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Do you gather or scatter?
Many use the parable of the wheat and the tares for not
judging. That we are to let the tares grow amongst the wheat inside the
church. But, this is NOT what this parable is about. Matthew 13 is part of
the mystery kingdom parables. Jesus tells us “The kingdom of heaven is
like a man who sowed good seed in his field; while men slept, his enemy came
and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.”
Jesus explains, Matt 13:27-30 "So the servants of
the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your
field? How then does it have tares?' "He said to them, 'An enemy has done
this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them
up?' "But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot
the wheat with them. 'Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the
time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."'
The theme in this parable is the field, which is the
world, not the Church (the
church is in the world). Paul explicitly tells us to purge out leaven from
the Church, remove what is false and wicked. The
field, which is the world has both believers and unbelievers in it, this
separation is done by Christ. And we find only the wheat will go into the
Millennium (Messianic Kingdom).
Matt 13:36-41 the disciple came to Jesus asking, "Explain
to us the parable of the tares of the field."
He answered and said to them: "He who sows the good
seed is the Son of Man.
"The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons
of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one." The enemy who
sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers
are the angels.
"Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in
the fire, so it will be at the end of this age.
"The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they
will gather out of His kingdom all things that
offend, and those who practice lawlessness.”
So it becomes clear that these are enemies of Christ
that will not be allowed to enter his kingdom. Both exist in the world, both
are not to be in the church, or they shouldn’t be. I’m not speaking of the
unsaved visiting the church but those who have a different spirituality
allowed to teach and influence others.
The second time the apostles were brought before the
Sanhedrin it was because they were teaching in the name of Jesus; they had
already been forbidden to do so. Thehighly respected Pharisee,
Gamaliel, stood up and gave the following guidance: “if this plan or work
is of men it will come to nothing, but if it is of God you cannot overthrow
it–lest you be found to fight against God.” While
Gamaliel’s advice rescued
the apostles from being harmed, he used human
wisdom that
goes contrary toBiblical
guidance. In fact, one could say he was trying to be spiritually correct.
Proverbs 18:5: “It is not good to show partiality to
the wicked, or to overthrow the righteous in judgment.”
One needs to weigh out a matter carefully. What they do
not want to do is oppose the righteous and side with the wicked. But
unfortunately I see this because they neglected to discern a matter, and
pursue the facts.
Gamaliel gave the possibility of only two sources for
religious movements, man or God. But there are more than only two sources;
there are three. What makes this all the more serious is to overlook the
third option, which is Satan’s counterfeit.
If we apply Gamaliel’s logic to today, we would have to
conclude that world religions such as Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism that
have stood the test of time are of God. There is No Christian cult that
claims to be “against” God or Christ, they just change their definitions of
who He is and the way of salvation. Mormon’s do not claim to oppose
Christ––Jehovah’s Witnesses do not claim to oppose Christ. If
we were to follow Gamaliel’s advice, one could never stand up and say a
thing about any group claiming Jesus Christ. No matter how wrong they are, they must
be of God because they did
not vanish! According to Gamaliel’s logic because cults such as the Mormons
and the Jehovah’s Witnesses have had continued success and growth they would
be considered God inspired by Gamaliel’s advice.
It does not matter if a Mormon or Jehovah Witness or
anyone thinks of themselves as a Christian, or if they are sincere or very
nice person. Do they have the Christian distinctive, do they believe the
gospel accurately and are they saved by it?
We live in a time period where Jesus said deception
would be normative, we should be more on guard.
1Thess 5:21 Test
all things; hold fast what is good.” This
means we need to make judgements.
1 Cor. 5:12-13 For what have I to do with judging
those also who are outside? Do
you not judge those who are inside? But
those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the
evil person."
1 Cor. 2:15 But
he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by
no one.”
The Bible says the Spiritual man judges all things. If
you do not judge teaching (not people’s eternal destiny) you show that you
are spiritually immature in the truth, as a child in the faith, and you have
need to grow.
Paul writes in Titus 3: 10 “Reject a divisive
(heretic) man after the first and second admonition.” You do not let it
go, and have them continue teaching and then claim that you are showing them
love and grace. What about the people they are affecting with their leaven?
You not showing the recipients of the false teaching love,, real love
protects. “Wherefore rebuke them sharply. that they may be sound in the
faith.” (Titus 1:13).We do
this so they can correct themselves, not to condemn them. It is an act of
love to both the wayward teacher and at the same time protects those they
are affecting.
Rom.16:17-18 “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which
cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which
ye have learned; and avoid them.”
We are to MARK them and AVOID them, NOT
commend them or give grace to them. If scripture says something is wrong,
God has already told us what is right and we are to make a judgment on the
matter. We do not need to pray about it. When people persist to teach
erroneous and false doctrines, new revelations to the body of Christ (on the
gospel, scripture, Christ etc.) we need to counter it to the body of Christ.
Paul warned to watch out for certain people and they are even named in the
Bible for all eternity.
Matt 7:15-21 "Beware of false prophets, who come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."You will
know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs
from thistles? "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree
bears bad fruit. "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear
good fruit. "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown
into the fire. "Therefore by their fruits you will know them. "Not everyone
who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who
does the will of My Father in heaven.”
What is the will of God? To have people saved, for them
to walk in the truth. To try and get a few pieces of edible fruit from a bad
tree is to compromise and disobedient to what Jesus taught on nearly
everything. Over and over we hear from those who listen to these teachers ‘well
no one is perfect and they do a lot of good things and I enjoy this portion
of their teaching’…. These are excuses.
So many in positions of pastoring that neglect their
main priority, to keep the sheep safe. They make every excuse they can for
their friends and those they may like. It does not matter if they are
Calvary Chapel, Baptist, Assembly of God, Hope chapel, any denomination or
non denominational; independent. They all have this same problem. The church
is being overrun by those who teaching error and those who do not care that
they teach error.
Paul called false teachers “dogs” and “evil workers”
(Phil. 3:2). Of those who pervert the gospel he said, “Let them be accursed”
(Gal. 1:8, 9). He warned about false teachers who would come into the church
and called them “grievous wolves” (Acts 20:29)
He warned about false Christs, false spirits, false
gospels (2 Cor. 11:1-4). He labeled false teaching in the latter times being
“doctrines of devils” (1 Tim. 4:1). In the Pastoral Epistles Paul warned of
false teachers and compromisers by name 10 times. Today if anyone speaks
this way as Paul did they are labeled a divisive person, not having love.
This shows the temperature of the leaders and shows they are compromised.
They have become more politician than shepherd, a real shepherd is one that
lays his life down for the sheep. He loves them as he does his own life.
Jesus said in Luke 11:23 "He who is not with Me is
against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” There is no
middle ground in this, you either are doing His will, preventing people from
being scattered, gathering those to be with him, to be safe and secure or
you are scattering intentionally (or even unintentionally). The same result
is yielded from neglect and ignorance that is done by those who know they
are departing from what is written.
Your choice is to decide whom are you going to listen
to and follow, it will determine having rewards or judgment in heaven. Let
us not forget a teacher will be judged by a different standard, more
severely.
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