Book of Romans, 8:1 - No Condemnation For Those Walking After The Spirit, Pt. 5 (09/01/2019)

All right, we're in Roman chapter 8 in verse 1 We also had major answered prayer with miss

Sharon while I was gone, and I left With that prayer going up, but we didn't know the answer

Until a little bit. I guess as we were headed home and thank the

Lord for that. I sensed it was going to be that way and But when we see the outcome of faith, it's awesome, isn't it?

So Praise the Lord I'll read Romans 8 1 that's where we are and then we'll go from there

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus Who walked not after the flesh but after the

Spirit we've actually been talking about the second phrase For quite a number of Sundays because it's left out and a lot of sermons

But what does it really mean? Well, it really is not the cause of The Salvation and the no condemnation part it's the result of it

It is is it is an effect of salvation when we are regenerated the

Holy Spirit does at least 33 different things to us and for us in a nanosecond of time and Those one of those things is that he sends himself

To indwell our bodies and our body becomes the temple of the Living God Can you even imagine that they just thinking about that thought can be life -changing?

Because you can't possibly be the same after that happens as you were before it happened because now

God dwells in your body With you his spirit and your spirit actually become one spirit

During those times that you're what the Bible teaches and calls being spirit filled

And we're not spirit filled all the time we choose when to be spirit filled and when we're not spirit filled

We're dangerous because then we're in the flesh So I don't think there's any in -between Best I can tell what do you think

Bill? Have you ever seen any in -between? I mean like you're either spirit filled or I Don't think there's an in -between you're in the flesh.

You're spirit filled one of the two So the striving of the Christian life is to be in the spirit more

Often throughout the day and throughout all the days combining them together into being a better Person because you're living like God intended humans to be before the fall

Actually, and this is on this side of the fall and we have that capability to be a whole

Complete or as the Bible word would almost be a good synonym mature whole person the

God wants us to be a Spirit controlled soul controlled body

Think about that your spiritual man is the highest part of you. That's the new man

All right when we are attached to Jesus Christ when we're one with him his spirit and our spirit become one spirit the

Bible says and that controls our soul which is sort of the interface that connects our spirit show self to our physical self and Then that's connected to our body and it turns our body into an instrument for good when as long as our new man is in Control, isn't that something?

So that's how we want to walk Predominantly in the predominant movement of our life is in that direction

That's what the second phrase means in this passage. It is a result of the salvation doesn't cause it.

It's the result of it and Knowing that helps us understand the sense of it.

Well, I Read you a quote from John Calvin on that particular part of that verse which where he just said it just it's tantamount to being

Indwelt by the Spirit which I thought man, that's so simple Because I was having a lot of questions about that second passage and I read that he said he made

I said to myself He made that so simple, but I'd like to bear that out in scripture So that's what we've been spending time doing.

Where are the scriptures that made John Calvin believe that that's what it meant And so we spent quite a few

Sundays on that task and I think those kinds of things are important You should never just read any commentary and now the magnitude of this man

John Calvin the magnitude of this man To put him in perspective if it weren't for he and about four other people we would still be in the dark ages we we would be controlled by the

Roman Catholic Church in the worst of the sense of that and There would be very little light none of us would have our own

Bibles probably and who knows where we would be and God knows that was never a chance because the plan was for Martin Luther and and John Calvin and different men like that to arise and to bring light back is called the

Enlightenment period the Renaissance was the secular part of that and So John Calvin is huge, but even reading him you you need to go to scripture and see okay

Why does he think that and if you don't find it in scripture, then you're allowed to disagree with John Calvin Is that all right?

You can disagree with any teacher of the word because the main Authority is what it's this right here

Right. It's this right here. It's got to be that way Otherwise we have chaos so we've been talking about where did he come up with these concepts well

I found a really wonderful passage that dealt with this whole idea a lot of times we'll take a trip through the whole

Bible and we'll have a whole bunch of verses from dear Old New Testament all over the place kind of like a roadmap down through the whole

Bible to support some of these Great Bible themes that we come across In this case we did cover a couple of other verses

But then the main place that I found was in Colossians chapter 1 so if you wouldn't mind turning there this morning

I'm going to pick back up there because in that one chapter I found 30 at least 30 of the 33 things that I had

Previously put in a study years ago when I was in my probably early 30s That God does to us when we're saved at the moment

We're saved a lot of them are right here in this one chapter I didn't realize that back when I did that study because I find them all over the place in the

Bible but so let's turn to Colossians chapter 1 and I want to I Remember where we left off last time is

Let me see somewhere right around verse The end of verse 9 really

So let me read verse 8 and 9 it says and here we are in Colossians chapter 1

Okay verses 8 and 9 who also declaring to us your love in the spirit For this cause we also since the day we heard it

Do not cease to pray for you and to desire that you might be filled

With the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding

So last time I was here to speak with you. We talked about how do we know God's will and I had two different mentors.

Dr. Freeman and brother Otis and they both told me their viewpoint on how to know God's will independently of each other it was the same four points and So I added a fifth point which was to once you once you have these things lined up Basically, do

I do I have the desire to do a thing? Whatever the thing is I'm praying about and Lord is this your will for me to do this do

I have the desire to do the thing and The reason that's important is because sometimes God puts that desire in our heart when he's moving you into something

Now we have to understand our flesh can have desires too. So that can't be the only point, right? We have to have more than one point

But the first point is do I have the desire to do the thing second point is do I have the wherewithal to do it?

In other words has God put the means in my life through other people through resources whatever or the possibility of such resources to actually do the thing that I want to do and the third thing is

Does it contradict Scripture at all or is it in line with Scripture? And the fourth thing is

Can I do this thing and have peace with God doing it? Those were the four things both of those gentlemen taught

The fifth step that I added was once those four things line up take a step step towards it

Because that's what so many people miss. I mean they'll sit there and believe in something. They'll be Abstractly, I'm with it, but they never go into the concrete.

They don't put they don't put their feet to it They don't walk towards it and make it happen So that's the fifth step and that's what we talked about last time and most of that was there in verse 9

So that brings us to verse 10 this morning So let's read that together follow along with me there that you may walk worthy of the

Lord and to all pleasing being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God as We increase in the knowledge of God we by definition increase in the knowledge of God's will because there are two

Aspects to God's will one is his revealed will which is this? All right, the

Holy Word of God Inspired God breathes word and the second is his secret will which is what you find by taking that step

You step into that you can't know it because you're not God You don't know it till you get into it once you're in it

Then you know you're in his will right, but you don't know it until you take that step What's interesting as we increase in our knowledge of God our ability to understand his revealed will is greater and greater, isn't it?

Wouldn't you say that has to be directly proportional to how much time you spend in this book? Would you agree your understanding of the knowledge of God would be proportional that assuming you're saved

If you assume you're saved and you're spirit -filled, then it would be proportional to how much time you're in that book

So that's a good thing that we see there in verse 10 But the thing I want to back up and look at the first part which is being fruitful

In every good work now, let me get you to back up a little bit to verse 5 and 6

Because I want to contrast this with something we've already studied. All right verses 5 and 6 says this for The hope which is laid up for you in heaven where have you heard before in the word of truth?

The gospel of your salvation that that so this is speaking about the Bible the Word of God the written word

So as we speak of the written word It says in verse 6 which is coming to you as it is in all the world

Meaning the Bible the Word of God has come to you as it has in all the world and it brings forth fruit

And has done so since you heard it so God had to open your ears to have ears that hear first But once you then heard the word the

Word of God began to bear fruit in your life So that's one topic we discussed is the Bible actually bearing fruit in your life.

So that's not you bearing fruit That's the Bible bearing fruit in your life Now when you drop down to verse 10 though, it starts talking about you and me bearing fruit in our lives

And it is related obviously, but it's also distinct. So let's take a look at that today, so Verse 10 says that you might walk worthy of the

Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work So can we please the

Lord if we're not bearing fruit? Well, I think it indicates that the way that we are pleasing unto the

Lord and Walking worthy of the Lord is If we are fruit bearers, right?

So we want to stop and think about that a little bit longer and As we take a look at fruit bearing in the

Bible There are several different ways we can break this down to study it. And if you remember right before we finished last

Sunday, I went into Mark chapter 11 verse 11, we talked about the

Parable of the fig tree And I don't want to cover that again, but if you weren't here

It was Mark chapter 11 starting with about verse 11 and going down through verse 21 and we read the whole thing

But just to give you an idea of what it talked about was

Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem to the to the temple and He passed by a fig tree which was green

Indicating it had life and it says he was and hungered. That's the way

Texans talk So King James is Texan. So he was an hungered. He was hungry Okay, and he so he went over to look at the tree and there was no fruit on the tree

So he cursed the tree and his he did it in such way that all his followers heard him do it

And then they just moved on down the road and went and he viewed the temple. He went to take a look at the temple

All right, so then they spent some time, but when they came back Out of town and they they were apparently sleeping outside of town smart thing to do didn't want to sleep in the city

So went back out into the countryside They noticed that the fig tree was dead.

It was just living He cursed it and they came back and it's dead are completely dead and they took note of that and they wanted to ask

Jesus What is that? What are you teaching here? What is the concept? Well, it deals with fruitfulness and it's a object lesson that we are

Are given life like the green tree we have life therefore we ought to be fruitful and when our

Lord wants us to bear fruit and he wants to take advantage of the fruit in The world that he built in his kingdom then it needs to be there and if it's not there

It's not pleasing to him now, you know telling what else is taught in that but that's what I got from it in a nutshell

So you have that story there in that chapter? now It kind of sets up a story about the whole teaching about fruit bearing in the

Bible and Let me go. Let's go back up here and look at verse 11.

I'm going to show you a couple of interesting points And there this whole story if you just look at it from a viewpoint of a lesson on fruit bearing you'll find some things that are actually going on with God's relationship with us and our relationship with him all the time and his and Jesus's relationship with the church and We'd have to say with the church in our day the modern church that we are in today

In this world and what it looks like compared to other times in the last 2 ,000 years so look at this

Jesus entered into Jerusalem and into the temple and when he had looked round about upon all things and Now that it was evening

And he went out to Bethany with the twelve and that's when they went back out and notice the tree was dead

Okay, but I want you to notice he didn't spend a lot of time That day apparently they had just arrived.

He just want to go in and take Whoa, that was cool Scared me to death. He wanted I did not know what that was

Being eaten alive. Okay, so he wanted to take a look at the temple. So look at that phrase

He looked round about upon all things in the temple And that's the first point that I want to make this morning

Is that Jesus looked round about upon all things in the house of God and you can be sure

That he is looking about upon every detail of everything in his church today

Not just our church, but every church that claims to be a church across the

United States and around the world today He's taking a hard look at Everything notice it says all things every detail in the life of the modern church so I would ask you the question, what do you think his feelings are as He takes a look today at the life of the modern church because the first part of verse 11 says he's doing it

That is what he's doing It brings that idea to us that he is taking a hard look at it.

Now. Let's see the next thing that happens all right, so They go through and you have the fig tree story and Then he curses the fig tree and then look at verse 15 drop all the way down to verse 15 where they come back to Jerusalem now after he's taken a glimpse at it now he comes back

So he's had time to think about what he saw in the temple hasn't he? He's already seen it looked and looked at everything he's had time to think about it and now he comes back and they came to Jerusalem and Jesus went into the temple and he began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the money chambers changers and the seats of them that sold doves and would not allow that any man should carry any container vessel a container through the temple and Then he taught saying into them it is is it not written in the

Old Testament, of course My house shall be called by all nations The house of prayer not a house of prayer the house of prayer but you have made it a den of Thebes Now you think about that for a minute?

He goes on and he says Scribes and the chief priests, you know, they heard about this.

And so what did they do when they heard him say this? They looked about how they might destroy him they wanted to kill him because he told the truth about their place of worship

For they feared him because all people were astonished at his doctrine

What does that mean the word doctrine is sounds religious and but it just means teachings the major Bible themes the major Bible lessons that Jesus taught when he taught his

Major Bible themes they were astounding compared to this junk that these

Pharisees had been teaching Do you know what I've got in my study at home a book? That contains some ancient it's got photographs of some ancient targums now what targums were

They were the studies that the Pharisees were using to teach the Jewish people for about 300 years

Prior to the coming of Jesus Christ to this earth and the reason that the Jews predominantly missed

Their Savior is because they had been taught from targums rather from rather than from the

Bible itself And so the teachers had stopped teaching them the Bible and they had these targums

Which is nothing more than a paraphrase how many of you ever heard of the good news for modern man that Bible.

All right You Can go down through and name several modern

Bibles that are written like funny books practically But they're not really Bibles because what they are is there some person might even be just one person's

Idea of what the Bible means when he read the Bible So instead of giving you the Bible he's writing down what he says that it means when he reads it

That's not the same and if you were to do that for 300 years Let's say the next man took that paraphrase the good news for modern man says well

I'm gonna write one tell you what I think about that one And then he writes that down and you keep doing that for a 300 year period which is longer than the

United States has existed Then the Bible that you end up with the Bible studies that you're teaching from are so far

Removed from the true Word of God by then that you're not even hearing the Word of God And this is exactly what

Satan used to cause the Jew from the human viewpoint to miss their Messiah There were only two

Jews that even recognized him at first Simeon and Anna No one else even but and it says that they recognize because they've been in the scriptures not the

Targums, right? Well Satan's using the same thing today in the modern church.

We have the we have the good news for modern, man We have the new American standard. We have the revised standard.

We have the English standard We got this and that and the other and all these American new

American Renditions of what people think the Bible says and they don't even come from the correct

Greek Manuscripts in the New Testament, which is easily proven if you study for a couple of years and the

Old Testament's a little closer But it's got errors in it, too And so that's what we have people reading nowadays

So it's not that different and so they were missing the truths of scripture because they were not being taught from the scripture

So when Jesus called them out on it and said you scribes and Pharisees you're preaching lies

Then they wanted to kill him because he was teaching the truth and pointing out their error Eventually they did kill

Jesus Christ They thought actually what I see is that Jesus gave up the ghost which means he gave his life up because no one could take

It from him, but they thought they killed him didn't they? Satan even thought he killed him

Satan thought he had victory that day when actually it was the very thing that nailed him to the cross and defeated him and destroyed him and took the law out of the way, too, so This is all being set up the very crucifixion of Christ upon which all of our salvation is based

Was set up right here this day. This is when it started To take place that they were starting to make plots to take the life of Jesus Christ from him and that ended up on the cross and One drop of that blood that was shed on that cross

Removed every sin you'll ever do your whole life removed it From you it all started right here

Because he pointed out that they were False teachers in the church and that the church had been turned into something that God never intended it to be

So we see that he points out here He taught saying unto them is it not written my house shall be called of all nations a house of prayer

So that's what it was supposed to be okay. It was supposed to be a place of meeting with God But what had they turned it into a den of thieves where they were selling goods now they they knew they had taken the law of God and just Extrapolated it on out and touched it with their human hands and and so many rules that God never said these people needed to follow

They were rules They couldn't follow and these Pharisees had created all these rules part of the rules

Enabled them to have it where certain animals that they had to use to do their sacrifices had to be the ones that I sell

The ones I'm selling are the only ones that are clean And they would bring them to the temple and make enormous amounts of money selling these clean animals that were you could go out and buy one from a farmer for a little of nothing and Paid maybe ten to a hundred times that price to buy the one in the temple and this is what

Jesus rebuked they had turned the house of God into a Den of thieves where they were stealing from widows and from the people.

I Want you to think about what does he see in the modern church that would make him just as Likely to rebuke the modern church.

We'll be talking about that a little as we go through this All right, so The first thing that I see then is that Jesus took a look at all things in the house of God.

The second thing is That I see that he begins to cast out the false and the secular

So turn to Ephesians chapter 5 verse 10, I'm going to move around a little bit in some other passages

So what was he question? I'm asking now is what was it? He actually cast out of there

He cast out it sees he calls him a den of thieves And he went around there and he took he took a whip and he literally overthrew their tables

He was this was righteous anger. So it's not always wrong to be angry Jesus Christ was angry at what they had done to the house of God and He threw he must have been quite a strong man

If you think he grew up as a carpenter's son Lifting lumber every day and carrying it where we had to carry it and up on top of houses and putting up They didn't have medium and stronger if he'd had this sheetrock stuff that we have to lift, right?

But I mean think about that. He's a strong man and He goes in with this righteous zeal and anger because they are not using the house of God as it was meant to be by God and he overthrows the tables where they were doing business and He takes the chairs.

They were sitting in throws them all over the place and There's other passages parallel passages the same story where he took whip and whipped the people these people that were doing it

He whipped them with a whip and ran them right out of the front door of the building He ran him out of the house of God he cleansed the house of the

Lord, didn't he? so Ephesians 5 in verse 10.

It says proving what is acceptable unto the Lord and Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them

Let's see if we can take this story of the Old Testament temple and we know Jesus was living under that economy

Because the church age didn't start till after he was dead had died He's buried resurrected and ascended in heaven and then when

Pentecost came that's when the church began the church age Began at that time. So he's living in the

Old Testament But let's see if we can apply this object lesson to us in the church Okay.

So what are these tables that were overthrown picture? What what did the money changers picture?

What does the when he whipped the people and drove them out? What are these people picture in the church today?

And that's what I think we find in some of these passages So it says first thing we should do in our own church is we should prove what is acceptable unto the

Lord So we should never take anyone's word for anything They teach in this church without looking it up in the scripture and prove that it's acceptable unto the

Lord Otherwise you end up with a church like Jesus confronted that day, even though I know it was an

Old Testament temple But it's a picture The story pictures the church and you're going to end up with one that Jesus would not be pleased with So the first thing is we have to make sure it's acceptable to the

Lord the things that are going on here And then we're to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness

But rather reprove them now what I see there is I see a lot of modern churches that are taking the unfruitful works of the world system and Merging it right into their

Christian schools and into their church They're doing whatever you would do

At Madison Square Garden in New York City to sell something They're doing that at the front of their church up on the platform every

Sunday morning Same marketing skills. We work at so hard at Tradeway just to keep our company going which is appropriate for a business

Is being used in all of these mega churches and we recognize it because we're marketing we have marketing backgrounds

We have marketing educations and we have marketing backgrounds and we see it that that's what they're doing

Could we do that here? Absolutely. We have more skills than most preachers have from seminary We got it from business school, but we don't use that here and you mentioned it this morning when we talked about when you first came

We talked about the church We wanted to be biblical not patterned after public school not pattern after the world does and we want a church to be biblical

Too not patterned after what the world does and calls the church. So we don't want to have unfruitful works with With darkness, but rather we want to call them out and reprove them

Which means correct them point them out that they're wrong and correct that that's part of what a true church does now

Will they like that when you do it? Did they like it when Jesus did it when he threw this junk out of there did they like it?

No They begin to plot his death and the same Hatred is there for you and for me today if we stand as a beacon of truth and we say, you know

That's not actually true what you're doing there what you're doing. There's not actually biblically probably shouldn't be doing that There's no authority for doing that whatsoever.

Why are you doing that? People don't like those kind of questions and yet It's our duty if it says here

We're not supposed to buddy up with them, but we're supposed to reprove it We it's you know, we love the part about don't buddy up with it.

Oh, we'll have our church will be different We don't like having to say something with our mouth and reprove it and say to them you are wrong because it's our friend

It's our family. It's our acquaintances and we don't want them to plot our deaths right

We don't want them to plot the death of our friendship or our relationship and our family

So we don't point out these things so we let them move closer and closer to perdition Every day that they live they are closer to hell you say how can you prove that?

I'm not gonna prove it I'm just gonna keep reading the scripture. So let's keep going here. Let's go to Matthew chapter 7 and about verse 15

Matthew chapter 7 verse 15.

This is Jesus speaking now and I Believe he's taking a fore view of the church, even though he's not in the church age because he's still on the earth here, right?

He's living in the Old Testament times preparing his people for a change

He's preparing his people for a new age, which is coming when he tells them

I will be Crucified they will take my life and on the third day. I will bring it back again

And Then later he tells them Don't do anything but pray because in a few days

The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you then you'll be ready to start the church age You'll have the power that you need to do what

I'm sending you to do. You don't have it yet So wait on that. So he's beginning to give them some hints of this future church age

Which is different than how they grew up and it's a huge change because they grew up in a

Jewish economy Where Gentiles were dogs and God wouldn't even save a Gentile in their viewpoint and later

We know the Apostle Paul spent most of his time saying no No, no, Jesus died for all men, which means all kinds of men, which means not just Jews And so now he's starting to prepare him and he says look here's here's how it's gonna be as soon as the church age begins

It won't be three days old and you're gonna have false prophets begin to arise

Now that's not good news to us is it it is good that he told us about it though because it's a warning

So he says beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing But inwardly they are ravening wolves.

So let me ask you a question. How do these prophets look to the eye? They look like sheep

They look like one of us they have sheep's clothing and But on the inside they're a wolf that's coming to destroy the sheep and to eat them alive

Wow Thanks Lord for telling us that that's great news this morning

But it's the truth and then he gives us this interesting information

And this has to do with our study on fruit -bearing is the reason that we were into this this morning You shall know them by their fruits

All right, so now that gives us some information, you know so many people today like saying well

We're not supposed to judge anybody, right? The Bible does not teach that the Bible teaches the world is not supposed to judge us

It teaches that but it says we judge all things in the same verse that teaches that we the saved ones

Jesus's children judge everything we're supposed to judge everything So we look at this we look at a person who claims to be teaching

God's Word who claims to be setting up a house Of God and setting it in order like God wants it and yet we look at the fruit of his life and it doesn't match

Because maybe he's a womanizer or maybe he you know, who knows? But you just start watching the man's life or the woman's life the servant of God whoever's this is

Could be a Sunday school teacher could be anybody and their life doesn't match what they're teaching on Sunday They don't live a life of faith.

They live a life by sight and you can just tell it if you know them very well What does that tell you you need to do you need to know them pretty well?

We need to know our teachers We need to watch their lives their personal life not their church life church life is meaningless

If all I ever knew was you here, you're all perfect here I'm perfect here All right

So that's not how we really are Because Romans chapter 7 came before Romans chapter 8 in Romans chapter 7 talked about we still have the old man

We still have flesh so we're not perfect. We make mistakes We do things incorrectly

But what's the predominant walk of this person that we can also tell? We can overlook the mistakes

But we can't overlook their predominant walk of a person That is what tells you if you should listen to their words or not and Jesus said, you know them by their fruits

Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes? Do they gather figs from thorn bushes?

Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree will bring forth evil fruit

It's not only talking about his life. It's talking about his doctrines that he teaches, too so you can take his life and measure it up to this book and you can take his

Teachings and measure them up to this book and if they fall short cast him out or her

It's a false prophet and when Jesus comes and looks at this church Do you want him to find

Pharisees and scribes here running things? Teaching things. No, he won't be pleased.

He might turn some tables over. He might whip some people He knows you don't know what he'll do. He might remove the candlestick where it's not even church anymore

It's just a institution with people in it Why did sepulchers full of dead men's bones?

He might do that you don't know what he'll do so you don't want to get to this point So you have to look at the fruit of the people that gonna stand up and say hey

I'm gonna teach you the Word of God Okay Then you're gonna show me your life and you're gonna show me that your words match this book and if you don't you're out of here

With a smile on your face you say that Maybe sometimes it doesn't call for it.

Jesus wasn't smiling on this particular day. Was he? So a

Good tree will bring forth good doctrine and a good life and a bad tree will bring forth Doctrines that don't match the scripture and a life that matches the world if you look at it closely rather than God Verse 18 a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.

Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit Very stern warnings every tree that brings not forth good fruit is cut down and Cast into fire into the fire

Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them now that is very serious. Listen. Listen these people your friends your family that are going to churches that have this sort of false stuff going on and They're buying into it the

Bible told us in Ephesians We are to not have anything to do with it But rather reprove it which means we have to use our mouths to tell them they're wrong and show them in the scripture where they're

Wrong and they won't like it. They plotted Jesus's death over it They won't like it when you tell them that but that is our duty and here is the reason

Because every tree that brings not forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.

That's hell Okay, so the teachers who teach this false doctrine

Are we're gonna see later in Scripture number one. This says they're going to hell when they die

They are going to hell when they die It's not just that they differ with your doctrine or they're just like they believe something different but they are actually teaching people a false gospel a false way to heaven and False doctrine and the

Bible says that those kinds of fruit Bushes or whatever you want to call them will be cut down and cast into the fire when the end time comes by the

Lord So because this is true We need to know the teachers predominantly talking about false teachers and true teachers like any teacher.

You need to know them by their fruits Verse 21 says not everyone says unto me

Lord Lord will enter in the kingdom of heaven Not everyone you go to church with maybe in a little church like this It's less likely to have a bunch of tears sitting around.

I Sense that but in a larger church you can't you lose count of who's who and The Bible says

Jesus says very clearly not everyone that calls me Lord Lord Is going to enter into the kingdom of heaven

Just because people call themselves a Christian especially in the Bible Belt, right? Everyone calls himself a Christian down here

Just because they call themselves a Christian Doesn't mean they're on their way to heaven they could be a tear or a goat or a wolf sitting right there in sheep's clothing right next to you and Could tear you up and your whole life and family in church

So we have to be aware of these things, but they're not going to go to heaven Doesn't matter what they call themselves.

They call themselves a Christian their whole life. They're not going to go to heaven But he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven is

The one who will go to heaven Now what is the will of the Father in heaven that you would do? What what did

Jesus say they asked him what's the works we must do that we inherit eternal life? What did he say the works we had to do were?

Believe Believe on him whom he hath sent right? So that's

God's will and people that aren't living a life of faith Aren't going to make it no matter if they're going to church or not

Many will say to me in that day Jesus said Lord Lord have we not prophesied in your name and in your name have we not cast out demons and In your name have we not done many wonderful works, and then will

I profess unto them? I never knew you Depart from me you that work iniquity so There will be false prophets

There will be false Christians that come in and sit among us If our church grows larger and larger

It'll be more difficult to realize that because when people first come takes a while to get to know them

You don't know you got to watch You got to watch everybody you got especially if they're gonna be teaching

Something to our children or to all of us so I never knew them isn't it interesting that the

If you want to if you know you want to ask a trick question It's a great question for the modern church. What do

I have to do to get saved? All right, how would you answer that well? It would in great a great deal depend on what church you grew up in and what you were taught when you grew up what they?

Said in that church what that group people said you had to do to get saved But what did Jesus say you had to do to get saved here?

He said you got to be known by me Now that's not something you can do You can't cause that to happen.

Can you? You can revel in it. You can enjoy the benefits of it, but you can't cause it to happen

You can't cause yourself to be born into the physical family you were born into You just wake up, and you grow up, and you're part of that family

And you rejoice in it You don't ask your parents. Well. Why did you pick me to be your kid?

I don't deserve this that would sound kind of weird, so we shouldn't ask God that why did you choose me

Lord? That doesn't make any sense. He didn't it's like Otis said it's a choice. That was never made. He's always known you

He didn't have to choose you He put that word is put there for humans that don't understand much about God for us to learn a little bit try to put

It in human words because it was a choice. It was never made. He always loved you. He always knew you you were always his

Period and if that's not the case Then you're one of these it says Lord Lord, and he'll say depart from me.

I never knew you right now The good thing is if he knows you he lets you know that and that's called the calling and that's where the

Holy Spirit comes and wakes you up and me up and opens our eyes and opens our ears and says

There's your shepherd. You're hungry. He's got the food, and he makes him totally irresistible to you at that second of time

And you receive him because you want to and why do you want to why didn't you want to the day before is a better?

question because you didn't want to but the Holy Spirit changed you want to and That's how he saved you in part.

He did many things to save us He did over 33 things that I know of he did many things to save us, but we did nothing

We did nothing other than receive it as a free gift and rejoice that I'm in God's family and that God knows me

Now that's the kind of people you want teaching us the Bible Known people all right, and that's

Jesus is just making that point very strongly here now turn turn with me 2nd Corinthians 11 if you would

Man time flies when you're having fun. It's already time to quit.

I'm just getting started I Got some new false teeth.

I accidentally put them on never mind. I want to go there Raymond Raymond told me a funny preacher Joke before church, so when

I can't go there it wouldn't work, right so It's a joke about a preacher that preached for two hours, so We're coming in on that's been

I didn't really get to start though till 20 till so It's not really okay second

Corinthians 11 12 well, but what I do That I will do

That I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion That wherein they glory they may be found even as we now so now what we're gonna

See we've already seen what Jesus thinks about false teachers and some of the warnings that Jesus gives us about false teachers now

Let's see what Paul says about The greatest man of God that I know of whoever lived other than Jesus was

Paul. What does he think about these? Wow He's a little bit goes into more detail than Jesus did when he was on the earth

But you have to remember Jesus sent the Holy Spirit and said I will teach you things You know even beyond what you could have been ready for when

I was there, and that's what he's doing here He's infusing Jesus is infusing his own word into Paul, and that's why it's part of Scripture He's inspiring

Paul to write what Jesus thinks so Paul is writing what Jesus thinks I mean, that's how we got our

Bible. That's what the Bible is but he says first I'm going to deal with these people who desire occasion now.

What kind of a person is that oh? I've seen them I can spot them in about half a second probably you can too a person who desires occasion is a person who comes in and Becomes presumptuous he comes into a church.

He's presumptuous, and he says well I'm gonna.

I'm gonna take over the deacon board and head that up for you pastor and you didn't ask him to he just said that's what

I'm gonna do and So he's seeking for an occasion of power in the church, that's very inappropriate

When it's done in a way, that's not humble you know I'm saying there's a fine line there But I mean there's a fine line between a person who wants genuinely wants to serve who's a man or woman of God And they want to serve and they're excited, and they're zealous and a person who wants power

You've got to be able to discern the difference now, so we're not perfect in that though so sometimes We're disappointed and we find out later all they were we thought they were zealous and loved the

Lord But actually they just wanted power right we find that out later, and then you got to get rid of them, okay, but We're supposed to try to discern these things now.

This is what Paul's saying he said but what I do That I will do that.

I may cut off occasion From those who desire occasion so like he's saying I what

I do I'm gonna keep doing which means I'm gonna spend a whole lot of time in prayer And I'm gonna spend a whole lot of time in this book

And I'm gonna meditate before the Lord and I'm gonna ask the Holy Spirit to give me wisdom and discernment So that when these kind of people come in I will spot them

And I will cut off the occasion they're seeking they won't get that position Do you see that did now this is part of having a healthy church?

Okay, it may be part of having a small church, too. I don't know We've had a few we've cut off through the years, and they don't stay but anyway right

But I mean it is part of what Paul says he did So that wherein they glory they may be found even as we so like if they do get a position of church

And they glory in it that they're glorying the same reason Paul is because they love Jesus right now That's a good reason to love doing something.

It's not wrong to be zealous and want to serve the Lord We don't have enough people zealous and want to serve the Lord It's not wrong if it's coming from the

Holy Spirit saying this is what I've gifted you to do this Well, I want you to make this magnificent. This is gonna be great for my church.

I want you to do this That's what we want to see For such are let's see where we are here

Okay verse 13 for such are false Apostles now it goes back to this first thing about seeking occasion the wrong kind of people

False apostles false teachers are seeking an occasion to teach in the church because they want to take the sheep and just tear them up They want to take everything the pastor spent 20 years building doctrinally in the group.

He's got there and just tear it up That's their desire. They may not even know that's their desire

But that Satan's desire and Satan's one it puts them there these kind of people says for such are false apostles deceitful workers

Transforming themselves. In other words, God didn't do it God didn't gift them. They transformed themselves

Into the Apostles of Christ, which tells me they are not Apostles, but they say they are

They say they're Apostles They claim that they have powers from God To reveal things to you that you can't figure out on your own with the

Holy Spirit in this book. They you need them Oh boy, when I see when I see books written like that I mean this guy that created logo software has written a book in essence

It says if you don't read my book, you can't understand the Bible. So I said, okay, you're a false prophet You're a false prophet because I've got kids that can understand the

Bible in our Christian school I got farmers in my church that can understand the Bible. I was a rancher.

Okay, I got I've got Mechanics, I've got I got airplane engine mechanics that can understand the

Bible without this man's book But he doesn't think so that I make to my book that makes him a false prophet and guess what if you read some stuff

He said you'll see what I mean. Just judge the fruit. Don't read it though. It's bad bad for you For such are false prophets deceitful workers transforming themselves into Apostles of Christ and no marvel

For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light So certainly his workers can do the same thing to themselves

Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers Satan's ministers also transform themselves or are transformed as the ministers of righteousness

So they appear to be good people teaching good things The problem is if you judge the fruit of their life and the fruit of their doctrine, it won't match up with the scripture

That's how you tell that takes some time unfortunately But once you discern it you need to take action immediately

Whose end shall be according to their works. What is Paul saying? They're going to be judged by works not by grace, so where do you go if you get what you work for?

You go to hell Because no one no one our righteousness is as filthy rags to the

Lord No one makes it into heaven based on their works, but these guys are gonna be judged by their works Now we don't have time to keep going, but we shall keep going the

Lord willing We'll pick this back up but the main thing that we see there is

Jesus is but I mean Paul is beginning to talk about what he calls a false Apostle the key word there is obviously the word false and It's an interesting

Greek word suit up a solos Suit up a solos that little prefix is like pseudo you put that in English Pseudo something it means a false something they want to be this, but they're false and so these are false spurious

Untrue Apostles who walk right into the church, and we're gonna see as we continue through this that they are they come in Unawares they they sneak in unaware secretly and sit among us in other words.

We don't recognize it when they first come in and so you know now this is

Put yourself in a small church I prepare my sermons for like 3 ,000 people and then whoever shows up gets to hear them

That's that's what I've done my whole life sure I'll tell you that okay So some of this stuff like works really good with 3 ,000 people

But like with 30 it's kind of weird when you're the only visitors, and you're kind of new and I'm saying watch them

I Was worried about that the whole time this morning, but that's not that's not what it's about okay

But we will keep an eye on you, but anyway, but you need to watch us I mean this it goes both ways doesn't it you don't know us either, so that's what we're supposed to do and I'm sorry.

We're out of time because I ain't through preaching today, but I'm gonna quit for your sakes Because it's easier to stand up here than to sit out there, so let's stand and have prayer together

You tie this whole thing together, why are we talking about it because why is fruitfulness important?

It's one of the key signs That you can tell the difference between a false prophet and a true preacher, and that's something the fruit that they bear all right

Let's pray Lord. Thank you so much for your word Thank you for your protection as some of us were traveling and you brought us back safely many of us drove in today

You brought us here safely, please bring us to our homes again safely this evening Thank you for the marvelous

Wonderful answer prayer with Sharon and others that we mentioned this morning Lord you you are interested in every detail of our lives and may we never think that you're not with us and watching over us

Every second of every day while we're here in your service, so Lord. We thank you for that We thank you for your word.