Pick the fruit from the right tree
Part 2
Matthew 7:15
"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
What is a false prophet? "one who, acting the part of a divinely inspired prophet, utters falsehoods under the name of divine prophecies, a false prophet": Which comes in sheep's clothing. They will look act and sound like one of God's own, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. They are going to have their bible and they are going to be clamming I am a preacher, minister . . . I have been ordained by the church and I am here to take care of the flock. The problem is most of them don't have a clue. Many times their ministry is centered around money, or just the vanity of ruling over many people. It is called pride, and with it comes the whitewashing of the Scripture to please the flock's vanity. Sometimes it is even the pension fund that keeps the false prophet in line with false doctrine, or it could be just plain ignorance of God's Word.
So how do we know who to follow or who not to follow?
Are they teaching you from Gods word. Even if they are doing a study like this do they give you references from the bible, or do they go off telling you stories about good Ol Uncle Charlie and Aunt B.
You need to take notes and use the common sense God gave you and check out from the bible just what it says.
Acts 17.
10And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.
Paul and Silas have just been run out of Thessalonica by unbelieving people. The people at Berea where more noble they listened to the word then went home and searched the scriptures daily to make sure what they were told was true. Look at the fruit; many got saved (believed)
Matthew 7:16
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
You shall know them; Who are the them? They are the false teachers from verse 15. What is their fruit? You might thank it is their teaching, their preaching but no that is not it. Jesus refers to them as shepherds what is the fruit of the shepherd? The sheep. Look at their flock are they growing, are the good students of Gods word, are they being equipped to understand the days we live in; to become teachers or have they been there years and still do not know how to fed themselves. Sadly I have been to to many churches where the entire flock is starving. They have not been fed from the good pasture of Gods word
Isaiah:28:9
King James Bible
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Amos 8
9And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
13In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
1st Corinthians 3
1And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 4For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
5Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 9For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
Hebrews 5
Warning against Drifting Away
11Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. 12For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
I hope that you start to see the importance of what you are taught not where you are taught.
You could be going to the biggest the fanciest church in the country with the most popular pastor ever and starving to death because he is not bringing you the true word of God chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
Then there could be 5or 6 people in a living room of someones house and they could be getting the fed the fat of the lamb; Why? They are getting into Gods word with eyes to see and ears to hear.
Make sure you are getting fed the right food for the right time from the right place. If you ask God He will send you where you can be fed or maybe He wants you right where you are to help one or maybe the whole flock. Ask Him and listen to Him'