The world as it is now is coming to an end. This is temporary. Things cannot possibly continue this way forever. With absolute certainty, I can say, a cataclysmic, decisive conclusion to phase 1 of human history is coming. And phase 2 is near. According to God's promise, we Christians are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 2nd Peter 3.13 says, and this is the hope of all God's people from the beginning of creation to this present day, that this present age will soon be over and the glorious future kingdom of God will arrive in all of its wonderful splendor. Now, the great watershed event between the miserable situation right now and the not yet glorious future is Judgment Day. It goes by many other names and descriptions even in the Bible, but this is the watershed that divides the two great ages, this present age and the age to come. Many biblical passages in both the Old and New Testament tell us about this great day that is coming. And they describe it in vivid detail in some of the biblical passages. It will be a day, the Bible tells us, of divine visitation. When God comes onto the scene, so to speak, in a new way, when he arrives in dramatic, glorious fashion and comes into this messed up world. And his appearing on that day will be beyond anything that he has ever done before in the history of the world. To put things right really right in every particular once and for all. Being the God of perfect justice, He will assign on that day to each and every wicked evildoer a punishment fitting to his or her ill desserts. And being a God of justice, He also will commend all the righteous people, even though they are far from perfect, He will commend them on that day, Scripture tells us, for their faith and love and good works, rewarding them accordingly. God will, having pronounced this condemnation on the wicked and commendation of the righteous, then God will remove the reprobate sinners from society forever so that the righteous will no longer be mistreated by them. So that the righteous will enjoy the full portion of their inheritance as God's chosen, holy, and beloved people. And then when the wicked have been stripped away from human society and judgment, and they are sent to their everlasting ruin, the godly will live in perfect peace and happiness with the Lord for all eternity. That's what's happening. That is what is pending in God's program for the future. Now this great Judgment Day that we face, all of us, it's compared in the Bible to a harvest of crops at the end of an agricultural year. This illustration of Judgment Day as harvest time used things very familiar to ancient peoples who lived in an agrarian culture. things probably much more familiar to most of them than they are to us. Because you see, in ancient times, before high efficiency farming with powerful equipment and computers and things, many, many of the people had to be devoted to the work of farming. Their lives also were very much taken up with land ownership and with the hard work of breaking up fallow ground using animals and simple tools. with sowing seed, waiting for that seed to germinate and spring up and mature, then reaping the seed, the fruit, the grain, whatever, and storing the produce in barns until the next year came around and the cycle was repeated. Their survival depended from year to year on a good crop, and they felt that. keenly, much more than we do, I'm sure, who are now, most of us, so far removed from the earthy reality of all this. I'm convinced there are simple people in our society that think food comes from the grocery store, and that's all they know about it. Because that's where we go. We go to the grocery store and get things in packages. And we never see the earthy side of the production of all this food. It wasn't that way in the ancient world. Now, long before Jesus came into the world, the Old Testament used the harvest metaphor for divine judgment. That is for God acting on this great future day called judgment day. So, so simultaneously, for example, comforting and disturbing his sinful people, Israel, Jehovah said through the prophet Hosea in the old Testament, listen to this. Oh, Judah. He has set an harvest for thee when I returned the captivity of my people. That's Hosea 6.11. This is a prophecy both ominous and hopeful about God acting in the future to punish the wicked and deliver his chosen people. In the prophetic book of Joel, we read of God saying this, Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there," and this is the Lord speaking, "...for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle," you know what a sickle is. It's a reaping instrument, a sharp knife with a long handle. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, get you down, for the press is full." This is referring to the wine press. The bats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Joel 3 verses 12 and 13. Sometimes God's terrible judgment of Israel's enemies is portrayed in the metaphor of grapes that were harvested, thrown into a vat, and then stomped upon by the vineyard owners or his laborers to squish the juice out of the grapes. And this is an effective metaphor because the juice of a red grape looks a lot like blood. And there's the parallel that's drawn between the smashing of the grapes, the spurting of the blood of the grapes and God's horrifying vengeance to the death of his enemies. As ripened crops are cut down at the end of the harvest season with a sickle, so the righteous Jehovah will cut down and kill his enemies in punishment for their sins. This is the disturbing graphic metaphor that's in other places as well in the Old Testament. Now, even outside the Bible, this figurative use of harvest is seen in extra biblical literature. Now, although these quotes I'm about to share with you are not on the level with Scripture, they're still very interesting and I think helpful to us. Second Baruch. I found a passage in this pseudepigraphical book. It's not scripture. But here's the passage. It's ancient and it says, Behold, the days come and it shall be when the time of the age has ripened and the harvest of its evil and good deeds has come, that the Mighty One will bring upon the earth and its inhabitants and upon its rulers confusion of spirit and stupor of heart." 2 Baruch 70 verse 2. Then, in another extra-biblical quote, there's a book called Second Esdras. It also uses the idea of judgment as harvest, but elaborates more fully. This is fascinating to me. I hope it will interest you. Here's the quote from probably a 2,000-year-old or more book outside the Bible, Second Esdras. Listen to this. The world is indeed rushing to its end. Indeed, it can't bring the things that are promised to the righteous people during this age, because this world is full of sadness and sickliness. The evil about which you ask me, this angel is speaking in the book, has been sown. The evil about which you ask me has been sown, and its full harvest hasn't yet come. If that which was sown isn't reaped and the place where evil has been sown hasn't departed, the field where good is sown won't come. A grain of evil seed was sown in the heart of Adam from the beginning. And how much godlessness it has produced until now and will produce until the time for threshing comes. Calculate for yourself how much godless fruit the grain of evil seed will have produced. When the innumerable ears of grain are sown, how great a threshing floor will they begin to make? Isn't that interesting? It's similar to language in the Bible itself. Now, one of the most fearful passages of coming judgment in all of Scripture adopts this harvest metaphor. It's in the book of Revelation. And this quotation being from Scripture is God's Word. Listen to it. Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud And on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, Thrust in your sickle, and reap For the time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine to the earth. of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. So the angel thrust in his sickle to the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1,600 furlongs. Revelation 14. 14 to 20. This is a prophetic forecast and prophecy of judgment day to come. This is not probably the popular conception of what Jesus will do on judgment day. But this is truth being in Holy Scripture. It would be good for all of us if we would take all this to heart and accept it, however disturbing it might be to us. Because the end is not yet, and there is time, there is time for us to be saved. I share these passages with you from the Bible and other ancient sources because I believe they really do help us to appreciate my sermon text. I've chosen to preach a parable Jesus told which also uses harvest imagery to describe spiritually what is happening in the world right now along with its climax at the end of this age on Judgment Day. The parable I have in mind is called, in the passage we're about to hear, It's called the parable of the tears of the field. In Matthew 13, starting with verse 24, and it runs in two, two sections, 24 to 30 for the parable and 36 to 43 for Jesus explanation of the parable. This parable is full of things that should interest us deeply, and though it is presented by Jesus in very simple words, its truth and truths are nothing short of pertinent to you and me and profound for how we think about the end of our world. How is it all going to end? The Bible tells us much about that. This parable of Jesus gives us considerable light on the conclusion of this present age. So Jesus' parable, and therefore this sermon of mine, are about the last harvest. And that's my title for the sermon in multiple parts. At least this Sunday and, God willing, next Sunday. The last harvest. a metaphor for Judgment Day. If our Lord Jesus Christ makes one point, mainly in the parable of the tares, it is this. In the end, only the righteous will be saved. that comes out so forcefully in the story Jesus tells, and even more so with his explanation. In the end, only the righteous will be saved. So my plan for the exposition is first to share with you the parable of the tares in Matthew 13, 24 to 30. Then secondly, to share with you the parable of the tares explained verses 36 to 43. And then lastly, the parable of the tares applied. Um, and I will be alluding to these verses in the application. So let us first then hear the parable itself in Matthew 13 verses 24 to 30 without comment, either mine or the Lord Jesus. We'll just hear the parable, the naked parable, just the story, which is a parable. And after some brief observations about it, Then we will hear Christ's explanation of the parable in verses 36 to 43, with my exposition of that part of the passage. And finally, I'll make some closing applications, as I said. So this is the parable of the tares, Matthew 13, 24. Give it your riveted attention, please. And another parable put he forth unto them saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares, that is weeds, among the wheat, or it could be translated grain. While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, or grain, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them into bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn." Amen. That's the parable of the tares. An earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Matthew calls this, in the passage here, a parable. In verse 24, another parable Jesus put forth or proclaimed to them. And in this context, the word translated parable means a narrative or story designed to illustrate a truth through comparison or simile Similarly is a comparison that uses the word like. So you see that here, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. Now in Jesus' mouth, parables are a great way to teach spiritual things, which are unfamiliar to us by means of earthly things, which we understand. It's a wonderful teaching technique the Lord uses. He takes the earthly and the familiar to us and makes an analogy with the heavenly and unfamiliar to us. And then says that is like this. Or this is like that if you prefer. Because our culture and experience is so different in place and time from that of Jesus' original hearers, first century Israel, this simple parable, even in its literal earthly sense, requires a little explanation for us to appreciate it more like they did who heard it first. And I don't mind offering that explanation because what I have noticed in my own study is slowing down to observe carefully the details of a Bible passage like this, it's usually profitable for gaining clarity and appreciation of it. Maybe even in a surprising way. If you're a longtime Christian who's read through your Bible repeatedly, You could come to this parable of the tares and it's understandable if you thought, I've read this so many times. I know this passage almost by heart. It's a very simple passage. A man sowed some seeds and there was some tares sown. And they, they said, Oh master, your field has tares. Should we rip them out? And he said, no, wait till harvest. And then we'll pull them both out and burn the tares and save the, save the grain. Okay. I read that. I know that, but listen, What I'm telling you based on my own experience, and others say this as well, is that the simple exercise of thoughtful observation, even to what is obvious in a passage, if you do it, contemplatively, you will start to notice things you hadn't noticed and see the passage in a much clearer way than before. So we're gonna do that now together. Now, the theme of the parable is announced first in verse 24. The theme is, as Jesus announces it, the kingdom of heaven. His first words in the parable of the tares are, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in a field. The kingdom of heaven is a phrase that appears repeatedly in Matthew 13. And in Luke's gospel, if you look at similar passages, you see the phrase, the kingdom of God. There's, I do not believe there's any material difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. You have to understand Matthew's gospel is especially written for Jews, Luke's for the Gentiles. And the Jews were not accustomed to saying the name God out loud or writing it just as we do. So the kingdom of heaven is a euphemism for the name of God, rather that is heaven, a euphemism for God, where the name of God is properly held in very high reverence. Jesus uses these phrases, kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven interchangeably with very little, if any difference between them. Matthew 13 in the gospel of Matthew is a chapter that is filled with what have been called kingdom parables. Because this idea of God's kingdom is found in the beginning and the end of the chapter, Matthew 13, verses 11 and 52. If you look at the chapter, verse 11 says, Jesus said to his disciples, it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it isn't given. And in verse 52, toward the end of the chapter, Then Jesus said to them, having delivered these parables, every scribe which is instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder, and so forth. So those verses are bracket, the kingdom parables in between, and several of these parables in between start with the phrase, the kingdom of heaven is like. with the earthly illustration following. This happens in verses 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, and 47. The kingdom of heaven is like, and then a comparison is made. The kingdom vocabulary is also found elsewhere in these parables. Verses 19, 38, 41, and 43, to be exact. Now what is this kingdom of God then of which Jesus speaks? The kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God is by definition the realm or rule where God reigns. The realm or the rule where God reigns. Now, certainly, because God is God and everything that's not God is His creation, which He made in the first place and sustains moment by moment, God reigns over His entire creation. But here, in the kingdom parables of Matthew 13, Jesus uses the phrase kingdom of God in a more limited sense. The way Jesus uses the phrase, Kingdom of God, He designates the sphere where God's rule is acknowledged by His subjects. So you know, really, God is sovereign over all creation. God is sovereign over the devil. But the devil doesn't acknowledge this, not like he should. God is sovereign over non-Christians in the world, but they don't praise him like they should. So there is the kingdom of God objectively over all creation, but then the subjective kingdom of God, the sphere of people who acknowledge God's rule joyfully. that is, his loyal subjects. So this parable of the tares, when it says the kingdom of God is like a man that sowed good seed in the field and so forth, it has the consummation or ultimate fulfillment of God's kingdom in the future, especially in view. In the light of all scripture, you could say it has especially the new creation in view and the day of judgment that is the threshold to the new creation. The Lord's explanation of the parable will show this is true, that he has in view ultimately the perfect state of things yet to come. Now, the human figures in the story are several. First of all, there is the landowner in the parable. He's also called a householder in Jesus language here. This man that is throughout the parable from beginning to end, he is clearly in the role of a governor of his household and he runs his family business, which is farming. He has various servants, then, next of all, other human figures in the parable. There's the householder or the boss, the landowner. He's the one in charge. Then there are his servants. And it's not clear whether all the servants do all the things that are done here, but maybe there are some of his servants who work in the fields and different servants that manage his household. And in the parable as well, another human figure is someone in the parable and in the life of the landowner who's designated his enemy or an enemy. When the servants of the master come and tell him there are terrors in the field, the master says, an enemy has done this. And this enemy, whoever he is, he's not named, is intent on ruining the master's agricultural venture if he can. That's why he sows the tares. And finally, there's a group called the Reapers in the end of the parable. And these Reapers, reapers in the actual situation of those days when Jesus lived, they were, and familiar to the hearers originally, these were short-term hires, common laborers that would be hired at the end of the growing season, at harvest, to gather the harvest quickly at the end of the season, when that harvest was at its peak. So there were regular farm workers that worked through the whole growing season. And then at the end of the season, a lot more men probably would be hired to quickly gather in the fruit of the field. They would gather it in and store it in the barn before it could be stolen, eaten by animals, or ruined outdoors, exposed to the elements and so forth. Now, those are the human figures in the parable. Think with me for a minute about the agricultural circumstances in the parable. This also deserves some comment as well. No doubt Jesus intended his hearers to understand that the man mentioned, who sowed good seed in his field, was not doing all the work himself. It wasn't just one man who sowed the seed. This man sowed seed in a field by means of hired laborers. This is a large operation that's in view. And that would be necessary for a man to grow enough grain to support his family. So, Jesus says in the parable, a man sowed good seed in his field. Yes, he did, but he hired laborers to do this for him. So, in effect, he did it, though the laborers worked for him. Now the seed in those days was sown probably in this simple way. It was called the broadcasting method. An open mouthed sack of seed was filled with the seed, slung around the shoulder of the worker who would sow the seed, and he would walk through the open fields with plunging his hand in the bag, grabbing as much of the seed as he could, and just flinging it out upon the ground as he walked along, broadcasting the seed, scattering the seed wherever it fell. It was too many seeds, really, to plant each one individually. So they did it this way. And ideally, the ground where the seed fell would be good ground that had been cleared of rocks, had some depth of soil, wasn't hard from walking on it, was nicely plowed, and also where the seed would be easily covered with a little topsoil soon after the seed was scattered. The two kinds of plants mentioned in the parable are translated wheat and tares or grain and weeds in the ESV. Lots of research has been done and I know this because there's been a lot of writing done on this subject about exactly what kind of seeds were these wheat and tares? What exactly did the Greek words mean and so forth? But the only things we really need to observe about these two kinds of seeds are really obvious here from Scripture. We know from the parable that this grain or wheat was a valuable crop. That's why it was saved in barns at the end of the year. And the tares were absolutely worthless. They're just weeds of some kind. And that's the main contrast between the wheat and the tares. Value. The wheat has great value. The tares have none. When harvest comes in the parable, The tares are gathered up to be burned, which is a graphic illustration of their being without any value. They were burned up to get them out of the way. They were useless. And the wheat then was gathered up for safe storage. Because the wheat is precious. In real life, Some of the wheat would be milled and eaten by the farmer's family. Most of it would probably be sold in the marketplace or bartered for other things the family and the household needed. And some of it would be saved for planting the next season. So that's the way it worked. But it was counted very precious because it sustained human life. A drought in ancient times, and even today to some extent, but more so then, a sustained drought was death to a region. Now, in the parable, rooting up the worthless tares mid-season, though that would have been a desirable thing to happen, was not considered to be worth the risk to the precious wheat. And that's why the farmer wisely directs his people to leave both the wheat and the tares alone until the harvest. It says in the parable, don't pull up the tares because when you go through the fields, pulling up, trying to pull up only the tares, chances are you're going to pull up some of the wheat prematurely. And we don't want that to happen. So just leave them alone. until the harvest, then we'll pull it all out and we'll burn up the tares and save the wheat." I think, although this is not explicit in the parable the way Jesus told it, but it may be implied that the wheat and the tares looked similar as plants, at least until the wheat ripened into full heads of grain, then it would have been obvious. that that was wheat and the other wasn't, or some kind of precious grain. So, possibly the wheat and the tares looked alike, and if that was the case, probably the original audience would have known it. And also, if that were the case, it has an interesting spiritual implication, doesn't it? For those of you who have more discernment. So anyway, here, Jesus has something very momentous about the kingdom of God to explain by means of an earthly short story called a parable. And let me trace now the plot line of this short story. In my own words, here's what happens, as you can see for yourself. A wealthy landowner with a great house, a farmer by trade, sent his servants to sow his fields with some kind of precious grain, wheat or something else, like barley maybe. And then he had an enemy in the story that snuck into his fields overnight while his workers were asleep and scattered weed seeds among the grain seeds. And when both the grain seeds and the weed seeds started to grow, then the field workers noticed that there was a regrettable mixture of plants in the fields. And they were confused how this could be because they had thought only good seed was sown. But the landowner realized right away what had happened and he explained it to them. See, I have an enemy. And this is just the kind of thing that he would have done and I'm sure that's what happened. He did this to me. While the workers suggested to the master pulling up the weeds right away, but the landowner made a wise decision to let them both grow together until harvest time. This would be the plant best for allowing the grain to ripen properly, all the grain plants to ripen. And then at the harvest time, the weed plants could be ripped out, gathered into bundles, and burned up since they were worthless. After that, reaping the wheat and saving it in the barn could be accomplished in the usual way. And, you know, that's a happy ending to the story. The farmer had a successful crop year. And even though his enemy tried to thwart his purpose, he failed. And the wheat rose up and ripened and was saved in the barn all the same. That's a good, that's a happy ending to the story. Now, as an earthly story, then this parable is straightforward enough, even cross-culturally for us today. The real challenge comes in its spiritual interpretation. And so it's now time to think about that. What does this parable teach us in substance about the kingdom of heaven? What does it contribute to our understanding of what is going on spiritually in the world today? And what does it suggest to us is going to happen spiritually in the future? gets to the reason Jesus told the parable. Not to entertain us with a nice story, but to edify us in the truth about the kingdom of heaven. And that brings us then to the parable of the tares explained in Matthew 13, starting with verse 36. Now, most of the parables of the kingdom of God in Matthew 13 don't have an explanation like this. But this one does. So thankfully we're not limited to guessing about the interpretation of the parable. This one has a separate passage where Jesus explains the parable just a few verses later. I love this as a preacher, you know. I try to interpret the scriptures, all passages accurately, God helping me, but this is a real help to the preacher and to all of us so that we know we're not guessing about what the parable means. Not in the main idea. So, look with me then at Jesus' explanation of the parable of the tares in verse 36 of Matthew 13. Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house. And his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be riling and nourishing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Amen? Now that is an infallible, totally trustworthy interpretation of Jesus' parable because it's Jesus' interpretation of this parable. Amen? And it's a language we can all understand. In the main, at least. Now, so now we get to the momentous truths about the kingdom of God, which Jesus intended by the parable of the tares of the field. And oh, what sober truths these are. You've just heard about judgment day, haven't you? And the separation between the righteous and the wicked. the unspeakably awful condemnation and punishment of the wicked, and the unspeakably wonderful portion of the righteous in the kingdom of God, their father. If you have any spiritual and moral sensitivity at all, how your heart must tremble like mine to hear these wonderful and terrifying things directly from the mouth of our Lord Jesus, the head of the church. So I want to take you now through his explanation of the parable in three parts. the setting of his explanation, the symbolism in his explanation, and the substance of his explanation. Setting, symbolism, and substance. Now you can look at a watch or clock, same as me, and see there's not much time left for preaching this morning. So all I want to do today, this morning, for this, is the setting. We'll leave the symbolism and the substance, God willing, for next Sunday. So what is the setting of the parable of the tears and Jesus' explanation of it more properly? Well, the setting for his explanation is a private setting. And this is really in contrast with the setting where he told the parable itself. The explanation Jesus gives for the parable is only an explanation given in private. And Matthew takes pains to make this point when he wrote. Verse 36, then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came unto Him and declared to us the parable. And He did. Jesus sent the multitude away. That is, He told them, I'm done speaking to you. Goodbye. I'm sure He was polite and kind. But He sent them away. He went into a house of limited size. It wasn't an amphitheater or some kind of public building. He went into some little house. His disciples went into the house with Him. a place where relatively few people could gather. And then he explained the parable of the tares. Now, this is a little curious, is it not? Why would the Lord do this? Why would he explain the parable in private after he told it in public? Well, earlier in Matthew 13, we read a few verses that make sense of why Jesus did this. The disciples asked Jesus expressly, why do you speak to the multitude in parables? And Jesus answered, and I'm paraphrasing here. You can read it for yourself earlier in the chapter. Jesus answered, this is the way that I keep the multitudes from knowing the spiritual truth contained in the parables. This is how I keep them out of the loop spiritually. Because you see, I don't intend the multitudes to be converted. That's kind of shocking. At least not right now. Jesus told these truths of the kingdom in parables to obscure the kingdom truth from the multitudes. Because if they understood the truth that's implied, then they might convert and be saved. And Jesus didn't want that to happen. So he told the kingdom truth in the form of parables to keep the multitude from understanding. The multitude of sinners who heard him preach these parables, after all, were apostate Jews. They were people, Matthew tells us, with spiritually blinded eyes and spiritually hardened hearts. And Jesus, by using parables to hide the truth from them, was passing a divine judgment on their stubborn unbelief in keeping with the ancient prophecy found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Isaiah had said 800 years before that when the Messiah comes into the world, and of course that was Jesus, that one of the features or characteristics of His ministry would be He would obscure the truth from the hard-hearted apostate Jews. All this is explained in Matthew 13 verses 10 to 15. Jesus' disciples, the few that He had chosen, they were highly favored by the grace of God. And so the explanations of the parables which He gave them in private was a sign and a benefit of that grace which was theirs by sovereign choice, you see. It pleased God to save these few disciples. And so Jesus was telling them the inside information that would edify them spiritually in a more clear way than he had spoken to the multitude. Jesus said to the disciples here in verse 16 of Matthew 13, blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. Now think about the implications of that. If we lived in the first century and we heard the parable of the tares from Jesus, we statistically probably would have been in the multitude who only heard the parable, but not the explanation. And so my friends, here we are with open Bibles, reading Jesus' explanation of the parable of the tares in a language we can understand, And we should be most grateful, therefore, for this light that we have. The explanation of the parable of the tears of the field from no less than Jesus Himself. In Jesus' explanation that you just heard, it's so simple, so clear. that the parable's obscurity vanishes, even for unbelievers to some extent, because the Lord is so plain in telling us what the parable means. At least if you pay attention and you accept what Jesus says, you know, What does the enemy in the parable represent spiritually? Look at verse 39. The enemy that sowed them is the devil. Okay, now we know the enemy is the devil. You don't have to be a Christian to understand what Jesus says here. The enemy is the devil. The field is the world. The man who owned the land is the son of man. The grain, the good grain, is the children of the kingdom. The tares are the children of the devil, and so forth. It's not rocket science. It's basic. It's easy. And we know that now. We know that now because the explanation that Jesus gave to his disciples originally in a more private setting is in our ears now. Think about this. Now, all of us here, all of us here, are now included among those blessed individuals who heard the explanation of the parable of the tears. We are favored with the explanation, just like the original 12 were favored with the explanation. We are, as it were, in the house with Jesus and his closest friends. What a blessing! And yet, With great privilege comes great responsibility. Now, all of you have heard this explanation today. Whether you profess to be a Christian or not, you've heard it. Although the gospel should be preached to everyone, the fact is that still today, this biblical gospel that Jesus preached only further makes many who hear it more hardened in their sins. And this, too, is God's judgment working out in history. That great evangelist, the Apostle Paul, wrote of him and his ministry with the other apostles. We are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the saver of death unto death, and to the other the saver of life unto life." Paul is confessing here that he knew their faithful gospel preaching did not result in a 100% conversion rate. But when they preached Christ, God was pleased with their ministry. even though for some it smelled like a ministry of death, and for others it smelled like a ministry of life." That's what he's saying. You see, it's not the bare hearing of the Word that saves anyone, but a hearing mixed with faith, as the book of Hebrews warns us. Listen to this verse from Hebrews 4, verse 2. For unto us, that is, us Christians, was the gospel preached as well as unto them, and in the context, them means Old Testament Jews who perished in the wilderness. Unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." Hebrews 4.2. Is the gospel preached going to do your soul any good? If you won't believe it, it's not. As long as you don't believe it, it's not. You must believe this Word of Christ. to be saved. So I must right now urge each and every one of you to faith this morning. And I must, as a God-fearing minister of Jesus Christ, I must warn you about the dire consequences of continued unbelief. The best sermon will only prepare you to suffer more in hell unless you believe it's good news about Jesus Christ. I shudder to think what will be the end of anybody who heard me preach, time after time after time, if you should never actually believe the gospel you hear. And even as a sincere Christian hearing me, for example, you are called to exercise faith once again for your growth in grace as you hear the word of God preached. Beloved, our time is up. We have heard Jesus' parable of the tares. We have heard his brief explanation of the parable along with my comments of further explanation and God willing, We will resume this study of the parable of the tares next Lord's Day. Then we plan to get into the symbolism and the substance of it and make some specific applications from that until then may God graciously give us ears to hear what the Lord is saying to us. Amen.