1.     I am going to preach this morning on one of the greatest parables in the Bible.  Our English word “parable” comes from the Greek and it literally means, “placing one thing beside another.”

2.     Our Lord often spoke in parables, and there are seven parables here in Matthew 13.  

3.     Unger’s Bible Dictionary defines a parable as “a discourse expressed in figurative, poetical, or highly ornamented fiction.”

4.     Dr. Unger points out that sometimes a parable is a “fictitious narrative invented for the purpose of conveying truth in a less offensive or more engaging form than that of direct assertion, as that by which Nathan reproved David.”  That parable is recorded in II Samuel 12.

5.     The parable of the tares among the wheat is the second parable in Matthew 13.  The first two parables are closely connected and are the only ones that our Lord explained.

I. THE DEVIL SOWS THE TARES

1.     Our Lord explained that “a man” sowed good seed in his field (13:24).  The “man” is the Lord Himself (13:37).  It is “His field” (13:24).

2.     “The field is the world…” (13:38).

3.     And the enemy that sows the tares is the devil (13:39).

4.     Tares look just like wheat but they are poisonous weeds.  Tares in the church look just like true believers but they are “the children of the wicked one” (13:38).

5.     Satan has a counterfeit for everything. He sows the world with those who look like real Christians, talk like real Christians, and to a certain extent even live like real Christians.

6.     But they are not real Christians.  They have never been born again.  They are the “children of the wicked one…the devil” (13:38, 39).

7.     We often hear about counterfeit money and counterfeit documents and counterfeit watches – but the most dangerous counterfeits are counterfeit “Christians.”  The devil has planted them everywhere (13:38, 39).

8.     Satan is a master counterfeiter.  And Satan often operates in the religious realm.   Second Corinthians 11:4 says, “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.”

9.     Consider then:

A.  There is “another Jesus” (II Cor. 11:4).

B.  There is “another Spirit” (II Cor. 11:4).

C.  There is “another Gospel” (II Cor. 11:4).

D.  There is the true Bride of Christ, and there is the harlot church (Rev. 17).

E.   We must always remember that Satan is very religious (II Cor. 11:13-15).  Religion is his specialty.

10. Satan cannot destroy the true church from the outside.  Our Lord said that “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against His church (Matt. 16:18).

11.  But while the devil cannot destroy the church from the outside, he is very successful attacking it from within.

12. The apostle Paul warned the elders in Ephesus, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29).

13. Our Lord referred to these false brethren as “tares among the wheat” (Matt. 13:24, 25).  Satan is the “enemy” and he is very busy sowing tares among the wheat.

14. Remember, none of our Lord’s disciples realized that Judas Iscariot was a traitor.  Remember, in Luke 22:3 and John 13:27 the Bible says that Satan entered into Judas Iscariot.

15. The devil who sows the tares is the Lord’s “enemy” (13:25, 28).  Therefore, the devil is our enemy.

16. I once heard a silly woman call up Andy Andersen’s radio program on WMCA and say, “I love everyone.  I even love the devil!” 

17. Well, I do not love the devil.  He is the Lord’s enemy and he is our enemy.  He is deceiving people and leading them to hell every day.

18. In fact, the word “Satan” means “adversary” (cf. I Peter 5:8).

19. We are to be “sober” and “vigilant” because our adversary the devil is busy at work (I Peter 5:8).   But while men sleep, the devil sows his tares among the wheat (Matt. 13:25).

20. Notice the devil did his work and then “went his way” (13:25b).  The devil is not omnipresent.  He starts things going and then he quietly moves on.

21. Sin needs just a little start, and it will inevitably increase.  Sin is like weeds.  You do not have to water weeds – they grow automatically.

22. The devil sowed his tares and then went his way.  Soon the tares appeared (13:25, 26).  Eventually a discernable difference can be seen.  This brings me to my next point.

II. TARES CAN BE DISCERNED (13:26, 27)

1.     Admittedly there are times when we cannot tell a true believer from an unbeliever.  However, “the servants of the householder” recognized the tares after the “blade was sprung up” (13:26, 27).

2.     This is a sensitive matter and must be handled carefully.  Often in their zeal to pull out the tares, some of God’s servants have “root up the wheat with them” (13:28, 29).

3.     Therefore the tares are allowed to grow together with the wheat.   But we must have spiritual discernment.

4.     We must warn people to be careful what they listen to on the radio or on television.  Be careful what books they read.  The devil has spread his errors everywhere.

5.     Spurgeon used to say that error was half way around the world before truth got his boots on.

6.     Let me stress that the “field is the world” (13:38) – not the church.

7.     We are not to pull out the tares from the world.  That’s not our job. God will have his angels do that work at the consummation of the age (13:41, 42).

8.     However, when tares start springing up in the church, it is necessary for us to deal with it.  Local churches are explicitly commanded to put out of their fellowship all who are guilty of certain sins such as fornication, drunkenness, and covetousness (cf. I Cor. 5:9-13).

III. THE JUDGMENT OF THE TARES (13:30, 37-43)

1.     “The harvest is the end of the world (age)” (13:39, 40).  This is when our Lord will return to set everything right. 

2.     We have here a remarkable contrast between the wheat and the tares, and we also have a remarkable contrast of their final destination (13:30, 40-43; cf. 25:46).

3.     Some preachers preach about heaven but they will not preach about hell.   But just as surely as the righteous are rewarded, the lost will be judged (13:42, 43).

4.     Our Lord referred to hell as a “furnace of fire” (13:42; cf. 13:50).

CONCLUSION:

1.     How cannot understand how people can ignore what the Bible has to say about hell.  And it bothers me greatly to hear people laugh about hell. Certainly our Lord’s words are nothing to joke about (13:42, 50).

2.     J. Wilbur Chapman was a great evangelist.  He told a true story about a young man who had just come out of a saloon. He had mounted his horse, and as a certain deacon passed on his way to church he followed the deacon and said, “Deacon, can you tell me how far it is to hell?”

3.     The deacon’s heart was pained to think that a young man like that should talk so lightly; he passed on and said nothing. When he came round the corner to the church he found that the horse had thrown that young man, and he was dead.

4.     That young man soon discovered that hell was much closer than he ever imagined. 

5.     “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:43b).