Wheat and Tares :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles, Sean Gooding

Matthew 13: 24-30

“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”

As we get closer and closer to the end of the age and the return of the Lord, this parable will make more and more sense. As I was pondering this today, the person of Judas came to mind. How did he fool the disciples for about 3 years? In fact, not only did he fool them, but that very night when Jesus told them that one of them at the table would betray Him, they all thought it could have been any of them. No one immediately pointed out Judas and knew he was not saved.

There are two things here that come to my mind: one is that all of the apostles understood their human frailty. They understood that they could all fail. Secondly, Judas was face to face with Jesus for 3 years and saw His miracles firsthand, and yet he never believed in Jesus as the Messiah. How was that possible to have been an eyewitness not only to the public Jesus but also to the private Jesus who taught them and showed them His majesty?

Jesus warns us in Matthew 24 not to be deceived. Look at verses 3-4:

“Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’ And Jesus answered and said to them: ‘Take heed that no one deceives you.'”

There is a deception that will happen in these last days that can even fool the Lord’s people if they are not careful. As we get closer and closer to Jesus’ return, there is a serious division happening in the ‘church’ world. We are beginning to see more and more apostasy in ‘churches’ than before. There are serious attacks on the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures and even on the person and deity of Jesus. God loves you just the way you are, and there is no need for you to change has become the mantra of many a ‘church’ in our time. But Romans 12:1-2 tells us that God wants to renew our minds and transform us:

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Yes, God loves you and accepts you as you are at salvation, Romans 5:8. But His desire for us is that we become more and more like Jesus, Galatians 4:18-19:

“But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,”

When we survey the churches in Revelation 2-3, we find some that are very good and serving the Lord, we find some that are fighting doctrinal issues and need to get back to the narrow path, and we find some that are dealing with personalities inside the church that are trying to lead them astray. To some degree, most churches have internal struggles; some are sitting churches that are the ‘tares’ from the Devil, planted there to cause descent, division, and disruption. We will need to be more vigilant and ask the Holy Spirit to show us the fruit or lack thereof.

It breaks my heart to know that there are people who sat under my teaching – some have led classes and maybe even filled in for me – but they have never known Jesus as their Messiah. It boggles my mind. It also makes me go back and review the choices I made; do I confess Jesus with my mouth? Do I trust in Him only for my salvation? Do I confess Him as God? Do I confess His resurrection?

Judas never got to see the risen Lord; maybe that would have been the tipping point for him to believe. Do I truly believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead? Would I, like the apostles, die for this doctrine? The truth is that time may be upon us here in North America.

There are little subtleties, even in the area of Christian music. My family and I listen to Christian radio stations, and we know a lot of the songs by heart, but if one is careful to listen, there are some lies in these Christian songs. A lot talk about being ‘washed in water’ for salvation, not the blood. Many still teach the prosperity doctrine that Jesus will make you healthy and wealthy; this is not true. Many teach that Jesus went to hell after His death and preached to those in Hell; He did not. He specifically promised the thief that they would meet in Paradise that day. Many artists refuse to take a stand on homosexuality; some of the men seem to be very effeminate, and wow, there is a lot of money passed around and a lot of awards.

I am not sure why Christian artists need an awards show. Jesus did and still does all the work.

Jesus knows His own; no one is fooling Him. Does Jesus know you? Judas knew Jesus the man, but he did not know Him as Jesus the Messiah.

The division between the wheat and tares will become more prominent as we get closer to Jesus’ return. Keep reading and studying the scriptures and ask God to help you to grow in the image of Jesus. This is His will for you.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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Wanting to Trust :: By John Lysaught

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles

Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

It’s difficult to have trust these days. We don’t know who or where to turn to for accurate information. We seemingly can’t trust anyone – not the media, not an elected official, and now we can’t even trust a lot of preachers either.

What we can absolutely trust is the Word of God. Or rather, we should know we can trust the Word of God. But, like most things stemming from being fallible human beings, the influences of the world and people can muddy the waters of that trust in the Word of God.

Let’s stop for a moment and have a reality check – life is hard. There is a long line of trials waiting their turn in our lives. We can see some of them coming from a distance, and sometimes they sneak from around the corner, but they still come and keep coming. Even if we see them from the distant horizon, it doesn’t make them any easier when they arrive.

I’ll admit that most of the trials I had or am currently having are self-inflicted. I reckon yours are as well. Whether these trials were born a moment ago or from actions or decisions dated years back, when that train comes a’ rolling in, I know immediately it was from my own poor decisions or mistakes. But yes, there are events outside of our control coming from the world and others that cause us trials. Either way, we don’t look forward to them.

Now, when we are knocked down in a trial of some sort, it is easy to fall prey to the tunnel vision that comes with that moment. Our focus is solely on the problem, and like blinders on a horse, we can only see what is in front of us. It is like the saying “not seeing the forest from the trees” because we only see that which is causing us angst and nothing else.

When we turn our attention only to the trial in front of us, our mind’s aperture narrows, leaving everything other than the problem blurred out. This is what happens with our trust in God and in His Word. When we focus in on our present trial, our trust in God gets fuzzy. We need to ask ourselves why.

What I mean, in a different way, is when we have issues with our trust in what the Word of God gives us regarding the surety of God, we need to question our trust level with Him. Why? Because God does not change (Isaiah 40:8; Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8, etc.). We, on the other hand, in our fallen state, do.

When times are good and the faucet of blessings is pouring out, we have great trust in the Lord. Why wouldn’t we, right? Things are great! Yet once that smooth road starts getting bumpy, we begin to falter in our trust. When the blessings stop flowing and only drips or stops, this is when our ‘great’ trust starts forming question marks in and around our minds. We start asking why, not in an attitude of seeking comfort or guidance, but we ask why in a pitiful and condescending attitude toward God.

An unexpected medical diagnosis. Losing a job. A spouse walks out on the family, or a loved one dies too soon. Unexpected and bad things happen. This is life. This is what happens in a fallen world. When things like these occur, we can quickly imitate the unsaved by blaming God instead of having the trust in God that He deserves from us, regardless of the situation. This, in turn, leads us to turn to man and the world for answers and comfort.

When things do go awry, what we need to do and what we commonly do as Christians can turn into a contradiction. We know we need to turn to our faith and prayer to seek God first, and yet, we turn to ourselves or others for answers or comfort, leaving the things of God as a last resort. We are quick to turn to an internet search engine to seek answers man has provided, not God’s Word for wisdom, hope, or comfort.

The question to ask ourselves is, why do we do this? When things are not going so well, why do we turn to the things of man instead of the things of God? Why do we move our trust indicator from God to the world? More than this, why do we turn our trust in Him and question (or ignore) the guidance or direction that God shows us in the moments of trials and tribulations through His Word?

I see it as a matter of holding on to our foundational faith and trust in God and His Word. The key here is to “hold on.”

For those who have played sports or were in the military, you know there is a lot of training involved in these types of activities. Training is what honed and reinforced the basic skills needed, so foundational actions became second nature. Through training and building on the basics, one can face and adapt to challenges because of that foundation beneath them.

The same is true with our faith. To face and come through trials with full trust in God from beginning to end, we need to practice the foundations of trust in God so that when a trial plows into us, we know how to react. It is quite simple to begin this foundational training – just pick up your Bible and begin to read.

Once we begin to learn and practice the foundations of our faith to trust God, we can start to superimpose God’s Word in our lives so we can see God in action, whether in retrospect or in our current moments. Being able to superimpose God’s Word in our experiences creates anchors in our lives for us to reference back to for helping us in current and future trials.

Anchors, for me, are pivotal experiences in my life that are, without a doubt, from God operating through the Holy Spirit or another person or other means. These are very clear and lucid moments that when I recall them, and superimpose God’s Word on them, I am re-grounded in the promises and truths of God. This helps me remember that God is in control, not anyone else, including me, but God and God only.

Again, this happens only when I can superimpose the Word of God on those events. If I am not familiar with the attributes or the ways of God as spelled out in His Word, how can I testify with surety that God was involved or not? I could guess, but that would not be a truthful biblically based assessment.

What I am saying is one cannot superimpose the Word of God in and on their lives without being familiar with the Word of God to be able to recognize that He is involved. If you are not familiar with the Bible, how can you know with certainty what is and is not from God in your lives?

Don’t get me wrong; one doesn’t have to be a Bible scholar to imprint the Word of God on their lives – not at all. The great thing is that as we develop and mature as students of our faith, as we study and become more familiar with the Word of God, we will be able to look back in our personal histories and todays and see the truths of God operating in our lives.

This will give us more confidence in His Word, and with more confidence will come more trust in Him for our now and futures, whether in times of trials or blessings.

God Bless!

Johnflysaught@gmail.com