Words of Jesus Podcast - A Man Sowed Good Seed

Episode Date: December 16, 2022

If what you believe is not true, do you want to know it? We have established conventional wisdom and answers that may not coincide with the responses of Jesus. Hold your beliefs in an open hand. The Spirit of God may reveal surprising details that will change our opinions. Commit to a longer-view when judging a present condition. Some circumstances are within our ability to change. Some things will require the intervention of God. The removal of our enemies will be difficult for us. Trust Him. ***Ch. 30 - Jesus Teaches the Kingdom in ParablesTHE TARES (WEEDS)  Matt. 13:24-30; 36-43THEN JESUS told another parable, 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 among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, 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 servants 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 in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”            Later on, after the multitude had been sent away and Jesus had gone into the house, his disciples came to him, saying:            “Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.”            Jesus answered them, saying:            “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of many. 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 the 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 wailing and gnashing 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.”THE SEED (Mark 4:36-29)            Jesus spoke another parable, saying:             “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.  For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.  But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.”A MUSTARD SEED (Matt. 13:31, 32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18, 19)            Then Jesus, speaking another parable, likened the kingdom of God to a mustard seed that grows from a small grain into a large plant:            “Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is...

Think Red Ink Ministries presents The Words of Jesus Series with Don C. Harris Hello my friends, welcome once again to the Words of Jesus series. I'm Don Harris, gladly taking you through the red words of Jesus Christ. What we're trying to do is reinforce Christianity with the words of our founder. It's unbelievable how many things he said that we are not familiar with. And even more so, it's amazing to me, always amazing to me, that we are so familiar with what he had to say

that many people can finish my sentences as I'm quoting from the Scriptures. However, we don't have any behavior in our lives, behavior that is compliant with what he says. He asks a question, and I think we should ask ourselves every day, why do you call me Lord if you don't do what I say? Jesus was teaching, as we have been in chapter 30, I'm afraid we haven't moved very quickly, but he was telling a parable of the

kingdom of God. If you don't mind, I'd like to start at the beginning to bring us up to speed. It won't take long. We're not very far into it. 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 in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. When the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

Tares are simply weeds. Also the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? And he answers clearly, and we've been talking about this now for several days, that an enemy has done this. The servants saith unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? And he said, no.

Now that is, that's an, I don't know, did it take you by surprise? I remember thinking, why not? Why not weed the garden? And many people wonder and many people have given up on God. Many people have become atheists, become agnostic, become absolutely complacent and absolutely uncaring about the things of God because there's certain things that they just don't understand. If God is a wonderful God, then why are all these things befalling us?

As we quoted from Gideon's mouth in one of our earlier shows. And people wonder if God is a good God then why are there cancers and why are there storms and why are there problems? And you know, why doesn't he do something about this? Well listen, in the wisdom of God, which so far surpasses men's wisdom, he has decided that, and you should understand

that his will at the creation of Adam and Eve, at the creation of mankind on the earth, at the establishment the first establishment of the creation of mankind on the earth, at the establishment, the first establishment of the kingdom of God on this void planet. There were essentially nothing on the earth that was not good, and everything was just fine. But an enemy has come, sowed tares among the wheat. I want to make it clear to you that it was not Satan's plan

to just simply come in and just set fire to the field. But his intention was to sow among the wheat a seed of that wheat's final destruction. And the method by which these weeds would take the life, choke the life from these the intended crop, the wheat,

was that they would grow among the wheat and eventually choke them to death. And we find Jesus using a parable very similar to this. We talked about it earlier that what were the things that were going to cause the good seed. The parable of the sower, if you remember, talked about that the sower sows the word and that some fell on good ground, some fell on the ground that was rocky

and some that didn't have any depth of earth. And he explained this by saying that these three things are the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things. You need to understand that the things that make these weeds or make these, that cause the death of God's plan, if you will, and that is for us to grow up and produce and 30 and 60 and 100-fold return on our lives and endeavors here on this

earth are all empowered by the will of man. The cares of this world, cares to whom? They're certainly not cares to our Lord God. They're not cares to the Lord Jesus personally. The cares of this world are our cares. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. Riches to whom? Our Lord God? No. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things. The desire for other things. And all three of these

eventual destruction of God's will are all empowered by the will of man. And here we find that there is a there is a an intention on the part of Satan, who is the enemy, to sow among the wheat these tares. There are such a thing as tares among the wheat that are not necessarily the cares of this world.

They grow up and choke the wheat. The idea is not a singular idea that there is one weed that is our enemy, but there is such a thing as many weeds, and those of you who garden know that, yes, there are many weeds, and there are many days of work to take these weeds away. Now, some of these weeds are to be removed. And as I said, when we're talking about these three, that entering in, as Jesus said in the parable of the sower,

entering in, choke the word, and thus it becomes unfruitful. These particular weeds are weeds that we're in control of. These are things that we do to ourselves that should be rooted out. But here we have a weed that our master, the husbandman of the field, is saying, no, don't take these away. Now, does that seem odd to you?

It seemed odd to me when I first read it because I'm thinking, weeds? Why do we need weeds? Well, in the infinite wisdom of our God, the weeds that were sown in our world out here are going to do us in some cases some benefit somehow. And the destruction of the weeds are going to what? I'm not sure that I read it. Maybe I didn't. He said shall we go and gather them up?

And he said, nay, lest while you gather up the tares, you root up the wheat with them. But let them both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather you together first the tares and bind them into bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn. There is such a thing as a weed that is essentially out of our control, that is not empowered by us,

but actually been sown here for our ultimate destruction. But it's obvious that the plan of destruction was to ruin them at the end of their life, or just before the harvest and and so the characteristic of this particular kind of weed was that somehow their roots entangle the roots of the weed I'm sorry the the root of the weed entangles the root of the wheat. In that, if these were removed, they would also root up the wheat. Now, friend, I cannot tell you that I understand exactly. I can't put my finger on, hey, here's the weed right here. I wish I could, but I can't. But I do know that there are people in this life there are products of this life there are the politics of this life

there are things in this life that are so entangled in not only the roots of itself as I'm sure these weeds roots entangle one another but they also entangle us. And the cost of removing the weeds that you complain about, that you wonder if God's who he says he is then why doesn't he do something

that kind of an attitude I think that you would find the characteristic of this kind of an attitude, I think that you would find if you, I think you would find the characteristic of this kind of weed in that its destruction or removal would essentially remove us as well. Now there were times when this thought occurred to God and said,

I'll tell you what, I'm going to start over. I'm going to start over with Noah. He could have started over with Abel. He could have started over with Moses and tried to once. And you hear these workers in the field conversing with the master who owns the field who commissioned the weeds to be commissioned the wheat to be planted I hope I don't do that throughout the series.

Get these two things confused. If I do you're going to have to switch them in your own mind. But he commissioned wheat to be planted there, and Moses occupies the position of one of the workers in the field who goes to the Lord and says perhaps in this particular case the worker came up with the idea of rooting up the wheat. Let's just start over. In the situation with Moses, the roles were reversed. God is saying, let's just root it all

up and start over. Moses says, I don't know if that's a good idea, and here's why. And he discussed this kind of thing with the Lord, and essentially talked them out of destroying us. And you're going to find that there probably is an answer to all the troubles and strife of the world. There is a way to come in and put the world right. But do you want to do that at the expense of your own grandkids? If I said yourself, you might say, well, yes, I think I could, and try to be very magnanimous

and very selfless, and say, yes, I'd be willing to give my life. Well, that's very commendable of you, but it's not just you. It's everybody. It's people that you love. And you know what, friend? It's not just you. It's everybody. It's people that you love. And you know what, friend? It's the people God loves. That the destruction of what you complain about, the destruction of the evilness or the wickedness of the world or, you know, whatever is attached to your statement, why doesn't God do something? I think you might find an answer in what he's saying here. I know you think that you can come in

and separate these weeds from the wheat, but I want you to know that it's not going to happen that way. If we destroy these weeds, we're going to destroy the weed as well. And I mean, do you see in this the wisdom of our husbandmen? Do you see the wisdom of the man who owns the field, who planted the wheat to begin with? And he's saying that, no, I know better than that, that if you go out there and try to remove these weeds,

you're going to remove the wheat. And that's just way too expensive. So what do we do? Let them both grow together into the harvest. Grow together. Then what do we do? Well, then it won't matter if we root up the wheat because we're taking them home anyway.

It won't matter if you pull up the weeds and it destroys the roots of the wheat because it will be harvest time. Everything's going to be just fine. Nobody's going to lose anything. And we're going to gather the wheat. We're going to gather the weeds. The weeds go on that truck and the wheat goes on that truck. It's going to be more work,

but nobody's going to be lost. And here, this is a matter of faith and trust and actually belief in our God is knowing what's best for us. This is really kind of a wonderful thing, and to me it gives me great comfort to know that this isn't just happenstance. God's just kind of leaning back on his throne, reading the newspaper, and saying, yeah, that weed problem down there, that's a bad deal. Sorry about that. Nothing I can do.

No, there is something he can do. But he says it's too expensive. Why? Because it's going to destroy the lives of we who are on the earth who love the Lord and he loves us. Now, how that is, I don't know. Why that is, I don't know. What those weeds are, I don't know. But I do know that an enemy has

sown them. We need not confuse this weed with the weeds we learned about in the parable of the sower. Those are the ones that you sowed. The cares of this world that grow up and choke the word that it becomes unfruitful, look, that's your deal. That's the weeds that are a problem because you empower them, because you cooperate with them. So those are under your control, but there are some that are just not under our control. There's not a thing in the world we can do about it

except the destruction and loss of everything that God loves. So we have to relinquish to him in this area. Now let me give you a concept you probably haven't thought of. We are going to, as time goes by, we're going to talk about, and I will do so more in more depth when we come to it. That when Jesus talks about the end of the world this is obviously the harvest that he's talking about here and that he will subsequently as we go on we'll talk about many many times and that is the harvest of all things. It is the end of the era so to speak.

It's the time when all things come together for their purpose. Everything will be known. There will be nothing hid that will not come abroad. Every person will be judged for the deeds that are done in the flesh. Justice will prevail. The wisdom and honor and love that is due our Lord will wash over the earth. And it's, you know, like the Bible says, like the waters cover the sea. I mean, that's just, it's just, it's going to be a beautiful time. However, there is going to be a harvest that

takes place. Now, in our day and and age when we play around with the fantasy of a rapture, we see him coming in if the rapture were true, we would see him coming in and pulling the wheat up and the weeds staying intact and he's going to suck all the wheat off the, I'm doing it again, he's going to suck all the wheat off the earth and leave all of the weeds here. But we will as

time goes by show you that that is not his way at all. As a matter of fact every place that he talks about this harvest time, He talks about taking the wicked away and leaving those who are His people. The very opposite, as a matter of fact, it is absolutely diametrically opposed to the rapture theory

but you will not find a parable where Jesus talks about the harvest of the earth where the righteous are taken and the wicked are left. No, every one of the parables that you read, the wicked are taken and the righteous are left. Every parable says that the wicked are taken and the righteous are left. And here we hear him say that at the harvest I'm going to say, are you ready for this? Are you still sore that I said something ugly about the rapture? Look, remember I told you about doctrines?

If you can't hold them in your hand loosely and they won't stay there, the wind drives them away because they're chaff. You need to hold all your doctrines and all your beliefs in an open hand. If you're holding tightly to this rapture thing, you're making a mistake. I'm sorry to tell you, but you're making a mistake. You will not find that example. And here, we don't find it there either. What does he say here?

He says, let them both grow together to harvest. And in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, Do you see this? The wicked are taken and the righteous are left. Two will be in a bed. One will be taken and the other left. Who's taken? Who's left who's taken who's left friend the righteous aren't taken the wicked are taken jesus said in the days of just it was in the days of noah so shall it be in the coming of the son of man when the wicked are taken away they're taken

away the tares are gathered and taken away. You won't find it any other way. I'm sorry to tell you, but you will never find the righteous taken and the wicked left. Why would he do such a thing? Well, I'll tell you what, it goes back to that same old fallacy about us all going to heaven when we die. We're not going to heaven when we die. Heaven is coming here. And the righteous are left here on the earth because this is the kingdom of God for us. It's not our kingdom. He's not coming.

God is not coming to the earth to live. Jesus Christ is coming to rule and reign forever. And he's going to reclaim the kingdoms of this world and subsequently offer them to his God. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God. It's pretty obvious that the earth is our dwelling place and it will continue to be. And before it becomes our dwelling place, he's going to root up every bit of evil that you've

been complaining about all your life. Why doesn't God do something? He's going to do something. But it's going to shake this entire planet and it's going to loosen your roots. If you're wheat and the wicked are taken away, you're going to suffer. We're all going to suffer. It's going to be a bad day. I always ask people, when the Bible says that Jesus appears and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, who do you think that is? Do you think that's the wicked? No. It's going to

be us. This is going to be us. This is going to be a bad day. Well, you know, I know you were planning on it being a great day. You were planning on it being, you know, a wedding feast. I know you were planning on it just being a big party. But the truth is, is the Bible says that a man who desires the day of the Lord, and that's what we're talking about. A man who desires the day of the Lord lacks understanding because that day is going to be like a man who fled from a lion and a bear met him. You can't prepare for this. And I know you got canned goods.

I know you got yourself a really nice rifle with a scope on it. I know that you've got safe rooms in your house, or you got a bunker buried in the backyard, or whatever other preparation you made for him, you can't prepare for something you don't know anything about. You can't do it. The only thing that we can do is yield ourselves to our God and not be deceived. I'd love to talk to you about that, but it's a subject that we're

not going to cover before the show is over. But we're going to talk about not being deceived and how you can prevent from the greatest deception that's ever fallen upon mankind. And part of that great deception, I'm afraid to say, is the idea of the rapture, that we're all going to be taken away from here. And there are people who, that's their only hope. You know, the Bible talks about the blessed hope. Somehow, along in the last hundred years

since this rapture thing has come along, the rapture has now occupied the place of the blessed hope. But when the scriptures talk about the blessed hope, you know what they're talking about? They're talking about the resurrection. That is our hope of living again. It has nothing to do with the rapture. Absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever.

Now, next time we get together, I'm going to tell you something that's probably going to be very disturbing to you. And that is that the plan that he mentions here, that at the end, when the harvest time comes, I'm going to send forth the angels, and they're going to gather the tares into bundles friend uh i believe with all my heart and you can believe it or not you can deal with it or not you can say i'm just all wet and move on it's okay but for me i think we're in that time right now. And I'm going to explain it to you. It's going to be very uncomfortable to you, but I believe that we are in that time right now

when the angels have been set loose on this earth to gather the tares. And there's a certain way that they're being gathered. There's a certain type of person. There's a certain type of person. There's a certain type of so-called Christian that has certain characteristics. And the angels, the messengers of God, are baiting the trap with the very thing that these people are after.

And it's going on. And I think it's going on right now and you ever wonder who are these people that call themselves Christian why don't they resemble the Lord Jesus at all why do they have so much trouble in their life and they there's they don't set forth any righteousness. They're not exemplars of faith. They're really no different than anybody else. And they call themselves Christian. Why is there such an abundance of these people?

I'm going to explain it to you. We're going to talk about it next time. Our time is gone for now. I hope you're enjoying. I don't know how you can. These things were tough for me, but this parable of the tares is just loaded with this kind of information about the end times. And I think we all ought to be prepared. We ought to be informed. And as these things happen, we're going to know exactly where

we are. And none of us need fear these things because God has not appointed us to wrath. Alright, that's all for this time. I want you to do something for me. I want to hear from you. Would you write to me? I love getting your emails. And you can do so simply by writing to Don at ThinkReady.com. Alright, it's time for us to go. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye. you've been listening to don c harris of think red ink ministries ThinkRedInc.com. That's ThinkRedInc.com. Join us again for the next episode in the Words of Jesus series. you