Inspecting Fruit
Gospel of Mark: Jesus a life to serve • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 32:44
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Trust
Trust
Trust, is trust something that is assumed? Is it something that is earned? Do we check things out before trusting them? Jesus in our passage today is issuing a warning and a challenge.
Can we trust religious leaders?
We should be able to trust religious leaders, but even in Jesus day there were those who were leading people away from the truth, some intentionally, others unintentionally and even had good intentions but wrong information and wrong conclusions which leads to wrong direction.
Preachers, teachers are oftentimes thought of as trustworthy and what they say is normally accepted as truth. But should we do this? Should we just trust them at their word?
People like Jim Jones, David Koresh who were leading many away to their death in the name of Jesus.
Our passage today says we need to beware of false teachers
Actually the verse says false prophets.
It was an issue then, it is an issue today
They may appear harmless, but are dangerous
Jesus wants the disciples to know how to identify them
By the fruit of their lives
By the fruit of their teaching
Are there false teachers today, is this still a danger today as it was in Jesus day?
There is a great diversity out there today of different teachings and doctrines (Faith only, Once saved always saved, etc.) And if that is true, then there is conflicting doctrine and people are being or can be misled.
Jesus is warning of the danger of false teachers, prophets and how to spot them.
As we go through this passage we can see a couple of things, some assumptions, some warnings and some tests, so now let’s look at the text.
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Assumptions
Assumptions
Assumptions we all make them, but when Jesus does it really does hold true since He is truth. Look at the definition: a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof. Our passage starts with an assumption so let’s look together at it.
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Stating to beware makes an assumption there are false prophets
(insert Beware of dog picture)
You can assume if you see this sign, that there is a dog and that the warning has been issued. Jesus is doing that making us aware of something that is there without you having to see it to believe it.
These dogs, are seen and mentioned in most of the letters in the N.T. they are referred to as:
Pseudo-prophets - claiming divine inspiration
Pseudo-apostles - they claimed apostolic authority
Pseudo-Christs - denied Christ or or made messianic pretensions of the Christ, Here He is, there He is
Pseudo in the Greek means false, means liar, lie.
Jesus warns because the threat is not only real, it is already happening
False prophets will mislead many (Mt24:11-14)
11 “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 12 “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.
13 “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. 14 “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Not just one false prophet, many, many will come, many will mislead many. Lawlessness will increase, and love will grow cold.
They are disguised and deceitful (2Cor11:13)
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
They are false, they are deceitful they are disguising, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ when in reality they are ravenous wolves.
There is an implied (assumed) thing as an objective standard of truth
The false teachers, prophets will introduce false teachings (2Pt2:1; Mt24:24; 1Jn2:18; Jer23:16. 18, 22)
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
False teachers are not just from outside the body, but from within the body, the body of believers, they are sometimes called change agents who slip in.
24 “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
They may look good, sound good, do good works, and mislead many, and even the elect maybe deceived and mislead
18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
The last hour, the time between the death of law and the return of Christ to judge the church and the world.
There are many deceivers, liars, anti-Christs out there
Jesus assumptions, and ascertains have already proven true.
Jon Stott had a great quote I want to bring in.
“In telling us to beware of false prophets . . there is another assumption that there is such a thing as an objective standard of truth from which the false prophets can be distinguished from.”
A true prophet spoke from divine inspiration, where a false prophet claimed it, but actually propagated untruth, Jeremiah illustrated that.
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They speak a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the Lord.
18 “But who has stood in the council of the Lord, That he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and listened?
And then just a few verses later from the Lord not from man, false prophet
22 “But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds.
Jesus is teaching the reality of truth and we need to watch out for untruth that may try, will try, to slip in. and truth and falsehood exclude one another and we need to understand that, and that brings us the warnings and sign how we can know.
Warnings and tests
Warnings and tests
False teachers, prophets, are both dangerous and deceptive and we need to watch for them, so let’s look at the warning and some tests to be able to inspect the fruit of the tree’s and the teaching.
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The warning (Mt7:15; Act20:28-31)
Paul gave similar warnings (2Cor11:13-15; 1Tim4:1-3; 2Tim3:1-9)
Warnings by Peter, John and Jude (2pt2:1-3; 1Jn4:1; Jude3-4)
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The warning (Mt7:15; Act20:28-31)
15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Paul issued warnings to the leadership of church at Ephesus
28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. 29 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 “Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.
The warning (Mt7:15; Act20:28-31)
Paul gave similar warnings (2Cor11:13-15; 1Tim4:1-3; 2Tim3:1-9)
Similar warnings to the church at Corinth
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
Paul calls these people false apostles, deceitful workers, the work in disguise, just as Satan does, trying to appear good,appear as light but are really workers of darkness
Warnings not just to the church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth, but to a young evangelist too
1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,
3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.
you can also look at 2Tim3:1-9 that describes the character and the tactics of the times of these people who come as sheep but are really ravenous wolves.
The warning (Mt7:15; Act20:28-31)
Paul gave similiar warnings (2Cor11:13-15; 1Tim4:1-3; 2Tim3:1-9)
Warnings by Peter, John and Jude (2pt2:1-3; 1Jn4:1; Jude3-4)
Peter, John and Jude gave warnings too, let the Scripture speak for itself here.
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
Peter speaks of the rise of the false teachers, prophets
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
John instructs the church to “test the spirits” this is what Jesus is instructing the people to do in the teaching about the tree and the fruit of the tree that we are looking at tonight.
3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. 4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jude speaks of presence of these false teachers, who slipped in unnoticed!
Can you see the gravity of the warning by Jesus, Paul, Peter, John and Jude? We need to be able to spot the wolves in sheep clothing.
Now back at our passage, we should not be surprised at this warning, at this teaching, right after teaching about the narrow gate. Many can blur the scripture lay out, God’s plan of salvation and we know that in reality it leads to destruction.
The false teacher does not walk into the assembly and announce is a false teacher, he assimilates into the body and then introduces deception, lies that deceive the body, oftentimes not noticed until it is too late.
Testing the fruit
Testing the fruit
Do you squeeze, smell fruit, look at it closely before you buy it? Sure you do, we need to do the same when we are hearing, listening to teaching. There are some ways we can identify the false teachers, prophets.
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By the fruit of their lives (Mt7:21-23; Gal5:22-23; Gal5:19-21)
By their character and their conduct
By the fruit of their teaching (2Pt2:1; 2pt2:3; 2Tim3:13; Gal1:8-9; Deu13:1-4)
By the person’s actual teaching
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16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits.
We cannot be the judge of someones heart, but we can know someone by examining the fruit of their life, what is in their heart will be revealed, eventually.
By the fruit of their lives it will be known (Mt7:21-23; Gal5:22-23; Gal5:19-21)
Are they walking the walk, or just talking the talk, Jesus tells us we will know for a good tree produces good fruit, a bad tree bad fruit. And in the end it will all come out.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
You cannot trick your way into heaven or work you way in either. For the Lord is the discerner of hearts.
Does the teacher display the fruit of the Spirit?
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
It is easy to identify the works of the flesh as described by Paul
19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
By the fruit of their lives it will be known (Mt7:21-23; Gal5:22-23; Gal5:19-21)
By the fruit of their teaching (2Pt2:1; 2pt2:3; 2Tim3:13; Gal1:8-9; Deu13:1-4)
Take notice of the methods of teaching
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
Secretive, destructive, can even deny Jesus or the teaching they were previously taught.
3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
Their greed, they are in it for the money, they will mislead you by their words
13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Deceptive words; using the scripture out of context or twisting to try to prove the point position they take vs. what God says, means.
Speaking of twisting look at the perversion even to the gospel itself.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
The teachings may be in line with what man says vs. what God says, and that makes them accursed!
teaching that is contrary to the scripture
1 “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’
3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God is testing you to find out if you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 “You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
It is not necessary for us to judge the heart of man, God has that covered, we do need to discern the truth through the Word. We need to discern the fruit of the lives and the teaching of others so not to be lead astray, to do as the scripture says.
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
and then finish with
6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
So as fruit inspectors, be sure to inspect the fruit to watch out for the ravenous wolves.
Know the teachings of Jesus and the apostles!
(encouragement slide) encouragement (encouragement slide 2) prayer (exit slide)