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Devotion Archive

True Faith: Judgement #100
26th February 2010

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Good Morning Dear Ones,

I am led to write this morning about a method for increasing our discerning of Biblical truth and what is false teaching. We've actually been through every verse in MT 5-7 as of last week, but I've been given more to say. For example, look at MT 7: 15, "Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves." The verb "beware" is in the present tense, active voice, and imperative mood. If we ask, why is this important to know?, then we will see why word studies can be so very important in our understanding of what is being said. A verb is an action word. The tense tells us we should do this action right now, in the present. The voice tells us we are to be taking an action that changes behavior from anything different from taking present action. And the mood tells us we are being given a command. We see the same kind of layout in 1 PET 5: 8, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." We are being told that this should be a continuing habitual action in both verses, not just a one-time event.

The Lord Jesus doesn't leave any doubt about how to spot false prophets. MT 7: 16-17, "You will know them by what they do. Thorn bushes do not grapes, and briers do not bear figs. A healthy tree bears good fruit, but a poor trees bears bad fruit." What is so wonderful is how Christ takes abstract ideas and puts them in terms His hearers can understand. It's important for us to gain the implicit message here. It is that we should become observers of people who are new to us or who say things we need clarified. We begin to sharpen our ability to learn from the non-verbal behavior a person exhibits. For example, we need to know if he is keeping to himself or with his supporters except when he speaks publicly. If he shows unwillingness to interact with us one on one or in small groups, that might be an indicator that he isn't disclosing his real motives. This happened to me years ago when I was so taken with H. Ross Perot in the beginning of his presidential campaign. I surely didn't expect to meet him in person, but I began to get troubled by his refusal to answer questions about how he would carry out the promises he was making. It soon became apparent that either he hadn't worked this out, or that he was keeping that kind of information to himself. Either way, I became uncomfortable with his candidacy and decided not to vote for him. Another example of learning about a person by what they do came up when so many Catholic priests were engaging in pedifilia and their superiors simply transferred them from church to church, covering up this behavior and not reporting it to the civil authorities. The lives of too many young people were damaged by this trend. I'm not saying that the Catholic church's beliefs are wrong [although I disagree with them personally]; I'm simply saying there is something very wrong with the system of church not better policing of such behavior.

One other question comes up: Would a false prophet call Jesus, Lord? If it allowed them to further their hidden agenda, they would do so. The Gnostics, for example, considered Jesus the Lord. When their secret society taught was that Jesus would lose His lordship upon His physical death, and another person would then be elevated to the position of lord over earth. Heresey, you bet it is! What this points out is our necessity to check out the beliefs in full of any group like this, before weighing in on it or joining. We must understand HE 4: 13, "There is nothing that can be hid from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before His eyes. And it is to Him that we must all give an account of ourselves." How can we forget the debate about who to believe when a well-meaning Apollos, was teaching wrong doctrine and needed to be further trained by Aquila and Priscilla, Paul's tent-making friends [AC 18: 24-28]. We know that Apollos later became very helpful to the church in Acaia. But not everyone teaching false doctrine has pure motives, as we saw in the earlier examples above. We have sage advice given to us in PR 4: 5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledged Him, and He will make your paths straight."

In MT 7: 21, Christ makes it clear who will enter the Kingdom of heaven. "Not everyone who calls Me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what My Father in heaven wants them to do." It is any wonder that Christ Himself was often seen going off on His own to consult with the Father and receive any commands the Father might have for Him? We see this in MT 14: 13 in His response to the beheading of John the Baptist, and again in MT 14: 22-24 when he went alone up the hill to pray at the time His disciples went out on the sea of Galilee in a boat, just prior to Christ's walking on the water and testing Peter's faith before the others. Anyone who studies God's word in the way I'm suggesting is likely to walk away from his studies understanding clearly what God has in mind for us, as we place our lives on the foundation of God's ethics. The issue of His ethics in comparison to those of the world around us might make a compelling series of devotions message some day. For now, we need to be satisfied that God has made clear what we must know directly and has left questions, which I believe will be answered in heaven, about issues which cause the building of faith. By the time we are taken home to heaven, and I have to believe that obediently faithful people will be, we won't need our faith built, because it will already be written indelibly in our hearts forever.

PRAYER: O Lord, once again we come before Your throne, as sinners in need of Your presence and intervention in our lives. We stand before You with heads bowed on reverence asking You to give us both Your wisdom and discernment. PS 51: 6 and PS 119: 125, "Sincerity and truth are what You require; fill my mind with wisdom...I am Your servant; give me understanding, so that I may know Your teachings." We fully understand that knowing Your teaching isn't enough. We must also gain wisdom in applying them to our lives and the situations we face. Self-discipline, self-control, willingness to apply ourselves to lives of daily study of Your word and an active prayer life are other essentials in our having real discernment. The discipline in setting aside time each day and making that time a high priority for studying/meditating over Your word is necessary. Prayer should be a matter of going to You first before making decisions, asking You for guidance in challenging situations, asking You for encouragement when we are bewildered or feeling low, and thanking and praising You for the goodness You bring into our lives. Wise people are reverent toward You. They know that everything good on earth comes from You. PR 9: 10, "To be wise you must first have reverence for the Lord. If you know the holy One, you have understanding." PS 16: 2, "I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord. Every good thing I have comes from You.'" In Your Son, Jesus Christ, You have given us a Paradigm, a Model of perfect love and devotion. He gave His life on the cross for the possibility of our salvation, eternal forgiveness, and to give us later, the gift of the Holy Spirit [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25; RO 8: 14-16; HE 8: 12]. We accept those gifts by pledging our faith in Him and repenting of our sins. We offer You praise and thanks for being the awesome God You are. In the holy and mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Next week I'm commanded to write about the meaning of the fruits, as found in MT 7: 17-20, we are to produce in our lives as believers in Jesus Christ. This is still a part of our study on discerning false prophets in which we will compare what we learn here to the lifestyle of a false prophets. The insights we are given will help us in being discerning believers and better cooperating with the Lord Jesus in doing His work. God's will shall be done, and none of us knows ahead everything about God's will for our lives. IS 46: 9-10, "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'" This is no empty or boastful statement; it is a statement of fact. When it stands alone, it can be easily misunderstood or even neglected. But when put together with all His attributes God reveals in the Scriptures, true believers don't have to worry a bit that there is any evil in it. God is a loving, wise, compassionate, and patient Being. No one on earth can match the love He has for each person He has created. I said "each" for a reason. Some people think they are so unimportant that they escape God's love and an attention. Others who can be corrected from boastful, wrongful behavior are loved just as much. PS 33: 13, "The Lord looks down from heaven ad sees every person." We have no reason to fear this, as long as we are working to strengthen our own faith and that of others, as long as we are being honest about our faults and are trying to correct them to conform with the ethical foundation of the Scriptures. We stand as a blessed people when we allow God to reveal Himself to us! Praise and thanks be to Him!

Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn

© Lynn Johnson 2012. All Rights Reserved.

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