Exposing False: Matt 7: 13-23
Category: Religion and Philosophy
Mat 7:13- 14 "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
The gate is narrow. Please imagine if you will.. a mustard seed. Have you ever seen one of them? It is this itty bitty seed... that grows into a mighty big like tree. The scriptures tell us that faith as that of a mustard seed.. can move mountains. Now imagine Alice in the wonderland when she got to that door and it was smaller than her.. it seemed near impossible for her to fit in that door. That is like the gate to heaven.. in the human it is impossible for us to fit through.. but through faith.... in Jesus Christ... faith in His works... He is our salvation.. HE is our key... through faith in Christ we can now enter into that which was impossible. The straight and narrow path. He perfects in us and makes it possible for us to enter in the gates of heaven... and into the very throne room of God Almighty.
This scripture goes on to warn us.. BEWARE!!
To BEWARE=to hold the mind towards, that is, pay attention to, be cautious about, apply oneself to, adhere to: - (give attendance unto), beware, be given to, give- to take heed (to, unto) have regard.
To TAKE HEED=means the same thing...
There are 14 beware scriptures and there are 28 take heed scriputes.. totaling 42 vrs. lets look at them more closly... below is the first one.
Mat 7:15 " Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."
FALSE pROPHET=a spurious prophet, that is, pretended foreteller or religious impostor: - false prophet.
They come to us in sheep clothing.. that means they look and feel like one of us, but we are told, inwardly they are pretenders.. they are not one of us. Spurious means not coming from a right source; not genuine; false; counterfiet. That means they ARE in our midst, outwardly they look just like a sheep... they speak like a sheep... they feel like one of us. So how can we Know?
The Word tells us inwardly they are ravening wolves.
RAVENING= rapacious: - extortion, ravening.
EXTORT= obtain money, promise, ect... by threats, force, fraud, or illigal use of authority.
Interesting!! Notice that deffinition. "...by threats, force, fraud, or illigal use of authority." Again, notice the last one... "Illigal use of authority." How many times have you given money because of... feeling like you had to... or when they say you wont be blessed. If you dont give you will miss out on this annointing. Give to recieve this healing cloth. Give and THEN you WILL blessed. We ARE BLESSED through Jesus Christ, already! He has given us unmeasureable blessings. We dont earn them.. nor can we pay for them. There are many examples to be given. I am sure some of you can think of some. We give out of love and not for reward. Mat 6:1 tells us, to do our given in private.. and God will see and bless us. We could do a whole study on this topic by itself. That's a whole other subject.
Here we are talking about the beware of false... why would He tell us to "Beware" if He did not want us to be ELERT to it.. to look at it.. let's NOT ignore it.
In the other scriptures under beware and take heed.. these are serious warnings that we need to look at and take notice of. Why BEWARE!? Beware means to be wary of or cautious: be on guard. ..to stay away from... lest they spoil you. {Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. }
Back to ravening wolves.
RAVENING= rapacious: - extortion, ravening
Rapacious= seizing by force; plundering; grasping; greedy; living by the captrure of prey; predator.
In the natural what do predators do... they look to fill their bellies. They look for the weak, lame, old, and sick... and seperate them out to capture their prey.... to plunder and take what they want at whatever cost. To say give me money.. send in money and you will be healed.. is false!! To say bring up a offering NOw to enter in on this healing annointing... is FALSE!!! To somehow say or imply that you need to give in order to recieve healing. Is this what JEsus did?? NO!! He gave out of compassion to see people healed. He did it out of love and never exepected anything in return.
Greedy=eager for gain, wealth and the like; having a very great desire to possess something.. to possess things.
plundering=to rob by force.. act of robbing by force.
Plunder applies espeacially to things carried off by invading soldiers during war.
Booty applies paricularly to things carreid off and shared later by the band of robber.
Loot applies particularly to things carried off from the bodies and buildings in a city destroyed in war or a scene of a fire, wreck... but it used also of anything taken by robbery or other crime.
Mat 7:16- 20 "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
Here, the Word tells us we can know them by their fruit. Aa others of you have posted... here it is again. It is worth saying again.... "You shall know them by their fruits"..... and it is repeated again further down in this passage. "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." WE will get back to this in a minute... lets continue on with the scriptures.
Mat 7:21- 23 Not every one that saith unto me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
WOW. This tells me that they are doing the works of God... in that of prophecying and casting out demons... signs and wonders. They have wonderful workkkkkkks. So here we see that we can NOT measure a source that is teaching; preaching; or prophecying over us... the sheeps. Works is NOT the fruit that the Bible speaks of. Just because they are DOING many great things DOES NOT make them a sheep... a TRUE believer; follower; leader of Jesus Christ. SIGNS ARE NOT A sign that they are true.
This scripture tells us that many... MANY will say to Him in that day... they will call HIm Lord.
Lord= (supremacy); supreme in authority, that is, (as noun) controller; by implication Mr. (as a respectful title): - God, Lord, master, Sir.
They speak of Him being supreme and acknowlege HIm as God. But we see in another scripture He tells us but in works they deny me. {Tit 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.} (We will dig more into this scripture at a later time)
Straight is the way and narrow is the gate...
The counsel of the whole scriptures.. and not just peices....
Here we see what fruit is...
Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Gal 5:24-26 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affection and lusts.If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Crucified the works of the flesh.. Gal 5:19 speaks of the works of the flesh if you look at the list and then at the meaning of each word.. it is talking about the heart issues.. how we act, react... how we were before God- before we believed on His Son for salvation. It is the unregenerated soul... the reprobate... the one that isn't relying on Christ. Without love, peace, joy... angry, greedy, aurgumentive, prideful, unclean, at disunion with God.
His fruit will abound in us as we grow in and mature in our walk. Here it is Love walk. To walk in the Spirit... is to walk in these fruits. These fruits will be produced in us and come out of us because of HIs vine that we are grafted in. Knowing, really knowing JEsus... and what HE HAS DONE for us... GIVEn to us... abounding grace, mercy and love... the narrow gate.... is now made open. It is by HIS mercy that we can enter in and that not of ourselves.. we could NEVER enter in on our own merit. IT is JESUS. And by abiding in HIM we WILL bear these fruits of the Spirits.
LOVE, MERCY, FORGIVENESS, PATIANCE with those who disagree with us, and especially for other believers... for one another... to our family... to our co-workers. Do we SHOW Christ love and mercy?... Are we quick to forgive? Are we patiant... when someone cuts us off? Do we have compassion on the hurting person next to us? (Maybe not all the time... we are human... Our flesh is constantly being purified and santified... washing out the dross.. the impurities, but in general when you are squeezed what comes out? When you are under pressure... does lemons turn to lemonaid? Or are we an angry, bitter person full of hate?
PEACE, JOY,.... even in trial.. there is an inner peace that comes from KNOWING JESUS CHRIST.... and HIs finished work.... to REST in HIM. WE NOw have rest.
Mat 11:28- 30 "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
To REST means no more striving.
REST= to repose (literally or figuratively (be exempt), remain); by implication to refresh: - take ease, refresh, (give, take) rest.
dictionary says
rest= freedom from anything that tires, troubles, disturbs, or pains, respite; a rest from pain;
peace=to join; peace (literally or figuratively); by implication prosperity: - one, peace, quietness, rest, + set at one again.
To be quite within... at rest... to be set at one. Set at one with God... no more inner struggle with .. but quite peace.. We ALREADY HAVE THIS through JESUS. HE set us right.
I AM in right standing with God through Jesus Christ.
He IS my mediator.
He interceeds for me on my behalf.
JESUS set me right!
He IS the lamb that was slain from the fondation of the world.
I AM redeemed, blood bought, child of God.
I am already blessed beyond measure
Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
No comments:
Post a Comment