Mat 13:24-30, 36-43; Goodness Is Open; Evil Hydes.
length: 80:31 - taught on Mar, 30 2025
Class Outline:
Sunday March 30, 2025
Intro: God demands that His saints live in the manner of divine light while in a world full of evil. He demands that we live like Christ and He has given us, by grace, every one of us, all the tools necessary to do this.
Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.
Day and night, light and darkness, wheat and tares.
What truths believed will make His life your life shining in the darkness?
It is enlightening to see how the world and the Bible see history differently.
Secular History Biblical History
Story of Man Story of God.
Purposeless Purposeful.
Random Intentional / Systematic.
Non-authoritative Inspired
Speculative Divinely interpreted.
Hopeless Hopeful.
Endless Triumphant
You have a part to play in God’s historical drama, and if you end up on the wrong side in your behavior, you will miss it.
Context: Why is the Lord speaking in parables?
Text: MAT 13:24-30, 36-43
“While men slept” - deceit. Our word “devilish” implies deceit and stealth. He never tires, nor sleeps. We live in a world where deceit is a favorite tool of the tares.
What principle can we see from the deceit of the enemy?
Main idea: The light of the world openly shares the truth while evil can only hide and deceive.
God is visible and open, while sin hides.
Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"
We live in a world where deceit is a favorite tool of the tares. Deceit fits with sin natures like a virus fits into cells. Goodness is naturally open. It wants to share. It wants to show itself and loves to be shared from one person to another. Goodness is light by nature.
"You are the salt of the earth (preserver and hospitality - hospitality is messy by the way - real home vs. Downton Abbey); but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket (what sin does, tares do), but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Sin, on the other hand, is deceitful by nature.
Sin seeks self, which is isolated and fearful.
The devil’s deceit is that there is a quick self-satisfaction that will fulfill the soul. In God’s field, no such thing exists.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."
Is the world good or evil?
The answer depends on your perspective. Why would God enter a hopeless world? To condemn it?
I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
Are you good or evil?
The key to right perspective is understanding. We are surrounded by those who do not understand - tares.
Why be shocked when the world’s deceit is revealed?
Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, 11 whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed [harvest], 13 suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime [assume no consequences]. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you [in your midst], 14 having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; 15 forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness [deceitfulness of riches]; 16 but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.
2Jo 7
The world is deceived. No reason to be shocked.
Why is the believer in Christ different and no longer deceived?
For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently [goodness is open and shares in hospitality - salt and light], so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men. 9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law (allegorical method), for they are unprofitable and worthless. 10 Reject a factious man after a first and second warning [open discipline for the sake of discipleship], 11 knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.
We are told that we should help our deceived brothers and sisters.
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
How does this Scripture relate to our theme?
Main idea: The light of the world openly shares the truth while evil can only hide and deceive.
Application: What difference does all of this make?
You cannot fix the world, nor the people in it. You can only shine forth by your good works and have God use you.
God has plans to use you every moment of every day.
God has made an eternal kingdom for men and He is allowing an age of new humanity in a field sown with unbelief and deceit.
He is going to wait to sort it out until the harvest. We must also be patient. Our hasty fixes always do more harm than good.
You must love your enemies and be merciful to them. Vengeance is the Lord’s.
Have pity and compassion for all. Judgment for believers and unbelievers is coming.
How does Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde end?
You play a role, a part, in God’s historical drama. That part is made for you by God.
Your role happens to be written into the age of the church - the mystery age where all believers are blessed of the Lord exceeding abundantly beyond what anyone could have thought.
You are blessed from Christ (Eph 1-3). But to actually play your part you have to trust and obey (Eph 4-6). You have to seek the kingdom of heaven first.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you (literally: what you)? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
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