Jesus Knows His Sheep

Not a lot shared this morning. That gives me more time to share. And so I'd like to do that.

Let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter 6. For some of you who are visiting, we are teaching and have been teaching for many years through the New Testament, through the Scripture, verse by verse. And we are working through the book of John. And now we've come down to John chapter 6, starting in verse number 59.

I'm going to try to finish a chapter today, Lord willing. And we'll see how things go. Let me just give some of you a review that have not been following along here.

In chapter 6, Jesus has fed the 5,000. Miraculously, those 5,000 want to make Him a king. And He departs and He goes up to a mountain and He sends His disciples across the Sea of Galilee.

And it says here that many took shipping of these people who were following Him and followed Him across the sea to the other side of the sea. Of course, there Jesus begins to dialogue with them. And He begins to share with them about the fact that we're not to labor for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures into everlasting life.

And then the conversation moves to the bread that comes down from heaven. And we've been talking some about the bread that comes down from heaven. The true and the living bread.

Not like Moses brought bread down in the wilderness, the manna, and they ate it and they died. Later on, they lived 70, 80, 90 years, but that bread did not sustain them forever. But Jesus said, I have a bread for you that you can eat of it that will cause you to live forever.

And Jesus said, I am that bread. I am the living bread. And so last time I shared two weeks ago, we took part in the Lord's Supper and we ate His flesh and we drank His blood.

And I share with you, we don't teach cannibalism, but that is simply the soul, the heart of man eating and embracing. Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And that as you embrace in your heart the Gospel, as you embrace the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin, as your heart says, Amen.

I believe that as Paul here in chapter 6 will say, or excuse me, Peter says, I am sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And so we spoke about that last time and now we've come here to verse number 59. I'm going to read down here through verse 66 and we're going to start with this section here.

John 6 verse 59. These things said He in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum, many therefore of His disciples. I'd like you to notice that phrase, His disciples.

When they heard this said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? And it's referring to eating His flesh and drinking His blood. When Jesus knew it Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.

The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. And we've talked about that, how that these words that Jesus speaks are not about physical flesh and physical blood, they're about Spirit. There's something underneath this natural illustration.

It's a spiritual truth. Verse 64, But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray Him.

And He said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto Me except it were given unto him of My Father. And that's the foreknowledge that we talked about before, that God has foreknowledge. He knows who are His sheep.

Verse 66, From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Let's pray and then I want to open up this passage here for us this morning and talk about reality. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we acknowledge You in all of our way this morning that You might direct our path and I pray that, Lord, as I teach Your Word that You direct my heart. And even as You directed my thoughts and my heart, I trust these last two weeks in preparation to share this morning, I pray even now that You'll continue to direct my heart. Lord, that You would speak through my weakness as we learn today a broken vessel, a broken and contrite heart.

And Lord, You desire things as a sacrifice that are broken. And may I also be broken this morning that You might use me as an acceptable vessel in Your hand. Lord, we commit this time into Your hand.

I pray Your blessing upon us. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, there's a large following that are following the Lord Jesus here after feeding the 5,000.

I don't know how many. We're not told how many took shipping and went across the sea to follow Jesus. But I do know this, that the Bible says many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.

So let's just pull out a number. Let's say three or four hundred people are following the Lord Jesus Christ after His feeding of the 5,000. I'd like you to notice here in verse 60 and verse 61 and also verse 66, it says many therefore of His disciples.

Verse 61, when Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples, and finally verse 66, from that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Now, these are people who have a desire to follow Jesus. They are called His disciples.

And let's say there's three or four hundred of them. Many of them are going back. Many of them are retreating.

They're pulling back from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is reality, and I want to share this with you because reality is this, that not everyone who names the name of Christ is going to make it in the end. Many people are going to depart, and even in the midst of someone like Jesus Christ, the Son of God, filled with the fullness of God, preaching the best sermons, praying the best prayers, even in the midst of this group of disciples who are walking through Judea and Galilee, even in the midst of this great influence, many of His disciples are going back and walking no more with Him.

Paul's company was very much that way. Paul said, Demoth hath forsaken me. Here is a man that was close to Paul, a man that walked with Paul in a very intimate way.

Demoth hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed. 2 Timothy 1.15, Paul writes this to Timothy, This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia have turned away from me. It's amazing to think that not only did many depart from Jesus, but Paul says here that Demoth forsook me, and all they that be in Asia are turned away from me.

And so this idea that if things go well, everyone will stay together is not true. As a matter of fact, even in the greatest of company, in the Lord Jesus' disciples and in Paul's company, many people departed from the faith and went back. The Bible says they walked no more with Him.

This same writer who wrote the Gospel of John wrote this in 1 John 2.19, He says, They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. And so in church life, the reality is this.

There's a group of people here this morning. Let's make this personal. Let's make application.

There's a group of people here this morning. But no doubt, they're not all God's sheep. There are going to be people here who are going to depart from the way, just as it was in Jesus' day.

There's going to be a Demoth who having loved this present world, is going to depart. And the Bible says that in Jesus' day, many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. There are tares amongst the wheat.

We're going to get to that passage here in just a little bit. But there are tares amongst the wheat. Now why are these disciples departing? Well, in verse 60, we see here that the disciples are departing because of the sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 60, many therefore of His disciples when they heard this, that you must eat His flesh and drink His blood, they said this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? When Jesus knew it Himself and His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Doth this offend you? You see, these disciples were offended at the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. What Jesus spoke to them offended them.

This idea of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And because of the offense, they drew back from the Lord Jesus. Because of the offense of His Word.

I'm going to go back. You don't have to turn there. I'm going to go back and read here in Matthew 13.

We're going to come there in just a little bit. But the Bible tells us that there are four types of soil. When the sower sows the seed, the seed falls into four different types of ground.

And these disciples who draw back are one of these types of ground. And here in Matthew 13, verse 19, it says this, When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which receives seed by the wayside.

So some people, their hearts are hard and the seed of the Word of God falls on their heart and the devil comes immediately and snatches it up. But he that receiveth the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. I want to be a disciple.

I want to be a follower of Jesus. Yet he hath no root in himself, but endures for a while, for when tribulation or persecutions arise because of the Word, by and by he is offended. In other words, there are people who hear the Gospel, who hear the love of Jesus, and they want to follow, and many of them started to follow Jesus.

They forsook family, they forsook their businesses, just like those disciples, those twelve, and they followed the Lord Jesus, but the depth of their commitment was shallow, and so as Jesus began to teach them the Word, by and by they were offended. And in that offense, it caused them to depart from the Lord. Now, reality is that those many, many disciples, maybe three, four, five hundred who were following Jesus, of that group of disciples, there were people who were second soil kind of people.

There were people who were third soil, and I could go on and read about the third soil. Are they that hear the Word, receive the Word, and then the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things, choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful? That's another kind of a heart. Truth of the matter is, there's different hearts here.

There are people who hear the Word and don't understand it. They're still unconverted. They've not made it personal, the Gospel.

There are people here who heard the Gospel, received the Gospel, but they don't have much depth of commitment, and when the Word of God is preached as we go through it, by and by they're offended, and finally one day they say, I'm not going there anymore. I'm done. This stuff about the Word of God and all the things I'm supposed to do and all this obedient stuff, it offends me.

It makes me stumble. They may be here for three, four, five, six years. And there are other people, some of them here that have a heart that believes the Gospel starts out in the right track, but there's so much of the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things that they're sitting in here, and if you open up their heart, you'd see a heart that's got thorns and thistles and all these affections and thoughts that are in that heart and causing the spiritual life to be choked out of them.

And praise God, there's some good ground here. There are some people here who have a good heart in such a way as all those things are out of their heart and their heart is a single heart and their heart is completely desirous of sacrifice to the Lord Jesus and they're not going to turn back and much like Peter they say, we are convinced and we are sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And so that's reality.

And even in the midst of these people, believe it or not, there's a Judas. Jesus said this, He knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray Him. In the midst of these disciples, not only are there second soil disciples, there are third soil disciples.

Praise God, there are some fourth soil disciples, but there's also a Judas in the midst of them. And the amazing thing to me is that Jesus even knew it. He says He knew from the beginning who they were and who should betray them.

In other words, the Lord could have gone through the crowd like this if this is those disciples that follow Jesus and pointed fingers and says, you're not mine. Get out. Hey you, Judas, you're the betrayer.

Get out. He could have gone and He could have cleared the house. He knew everyone.

He knew from the beginning who they were. Now I believe this morning there are people here who in 20 years won't be here. I'm not talking about won't be here in this church, but won't be in the faith.

I've been in the faith and been pastoring long enough to realize that some people are going to be gone. I look back. My wife and I look back 20, 25 years.

Some people are gone. They have gone to the world. They have turned their back on the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I was ministering with them, I never probably would have thought that these people would turn their back. Some of them got divorced. Some of them got remarried.

Some of them have gone off. Have gone off into the world. That's not an unusual thing.

As a matter of fact, in Jesus' group of His many disciples that followed Him, many of them went back and walked no more with Him. But I'd like you to notice here what Jesus uses to cleanse the multitude of the second and third soil kind of people, and that is the Word of God. You see the Word of God.

This right here is what we're using in the church to cleanse out the second and third soil, to cleanse out the Judas' amongst us. The preaching of the Word. Jesus said, now you are clean through the Word that I have spoken unto you.

This Bible here has the ability to cleanse out those who are not His. And so in speaking the truth in love, we will cause people to make a choice and that choice may be to depart. And that's reality.

It's alright in this church. By the way, visitors are alright to say amen every once in a while. You're not a visitor though, Jane.

You can say amen. So speaking the truth, you know, that's why we want to teach all the Bible. That's why we want to teach that you need to repent as a prerequisite to salvation.

We don't teach easy believism. And that catches some people up. Why? I want a church where it's no repentance.

It's all love God loves everybody and you can do whatever you want. Give me that kind of a church. Well, we won't find that here because that's not in the Word of God.

We try to stand for divorce and remarriage and that has caused throughout the years many to depart. We preach on hell. We preach on modesty.

We preach on a head covering. We preach on denying yourself and taking up a cross. We try to preach on everything so that those second soil and third soil disciples amongst us will finally say enough is enough.

I've had it. We're gone. But that is the way the Lord intended for us to cleanse the people of God.

Now Jesus, if He were standing here, He'd know which one of you were His. He'd know the betrayer. The only problem is I don't know that.

I have not been given that revelation. And so the Word of God is that which distinguishes or causes some to be drawn closer and causes others to be driven away. 2 Timothy 4 says this, Preach the Word the instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering in doctrine, for the time will come.

If you do that, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away from the truth. You see, you preach the truth, reprove, rebuke, exhort, and those who love the truth, those who love Jesus Christ will be drawn to it. Those who don't will be repelled by it.

And finally, whether it's six weeks, six months, six years, they will depart. John says they went out from us because they were not of us. So the Word of God is what Jesus used.

You know, that's interesting. The Lord... I've always been interested by the fact that these people left and Jesus said, Oh, please don't go! Oh, please, you people, don't... No? He even come to his disciples and said, Do you guys want to go too? Like, the door is open. And so, the Word of God.

That's why Brother Elson mentioned last week he talked about the truth. The truth is very important. We cannot compromise the truth.

We cannot take away from it, nor can we add to it. But this is the truth. And my belief, my belief system is this.

If you preach the truth, if you do not compromise the truth, in time, there will be people who will come to the truth or they will be repelled by the truth. If you put a bright, shining light here, those who love the light will come to it. Those who hate the light won't stay around the light for very long.

They might stay around the light because they're in a family. And that family has people who love the light. And they only stay around the light because their mom and dad stay around the light.

But I guarantee you, someday they're going to say, Enough of this light! I'm going to the dark! And so there was this great multitude of disciples and many of them went back. The truth. Now that's important because some of you probably won't agree with what I'm going to share from here on out, but God's method for cleansing the church is the Word of God.

There's something interesting here and I've always loved this verse. If you look back to John 6, verse 37, I've claimed this verse a few times in my life. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Hey, that's a wonderful promise, isn't it? He that comes to me, anybody, anybody who wants to come my way, I'll tell you what, I'll in no way, I will in no way cast him out. Now that's an encouragement to me because I don't care where you're at in your spiritual life, there is a promise that says if you make your effort to come towards Him, He will not cast you out. I will in no wise cast you out.

If you follow His ministry, you'll find that Jesus didn't cast anybody out. I ran through my mind, anybody that Jesus ever cast out, I mean, He had a lot of people He could have cast out. Some of these disciples that were second soul kind of disciples, He knew that they were not committed long term, that they'd depart.

He could have cast them out months before. Maybe they were with Him for a few years. He could have certainly cast Judas out.

He knew he was a betrayer. I will in no wise. Jesus was not one who cast out His disciples.

He allowed the Word of God to divide between the true and the false. He wouldn't come in here and say, I don't want to look at anybody. You are a false brother.

Oh, and you over there, you're a false... Get out! Out! He was not that kind. He didn't have that kind of a spirit. He was not a caster-outer.

He says, no, you come to Me, I'll not cast you out. No wise. The Spirit of Christ was not in casting people out.

If you wanted to stay and follow Him, you could. So He knew Judas was a betrayer, but allowed him to stay. A lot of people have a hard time with that.

Why did Jesus allow Judas three and a half years? If you look down here to John 6, verse 70, it says, Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? A devil! Can you imagine? Jesus knew that there was one amongst the twelve that was a devil. Got any answers for that one? And He never cast him out. He knew that there were many amongst the multitudes who were second soil type, who were third soil type, but He allowed them to stay.

The decision to leave was theirs. He was going to speak the truth. He even told His disciples, listen, fellows, you guys want to go? It's your decision.

Paul said this of Demas, Demas has forsaken me. You ever thought about that? Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world. I didn't cast Demas out.

Demas chose to leave me. Now you've got to stop and think for a minute. Here Demas is.

Paul says he loves this present world. How do you go from being a fiery, young evangelist with the Apostle Paul one day and the next day wake up and you're loving this present world? Is that even possible? No. You know what happened? Demas was on the right track and he began to waver.

His heart began to move. It was a process. There was a process of weeks, months, could have been years, that Demas was troublesome to Paul.

Demas, man, come on. Demas, get your act together. Come on.

Finally, Demas says, enough. I'm leaving. Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.

And then the passage I shared a little bit before here, they went out from us. We didn't cast them out. They went out.

That it might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Now here's something I know we all deal with and I want to bring this up. I think it's a good opportunity to teach and give some instruction.

What about... Think this through your mind. What about the influence of Judas in this group? What about the influence of the disciples who were second soil, third soil? What about these disciples who departed and went back and walked no more with Him? How long were they with Him? And what about that influence? Have you ever thought about that? How do you deal with that? Why would Jesus allow them to stay and influence the rest? Is this something that is wrong for Jesus to do? If it is, then Jesus is not a good example to follow. And I know this kind of strikes at the heart of many of our philosophies.

And I've struggled with this whole idea of I'm looking at the example of Christ. He doesn't cast anybody out. He allows certain second soil, even third soil type people to stay in the group.

There's a devil in the midst of them. He doesn't cast him out. He allows him to stay.

What about some of the influence? Now let me show you something else the opposite here. Turn to John's third epistle. Third John.

Here's something John says the opposite of what Jesus is doing here. And this is a spirit you want to avoid. I want to read in 3 John here.

This is the same John that wrote the Gospel of John. 3 John 9. John is writing here, I wrote unto the church, but Deotrophes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.

Now this is the opposite. Jesus said I will in no wise cast out. He never cast anybody out.

But here's a fellow that's casting people out of the church. Now look at verse 11. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good.

He that doeth good is of God. He that doeth evil hath not seen God. And so this Deotrophes has a different spirit.

Would you agree with me on that? This Deotrophes is one who is, you're on, you're out, you're out. He's casting people out. He may have good reason to do so.

I don't know why he's doing it. But it's not the same spirit that is of the Lord Jesus. I'd like to look at him just for a minute here.

Deotrophes, it says he loves to have the preeminence. He loves to be on top. He loves to control things.

He loves to be a leader. He receives us not. John and his disciples, he refused to receive them into fellowship.

Verse 10 says he prates against them with malicious words. He speaks evil of them and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbid them that would. He plays this political game, okay? John, you and your disciples, we're not going to receive you into our group.

And by the way, anybody in my group, Deotrophes says that receives John and his friends, we're going to cast you out. And so there's this political game being played. But John says it's evil.

Something that you want to avoid. And so let's make sure we don't have a casting out spirit. Amen? But we have a I will in no wise cast you out.

I've seen some groups that are, hey, I'm in charge and I don't think you're a Christian. You go. Boy, that's dangerous.

And so this whole Deotrophes thing is something that needs to be avoided. I'd like you to go back with me to another verse here in Matthew 13. Let's look there.

Matthew 13. I want to talk about the wheat and the tares for a little bit. Matthew 13.

I want to start reading in verse 24. Now this may be a new thought for some of you. That was a new thought for me.

As I was studying this and looking at it this week. Now, Matthew 13 starting in verse 18 all the way down through verse 23 is the parable of the seed and the sower and all these four hearts. You know, you have the hard ground, the stony ground, the thorny ground, and then verse 23 says the good ground.

So you have this multitude of different types of grounds. And then in verse 24, let's read. Another parable put he forth unto them saying the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.

Now the kingdom of heaven. This is a kingdom of heaven parable. It's teaching a principle.

And that principle is about the kingdom of heaven. It's not the kingdom of darkness. The kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man and that man here is the Lord Jesus. The interpretation comes later on in the chapter. The Lord Jesus which sowed good seed in His field.

The good seed are the children of the kingdom. So you see this picture of the Lord sowing His children all around the world. Jesus said go into all the world and preach the Gospel.

People are believing the Gospel. He is raising up congregations congregations where there are His children. The wheat.

Verse 25, but while men slept, His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went His way. Now who's the enemy? The enemy is the devil. It goes on here down in verse 39.

The enemy that sowed them is the devil. So the enemy comes to these groups of wheat and he sows tares amongst the wheat. The enemy is the devil and the tares.

Now I want to share a little about tares. Tares are these plants that grow up with the wheat and they look very much like the wheat. As a matter of fact, they're hard to distinguish between the wheat and the tares.

The only way you can distinguish, if you keep reading in verse 26 it says, but when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. The only way you can tell the difference is the wheat grows up and it has a beautiful head of fruit on it. The tares grow up and have no fruit on it.

But they look very similar as they grow. But the distinguishing mark is the wheat produces fruit and the tares don't produce anything. Although they look, they look much like wheat.

But it's not until fruit bearing time that you actually tell the difference between the two. And so the devil comes and he sees a field of wheat and will liken it to a congregation like this and his heart or his desire is to sow tares. Judas was a tare.

Those second soil kind of disciples in third soil were tares amongst the wheat. He is always trying to sow tares amongst the wheat. These are not Muslims.

These are not Hindus. These are not atheists. These are people that look like Christians.

These are people that grow up in the midst of congregations. You can't tell the difference between one and the other. And so the devil is always trying to do that.

To sow tares amongst the wheat. Now I'm going to read a couple of verses. I'd like you just to listen to them as I read them.

You don't have to turn there, but I want to read them. Just listen carefully as I read. This is 1 John chapter 2 again.

Little children, it is the last time, and as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come. Even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. They, the Antichrists, they went out from us, but they were not of us.

They were children of the devil. For if they had been of us, they would have no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. So here you have Antichrist spirit, children of the devil, growing up amongst the wheat, and then finally they manifest themselves, and in doing so, many of them are departing from the truth.

I think Brother Elson shared last week about false prophets. From 2 Peter and Jude, the Bible says that there will be false teachers and false prophets among you. That's just reality.

They're going to be among us. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, you don't have to turn there. Let me read to you another passage.

There's many I could read to you, but I'll just read a few just to let you see this. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 17 says, Now in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together, not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it, for there must be.

Think about this. There must be heresies among you. There must be this kind of stuff that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

So I think many people today, and I think this is a mistake, many people want to have a perfect church or a church that is completely, entirely pure of any betrayers, any second soul, any third soul. Everybody be a forced soil. Listen, Jesus Christ didn't even have that.

The apostles didn't have that. John said the early church didn't have that. Let me read another passage to you.

In Acts chapter 20, verse 29 says, For I know this, Paul's writing, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. So the devil is outside the door, and he's trying to plant pears amongst the wheat.

Paul says, listen, I'm not even going to get out the door, and I'm telling you that people are going to start rushing in. Others are going to rise up from within you, and they're going to manifest themselves for who they really are. That's in the early church.

That's in Ephesus. Listen, there will always be pears amongst the wheat. This is what the kingdom of God is like.

This is a kingdom of God, a kingdom of heaven principle. Jesus had them, Paul had them, the early church had them, but praise God, listen to this, even though Jesus walked with a Judas and all of these disciples who had finally betrayed Him, the power of God was there. Even though the apostle Paul had a Demas and many forsook him, the power of God was there.

Well, before I go on here, I want to share a few things a little bit down further here in this parable, but I'm going to talk to the tares here this morning real quick. Maybe you don't know you're a tare. Most tares are deceived.

Most tares think that they're Christians. Now you just think about this. How dreadful would this be? I think of the tare.

Maybe you're a tare here this morning and you sit in the church and you have to hear this preaching and you don't love the truth. You have to continue on it. Many of you are being held in by guidelines and rules and even the Scripture is troubling your conscience and you'd like to do other things.

Maybe you're living in sin and hiding it and you're sitting in here. Let me tell you, it's probably a miserable life. I say this to you, if you're a tare and you want to be a tare, I would recommend that you go out into this world and live it up.

I mean, live for the world. If you want to live for the world, go and live for the world. Can you imagine being confined and hearing the Word of God and being guilty and convicted and continue to stay in a church for the rest of your life and then die and wake up in hell? I mean, if you die and wake up in hell, you're probably saying, why did I do that? I mean, why not go out and live and buy a boat and a yacht and make as much money and have all kinds of immorality? Why not live? You know, eat, drink and be merry, Paul said, if there's no resurrection.

You know, it's a miserable state to be a tare. You're sitting amongst people that are trying to tell you how to live and how to walk and preaching the Word of God, yet you don't have any interest in it. And yet you're just going along with it.

Listen, if you're a tare here this morning, either get in or get out. And that's what Jesus said to His disciples. You want to go? There's the door.

Get in or get out. I don't want to cast anybody out. I want everybody to stay.

That's my heart. I want you to follow the truth, to love the truth. But if you're sitting here this morning and you're a tare and you have very little commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and these kind of things, preaching and this church stuff just bothers you, and the only reason you're here is because your friends are here, it's not a good reason to follow Jesus.

And so I want to just encourage the tares. Don't deceive yourself. Amen? You know, I got a feel for this guy that Jesus talked about in one of His parables.

He gets into this wedding feast. You remember the story? He sees all these people with gowns on, but he doesn't have one. You know, it's interesting that none of the people who had the gowns pointed to him and said, hey, you don't have a wedding garment on you.

But it says when the king came in, he saw a man without a wedding garment. He says, how did you get in here? And the man says, speechless. And then the Lord says, take him and bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness.

Listen, I don't want to be someone who hangs around God's people all my life and thinks that I'm going to get into the kingdom and finally at the end, not have on a garment. And they cast out. Amen? Jesus said in Matthew 7, many will come to Me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this? Didn't we do that? And then He said, I never knew you.

So to the tares. I think Jesus was speaking very clearly to those people who departed. I think Jesus was rebuking His disciples and even Judas.

I mean, I think He was speaking to them directly. They wanted to stay. He said, you can stay.

Well, let's keep reading here in this parable. Matthew 13. It says, verse 27, So the servants of the householder came... I don't know who these servants are.

They're not interpreted here. Maybe they're the pastors of the churches. I don't know who they are.

But the servants of the householder came and said unto Him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? And from whence hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. It's the devil that planted his children amongst My children. Now look what the servant says.

The servant said unto Him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? Now that's the obvious answer. I think all of us would say, yes! I know my heart, your heart. Somebody go and yank these tares out.

Right? Go and gather them up. Why should a Judas stay here? Why should these second and third soul people stay here? Man, their influence is not good. Get them out! I'm going to tell you something.

God has a purpose for those people. We're going to see it in just a minute. He's going to say it right here.

And so the servants, they respond, Let's go and tare them out. Wouldn't that be better? Well, look what it says in verse 29. But He, this is the Master, He said, Nay.

Can you receive that nay? Nay! That's from the Lord. You say, man, if we could just get rid of certain people in this church, I think we could really go some places. Nay! Can you hear a nay there? That's the Lord saying that.

Nay. Jesus, don't you understand that if you'd kick Judas out of here, we'd really go places. I tell you what, and if these second soul type of people, they're going to depart anyway.

If you just boot them out too, we'd go places. He'd say, nay. No.

Now, here's my thought. If Jesus is going to say no to it, I'm going to say no to it. Now, let me ask you this.

Is Jesus covering for the tares here? Is He throwing cover? Now, here's the reason why, and this is a beautiful thing, and it ought to be beautiful for all of us here, but verse 29, it says, but He said nay, and here's why. Lest, while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Now, the concern in the Lord, or the Lord's concern is this.

If you go out and you do this in the fields, you pull up the weed right beside the wheat, guess what's going to happen? There's a chance that you might uproot the wheat that's beside the wheat or the tare. And so the Master says don't do that. Lest, while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat.

Now, here's God's greatest concern is that none of the wheat get rooted up. None of the wheat gets rooted up. If you look at the heart of God, Lord, what about the influence of Judas? Don't cast him out, because if I cast Judas out, he has friends here, and his friends are going to say, what was that? If that's what Christianity is, I'm leaving.

You start casting people out, all of a sudden, some of the weaker in the faith are going to say, whoa, what's going on here? And so there's a real concern about tearing the tares out. Lest, you root up the wheat also. That is the greatest concern the Lord had.

You know, God's heart here is that none of the wheat be lost. None of the wheat be lost. Something else that might happen.

You know, I might say, well, I can tell whose tare here, and I can tell whose wheat. I may make a mistake and root out something that is a wheat. I'd have probably rooted Lot out.

Lot, you're a wheat for sure. I mean, you're a tare for sure. Lot, out! Oh my, he had a righteous soul.

That wasn't good. So sometimes, we might be tearing a few of the wheat out and trying to get the tares out. Now, I'm going to read another verse to you back in John 6. I want you to listen very carefully as I read it.

Because there's something wonderful in this thought here. In John 6, verse 37, it says this. Listen.

All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from Heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. Now here's His will.

And this is the Father's will which has sent Me that of all which He has given Me, I should lose nothing. There you go. I will not cast any of them out because it's the Father's will and I'm doing His will.

And His will is this, that I would lose not a single wheat. Therefore, you better be very careful around the wheat. That you don't go and try to pull the tares out and disrupt the faith of one of the wheat.

You know, the highest priority the Lord has is not with influence. His highest priority is with not uprooting the wheat. I like this because you go through the Bible and you see the Lord doing this.

He says a parable. He says what one of you shepherds, if you have a hundred sheep and one of them is lost, what do you do? You go and you leave the 99 and you hunt for this one that is lost. I would say to this shepherd, listen, you've got 99.

Who cares about this one? Don't worry about it. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm leaving the 99 and I'm going to find the one because it's the will of My Father that not one sheep there is lost.

Some of you mothers know what this is like. If you have 12 children and you've lost one, and one of them is lost, the other 11 are saved, if I would come to you and say, Mom, don't worry about it. You have 11 that are saved.

What's the big deal? How many of you mothers, your heart goes bleeding for the one that's lost, right? The one that's lost. God is concerned about every one of you. By the way, that's good news for us because you're not going to get lost very easy.

Amen? You're not going to get lost very easy because His will is that nobody of His sheep perish. So that is why Jesus allowed for tares amongst the wheat. He is trying to protect from any of His wheat being uprooted in the pulling out of the tares.

That's why Deuteronomy is not a good example to follow and Jesus Christ is. Now let's keep reading verse 30. Let both grow together until the harvest.

That's the Lord's will. Let both grow together. And you see this in the life and the ministry of Christ.

Both grow together. If you want to be in this group, you can be in the group. If you want to be a disciple, you can be a disciple.

I'm going to preach the truth. You can endure it. Stay with us.

If you can't, there's the door. Separation will come. Look at verse 30.

Let both grow together until the harvest. In the time of the 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. And so they're going to be separated.

There's going to be a separation coming in the end. But here's some good news for you. All things work together for good.

Do you believe that? Did Judas work together for good in the midst of those disciples? Did God take Judas and fulfill His will with Judas? No Judas, no betrayal. No betrayal, no cross. No cross, no salvation.

God took the very thing that many would have thought was not good to be there, and used it for His purposes. He always does that. Do you remember when Joseph stood before his brethren and he said, you know, you meant it for evil.

Boy, was it evil. But God meant it for good. The devil is sowing tares amongst the wheat.

He means it for evil. But I guarantee in the end, God's going to get glory, and He's going to use those tares for His good. And you know what that good is? That good is this, to produce a Christ-like spirit in every one of you.

Amen. To produce a Christ-like spirit. To be able to come to a Judas and to say, friend, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss? To love those tares.

To love those who profess the Lord Jesus Christ. Tares can work together for our good. God will use them to work conformity to Christ by showing us how to love, to be merciful, to be forgiving, to be forbearing, and all these things that we've talked about.

But Satan means it for evil, and God will work it for our good. Hey, here's something to think about. Don't get frustrated with the tares, but let them work conformity to Christ in you.

Don't allow the tares to change you into diatrophies, but allow them to mold you into the image of Christ. Now I want you to go back to John 6 here, and I want to finish up here with a few minutes. In John chapter 6, in verse number 66 it says, From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. We talked about some of these verses already. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve? And yet one of you is a devil. He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. For he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

Now there's two men here, Peter and Judas. What is the difference? I've often wondered, what is the difference between Peter and Judas? Here's a man, Peter, who denied the Lord three times. And then here's another man who betrayed him, delivered him up.

Why is it that Peter was then used in an incredible way to be a leader in the early church, and Judas went out and hung himself? What was going on in those two hearts? Peter wept bitterly because he denied the Lord three times, and yet Judas went out and hung himself. Well, here's the answer. When Peter said, I believe You're the Christ, the Son of the living God, Peter believed there was an atonement for his sin.

Amen? Peter understood that when he had sinned, there was a place where he could run to find forgiveness. And there was hope. You know, Judas didn't have that hope.

He didn't believe Jesus was who He was. And so when Judas sinned, there was no place to turn. As a matter of fact, he came back to those who he was given the 30 pieces and he threw those 30 pieces of silver down and he said, I've betrayed innocent blood.

I'm guilty. I've done wrong. But he had no place to turn for hope and forgiveness.

The only thing he could do was go out to a tree and hang himself. Right? But Peter believed. Peter believed and Peter knew that Jesus would forgive him.

Judas had nobody to turn to. But praise God, you and I have one to turn to. The Bible says He died for the sins of the whole world.

Amen? And we have somebody that we can go to and say, as the psalmist said here this morning, I have sinned. I have sinned. And done this great evil in Thy sight.

Judas didn't have that. He didn't have that concept of a Savior. He didn't believe.

And therefore, where do I turn? I can't turn back to the leaders. I can't turn to the people. I can't turn to Jesus.

I just betrayed Him. There's no place to turn! And so he turned on himself. And so Peter had an option.

And we all have an option too. So let's remember that just as it was in Jesus' day, there are many, many, many tares. There are second soil, third soil.

There are some betrayers. This is a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. It's the way things work.

The devil is working to try to disrupt us by planting tares amongst the wheat. And I don't know if we had the devil here and if he understood this, if he understood the Lord's heart, what he would do or whether he would continue to plant tares amongst the wheat. But it seems like the devil is blinded to the fact that when he does evil, God is able to turn it for good.

And so let's thank God for His marvelous wisdom in how He has ordained the church, the Kingdom of God. And let's say amen to His purposes and His plans. But I want to leave you with this here, this in closing.

Not a one sheep. Not one is the Lord going to lose. Not one.

So let's be very, very careful with how we treat those who profess to be a sheep. We don't know whether they're a third soil, a second soil or a Judas. We don't know that.

You can't discern that. So let's make sure that we treat them as we would children of God. Let's learn to love the brotherhood.

Alright, let's close and I'll open it up for anyone who'd like to share here this morning. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Word of the Lord for all the things that we can learn from it, for the principles of Your Kingdom.

And Lord, I pray this morning that the tears that are amongst us, that You would open their eyes, Lord, that they might see Their Kingdom.