Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.  But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.  But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.  The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’  And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’  But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. ‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.

We are not in the barn yet, that one thing is for sure.  So, the wheat and the tares stand side-by-side.

Freedom is the mark of the Gospel.  It is one of the unmistakable marks of humanity.  It so threatens the enemy because it is so recognizable when it is real.

There are really only a few options when it comes to anything resembling freedom.  For example, you could say any one of the following..

1. You could, of course, just simply be bound and not know it and not try to escape.  This becomes obvious pretty quickly.
2. You could say that you no longer have any standard of right and wrong, for whatever reason.  This is lawlessness, the yeast of Herod.
3. You could put on a front, and pretend you are more righteous than you are.  You may even be able to pull this off to some degree, but it will, invariably, eventually come out, as either anger, reviling, adultery, murder, or something else.  This is one of the underlying premises of the Sermon on the Mount.  If you’re living out of your self, that is the sandy, earthly “adamic” nature, you will get knocked over when a storm comes, and it will be messy.  This is the state of hypocrisy, the yeast of the Pharisees, which some interpret as legalism.  I disagree with this interpretation, but, thankfully, Jesus said it was hypocrisy, so, if by interpretation it is legalism, it is primarily correct to call it hypocrisy.
4. Finally, you could actually BE free, which is ONLY to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The interesting thing about this is, the only true way to have lasting joy, even in the storms, is Jesus.  The human nature, fallen as it is, has proven, time and again throughout history, that it will not stand up and be truely free, and have joy.

What does this mean?  That all have sinned, and fallen short of the Glory of God (Romans 3:23).  If you tried to live out the Sermon on the Mount in your own strength, you would invariably fail, and prove yourself a sinner.  This, is the long and short of it, and demonstrates our condition as no other sermon in all of history quite has.

Many people leave it here, however.  They agree that, since the words seem even harder than the impossible-to-fulfill law, that we are not meant to live these words either!  Nothing, however, could be further from the Truth!

Rather, the very fact that we cannot should drive us to repentance, which will lead us to faith.  In the place of faith, we will meet with God.  We will not need someone to teach us, saying, “Know Ye the Lord”, but, rather, each of us will know Him.

We do not need to back up, or dwell in shame or self-condemnation.  The Word simply says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  As new layers of self, and self-reliance, and other things are revealed, we need only to look to the cross.  It was enough for our conversion, it is enough for every step of the way.  What He carried to Calvary, carries us to glory.

There are many false kinds of freedom, but it is ONLY the freedom from having your sins forgiven that lets you laugh again.  It is only being made white as snow, and having your old, bent, fallen human nature not restored, but completely destroyed, and replaced with another.

It says in the parable of the weeds and the wheat in one version, that when the head appeared, then the servants recognized that there were weeds among the wheat.  It wasn’t until the saints lifted their heads, that they could see the false imposters growing amongst them.

By this they will know that we are His disciples, that we love one another.  You cannot love without Christ, and you will not have true joy without knowing His sweet, sweet salvation.  He restores my soul.