Wheat and Tares

“There are 200 million church members in America,” said Dr. Bailey Smith, speaking at Beulah Hill Baptist Church in West End, N.C., in 2003. “If they were all saved, this nation would be in better shape; there are always tares among the wheat.”

Smith of Atlanta served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1981-82. He grew up as a Baptist pastor’s son in Dallas, Texas and “walked an aisle” to receive Christ at age 5 because his “grandfather wanted him to.” He said his conversion really took place at age 10 when he prayed with his father. As a high school senior, he felt called to preach and pastored a church at age 19. He graduated from Quachita Baptist University in Arkansas and Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.

Smith indicated that many churchgoers think they are “saved” but are not. He asked the Rev. Billy Graham why Graham often hinted that church members might need to accept Jesus as Savior.

Graham replied, “I myself was an unsaved church member.”

Preaching from Jesus’ wheat-and-tares parable (Matthew 13:24-30), Smith said that Jesus compared “the kingdom of heaven” to a wheat field. Jesus said an enemy sowed tares (weeds that appear as wheat) in the field, and workers wanted to pull up those tares. The field owner, fearing some wheat might get uprooted if hired hands tried to eliminate tares, told workers to wait until harvest time. At that time, tares would be gathered and burned and wheat brought into his barn.

“Farmers used to show me wheat and tares,” said Smith, who once lived in Oklahoma. “I couldn’t tell the difference, but if you open up the head and there are kernels of wheat, it’s wheat.”

Smith said some people believe they are Christians because they had “experiences,” were baptized when their friends were baptized, or because their parents keep telling them, “You accepted Christ when you were young.”

“What somebody told you that you did won’t save you,” Smith said. Paraphrasing 2 Corinthians 13:5, he added, “Examine yourself to see if you ever got it (salvation) or not. A lot of you have been inoculated from going to heaven – it’s called ‘walking a church aisle as a kid.’ There’s a lot of difference between a good man and a saved man; the difference is eternity. You can go down a dry sinner (in water baptism) and come up a wet one.”

Smith said that wheat and tares look alike.

“Only God knows the difference,” Smith said. “Can a weed grow? An unsaved person doesn’t grow in Christ but appears to. He can be a busy church member on his way to hell. Wheat and tares are planted together, progress together and are harvested together. Those who are deceived don’t know they’re deceived. The Devil doesn’t want you to doubt your salvation. He wants you to believe you’re saved. The Devil knows you are good, and he is smart. He’d just as soon you go to hell from a church pew as from a bar stool.”

These are Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 7:22-23 (New KJV): “Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Smith said a person might think he’s all right with God because he performs good works, attends a good church and hears good preaching. He told about a 19-year-old woman who confessed that her daddy had prematurely prayed the sinner’s prayer for her when she was young.

“You can believe in soap and die dirty,” he said. “To be 99 percent saved is to be 100 percent lost. The wheat is placed in the father’s house; the tare is bound and burned. We’ve had about 90 pastors get saved, and some music directors. I was a tare; Billy Graham was a tare. I believe all across this building we have tares among us.”

Smith quoted Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

As musicians played “Just as I Am,” Smith asked those needing to accept Christ to raise their hands. He led those who responded in repeating a sinner’s prayer.

“Some of you pray that prayer every time because you haven’t prayed it once,” Smith said.

Smith’s sermon challenges us to make sure we have repented of our sins and are trusting Jesus Christ to save us from eternal separation from God.

“But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name…” (John 1:12, New KJV).