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Newington Three Angels Church

The Sower

Eric Walsh

Present Truth of the Wheat and Tare

Greetings, and glad to be with you all again.

This is a greeting for all our brothers and sisters affiliated with the ministry of Sister Grace Zuzo and her husband and all the work that you guys do in South Africa and beyond.

We're praising God for you as we present this message that we're going to get right into.

I'm going to start by reading our scripture reading in Malachi chapter 3, starting at verse 17.

The Bible says, And they shall be mine, said the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not.

Our message for this presentation is entitled, The Sower, Present Truth of the Wheat and Tear.

Let's pray, Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

And we thank you, Lord, for your goodness and for your grace.

Once again, Lord, I just ask that you make me a nail upon the wall, Lord, a rusty, sorry nail.

And upon that nail, Lord, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Instead, Father, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

It's our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

All right, so we're gonna jump right into this parable, and this is part of a larger series that I'll be doing on the agrarian parables, predominantly with a sower in the story that we'll be presenting.

And so for our brothers and sisters in South Africa and the Caribbean that we're recording this for, just know that there will be more down the road that we'll be able to put together.

But for now, we want to jump to Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew chapter 13, the start of verse 24.

The Bible says, another parable put he forth unto them saying, the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tears among the wheat, and went his way.

But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tears also.

So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field?

And so this is the story of a sower who goes out, This is a landowner, and we know from the other parables who the sower represents.

And 1 of the things that's important is if you look at the first verse of it, it says, the parable starts with, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.

So the parable is about the kingdom of God.

It's talking about God's people, number 1.

Number 2, it talks about the fact that good seed is sown.

And then it says in verse 25, but while men slept, and I want to submit to you that there's a recurring theme in the parables around sleeping.

And if you think of the parable of the 10 virgins, 5 wise, 5 foolish, the fact that they all slept.

It is while we sleep spiritually that the devil does his work.

So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didn't we sow good seed in your field?

Now I wanna show you, do some botanical studies here.

This is a picture of the difference between wheat and tear.

Before the wheat ripens, it looks like the picture on the left.

And you can see that when you look at that 1 and you look at the 1 on the right, which is the Latin term for tears is lolium temulentum.

And so you can see that there's a big difference, not a big difference as they're growing.

The other thing to remember is, not only do they do grow up out of the ground and look just alike as they grow up, but as the roots go down in the field, the roots would intertwine as they grow together.

So here, let's give a plant biology, which was, I always say this, but it was my least favorite class in college.

So let me show you a little bit about this.

The other name for tear is Darnell, the lolium telementum, Darnell.

So wheat's evil twin has been intoxicating humans for centuries.

Listen to what it says, Darnell is poisonous, but in small enough doses can give food a special kick.

Listen to the description of what the tear does.

This article on it says, Darnell occupies a gray area in human agricultural history.

When people eat its seed, they get dizzy, off balance, and nauseous.

Temulentum, comes from a Latin word for drunk.

So the wheat are represented as growing up fully, and eventually they will bear fruit.

The tear is represented as a plant that historically is seen to make men intoxicated.

As we decipher out this parable, I want you to know that you are called to be wheat, and the wheat represents sobriety in its natural form.

Now, obviously, you can take it and ferment it.

In its natural form, it bears fruit, but the tear are inherently intoxicating.

The Bible calls the Christian to be sober, and we are living in a time when sobriety is being pushed to the outskirts.

Not only is, in America here, every third or fourth commercial, it seems, is about alcohol.

We have legalized marijuana in much of the United States.

And of course, there are many other intoxicating medications and street drugs.

Fentanyl is killing Americans by the thousands.

In a 12 month period over the last couple years, but in 1 12 month stretch, there was a time when 100, 000 Americans died of drug overdose.

The Bible says to be sober, to be vigilant, for your adversary the devil walketh about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

The tare, never forget this, are intoxicating.

So the wheat nourishes, but the tare intoxicates.

All right, what does Jeremiah chapter 5, verse 31 adds to this?

If the tare are in the church, as we're going to see they are, Jeremiah 5 starts to tell you what the Torah is going to do with the message.

Jeremiah 5, 31, the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means.

This is the English Standard Version of the same verse.

The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule at their direction.

My people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

The Tare not only like to preach a watered down soft gospel, that's what they want to hear.

Let me say this, the church is being gutted by men who are afraid to stand in the pulpit and preach a thus saith the Lord.

It is being ripped apart because there are so many now who are afraid to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ unadulterated.

They were telling me about 1 of our largest Adventist churches here in North America and how to pastor.

We were talking to someone at a recent Adventist conference, how the pastor of this large church associated with 1 of our institutions said, he will not preach any of our defining doctrines because he does not want the people who listen to his ministry, who are not Adventist, to ever be offended.

But did Jesus ever preach and folk get offended?

Did he not tell the woman caught in the act of adultery, neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more.

He didn't say, listen, I don't condemn you, I love you, go and do whatever you want.

But that's the gospel that's being preached.

Darnell, the tear, is a mimic weed, neither entirely tame or quite wild, that looks and behaves so much like wheat that it can't live without human assistance.

The plant's survival strategy requires its seeds to be harvested along with those of domesticated grasses, stored and replanted next season.

So the wheat, the tear, have to go where the wheat are or it will not survive.

In other words, the church is going to be filled with tear because there are folk who want the social atmosphere of the church, they want the nurturing the church gives, they want the friendships, they want the potlucks, but they don't want the gospel.

The Sower: Seed of Sanctification

And we are glad to have you join us as we present the first of a three-part project on the parable of the sower and how God worked through this parable to give us some great lessons that are very relevant to the end times.

3 sessions, because we really wanna break it down and look at the parable all the way through and in its entirety.

Our scripture reading is taken from John chapter 4, verse 24, and the Bible says, "'And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear, with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you.

And unto you that hear shall more be given.

For he that hath, to him shall be given, And he that hath not, from him shall be taken, even that which he hath.

So our message in the first part of the series is entitled, The Sower Seeds of Sanctification.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

We thank you, Lord, for all you do for us, for your goodness, for your grace, and for your mercy.

Lord, as we go through this parable, we pray for an extra outpouring of your Holy Spirit.

Once again, Lord, just make me a nail on the wall and hang a portrait of Jesus Christ there.

We're gonna go to Mark chapter 4 and begin right in the parable.

Mark 4 and verse 1, and he began again to teach by the seaside, and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea.

And a whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

And he taught them many things by parables and sent unto them in his doctrine, hearken, behold, there went out a sower to sow.

It came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.

But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away.

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and yielded no fruit.

And other fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought forth some 30 and some 60 and some a hundredfold.

And he said unto them, He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

We know that Jesus spoke in parables for a lot of reasons, major reasons.

1 was he wanted to present the truth in such a way that the simple, common folk could understand it.

When he gives parables about planting things or taking care of sheep and goats, they understood inherently the lessons.

But what it also did is some of the more educated who are literally his enemies and would play spies in the crowds, often they could not discern the truth that the parable was teaching because they wanted to find reason to harm Christ.

So the parables were given so that those who could hear, just as it says here, to him that has ears to hear, let him hear.

But those who did not have ears, it would go over their head.

And they would not be able to try and use the parables against Christ.

Mark 4 and verse 10 shows us that it works so well that even the disciples didn't always understand the parables.

Mark 4 and verse 10, and when he was alone, they that were about him with the 12 asked of him the parable.

And Jesus jumps in and begins to tell what the meaning, the breakdown of the parable is.

And this is why we're gonna go in 3 parts because we're gonna look at not just the parable but how Jesus describes the parable and how we apply each piece to our lives today.

So Matthew 13 says, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of Man.

So the Bible teaches that the sower is Jesus.

If you hear me ever talk about these, there are multiple parables where there's a sower.

Jesus is a sower because in that ancient time, they understood that in order to farm and plant seed, you had to leave from behind the walls of the safety of the city.

And so you'd have to go out where marauders and Roman soldiers or whoever could actually mess with you more so than if you stayed behind the walls.

In other words, the sower was vulnerable.

When Jesus says the sower of the good seed is the Son of Man, it means that Jesus left the walled cities of the heavenly glory to come to earth and be vulnerable.

Even as we look at the first Advent right now, we're in that season, it was an amazement and an astonishment to Lucifer, Satan himself, When he saw Jesus as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger among filthy animals, Lucifer wanted to go up above God.

Here Christ comes low and is vulnerable among men.

Spirit of Prophecy, Christ Object Lesson, page 34, says it like this, Christ's mission was not understood by the people of his time.

The gospel of Christ was a stumbling block to them because they demanded signs instead of a savior.

They expected the Messiah to prove his claims by mighty deeds of conquest, to establish his empire on the ruins of earthly kingdoms.

This expectation Christ answered in the parable of the sower, not by force of arms, not by violent interpositions, was the kingdom of God to prevail, but by the implanting of a new principle in the hearts of men." It was a different approach.

And you know, I'm studying the book of Ezekiel and I'm reading a book by an evangelical pastor now to get the perspective on it and they miss so many different things as we're about to talk about but they talk about how No 1 has the Davidic covenant they talk about has never has not been fully fulfilled and so David is going to 1 day sit on his throne again in Jerusalem.

And I said, I don't know how you get that.

Because in the story of the birth of Christ inherently is, Mary is told by the angel that he will sit on the throne of his father David.

And yet they still want to force the Messiah.

They want to teach that Jesus is going to return.

In fact, the evangelicals, they teach that Jesus is going to return, and he's going to sit on a throne during this millennium, this thousand years.

And as Tony Evans, a great evangelical preacher, says, he's going to force the world to keep the commandments for that thousand years.

That's how they take the words, you know, rule with an iron rod.

But nowhere in the Bible does God force people to do anything.

Embassy from Tel Aviv in Israel to Jerusalem.

This book was written, 1 guy wrote a book, The Rabbis, Donald Trump and the Third Temple, Thomas R.

Horne, and they're saying, listen, there's a whole conspiracy to move the temple to build a temple in Jerusalem.

In fact, we have friends in the family, relatives who left to go to Israel to help try and build this temple a few years, just a couple of years ago.

They are looking just as the disciples and the people of Israel of old were looking for Jesus to conquer the world and rule on the planet, There are those that are doing that now.

The signs of the end times and Russia invasion of Ukraine, Pastor Tony Evans on biblical prophecies.

I believe he has ties to the Dallas Theological Seminary.

I could be wrong about that, but this is an article that was put in Christianity Today, a prominent Christian magazine.

I'm going to read from this article to show you that you need to be studying your Bible and understand what's going on.

This is the article from March of this year, 2022.

The 72-year-old pastor said he predicts that a conflict over oil between Russia and Middle Eastern nations will reach its fullest expression during a series of 7 years.

In the final days, he said, a war will break out against Israel.

So even in this book I'm reading about Ezekiel, everyone thinks that the center of the prophetic universe is Israel.

Jesus said, I leave your house unto you desolate.

He says, I have another nation that I've given to that you are not of.

He's passed over Israel at this point, and there's no real coming back.

And when you read the book of Ezekiel, it shows you that even that temple in the last several chapters of the book of Ezekiel would only be built, that city and temple would only be built based on certain circumstances and conditions being fulfilled, which have not been fulfilled and will not be fulfilled.

Now, he says, you think you got high gas prices now, this is Tony Evans speaking, you ain't seen nothing yet.

He declares, oil will become the dominant issue.

And with oil being the issue and the Middle East being in conflict with the oil-bearing nations and Russia coming down from the north, they believe there's this prophecy that Russia's gonna come down and cause all these problems, that's what's gonna trigger Israel's issues.

There will be a coming together of the Middle East, of Europe, of Russia, the Bible says.

The Sower: The Soil of the Mind

With everyone again as we continue in our series on the sower.

And this is technically the third part of the series, but part 2 of the messages on the soil, on the 3 types of soil.

And we already did the session on the sower himself and on who the seed is.

So we're coming back today to deal with the 3 types of bad soil.

We're going to get right into God's word.

Our scripture reading is taken from Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Our message This time around is entitled, The Sower, the Soil of the Mind.

May I ask now Lord that you just put us in a mindset to hear your truth.

Wash us again with your blood and cleanse us.

And Lord, drive away the distractions of this world as we study a very important part of this parable.

This is our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

All right, so we're going to go to the book of Mark, the fourth chapter.

Mark chapter 4, and I'll read through the parable again.

It says, and he began again to teach by the seaside, and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea, and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, hearken, behold, there went out a sower to sow.

And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth.

And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

Another fell on good ground, and it yielded fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought forth some 30, and some 60, and some a hundred.

Mark 4 and verse 9 says, and he said unto them, he that has ears to hear, let him hear.

In the last message, we talked about Jesus being the sower.

We all have a part to take in participating with the sower.

So we all, like Christ, we need to be like Jesus and be sowers of the seed, because the seed is the word of God.

The Holy Spirit is the water that waters the seed to grow in us.

And prayer, prayer life, is like the oxygen the seed needs before it grows up and then actually produces oxygen and breathes in carbon dioxide.

Prayer is that gaseous exchange that Christian has with his God in terms of spiritual survival.

We want to move from the plants, the seed, the sower, and talk about the soil because ultimately the soil is the mind.

And there are 3 types of soil that the parable gives us.

And Jesus says as he begins to explain these 3 types of soil, he says in Matthew 13 verse 18, hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

And again, we talked about this in the other 2 messages I talked about the sower, the wheat and tare, and in the previous message to this 1.

Not everyone could understand what Jesus was talking about, and that was at least partially by design and intentional.

Jesus had enemies who were in the crowds who wanted to attack him.

So Jesus was able to Speak in parable so the common man, the farmer, the fisherman, could understand these messages, but his enemies might miss it.

That's why he says so many times, he that has ears to hear, let him hear.

So in Matthew 13 and verse 19 he begins to explain Each type of soil.

Matthew 13, 19 says, When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and understands it not, then comes the wicked 1 and catches away that which was sown in his heart.

This is he which received the seed by the wayside.

So the sower goes out to sow, and if it lands on the wayside, the wayside becomes hard as animals and people walk across the path and harden the ground.

The soil is corrupted because things that really shouldn't be there if you want it to grow good plants are there.

There are animals and carts and pedestrians walking across.

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Present Truth of the Wheat and Tare

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