#1271 Matthew 13 Part 3 Darnel

 

24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 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?’ 28 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?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 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.”’” Matthew 13: 24-30 ESV

36 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.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. Matthew 13: 36-43 ESV

Matthew 13: 24-30 & 36-43 Weeds

…44But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same?… Matthew 5: 44-46

The Kingdom of heaven - Those in the kingdom are founded, grown here, in God's field, which Christ explains to His disciples in verse 37. This goes all the way back to the garden, it is God's earth, His lives, supported by the universe He so perfectly fine tuned. He says, the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, a Messianic name for Himself, referring to His human nature. In verse 38 He tells us the field is the world, and that the good seed is the sons of the Kingdom. In Eden, on the sixth day, God created human kind, and He created them good, but sometime after, the enemy, who is Satan, which we see here in verse 39, sowed in bad seed. Satan sowed doubt, pride, rebellion, deceit, and it was sadly received into the heart of our parents. Since then all of mankind has fallen, and there grows together, in this world, both those who will be forever sons of the evil one, and those who are being saved. 

…2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. 4In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.… John 1: 2-4

His enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat - This is something that actually happened in ancient times and was punishable under Roman law. It happens even in the church today, wheat and tares spring up together, and this is a particular weed that looks like wheat, very hard to distinguish in it's early days. Below is an excerpt from Barclay's Bible Study:

The pictures in this parable would be clear and familiar to a Palestinian audience. Tares were one of the curses against which a farmer had to labour. They were a weed called bearded darnel (Lolium Temulentum). In their early stages the tares so closely resembled the wheat that it was impossible to distinguish the one from the other. When both had headed out it was easy to distinguish them; but by that time their roots were so intertwined that the tares could not be weeded out without tearing the wheat out with them.

Thomson in The Land and the Book tells how he saw the tares in the Wady Hamam: "The grain is just in the proper stale of development to illustrate the parable. In those parts where the grain has headed out, the tares have done the same, and there a child cannot mistake them for wheat or barley; but when both are less developed, the closest scrutiny will often fail to detect them. I cannot do it at all with any confidence. Even the farmers, who in this country generally weed their fields, do not attempt to separate the one from the other. They would not only mistake good grain for them, but very commonly the roots of the two are so intertwined that it is impossible to separate them without plucking up both. Both, therefore, must be left to grow together until the time of harvest."

The tares and the wheat are so like each other that the Jews called the tares bastard wheat. The Hebrew for tares is zunim, whence comes the Greek zizanion ( G2215) ; zunim is said to be connected with the word zanah ( H2181) , which means to commit fornication; and the popular story is that the tares took their origin in the time of wickedness which preceded the flood, for at that time the whole creation, men, animals and plants, all went astray, and committed fornication and brought forth contrary to nature. In their early stages the wheat and the tares so closely resembled each other that the popular idea was that the tares were a kind of wheat which had gone wrong. - Barclay

So when the plants came up and bore grain - Notice this, we can't see in the Lamb's book of life, but we know that not everyone who says, "Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven". Even an expert, very discerning farmer, had difficulty telling the wheat from the darnel, until when? When they bore grain, and we know a tree by it's fruit, so now we have a plant that was sown to look like wheat, but steal nutrients from the wheat, or tempt the farmer to pull it and possibly damage the true wheat before it has fully ripened. 

Do you want us to go and gather them - The Land Owner's servants are wanting to remove the imposters, and understandably, it is as welcome as blight on a farm. This was the thought of the Roman Catholic Church at different times in history as well, but it wasn't their place. First, they are a cult, just like communist atheism, or Islam, but they were calling themselves Christian, and in the name of Christ they went out and tried to remove those who opposed their thinking. They killed Muslims and Jews during the Crusades. The Jews shared the OT with them, but they considered them apostate because they had not accepted Christ, and this is true, but this was also true of the Roman Catholic's teachings, for they taught another Christ, another gospel. The church in this age was never called to be a political entity, and you cannot force anyone to be a Christian, as we have seen, only Christ's sheep hear His voice, and only those the Father draws come to Him. Later, when the gospel is defended and printed in the language the masses can understand, the Roman Catholic Church, which was a ruling political entity, a state sponsored religion, came after the Reformers, and martyred many who defended the pure teaching of Scripture, taking the whole counsel of God. During the Spanish Inquisition an estimated 150,000 people were prosecuted for heresies against the Roman Catholic church, and some 5,000 of these were murdered. 

No, lest in gathering the weeds you uproot the wheat with them - There's a lot here, again, we don't know how to distinguish until there is fruit, at which time it can be pointed out, removed from the church, but not destroyed from this life. We are to confront apostasy among us, but we are not called to be exterminators. 

…12What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5: 12-13

Secondly, we are talking about the God Who changes water into wine, and we all come from enmity with God, born dead in our trespasses and sins, spiritually bankrupt. Salvation is of the Lord alone, and if you look at the thief on the cross, he appeared to be a darnel all the way to the very end, and yet the Lord changed him in an instant. We should not lose hope, we should love our enemies, and pray for the restoration of those who have stepped away from the faith.

Third, it's not your job, look at verses 41 and 42, the reapers are the angels. They come and remove the tares, the darnels, the weeds, at the end of the church age. You spread the gospel, the Holy Spirit regenerates men, convicting them of the sin which we preach about, and He brings them to repentance, based upon the effectual call of God. You don't get to choose who get's saved, and you should want everyone to be saved, because they are underserving, just like you.  

…13for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”… Romans 10: 13-15

All causes of sin and all law-breakers - God has spoken many times in the past, and His word always holds true. What He says comes to past, and He is a Holy God, which means otherly, without blemish, opposed to sin, and He is eternal, so this is infinitely so. In verse 42 He reveals the destination of the lawless, of those darnel that have grown up in this world together with the wheat, of those who have not acknowledged Christ as Lord, repenting of their sin. Jesus speaks of hell more than anyone else in the Bible, and it is a place of bitter torment, of much regret, and I can't desire that for anyone else because I deserved it myself. Any pastor who avoids this part of the gospel message is not a pastor, not a true shepherd. Let Christ be the example, warn those around us of the judgment that is to come. Flee from the wrath that is to come.

…9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.… 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11