Mat 13:24-30, 36-43; The Theology that Tells the Tares They’re Good.Wednesday April 2, 2025 From the 19th century, liberal theology has really done a great deal of damage to the church. A lot of the tares want to be good, and liberal theology gives them a way.
At the moment of faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, that He died for your sins, you are supernaturally made new by God, born-again, elected and predestined and adopted, baptized by the Holy Spirit, indwelt with the Holy Spirit, entered into union with Christ, buried with Him, made alive (resurrected) with Him, seated together with Him in the heavens, imputed with His righteousness, redeemed (forgiven of all sin; cleansed), God is propitiated, you are reconciled, made a saint (sanctification).
Liberal theology leaves that all out and sees the Scripture as giving us examples on how to be good.
Mat 13:24-30, 36-43
Satan seeks to ruin people while convincing them that they are doing well.
The devil sows deceptively.
Is the world good or evil?
Your answer rests solely on your understanding of Christ. Is He just a wise man? Is He the Son of God? Why would the Son of God enter the world?
Joh 12:47 I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
There must be something worth saving.
One of the great deceptions in the world concerns the means by which Christ saves the world. Liberal theology says that salvation depends on the person – his ability to change himself. The Bible tells us that salvation depends on Christ.
Rom 5:6-11 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
The key to right perspective is understanding.
Why be shocked when the world’s deceit is revealed?
1Ti 4:1
Tares who teach.
2Pe 2:10-16 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
Why is the believer in Christ different and no longer deceived?
Liberal theology is the belief that the Bible is not to be translated literally. It leaves out the miraculous change that happens when a person is born-again.
Tit 3:3-11 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 [supernatural work on you], 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.
Value-based Christianity, without the supernatural power of God, leaves Christianity in a works-based framework, elevates man rather than God, and greatly weakens Christianity.
It is a supernatural gift that makes someone a wheat, and not works.
From the same foundation of non-literal interpretation, the liberal theologian rejects a literal kingdom of God set up on earth by Jesus Christ.
Rather than seeing Jesus as offering to establish this literal kingdom, they see Jesus as redefining the prophetic tradition and making the kingdom of God into a current reality of social justice that carries over as a mandate for the church: [Paul Miles]
This is a great deception that has infected the church and weakens Christianity in the eyes of the world.
We must not be deceived.
The Scripture speaks of Israel deceived in the wilderness.
It warns us that false teachers will tell us that we are not born sinners and that we can become sinless – their goal is to get us to seek salvation in self and not in God (the self-righteous have bought this lie).
The Scripture warns us that false teachers will tell us that the righteous do not have to practice righteousness.
We are told that we should help our deceived brothers and sisters.
Jam 5:19-20 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.
Application:
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.
You play a role, a part, in God’s historical drama. That part is made for you by God. He has made a part just for you. You do not make the part.
Your role happens to be written into the age of the church – the mystery age where all believers are blessed of the Lord exceedingly 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. Put anything or anyone before or equal with the Lord and His way, truth, and life, and you will not play the role He has made (third soil). The fear that we all should have, is not playing our God given roles, for if we do not, what life are we living? Christ said,
Luk 6:32-36 “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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