SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2021 9:22 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Watching”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 7:16-20
Message of the verse: “16 “You will 1aknow them by their fruits. 2Grapes are not gathered from
thorn bushes nor figs from thistles,
are they? 17 “So aevery
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 “aEvery
tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into
the fire. 20 “So
then, you will 1know
them aby
their fruits.”
Jesus has just warned us about false prophets and now in
this section He will tell us what to watch for in identifying them. We have already mentioned that they are
extremely deceptive and dangerous—ravenous spiritual and also moral wolves in
the clothing of a shepherd which is wool, so the Lord would hardly have left us
without means of determining who these evil people are.
MacArthur writes “Jesus assures us that we ‘will know
them by their fruits.’ A fruit tree may
be beautiful, decorative, and offer pleasant shade in the summer. But its primary purpose is to bear fruit, and
it is therefore judged by what it produces and not by how it looks. (The understanding is the key to interpreting
John 15 properly.)” Now if anyone wants
to what I studied from John chapter 15 they can go to the first SD dated
12-11-2016 and it goes from that date through 01-08-2017.
MacArthur goes on “Similarly a prophet—used in this
passage in the broadest sense of one who speaks for God—is judged by his life,
not simply by his appearance or his words.
The kind of person he really is cannot help being revealed. Some false prophets are noticeably spurious
and only the most gullible person would be taken in by them. Others conceal their true nature with
remarkable skill, and only careful observation will expose them for what they
are. But there is a true assurance in
the statement ‘you will know them.’
There is no need to be deceived if we look closely.”
The ones that Jesus is talking about here are the
cleverly deceptive false prophets. We
really don’t need help in deciding that a tree is bad if it produces shriveled,
discolored, and obviously rotten fruit or perhaps no fruit at all. It is only the tree that appears to bear good
fruit, however does not, that is the one that is deceptive.
It is entirely possible for grapes to be stuck on thorn
bushes or even for figs to be stuck on thistles, and from a distance it might
appear to be growing on real fruit trees.
Now because the fruit is genuine, there will be naïve persons who might
conclude that the tree itself also has to be genuine.
We have talked earlier about how real Christians had been
taken in by the false prophet Jim Jones, and this happened because those
believers were careless about study of and of and also their obedience to the
Word of God, along with their prayer life, perhaps they were lazy about their
prayer life and study of God’s Word. Now
when that happens, then they are in danger of becoming grapes on thorn bushes
and figs on thistles. We as believers
know that Satan loves to use God’s own people to promote his evil word, seeking
if it were even possible to snatch them from their heavenly Father as seen in
Matthew 24:24. “24 “For false Christs and afalse prophets will arise and
will 1show great 2bsigns and wonders, so as to
mislead, if possible, even cthe 3elect.”
MacArthur writes “It is also possible for a tree itself
to bear fruit that is colorful, well formed, and attractive, but which is
bitter, distasteful, and even poisonous.
That kind of ‘bad tree’ with its ‘bad fruit’ is much harder to judge
than ‘thorn bushes’ that have ‘grapes’ on them or ‘thistles’ that have ‘figs’
on them. In the second case, both the
tree and the fruit appear to be genuine.
What it ‘bears’ has to be examined carefully to determine if it is ‘good
fruit’ or ‘bad fruit.’ A mature believer
who has developed discernment can spot that bad tree and bad fruit (Heb. 5:14).” “14 But solid food is for athe mature, who because of practice have their
senses btrained to cdiscern good and evil.”
Now
keep in mind that what we are looking at in this SD is an introduction to Matthew
7:16-20 and then we will look at various sub-sections as we continue through
this section, and so I want to again quote MacArthur in order to help us
understand where we are going from here.
“Judging the fruit of false prophets, of course, is not nearly so easy
as judging fruit in an orchard. But from
Scripture we discover at least three primary tests we can apply in order to
know. They are in the areas of
character, creed, and converts.” Those
are the sub-sections we will begin to look at in our next SD.
2/19/2021 10:02 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment