Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.theupperroomfellowship.church/sermons/71649/matthew-1324-30/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] We have a very interesting passage of scripture. You may recall that we've just covered in Matthew chapter 13, if you'd like to turn there.! We covered the parable of the sower, and we did it over two separate sessions deliberately because we wanted to emulate the way it came to the Jews. [0:26] And so just cast your eye over the beginning of chapter 13, when Jesus spoke the parable of the sower, having done miracles before them for years and having always taught them with concise accuracy, he suddenly changes what he does. [0:44] This is a pivotal point in Jesus's ministry, where, to put it in a nutshell, Israel has blown it. They are no longer to be those that carry the word of God and those who change the hearts of the nations. [0:58] That role is postponed, not removed. And so we have the beginning of the church age, which, although it officially begins at Pentecost, kind of started here because Jesus started treating Israel differently from this point on. [1:15] And, of course, there will come that time, what is prophetically referred to as Daniel's 70th week, when Israel picks up the reins again of the oracles of God. So he spoke to them in this parable, and he spoke it, and then just left them scratching their heads as to what it meant. [1:34] And when we read it, we were equally baffled because we didn't go on and read the explanation, we just read the parable. And you think, what on earth is that about? And if you haven't read the explanation, you wouldn't be able to unravel it, at least not easily. [1:50] Then he gives the explanation from verse 18 onwards. And so then we come to the parable of the tares among the wheat. [2:04] And you will notice that what he does is exactly the same thing. So let's read it. And we're going to read from 24 to 30, and then we're going to read from 36 to 43. [2:18] And the reason for that is that Jesus has done the same thing to them again. What he's done is he's given them a parable. And remember, picture the scene here. There are multitudes following him. [2:29] He speaks a parable, and they all go away, scratching their heads. But those who are really his disciples follow him and ask for an explanation. [2:42] That's what happened with the parable of the sower. They all went home, and then the disciples came and found him and said, can you tell us about this parable? Why are you teaching him parables, and what's it about? [2:53] Well, we have the same thing here. What he does is he speaks this parable, tares among the wheat. Then he speaks another parable. Seems like there's no break between these. The mustard seed. [3:05] Then he speaks yet another parable, the parable of the leaven. And then the crowds go home, and the disciples come to him, in verse 36, and say, could you explain this parable to us, please? [3:21] So we've got the same thing recorded. And for us, this is important because the scripture says, we covered it in previous weeks, that this parable, in fact, we can just read it. [3:33] It says in, no, wrong gospel. I think it's in Luke's gospel. It says, this parable is the key to understanding all parables. [3:43] And I would go as far as to say these two parables, they give us a hook that we can use to understand the other parables, because he doesn't explain the others in Matthew's gospel. [4:00] He speaks them and leaves them unexplained, and expects you to go and do your own homework, applying the principles you've learned in the first two. So we'll do a bit of that next time, because next time we're going to cover the other two parables that he speaks here, the mustard seed and the leaven. [4:19] So let's read from verse 24 to 30. Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. [4:31] But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away. And when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. [4:45] The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? [4:56] And he said to them, an enemy has done this. The slave said to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, no, for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. [5:11] Allow both to grow together until the harvest. And in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers, first gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up, but gather the wheat into my barn. [5:24] Now, I'll probably just do a little bit on that, but I want to, first of all, talk about tares. [5:38] One of the disfavours various translations do is they tell us, they call it the weeds among the wheat, and they just call it wheat and weeds. [5:51] But the fact that it's tares is an important distinction. The weed in question is the Darnell weed, and when it's young, it looks just like wheat. [6:06] The very point of this whole parable is, when you get tares among the wheat, you cannot tell them apart until they mature. And even when they mature, and you've got mature plants here on the pictures, I don't know how clear it is for you there, but they look very, very similar. [6:23] So it's quite possible to harvest both together and not realise what you've done. In fact, the Romans had a criminal offence, because if you wanted to spoil your neighbour's crop so that you would earn more money off your crop, you could sow tares among his wheat, and the Romans actually made that a criminal offence. [6:43] I don't know what the penalty was. But why was that so dreadful? Well, because the tares are actually poisonous. [6:55] They're not just like having a weed, but if you get it mixed in with your crop, your crop becomes poisonous. So what's supposed to provide nourishment kills or makes ill. [7:10] And so Jesus is saying, and by the way, these parables we're reading in Matthew 13 are known as the kingdom parallels. [7:27] And he says the kingdom of heaven is compared to a man who sows his field with good seed, and then an enemy comes and sows the tares, and the tares are going to make that crop poisonous. [7:44] The crop will not only not nourish the people that eat its produce, but they will do damage to people who eat its produce. And I'll revisit this in a minute, but that reminds me of an awful lot of churches that call themselves Christian, and they're pretending to be wheat, but in fact they are tares, they are poisonous. [8:04] But we mustn't jump to that conclusion too quickly, because when we see the explanation, this seems to be more of an eschatological statement than it is an ecclesiological statement. [8:21] It's not a statement about the church, it's a statement about the world. Now the church isn't immune to the world and is affected by the world, but the application is broader than just the church. [8:34] So, he then goes, we'll read on, he then goes, talks about the mustard seed, talks about the leaven, which I will endeavour to deal with next time. [8:47] And then in verse 36, you have this repeat of what happened over the parable of the sower. Then he left the crowd and went into the house, and his disciples came to him and said, explain to us the parable of the tares in the field. [9:04] And he said, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man, and the field is the world. And as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one. [9:23] And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. And the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. [9:40] The son of man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire. [9:54] In that place, they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. [10:05] He who has ears, let him hear. So that's a pretty, what would you say, awesome, awe-inspiring statement from Jesus. [10:20] And the first thing I'd like to note, and having already gone way away from my notes, I'm just going to have to, I have this habit, if you come here often, where I get to about five minutes in and I'm lost in my own notes. [10:35] But God is gracious. It seems to work. If anybody believes that there is no hell, that there is no eternal torment, this one statement alone, if it was the only statement in scripture, would be enough to say, you're wrong in that assumption. [10:56] I had quite a long conversation with a Christian universalist a little while ago. A man who was a very sincere believer, but he could not get his head around the fact that there will be those who don't get saved and go to hell. [11:14] And he struggled with that. Well, he didn't struggle with it. He dismissed it. He said, I refuse to believe that. I believe everybody will get there in the end. Now, I didn't get into all the theological stuff about what that really means. [11:28] For a start, you're calling Jesus a liar. He spoke more about hell than he did about heaven. There's more about God's wrath in the Bible than there is about God's love. [11:40] And that's not because he's mean. That's because he desperately wants you to understand what his wrath is like and to avoid it. But this is one passage of scripture that for me completely, I mean, there are others, the sheep and the goats, and they all do the same thing. [11:56] But it makes it unequivocal. There is, for those who are unbelievers, for those who are sons of the evil one, there is an eternal penalty to pay. [12:12] Anyway, let's deal with wheat and tares. The one who sows the good seed is the son of man. The son of man is Jesus. [12:24] It's another name for Jesus. He's sometimes called the son of man, sometimes called the son of God. He was, of course, both. He was God, but he was a divine son of man as well. [12:37] And he's the one who sows the good seed in the field. And the scriptures just told us that the field is the world. Now, I will admit that I struggle to get my head around how to present this because the field is the world. [12:55] So in its broad sense, everybody out there who's not saved is a son of the devil. And everybody who is saved is a son of the kingdom. Now, that's very simple. [13:08] But why then would God be so keen to make the demarcation for us? Because those of us who are saved know where we're going. I hope you have an assurance of your salvation. [13:20] You should have. If not, read 1 John 5. I think it's the first half dozen verses that tells you if you believe on his name, you are saved. You have salvation. [13:32] John 1, verse 12, I think, is another one that says, if you believe, you're saved. John 3, 16. Those who believe. He gave his only begotten son so that those who believe would have everlasting life. [13:47] John 3, 18. Those who believe will never be condemned. Those who do not believe are already condemned. So we should have an assurance of our salvation, not because we're so brilliant, but because he promised it to those of us who trust in his name. [14:03] So why then make this demarcation? And I think I have to say, I'm glad he did, because before I reached the age of 28, which is when I got saved, I was definitely a son of the evil one. [14:18] I behaved like it in spades. I won't bore you with the details. They're not very edifying to know. But if he had clamped down on all unrighteousness at any point in time, I wouldn't be here today. [14:35] And many people in this room wouldn't either. So he has to allow us to coexist. He has to allow the sons of the devil and the sons of the kingdom to cohabit on the planet. [14:49] So this is in the broader context outside the church, because the people who were not yet sons of the kingdom need an opportunity to get saved. You begin to see how full of pitfalls this discussion can get, because I'm not saying by that that sometimes God doesn't reach out his hand of judgment and judge somebody because what they're doing is so heinous or so against his nature and will that he has to put a stop to it. [15:24] This is no new thing. He did it with the Canaanites originally. And relatively recent example, we've talked about it before in this room, the strike of lightning on York Minster when the Bishop of Durham started casting doubts about the need to even heed the fact that there was a virgin birth. [15:45] And lightning came out of a clear blue sky and set the place on fire. If you're looking at Facebook too much, there have been a few occasions when people have got up on stage and ridiculed God and have dropped on the spot. [16:02] So it doesn't pay to mess with God. However, he does, for the most part, allow us to coexist the unsaved with the saved. [16:18] I'm just going to unplug. It's already unplugged. Did I do that? Yes. See the effect you have on me. [16:32] What I don't know is why did the disciples not ask for an explanation of the parable of the mustard seed and the leaven? [16:48] And we'll never know because there's no record of it in Scripture. We just have to search the Scriptures ourselves for explanations of those. But it's quite probable that they already worked that out from their knowledge of the Old Testament because that's what we're going to have to do. [17:01] And they knew the Old Testament better than we do. But I don't know. The sons of the kingdom then, and this is not crystal clear in Scripture, but it's my interpretation of it. [17:22] If you turn to Ephesians 2, and I will say this while we're finding it, if you are not certain that you are a son of the kingdom, and by son, I don't mean that excludes daughters, it's sons or daughters of the kingdom, if you don't know that you're one, then come and talk to us and make sure that you become one because it's something you can know. [18:03] You can be assured of your salvation, regardless of what an idiot you have been or still are. You can be up to your neck in sin and still have confidence in your salvation because he is bigger than your faults and because he promised it. [18:20] 1 Thessalonians 5, and I think it might be verse 9 or 11, says you've been delivered from the wrath to come. [18:33] All of the sons of the evil one and all of the sons of the kingdom deserve to die under the wrath of God. But the ones who are the sons of the kingdom have been spared because they trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus. [18:49] So the only difference, that's a good piece of applause there, very timely. The sons of the kingdom have been spared, but we are no better. [19:03] We've just made a right choice along the way. What did I say? Ephesians 2, verse 15, is the verse that we want. But we can't start there because as Paul always does, he puts it in the middle of a sentence. [19:21] So start with verse 14. For he himself is our peace, who made both groups, and he's talking about the Jews and the church. He made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, so that in himself, he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. [19:58] So this division that, to a larger extent, currently exists between the Jews and the church, and the reason that this is an eschatological statement is it speaks of the end times when the two will be made into one new man, and therefore, the sons of the kingdom won't be called Jews and won't be called church, they'll just be called sons, because we've all become one new man. [20:27] Now that's in the future, that's a long way off yet, and this verse is referring to something that is a long way off yet, and we're in the process of getting to wherever that is. I hope I haven't lost anybody yet. [20:45] And these tares are the sons of the evil one. So throughout the whole of that period of history, in the general forum of the world, there will be those who serve Satan by confusing, when you try to take the tares out of a wheat crop, the problem is that the roots are entangled. [21:10] So when you try to take the tare out, it pulls the roots of other plants out as well, and so you finish up destroying both, which is why the landowner said, we'll leave it till harvest time, and then we'll separate them. [21:22] An important thing for us to know, there is not going to be a separation. It's no good for us to pray that God take these horrible people away, because he won't. He has himself said, he will separate them at the harvest, which is at the great white throne judgment. [21:42] He'll separate them then. Meanwhile, we have a job to do, which is to pray for them, because it's not too late, while they're still drawing breath, it's not too late for them to have the seed of the kingdom sown in their hearts, and for them to get saved, and become sons of the kingdom. [22:04] But we're not going to escape them. Now, the traditional preaching on this passage is a straightforward evangelical preaching of, you know, wagging the finger, are you a wheat or a tare? [22:17] a tare. And, if you're a tare, you need to become wheat, and it's a standard piece of evangelism. And it's not completely invalid, actually. Because if you're here, and you know you're a tare, I'd say, well, let us pray with you, and you have this opportunity to make the transition. [22:37] But, this eschatological statement speaks of what the church is going to be like from now till then. And, whilst it's not addressed directly at the church, it's addressed at the world, we are in the world, and we will not be unaffected by it. [22:54] And we have massive examples, and we need great discernment to see the tares in action when they come into the church. If you turn to Ephesians 2, hopefully you're still in Ephesians from last time. [23:22] If we just read the first six verses of chapter 2, it says this, starts talking about the sons of the kingdom, actually. [23:34] And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. [24:04] But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions, so when we were tares I would say, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. [24:26] So I just want to draw your attention to the use of a bit of language in chapter 2, sorry, in verse 2 of chapter 2 which is at the end of the verse it says refers to the prince of the power of the air and it says of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience and that word working is I'm not sure how it's pronounced energeo or energeo or but it what it what it means is Satan is energising the sons of disobedience he is giving them his power to carry forward their plan in their act of disobedience he is energising them and so when when people come into God's church we need discernment to see what they do what what is the energy that's behind their actions why is it for example that so many thousands of people have been carried along by the likes of Benny Hinn or Kenneth Copeland or the guy out in [25:46] Florida who was so infamous for a long time Todd Bentley people were Joel Osteen is another one they're jumping on aeroplanes to go out and see these people who are either tears or they've been influenced by tears because they're giving a false gospel they're giving false doctrine and the difficult thing is that sincere hearted Christians who have not been properly taught and who haven't studied the Bible enough yet for themselves so in their vulnerable youth as Christians are carried along by the razzmatazz and the entertainment value of what goes on and the roots have become entangled it's very difficult to I've had many conversations with people who used to fly out to see Todd Bentley from Southampton they used to go out by the plane load to get Todd Bentley's healing and I started to point out some things if this man is of [26:53] God where are the fruits of the spirit where is the love and the joy and the peace and the patience and the kindness and the gentleness and the goodness he's out there kicking people in the face trying to get them healed and his ministry is all the fruits of his ministry lack self control there's no self control there surely you should look at these fruits and question whether it's really God that's at work here oh no but it's miraculous therefore it must be God well Janus and Jambres were in the Genesis account were just as much into signs and wonders as the servants of God so what happens is that the tares are sown and sometimes the people that carry forward the message of the tares are not themselves tares they are those who have been deceived because the roots are entangled and you can't just rip them out because some of these unfortunate folk and that sounds arrogant because [28:07] I might be one of those unfortunate folk my roots might be entangled in some way I actually rely on all of you to say Ray you've gone the wrong way the reason I so much want this church to be a pastoral church is because I want us to rescue one another from this nonsense but if you if you look and I'm going to I'm going to risk a lot of contention when I say this the most quoted the much quoted John Calvin devoted his entire life to pursuing mercilessly those who spoke against him he was if you can have this and I use this only to make the point it's exaggerating to make the point he was a Christian [29:07] Hitler I mean he persecuted people who disagreed with him to the point of torture and death it was an awful thing that he did and yet there are few people who are more quoted than he is today and if you go around the churches forget for the moment the church of England and the Roman Catholic church but actually they quote him a lot as well because a lot of Calvin's doctrine came from Augustine and so he has a very Catholic approach to things but we have evangelical churches like this who really quote and push the doctrines of Calvin and we are in the future going to do a series on Calvinism because I think it's one of the biggest deceptions in the church today and our roots are entangled with the tears and so instead of finding the fault and saying oh we want no more to do with that doctrine we then spend and lots of very scholarly men spend vast amounts of time justifying the error that instead of saying well it must be an error then they feel they have to justify sticking to the error and to some extent have become blinded to the error and it's a very sad state of affairs we should be grateful for the reformers the reformers did a fantastic job of dragging us away from Roman [30:47] Catholicism to sola scriptura and sola Christos Christ only scripture only but some of the reformers did the craziest of things that show that their roots were entangled Zwingli the way he dealt with the Anabaptists they demanded adult baptism they were against infant baptism so he had them taken to Lake Geneva and baptised them under the ice and made them martyrs as a result and both Calvin and Zwingli did these things proclaiming that they were serving the purpose of God by doing it and I'm reminded of John I think it's chapter 16 that says they will kill you and think that they're doing me a favour so you've got these examples where the tares have got their roots into the entire church nationally and you could argue worldwide and we need to continually remain humble and seek [31:58] God and ask him to untangle the roots for us so that we don't go off on trails of error and so that we are equipped whenever the opportunity arises to rescue people from those situations there are lots of other entanglements that result in dilution of the gospel or dilution of God's word in some way so for example if you go to visit Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons I'm not suggesting it as a course of action but if you do you'll find that for the most part they are really sincere God loving people who've been led astray and what's the subtlety here oh yeah we love Jesus Jesus is fantastic but in the case of the Mormons we dump this for the book of Mormon [32:59] I heard from one preacher who'd been presented with the Bible by the Mormons and when he got it it wasn't the Bible it was the book of Mormon completely replaced the Bible in their view the Jehovah's Witnesses yeah we're Christians we love Jesus so where do you put Jesus on the great hierarchy do you believe Jesus was God oh no he was the I always get them mixed up he was the Archangel Michael it's the Mormons that believe he was the half brother of Satan so people can go along they turn up to worship they can wave their hands in the air they can dance they can say convincing stuff and they're under the influence they're not necessarily unsaved people but they are confused and deceived people because their roots are entangled with the tears the chap I had a conversation with who's a [34:07] Christian universalist is a former elder of a church now he's not alone in his view that he just cannot accept that God could send anyone to hell but you can't pick and choose the attributes of God that you apply you have to accept that this God of love who doesn't want to send anyone to hell is also a God of justice and therefore will have to send some you can't pick and choose the attributes of God the roots are entangled I don't think this man is an unsaved man I think he's a confused man and he's trying to apply a morality to Jesus that he would apply to himself this country used to exercise the death penalty for certain crimes the reason it applied the death penalty for certain crimes if you go back far enough is because that's what the [35:08] Bible said the Ten Commandments used to be our law and our response to these crimes if you take a life you lose your life now that was the justice of this nation when we were a Christian nation which was a long time ago now but in the 60s because of a particular miscarriage of justice they ditched the death penalty and so now we don't have justice anymore you can take a life and not lose yours now that's there are lots of people would argue with me on this point and that's fine I don't mind people arguing with me but do it from the Bible and I'm listening so in my estimation you mustn't pay too much store by my estimation you must be Berean and you must go and study it for yourself but in the [36:08] Garden of Eden Satan let's turn to it chapter 3 I don't know why I bothered to write notes really remember what the passage in Matthew said that the tares are the sons of the evil one Satan's kids now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field the serpent is Satan it's a metaphor for Satan now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman indeed has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden indeed has God said I'm not reading now I'm quoting Ray indeed has God said that he will send people to eternal torment if they remain unsaved the same ploy that Satan used to convince Eve to take that fruit is the ploy that he still uses oh but you can't claim to serve a loving God and then believe that he sends people and quite often they'll say people who are innocent as if there is such a thing as an innocent person none of us are innocent saved or not we are saved by grace and today we have other nuances don't we surely you can't believe that it's not okay for a man to marry a man if they love one another I mean God is love isn't he has God said surely you can't argue with people who want to mutilate the genitals of children who decide they want to be a different gender surely you can't contest that because if that's what they want to be then the loving thing is to let them be what they want to be isn't this evil and I don't know where the idea originally got planted but it was by tears of one sort or another sons of the evil one and what we then carry forward is the consequences of tangling roots with the sons of the evil one [38:53] God's church should not be a place where this can even be entertained or happen and yet churches are embracing transgenderism homosexual marriage and all sorts of other stuff those are the things that are writ large in our society pride week you get churches attending pride week and supporting it why all you're doing is demonstrating how entangled with the tears you are now we're supposed to love the people who are mixed up in that stuff and we're supposed to give them the gospel we're not supposed to say yeah we'll change our doctrine to go along with your thinking what we should be saying to them is when you get sick and tired of what this leads to when you suffer the natural consequences of your choices come and see us at the church and we will pray with you and we will lead you to [39:54] Christ and you can have a better life than this which is why we have to coexist with them for as long as we walk this earth because they can't get saved if we don't tolerance is another thing about you know this whole thing it can't be it can't be wrong to love who you love can it surely God wants us to be tolerant doesn't he no but when we express that tolerance it needs to be expressed in love that intolerance is not a stick wielding berating intolerance it's there is a better way the way of the gospel is a better way and we've already covered the virgin birth you don't need to be concerned about the virgin birth Christian faith doesn't depend on it yes it does but you there are people who believe this they believe the virgin birth isn't essential [41:00] I think there was a thing on telly a while back if they discovered the grave of Jesus with a body in it would that nullify the Christian faith and so called Christian bishops were arguing no it wouldn't now come on if he's still in the grave we're not saved and we may as well burn our bibles and all go home the other thing is finance it's God's will for you to be rich you won't find a single scripture that says that what you will find is a scripture that says it's God that giveth thee the power to get wealth so there are select people to whom God gives the power to get wealth usually to serve his purpose but this whole idea of the prosperity gospel is another point at which roots are entangled with the tears and it's so important to realise that it's an entanglement because it encourages people to chase money as direct evidence that [42:10] God is there and it doesn't work like that you chase God because he is God and for no other reason we played with the scripture earlier on Linda and I that says I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to spend my whole life somewhere else I don't need riches if you want me to have riches Lord that's fine but I don't need riches I do need God and I'd rather clean the loos for God than have riches without God which brings us to the eschatological point I think there is a place at the end of time called the great white throne judgment now the reason that Jesus used the analogy of the wheat and the tares is this is exactly what they did they harvested both they separated out the wheat from the tares and they bundled the wheat and the tares and they burnt the bundles so it was a very graphic example of what happens to the unsaved at the end of time if they haven't been saved and one could easily do a whole study from revelation on this couldn't one about being cast into the lake of fire and all that the Bible backs itself up in this regard but I think it gives us an unequivocal message and I can't speak for you but I'm guilty of pussyfooting around sometimes where I don't want to say what really needs to be said like do you realise that outside [44:00] Christ you are a son of Satan and there is only one place you're going and that is to the fires of hell things like that use the word sin and you get a black mark but Jesus wasn't equivocal with this he spoke absolutely clearly the sons of the kingdom go to the kingdom and the sons of the evil one go to the fires of hell and he used this example of wheat and tares as one of several that speak of that and in the how am I doing for time oh right on time then the light in the last verse verse 43 there is a quotation from Daniel 12 so if you turn with me to Daniel 12 and officially [45:13] I can't now read the scripture because I'm but we'll do this Jesus when he's explaining this parable quotes from Daniel 12 and he actually quotes from verse 3 but we'll read the first four verses now at that time Michael the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people will arise and there will be a time of distress such as such as never occurred since there was an nation until that time and at that time your people everyone who is found written in the book will be rescued hallelujah many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake these to everlasting life but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt wheat and tares those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever we must never lose sight of the fact that our calling is not to sit on fences [46:23] I've got a reference of Matthew 12 30 which we will finish with honest Matthew 12 30 and he's addressing them in this passage of scripture about the unforgivable sin or unpardonable sin and he says to them he who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters and there is this we make it so complex that you need an ology to understand when in fact the truth is it is as simple as if you're with me you'll gather with me if you're not you will scatter abroad and [47:43] I think I'll finish with these two statements we need to be wheat and we need to do everything we can to disentangle our roots from all of this other stuff however politically correct however much the pressure is there however nice it seems and we shouldn't be harsh we should speak the truth in love that's not harsh but we need to disentangle the roots and to take every opportunity to do so father I thank you for this word as is often the case I've not found it easy to exegete this passage but lord I do pray that our hearts will be eternally turned to you that we will have assurance of our salvation as your scripture says we should and that lord we will have discernment when we are entangled with stuff that we should not be entangled with and father as a church I pray that you keep us on the right path lord I have seen so many good brothers and sisters go astray and I do not want to be one of them I do not want to add to their number and [49:03] I pray that you keep me straight and all of us straight on the path that you want us to tread so it will be clear about the fact that we are weeds father I thank you for this wonderful opportunity to study your word in Jesus name amen voy voy! [49:43] voy! voy!