One Day
Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43
This parable speaks of the Day when evil and sin and everything that causes sin will be done way with. What a day that will be It is difficult for us to take this in completely. We wait with expectation and faith.
We see the wickedness of the enemy in this parable. There is nothing good in destroying a wheat crop. It is an act of hatred and a sick mind. Computers today have viruses. Created by people with a great deal of intelligence, these viruses can destroy valuable information and pictures that mean so much. My nephew asked me, “What kind of a person would do that?” I said ,“Be glad you don’t know.” Destruction of good is a work of the enemy. So often this effects many people in the destruction of just one life. Few consider this when making decisions that are wrong.
Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy. He sows bad seed in the church, among God’s Harvest. Don’t go trying to root it out or even to join or create a perfect church. That will be created by God in heaven.
Satan sows seeds of weeds in families and in other wholesome things. Places we revere have been desecrated by his activity. With even innocent things being infected by him these days we need to look to the LORD more than ever before. We need strength from Him and faith that even in wicked times, times of great evil He is able to keep us and protect us from the evil one. Jesus prayed for this in John 17.
We also need to have more of the hope of heaven in our hearts these days We need to be thinking of the day when Jesus will come again.
Jesus is giving us a true picture of what we face in this present world: Along with a lot of good... evil and everything that causes sin
1. We are to look forward to that day II Peter 3.11-12
Plans are made and things are laid out inside of the hearts of people, but little is taken into account that Jesus could come any time. We are to live life but we are to keep that thought in our hearts. It has a purifying effect but it also encourages hope It is in fact our blessed hope (Titus 2.12-13)
This hope even comes through in death- in fact it shines through in death I saw a memorial service on line this week for the General Superintendents who went to be with the LORD. They sang this hymn “One Day”. The song, like all Christian hymns, is full of hope for that One Day!
I know that My Redeemer Lives Job and that after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh I shall see God. (Job 19.25-26)
2. We are to long for that day II Timothy 4.7-8
When we speak of the LORD’s return we ought to speak of it with a special fondness. It means the end to sin and wickedness and everything that causes sin. There ought to be a longing for heaven in our hearts. It should grow stronger as we walk with the LORD over the years. If you read II Timothy 4 you see it and feel it in Paul’s letter to Timothy, which could very well have been Paul’s last letter, perhaps even written on the eve of his death
We look forward to certain things in our lives: Paying off the car, paying off the mortgage, a vacation... but the one thing that should have an overwhelming longing down deep in our hearts as believers is Jesus’ return As we follow the LORD we should be looking forward to going to be with Him.
We can get tolerant of sin if we are not careful. We should hate sin. We should hate what it does to people. With this hatred of sin there should not be hopelessness but rather a strong hope and faith that when Jesus come He is going to put an end to sin, He is going to destroy it. He is going to cast Satan and his followers into the lake of fire.
3. We are to love that day II Timothy 4.7-8 (KJV)
Agapao= to welcome, to be fond of, to dearly love, to be well pleased, to be content
No believer should ever speak with disdain about the LORD’s coming. I am appalled as you are with people who have made predictions. They have been 100% wrong. Going against God’s Word they have brought to people’s minds negative feelings when we speak of the nearness of the return of Jesus.
Stay with God’s Word and the influence of these who go against it on this point will diminish.
You notice Jesus’ words we looked at this week in this passage in verse 17. They are similar to the words Peter wrote in his epistle. I Peter 1.12 They are very close to the idea expressed in I Peter 1.10-11
Jesus told us plainly that we could not know, but the inquisitive part of man doesn’t give up easily, even followers of Jesus Christ. We want to know what we did when a person is healed. How did we pray? What is the secret? We desire to understand. It is an affront to our intellect to accept what God says in Isaiah 55 about His thoughts being beyond our finding out But accept we must
When it comes to the return of Jesus that day and hour are not known to us We aren’t to know that but we are to love that day Funny thing about love- it doesn’t need to know everything. In fact it can know very little. When my kids were away at college I knew as little about their activities before or since. That didn’t change my love for them. In fact it enhanced it No one knows about that day but we can love His Appearing
4. We are to be ready for that day II Peter 3.11-14, Luke 12.35-36
Ready means: Watching, living right,
As the time draws near for the Return of Jesus Christ it will become more and more difficult to live right. Satan knows his time is short. As a wounded beast he is dangerous. He seeks to sift out people who are following Jesus. If it were possible even the very elect would be deceived. Pressure beyond description.
There is a great battle going on today. It is over souls. We shared last week about the worth of a soul. The enemy wants to take out anyone he can. He wants souls- your soul, my soul. But Jesus is praying for us. Jesus has all power. The LORD is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless to the Father on that Day.
Our responsibility is to be on our guard, to watch, to be alert.
Let me speak from my heart to your heart this morning about one of the hidden truths/ or over looked truths in this parable. The enemy sows weeds among the wheat. The good seed is wheat. The bad seed is weed. In our English language they even sound alike. Let me bring this over out of the parabolic terms into life’s experiences. These two wheat and weeds look alike- so much that they are not distinguishable at times until the harvest. They grow close together. There are people who look like they are believers and are not. There also are people that as we converse with them we have serious doubts that they are believers because of their lives. Jesus let Judas alone. He was a thief. Thieves often hang themselves. That’s just it. Don’t get separating the wheat from the weeds. The LORD of the harvest will see it is done in that Day.
Don’t let the fact that there are people who are evil and claim to be followers of Jesus get you weighted down. We can’t help to be bothered by it but we do not have to let it weigh us down and bring us into despair. It is easier said than done. It is done by keeping our eyes on Jesus. I speak of my own experience. I remember 2 people who had a great influence on me as a young man falling into deep sin. One was a pastor and the other an evangelist. I was shocked but I did not let it destroy my faith. I remember it sobering me. The LORD let me see first hand the consequences of sin. That sensitivity remained with me over the years. But God’s wonderful grace and love has overshadowed all the pain and confusion. Let Him do that for you. Don’t dwell in the confusion, rest in Him One Day the weeds will be separated.
Sin and evil will be done away with. We will shine with Him fully forever.
One Day... perhaps today
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