{"id":19198,"date":"2017-09-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-018\/"},"modified":"2017-09-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-018","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-018\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 018"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19198","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-matthew","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 018","sermon_date":"20170906","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4914,"sermon_slides":4913,"sermon_mp3":4915,"sermon_id":"96171823545","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"13:24-30, 36-43","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\u00a0 The Coming Kingdom 9-6-17\u00a0 Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43\u00a0 Lesson 18\n\nIf we could open our Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13 and verse 24.\u00a0 Some of\u00a0 you are here for the first time and saying what in the world is going on in this class.\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t feel bad, that\u2019s how I felt today trying to get ready because our last lesson was May 17.\u00a0 Did\u00a0 you know that?\u00a0 So my mind has been on other things so I had to back and read my own book and figure out what\u2019s in it?\u00a0\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 It\u2019s scary how much information you lose; but the nice thing is when you lose it, it comes back faster.\u00a0 [Someone says wait till you get older]\n\nBut we have been doing a study on the subject of the kingdom and let me sort of remind us the ground we\u2019ve covered.\u00a0 We\u2019ve had 17 lessons so here\u2019s basically what we\u2019re looking at.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to explore what does the Bible say about the kingdom.\u00a0 And we start our journey in the Garden of Eden, where God was reigning over Adam and his wife and they were governing creation for God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s really the beginning of the kingdom.\u00a0 And of course we know the sad story, Adam and Even stopped governing creation for God, they started listening to the animals and the kingdom is lost to the earth at that point, Genesis 3.\u00a0 And who becomes the God of this age?\u00a0 Satan.\n\nSo the story of the Bible really is how that kingdom is brought back to the earth.\u00a0 And as you go through the Old Testament\u00a0 you start to see hints of it in what\u2019s called the Abrahamic Covenant, where God calls a particular nation, the nation of Israel to Himself and He begins that nation through the patriarch, Abraham.\u00a0 And we know that from the Abrahamic Covenant God gave Israel ownership over three things, land seed and blessing.\u00a0 So we know that the kingdom is going to come to the earth through Israel as God is going to fulfill those promises in the Abrahamic Covenant, Genesis 15.\u00a0 That\u2019s about 2000 B.C. when that covenant was entered into.\n\nAnd then we went about 600 years from there into the future and we got to Mt. Sinai where God gave the nation of Israel another covenant called the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 So the Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional but the Mosaic Covenant is conditional.\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant gave to Israel ownership of her blessings but the Mosaic Covenant gives to Israel possession or enjoyment of her blessings IF she obeys the covenant terms.\u00a0 Who does the Mosaic Covenant ultimately point towards?\u00a0 Jesus!\u00a0\u00a0 So we spent a lot of time talking about the difference between ownership and possession.\u00a0 Israel will always own her blessings but she doesn\u2019t actually enter into those blessings until she responds to the conditional Mosaic Covenant.\n\nSo the whole covenant program and the whole kingdom program is basically revolved around Israel\u2019s response to her own Messiah.\u00a0 As long as Israel is in unbelief Israel will be the owner but not the possessor and the kingdom of God will not be cancelled but postponed.\u00a0\u00a0 But once the time in history comes where Israel receives her Messiah then she\u2019s the owner and the possessor and the kingdom will come to the earth.\u00a0 So we spent some time talking about that.\n\nAnd from there we went to the divided kingdom.\u00a0 Under whose reign was the kingdom divided? Solomon, actually when Solomon left the throne that\u2019s when the kingdom was divided between the north and the south.\u00a0 Now of those two divisions which one do we keep our eye on?\u00a0 The south, Judah.\u00a0 And the reason that\u2019s so is because Judah has the promise, going back to Genesis 49:10, that through Judah is going to come the Messiah.\u00a0 [Genesis 49:10, \u201cThe scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.\u201d]\n\nSo Judah wanders off into captivity and we explained that we\u2019re actually studying the Book of Daniel on Sunday mornings, which explains the circumstances of that captivity.\u00a0 But once the captivity started Judah is taken to Babylon, 350 miles to the east; God is disciplining her because of her idolatry.\u00a0 And it\u2019s during that time, the times of the Gentiles, and this is where Daniel has the interpretation of the statue in Daniel 2, where he clearly sees various Gentile powers that are going to trample down the nation of Israel while the kingdom is in postponement.\n\nAnd while the kingdom is in postponement God raises up prophets who sort of function as a lamp shining in a dark place.\u00a0 Peter tells us that in 2 Peter 1:19. [2 Peter 1:19, \u201cSo we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.\u201d]\u00a0 And they sketch a beautiful picture of what the kingdom will be like one day once it comes to the earth, to give Israel (and really the human race) hope in the midst of difficulty that the kingdom is in postponement.\n\nSo went through a lot of those prophecies and then we traced Judah coming back into the land and as they come back into their land they begin to rebuild the temple, they\u2019ve rebuilt the walls around the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 And yet the kingdom is still in postponement.\u00a0 Israel is being trampled down by various Gentile powers.\u00a0 The first was Babylon, then came Persia; it\u2019s under the Persian Empire that the nation goes back into the land.\u00a0 And then came Greece, and then came Rome, Rome was a terrible usurper, taxing the Jews heavily and so forth.\n\nBut it\u2019s under the empire of Rome that who shows up?\u00a0 Jesus Christ!\u00a0 And He presents to the nation of Israel the offer of the kingdom, which is \u201crepent for the kingdom of heaven is\u201d what? \u201cat hand.\u201d\u00a0 So had the nation of Israel enthroned the king they would have been not just the owner but the possessor of her blessings and the kingdom would have come.\u00a0 And that\u2019s really what\u2019s being traced in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke particularly.\n\nBut tragically the gospels explain that the nation of Israel turned down the offer.\u00a0 And does anybody recall the chapter in the Bible that does that.\u00a0 [Someone says John 12:37]\u00a0 Yeah, I think it is in John 12:37 but which one in Matthew?\u00a0 Matthew 12.\u00a0 Matthew 12 is an explanation of the rejection of the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 And at that point the religious leaders attributed Christ\u2019s miracles to who? Satan.\u00a0 And so once they do that it\u2019s sort of a done deal.\u00a0 We know that first century Israel is going to reject the offer.\n\nAnd so what the Lord begins to describe, not in Matthew 12 but in Matthew 13 is what we call an interim period of time, which is the period of time that we\u2019re living in today.\u00a0 We\u2019ve been living in it for the last 2,000 years, when the kingdom is in postponement, not cancellation but postponement.\u00a0 And this is the section of Scripture that most governs us and a lot of times we have unrealistic expectations of what God is doing today.\u00a0 He\u2019s not bringing in the kingdom today but He clearly is at work.\u00a0 And so we have to study this section of the Bible carefully so that we develop a balanced view on what God is doing today and what He\u2019s not doing today.\u00a0 So we made some comments about this interim age; it\u2019s a very real age of time.\u00a0 It\u2019s caused by Israel\u2019s unbelief.\u00a0 It\u2019s a time period of mystery, it\u2019s never been revealed before anywhere in the Scripture until you get to Matthew 13.\u00a0 It\u2019s a time period where Jesus is not reigning as King but He\u2019s functioning as high priest, not after the order of Aaron but after the order of Melchizedek<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/strong>It\u2019s an important age but it doesn\u2019t represent the kingdom of God.\n\nAnd to understand this time period that we\u2019re in you have to really drill down on two areas of the Bible.\u00a0 Number 1 the parables of Matthew 13 which describe the interadvent age, the period of time between the two comings of Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s all spelled out for us what God is doing during that time period in the form of eight parables.\u00a0 And then you also have to understand the church age which started with Pentecost and goes to the rapture, the body of Christ.\u00a0 And we haven\u2019t gotten to number 2, we won\u2019t be getting to number 2 for a while; we\u2019re spending our time through the next several weeks in Matthew 13.\n\nSo we went through some background to these Matthew13 parables.\u00a0 Matthew 13 follows Matthew 12,\u00a0 that\u2019s logically arranged; 12 is the rejection of the offer of the kingdom, 13 is an explanation of what is happening now that the kingdom has been postponed.\u00a0 These parables are a mystery, as we talked about before.\u00a0 You can read the Old Testament all you want and you won\u2019t get any information about this time period.\u00a0 It only becomes evident after its apparent that Israel is going to reject the offer of the kingdom, Matthew 12.\n\nThese parables do not represent the kingdom of God but what they do is they represent the course of the present age which has been going on for about 2,000 years while the kingdom is in postpone\u00adment.\u00a0 And what they describe are the experiences of the sons of the kingdom.\u00a0 In fact, if you look at Matthew 13:38 you\u2019ll see that expression there, the sons of the kingdom. \u201cThe field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Now Paul says \u201cif a son then a\u201d what? \u201can heir.\u201d\u00a0 So these are the experiences of those of us that are believers in Christ that will inherit the kingdom one day while the kingdom is not here and yet future.\n\nAnd when you look at verses 35-36 it talks about how Jesus spoke these things in parables.\u00a0 Now what is a parable?\u00a0 It\u2019s a heavenly story with an earthly meaning.\u00a0 And He did not give His earlier teachings in parables.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t give the Sermon on the Mount in parables, but all of a sudden here He\u2019s speaking in parables.\u00a0 And the purpose of a parable is to reveal and conceal.\u00a0 He is concealing truth from first century (because of their rejection of the offer of the kingdom) but He is revealing truth to who?\u00a0 The disciples, or the sons of the kingdom, or those who will inherit the kingdom.\u00a0 So the parabolic form of teaching is indicating that He is not teaching any more for the benefit of first century Israel as a whole.\u00a0 First century Israel is going off into discipline, it\u2019s very clear they\u2019ve rejected His offer.\u00a0 So He begins to teach in parabolic form to what He calls the babes or the children or the inheritors of this coming kingdom.\n\nAnd the parables basically we have two divisions; He teaches the first four parables out in the open, to His disciples.\u00a0 He basically is on the Sea of Galilee, He\u2019s out on a boat, they\u2019re on the shore and He speaks to them in four parables.\u00a0 That\u2019s the parable of the sower, the parable of the wheat and the tares, the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven.\u00a0 And then when you get to Matthew 13:36 it says, \u201cThen He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, \u2018Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field,\u201d to us.\u00a0 So the final four parables He\u2019s giving in private in the house and those are the parables of The Earthen Treasure, The Pearl of Great Price, The Parable of the Dragnet and the Parable of the Householder.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how Matthew organized this chapter.\n\nMost people speculate, we have to speculate because we\u2019re not given an answer as to why four parables are out in the open and four other parables are in private.\u00a0 And my basic speculation is I think the first four parables totally depressed the disciples because the disciples up to this point in time are anticipating what?\u00a0 The kingdom, it\u2019s all about the kingdom.\u00a0 They thought the kingdom was going to come, the kingdom was going to overthrow Rome, world peace would break out, the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.\u00a0 There would be prosperity all over the earth.\u00a0 And Jesus is saying that age will come one day but it\u2019s going to be preceded by the course of the present age, the interadvent age which is going to be a time of difficulty.\n\nAnd the first four parables really teach, not the kingdom manifestation on the earth but a time of tremendous apostasy and deception and spiritual blindness.\u00a0 And I think by the time He got finished talking about all of that the poor apostles, who thought the kingdom was going to come then and there were just so dejected.\u00a0 And so He gives the final four parables to them in private to say take heart guys, because even though it\u2019s a time of apostasy and spiritual deception God is still going to work.\u00a0 And He explains the work of God in the present age through the final four parables: the earthen treasure, the pearl of great price, the dragnet and householder.\u00a0 So I think that\u2019s why Matthew makes us aware of the fact that four of the parables were given in public and four were given in private.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know that for sure but that\u2019s my best guess because these first four parables are somewhat depressing, especially when you think the kingdom is going to come right then and there as the first century disciples thought.\n\nSo let me just start here with this quote from one of my theological heroes, Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Seminary, and he says this: \u201cJudging from the mass of Christian writings and from utterances in public address and prayer,\u201d now he said this back in like\u2026 what? 1947, something like that, \u201cthis age is assumed by many, without question, to be the Kingdom of Christ;\u201d then he says, \u201cthough no Scripture is found to warrant that conclusion.\u201d\u00a0 [Lewis Sperry Chafer, Satan: His Motives and Methods<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1990), 29]\n\nAnd I love this quote because that describes our age because as you listen to different pastors \u00a0preach and\u00a0 you look at different ministries and the things they say and if you look at their vision state\u00adments and mission statements they all think that they\u2019re bringing in the kingdom.\u00a0 They call themselves kingdom builders, we\u2019re doing kingdom work you hear people say.\u00a0 One gentleman wrote a book called The Kingdom Man<\/em>.\u00a0 So almost everywhere you look today it\u2019s kingdom this, kingdom that and it sells well, I guess, in a sermon or on a marquee, but the problem is the Bible doesn\u2019t teach it.\u00a0 We\u2019re not living in an age at all today where we\u2019re bringing in the kingdom.\n\nThe kingdom won\u2019t come until Israel accepts the King.\u00a0 So until that happens you can\u2019t expect the kingdom to come.\u00a0 BUT don\u2019t lose heart, God is still at work.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s the significance of these Matthew 13 parables.\u00a0\u00a0 Now thank you Ray, for going back and listening to the last lesson, you\u2019re ahead of me on that, Ray assures me that we already covered the parable of the sower back in May.\u00a0 Anybody remember that?\u00a0 The parable of the sower is in Matthew 13:1-9 and its explained in verses 18-23 and basically what that parable teaches is during this interim age, while the kingdom is in postponement the gospel is going to be faithfully preached but does it say the whole world will be won to Christ?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that at all.\u00a0 It says it\u2019s going to fall on four types of soil and in only one type of soil will the gospel be fruitful.\n\nSo Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower that look, don\u2019t expect worldwide conversion in the present age.\u00a0 And we know this to be the case because the sower went out to sow; if the present age is the kingdom then folks aren\u2019t going to go out from Israel, they\u2019re going to come to Israel.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the significance of the temple that will be functioning in the kingdom.\u00a0 The whole world is going to be drawn to Israel to observe its greatness.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the prophets predict about the kingdom and so obviously the present age is different because people are going out from Israel to preach in a missionary type sense.\n\nBeyond that, if you look at Matthew 13:19 it talks there about, \u201cWhen anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.\u201d\u00a0 Here it\u2019s talking about a message going into the hearts of people, in this age.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s not the kingdom because the kingdom doesn\u2019t enter people, rather it\u2019s the other way around, right?\u00a0 People will enter the kingdom.\n\nAnd beyond that we know that this age, based on this parable, is not speaking of the kingdom because if\u00a0 you look at Matthew 13:23 it says the earth will not be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.\u00a0 What it says is the seed of the gospel is only fruitful on one type of soil.\u00a0 [Matthew 13:23, \u201cAnd the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.\u201d]\u00a0 And even that fruitful soil, notice what it says at the end of verse 23, brings forth a yield of \u201ca hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.\u201d\u00a0 So we go from a hundred to sixty to thirty; are those numbers increasing or decreasing?\u00a0 They\u2019re decreasing.\u00a0 Now that can\u2019t be the kingdom because when the kingdom comes the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.\n\nAnd beyond that what\u2019s going to happen to Satan once the kingdom comes?\u00a0 He\u2019s going to be bound in the abyss, Revelation 20:1-3.\u00a0 There won\u2019t be any harassment or spiritual warfare from Satan during the kingdom.\u00a0 And you read this parable and it\u2019s very clear that Satan is very active, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t it talk there in verse 19 about the evil one coming and snatching away what\u2019s sown in the hearts of people?\u00a0 [Revelation 20:1-3, \u201cThen I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. [2] And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3] and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it<\/em> and sealed it<\/em> over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.\u201d]\n\nSo you kind of work your way through this parable and you can very clearly see that Jesus here is not describing the kingdom, He\u2019s describing something different.\n\nSo that takes care of the sower and what we\u2019re going to move into tonight is the wheat and the tares, and if time permits we\u2019ll also take a look at the mustard seed.\u00a0 So hopefully you guys feel comfort\u00adtable; have I caught you up a little bit anyway.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a look at the wheat and the tares.\u00a0 Take a look if you could at Matthew 13:24-30.\u00a0 This is parable number 2.\n\nMatthew 13:24, \u201cJesus presented another parable to them, saying, \u2018The 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 tares among the wheat, and went away. [26] But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. [27 The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, \u2018Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?\u2019 [28] And he said to them, \u2018An enemy has done this!\u2019 The slaves said to him, \u2018Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?\u2019\u00a0 [29] But he said, \u2018No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.\u201d\u00a0 And look at verse 30, \u201cAllow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.\u201d\u2019\n\nNow fortunately the parable of the wheat and tares, just like the parable of the sower, we have an interpretation given by Jesus Himself later on in the chapter.\u00a0 So if you drop down to verses 36-43 you see Jesus interpreting this parable of the wheat and the tares.\n\nVerse 36 says, \u201cThen He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, \u201cExplain to us the parable of the tares of the field.\u00a0 [37] And He said, \u201cThe one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, [38] and the field is the world; and as for<\/em> the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;<\/em> [39] and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. [40] So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. [41] \u2018The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, [42] and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [43] Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.\u201d\n\nSo with each of these parables I\u2019m going to try to give you a one sentence definition.\u00a0 I tried to do that with the parable of the sower, the preaching of the gospel with various results.\u00a0 What would be the one sentence definition or meaning of parable number 2, which is the parable of the wheat and the tares.\u00a0 And I would define it this way: In the present age it\u2019s going to be difficult to distinguish between the saved and the unsaved within professing Christendom.\u00a0 We might put it this way: not everybody who goes to church is a Christian.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 Sitting in a church doesn\u2019t make you a Christian, as I like to say, any more than sitting in McDonalds makes you a hamburger.\u00a0 A lot of people in this world go to church because it\u2019s just cultural or it\u2019s what their family did, or they are trying to buy God off or whatever they\u2019re trying to do.\n\nBut churches can have in them unregenerate people.\u00a0 And this is why here at Sugar Land Bible Church every Sunday morning we give the gospel, because we don\u2019t know who\u2019s coming in, who\u2019s going out, we have visitors all the time and we have no basis, many times, for understanding where people are at spiritually.\u00a0 And in fact, this parable is so real that Jesus had twelve disciples, eleven of whom were believers, one of them was what?\u00a0\u00a0 An unbeliever, and his name was Judas.\u00a0 Now when Jesus in the Upper Room said one of you is going to betray me they didn\u2019t all say oh, I know it\u2019s Judas.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t all point to Judas and say he\u2019s the traitor.\u00a0 What did they all say?\u00a0 Is it me?\u00a0 Is it me?\u00a0 Is it me?\u00a0 Because Judas just fit in like everybody else, he used the Christianese, he listened to the right Christian radio stations, probably, if they had them back then.\u00a0 If they had a Bible he probably carried a big thick Bible.\u00a0 But the man was unregenerate.\n\nAnd so Jesus says in this present age you\u2019re going to have this situation happening where you have saved and unsaved living right beside each other.\u00a0 And in many cases you\u2019re not even going to know the difference.\u00a0 So you look at this and it\u2019s very obvious that this description that He\u2019s revealing here cannot be the kingdom of God.\u00a0 There are several reasons for this.\u00a0 Probably the primary reason is when the kingdom of God comes Isaiah 11 says, \u201cFor the earth will be filled of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 11:9]\n\nSo the kingdom is a time of universal faith, universal regeneration.\u00a0 The knowledge of the Lord will know no boundaries.\u00a0 And obviously this can\u2019t be describing this age of time that Jesus is outlining here because He\u2019s talking about saved and unsaved living together.\u00a0 And in fact, in the parable the servant wanted to uproot the tares, the tares are unbelievers, the wheat are believers, and he was specifically told to not uproot them because if you tear out the tares you\u2019re going to tear out in the process the what?\u00a0 The wheat.\u00a0 And so he says let both of them exist, co-exist together until the end of the age, then the kingdom will start and the Lord will make that separation.\u00a0 And we know the Lord is going to make that separation at what\u2019s called the sheep and goat judgment which begins the kingdom at the end of the tribulation, the separation of the sheep and the goats, believers from unbelievers takes place there, in Matthew 25:31-46.\n\nSo what Jesus is revealing here is not a description at all of Isaiah 11:9, the knowledge of the Lord filling the earth.\u00a0 He\u2019s talking about believers and unbelievers co-existing even within religious institutions.\n\nAnd He goes on and He talks about, first of all, allow both to grow together, and that\u2019s what these parables are unfolding here, the coexistence of good and evil together.\u00a0 Let both grow together until the harvest.\u00a0 Now look at the state of the tares. \u00a0[Matthew 13:30, \u201c'Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, \u2018First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.\u201d\u2019]\n\nNow look at the state of the tares; are the tares unbelievers, are they decreasing or are they increasing?\u00a0 If you look at verse 30, which I had up earlier, it says of the tares, when the kingdom finally comes and the Lord makes the separation, \u201cFirst gather up the tares and bind them into\u201d what? \u201cbundles\u201d that\u2019s a lot of tares, isn\u2019t it, so they\u2019re not a little side group, the tares are so massive numerically that they have to be actually bundled up by the Lord when He starts the kingdom.\u00a0 So what is this talking about?\u00a0 This is talking about the progress of evil, within Christendom, gaining the upper hand.\u00a0 And once\u00a0 you start to see this you begin to understand what Paul is talking about in his final letter that we\u2019ve studied at this church verse by verse called \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02 Timothy where he talks about \u201cevil men and imposters waxing\u201d what? \u201cworse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.\u00a0 [2 Timothy 3:13]\n\nAnd what Paul says in that final letter, he says in the last days we\u2019re going to have a great revival and the world is going to be won to Christ\u2026 He doesn\u2019t say that at all!\u00a0 He says in the last days perilous times will come and He begins to explain to Timothy that all who seek to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re a faithful pastor preaching out of His Bible as these tares increase what you\u2019re going to discover, Timothy, and any other pastor, faithful pastor by way of extension is the church world itself will increasingly become hostile to you.\u00a0 And to be honest with you I\u2019ve had a lot more success getting along with unregenerated people than may times people that name the name of Christ.\n\nSome of the worst attacks you could ever experience take place within believing Christendom and as you get on the social media, which I don\u2019t recommend you spend too much time doing, and try to make some kind of bold statement about the exclusivity of Christ or the deity of Christ or salvation by faith alone, or call out a false teacher within the body of Christ, someone who\u2019s obviously a false teacher and man, you\u2019d better have your seatbelt fastened because you\u2019re just going to get hit by people that claim that they know Christ.\u00a0 And this is what Jesus is explaining here, these tares are increasing.\n\nArthur Pink, who I have a lot of respect for his handling of these parables so I quote him a lot in the book I wrote.\u00a0 Notice what Arthur Pink says here: \u201cThis parable, like the former,\u201d that would be the wheat and the tares, like the sower parable, \u201calso supplies a most conclusive refutation of the unscriptural dreams of post-millennialism.\u201d\u00a0 Now post-millennialism is people that think that we\u2019re bringing in the kingdom.\u00a0 I mean, do you think we\u2019re bringing in the kingdom right now?\u00a0 It\u2019s like do these people read the newspaper, do they see what\u2019s going on within Christendom today?\u00a0 \u201cThey believe that, through the preaching of the Gospel (under the blessing of God), the cause of Christ will extend, until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. But Christ here explicitly declared that the wheat and the tares should \u201cgrow together until the harvest,\u201d which He defined as \u201cthe end of the age.\u201d Pink says, \u201cHe<\/u>,\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, \u201cgave no hint that the \u2018tares\u2019 would gradually die out, or that they would decrease in numbers; but announced that, at the end, they would be found in such quantity as to need binding \u201cin bundles<\/u>.\u201d\n\nSo the Lord is giving to these disciples a realistic picture of the course of the present age and it\u2019s not all flowers and sunshine.\u00a0 God is clearly at work in this age because we don\u2019t just have tares but we have what?\u00a0 Wheat, so praise God for that.\u00a0 But this is not an age where good overcomes evil. It\u2019s an age where good and evil are co-existing.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice also that there\u2019s no separation between the wheat and the tares until when?\u00a0 The \u201cend of the age.\u201d So don\u2019t expect thigs to improve until Jesus returns at the end of the tribulation period and establishes Hs kingdom.\n\nArthur Pink says this: \u201c\u201cThis parable, like the former,\u201d I read most of this, let me just highlight this sentence, \u00a0\u201cBut Christ here explicitly declared that the wheat and the tares should \u2018grow together until the harvest,\u2019 which He defined as \u201cthe end of the age.\u201d So don\u2019t expect this coexistence of good and evil to get resolved until the kingdom itself is finally manifested on planet earth.\u00a0 So obviously Jesus here can\u2019t be talking about what Isaiah revealed about the kingdom, the knowledge of the Lord covering the entire earth.\n\nAnd by the way, did you notice what Satan is doing in this parable.\u00a0 He\u2019s very active, isn\u2019t he, just like he was active in the prior parable, the parable of the sower.\u00a0 We also see Satan active in the wheat and the tares parable.\u00a0 We see him there in verse 25 of Matthew 13, \u201cBut while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.\u201d\u00a0 Notice when Satan is active\u2014when everybody else is asleep.\n\nAnd it reminds me very much of the United States, founded, I believe, largely as a Christian nation, not a perfect nation, and while the Christian world is sound asleep, thinking everything is safe here, here comes the United States Supreme Court throwing Bible and prayer out of the public schools, making abortion on demand a constitutional right, and within a decade or two the whole culture shifts, largely because of those decisions.\u00a0 And if\u00a0 you go back and you interview people that were alive, as most of you were, I wasn\u2019t, I was born in 1966 so I\u2019m a little younger than some of you, a little younger than Richard anyway\u2026.\u00a0 But if you talk to people that were alive during that time, if I could use that expression, they just never saw it coming.\u00a0 Everybody was sound asleep, everything is fine here in the United States and then boom, Satan goes to work and the tares start to sprout.\n\nSo it\u2019s a great parable here on the strategy of Satan; I mean, when you\u2019re sound asleep that\u2019s really the time you think everything is fine and you have this false sense of security, that\u2019s the time to be sober and be alert because the devil prowls around like a sweet pussy cat\u2026 NO, like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.\n\nIf you drop down to verse 28\u00a0 you\u2019ll see the devil at work again, \u201cAnd he said to them, \u2018An enemy has done this!\u2019 The slaves said to him, \u2018Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?\u201d\u00a0 So here Satan is called the enemy.\u00a0 Did you all know that, as a Christian you have an enemy?\u00a0 In fact, you have three enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil.\u00a0 You never had those enemies before you got saved.\u00a0 Now you\u2019ve got three enemies that tag team on you constantly.\u00a0 So Satan here is called \u201cAn enemy\u201d in this parable.\n\nAnd then as you go down to verses 38-39 it says, \u201cand the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;\u201d [39, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.\u201d]\u00a0 So notice that God has sons and Satan has sons.\u00a0 We are God\u2019s sons or heirs of His kingdom and the devil has his own children, unbelievers who can look, sometimes a lot like believers, very religious people, very moral people, but they are actually sons of the devil.\u00a0\u00a0 It reminds me very much of what Jesus said in John 8:44 to the Pharisees, \u201cYou are of your father, the devil,\u201d He tells them that they are\u2026 who were the Pharisees?\u00a0 They were the most righteous men in the nation, and Jesus specifically tells them that they are basically the progeny, spiritually, of the devil Himself.\u00a0 So it\u2019s no wonder they wanted Christ dead.\n\nBut my point is you see how accurate Satan is here?\u00a0 Verses 38 and 39.\u00a0 Verse 28, verse 25, now how in the world could this be the kingdom?\u00a0 The kingdom is a time when Satan is bound.\u00a0 Revelation 20:1-3 of the kingdom says, \u201cThen I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. [2] And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3] and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it<\/em> and sealed it<\/em> over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.\u201d\n\nSo during the course of that thousand year kingdom Satan is in solitary confinement I guess we could say.\u00a0 He\u2019s in incarceration.\u00a0 So how in the world could this be a description of the kingdom when Satan is active.\u00a0 Jesus specifically says the enemy who sowed them is the devil.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 13:39]\u00a0 So you start looking at the details of the text and it\u2019s obvious Jesus is talking about an age of time very different than the kingdom.\n\nBeyond that the kingdom itself is not going to be established until when? \u00a0Until this age is over.\u00a0 Once this age is over and the Lord makes a separation between the wheat and the tares and that\u2019s commensurate with Israel\u2019s conversion at the end of the tribulation period, until that time comes don\u2019t expect the kingdom to be manifested.\u00a0 The kingdom doesn\u2019t come until the end of the age.\n\nAnd take a look at Matthew 13:43, It says, \u201cThen,\u201d now \u201cThen\u201d follows what?\u00a0 Follows this description of the coexistence between good and evil.\u00a0 \u201cThen\u201d only after this stage runs its course, \u201cThen THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.\u201d In other words, the child of God in the present age is under oppression, being mistreated, being persecuted.\u00a0 That\u2019s the natural posture of a Christian.\u00a0 And sometimes when we suffer we ask ourselves, well, what did I do wrong?\u00a0 I must be outside of the will of God.\u00a0 If we knew our Bibles well we would see that we\u2019re exactly in the will of God.\u00a0 Jesus told us exactly what would happen; expect a lot of injustice, a lot of unfair treatment, and a lot of oppression.\u00a0 Some Christians when they don\u2019t get a fair shake or in the movies a Christian is not portrayed favorably.\n\nBy the way, I\u2019ve hardly ever seen recently a Christian portrayed favorably in the movies.\u00a0 They don\u2019t even make movies any more that portray Christians favorably.\u00a0 The last movie I can think of where a Christian was portrayed favorably was Chariots of Fire<\/em>.\u00a0 Did you all see that?\u00a0 That was a great movie.\u00a0 But since Chariots of Fire<\/em> came and went, that was what, 1980 something that movie was made, I\u2019ve never seen a movie where a Christian is treated fairly.\n\nIf you could identify a movie I could probably identify ten, that treat the Christian unfairly.\u00a0 In fact, when I watch a movie today, and I try not to watch too many of them, when I see the axe murderer at the beginning of the movie or the bad guy I say well, it\u2019s just a matter of time before the plot unfolds and we discover that guy is a Bible believing fundamentalist.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the movie, Shawshank Redemption<\/em>, did you see that, the warden who\u2019s running a whole money laundering scam and mistreating everybody. He\u2019s the guy with his Bible open, holding the Bible, and this is how the movies are set up today.\u00a0 And we look at that and we\u2019re so shocked, how could they do that?\u00a0 Well, Jesus said this would happen.\u00a0 Jesus says you\u2019re not going to get a fair shake.\u00a0 This is not the age where you\u2019re going to be ruling and reigning; that age is yet future.\u00a0 That age is yet future in the kingdom.\u00a0 In the present age expect unfair treatment, expect a coexistence of good and evil.\n\nSo does the parable of the wheat and the tares like the parable of the sower, does it teach the existence of the kingdom today.\u00a0 Obviously not.\u00a0 It talks about saved and unsaved growing up together.\u00a0 It talks about the unsaved or the evil increasing. It talks about the fact that there won\u2019t be a separation between good and evil until the manifestation of the kingdom of God at the end of the age.\u00a0 This parable is talking about a time where Satan is just having a field day, pardon the expression, but he\u2019s actually having a field day today.\u00a0 He\u2019s the god of this age and that can\u2019t be describing the kingdom.\u00a0 Satan is bound.\u00a0 And don\u2019t expect the kingdom to be established until this age runs its course.\n\nSo that is the parable of the wheat and the tares.\u00a0 And I was going to do the mustard seed tonight but I think I\u2019ll stop.\u00a0 This would be a good time to stop, this is enough reality for one evening, don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 So we can let folks go to pick up their kids if they need to do that.\u00a0 Actually you might shock the nursery workers back there getting out 12 minutes early, that never happens here, it\u2019s usually the opposite. Right?\u00a0\u00a0 But that means I get to preach ten minutes longer on Sunday.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 So I\u2019m keeping track.\u00a0 But we can open it up for Q and A if you guys want to do that.\n\n[Someone asks a question, can\u2019t hear]\u00a0 The immediate audience would be the remnant of believing Jews, that\u2019s who Jesus was speaking to, but I think it\u2019s broader, you can apply it to all believers outside the land of Israel because we know the gospel is going to go outside the land of Israel.\u00a0 So it would be the remnant of believing Jews, which is a minority and we can apply that to us today because we\u2019re sons of the kingdom to, even though we\u2019re not Jewish.\n\n[Someone asks a question, can\u2019t hear]\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that when he uses the word \u201ckingdom\u201d he never defines it.\u00a0 So we have to build our understanding of the kingdom from what has preceded.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 So that\u2019s why I spent 17 lessons going through what the Old Testament reveals about the kingdom.\u00a0 So the error people make is when they see the word kingdom they just pour into it whatever meaning they want but it\u2019s a meaning that\u2019s technical that needs to be unpacked from the Old Testament.\u00a0 That\u2019s a good question.\n\nAny other thoughts or questions.\u00a0 You guys are just shocked at getting out early.\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Well, I don\u2019t want to say the worst because we\u2019re to be people of joy but we shouldn\u2019t have an unrealistic view of life today.\u00a0 We should expect mistreatment and injustice.\u00a0 Now fortunately God equips us for the battle because He says \u201cput on the full armor of God\u201d so we have equipment, spiritual equipment but unless you have a realistic appraisal of the present age you don\u2019t really have an understanding why you need equipment to begin with.\u00a0 In the kingdom age you won\u2019t need to put on the armor of God, you won\u2019t even have to pray for your daily bread in the kingdom age.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even pray for that here in America, do we?\u00a0 I know where my bread is coming from, I\u2019ve got a refrigerator full of food; my problem is getting rid of the weight, not gaining weight.\u00a0 So we\u2019re very maxed out and spoiled here in America but you go around the world and they\u2019re basically wondering where their next meal is going to come from.\n\nSo you know, I don\u2019t want to depress everybody, we\u2019re on the winning side but we shouldn\u2019t look at this life as the kingdom; it couldn\u2019t be the kingdom.\u00a0 I hope that helps some.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t