You Will Know them by their Fruit

Most Christians have been taught more of psychology than they have been taught the trust of the Bible. Ask the Holy Spirit not the culture for wisdom.

If everyone who is born-again would ask the Holy Spirit to show them the truth about everything they have been taught and then search the Word to find out what God says about it, paying attention to His words, they would see that most of what we were taught in the culture was wrong.

1 Corinthians 3:18-20 "18 Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.” 20 And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”…"

The world will think we are foolish when we don't think the way they do, when we think with the mind of Christ.

It is the ways of the world that we have been brain-washed with our entire lives. The culture has perverted all of their ways to follow their feelings and enhance self worship, calling it "self-esteem." No where in the scripture does God call "self-esteem" a good thing. God said we are to esteem others better than ourselves.

Philippians 2:3 "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better than himself."

Here is what God says "self-esteem" produces.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (ragingly insane) times shall come.

2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

There are many other principles that have been perverted to bring about the opposite of what God says in His Word.

The teachings on forgiveness is also one of these false worldly teachings.

Notice how we almost never hear a mantra shouting "confess, confess, confess", the emphasis is on forgiveness without confession to guilt the victims into forgiving an unrepentant person. Why are the people not guilted into repenting when they are the perpetrators?

It is easy to answer this, the devil has perverted God's ways to protect offenders while harming victims of offenders.

I knew of a man who came to church, everything out of his mouth was the opposite of what God said in His word. The man was stubborn, rebellious and mean-spirited demeaning and mocking while lying against the Word of God. When we see this we know we are dealing with more than just human stubbornness, it is demonic. Devils often will influence the thinking of people to make them believe they are right and others deserve their rage.

The anger and the rage is the proof there has been no born again experience. God said "you shall know them by their fruit." Do not allow a rager to lure you into fighting with them. Remain silent, remove yourself and leave them for God to handle.

Matthew 7:15-20 "15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

Fruit of the Spirit is as follows:

Galatians 5:22-23

"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."

Pretenders can appear to have this fruit but will lose all of it as soon as you address problems with their theology or attitudes.

You know who they are if you have enough time spent with them.

Calling on the Name of Jesus Christ

Lots of people who claim to call upon the name of the Lord have false motives, to be accepted by others or to pretend they love God when they only want to appear so.

Matthew 7:21-23 "21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

We must read all scripture in the context of the rest of the Bible. Words do not mean very much unless they are backed up by a lifestyle change. But not a change that we do, it is the change that Christ does in us when He sees we are sincere in our repentance and desire to be changed by Him.

Then He makes us into a new creation. God will not make into a new creation anyone who does not want to be changed by Him. He will not change anyone who is pretending with selfish motives and only "says" things to be accepted.

Our confession of sinfulness must be according to a "contrite" heart, meaning a heart that has been crushed by the knowledge of just how sinful we are and how much we have hurt the heart of God.

God said "you shall know them by their fruit", which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is "love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, self-control and longsuffering."

If someone claims to be a Christian but nothing has changed in their life, they still live rebelliously against God's principles and the fruit is missing, then that person was never born-again, as we see in Matthew 7:21-23.

When a person rages at us for pointing out a sin in their life that is harming others, then that person is not born-again. At the very least the person confronted should feel ashamed and desire to clear things up if there has been a misunderstanding. Those who desire to confess their sinfulness to be cleansed by God of that sin will act humble and saddened that they have harmed someone else and especially that they have been disrespectful of God and others.

1 John 1:9

"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

It is possible that our challenge to a brother or sister who is sinning will be met with resistance, but eventually, if they are saved they will be contrite (crushed) and want to make things right.

When appearances are first and foremost in someone's life far more than obedience to God, we have met a pretender. Authentically born-again believers hate it when they sin, they do not rest until they fix what was wrong and openly confess sin. Their heart is more concerned about hurting God and our witness as believers than they are about their own reputation as a good person.

If you are born-again do not ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit. He will tell us if we have been falsely accused or if we are guilty of something. We need not wallow in self denigration, we can dismiss a false accusation or confess to be cleansed if we were guilty. The longer a person covers up their own sin and willfully ignores the warnings of others the more hardened their heart becomes.

God will go silent for the believer who hardens their heart, and will not hear any cries from the unbeliever who will not confess their sinfulness to be born-again.

If anyone hardens their heart and refuses to submit to God and His other children, God will further harden it to the point they cannot unharden it anymore. This is a very scary place to be for anyone.

Hebrews 3:7-9 "7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, 8 do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works."

Hebrews 3:12-13

"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God…'"

The last verse here is warning "Christians" to see if they are really in the faith, those who are not are the pretenders who will depart from the faith having lost their strength to carry on in it because God never changed them into a new creation. They were attempting to do their walk in the flesh because of their unbelief in Christ.

So many people live by "their own words" while negating and ignoring the Words of God. They are stubborn and rebellious determined to do as they please rather than submit to God.

Matthew 4:17

"From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”