SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: We've been working our way through the gospel according to Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: We find ourselves this morning in chapter 13, verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: This is a section that's often referred to as the parables of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: So we looked at the first section the last couple of weeks, and this morning we will pick up in verse 24, where Matthew writes of Jesus that he put another parable before the crowds, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
SPEAKER_01: But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
SPEAKER_01: So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.
SPEAKER_01: And the slaves of the master of the house came and said to him, Master, didn't you sow good seed in your field?
SPEAKER_01: How then does it have weeds?
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, An enemy has done this.
SPEAKER_01: So the slaves said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them?
SPEAKER_01: He said, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: He put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.
SPEAKER_01: It's the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
SPEAKER_01: He told them another parable.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hidden three measures of flour till it was all leavened.
SPEAKER_01: All these things Jesus said to crowds in parables.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable, and that was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.
SPEAKER_01: I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Then he left the crowds and went into a house.
SPEAKER_01: And his disciples came to him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.
SPEAKER_01: He answered, The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
SPEAKER_01: The harvest is the close of this age, and the reapers are angels.
SPEAKER_01: Just as weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.
SPEAKER_01: The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace.
SPEAKER_01: In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_01: And then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
SPEAKER_01: He who has ears, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I love this time of year.
SPEAKER_01: I love when it when it's crisp and almost cold in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know why I love it?
SPEAKER_01: I like the cold.
SPEAKER_01: I'm one of those weird ones that likes the cold.
SPEAKER_01: But I like it for another reason.
SPEAKER_01: The weed growth slows down.
SPEAKER_01: Because I detest weeds.
SPEAKER_01: Does anyone else share that feeling?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not alone.
SPEAKER_01: Curse of sin is awful, I tell you.
SPEAKER_01: I detest weeds because they take over.
SPEAKER_01: We have a small strawberry bed in our backyard, and I cannot rid our strawberry bed of a particular kind of thistle.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it it the problem seems to worsen every single year.
SPEAKER_01: I detest weeds because they're difficult to uproot.
SPEAKER_01: So often you try to uproot them, even if the ground is soft and and moist, they break off, right, at ground level.
SPEAKER_01: And you're tempted to lose your every bit of sanctification in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And then before you know it, from that broken off stem, two more weeds have sprouted out of that leftover root.
SPEAKER_01: You can sense my frustration.
SPEAKER_01: I detest weeds because when pulling them up, something else is bound to come up with them.
SPEAKER_01: I detest weeds.
SPEAKER_01: Because they're endless work with no reward.
SPEAKER_01: Did I mention I detest weeds?
SPEAKER_01: You know what I detest more than weeds?
SPEAKER_01: Pulling weeds.
SPEAKER_01: This section I'm thankful for because it mentions not pulling the weeds.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Well, this section explains much of the frustration and the worry and the general concern that we have as Christians who live in a corrupt world.
SPEAKER_01: All of the things that we deal with in a world that is riddled with sin.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes sin that has roots that go very, very deeply.
SPEAKER_01: But it not only explains these concerns, it also gives us hope, a hope that really energizes us for perseverance.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Jesus told three parables here, and they're fairly simple to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Each of them has the same intention.
SPEAKER_01: These three parables tell us something about Christ's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: But as we compare each of these statements with the explanation that's found at the end, we can add another detail, another level of understanding about Jesus' intention.
SPEAKER_01: And that is that these parables tell us about the development, the progress, the ongoing growth in Christ's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: That's important to remember when we think about the context of Matthew's biography of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We're at a significant point here in Jesus' life and ministry where the intensity of rejection is ratcheting up.
SPEAKER_01: The Jewish leaders are seeking out ways to not just push Jesus aside, but to be rid of him, to destroy him.
SPEAKER_01: They're actively working against him.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, but the curious onlookers are dwindling.
SPEAKER_01: There are fewer and fewer people seemingly following Jesus, and the genuine followers, the disciples, are even fewer.
SPEAKER_01: So what does that say about Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: What does that imply about Jesus being God's Messiah?
SPEAKER_01: What does that say about his kingship and his rule and reign?
SPEAKER_01: What about fulfilling all of God's promises?
SPEAKER_01: If things are going so slowly for Jesus and the weeds are increasing, what are we to take away from that?
SPEAKER_01: It's all important questions.
SPEAKER_01: So we saw in the parable of the sower at the beginning of this chapter that Jesus himself is doing the work of building his church.
SPEAKER_01: He's gathering in his people, he's sowing the seed of the gospel, he's granting new life to people, and he's bringing them into his kingdom in spite of whatever significant opposition there might be.
SPEAKER_01: He's doing that.
SPEAKER_01: There's significant opposition.
SPEAKER_01: But his kingdom is still growing.
SPEAKER_01: He's causing it to spread.
SPEAKER_01: From a human perspective, we might say that the growth of God's kingdom is slow, maybe agonizingly slow.
SPEAKER_01: But the seed of the gospel of Christ, when it lands in the right soil, it produces magnificently.
SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't appear as though Jesus' kingdom is taking over the world.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Matthew's biography here begins to take a turn for the worse.
SPEAKER_01: From here on out, Jesus is headed to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he will be tortured and killed.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: If his kingdom is so powerful, why?
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus is the great king and great God, why are there things like this where he is sought out to be destroyed?
SPEAKER_01: Where the weeds are taking root and flourishing?
SPEAKER_01: We can ask related questions today.
SPEAKER_01: Why are God's people persecuted today?
SPEAKER_01: Why are there places in our world where people are fearful of letting it be known that they're Christians?
SPEAKER_01: Why doesn't his church have a greater impact on society?
SPEAKER_01: Why does it seem as though the wrong seems oft so strong?
SPEAKER_01: And how should we face that reality?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Matthew gives us Jesus' perspective on these questions through story-based images, parables that illustrate spiritual realities.
SPEAKER_01: And this one is fairly simple, especially when we put the beginning of the section side by side with the end of the section.
SPEAKER_01: Let me demonstrate here what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: When we look at these together, we see that the owner that is being referenced here of the field is Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: His enemy is the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus plants good seed.
SPEAKER_01: That good seed results in new believers, reborn according to John's gospel, born from above.
SPEAKER_01: They are regenerated, they have new life.
SPEAKER_01: The enemy plants weeds, and those weeds are unregenerated people.
SPEAKER_01: Where do those exist?
SPEAKER_01: They exist in a field that is the world.
SPEAKER_01: That's the same.
SPEAKER_01: We have two different individuals functioning together in the same place.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the age, there's a harvest, there's a separation of the weeds and the wheat.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus calls that the harvest.
SPEAKER_01: Then he tells us that that means the end of the age.
SPEAKER_01: He says that the sons of the kingdom, the regenerated people, the good seed, are righteous.
SPEAKER_01: And at the harvest they will shine like the sun.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody else he refers to as causes of sin and lawbreakers.
SPEAKER_01: That is the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: All of those, the weeds, will be gathered together and cast, he says, into a fiery furnace.
SPEAKER_01: Reminiscent of Daniel and his friends, right?
SPEAKER_01: Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah being thrown into the fiery furnace.
SPEAKER_01: I know, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
SPEAKER_01: That's their pagan names.
SPEAKER_01: Learn their Hebrew names.
SPEAKER_01: They're thrown into a fiery furnace, right?
SPEAKER_01: And God protects them.
SPEAKER_01: Sends his angel.
SPEAKER_01: Not so in this case.
SPEAKER_01: The righteous will experience the presence of their father forever.
SPEAKER_01: And the weeds will experience weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus is, as Matthew says, God's Son and the King of the universe, why is it that Jesus is not immediately stepping into this world victorious with a powerful kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: Why is Satan seeming to have the upper hand in our world today?
SPEAKER_01: Why did God, the Son, come to his own people and his own people not receive him?
SPEAKER_01: That shows us that what we experience in life today and what Jesus shows us here in the first century in his ministry is a description of reality.
SPEAKER_01: The reality is that Christ owns the world.
SPEAKER_01: It's his.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians tells us that he upholds it.
SPEAKER_01: He made it, he upholds it, he keeps everything going.
SPEAKER_01: It's his.
SPEAKER_01: How does he do that?
SPEAKER_01: How does the devil work against Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Well, in the first parable of the chapter, we saw that the devil steals the seed of the word of God, and he brings about persecution and difficulty in the lives of people where they demonstrate, yeah, they don't really have a solid root in Christ and they fall away.
SPEAKER_01: Here we see that Satan also works by counter offenses.
SPEAKER_01: Where Christ is working to raise up God's children, Satan comes along and plants his own children in a covert enemy action.
SPEAKER_01: Now God knows that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus tells us, so he obviously knows it.
SPEAKER_01: He knows exactly what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: He knows exactly what Satan is doing, and he knows where he's doing it, and he knows how he's doing it, but we don't know, do we?
SPEAKER_01: We don't have that divine insight into what is happening in the spiritual realm.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have divine perception of the spiritual battlefield, but we now know it exists and it surrounds us.
SPEAKER_01: We live in it.
SPEAKER_01: We live amongst the weeds.
SPEAKER_01: The weeds here are sometimes translated tares.
SPEAKER_01: It's a plant sometimes called Darnell, coming from the Greek name zezania, or if you prefer the Latin, Lolium temulentum.
SPEAKER_01: L.
SPEAKER_01: It's a plant that has very unique characteristics.
SPEAKER_01: Quite fascinating.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually been a massive paper written on one plant.
SPEAKER_01: It has unique characteristics, and one of them is that the root system doesn't go down deep into the soil.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have a taproot.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, it has a root system that spreads out very thinly underneath the surface of the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Spreads out all around, just underneath the surface.
SPEAKER_01: And it intertwines itself with the roots of other plants all around it.
SPEAKER_01: That means if it is identified after stalks of grain have already grown up, the weed will already have intertwined its roots with the roots of the wheat or the barley.
SPEAKER_01: So if you pull it up, you're pulling up the stock of grain with it.
SPEAKER_01: Makes sense then why the landowner in the parable says, no, wait until the harvest.
SPEAKER_01: If you pull it up now, you're going to pull up the grain with it.
SPEAKER_01: But there's something else unique about Zizania, and that is it's poisonous.
SPEAKER_01: It's poisonous.
SPEAKER_01: It has an effect, something like the effect that alcohol has on people.
SPEAKER_01: Here's an interesting element.
SPEAKER_01: It has the same effect in animals and in people, and in the right proportions, it will kill animals and people.
SPEAKER_01: There were tests done in ancient times on how much zeania it took to kill a horse.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Romans made a law criminalizing the sowing of this seed in someone else's field.
SPEAKER_01: You could destroy livelihoods and destroy people with it.
SPEAKER_01: There are ancient records of its regulation because, as a weed, it was almost expected to be mixed in amongst the grain.
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to rid a field of the weeds, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're always going to be there.
SPEAKER_01: But only certain percentages of this toxic seed were allowed to be mixed in with grain because of its effect on the consumer.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, the FDA has long existed.
SPEAKER_01: There are even indications that the prices of wheat varied based on how much of this weed was mixed into the grain.
SPEAKER_01: The more zazania there was in the wheat, the lower the grade of grain, and thus the lower the cost.
SPEAKER_01: So it doesn't take too much thinking then to see how having an enemy coming along and sowing this tear, this poison into your field of grain that looks just like wheat could ruin a person's income, could destroy a family business, could destroy a life, and even bring death.
SPEAKER_01: Makes sense why it would be gathered up first and carried away to be burned, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Now there are two additional parables that Matthew places here before giving the meaning and the intention of this first parable.
SPEAKER_01: First is a story of a mustard seed, and then one about leaven or yeast.
SPEAKER_01: Both images would have been very familiar to Jesus' listeners.
SPEAKER_01: Standard operating procedure for the first century.
SPEAKER_01: There are smaller seeds than mustard seed.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: There are smaller seeds that exist than mustard seed.
SPEAKER_01: But what we need to understand here is that mustard seed was proverbially referred to as the smallest seed.
SPEAKER_01: It was just a proverb that was used.
SPEAKER_01: Much like we would say it's raining cats and dogs to refer to a really hard rain.
SPEAKER_01: People of that time would refer to a mustard seed to refer to a really small mustard or a really small seed.
SPEAKER_01: In much the same way, we have yeast for bread.
SPEAKER_01: The amount of flour here is about 50 pounds of flour.
SPEAKER_01: That'd be a lot of work, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Mixing some yeast into 50 pounds of flour to produce some bread.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to take a while for that yeast to spread through the bread, but it's a slow process, but eventually that small amount of yeast leavens the entire amount of dough.
SPEAKER_01: So the pictures between the mustard seed and the yeast are the same.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the growth, the progress, the development.
SPEAKER_01: The mustard seed is a very small seed that, when planted, will grow into a bush or a small tree, probably about six or seven feet tall, and enough for birds to come in and nest in.
SPEAKER_01: It's about the growth, what something small that develops into something much larger that you really don't expect from that small of a seed.
SPEAKER_01: And a little bit of yeast leavens 50 pounds of flour.
SPEAKER_01: You don't really expect something small to do something that great.
SPEAKER_01: So we have these common pictures that amount to great work over time.
SPEAKER_01: Why would we then think it would be any different with God's kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: Just because it starts small and encounters great opposition does not mean that it's not going to grow large enough to encompass the entire world.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how things fit together.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has been opposed by his own people.
SPEAKER_01: We've looked at this all the way through chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Some seek to destroy him, some to discredit him.
SPEAKER_01: People get dissuaded and stop following him.
SPEAKER_01: Even one of his own disciples he calls a devil.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, the divine king, sows the word of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: That glorious and hopeful good news that we've sung about this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But the seed doesn't all fall on good soil, does it?
SPEAKER_01: But that's not all.
SPEAKER_01: That would be normal in the world of agriculture, but Jesus has an enemy who comes in and purposely sows false seeds that grow to be false wheat, that is dangerous, poisonous, and can kill.
SPEAKER_01: But none of that, Jesus says, will stop the growth of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: He says, just as a mustard seed grows, and just as yeast spreads, so too the Lord's kingdom is going to continue growing, continue spreading until he returns for the final harvest.
SPEAKER_01: And at that point, he will send out his harvesters, holy angels.
SPEAKER_01: All the people and the beings that have sowed sin and evil against God's purposes and God's word, rebelliously violating his character, will be pulled up and tossed into a fiery judgment for being sons of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: But the sons of the kingdom will be called righteous.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to display the glory of their Father in His presence forever.
SPEAKER_01: When, like a mustard seed or a bit of leaven, his glory fills the earth.
SPEAKER_01: May we have ears that draw us further towards Jesus, the King.
SPEAKER_01: In faith and obedience as he does his work.
SPEAKER_01: But if we don't, if we don't have ears to hear, we're going to be drawn to another Father.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize that this is the storyline of the entire Bible?
SPEAKER_01: The storyline of the entire Bible shows this conflict between the children of God and the children of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible shows God's work in his world as a farmer sowing his seed, but God's enemy, that serpent, the devil, comes along seeking to undo all that God does.
SPEAKER_01: But the enemy will not succeed, will he?
SPEAKER_01: Even though it may feel as though he is always succeeding.
SPEAKER_01: You know this.
SPEAKER_01: God started, right, with his first son, Adam.
SPEAKER_01: Adam and Eve had two sons, right?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Cain and Abel.
SPEAKER_01: You're awake.
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Cain and Abel.
SPEAKER_01: Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to God.
SPEAKER_01: One was accepted by God and one was not accepted by God.
SPEAKER_01: We often think that Abel was accepted by God because he brought a blood sacrifice, and that Cain was not accepted because he brought the fruits of his ground, because he was a farmer, he was a gardener.
SPEAKER_01: That's not true, because the book of Hebrews tells us that Cain was not accepted because he did not have faith.
SPEAKER_01: Abel was a son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And Cain was a weed.
SPEAKER_01: He was a son of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: And what happened?
SPEAKER_01: Cain killed the son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Abel's death seemed to be a victory for God's enemy.
SPEAKER_01: But what did God do?
SPEAKER_01: He promised that one day someone would come from the line of promise, one of God's sons, would crush that serpent.
SPEAKER_01: So God gave Cain or Adam and Eve another son, Seth, right?
SPEAKER_01: Who would begin anew that line of promise of the sons of God, those who by faith belonged to him, identifying those who were genuinely God's children.
SPEAKER_01: And then just a few chapters later in Genesis chapter 6, it was so bad that demons are interbreeding with humans, and evil was so rampant that only eight people on the entire planet are righteous.
SPEAKER_01: Eight.
SPEAKER_01: Do you sometimes feel alone as a child of God today?
SPEAKER_01: Well, look in this room.
SPEAKER_01: There are 40 to 50 times the number of God's children in this building today than there were in the days of Noah.
SPEAKER_01: But do you see the enemy's plan?
SPEAKER_01: Sow the fields with so many weeds that sometimes are indistinguishable from the real children of God, so that we feel outnumbered, discouraged, and deflated, much like Job with his so-called friends.
SPEAKER_01: Sometime after the Tower of Babel, it appears as though there may have only been Abraham amongst a world of weeds.
SPEAKER_01: But he endures so long and so much that we are left to wonder: is God's line of promise?
SPEAKER_01: Is his line of sons going to continue?
SPEAKER_01: And finally, at the end of hope, Isaac is born.
SPEAKER_01: And God's sons continue, outnumbered by the weeds.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's hope when all Israel leaves Egypt, right?
SPEAKER_01: How fascinating and how wonderful a redemption of God's people.
SPEAKER_01: There's hope when all Israel left Egypt, hundreds of thousands of what appears to be children of God, but then all but a few die in the desert without faith.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when Elijah conquered in God's power the 400 prophets of Baal on top of Mount Elijah, and then he he runs out depressed, thinking that he's the last one.
SPEAKER_01: God says, Yeah, don't worry, Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: I got 7,000 more of you.
SPEAKER_01: This is the battle between God and his enemy.
SPEAKER_01: The field is the world and Christ owns it.
SPEAKER_01: He is sowing, he is working, he is granting faith to the children of the devil in order that they might become children of God.
SPEAKER_01: Released from slavery to sin to become slaves of God, it's slow but effective work.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it feels fruitless, but still the work continues.
SPEAKER_01: And still the weeds continue to proliferate.
SPEAKER_01: The work continues while the weeds thrive and grow.
SPEAKER_01: The devil's work continues, but it cannot stop what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: The Gospel of John records something that is helpful and insightful here, I think.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 8, beginning in verse 43, Jesus says, Why don't you understand what I say?
SPEAKER_01: He says to the Pharisees and to the scribes and to the Sadducees, the unbelieving rebels, he says, You cannot bear to hear my word.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you are of your father, the devil.
SPEAKER_01: That would have gotten him killed right there without the sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_01: You belong to Satan.
SPEAKER_01: Literally, you are Satan's seed.
SPEAKER_01: He was a murderer from the beginning, and he has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him.
SPEAKER_01: A couple of verses later, Jesus said, But whoever is of God hears the words of God.
SPEAKER_01: The reason why you do not hear them is because you are not of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is a good reminder for us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is preparing his first disciples for what is coming when he leaves.
SPEAKER_01: He prepared them for when one of them would prove to be a weed, a son of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: He prepared them for the obstacles they would face, when all hope seems lost, when the wrong seems oft so strong.
SPEAKER_01: He reminded them that God is still the ruler.
SPEAKER_01: His work continues.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the way it will be until the end.
SPEAKER_01: You will be surrounded by sons of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps more surprisingly, they will even be in your midst.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes looking and sounding like children of the true Father, but in reality poisonous and full of lies.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says that later in Matthew 25, that one day everyone will stand before him, separated.
SPEAKER_01: The children of God's promise on one side, and those who heard his word by faith, believed in his son, and enjoying the blessings of his eternal kingdom, and on the other side the children of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Children of God will return, as it were, to the Garden of Eden in the presence of the one who gave them life.
SPEAKER_01: The children of the devil, the weeds, the tares, the zezaniah, whom the devil planted, will be commanded to leave the presence of Christ the King into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 20 describes that.
SPEAKER_01: That's life in our world, friends.
SPEAKER_01: But cheer up.
SPEAKER_01: God's work will not be undone.
SPEAKER_01: It may feel like you're constantly battling the weeds.
SPEAKER_01: But like a mustard seed that grows just a little bit at a time, God's work will be done.
SPEAKER_01: Like yeast spreading through the dough.
SPEAKER_01: God's work will be done.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is telling his disciples, be ready to be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Because the work is slow, but it has the power of God behind it.
SPEAKER_01: And it will keep making progress.
SPEAKER_01: So let's consider a few ways in which this set of parables speaks to our circumstances today.
SPEAKER_01: There's all kinds of ways.
SPEAKER_01: We could spend a whole bunch of time here.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just run through a handful of them.
SPEAKER_01: First, what does this mean when we think about our worldview, how we think and process our world?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it means that every person, every person without exception, is either a son or daughter of God the Father or a child of the devil who is a murderer, a deceiver, and a liar.
SPEAKER_01: That's the reality.
SPEAKER_01: Now that doesn't mean that every unbeliever is out to get you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't make that assumption because then you won't be kind and gentle, displaying the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You'll be defensive.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean that every unbeliever is out to get you.
SPEAKER_01: It would probably get there if God did not restrain evil in our world.
SPEAKER_01: But it does mean that truth is outnumbered.
SPEAKER_01: Lies spread faster than truth.
SPEAKER_01: God's purposes are a minority as God's word is discounted and dismissed.
SPEAKER_01: This is the world in which you live.
SPEAKER_01: Do you live then and act with a mindset that most of what you're going to encounter in your world comes from the father of lies who would have you eat the fruit and kill God's son?
SPEAKER_01: That is what you will encounter.
SPEAKER_01: That is the vast majority of what you encounter.
SPEAKER_01: That ought to motivate us to know God's word more.
SPEAKER_01: To be ever more diligent of how we think in our father's world.
SPEAKER_01: So our worldview then needs to be infused with God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Our minds need to be infused with God's word so that we have a filter of sorts.
SPEAKER_01: A filter that screens out all of the devil's lies.
SPEAKER_01: All of those seeds of the devil that he would have us think about and process and plant into our minds that dispel God's truth.
SPEAKER_01: What about our evangelism?
SPEAKER_01: What tells us that there is no place where evangelism is not needed.
SPEAKER_01: If this world is Christ's, then the world is the field, and there are weeds sprouting all over, being planted by the devil all over Christ's field.
SPEAKER_01: That tells us there's no place that evangelism is not needed.
SPEAKER_01: Poisonous weeds are sown even in Christ's church.
SPEAKER_01: That gives us a process for dealing with that.
SPEAKER_01: We're thankful for that.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't have to go looking for them.
SPEAKER_01: Sowing the seed is the Lord's way of granting faith and bringing life to people.
SPEAKER_01: So are we intent on sowing the seed of the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: And understand that in evangelism, it's not our duty to make the seed happen.
SPEAKER_01: We plant the seed, it's not our responsibility to make sure that it sprouts and grows roots and develops a stalk that produces fruit.
SPEAKER_01: That's God's work.
SPEAKER_01: We plant the seed and we water the seed.
SPEAKER_01: That's our duty.
SPEAKER_01: The rest is left to God.
SPEAKER_01: What about our ecclesiology?
SPEAKER_01: That's just a big word that means the doctrine of the church.
SPEAKER_01: What do these parables have to say significantly towards the doctrine of the church?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it tells us that by God's grace, our gathering together as his children is sort of like a freshly weeded section of the field.
SPEAKER_01: It may be smaller or larger.
SPEAKER_01: It may be at various stages of growth.
SPEAKER_01: But it's only a part, it's only a part of his field.
SPEAKER_01: And while we gather together to be watered and to be nourished, to be encouraged and to be taught, we fulfill our calling by making disciples as we then go out, encouraged, strengthened, built up, and we go out and make disciples from the world of weeds.
SPEAKER_01: It's slow work.
SPEAKER_01: But because it is the Lord's work, it will be done.
SPEAKER_01: He is still the ruler.
SPEAKER_01: But even a freshly weeded garden may have a weed that looks like a real plant.
SPEAKER_01: We shouldn't be surprised by that.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to get to that when we get to chapter 18.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord says, listen, if there are sinful people in your midst, here's how you deal with that.
SPEAKER_01: You don't go looking for them.
SPEAKER_01: You just wait until the Lord makes them aware and then you deal with it.
SPEAKER_01: But we should not be surprised by that.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we have an enemy too.
SPEAKER_01: If Christ has an enemy, then he is our enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And he's going to be working even in our midst.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to be working to dissuade our growth.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to be working to intertwine our roots with his roots.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to be working to make us think wrong things.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of thinking wrong things, what about our parenting?
SPEAKER_01: Or your grandparenting?
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, I have a terrible statement to make.
SPEAKER_01: Our children are born into this world as poisonous weeds.
SPEAKER_01: That's the reality.
SPEAKER_01: We are born as children of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Full of sin.
SPEAKER_01: Let that sink in for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: We have no power.
SPEAKER_01: We have no power to grant them faith to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But do we do we feed them and immerse them in the things of God?
SPEAKER_01: Or the devil's lies?
SPEAKER_01: Do we immerse our children in pleasure, in pride, in power, and in preference?
SPEAKER_01: Or do we feed them with the seed of the word of God that can bring life to their souls, freeing them from the devil and bringing them into the family of Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Parents, this speaks to your parenting.
SPEAKER_01: You have the greatest privilege that exists in this world, and that is to sow the seed of the gospel into your children.
SPEAKER_01: And to water it.
SPEAKER_01: And to keep them as much as within your ability from the lies of the seed of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: I love this.
SPEAKER_01: This section here speaks to our hope.
SPEAKER_01: Speaks to our hope.
SPEAKER_01: Robert Murray Mashane, the Scottish pastor, once said there's nothing more sad, nothing more strange than that when there is a Savior that is enough for all the world, that so few should come to him.
SPEAKER_01: But here in this chapter, Jesus is promising that he's the faithful farmer.
SPEAKER_01: And he's the farmer that not only plants the seed, that not only scatters the seed, but he's the one who grants it power to germinate and to sprout and to have new life.
SPEAKER_01: That is hope.
SPEAKER_01: It's seed that is going to be sown on good soil.
SPEAKER_01: There is seed that will produce a harvest.
SPEAKER_01: It might not be as we expect, but it will be exceedingly fruitful.
SPEAKER_01: Be diligent in following Christ and in sowing that seed, because it might appear to your eyes everywhere you turn that the devil has won.
SPEAKER_01: Battle's not done yet.
SPEAKER_01: Just waiting till the end.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's still the ruler.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, don't fear the devil.
SPEAKER_01: And don't fear his sons.
SPEAKER_01: If you belong to the Father by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing can separate you from his love.
SPEAKER_01: Satan actually serves the purposes of God in this world, not the other way around.
SPEAKER_01: According to the book of James, Satan fears your Lord and his gospel.
SPEAKER_01: He can no longer justly accuse you, because the blood of Christ covers your sin.
SPEAKER_01: He no longer has any lasting power because his head is crushed, he has lost.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, abide in Christ with hope, with joy, in the sense of victory, serving him until the end, because at the end he will say, Come on home.
SPEAKER_01: Come back to the garden, into the presence of your Father, and enjoy him forever.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, even so come.
SPEAKER_01: Gather us together as your people to stand before you freed from the curses of this world.
SPEAKER_01: As the scriptures say, your people groan, longing for the completion of our redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Every day that goes by, we are more and more burdened by this world.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that you have given us your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And through your spirit to give us hope.
SPEAKER_01: Enable us to see that there is a world of weeds that need to be rescued, that need to have that hope.
SPEAKER_01: Give us boldness as we look to that world.
SPEAKER_01: Give us boldness to not see it with fear or uncertainty, but knowing that you are still the ruler of this world.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, thank you for rescuing us.
SPEAKER_01: We lift our voices to you in praise and in adoration, thankful for your forgiveness of our sin, and asking that your seed might be yet even more productive in your field.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.