The spirit of God was much in evidence this morning at ABC! He gave us all the opportunity to reflect and examine our relationship with Him! Jesus spoke many wonderful but hard truths! Such was the case with the parable of the wheat and tares!
In a day when lives of those in our churches sometimes looks shockingly similar to those who are not believers, the wheat and tares parable is instructive! Jesus interpreted the parable Himself, so there is no ambiguity about it! The Lord is planting kingdom seed in this world! He says in the parable that the seed represents believers - Kingdom citizens.
Here is the thing - genuine followers of Christ produce fruit! They are planted by the Lord and they will be gathered into the presence of God at the final harvest! The tares, while initially looking very similar to believers, grow and prosper and do a lot of things that the wheat does. But they do not bear fruit, and as they grow, they reveal more and more that they are not wheat! They have no value - they are gathered at the harvest and burned! Jesus identified this burning as the the eternal fire of hell, where He gives the horrible description of this fire as the place of "gnashing of teeth!"
In the modern American church, we have created a rather heretical set of "agreements" with one another! We readily accept as normal that roughly 20% of our people will do 80% of the work of the Kingdom! We readily accept that roughly 20% of our people will give 80% of the stewardship! We call this, in Southern Baptist circles, "NORMAL!"
As a result, we have very low expectations of those we consider to be followers of Christ . In the vast majority of SBC churches, we accept as "NORMAL" that just under 50% of our people can ever be found! Ever! Anytime! Anywhere!
The parable of the wheat and tares helps inform us that salvation from God is not a fruitless life! The wheat produces! But for too many of our churches we have created this "non-Christian Christian!" It somehow makes us feel better, though heaven only knows why! The problem is that many tares are in the church! They are not my enemy! They are their own enemy! They are deceived!
We often ask questions about why modern churches, on average, in the US are so weak - why we don't see more movement of the Spirit of God? Why do we not see more healing, physically and spiritually? Why do we not see a "powerful in proclamation" and "rich in ministry" church?
Because we are too busy saying "peace, peace, when there is no peace!" Because we are too busy trying not to offend people in church who have no fellowship with Christ! Because we are too busy playing ourselves to death while Christ and His mission go unstaffed and unfunded! Oh, because we have MANY tares!
Sanctification is indeed a process - but it is an ongoing work towards the holiness of Christ! This morning we took a step in being more direct about that process - and calling attention to the fact that we must examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith - or if we are a fair imitation for a Christian!
May God help us - because on the day of harvest, wheat will be harvested to Christ - tares will be burned in the fires of hell - AND FRIENDS, THAT IS NOT FROM ME - IT IS FROM CHRIST!
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