Our Enemy The Devil Has Done This Matthew 13:24- 30
Here in our country we have had much stormy activity over the passed few months. First it was Hurricane Katrina, and then Hurricane Rita.
It seem as though the world over has seen a lot of destruction, Wildfires started by lightning, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, disease and plagues, hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, floods, landslides and avalanches, famines, droughts are all things that make us question how safe the world is and why these things happen. For many people it makes them question the goodness of God, or even the existence of a good God.
Listen as I read this weeks text we find in MATT. 13:24-30
Vs.24Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
27So 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? 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 29But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30Let 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.
We see here in this parable the issue of evil in the world. We have four basic truths that Jesus is teaching in this parable.
The first is:
How did this evil get into it? Why do all these terrible things happen?” We are like the Master’s servants in the parable who say, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?”
We read in Genesis 1:31 that “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” and now there’s all these horrible storms and all kinds of diseases, so what in the world has happened? .
Since God created everything, did he also create evil? After all, many good people died in the recent catastrophes in the South. Churches, children’s homes and church camps were destroyed, and even Christians were numbered among the dead.
Listen dear heart; When something bad happens to you or someone else, it’s not because of some specific sin in your life or theirs, but the fact that we live in a fallen world — a world that has fallen away from God.
The human race as a whole has invited evil into the world through our collective sin. This is, therefore, a world where evil is present and real. And part of what makes evil so evil is that it is so unfair and unjust.
Good people suffer while bad people sometimes prosper. Why do bad things happen to good people, and why do good things happen to bad people? This was the prophet Jeremiah’s complaint. He said, Jeremiah 12:1 1Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Have you ever wondered, “Why do all the faithless live at ease?”
Some people have said that the hurricane and floods hitting New Orleans was the judgment of God on that wicked city. They point out that it hit on “Southern Decadence Day,” otherwise known as Gay Mardi-Gras.
But most of the revelers had not arrived, because it did not hit on the day of Southern Decadence, but two days before.
And how do you explain that the French Quarter where the event was to be held was the least affected area?
The thing that really angers some people is that God does not punish the wicked and destroy them like they think he should.
This was the problem of Jonah who thought God ought to destroy the evil Ninevites instead of saving them.
Jesus said, in Matthew 5:43-45 43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust .
God not only exercises mercy in the place of judgment, but also asks us to do the same.
Sometimes it seems we get impatient with God, because as the Psalmist said, Psalm 103:8-10 8The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 9He will not always chide: [plead]. neither will he keep his anger for ever. 10He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
We all like it when God does that for us, but we are angry when God does it for our enemies, or those we consider worse sinners than ourselves.
Remember the time that the disciples came across a man who had been blind from birth? John 9:1-3 1And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
The disciples felt as though when something bad happens it is because of some sin, known or unknown in the person’s life. But Jesus clearly said it was not that way.
Remember the account of the disciples coming to Jesus and telling him about some people that Pilate, the Roman governor, had murdered?
They assumed it was because these people had committed some terrible sin that this had happened to them.
But Jesus said, Luke 13:1-5 -- Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? 3I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. 4Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all .
We always seem to think our sins are better sins than the sins of other people. But that is why Jesus told them all to repent, instead of thinking that the other people got what they deserved.
The truth is that people do not always receive their due punishment here. In fact, sometimes it looks like those who are evil have life really good, while good people are struggling.
It is possible more good people than bad died in the recent storms. Isaiah the prophet had an important insight when he wrote: Isaiah 57:1 1The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
So God’s ways might seem unfair and unjust at times to our way of thinking, but God operates on the principle of mercy.
And another truth that this parable shows us is:
The evil in the world is the work of the evil one. Theologians use a term called theodicy. It is an attempt to justify God’s actions, and explain the evil and injustice that exists in the world.
Much has been written trying to explain the problem of evil in the world. And much of what has been written has ignored Jesus’ simple statement in matt. 13: 28: “An enemy has done this.”
Who is this enemy? The Bible explains that our enemy is the devil who “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
Many people don’t believe in the existence of a personal spiritual reality known as Satan or the devil, but what they cannot deny is that he is a part of the biblical story from beginning to end.
You may not believe that he exists, but it is clear that Jesus taught that he exists. Our spiritual enemy is never presented as merely a symbol, but always as a reality.
But this is no medieval character in a red suit with pointed tail. He is much more sophisticated than that, and far more dangerous. He knows how to make good appear to be evil, and evil appear to be good. That is what he does in the parable.
The weed he sows in the world grows up to look exactly like wheat. The weed he sowed was called darnel. In the New Testament era it was not unusual for someone’s enemy to plant darnel in their field. It was a dirty trick, because you couldn’t tell the difference between darnel and wheat until they had grown up, and by that time the roots were so intermingled that if you tried to pull up one you would pull up the other.
The weed looked like the wheat, and the wheat looked like the weed. The only difference was that in the end there was no fruit produced by the darnel weed.
By planting the weed in the wheat field, it diminished the yield of the wheat and made the harvest a much more difficult process.
Wanting to avoid these problems, the servants wanted to go and pull up the weeds right away.
But the Landowner knew that if they did, they would mistake some of the wheat for weeds, and the wheat would be damaged in the process.
In the end there would be less yield. The only thing to do was to wait for the day of harvest.
You may be saying, It just don’t seem fair. Why should good people suffer? Why this injustice? Why doesn’t God do something?
Because as bad as the evil in the world is, it would cause more damage to try and remove it at this point.
This parable reminds us of the garden there in Eden that God planted, the Garden of Eden.
God had planted a wonderful garden in a perfect paradise. Two people walk the earth in this beautiful setting.
But an enemy appears in the garden. He begins to sow seeds of doubt and suspicion against God.
The couple begins to question the goodness of God. And what started as an evil seed in the mind of Adam and Eve has become a full-grown crop of disastrous weeds in the human family. God could have pulled the weeds right at that point and destroyed them, but much good would have been destroyed along with the evil.
There is evil in the world, but it is not because God has placed it there — an enemy has done this.
Another truth of this parable is that:
There is a reason that God tolerates evil.
What would it be like if we had People with badges and guns who would be turned loose to determine who was Christian and who was not; who was evil and who was good.
It sounds like a good idea to do away with the evil and preserve the good, but the reality is that it is impossible. Great harm would be done.
There seems to be people, to hear them tell it, who claim they know what is right and wrong in every situation. They know who is bad and who is good.
TV evangelists blame sinners for disasters and call for the assassination of world leaders. They want to pull out the weeds before the harvest. They are afraid of what the weeds will do, but they do not seem to think about what evil would be done by pulling out the weeds.
God tolerates the weeds, because in the end, some who appeared to be evil will be saved, and some who appeared to be good will be revealed as evil.
We can’t always tell who is who. God tolerates evil for now, because we’re in this grace dispensation, but the day of His wrath will surely come.
Another truth we see in this parable is:
There is a day of reckoning. In the end the weeds are separated. The wheat is gathered and stored in the barn. [RAPTURE]
The weeds are tied in bundles and burned. If you understand the simple truth of what Jesus is saying here, it is not a happy day for those who lived their lives away from God — those who rejected God’s offer of salvation by receiving Jesus Christ as Savior & Lord will be cast into the fires of hell to be burned, yet never burned up, but tormented forever & EVER.
The lake of fire will be their final abode.
