Wheat Among the Tares

Counterfeits are easy to spot until the fake looks almost real. That is exactly why Jesus’ Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds in Matthew 13 still hits a nerve, especially when we look at the church and ask, “If God planted this, how did it get so messy?” We sit with Jesus’ answer, an enemy has done this, and we name the daily tension of the kingdom of God: it is truly here, growing and bearing fruit, yet it is not yet perfected. 

From there, we talk about Christian discernment in a world where darnel can mimic wheat until fruit appears. Discernment is not separating obvious good from obvious evil; it is learning to recognize subtle mixtures, teachings that sound nearly biblical, and influences that feel fair but lead somewhere foul. We connect that to practical habits like testing what we hear, searching the Scriptures, and praying for wisdom before we react. 

We also confront a tempting impulse: trying to purify the field ourselves. Jesus warns that ripping out weeds too early can uproot wheat, and church history backs that up through the Donatists and Augustine’s insistence that the visible church remains mixed, even at its best. Finally, we land on what patient faith looks like right now: praying before speaking, telling the truth in love over time, giving people room to change, and refusing to define anyone by their worst moment, because Jesus does not define us that way. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Transcript

Scripture Reading And Parable Set Up

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And for the rest of us, I want to invite us to stand for the reading of God's Word this morning, which is found in Matthew 13, beginning in verse 24. The word of God reads this way. He put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 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? 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? But he said, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 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. This is God's word. Thanks be to God, you may be seated, and may God bless this reading and preaching of his word.

Why We Crave The Real Thing

SPEAKER_00 1:14

The themes of purity and corruption are everywhere in the human story and in our daily lives. Consider the labu-boo. This collectible Japanese toy exploded in popularity in recent years. And as we know, as soon as it did, many counterfeits were introduced to the market. So now today it can be difficult to tell whether it's a laboo boo or a lafufu or lazuzu or whatever the knockoff is. But all of us who want one, we want the real thing. We don't want the knockoff. We want the pure thing, not the cheap counterfeit. And of course, this extends beyond toys. When hip-hop began, it maintained a certain underground New York City grittiness and aesthetic, like a flower that had bloomed up from the concrete. But as it grew, it was influenced by commercial interests and for many lost its original genius. And hip-hop fans, even today, are still searching and longing for the genuine article to what made it so special in the first place. When movements begin, they tend to have a certain purity and authenticity that might be corrupted or diluted as they grow and become influenced by various interests. There's something compelling even about a young church that has a clear sense of mission, but over time new people arrive, different priorities emerge, and the original vision can become diluted or harder to recognize. All of us are very familiar with stories of purity and corruption. Jesus gives us a parable of the kingdom this morning. We are for the next few weeks studying the parables of the kingdom. And this morning the parable is all about this dynamic. He says that the kingdom of God may be compared to a field planted with good seed, but it has been corrupted by an enemy. And now the wheat and the weeds grow together. The servants look at the problem and they ask the obvious question, what should we do about the weeds? What should we do about the weeds? And that's the question that Jesus seeks to answer. Because from the beginning, whatever God plants, Satan seeks to corrupt. And whatever God builds, Satan seeks to counterfeit. And so, how do we live in a world where the wheat and the weeds grow up together? And in this parable, Jesus gives us three crucial insights. What's the tension, what not to do about it, and then what to do about it.

The Kingdom Is Present Not Perfect

SPEAKER_00 3:59

So first, what's the tension? The tension of the kingdom is that it is present, but it is not yet perfected. It is present, but it is not yet perfected. I think that some of the sweetest words in Scripture, which have stuck in my mind, and I hope that they stick in your mind as well, and you continue to think about them today and this week, but some of the sweetest words in Scripture are the first words that Jesus says about God's kingdom. He says, a sower went out to sow. I am so grateful that a sower went out to sow. Because we live in a world of thorns and of noxious fruit and frustration. But the good news is that a sower went out to sow. A man came from heaven to plant something good and eternal in this dying earth. And this dynamic is present in this parable as well. If you look at verse 24, it says he put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. The heavenly and the eternal kingdom of God, in which there is liberty and justice for all, in which there is no pain nor death, nor tears any more, that kingdom has already begun and is already present on this earth. It appeared when Jesus appeared, but there is a tension. Look at verse 25. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. The farmer has an enemy that wishes to subvert what he's doing, and he comes at night and he sows weeds among the wheat, and no one notices that the enemy has done his subversive work until the plants begin to bear fruit. If you look at verse 26, it says, So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. So why does it take them so long to realize what has happened, to realize that there's been a sabotage? Well, there's a common plant in Israel known as darnal, or sometimes called false wheat, and in its early stages it looks identical to wheat. It's only when the plant begins to mature and begins to bear fruit that it becomes clear what's going on. Because darn looks like wheat in every way, except for one. It does not bear an ear. Looks like wheat until the time of harvest. And the servants ask a sensible question in verse 27. They say, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? That is such a profound question. How then does it have weeds? Master, we thought you sowed a field of pure wheat. How did it end up like this? How did we get into this mess? And many similar questions have been asked concerning the Church of the Living God. Jesus started a church. How did it become so corrupt? How did it become so fractured? How did the American church lose its way from the time of the Great Awakening? How did we get to where we are today? Or for a local church, how did this local church that was once so great end up watering down the gospel or become infiltrated by the world? If God is so good and if he is king, why is there so much evil in the world? God, did you not plant this little field? How then does it have weeds? What a question. One day you will ask this question with tears. And think back on this parable and hear the master's answer. The master says in verse 28, an enemy has done this. And that's our tension. We forget the enemy, don't we? We may believe that God is at work in the world, but we forget that there are also dark powers at work as well, and they are seeking to subvert and to corrupt and to imitate what God does. And so we live in this tense reality in which God's kingdom is present and it is growing and bearing fruit in the world, but it is not yet fully perfected, and it is mixed with the work of the enemy. Tolkien is wonderful at illustrating this mystery. The characters in the Lord of the Rings are not as they appear. All of them surprise us. All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost. These lines are about Aragorn the King, and when the hobbits meet him, he is known as Strider, one of the rangers, a dangerous folk. They know not whether he is an agent of the enemy or a friend. But Frodo has an unusual insight. He says, I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler. Would look fairer and feel fouler. Saruman the White, on the other hand, looks fair, but he has been corrupted, and he is a servant of the enemy, but he appears as the wise white wizard, the old harmless sage who wishes only to help and to advise. In the Lord of the Rings we learn the important lesson not to judge a book by its cover. All that is gold does not glitter. Not all is as it seems to be at first. Remember that a sower went out to sow. God is doing something amazing and powerful in the world, but he has an enemy who wishes to subvert and to counterfeit his work, and so not all is as it seems. One

Discernment When Evil Looks Similar

SPEAKER_00 9:47

profound application of this tension that we live in is the great need for discernment. Speaking as a pastor, I think that one of the greatest deficiencies that I see in young believers is a lack of discernment. And one of the greatest needs of young Christians is to grow in discernment. What am I talking about? Let's take it into the realm of painting for just a moment. As a carpenter, I work closely with a finisher, and we often have to match paint or stain colors for picky clients or for designers. And my eyes are not very discerning. It's hard for me to tell the difference between one shade of white and another shade of white. Discernment is not the ability to tell the difference between red and blue, or the difference between black and white. Anybody can do that. Discernment is the ability to tell the difference between two different shades of red or two different shades of white. They're so very close, but the subtle differences are what's important and what makes all the difference. And that is why, that is what many young Christians are lacking. Discernment. They have a difficult time discerning the difference between the pure gospel of Jesus and what is almost the gospel of Jesus. It's not between the gospel and what is clearly a false teaching, but between the gospel and what is almost the gospel, or between the gospel of Jesus and what is the gospel of Jesus that is mixed with some sort of subtle false teaching. The difference between biblical teaching and what is almost biblical teaching, but subtly mixed with something harmful and dangerous. We sorely need discernment, not only when listening to pastors and preachers, but when consuming media, when listening to advice from friends, when reading books, anything that has the power to influence us, we must carefully discern the good from the bad. A sower went out to sow, praise God, but an enemy has come by night, and so we must be very careful in discerning. Pray that God would grow your discernment. Test the spirits, for not all are from God. Search the scriptures daily to see if these things are so. We all need pastors and teachers, but every Christian must take responsibility for this to become a discerning people. So that's the tension that we live in. But what

Why We Must Not Purify Early

SPEAKER_00 12:31

should we not do about it? We should, this is point two, we should not take kingdom purification into our own hands. The servants ask the next most sensible question in verse 28. They say, the first question, of course, was, how then are there weeds? Which is a very sensible question. The next question is, then do you want us to go and gather them? Do you, Master, do you want us to fix it? Should we go and cut out all the weeds? Should we restore the purity of this field that you have planted? The Master's answer should surprise us a little bit. In verse 29, he says, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. The key here is the importance of time. The wheat and the weeds look identical in every way, and it only becomes clear which is which when they mature and they bear fruit. So it is dangerous to purify the field prematurely because they might accidentally mistake the good seed for the bad and cut down valuable wheat and do damage, cut down valuable wheat that would bear fruit if it is just given more time. So the lesson here is this is that we must certainly grow in discernment because the enemy is at work, but at the same time, we must not judge prematurely. We must be careful not to judge prematurely. We do not know for certain who has authentic faith and who does not. This is only revealed over time, and ultimately only God knows. So any attempt to cleanly separate the church from the world is misguided, and it can only do harm. In

Donatists Augustine And A Mixed Church

SPEAKER_00 14:24

the 300s, the church faced a severe persecution under the Emperor Diocletian. It's known as the Great Persecution. Diocletian ordered for churches to be destroyed, for valuable copies of Scripture to be confiscated, for he ordered that Christian assemblies would be banned and clergy imprisoned. And it was the final great assault on the church from the Roman Empire before the church finally won. During this period, there were many who compromised. There were clergy who handed over the one copy of the Bible that their church or their city had. There were Christians who compromised and who offered sacrifice to Caesar and other such compromises. After the great persecution ended, there arose a group in the church known as the Donatists. And they said that the church must be holy and it cannot tolerate these compromisers. And they started separate churches and they ordained their own leaders and their own bishops who agreed with them. And when Christians would transfer in from other parts of the church, the Donatists would insist that they be rebaptized into the now one true, pure church. And the Donatists might have prevailed if it weren't for a young African bishop named Augustine. He spoke and he wrote against them, teaching that the church of God is mixed by design in taking them to this very parable. There are many in the church, he said, who are not true believers. There are many ministers who are hypocrites, who may not even be true believers. But thankfully, God is still at work through this mixed and imperfect community, because in reality, it is not the minister who baptizes, preaches, and administers the Lord's Supper, but it is Jesus Christ who preaches, Jesus who baptizes, and Jesus who feeds the flock. Jesus Christ can use a crooked stick to draw a straight line, as he often does with me. The Donatists were condemned as heretics long ago, but their mistake has often been repeated throughout church history. Every Christian must reckon with the fact that their church is highly imperfect. The people will let you down. The pastor is a sinner and a hypocrite. The preaching has holes in it. The worship could be improved. As the Westminster Confession teaches, it says particular churches are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the gospel is taught and embraced. Ordinances administered and public worship performed more or less purely in them. The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error. The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error. Some Christians fall into the trap of separating from a church once they discover its many problems. They seek out a more pure church to connect there, only to discover in time that it also has many problems, and the cycle repeats. Within a few years they might bounce around to many different churches seeking a more perfect church, but this is a trap because even the purest churches are subject to both mixture and error. So be careful and be slow to separate. It is far better to commit to an imperfect church to battle the devil that you know and to become part of making that church healthy and vibrant, knowing that you will also be part of making that church imperfect. You're part of that too. What a danger it is to separate from God's people because they are not holy enough for us. I'm so glad that our Savior does not take this attitude. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, and yet he makes his dwelling with the lowly. What an awesome God we have. So that's what not to do about it. But what should we do about it? Point

Let Them Grow Until The Harvest

SPEAKER_00 18:38

three, we should patiently live in the tension. The Master tells us all that we need to know in verse 30. He says, 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. He says, Let both grow together until the harvest. Since it is beyond our ability to know for certain what is wheat and what is a weed, we must let them grow up together until the harvest. And notice that the harvest is not the job of the servants. Jesus later explains that the harvesters are angels. The master will tell the harvesters to gather them all together at the time of harvest. So it is the master's harvest, and it is not the servant's job to judge or to sift or to separate, but it is their job to patiently endure. All of this calls for time and patience. It takes time for people to reveal who they truly are, and so we must be patient with them and with one another. Paul gives these instructions to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5. He says, Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. The sins of some people are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden. So Paul says that Timothy should not be too quick to lay on hands. The laying on of hands, that's not a martial art term there, the the lay though we should not be too quick to do that either. But the laying on of hands is associated both with ordaining elders and deacons, and also with recognizing church members. When we ordain people, we lay on hands, and when we receive members, we also lay on hands. Timothy should not accept people into church membership too quickly, nor should he ordain elders too quickly. Why not? Paul says, Because the sins of some people are obvious, and their reputation precedes them, but the sins of others only appear after a while. Because they're more sophisticated, because they're better at hiding them. And righteousness is the same. Some have a reputation that precedes them, but even for those who don't, their righteousness cannot be hidden. Either way, Timothy must give people time to reveal themselves and to demonstrate who they really are. Paul also writes this to the Thessalonian church in 1 Thessalonians 5. He says, We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, and this is the verse that I would press upon anyone who wants to become a pastor or any young man becoming ordained. It teaches us that some are idle and need to be admonished. Others are faint hearted and need to be encouraged. Even others are weak and need to be helped. But no matter who you are, every Every single one of them needs patience. Paul says, Be patient with them all. All people need patience. Behold, a sower went out to sow, but an enemy came at night. Therefore, we must be patient with people until the end. The harvest is not ours, so we must give people time to be imperfect. We got to give people time to figure things out, time to make mistakes, time to come to an understanding, time to grow, time to blossom. And because we do not know for certain the wheat from the weeds, we must never give up on anyone because we don't know. Moses murdered a man. David committed adultery and murder. Peter denied Christ. Paul persecuted the church. Any one of them could have been disqualified and discounted, but by God's grace, their story was not over. So we must be patient. If you really want to see something special, you must be patient. I was chatting the other day with a backpacking and hunting enthusiast. He let me borrow some items for our recent trip to the Red River Gorge, and he told me that when you go out into the woods, the animals know that you're there before you ever even get close to them, because apparently we humans are so smelly and so noisy that you can hear us coming from a mile away. But if you are patient, if you hike out into the woods, and if you find a place to conceal yourself, and if you sit down and be quiet and be still and watch, then after about 30 minutes, the environment will start to change. And all of the critters and all of the animals that you did not know were there will begin to sense that things are safe, and they'll they will begin to come out and they will conduct their animal affairs and they will conduct their business. And a whole world will reveal itself to you. It simply requires patience. So too, all people need patience. People are complicated. We contain multitudes, and there's a lot going on in there that you cannot see at first, that's hiding beneath the surface, that doesn't feel safe enough to emerge. It could be hidden sin and hidden dysfunction, but it could also be God's grace working its way out. And for many of us, it's a mixture of both. We do not know, and so we must be patient.

Four Practices Of Patient Love

SPEAKER_00 24:35

So what does patience look like? And I just want to give four things before I conclude. The first thing I want to say patience looks like praying before speaking. I've been thinking about this one for a while. So if you see some dysfunction or some concerning or problematic behavior or some pattern emerging in a friend or a spouse or someone in your church, some some of us are type A and we see that kind of thing, and we're like, I gotta get on that immediately. I'm gonna go talk to them, I'm gonna go address that, I'm gonna bring this to their attention. I love your enthusiasm. Consider praying first. And what I mean, pray for them for a week, for a month, for two months before you ever say anything to them. If you do that, a lot of times, you'll never have to say anything to them. God will work on them, he will work on their heart, they will come to their senses, they will realize it. If they don't, then go and talk to them. But before you talk to them, pray for them. Pray for them and see what God might do. That's what patience looks like. What else does patience look like? It looks like speaking the truth and repeating yourself for as long as it takes. This happens in marriage and in parenting quite often. Maybe we see some problematic behavior in our spouse or in a child or even in a friend or a neighbor or in a brother or sister at church, and we tell them what we see, but they don't seem to hear or understand. And then we're surprised and discouraged. I told them the truth and they didn't hear it. Don't be surprised, don't be discouraged. Keep speaking the truth in love. Many times it can take years, it can take years for people to finally hear what you are saying. Keep speaking the truth in love. What else does patience look like? It looks like continuing to give people opportunities. It doesn't mean that we're constantly putting everything on the line and setting ourselves up to get wounded time and time again. I'm not saying that we should do that. But it does mean that we keep giving people a chance to do something different. We keep giving them a chance to do something different because one day they might surprise us and they might do that very thing. People can change, especially when the Lord is involved. It is a cynical and a discouraged attitude that believes that people cannot change. Of course they can. Jesus is in the business of changing people. So when he's involved, people can change. So keep giving them an opportunity to be something different than they were five minutes ago. Keep giving them that opportunity. That's what patience looks like. What else does it look like? It looks like refusing to define people by their worst moment. We all have a worst moment. You're gonna have the worst moment of your life. For some of you, it's in your past. For others of you, it's in your future. And if it's not your worst, maybe it's your second worst moment. I am so glad that Jesus does not define us by our worst moment or by our worst moments. He is so very patient with us. He chose to die for us, even seeing the worst things that we would ever do. And he doesn't define us by that. We are defined instead by our union with Christ. We are defined by our connection to him. Worst moments are hard, but all of us are more complicated than our worst moments. So let's give one another that gift. The gift of not being defined by our worst moment, but remembering that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, and the old is gone and the new has come. Praise God. Aren't you so glad that our Lord is so patient with you? The Holy Spirit works on us for our whole lives to convince our spirits that we are children of God, because it takes a lot of convincing to speak the truth over us again and again and again until we begin to understand. He patiently speaks and teaches. Our Lord continues to give us opportunities to repent. He continues to give us opportunities to do something different. His mercies are new. Every morning. Every morning. He continues to give us opportunities. Our sins are many. His mercy is more. Hallelujah. Our Lord knows our worst moments, and he knows that we are capable of even worse, which is why he appeared. A sower went out to sow. He came to cover our shame with his own righteousness and to wash away our sins with his own blood. Our Saviour loves us so much and is so very patient with us. Behold, a sower went out to sow, but an enemy came at night, and so we must live in this tension. The kingdom is here, but it is not yet perfected. We should not take kingdom perfection into our own hands, but we should patiently bear with one another and love one another as Jesus has loved us. Lord, help

Closing Prayer And Final Charge

SPEAKER_00 30:04

us. To that end, let us pray. Lord, we need your help. It is difficult to live in this tension. And we often ask in our own ways, even if we don't know that this is what we're asking, we often ask, How then are there weeds? Lord, if you started this, if you, if this was your idea, how did it get messed up? Lord, we're in good company when we ask that question, and Jesus is answering that question. There's an enemy. And we have to remember that. We have to reckon with that. And so we must be careful. We must be careful. We must have discernment. We must not judge prematurely, and we must be patient. We thank you, Jesus, for being patient with us. Help us to reflect your patience, your perfect patience, to one another and to the world. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's stand and worship.