Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

. an earthly meaning. Jesus used parables much in His earthly ministry. Now what is interesting is, people always say that these are not true events, these are stories that He gave.

Not necessarily. We don't know if they really happened, we don't claim that they really happened, but we don't know that they didn't. It's just that Jesus, when He told these stories He didn't mention an individual's an individual's name, maybe out of sake of kindness to their privacy. But this might, different things that he's given in parables, we don't know if they really happened or if they didn't. Not only that, Jesus always often used metaphor. And he would give something that people knew something about to teach them about something they didn't know about. It might be that an individual might not know a lot about God, but they might know a lot about basketball. And so I might take some things about basketball and illustrate through that to teach them principles from God's word. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

This is what is going on here. Look at verse 24. Another parable put he forth unto them saying, 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. 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, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares?

He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, What 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 the 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. Let's pray. Lord, we love you. Help us this morning, Lord.

In Jesus name we pray, amen. In this chapter, Jesus gives no less than eight parables. What is interesting in all of these parables, Jesus speaks about the plan of salvation. He talks about the work of Satan. He talks about the fickle nature of human beings. He talks about the greatness of the kingdom of heaven. And after Jesus had literally finished half of them, he just gave four parables.

Something interesting happens. The disciples ask him a question, and they asked him to make something plain. They asked for an explanation.

Look at verse 36. Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house, and his disciples came on him saying, declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He had just explained it, but they had questions. There was something about it that seemed difficult to understand.

Something about it that they decided we need to fully understand this to know what Jesus is really trying to say. It is interesting that of all the things they didn't ask about the sower, which the parable he gave first, they didn't ask about the soil. They asked about the tares. They didn't ask about the mustard seed. They didn't have any questions about any of these other parables. They didn't have questions about any of the other stories. They understood them.

Everything made sense. But they stopped, and they asked Jesus to repeat and explain this parable of the wheat and the tares. And so I believe there's some questions in the minds of the disciples, and I believe there's also some questions maybe in the minds of individuals that are here this morning.

At least I hope that there is. Why did they choose this parable to ask questions about? What was it about this one why they had to make sure that they understood it? Well, I need to explain if I can the wheat and the tares. And Jesus after verse 36, He explains it.

And we're gonna read those in just a second. But let me tell you what is going on in obviously the first verses that we told. A farmer plants a wheat field. When he does, he uses good seed. And he plants that good crop with the good seed, and he expects a good harvest. While he and his servants were sleeping.

We would assume in the middle of the night, his enemy, the Bible says, entered into that field. Just after they had planted good seed for good wheat and a good harvest, the enemy came in and planted tares among the wheat. Now, what are tares?

There is a term as I've dug into this to study for this morning, that these particular plants that they call tares are called bearded Darnell. And basically what it is in the early stages of its development, it looks like wheat. In fact, it looks exactly like wheat. It is only when the wheat plant has matured and the kernels have formed in the head of a genuine wheat plant, that the two plants can be told apart.

They look exactly the same during that whole process. The bottom line is this, the wheat when it is matured, has fruit in its head. But the tare is filled with little tiny black seeds. So the field looks good. The farmer's getting excited. The harvest is getting ready to come. And it seems that there is more wheat there than he even planted.

He is all excited. Let me just stop right there. Do you understand where we're going this morning? However, as the harvest grows nearer, it becomes apparent that there were tares among the wheat.

And what is interesting, I can't wait to get to it later, is how they were finally able to tell the difference. The servants discover the tares and they come in and they tell this master, they say, listen, something's happened. You've got tares among that wheat. Did you not plant good seed? And the master said, we planted good seed. My enemy has done this while we were sleeping. He came in and he planted tares among those wheat.

And that's exactly what had happened. Now, the servants were able to discover this because as the wheat develops and kernels grow inside of the head of real wheat, the weight of those kernels makes the wheat start to bend. And it makes the head of that wheat begin to bend towards the earth. The tares, on the other hand, they have those little black seeds in the tops of those and it has no weight whatsoever.

And they continue to stand tall. And while they're intertwined among the wheat, the ones that actually have fruit begin to bend a little bit. And those that are tares that are not the wheat, although they look like the wheat, they continue to stand up. And the servants come and they said, you've got tares among the wheat.

What do you want us to do? Do you want us to rip them out now? And he said, no, don't, and here's why. He said, if you rip up those tares, those roots intertwine with the real wheat. And if you don't let that wheat mature as you pull out those tares, you're gonna ruin a lot of good wheat.

So he said, what I wanna ask you to do is just you just let them grow together. And boy, in our churches, do we have wheat and tare growing together. He said, you just wait, and when harvest time comes, you'll gather the tares first, and you'll bind them in bundles, and they'll be good for nothing but kindling wood. When the Bible says that they gather them and they would wrap them and burn, what does that mean? It means this, that they really had no use whatsoever, but to be used to begin a fire and be burned. Now there is no purpose for their existence except to be burned. And he said, after you gather those, then you take the real wheat, and we will gather them into my barn. Now, say, preacher, what is the whole point? Look if you would, and I'm making a groundwork.

I promise you it's gonna go very quickly. Look if you would at verse 37. After the disciples asked him to explain what are all these things mean, look at verse 37.

He answered and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed is the son of man, or Jesus. 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 world. The son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, or the tares, or those that are not really saved. Those that might look like wheat and act like wheat, but those that are not wheat, they will gather them which do iniquity. Verse 42, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the son and the kingdom of their father, who hath ears to hear.

Let him hear. Now dear friend, you might not know whether or not you need this this morning, but you do. Whether you're saved, whether you're lost, it doesn't matter, you need to hear this. And we need to rightfully divide this passage.

And let me make this clear. The sower is Christ. The good seed is the gospel. The one who sowed the bad seed, or the tares, is the devil.

The wheat are those who are really saved. The tares are those who are unsaved, but have the appearance of being saved. The tares are those in church who look saved, act saved, sound saved, but are in truth deceived about their own salvation. The tares are those who expect to go to heaven when they die, but will in fact be surprised and go to hell. You see, just like tares, lost sinners, even those who act saved, they are good for one thing at judgment day, and that is to be burned. Now you say, preacher, you're acting, you're kind of preaching kind of hard this morning, dear friend, let me tell you something.

I am doing exactly what God's called me to do. Here's our problem in churches. We have everybody that looks exactly the same, but in every church there are wheat, and there are tares. In fact, now listen, please don't take offense to this, because you're looking at an individual that sat in church, was preached to, looks saved, acts saved, and I finally came to the realization one day I was not saved. So I sat right in an audience many times, and listen to me, I am 100% sure this morning that in front of me are some good wheat and some tares. And I am 100% sure of that every Sunday morning when I get up to preach. And you talk about a heavy responsibility to know that there are people that might look the part, but deep in their heart they're not saved, and they're deceived about that.

Now I'm gonna try to rightfully divide God's word. I'm not meant to scare you, but I am going to be truthful. The truth of the matter is this, that often there are people that think they are wheat, but in fact they are tares. They're growing amongst the wheat.

They look the same. They're right in the same field as the real wheat, but they are tares. Allow me to share three brief thoughts, and listen to me. I wanna show you how the wheat and the tares are similar, and how they are different. And this is exactly how God laid it out. I'm just gonna give it to you, and we'll go this morning. You do with it as God has laid on your heart.

Number one, I want you to write this down. Both were planted together. Both were planted together. The wheat and the tare were planted together. The good seed was planted by the owner. The bad seed was planted by the enemy. That means this, I want you to understand that saved and unsaved oftentimes in the house of God are all here together.

The good have been saved by Christ. Those that are unsaved have been fooled by Satan, but they are in the exact same place, and they look exactly the same. Both of these, the wheat and the tares, were planted together.

Now, where is there actually a difference? Number one, there's a difference in the seed. You see, the good seed, the Bible says, was rooted on good seed. What is the seed in this story? God said that the seed in this story was the gospel. That means this, if your salvation is rooted solely in the fact that Jesus died, was buried, he died on the cross for our sins, rose again on the third day, the good news, the gospel of God's word, if your salvation is based solely and only on that by grace through faith, that's good seed.

But we have often, we have people that have their roots in some kind of work, or some kind of accomplishment. We have people that say they're saved because they had a car wreck years ago and God left them alive, so they believe they're saved. Dear friend, that doesn't save you. We have people that think, I grew up in church, my mom and dad brought me before I was even born. I was in my mother's womb in church, and dear friend, that's a good work, but that does not save you. You see, the difference between the wheat and the tare, both of them were planted together, but one had good seed, and the tares, on the other hand, had bad seed. You see, the tares, or those that are lost in a church, may be trusting in any number of emotional, spiritual, or physical experiences for their salvation.

Now, dear friend, you listen to me close. I am all for worshiping God, I am all for the freedom that coming to church brings, but I'm here to tell you, you don't come and cry in an altar and that makes you sane, and you don't get excited in church one day and get all tingly, and that makes you sane. That is an emotional, spiritual experience, but that is not salvation. What made the difference between a wheat and a tare was the seed.

The seed. I've had people come to me at times, very rarely here, very rarely, and I don't think it meant bad, but I have people come to me and say, preacher, you know, he said, why are you preaching on salvation? We're all saved. Dear friend, I'm not here to offend you, but we're all not saved. I've had people come and say, you know, preacher, my mama assured me that I got saved when I was young. Dear friend, don't you depend on what mama said, or what somebody else told you. Don't you depend on an experience.

Your salvation needs to be rooted in the gospel. Good seed. They are different in the seed.

Let me illustrate it this way. How many of you got a flu shot? Okay, when you got that flu shot, you were injected with a dead virus.

Did you know that? And that doctor gave you this to prevent you from getting the real virus. And you know what happens a lot of times in church? Folks have gotten the dead virus, and it's preventing them from having the real salvation.

They got something dead, it made them feel good, and it keeps them from realizing their real need of salvation, and that they're really not saved, and they've never really repented, and they've never even been sorry for their sins, but they've gone through the motions, and gone through the act, and it looks good, smells good, acts good, but it's a tear, not wheat. There's a difference in the seed, number two. They were both planted together, remember, but there was a difference in the sower. You see, the owner sowed the good seed, but his enemy sowed the bad seed. And I want you to understand that Jesus came and died, and rose again, he created the good seed, the gospel, and Satan has always done everything he can do to confuse, and absolutely reverse everything that Jesus has done.

And I want you to understand that Jesus absolutely reversed everything that Jesus has done. I'm here to tell you there's a big difference in the sower. Obviously, this enemy was making an effort to ruin the crop by sowing this bad seed in with the good seed. You say, why would he even do that, preacher? Because he was trying to ultimately ruin the whole crop. It was an attack on the farmer. And dear friend, the reason Satan has warped salvation is not because he's attacking you.

Let me tell you something. He doesn't have to do anything to get you. We're already on our way to hell. It is an attack on Jesus. And Satan's been fighting him ever since. And you and I are the bait. We're the ones he's using. He walks around, the Bible says, like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Anybody he can fool, anybody he can make comfortable, anybody he can make them think and believe I am a wheat, when the whole time they're a tear, he's won that battle. Listen to me. Satan knows that if enough lost people end up in church, it'll give the church a bad name. Now you say, preacher, why is that? Don't you want lost people to be in church?

Absolutely. But I don't want lost people to stay in church. I want lost people to come to church and get saved. If a lost person can keep coming to church and never be convicted, we've got problems in this church. And if you're here this morning, you don't know that you're saved and you're feeling really uncomfortable, that's a great thing. That's called the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God.

And you ought to be so thankful that you feel it. Listen to me. Because the lost can only imitate the saved for so long. Till their true nature, like that of the tear, will come out.

Did you hear me? If Satan gets enough lost people in church and mixes them amongst the real saved people, you can only fake it so long. You can only pretend so long. You can only act saved so long.

And before long, it's gonna change and that nature's gonna come out. And before long, you'll have strife and turmoil in a church. And I'm gonna be honest with you, just about every time there's a problem, somebody unsaves involved. But usually it's somebody that's unsaved and claims they are saved.

Now you say, ouch, I say ouch. Satan knows that he can ruin a crop if he can mix in enough fake with the real. You know why? Because somebody that is fake is gonna come up to you and criticize and complain and talk about somebody. And before long, you're gonna believe them. You know why? Because you thought, well, they look real. And the more Satan can plant bad seed, the more he can accomplish.

Your friend don't get mad at me, I'm just preaching to you exactly what the Bible says. They were both planted together. Number two similarity is this. Both were progressed together. Both progressed together. They both grew at the same time.

Let me give you this fact. Number one is this, that the tares acted like wheat. They both grew. They both grew as the water came and as the soil was rich. Both of them grew together.

They did everything the tares did that the wheat did and they looked good doing it. They're growing together. I think it is pretty obvious that when you get saved and you get in God's word and you get in a church that's preaching God's word, you are going to grow spiritually.

You agree with that? But do you also know that if you stay in church and you're unsaved that you too can grow? Say preacher, what do you mean? Did you know it is possible for lost church members to grow in the things of God? I mean you're gonna be around the truth.

You're gonna hear the truth. It's gonna be good biblical things and even a person who is unsaved can sit in a good environment and grow. There can be some good things that are gonna come out of their life. Listen to me, 1 Corinthians 2.14 says this. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

Listen to me. Imagine a lost person who gets deceived into thinking that they're saved because they had some experience, because they've done this or they've done that or they've accomplished that or they've been a good person or they've done a lot of good works. Imagine an individual that is convinced that they're saved although they are not saved. And that individual sits under the preaching of the truth of the Bible. That individual can understand the Bible. That individual can memorize the Bible. That individual can know Bible stories.

That individual can possess all the activities of the genuine believer. They can sing in a choir. They can be a deacon. They can teach Sunday school. They can even get up in the pulpit and be the pastor.

I'm here to tell you all across America we have pulpits with unsaved people preaching in them. The tares acted like wheat. Number two, the tares had the appearance of wheat. Not only did they grow like they did, they looked like them. Wow.

Now we're getting to the nitty gritty, aren't we? Do you know it is possible for an unsaved person to look like a saved person? Do you know it is possible for an unsaved person to many times look better than a saved person? Do you know, I know unsaved people that have more standards of convictions than saved people do.

That is possible. You know, that's the way things are in church. Oftentimes, you and I, we can't tell the difference between who is really saved and who's not saved. That's why you and I need to get out of the business of telling somebody they are saved and telling somebody they're not saved. That's the Holy Spirit's job.

But I'm gonna tell you something. Don't you go to somebody, and mom and dad, listen, I love you. Please, don't think I'm trying to meddle into your life, but I'm here to tell you that don't you go to your kids and tell them they're saved. Well, but years ago, it doesn't matter what they did years ago. Don't you play Holy Spirit and tell them, no, you're saved, no, you don't need to go get, you've already been saved. Don't you dare do that.

You could send them to hell. We don't know if a person's saved. We don't know what's real.

We don't know those things. The tares had the appearance of wheat. Number three, the tares had none of the abundance of wheat.

Say, preacher, what are you saying? I'm saying this, that they acted like the wheat, they grew, they appeared like the wheat, they looked exactly the same thing, but where the similarity stopped was this, the tares cannot bear fruit. The fruit is just not in it. They had none of the abundance of wheat. One thing that a tare can never produce is fruit.

He's gonna, preacher, what are you saying? If you were to open the head of a real wheat plant, you would find it filled with wheat kernels. And if you open the head of the tare, you would find it filled with tiny black seeds that are good for absolutely nothing. That's how it is at church.

We can give all the external appearance that we're really saying. We can look right, act right, talk right, walk right, but when we get down to it, there is no real fruit in our life. And you say, preacher, what are you talking about fruit? Now don't get me wrong, an unsaved person can lead a person to the Lord.

My own mother did. You say, preacher, what are you talking about? Galatians chapter five, verses 22 to 23 is what I'm talking about. They cannot produce the fruit of the Spirit.

There will always be a lack of the Spirit. They can fake it for a while, they can pretend for a while, but a tare cannot bring fruit. Now listen to me, what was the owner's advice to these servants? He said, listen, don't pull up the tares because the roots are gonna intertwine and it'll pull up good wheat. Just let them grow together. Why did he counsel that? Why did he tell them that? The picture here is this, listen to me.

You and I cannot really tell the difference between the genuine article. If you and I set ourselves up as judge and we start trying to weed out those that we think might be unsaved or we think might be tares, guess what's gonna happen? We're gonna damage some good wheat too. So you know what God has chosen to do? I'm just gonna let them both grow together. I'll let them sin under the truth and as the truth comes into their life, they reject it and reject it and reject it and I'm gonna let it all stay together and when it's finally gonna be decided is when Jesus comes back.

Then the tare will be removed from the wheat. Now listen to me. First Samuel chapter 16 verse seven, listen to this. But the Lord said unto Samuel, look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart. God knows who's saved and who's not.

He knows you can fool me and you can fool anybody else in this building but you can't fool the owner. Number three, both were planted together, both progressed together. Number three, both were processed together.

They were both taken up at the same time. The harvest had matured, they had their season to grow. Now the wheat had grown and the wheat was bending over with the weight of the fruit in the top of that head and the tares were standing up straight because obviously there was no weight there and now everything had fully grown, now that the wheat had matured, now everything was there. Look if you would at verse 30. 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.

You know what, it is easy at this stage to determine who is real and who is not. The old weight of that fruit and that kernel of wheat begins to bend that wheat and the seeds and those tares are so light that they're standing strains. It literally allows the tare to stand tall.

The picture here is plain and clear. A genuine believer as he grows in the Lord, he tends to become more humble and bent over towards God. But the tare who is not really saved stands high in his pride.

Can I ask you something dear friend? When's the last time you were humbled? I mean somebody says something to you, you just buck up, get mad at everything. When's the last time you were humbled? When's the last time that you came to God absolutely desperate and said God I don't know anything. And God I don't know anything, I can't do anything. I have blown it, I have messed up.

God I just need you. Let me ask you this and please don't think I'm making more of this than I should. When's the last time you were at an altar? See I don't have to go to an altar to get right, that's true, absolutely right.

But let me ask you this, when's the last time you got right in your seat? Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you. We'll see you next time, God bless you, God bless you. God bless you, God bless you.