Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

A Contaminated Field

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

…Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”[1]

he thirteenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel presents a series of Jesus’ parables, each of which reveals an aspect of the Kingdom of God.  These Kingdom Parables, as they have become known, are among some of the most disturbing parables Jesus ever employed.  They confront the casual believer, demanding that each individual carefully examine his own heart.  They hold out the distinct possibility that a religious individual, even a pious individual, may be self-deceived.  Ultimately, each soul will be exposed as either true or false when our Lord calls His own home.

Without apology, I am preaching to disturb good people today.  I am not addressing wicked sinners who clearly deserve judgement, but rather I am addressing people who are church members, people who are baptised, people who are active in the labours of the church.  The Word of God makes it quite clear that there are many church members who will be condemned to hell.  As a preacher of the Word and a servant of Jesus Christ, I cannot permit this to occur without pleading with you to ensure the verity of your condition and to ensure your standing before Holy God.

Reviewing the Kingdom parables, we today consider the one that is known as the Parable of the Weeds.  Perhaps you read older translations of the Bible and thus know this parable as the Parable of the Tares.  The title of the parable is not so terribly important, but the impact of the parable on your life may be the difference between being eternally condemned and being eternally saved.  What is evident as I read the parable is that Baptist church members will be sent to hell if this parable means anything at all.

A Review of a Well Known Parable — Listen to the parable Jesus told.  The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?” He said to them, “An enemy has done this.” So the servants said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” But he said, “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

As Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven, He is speaking of the situation existing throughout the Church Age within the churches.  Seed is sown in the landowner’s field.  Jesus will explain that He Himself—the Son of Man—is the land owner [v. 37].  The field into which the seed is sown is the world and the good seed represent the redeemed—children of the Kingdom [v. 38].  An enemy comes in and sows weeds among the wheat, and the weeds and the wheat are indistinguishable.  The enemy is the devil [v. 39] and the weeds are the lost—children of the evil one [v. 38].  The harvest, at which time the two plants are at last distinguishable, is at the close of the age [v. 39], and the reapers are angels whom God appoints to gather in the harvest.

It is not the duty of any pastor to uproot every non-productive plant.  Rather, the servant of God must depend upon the preaching of the Word and the convicting power of the Spirit of God to work in the lives of those who have either grown senescent or who are spurious.  In the process of uprooting the false plants, the man of God may uproot some of the children of the Kingdom and hinder their productivity.  This does not mean that the man of God must tolerate error, but it does mean that he is not specifically to cast out of the church those who are specious in their claim to possess new life in Christ.

Focus on this concept of the mixture of good and wicked within the Kingdom.  Baptist believe the doctrine of a regenerate church membership.  This is the reason we do not baptise our babies.  This is the reason we require a confession of personal faith before we allow administration of the ordinance of baptism.  This is the reason that only those who have so professed Christ and been obedient to His command are to partake of the Communion Meal.  Nevertheless, I am not so naïve as to believe that all that are members of a particular Baptist congregation are saved.

Whenever I go to church, I know on the authority of Christ’s Word that there will be, mixed in among the good seed, individuals that have deceived themselves and who also deceive others as well.  Sometimes, their duplicity seems obvious.  More often, it is impossible to distinguish the true seed from the false. 

There are individuals who are divisive and argumentative, no matter what the situation may be.  They are against everything and anything that didn’t originate with them.  They demand that the church accommodate them and meet their needs, but they make scant contribution to the spiritual welfare of the congregation.  Such people reveal that they know nothing of the unity and peace desired by the Master’s heart.  One such man was chair of a church board in a former church.  He left that congregation under threat of church discipline and allied himself with yet another congregation in that town.  I have received repeated phone calls from members of that church complaining about his conduct in their congregation.  He is divisive, no matter where he is.

Nevertheless, it is possible that unruly and combative members are actually Christians, but somehow they are lacking spiritual maturation.  Perhaps they are infantile.  The best one can do with such people is to confront them lovingly, holding them accountable for their self-centred attitude, dismissing them if they refuse to grow up and continue to insist upon their own way.  We are under obligation to warn them and in needed, dismiss them.  Paul, writing in Titus 3:10, 11 teaches us how to handle such an individual.  As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Others don’t want to see the church grow.  They want a small, cozy group that makes them feel comfortable.  They fail to see that they do not have the heart of the Saviour, who looking upon the multitudes was moved with compassion and taught His disciples to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest [Matthew 9:38].  Perhaps such people are lazy or incompetent, but it is equally possible that they haven’t the mind of the Master because they have yet to be born from above.

Perhaps people such as those just identified are obvious, but there are those who sit quietly, they do not cause a disturbance nor do them make great demands upon the church.  They are, however, lost.  That this is possible is evident even from reading the Word of God.  Was not Judas one of the twelve?  Did not the other disciples think highly enough of him to make him the treasurer?  Of all the disciples, only Judas was a Judean.  His credentials were impeccable, especially compared to the others.  Yet, of Judas, Jesus plainly said, Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil [John 6:70].

Lynda and I became fast friends with a gracious lady in the church where we each came to faith.  Her husband was a pastor when she married him.  One night during the invitation, Jackie came forward to confess Christ.  She had never been saved.  For years she had played the part of a pastor’s wife and a church pianist and a member of the assembly.  However, it was play-acting, because she was unsaved.  When I taught at Criswell College, one of my preacher boys became a Christian as he preached and left the pulpit to kneel at the altar to receive Christ.  This is not as unusual as one might think.

Do not think that I am accusing you.  I am not the Holy Spirit.  I do not know your heart.  You alone know whether you have placed your faith in the Son of God or whether you have merely performed a ritual.  However, on the authority of God’s Word I am confident that mixed in with the wheat are weeds that mimic the wheat in almost every way.  Such bad seed will not be revealed for what it is until the end of the age, and then those unsaved individuals will be gathered up by the angels of God to be thrown into the fiery furnace where they will be forever separated from the love of God.

An Examination of the Parable — Three concepts in this parable are vital for understanding this particular Kingdom parable that Jesus gave.  The concepts to remember are that the plants were planted together, they progressed together, and they were processed together.  Please consider each of these concepts in their turn and weigh the implications of those concepts for your life and for the life of the congregation.

First, note that the wheat and the weeds are planted together.  The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.  God is at work sowing good seed.  When that seed finds root, the soul that believes confesses the Saviour, obeys His command and is baptised, and willingly and openly unites with Christ’s people.

The wicked one also works, planting weeds.  These plants want to be part of the church.  Perhaps they align themselves through a sort of common-law arrangement—claiming partnership without formal acceptance of membership.  They may even go outwardly through the rite of baptism and request acceptance within the congregation.  No mere mortal can tell who these individuals are.  The Greek phrase that is translated weeds among the wheat implies every other plant a weed.  In other words, the weeds are said to have been so thoroughly mixed that in the Kingdom there is a weed, a stem of wheat, a weed, a stem of wheat, and so forth.

Have you ever observed that when the RCMP warns of counterfeit money circulating they never warn us against taking three-dollar bills?  Why is that?  Of course, the answer is that those who seek to deceive do not counterfeit that which is unreal.  Counterfeiters make copies of twenty-dollar bills and of fifty-dollar bills or even one hundred-dollar bills.  Counterfeiters don’t make three-dollar bills or seven-dollar bills or eleven-dollar bills.  One can only counterfeit the real thing.

Similarly, weeds do not emulate weeds; rather weeds mimic wheat.  People do not seek to join the Latter Day Saints in order to deceive the members of that particular cult.  Neither do people join the Jehovah’s Witnesses in order to deceive those cultists.  These cults do not represent true saints, having never received the new birth and teaching doctrine that is deliberately and decidedly errant.  There are no counterfeit faiths that attempt to emulate their strange perspectives.  However, cults deceive the unwary primarily through contending that they are the real thing.  In a similar fashion, Satan sows weeds within the churches of our Lord, and these false Christians seem to be real.

It is not often that the counterfeit bills passed are fives or tens, but rather counterfeit bills are presented as fifties and hundreds.  Counterfeiters do not wish to mimic that which is cheap and of small account, but rather they seek to imitate that which is valuable.  Just so, Satan’s counterfeits in the church are not often simply pew warmers, but frequently they are people meriting respect and people occupying positions of responsibility.  They present themselves as valuable in the work of the Kingdom.

Again, take note that the wheat and the weeds progressed together.  Again, referring to the parable as the Master related it, we read when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?” He said to them, “An enemy has done this.”

What I urge you to carefully note is that growth occurred both in the wheat and in the weeds.  Each alike moved toward maturity, and each alike moved toward their own destinies.  Bear in mind that they were essentially indistinguishable throughout the growing period.  If the workers had attempted to root out the weeds, they would have undoubtedly destroyed some of the wheat, whether inadvertently or through ignorance.  Nevertheless, the plants progressed together.

This should interest each of us as Christians.  The weeds grow!  They give evidence of doing all that wheat does … except produce seed.  We now know that many among the churches are weeds and not wheat.  Those within churches are incapable of distinguishing weeds from wheat during the early stages of growth.  According to the text, it is the heading of the wheat that exposes the weeds.  In language that is immediately applicable to each of us, it is the fruit we produce as Christians which exposes the weeds among us.  They cannot produce fruit, and thus they are exposed.

It is an axiom of the Faith that fruit distinguishes the plant.  Listen to Jesus on this subject.  You will recognise [false prophets] by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits [Matthew 7:16-20].

The definitive expression of the character of a plant is provided by what sort of fruit the plant produces.  Jesus, the Master gardener, is able to distinguish good from evil, but we must inspect the fruit of those professing to be bearers of good fruit.  While it is true that we must not be judgemental of others, we are responsible to be fruit inspectors.  If the fruit is bad, it is because the root is bad.  Bad roots create bad fruit.

Again, the Lord spoke on this subject as recorded in yet another of the Gospels.  No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks [Luke 6:43-45].

 What type of fruit should we expect of a Christian?  As they approach maturity, what should we witness in the lives of those in whom the Spirit of God resides?  I suggest to you that the fruit of the Spirit should be witnessed in the lives of mature Christians.  I remind you that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires [Galatians 5:22-24].

I want you to listen carefully to Eugene Peterson’s effort to express the subtleties of this portion of the Word.  What happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.[2]  Commitment, compassion and conviction mark the Christian as real.

Did you notice in the text that this is the fruit (singular) of the Spirit and not the fruits (plural) of the Spirit?  In other words, as we keep in step with the Spirit and as He works in each life, we see all these graces expressed in greater measure.  We cannot have one without the others since it all comes from the One Spirit.

Contrasted against this fruit of the Spirit are the works of the flesh.  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God [Galatians 5:19-21].

Again, carefully note that they are works (plural) and not work (singular), demonstrating that any combination of these characteristics may be expressed or all of them may be expressed in the life of an individual who has resisted the Spirit and who refuses to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires.

I certainly appreciate the manner in which Eugene Peterson has handled this particular portion of the Word.  Listen now to Peterson’s rendition of this passage from “The Message.”  It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.[3]

The individual who has occupied a pew for years and has no fruit to demonstrate for all those sermons endured, may well be deceiving herself or himself.  Living in a garage does not make you a Mercedes Benz, and neither does sitting in a church make you a Christian.  Not even joining the church, singing on the worship team or even preaching from the pulpit make one a Christian.  One must be born from above and possess the life which is found only in Christ if that one will be a Christian.

I well remember a man who was a church member.  He had married a godly woman who loved Christ and endeavoured in all things to honour her Lord Jesus Christ.  Her husband, however, though a good man, was worthless to the cause of Christ.  Often I would speak with him and he always wanted to speak of his work to advance himself in the lodge.  “What have you done for the cause of Christ?” I queried on one occasion.

“I served my time, “ he replied, “and now I just rest.”

I responded by quoting Ecclesiastes 8:8: There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it.

That man merely chuckled and ignored the fact that we are engaged in war against the enemy of our souls.  Perhaps he once did serve Christ, but I never saw any evidence of his love for the Lord or for His church.  He died useless to the cause of Christ without ever changing anything about him.  What an epitaph could have been engraved on that foolish man’s tomb—He gained the world and lost his soul!

Finally, take careful note that the wheat and the weeds will be processed together.  Listen to and heed the words that Jesus places in the mouth of the owner of the field.  Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.  When fully ripened, weeds can be distinguished from wheat, and those plants that prove to be weeds will be gathered, bundled and burned.  At last, the wheat will be pure.  No weeds will be mixed with the grains of wheat.  Throughout the Word of God, it is an axiom of the Faith that God provides ample opportunity for man to change his destiny.

God promised the Land of Palestine to Abram and his descendants.  However, Abram did not receive the inheritance God promised.  The reason for the delay is given in Genesis 15:13-16.  The Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

How awful are those words of warning that Jesus provides concerning the end of days.  Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect [Matthew 24:36-44].

Paul speaks of that same frightful event, the Rapture of the saints and the Great Tribulation that is coming on all the earth as when he writes to the Thessalonian saints.  You, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But God’s wrath has come upon them at last [1 Thessalonians 2:14-16]!

Judgement is coming when the wicked will be exposed, as the faithful are removed and all that are left will be the wicked.  They shall be exposed to the full wrath of Holy God as He at last calls evil to account.  Fearfully, some listening to this message will be left behind.  Some that claim membership in this church will undoubtedly be left behind because they have deceived themselves, thinking that merely joining a church is sufficient to satisfy God.  The standard has never changed—you must be born again!

A Probing Examination from the Parable — Exposition demands application.  Therefore, the message must, of necessity, conclude with a call for personal examination.  Each individual hearing the message this day is challenged to examine his or her heart to see if Christ indeed dwells within by faith.  Paul challenged the Corinthian saints, much as I now challenge you.  Examine yourselves, the Apostle challenged, to see whether you are in the Faith.  Test yourselves.  Or do you not realise this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test [2 Corinthians 13:5]!

You alone know whether you have faith in the Son of God.  You alone know whether you are operating under false pretences.  Some of you who even now are listening to this message will assert that you believe Jesus, and you will even insist that you trust that He is your Saviour.  However, you are quite unwilling to accept Him as Master.  You will use Him as a means of delivery from condemnation, but you will not obey His command.  May I say, with a heart that will do you good and not evil, if Jesus is not Master of your life, He is not your Saviour.  That is the Word of God.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9-13].

You cannot claim that Jesus is Saviour if you refuse to obey Him.  When you refuse to identify with Christ through believer’s baptism and when you refuse to openly unite with His people, how can you claim His salvation?  You cannot separate salvation and submission.  Though baptism and church membership cannot save you, refusal to obey demonstrates that at best faith is compromised.  You must understand that what is under scrutiny is not that neglect has been perpetuated through ignorance, but rather it is the refusal to obey when once the truth has become known.  I am not your judge—I merely point out the inconsistency of your position when held to the standard of Scripture.  Jesus Himself asked, Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you [Luke 6:46]?

The message this day unapologetically seeks to confront each listener with the personal call to examine whether divine fruit is evident in life and service.  In short, the question posed to you is whether you are a stalk of wheat or whether you are a weed.  If you are deceiving yourself, the message concludes with a call for repentance and faith.  By the mercies of Christ, I urge you to turn from your stubborn pride and receive the forgiveness of Christ the Lord.  Turn from the exaltation of your selfish will and submit to the eternal reign of Christ the Lord.  Look to Him and be saved.  Do not permit yourself to be gathered with other unbelievers as weeds fit only to be burned in the fire.

It is a grief for me to confess that many who have sat under the preaching of the Word—even some from this congregation—will at the last be condemned.  They were converted to a church, or they were converted to a preacher, or they were merely superficial saints.  They gave the appearance of being real, but they were fraudulent.  Do not permit yourself to be included among that awful number.  How will you answer to Him who is the Judge of all mankind when compelled to stand before Him as an open book?  Poor soul, how shall you fare in that great assize if you have no life within?

This is the message that brings life.  If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says,

“In a favourable time I listened to you,

and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”

Behold, now is the favourable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

[2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2]

Be saved today.  The doors of this church now stand open and we pledge to receive all who will come confessing Christ as Lord of life.  We eagerly receive all who seek Him, joyfully witnessing their confession and gladly receiving each one as he or she obeys the divine command to follow in baptism.  We joyfully accept all who come for membership in this congregation as we receive members.  May God direct your heart and may His angels walk beside you as you come and as you obey.  Amen.

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[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Ó 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

[2] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO 1993).

[3] Peterson, op. cit.