Are You Wheat or Tare?

But Harold Linzell said it is right for the church to be in the world, but it is wrong for the world to be in the church. Billy Sunday, the famous athlete and evangelist, said, going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile. With that, I give this sermon. I actually gave this message 18 months ago as I look at my notes, only one place in Murfreesboro. At an interactive Bible study after services, to which it met with some resistance. It met with some complaints. It met with some people being offended. So I will say right off, it's not my intention to offend you. It's my intention to inspire you, which I hope I will. And besides, I'm never going to speak here again anyway. I guess it doesn't matter. But before, they couldn't fire me, but now I guess they can fire me. So I guess I have to be careful. What I say, I'm being on the payroll. I got one shock, being my wife and I have been able to enjoy our lives in the last few years. We've been busy trying to do the church work, and she has been as busy as I have, and taking care of business. She works. But we were able to chisel out some time for vacations. And we would always tend to take in the last five years, five, six, even seven weeks vacation a year. I got the good news last week from my brother-in-law that the new people hired. You get one week. So I have some adjustment to do. And the good thing was my wife said, that's you, not me. George O'Leary, a man that was coach of Georgia Tech, was given the job of coaching the University of Notre Dame, until they found out that George O'Leary wasn't what his resume said he was, to which he got the job and then lost the job. It was a fake resume because he didn't do everything that said he did on this piece of paper. I think a few years ago, there was a man running for public office that was in the Navy. He made the mistake of telling people that he was in the Navy SEALs. Not the same thing. He had to withdraw from the race in embarrassment, as the Navy SEALs came forth and said, no, you are not. You were not part of our brotherhood. You might remember if you were older, the movie Stalag 17 with William Holden, many years ago, the story of a prisoner of war camp during World War II. During that movie, the prisoners there were trying to survive and run messages and try and do everything they could. They wouldn't give up information to the Germans. The Germans put a man. He looked like an American, talked like an American. He put them under cover into the camp to try to get some information by being one of them. Of course, they did find that out. Donnie Brasco, a movie about someone who infiltrated the syndicate. Also the same thing. Christ dealt with someone who wasn't what he appeared to be. In Luke 22, if you don't mind turning there.

Luke 22.

Verse 3, He said, Then Satan entered Judas, so named Ascariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the high priests and captains how he might betray him and they were glad and agreed to give him money. Then he promised and sought opportunities to betray him. It's interesting, Christ, if you will turn back to Matthew 13. Because this sermon, split sermon, today I'll take my watch off so I do not go over time. This sermon is about wheat and tares.

Wheat and tares. Jesus Christ here on this day was explaining about the kingdom of God and gave many parables. And one of the parables he gave was in Matthew 13 and verse 24. I'd like to read that, if you will. So another parable he put forth to them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in this field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. And when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servant of the owner came and said to him, Did you not sow good seed in the field? How then does it have tares? And he said to them, An enemy has done this. The servant said to them, Do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, No, lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat. Let them grow, let them both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn.

And then he went on to give a parable of the mustard seed, gave a parable of 11, he gave different parables. But it's interesting because it comes down to verse 36, because for some reason they didn't understand. Because he said, Then Jesus went, sent the multitude away and went to the house. And his disciples came to him and explained to us the parables of the tares of the field.

So here they understood the others, but they did not understand this parable. So my question to you today, are you a wheat or are you a tare? Are you a wheat or are you a tare? It's interesting because you can look up wheat and tares. Find various information. But we know that wheat is a crop, is a valuable crop. It's worth something. And as a tare is called, either a cheat or a darnail, or can also be called a weed.

A weed. Not of anything of real value. It's interesting as he gave this here because I mentioned it says that in the East it is more serious enemy, this tare, to the farmer in the low-lying districts of Lebanon, other parts of Palestine. It becomes alarmingly plentiful. If inadvertently eaten, it produces sickness, dizziness, and diarrhea.

It would seem that the malice afterthought of sowing wild grass deliberately was not an unusual practice. And he gave an example of how people would actually sow this seed. Newspaper reports would sow this seed into a owner. Our sharecropper would sow this in as he was fired or being left without a job. He would sow these weeds or cheats into the field. And it would cause many problems. So are you a valuable crop?

Are you a weed? Are you worthless? As I said, because the actual in Arabic, darno, is actually said that which is thrown away. So they recognized that a cheat, a tear, was worthless. And it would do serious damage. And so here the disciples said, well, wait a minute. We understand, because most of them grew up in farming communities, are raising food with something that they generally did. And they understood how valuable wheat was, because it was thought as you read in the scriptures where Christ walked through. He would rub that and got in trouble on the Sabbath as they tried to blame him for doing work on the Sabbath.

That that was wheat in all likelihood. They also knew what a tear was, but they couldn't figure out how does that compare to the kingdom of God? How does that compare with brethren of the church?

So they asked that question. And if we can go down to 37, Christ explains it to them. Said, He answered and said to them, He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom. But the tares are the what? The sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age for His church. Something very serious here. We get something very serious for us sitting in this congregation today. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend. And those who practice lawlessness. So here we get an insight into what tares do. They offend, and they practice lawlessness.

And we'll cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the Son and the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. What's He saying? Pay attention!

Church members, that's what it's saying. He who has an ear, let him hear. Kind of important. When a God says, listen up. That's why when I studied this, I was very intrigued.

So He gives us parable, and actually a parable, the Greek word is parabola, which actually means placing beside, or setting something side by side to view a comparison. So here He is going to set aside. We need to look at this parable because He's comparing this field to the church. He's comparing these two products to members in the church, to people who are attending the church.

Expository dictionary says a parable is something physical that helps to explain something spiritual. So we take this as it is, and every analogy, every metaphor will break down, taken far enough. But Christ isn't telling you to take it down, and so far that it breaks apart. He's giving these words for us as wisdom. He's giving these words to us so that we can take them and read them and take to heart what's said. And what is said here is, if you need to read it again, wheat is from God. Wheat is from God. Tares are from Satan. That's a fact. So is the Scripture saying that there are people sitting out there, sitting in our congregations that Satan has put in our midst. Is that what he's saying? He's not. What else is he saying?

But doesn't some of that make sense over the years? Because here I am, 52, started attending the church when I was 14. I look at all the years and the people, and as you grow up in the church, as these young people have, will, you kind of look at some people and you see some examples, and you're going, what? Isn't that right? Haven't we all seen that? I said, but they're baptized members. But the interesting thing about it, Darnell or Terris, it looks just like wheat, until it grows, until it's really mature. And haven't we all, anyone who's grown a garden, had things that look just like, oh, we're excited because something comes up and it's like, yeah. And it's a weed. We're kind of like, oh, man. And it's kind of like, at the first, you spend all this time sowing these seeds, and then you go out there and watch them. It's kind of like corn. Corn is that crop that most people like. I don't know anybody that hates corn. But you watch it grow, you plant it, and then you watch it grow, and then it first comes up, and then you find out there's some Johnson grass in there. In there. And it looks just like the corn. It grows right in the side of it. And you don't go pull it up, because if you pull it up, what's going to happen? You're going to tear that plant up of corn. You're going to tear the good up by trying to get the weed up. So is God making reference here, Jesus Christ making reference here, that if we are to pull some people up, it would throw a lot of people for a loop, wouldn't it? That's what he's saying, basically. It might really disturb people in the church. If he pulled out, picked out the people. They said, no, let them grow, and I'll handle it at the end time, the harvest. So that tells us it's not our job, isn't it? It's not our job to go, there you go, there's Kyle DeGagny. Tear. Afternoon, Kyle. Haven't seen you in a while. Thought you'd hide from me. It's not our job to go there, and well, I wonder, because we're all in different stages of growth, aren't we? But what is important is, the truth is, we have to make sure we are wheat. That's the most important. Okay. So I ask these questions. Can a tare become wheat? Can a tare become wheat, according to Scripture, too? No. No. Tare can't become wheat, right? If you take this analogy, if you take this, I can't go out here and have Johnson grass grow up. It's not going to produce corn, is it? It's not corn. It can't produce corn, right? You can't have a wheat out there and say, well, I hope I get tomatoes from that later on this year.

Can a tare become wheat, according to this? No. Does a tare know it's a tare, according to these Scriptures? Could it be yes or no? Or I don't care. Move on to Florida.

It says that Satan puts it in a plant. It's a tare. It's a weed. And just like it doesn't know, obviously. So there's people here today. Not really called. It was not my job to say there's one in his audience. There's ten in his audience. But it's for us to examine. So Satan can look like, we've known people in the past in church, haven't we? Many who have dressed like a member, act like a member, got baptized like a member. We thought they acted like a member. And I found out a few years ago, a guy was telling me up in Pasadena that he was telling about this ministry. He said, yeah, he's been keeping Christmas for two or three years before they ever said it was okay. They offend and practice lawlessness. Can a wheat become a tare? Yes or no? Can a wheat become a tare? I had people tell me at the Bible study, no. When is wheat really not wheat? When is it more like a weed? When it produces what? No fruit. Because it's useless. Nobody wants to have wheat that does not produce, do they?

Because when is a wheat stock a weed? When there's no fruit. When there's no fruit. So, how do you know you're wheat? Do you know you're wheat? Well, there are certain qualities and characteristics of wheat, isn't there? They produce fruit. They produce fruit. And you know, wheat, corn, and various things, they need plenty of water, don't they? They need water for nourishment. You ever grow in a garden, you find that when you've had a dry spell, weeds don't need water. They just grow. They don't need it. They don't need it. What about the wheat in the church? Need plenty of water? Need spiritual nourishment? And wheat also provides sustenance, doesn't it? Wheat provides that. So, what does wheat in the church have in common? Well, they typically grow spiritually, right? For some of us, it takes a long time to grow, but we're growing. We typically discuss spiritual things. They discuss spiritual things at church. And having the opportunity that Mary and I have over the years to go to so many different churches, scattered in the really southeast. And it's so interesting to walk in a church first time, and you come up and you listen to people, and you hear everything but God. You hear people start a conversation, never met you. Never met you. How are you? You meet? Where are you from?

And then they launch into worldly stuff.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? One of the other things that wheat have in common is fruit. And there's evident fruit, right? Have you seen, because I have seen, people that literally been in the church for 30 years and produce no fruit. They're no different 30 years later than they were when they first came into church. Wheat or chicken? Not my job, but it is my job to observe. Something else they have is the love of God. Wheat, they have the love of God. And they have the love of the brethren. They care about each other. But something about weeds, weeds, tares, darnelles, they choke out growth. That's what they do. If you allow in a garden the weeds just to grow without pulling some of them up, they will take over your garden. And if we're not careful, they will take over this church.

Because they will choke out even the good wheat. Because the next thing you can have is everybody talking about everything, every Sabbath except God. Know anybody?

That's why this is a very, very important message from Jesus Christ. Tares will choke out growth. Two important scriptures I want to cover. 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5. I'm going to turn there because it's a very short scripture. But it's talking to us and it said, examine yourself as to whether you are in the faith. Examine yourself as to whether you are what? Wheat. Wheat. Because you need to look, if you're not producing, that should be a warning sign. Am I getting choked out? What the guy said about the world. Church needs to be in the world. The world doesn't need to be in the church. Are we more influenced, brethren, by wheat? Or tares? Are you in this church more influenced by wheat or by tares? Matthew 7. Let's go there to the Sermon on the Mount. Because this relates to this. Matthew 7 verse 20. It says, therefore, by their... What? What? Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied? Have we not preached sermons? Have we not stood in pulbits preaching? In your name, we cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name. And then I will declare to you, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice what? Lawlessness. You who practice lawlessness.

So there is a sign to the ministers, isn't it? So what? You can put this together. It's not hard. We see ministers who have left. We see ministers who have been in the past. May have given great sermons. May have done this or that.

But he's warning us. He's warning them. I never knew you. I never knew you. That's why it's important because I've seen many, many men over the 40-something years attending this church. Many ministers, many elders, deacons, men who have just women just, I thought, thought they were weak.

Tears practice lawlessness and they offend. Hmm. I like bumper sticker I saw on a car the other day that said, God protect me from your followers. I thought, oh, that guy's got issues. Say he's not anywhere today or tomorrow. But the Greek word offend, the Greek word offend actually means a stumbling block. So you're going to have people, according to this, in the church who actually put a stumbling block. You're going to have tears in the church who put stumbling blocks in front of other people. So, hmm, what kind of stumbling block are you talking about? Maybe it's something you've seen as inappropriate. Are you taking offense? Two. I've seen that in the church. Over the last few years, we're making transition to servant leadership. It's one of the reasons I want to be employed. Personally, my wife and I discussed we didn't want to go to work for the church. For a few years it was brought to us four or five years ago. I would always say, somebody would say, well, when are you going to go to work for the church? I said, they've got standards. So I guess they don't anymore.

But what about it? What kind of church are we going to have? What kind of church are young people here? Young people here going to be left with in the years ahead? Will it be something that they can take and use? Will it be a more godly church or a more worldly church? What will Nashville be? Because in all likelihood, it may be 10 years before I ever get back here. What kind of church will I see in 10 years? Something you've seen as inappropriate or taken offense with. I've had people different as I talk to different people about this. One was dress. They were offended because of the way some people dress. Whether it be not showing reverence or showing too much skin. Hmm. Another person brought to me that is offended because people just sometimes will work over on the Sabbath. He said, well, I had to. Ox in the ditch. Or cursing. Foul language. Which we all have to work at. Especially if you drive in traffic. Peter had to. You can imagine Peter, for his baptism, if he had to drive.

The opposite of lawlessness is what? Righteousness. Righteousness. The law of love. Agape. And something else that someone brought to me, and I thought it was pretty good. Well, something they feel like is a stumbling block. Put in by certain people. And if this is you, deal with it.

They practice negativity. They practice. It's just not being negative. We all feel negative sometimes, don't we? We got scrambled eggs, and I didn't get French toast this morning. Okay? Small matter. But we're talking about big things. Where they are negative. You say something positive, and they say something negative. And everything you do, they have to say something negative. They can't say anything good. They can't say anything good. They can't say anything good. Stumbling block. Mr. Burnage, I can tell you, most of our speakers here. So I was listening to David Horvath this morning. He didn't come over to my house where he used to listen to him on tape. Speakers, there are people who just cannot find anything good that they say. There are people in the church who just look to find something they can jump on. And that spirit is of Satan. And if it is not dealt with, and it is not handled by the members of the church, it will take over your church. Because you have to work at being positive. This world is negative, isn't it? What the young people have to go through today is negative. At the church of God, during His services, that needs to be a positive time. Because we have a positive future, the kingdom of God, in front of us. Tares practice lawlessness. Brethren, tares do not self-correct. Tares do not self-correct. All they can act like, well, that's bad, but in their own life, they don't change. Tares practice habitual law-breaking. Some lie habitually. Because you see, tares look like wheat. They're fakes. They're phonies. They're imitators. And we have them in the church. And hopefully you won't go down this aisle afterward and go, tare, tare, tare, wheat, wheat. That's not our job. But it is important that we evaluate what we do, how we live, and are we living righteously? Is that our goal? And is this our favorite day of the week? Or is it one that we just have to go to church and have to listen to something?

The purpose of tares, as I said before, to choke out, to destroy, to damage, and to harm the crop. God's people. It says in verse 42, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for the tares. So we want to make sure that we are self-correcting. We can read this book, pull it out, and go, you know, that has something to do with me. I appreciate my new boss, Mr. Luca, because he wrote that, and I'm looking and seeing ministers or heads of ministry in the past. They never talked about their own sins. They just talked about everybody else's. But he deals with it. We all have to deal with it. We all have that problem, and we need to take this book and self-correct. And go, I need to change. I need to make sure I don't go spending that much time with those people. I remember somebody brought up to me many years ago, six or seven years ago, that there were certain people in the church I didn't spend much time with. I asked me if that was correct. I said, yes.

Those people I pray about, but there's people you can't. And as one minister said one time, there's some people you have to love at a distance. And they are. Because what's important is your growth. What's important is drawing close to God and staying close to God. Because the other, the fakes, the imitators, the tares, the cheats, they're going to be taken care of by God. He said he's going to take care of them. And he explains that in the book of Jude. And it has one of my favorite memory scriptures in it because of the death. And I remember reading this on a plane and really getting it through my head one time. Then I just had to memorize it. And then I just spent about two hours thinking about this verse as it tells what's going to happen to the tares or what's going to happen to these false ministers. And I don't want to be one. Jude says in verse 13, For whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever? For whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever? That's a pretty bleak outlook. So the purpose of my message today was to make sure you do not let the tares choke you so that you become fruitless. Because it will happen. It can happen. It's happened in the past. And brethren, it will happen in the future. We must bear fruit. And as iron sharpens iron, so fruit needs to spend time with fruit. Wheat needs to spend time with wheat and not get choked out. The harvester at the harvest time finds you with no fruit. What will he do? He'll pull you up with the tares. And it won't be pleasant. And I say that because if you're back in Matthew 13, if you go back there, Matthew 13, and if you look in chapter 12, the last few verses before chapter 13, as a matter of fact, in 12 and verse 48. Christ was talking and preaching. Verse 48, well, it actually starts in 46. But while he was still talking, behold, his mother and brother stood outside seeking to speak with him. Then one said to him, look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with you. But he answered to them, answered to the one who told him, who is my mother and who are my brothers? He looked out. Why? You can turn to Mark 3 and verse 21 and see why, very same account. You see, his mother and his brothers came there to choke him out. They came because they say in Mark 3 and verse 21, they came to get him off the stage, get him off out of the pulpit, because they said he has lost his mind. He couldn't speak with them, even his own family. He could not allow his own family to stunt his work. And we cannot allow even our families to stunt our growth. We must do. We must do whatever we can do to work with God, to look at His Word, because that's where it all happens. So let's use this parable. Read it again and again, and make sure that we are God's wheat at His return. And unless you're coming to Florida or come to the feast for the Feast of Tabernacles, I'll leave you with these words. If we don't meet here, let's meet there in the Kingdom of God.