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“By Their Fruits”
“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.” (Matt. 7:18-20)
HAVE FAITH IN GOD “And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.” (Mk. 11:22) In the margin of the King James, it says, “Have THE faith of God”. Any kind of faith that is enduring is from God. OUR faith, just like OUR righteousness is nothing but “filthy rags” in God’s sight. If we’re going to believe in what God says we must have “the faith of God”. And that comes directly from the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Faith. We must have God’s faith to please Him. We must have God’s righteousness to please Him. We must have God’s love to please Him! If someone who is born-again and who makes Jesus the Lord of his life, he has THE faith of God. That always, without fail, enables us to believe everything the Bible says, easily. People that trip over the “virgin birth”, “the whale swallowing Jonah”, the scriptures regarding “outer darkness” or the “fires of hell” in the Bible are people who have not EXPERIENCED Christ. They have not received THE faith of God from the Holy Spirit. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES: it is the gift of God!” (Eph. 2:8)
HAVING FAVOR WITH THE PEOPLE “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people.” (Acts 2:46,47) When you and I get saved, there’s no question about it, we are “hated of all men”. However, like the early church, when they first got saved, it was “good for business” for awhile, but after people have been saved for some time, and began to cause consternation in the community, because of their “different” life-style, the tide turns. People will begin wanting you to “leave town”. They are terribly unhappy that you’re bothering them and THEIR life-style. That’s what happened at Jerusalem and every place else where Christians live a Godly life-style. There’s only one thing that you and I can do to help avoid what’s coming for a “little longer”, and that’s what Paul did in Rom. 15:2, “Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.” But when we begin to preach against abortion, when we begin to allow the races to mix in our church, when we begin to preach against the homosexual life-style, when we begin to get involved in politics and voice our opinions, without a doubt, we’ve crossed the line and our polls begin to suffer! “Yea, and all that will live godly live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Tim. 3:12)
HOLY SPIRIT FULLNESS “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) There’s no doubt about it, there is no way to successfully live the Christian life outside of the enablement of the Holy Spirit of God. When Jesus was talking about “my yoke is easy and my burden is light”, He was talking about when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. There’s no way even to “try” to be a Christian without “receiving” the Spirit of Christ. But to live an “on top of the world” Christian life, it’s necessary that we be “filled” to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. I’ve never known ANYONE who did everything God wants him to do, who has not been filled with the Spirit. It is a MUST! How do we do that? There are two things that are essential to do that. “Praise the Lord”, constantly, and “Yield to God” consistently! There’s no other way, because God wants to flow through us so we can meet His expectations as a child of God. Anything else is an “exercise in futility”. To do signs and wonders, or to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, both of which manifest themselves as “FRUITS”, “By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them!”, are ways that we can prove our endorsement by God as a bona fide Christians. When we start getting our prayers answered, and we show forth a Godly life, that all comes by being filled with God’s Holy Spirit. “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:19)
HONEST “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.” (Rom. 12:17) Integrity starts in the mind, is activated by our speech, and is proven by our actions before others. We first must be honest with ourselves, then we must be honest with God, and then be honest with everyone else. Deception is a bad word. There are plenty others in this world who are deceivers without us picking up their evil actions. We may not get everyone down-town to believe like we do, but we can make a lot of progress towards that, if we are hard workers and are honest. At least, we can command their respect. God can do wonderful things for us as long as we are sincere with Him, and we don’t deceive ourselves. For folks to be transparent, is a real plus. God has always been honest with us. Why can’t we be true to Him. We can, with the help of the Holy Spirit. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there by any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Phil. 4:8)
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