Transcription
Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everybody. I hope everybody's day is off to a great start. I'm thankful to be in the land of the living this morning. I'm thankful to be amongst the living this morning. I'm thankful that God woke me up this morning and gave me another chance.
So, for those of you who don't know who I am, I'm Grace Amber. I come on different platforms. Whenever God gives me a word to share, I come on and I share it with you. So, really quick this morning, happy Tuesday. I want to talk to you really, really quick this morning from the topic of fruit inspection 101. Fruit Inspection 101. What am I talking about today? Let's jump in.
So, uh, turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew the 7th chapter, um, 15-23 KJV. And it reads, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 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 hewned down and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone 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 I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
In the description, I'm going to give you the NIV translation of that. So there's a lot in that scripture and what I am finding is that believers are easily deceived and there are indicators that should be able to tell you when you see these things that a person is not a man or a woman of God. But what I am finding is that many believers really don't know the word for themselves. So when anybody just comes along and tells them something, they accept it and run with it. Right? And so that's what I want to talk about today because the scripture tells you to beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruit. So today we're going to talk about fruit inspection 101. Right?
Imagine being vision impaired and you could not see for yourself, right? How would you know what you are looking at? The only way if you are vision impaired that you will know what you are looking at is based upon somebody who is around you that is telling you what is going on around you. Now, let's just hope that the person who is guiding you and telling you what's going on around you is telling the truth. Let's just hope that they are a person of good character and integrity so that when you can't see for yourself and they tell you what's going on around you is actually true. How about people who are hearing impaired? Imagine if you were hearing impaired. How would you hear and know what people are saying to you? You would only know that by someone doing sign language, right? Hopefully they're interpreting. I know y'all done seen the video of the woman who was doing all kind of signs. Uh, I think it might have been at a political press conference or something like that. Woman didn't know what she was doing. Wasn't doing no sign language but was getting that sign language paycheck. Right? So if you are hearing impaired and you cannot hear for yourself, you are dependent on somebody around you to tell you via sign language or something else what is being said around you.
Now, being that hearing and seeing are vital functions, if you cannot independently hear for yourself, if you cannot independently see for yourself, that makes you vulnerable. What is the definition of vulnerable? Susceptible to physical or emotional attack or harm. So it makes you vulnerable when you cannot perform vital functions for yourself because you are depending on another human being to help you perform those functions. So you become vulnerable if you cannot see for yourself or hear for yourself. Why? Because you are dependent on another human to tell you what is going on around you if you can't see or what is being said if you cannot hear. Right? So we understand that the most ideal situation is for you to be able to hear and see for yourself. Because if you have to depend on another human being, who's to say that those people are walking in integrity? Who's to say that those who are telling you what you can't see? Those who are telling you what you can't hear on your own. Who's to say that they are of good character and are trustworthy and walk with integrity? Right? So the most ideal situation for you is to be able to perform vital functions independently. Right? That way if somebody tells you something wrong, you can then say, "No, I saw that for myself. I heard that for myself. I know what you're saying, but I saw it for myself." So because you know it for yourself and you have your own point of reference, nobody can come along and just tell you anything, right?
So it is with the word of God. Many of us opt not to pray and seek God's face for ourselves. Not because we can't see or because we can't hear, but rather we would rather see what somebody else tells us. We have become so lazy when it comes to the things of God that we would rather just go by a third party. There is an old saying, "I want to get it straight from the horse's mouth." And so what many of us are doing as believers is we do not crack open our word. We do not pray. We do not fast. We do not seek God's face. Instead, we go to men to interpret for us and to tell us what they say the Bible says. What they say they heard God say. What they say that the Bible means. Right? And in doing so, we have become vulnerable. It's not that we can't see, 'cause we can see on TikTok, right? It's not that we can't hear, 'cause we can hear on Spotify and and and YouTube and everything else, right? And we, it's not that we cannot understand, because we can clock your tea and all this other stuff. You know, all the latest dances on TikTok. You know, all the trends, clock your tea, clocking it, and yet you can barely read. We choose what we want to know for ourselves and what we want to hear from somebody else. Well, I come today to tell you that the word of God and God for himself is not something that you want to get from somebody else. It's something that you need to know for yourself because everybody who comes to you and tells you things about the Bible and everybody who mentions Jesus and everybody who mentions God is not a woman or a man of God.
I'm going to give you some scripture today, some just basic scripture. If you already know these things, I'm sorry, but there are some people evidently who do not know these things. So, let me get into this real quick. First and foremost, the scripture says that we cannot go by words. We have to go by fruit. What is the fruit of a person? That's how we can tell if a person is of upright character, uh, righteous character, a man or a woman of God, a fellow believer like us living a righteous lifestyle. This is how we can tell those things. So if you want to know how to tell the character of a person, what you need to know is that first of all, you can't go by what they say because anybody can say anything. Anybody can can just tell you what's in the Bible, but because you don't know for yourself, you just believe it. We don't want to go by words. We want to go by fruit. The scripture says, "You shall know them by their fruit." So, let me give you just, uh, today an elementary style level on fruit inspection as a child of God.
Number one, just because someone mentions Jesus Christ or God doesn't make them a man or a woman of God. Matthew 7:22-23 NIV translation. "Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers." One translation says, "You workers of iniquity." So what does that scripture tell us? That scripture tells us that people can prophesy in God's name or Jesus's name and not be of God. That tells us that people can do what appears to be deliverance ministries and still not be of God. That tells us that people can do what appears to be miracles in the name of God and still not be of God. Very popular scripture. Exodus 7:8-11 NIV. This is Moses and Pharaoh, "Let my people go." Right? The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "When Pharaoh says to you, perform a miracle, then say to Aaron, take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake." So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers. And the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts. Now Moses and Aaron were sent by God. They were men of God. They performed miracles. And Pharaoh's sorcerers and magicians performed magic. To the naked eye, they both performed miracles. But based on the character and the fruit of the people, it was easy to determine who was on the Lord's side and who wasn't. One was calling for peace. One was calling for evil.
Next thing, just because a person believes in God doesn't mean they're a woman or a man of God. Job 1:6-10 NIV translation. "One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, 'Where have you come from?' Satan answered the Lord, 'From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.' Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him. He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.' Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied, "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land." As you can see, Satan too believes in God. As you can see, Satan not only believes in God, but Satan also knows God is in charge. So, just because someone believes in God does not make them a man or a woman of God.
Next thing, just because someone quotes scripture doesn't automatically mean they are a man or woman of God. Matthew 4:5-7 NIV translation. "Then the devil took him, talking about Jesus, to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If you are the son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' Jesus answered, 'It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" So, as we can see, Satan himself quoted Psalm 91. So, just because someone quotes scripture does not make them a woman or a man of God.
Next, historically, Christian principles have been perverted to justify the evil works of man. In high school, we used to have what we call senior projects. With these projects, we would pick a topic. We would pick a stance on that topic, right? And then we would go out to find supporting evidence to support our stance. Now, if we were doing our search for evidence and we found something that was contrary and did not support our stance, do you think that we put contrary evidence in our senior project that did not support what we believed in in our stance? No, we did not. Instead, we disregarded that and we only found evidence that supported our stance and then we put it in our presentation and presented it to the class. Right? Humans do the same every day. And this is nothing new. There's nothing new under the sun. Hitler believed in Jesus Christ. Hitler believed that Jesus Christ was a warrior who was sent to basically eradicate Jews and he was knocked off before he could finish the job. Hence, Hitler called himself picking picking up the torch and carrying it on. Do we believe that? No. Of course, that is a lie. Right? Slave masters used Ephesians 6:5-8 to justify their barbaric evil system of slavery while conveniently ignoring all the rest of the scripture that contradicted all the manner of evil in which they were doing. This is why you need to know the word of God for yourself. That way, when someone comes presenting you with one or two scriptures to justify their mess, you can give reference to a million other scriptures to reject the lie and accept the truth.
2 Timothy 2:15 KJV translation, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." We are called to study to show ourselves approved so that we can rightly divide the word of truth instead of using one scripture to justify our evil.
God tells us what the fruit of the spirit is. That's the next thing. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. That's Galatians 5:22 through 23. So when we want to examine ourselves or assess the character of those who we come in contact with, we can expect their and our fruit by looking for love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is how we can tell when the spirit of God is at work in a person.
The next thing, the opposite of the fruit of the spirit are the acts of the flesh. And God defines that as well. Galatians 5:19-21, "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." So when we want to examine ourselves and or assess the characters of those who we come in contact with, we can expect their and our fruit by looking to see do we have sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. Those are the acts of flesh. So when we come across somebody who exhibits those that fruit, right, the acts of the flesh, when we come across somebody, even if they quote scripture, even if they believe in God, even if they, uh, announce and say that they believe in Jesus Christ, guess what? We shall know them by their fruit.
So when we come across somebody who comes to us and says, "I heard the Lord say," and yet you see sexual immorality, impurity, fits of rage, jealousy, discord, selfish ambition. That is your red flag that says, "Hey, maybe I need to go to God and double check this. What does the scripture say?" And God, this person came to me and said they heard you say this. Is this true? You don't just take what somebody says to you and because they say Jesus, because they quote scripture, because they say that they believe in God, and you just accept what they say, digest it and put it in your system. No, you don't. You expect their fruit first. Ye shall know them by their fruit.
And here is the last thing that I want to give you today. People lie. Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Just because someone says something does not mean it's true. People lie. God doesn't. Get in his word and get to know him for yourself.
In conclusion, just because someone mentions Jesus Christ or God does not make them a man or woman of God. Just because a person believes in God doesn't mean they're a woman or a man of God. Just because someone quotes scripture doesn't automatically mean they are a man or woman of God. Historically, Christian principles have been perverted to justify the evil works of man. God tells us what the fruit of the spirit is. The opposite of the fruit of the spirit are the acts of the flesh, and God defines that as well. And last but not least, people lie. Get to know God and his word for yourself. And that way you can take that knowledge and then you can inspect the fruit of people who you come in contact with, and you can inspect your own fruit. I love you. I hope that word blessed you today. I am Grace Amber. I'll be right back on tomorrow with another word.