us if they're in hell. Now, this to me speaks of a very literal place, a very literal place where there is very real and permanent and eternal torment, separation from God, the complete opposite of the comfort that comes from the Holy Spirit's presence and that calling near.

It is totally absent. Turn to Revelation 14. Revelation 14 in verse nine. It's interesting, I'm going to read this to you while you're finding that, and I think you're there, but let me read this. I'm going to read down a little bit past this place where it talks about the great gulf fixed in Luke chapter 16.

It says, then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou would send him to my father's house. For I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham said to him, they have Moses and the prophets. In other words, they have the word. They've got the Bible. Let them hear the Bible. And he said, nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, in other words, if someone could go from the dead and come and tell them, they would repent.

Now, we learn something very interesting about repentance. I'm sorry I had to go ahead and turn from the passage, but I just realized I wanted to read the rest of it. He said unto him, if thou hear not Moses and the prophets, if thou hear not the word of God, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

We talked about, the reason I thought I might mention is we talked about that word persuaded this morning in Sunday school. And this word persuasive means to be convinced, and it is in the passive tense, which means you are convinced by someone bigger than you, that being the Lord.

So he points out that even if you sent someone back to the dead to witness to my brothers and tell them they better straighten their life up and repent so that they won't come here, if they wouldn't hear the word that they have on the earth, and they are not persuaded by God to repent, they're not gonna repent even if they saw someone raised from the dead.

That's awesome. I look at Revelation 14, nine, and the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.

And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. Does that sound like a literal place? Look at verse 11. And the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever, in the Greek it's from age unto age unto age.

And they have no rest. The word literally means recreation. They have no recreation day or night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. In this particular verse of scripture, it speaks of those who would be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and of his lamb.

This word in the presence of does not literally mean in the presence of, it means in the face of. And it comes from two little Greek words, ain, which means in and optimo. What's this? I should speak English only.

Optinomai, which means to gaze at. And you can hear that it almost sounds like your eye doctor, doesn't it? So you see where the word comes from. In the face of, to gaze at, the angels and the lamb can view this, but they're not there like it sounds like.

In verse 11, the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever, and they have no recreation day or night. Now look to Revelation chapter nine and turn to verse one. It's interesting that the Jehovah's Witness will tell you there is no literal hell and that the places where you see the word hell in the New Testament literally is a word that alludes to a place over in Jerusalem where they burned the refuse and it's a continual burning.

And that that's all it is a reference to and it just simply means that they die. The problem that we have with that is if they just die and cease to exist, then how can their torment be from age unto age?

And how can the smoke of their torment ascend up from age unto age? So you kind of need to know where some scriptures are. The best thing to do, though, is what Brother Blissett used to do. The Jehovah's Witness would come to his house and crack the door open and look in the door and Brother Blissett would say hello and he'd look down and see the big satchel with the material and he'd say, you see that street out there?

And they'd say, well, yes, sir. And he'd say, get in it. That's probably the best approach. But if you're gonna invite them in, you better know Revelation 14 .9. Now look at Revelation 9 .1. And the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fall from heaven unto earth.

And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit. And there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

And then Mark chapter nine, verse 43. That's literal smoke coming out of there, by the way. Mark 9 .43, and if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed than to have two hands and go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.

So hell is a literal place. And we see that in this parable, at the end of this age, the angels are going to come and they are going to bind the tares in bundles and burn them. And they're going to be sent to this place called hell.

And in this place, the smoke of their torment will ascend forever and ever. And in this place, they will be tormented. They will desire someone to dip the tip of their finger in water and put one drop to their tongue.

And it'll never happen because there's a great vacancy, something that God has set in place between them and us. There's gonna come a time when God's going to erase our memories of things. And I believe that's out at the end of the millennial period and I believe at that time, if you had aunts and uncles or friends or loved ones that died and went to hell, you won't remember them anymore.

Because if you did, you wouldn't have the total bliss and joy that God has for us in the next ages to come. And so you won't even remember that they ever existed. Isn't that amazing to think about the fact that there will be people in a place that is forgotten, but that is real?

In a place that maybe their own mother will not even remember them, but they will be tormented day and night with a real torture that never ends from the presence of the Lord. Now, why would we take time to even discuss that?

I say that in this parable this morning, because as I said, the parable of the wheat and the tares is a parable of encouragement to you. It is very clear that you cannot control who goes to this place, unlike most preachers would tell you.

In most churches this morning, you would be told, you see this place, you see how horrible this place is, you better go out that door and you better go sit down with your neighbor and you better win him to Christ and keep him from that place.

And I would tell you this, the Lord Jesus told you to go and sow seeds everywhere, so I don't have to tell you to go do that. But what he's telling you this morning is this, you're not gonna send anyone to this place because only Satan's children will go to this place.

And God already knows who they are. You go and you witness, but don't ever let Satan discourage you by the fact that you can't win someone because you can't. You can't save anybody. And so one encouragement is this, you have not failed when you did not lead that person to Christ that you thought you were supposed to.

Did you witness to them? Did you say scripture to them? Did you love them with the heart of God? Then you didn't fail. Did they die and go to hell? You don't know. They may have been saved in the last moment as they closed their eyes.

You don't know where they went, but wherever they went, it's not your fault. And the second encouragement that we gain from this is that you ain't going here. You will never fully understand what this flame of fire is all about.

You'll never see it. You'll never experience it. You can only imagine that it's far worse than what you're reading here, but you'll never be there if you belong to the Lord. If you've received Jesus in your heart and his spirit cries out to yours and you have the spirit which can cry Abba, you can call God daddy instead of the wrathful judge.

You can call him daddy and you have that sense in your heart. You'll never experience this place. And then he goes and he talks about in the last part of Matthew chapter 13, not only is there this place called hell, and the angels are going to take the tares to this place, but he says in verse 43, at that same time, then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

If it's true that hell is a literal place, what do you think about heaven? Is it a literal place? John chapter 14, verse three says, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself and where I am, there you may be also.

That's heaven. I don't know about the streets of gold, but being in the presence of the paraclete is heaven. Do you remember that when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, he called him another comforter? You know what that implies?

He was the first comforter and you're going to be in his presence and Jesus called this a place. I go to prepare a place. That means a literal, real place and it's just on the other side of that nothingness that Bill's gonna look into and tell us what that is that separates it from hell.

But when we get to the real heaven and these others are cast into the real hell, remember they're in Hades now and that will be emptied out into a place called the Lake of Fire. You're not gonna have this thing about looking from one into the other anymore because whatever that nothingness is in between them is gonna be expanded and you won't ever even know that place exists and I don't know that they'll know that heaven exists at that time, but heaven is a real place.

The word place is tapos and the English word topography comes from it. And it means a spot or a location. It's a real place that Jesus is preparing for us. Revelation 21, one says, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea.

And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Prepared is an interesting word. That means you're prepared by another. We're being prepared right now this morning, aren't we?

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. Who is the tabernacle of God? Jesus. What does it mean, the tabernacle? The building. Jesus, the Bible says, is all of the fullness of the Godhead in a body.

The tabernacle. And heard a great voice, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

And there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away and taken away from our minds and hearts. And all of the seeds of Satan, all of the tears that were ever born into this world will not be in our minds.

We will not be able to even know they ever existed. And yet they'll be in a literal place of torment age unto age unto age. But God will wipe away the tears from our eyes. And he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new.

And he said unto me, write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done. Isn't that an interesting statement? What does it mean it's done already? Can you change it? It's already done.

It's a done deal. I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of water freely. There's the gospel. Anyone who thirsts for it may receive it. Right there in the same passage.

Anyone who thirsts for it may receive it. Aren't you glad this morning that you had that thirst? There may be someone this morning who for the first time had that thirst. You may have already thought you were saved.

And all of a sudden you realized you never had that thirst for the Lord Jesus, but you received that this morning. You had the thirst, God gave you the thirst, and so you want a drink. And if that happened to you this morning, then you know you're the Lord's.

You've received him. And if it's already happened to you, and you have the spirit within your heart that cries out, Abba, Father, then you know he's preparing a place for you right now. A place that cannot even be described.

A place that will be so far removed from the place where God puts those who offend and all which offends that you won't ever see it. You'll never even think about it or know about it again after a certain point, somewhere out there after the millennial period.