Living Amongst the Weeds - Matthew 13 & Galatians 1 (Part 1)

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Let’s continue our study of the book of Galatians by turning to the Gospel of Matthew.  I want you to look with me for a few minutes at chapter 13 which is Matthew’s presentation of Jesus’ parables.  We read there the very familiar parable of the sower and the four soils, as well as the parables about the mustard seed and the leaven, the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great price.  And a couple of others.

But the one I want to focus on begins in verse 24 which is commonly referred to as the parable of the wheat and the tares, or in the ESV, the wheat and the weeds.

[24] He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, [25] but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. [26] So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. [27] And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ [28] He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ [29] But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. [30] Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30 ESV)

This is one of those great occasions where Jesus is asked for an explanation of what He said, and He gives one.  So we have here in Jesus’ own words the interpretation of His own words.  Let’s read what He said about what He said:

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

This parable explains a lot about the book of Galatians and the state of the church in this country.  We are regularly dismayed and discouraged by the prevalence of false teachers in the American church and the bad theology that runs rampant everywhere.  We read about Harold Camping and Rob Bell and Joel Osteen and Brian MacLaren and Joyce Meyer and many, many others who seem to have an inordinately bad influence on Evangelicalism and we wonder, “When is it ever going to get better?  Why doesn’t somebody do something about these people?  How long will the Lord allow this nonsense to go on and on and on?”

Jesus gives us the answer to that specific question: “When is it going to get better for God’s people in this world?”  At the end.  At the close of the age, the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers.  What a great day that will be!!  Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. But until then, until that final day, the Church of the Lord Jesus will have to contend with all the weeds among the wheat.  And that is by design:

“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 one of the reasons why we are called to persevere in the faith and to hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering (Hebrews 10:23 ESV).  That is why the Lord has given His church apostles and prophets and pastors and teachers so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. (Ephesians 4:14 ESV).  This is why we’re told to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6).  This is why we who have believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ are a pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15 ESV).

Jude says, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 1:3 ESV).  Then he goes on to say,

[20] But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, [21] keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. [22] And have mercy on those who doubt; [23] save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. (Jude 1:20-23 ESV)

Paul puts it very simply to Timothy: Fight the good fight of the faith. (1Timothy 6:12 ESV)

We are the wheat in a worldwide harvest field filled with the weeds of the evil one.  We live as God’s people in a sea of children of the evil one.  We are constantly surrounded by those who are the enemies of God.  Our task is to remain faithful to our Lord and Master, to not grow weary or faint, to press on toward the prize, to hate what is evil and cling to what is good, and persevere in the faith all the way to the end.  Then, and only then, does it get better.  And then it gets way better!

That is exactly what Galatians is all about: recognizing the enemies of God’s people, discerning their deadly theological errors, and persevering in the truth of the Gospel, the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.  If we lose the truth of the Gospel, we lose everything.  And the Galatian churches were in danger of precisely that.  The truth of the wheat was quickly being choked out by the lies of the weeds.  Look with me please at Galatians 1.

[6] I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—[7] not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. [8] But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. [9] As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9 ESV)

It is worth noting how the Galatians are told to respond to any purveyors of a different gospel.  They are not told to hunt them down, tar and feather them, and run them out of town on a rail.  In the parable Jesus told about the wheat and the tares, notice the response of the slaves to their Master:

[27] And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ [28] He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ [29] But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. (Matthew 13:27-29 ESV)

In essence, the servants are saying, “Master, do you want us to go and kill all the infidels in order to cleanse the world of all evil and create a kingdom solely devoted to you?”  Should we cleanse your harvest field of weeds?  Should we kill all those who oppose Your righteous reign?  Should we declare jihad on all the unbelievers?  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.

When Jesus and the disciples are in the Garden of Gethsemane and Peter pulls out a sword to defend Jesus, he is ordered to put it away and Jesus actually undoes the damage Peter inflicts on the ear of Malchus.  Now is not the time for pulling out the weeds.

[52] Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. [53] Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:52-53 ESV)

God is capable of erasing the weeds at any time.  But now is not the time.  The day is coming when the righteous and the wicked will be separated for judgment.  That is what we see explained in Genesis 18 when Abraham is having his conversation with the Lord Jesus about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:

22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

“Lord, are you going to show no distinction between those who love you and those who hate you?  Will You bring your judgment to bear indiscriminately upon both the righteous and the wicked?”

24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" (Genesis 18:22-25 ESV).

And because there weren’t ten righteous people in the city, the angels removed Lot, the one righteous man who lived there, had mercy on his evil daughters by sparing their lives, and destroyed all the rest.  Abraham was exactly right.  It is not God’s desire to punish the righteous alongside the wicked.  They live together.  We as the sons of the kingdom live in this world alongside the sons of the evil one.  And the day will come when the wicked will be separated from the righteous and they will be judged.

The Lord Jesus has His own good purposes in leaving the tares among the wheat, in leaving the false teachers to afflict the church, until the end of the age.  The whole “If-God-is-good-then-why-doesn’t-He-do-something-about-all-the-evil-in-the-world” argument is answered right here in Jesus’ parable: Removing the weeds would also damage the wheat.  There are divine, sovereign purposes, many of which we are largely unaware of, that are served by allowing all causes of sin and all law-breakers to remain in the world until the end.  But at that time, God Himself will deal with sin permanently.

God has at least one purpose in leaving the tares among the wheat: that His people might share in Christ’s sufferings and His glory.

[12] Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. [13] But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. [14] If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. [15] But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. [16] Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. (1 Peter 4:12-16 ESV)

Until the day when our sharing in Christ’s suffering ends and His glory is revealed, there will be many like those we read of in Galatians who preach to us other “gospels”.  But the truth of the original gospel message is the only real gospel there is.  That gospel which we must hold to and preserve and defend and contend for is this:

Salvation is by grace alone.

Anything else is a distortion of the saving message of Christ.  THE Gospel, THE faith is that God saves whomever He chooses to save without our help.  He needs no assistance in our salvation because it is based solely upon His own sovereign will and His own sovereign grace.  The Gospel which Paul is defending and for which we must contend until the very end of the age against legions of false teachers, is that salvation is solely a work of the grace of God and absolutely not the result of any effort on the part of man.

It is precisely this truth which the Galatians, and the church in America and everywhere else, are in constant danger of losing.  So Paul comes out with this uncharacteristically strong language and says anyone who preaches anything other than salvation by grace alone is accursed, or as the older translations state it, “Let them be anathema.”  Condemned.  

It would be difficult for Paul to be more emphatic about this.

[8] But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. [9] As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

When Paul says “we”, he is referring at least to Barnabas and himself.  He and Barnabas first took the Gospel message to the cities of Galatia.  In Acts 13 & 14, Paul and Barnabas visited the cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe and preached the Gospel.  In every city, they were opposed by the Jews.  In Lystra, the Jews stoned Paul and left him for dead.  

This is not simply a difference of theological positions and we should just agree to disagree.  This is serious opposition.  They tried to kill Paul for preaching salvation by grace.  But in spite of the suffering, in spite of being totally surrounded by the weedy sons of the evil one, Paul and Barnabas continued to preach and teach the Gentiles of Galatia the Gospel of salvation by the sovereign grace of God.  They preached in spite of the opposition because the sons of the kingdom live among the weeds.

So when Paul says in Galatians 1:8, “even if we should come and preach a gospel contrary to the one we [originally] preached to you”, . . . then he pronounces a curse upon himself and upon Barnabas.   He even goes so far as to say if an angel from heaven should preach any other message, may that angel be condemned by God!  Whoever distorts the gospel, whether it would be Paul or Barnabas or an angel, . . . or those who had come to trouble them by twisting the original message Paul and Barnabas had brought to them, . . . may they all go to hell.

The Gospel is of infinite importance.  Getting the gospel message right, and preserving it from perversion is crucial.  Without the gospel of grace, there is no hope for anyone to attain eternal life.