Sermon Outlines

By Frederick F. Schwindt, Evangelist

THE PARABLE OF THE TARES

1. The parable of the tares:
   1. Portrays the great skill of Jesus Christ the master teacher to unfold great truths
   2. He uses the things that were common knowledge to portray the great truths of His kingdom
2. "His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat"
   1. Here He connects the mind with the fact of the animosity of Satan to Christ and His kingdom
   2. He reveals His awareness of the cunning ways of Satan to bring deception among the children of the kingdom of heaven; this in spite of the work of the master worker of God - Christ

1. The origin of the kingdom of God:
   1. It is likened to an act of sowing; but that indicates, plainly, that the kingdom of God has its origin with Jesus Christ; it was not of human origin
   2. "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man"
   3. "The field is the world"
   4. "The good seed are the children of the kingdom"
2. The origin of a counterfeit kingdom:
   1. "The tares are the children of the wicked one"
   2. "The enemy that sowed them is the devil"
3. Thus we have the great mystery of the conflict between good and evil unfolded:
   1. The parable of the tares unlocks to us the deadly conflict between good and evil portrayed by two church organizations - the true and the false
   2. It reveals how cunning Satan was and is to have his kingdom resemble the kingdom of Christ so closely; that it is impossible for man, by himself, to discern between the good seed and the tares

1. That the planting of the tares among God's people will continue to the end:
   1. Satan will bring into the church persons so similar to the true Christians that it is impossible for finite men to separate one from the other
   2. That it would be fatal for the church to attempt to weed out the counterfeits
2. That Satan knows:
   1. The power of influence
   2. He allows human beings to use their power to influence their fellow men to be deceived
3. That the end of the world is:
   1. The time when the final separation between the tares and the wheat will be made
   2. The angels will make the separation
4. What a lesson for our prayerful consideration:
   1. Two skillful sowers hard at work sowing their seeds in the world
   2. The Son of man sows the good seed, the children of light
   3. Satan sows the bad seed; the children of darkness
   4. Finite men are incapable of differentiating between the genuine and the counterfeit
   5. Where they attempt to separate between the true and the false they do great harm
   6. The sifting time will tell the difference