Note: Ipreached last Sunday on the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13:24-30, 36-44 (or, as the disciples
call it in Matt 13:36, “the parable of the tares of the field”). As I’ve
preached through Matthew I have been reading Spurgeon’s commentary on this Gospel
(Matthew: The Gospel of the Kingdom, Banner of Truth, 1893, 2019). Here are a
few quotations from Spurgeon I tweeted out this week:
Matt 13:28: "He said unto them, An enemy hath done this...."
Spurgeon: "It may have been a learned doctor, or a clever poet, or
a treacherous orator, who scattered doubt among the people, and introduced
skeptics into the church; but the worker behind the scenes, the real author of
the mischief, is always the devil himself."
Matt 13:29: "But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares,
ye root up also the wheat with them."
Spurgeon: "Hasty disciplinarians have often cast out the best and
retained the worst. Where evil is clear and open, we may not hesitate to deal
with it; but where it is questionable, we had better hold our hand till we have
fuller guidance."
Matt 13:30: "Let both grow together...."
Spurgeon: "Magistrates and churches may remove the openly wicked
from their society; the outwardly good who are inwardly worthless they must
leave; for the judging of hearts is beyond their sphere."
Matt 13:38: "The field is the world...."
Spurgeon: "In many cases the cruel treatment of the very best men
has been produced by the notion that they were erroneous teachers and therefore
ought not to be tolerated. To contend earnestly against error by spiritual
means is right and needful, but to use carnal weapons, and other remedies of
force, is absolute folly and wickedness. This world is now a field of mingled growths, and so it must be till the end come."
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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