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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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