Flip over if you would to Matthew chapter twelve, just a couple pages to your right in your Bible. We will come back to Matthew seven but in Matthew 12:33 the Bible reads, "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit." And the title of my sermon tonight is, the tree is known by his fruit.
Now, first of all let's talk about what the Bible means by fruit here. We just read in Matthew chapter seven, the famous passage that said, "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." What is he talking about in regard to fruit there? Well first of all turn to Psalm 132, right in the middle of your Bibles the book of Psalm, go to Psalm 132 and we will talk about what he means by fruit.
Now on just a literal level when he says the tree is known by his fruit, if we were to walk around an orchard and say, and look at the trees... most of us would identify that tree bu what kind of fruit is growing on the tree. Most of us would not be knowledgeable enough to be able to distinguish an orange from a grapefruit tree from a lemon tree simply by looking at the leaves, or the trunk, or the bark. Now someone who is an expert would be able to look at those things and immediately know, hey this is an apple tree, this is a plum tree, well okay plum trees are kind of easy to spot. But, you know, most of us with less knowledge, we would check the fruit right away and say, "Oh, this is a banana tree, this is an apple tree, this is a cherry tree, etc." Jesus is using this illustration that it is very obvious on a physical level that we identify trees based on what kind of fruit grows on that tree.
He is saying in the same way that's how you identify false prophets. You will know them by their fruits just as a good tree can not bring forth evil fruit, neither than a corrupt tree can bring forth good fruit. But when it comes to human beings, and we want to talk about human beings bringing forth fruit. Obviously we are not talking about a literal fruit, of apples and oranges, obviously it is symbolic. It's a metaphor, now when the Bible talks about people bringing forth fruit. First of all there is the physical fruit that people bring forth, which would just simply be having children.
You see when the tree is producing fruit, it's going through a reproductive process. It's multiplying, in fact the first time we see the subject of bearing fruit in the Bible, is in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis chapter one where it talks about everything brought forth after it's own kind. The cattle and the creeping thing brought forth after their own kind, the plants brought forth after their own kind, same exact principle. He tells Adam and Eve be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. He is talking about them physically reproducing and having children.
Look down there at your Bible there in Psalm 132 and look at verse 11, the Bible reads, "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne." What's the fruit of our body? Obviously that is referring to a child, and when David gets this promise that the fruit of his body is going to sit on that throne, first of all it is referring to his son King Solomon. Then beyond that it is referring to the fact that Jesus Christ, the son of David would eventually sit upon that throne of David his father. The fruit of his body, flip over to Proverbs chapter 11.
On that same note I will quote for you from Roman 7 verse 4, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." All throughout the Bible, the fruit of the body, the fruit of a person physically is talking about them having children, being fruitful. Deuteronomy chapter 28 when it is talking about the different blessings of the children of Israel if they obeyed the Lord, it says "Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle." When cattle is fruitful, obviously we are talking about more cattle. When a fruit tree is fruitful we get more fruit. If it's an apple tree we get more apples, if a human being is fruitful we have little humans running around, everything brings forth after it's own kind.
Our physical fruit is pretty easy to understand, it is when we have children. But the spiritual fruit is found in Proverbs 11 verse 30, it says "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise." Through soul winning, winning souls, winning someone into Christ... that is being fruitful. Your basically reproducing, I mean if we have one saved Christian and then they preach the gospel into someone else and then that person now get saved, well now we've become fruitful because we have multiplied, now there is two of us. Then if me and that person were to go out and talk to a couple other people and get them saved, and then there would be four of us well then we've multiplied, we've broth forth fruit, we've reproduced. Just so that everyone understands what it means to be fruitful.
Now go over to Matthew chapter 23 and we will see the fruit of the false prophets, we see the fruit of the righteous, the fruit of a Godly Christian who is bringing forth fruit, who is multiplying. It's when they win a soul, which makes perfect sense because when a lemon brings forth fruit, when it produces a tree, that's a tree of life and brings forth more fruit, it's going to be a lemon tree every single time. When the apple reproduces we are going to get more apples, when the cow reproduces we are going to get more cattle, and when we as believers reproduce when we are fruitful, we get more believers. That's why when the Bible talks about Christians bringing forth fruit, it talks about them bringing forth fruit, some thirty some sixty, some one hundred, it's quantifiable.
Now a lot of people will mistakenly will say that when we bring forth fruit that's the fruit of the spirit they will say. Well that's the fruit of the spirit, that's not the fruit of the Christian that is not the fruit of the righteous. See the Spirit brings forth fruit, God is love when he reproduces he brings forth love, he brings forth joy, he brings forth peace because he is the Prince of Peace. Those are the things that the Holy Spirit does in our lives, he gives us love, joy, peace, long suffering, [inaudible 00:06:59], these things come from him. But what is our fruit? What is our reproduction? It's when we win someone into Christ, it's when we preach the gospel and get someone saved. That is why that person is known as our son in the faith.
That's why Paul over and over again, when he talks about people that he had won to Christ, he calls that person my son in the faith. That's why he talked about Onassamas in the book of Philemon, whom I have begotten in my bonds. Now he is not saying, hey while I was in prison I fathered a child. No, he is saying while I was in prison I won somebody to Christ and this guy is my son in the faith, not a physical son but a spiritual son. Why? Because there is reproduction that took place there, when we win someone to Christ. But the false prophet also reproduces himself, he also produces an evil fruit. Look at Mathew 23 verse 15.
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, (now a proselyte is a convert from religion to another) for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." They are reproducing also by taking people and ruining them, and turning them into a false teacher and a false prophet and a hypocrite, just like they are. That is the fruit of the false prophet. Got to Jude, we are going to be back in Matthew 7 in a moment but go to Jude second to last book in the New Testament right before Revelation is the book of Jude.
I will start reading in verse 11 while you catch up there, "Woe unto them!" By the way Jude is a book about false prophets, it's parallel with Second Peter 2, which is also about false prophets. When he's describing these false prophets he says in verse 11, "Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core." These are three false prophets from the Old Testament that God lifts up in an example of what a false prophet is like. He says in verse 12, "These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; (watch this) trees whose fruit withereth." They are producing a garbage fruit, a withering fruit, and then the next phrase he says without fruit. Which he's saying without legitimate fruit, without any fruit which is worth anything because that which is produced is corrupt and withereth.
Then he says, "without fruit, twice dead." Remember how it said that they compass sea and land to make one proselyte and when he is made, ye make him twofold more, two fold more the child of hell than themselves, twice dead? " Plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." Notice here he says that there are spots in your feast of charity when they feast with you. This is parallel with Second Peter 2 which states that there shall be false prophets among you, that will previally come in, and they crept in unaware Jude said.
How are we going to identify these people? Well, the tree is known by his fruit. Now got to Matthew chapter 7 where we started, how do we identify the false prophets? Because they are according to the Bible wolves in sheep's clothing. Meaning that they will impersonate a righteous person, they might outwardly appear righteous on demand, but inwardly their heart the Bible says could be full of extortion, excess, they could be whited seplicars that appear beautiful outward onto man but inside they are full of rottenness and dead men's bones. How are we going to identify these things? This is all introduction because I am going to get into some examples in or lives where we should always identify the tree by it's fruit, because the tree is known by it's fruit.
A good try can not bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. These are words of wisdom if you want to discern from the righteous and the wicked as Malachi in chapter three stated this morning, and between him that serveth the Lord and him that serveth him not. Look if you would at Matthew chapter 7 verse number 15 it says, "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 hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
Now the first thing I want to point out here is that this scripture is often misquoted and misapplied, that you can tell who is saved by their fruits. Whose heard that before? Where they say, hey well the only way we can tell if somebody is saved is by looking at their fruits. Now that is taking this passage out of context because that is not what he is talking about. He's talking about false prophets. He doesn't say, you will know the saved by their fruits, is that what he says here? No he says, you will know false prophets by their fruits. You can tell a good prophet by his fruit and a bad prophet by his prophet, but this is not a test of salvation. That's not what is being taught here and here is the difference, what if we had a tree that doesn't produce any fruit? Does that mean that that tree is not really a tree?
I mean, isn't it possible that a tree could exist not have any fruit on it, never produce and fruit, but it was a real tree all along? Okay how about this, is it possible there could be a human being who lives their entire life, never has a physical child and they were still human? It's pretty obvious, of course. But if they have a child it better be human, and it's possible to have an apple tree to never produce any apples, but let me tell you something if it produces fruit it is going to be apples. It's not going to oranges, it's not going to be bananas. The tree is represented by it's fruit but what is being represented as a tree here is a prophet, a preacher. The preacher is a tree, the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise. When I say preacher I don't just mean a pastor I mean anybody whose opening their mouth and preaching the gospel.
If you go door to door and your knocking doors and your giving people the gospel and you are telling people about Jesus, and your preaching salvation to them, your a prophet in a sense, your a preacher in a sense because your speaking forth God's word. Whether you are behind a pulpit or not, whether your a pastor of a church or not, man, woman, boy, and girl who open their mouth and preach the word of God are preaching and they can be fruitful. They can will souls under Christ and they can bring forth fruit unto God. Man, woman, boy, and girl some thirty some sixty some one hundred. If you are preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ, if you are one of the true sheep of God's hand, when you bring forth fruit it is going to be good fruit. You are going to win people to Christ, you gave them the correct gospel, you preached it to them, they got saved, and you have somebody who is actually a Christian now. Somebody that is a born again child of God.
Whereas if your a wolf in sheep's clothing, if you are an evil person, and you are preaching lies, preaching false doctrine, or you might even give lip service to some true doctrine and to some true things, but secretly your coming in with damnable heresies, your like a Judas, your like a Corey, your like Cain, your like Baleam, you know these false prophets that are mention. Your fruit is going to be rotten fruit and what your doing is destroying lives at that point. See the false prophet, the wolf in sheep's clothing that creeps in unawares, he is a destroyer. He is not one that is bring forth good fruit that's beneficial to the kingdom of God and people are being saved and on their way to heaven.
Know that he is actually making people two-fold more the child of hell by teaching lives. You think of the Jehovah's false witnesses going door to door, I always think of the Jehovah's witnesses so called. Every time I'm reading the book of Proverbs and I get to that verse that says a false witness will utter lies. The faithful witness is going to deliver souls and the false witnesses going to utter lies, I always think of them. You know, bringing a false gospel, that is a corrupt tree, that is a false gospel. There bringing forth evil fruit, there deceiving people and teaching them lies that hey, Jesus didn't die on the cross for you. Your not going to go to heaven when you die if you believe in Jesus, they say hey, hell is not a real place it is just all figurative, nobody is burning in hell.
You know, they deny the core doctrines of the Bible, they deny the bodily resurrection of Christ, they deny that Jesus died on the cross, they don't believe in heaven and hell, all of these different things. That's a corrupt tree you are never going to get any fruit out of that. Well there doing some good, no they are not. It is a corrupt tree bringing forth evil fruit. False prophets are identified by their fruit. We should look at the fruit of a preacher, or the fruit of the church and we can tell something about that church. What kind of work is being accomplished, what kind of converts are coming out of that ministry? Are they true, saved, born again Christians? Or are they phony, false teaching, heretic, and devils?
This is how we identify the false prophets. Now, one thing that I was thinking about with this is why there is a problem with these kind of internet only preachers. Where they actually don't have a real church where they preach. Where there just kind of an internet guy, internet preacher, internet pastor... and in many ways the same thing could go for in the past, you know the TV preacher, the TV pastor in many ways. But, when we think of the internet only preachers, how do we check their fruit? How do we even know what their fruit is when there is no physical location we can show up and check it out? It's all just internet only, there is no address where we can type in that address into a GPS and physically go there and show up and do a little random fruit inspection. Just kind of check things out and see. Hey, what is the fruit of this ministry? What is being accomplished for God? No we have no idea and there are so many frauds and charlatans because of the fact that you cannot physically go there and check it out.
People are tricked and their deceived by it because it's all an illusion, it's not real. Now there's... somebody sent me a link recently and they said, hey is this a real church? Is this guy for real? Is this a real pastor? I went to the web, this is one of these internet only guys, so I went to his churches website and here is what I noticed, no service times and no physical address. No that right there should show you this is not legitimate. A real church doesn't hide their address and have no published service times. It said well, if your looking for service times or if you want to visit us just give me a call, just give me a call if you want to get the service times. I mean that doesn't, come on, what kind of games are you playing? A real church doesn't hide, they publish the address and say hey, this is where we are.
Why? Because the goal is to grow, the goal is to reach, the goal is to preach from the house tops and say here we are come on down. Come and visit our church, not to sit there and say well give me a call and we'll talk. It's because it is a fake church, that's why. People on the internet are being sucked in because they haven't gone and shown up and done a physical check. It's funny there is this guy, and this is a perfect example of the tree is known by it's fruit. There is this guy on YouTube and this guy cracks me up so much and I have never actually talked about this guy by name, but I feel like it's time to talk about this guy because he's earned it.
This guy has made literally over two hundred videos specifically attacking mu-ah. You should get something for that, you should get some recognition when you have created that many. I mean, I appreciate this guy drawing so much attention to the truth. He has made two to three hundred videos, I don't know the exact number he had earned a pulpit mention. He has arrived, this guy is named Brain Denlinger. Who has seen these videos? Aren't they a riot? Husky whatever the tag 3-9-X-P whatever. This guy is a riot, he made I remember, he made a video like two or three years ago and he said, "All right everybody this is the last video I am making about Steven Anderson." I kid you not a week later he started another whole series about me that ended up being like fifty installments. This guy is addicted, I mean this guy is making video after video he is literally into the two to three hundred range of videos specifically. I think even in the a lot of the videos that aren't even about us, I think he just kind of throw me out there as a little illustration too.
Anyway, this guy... what's so funny is lately he is on this thing were he is making all of these videos saying, "Pastor Steven Anderson is a Jesuit, he is a secret Roman Catholic." This guy is falsely accusing me of being a Roman Catholic of all things. You know one of the things that's funny about living in 2016 is that the way people throw around false accusations so lightly, with no evidence. There is no evidence presented, hey here is the smoking gun, Pastor Anderson is a Jesuit, he is a secret Roman Catholic that has infiltrated the independent Baptist movement. It's so ridiculous to accuse me of being that but what is he basically saying? He is saying that I'm a wolf in sheep's clothing, I am pretending to be an independent Baptist but in reality I am secretly a Roman Catholic, a Jesuit spy.
Now, here is my question. My question is that if I am a Roman Catholic, if I'm a Jesuit, what am I accomplishing for the Roman Catholic church? Is what I would like to know, what have I done for them lately? Because I was part of producing a major film, New World Order Bible versions, it's a strongly Anti-Catholic film. It's been viewed about 1.5 million times, I'm not doing a very good job as a Jesuit Roman Catholic spy. I'm preaching sermons against Catholicism, I mean After the Tribulation has been viewed about 13 million times and it's rips on Catholicism in that film. In the first few minutes where it talks about, evil men are working round the clock to bring in new, it's like the Pope is on the screen while it says that. But I'm a Roman Catholic.
It's like well who do we trust? Who do we believe? Do we believe Brain Denlinger? Or do we believe Pastor Anderson? That he is not a Roman Catholic, all right. Of course my mom is here, she knows I'm not Catholic. She raised me to be a Baptist, she brought me to the Baptist nursery when I was a baby. She gave birth to me and kept me Baptist, born in Baptist bread and when I die I will be Baptist dead. You know, but anyway its hilarious but here is the question, how do we identify who is the false prophet here according to the Bible?
Well the Bible says the tree is known by it's fruit, 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. If we wanted to check out Brain Denlinger's fruit, I want to know where do we show up to see that? Is what I'd like to know, what's the address, where do we show up to the church and see? Because supposedly Brain Denlinger is this man of God even though he just makes videos by himself talking into a camcorder, I don't even think he goes to church anywhere to my knowledge. I don't think he is a part of any church. In fact I have even heard him specifically say, hey Christians need to quit going to church buildings and just worship at home by themselves with the Lord. Just by yourself, have a little talk with Jesus.
My question is, where do I show up, where do I go to see a fruit inspection on Brain Denlinger? Where are all of the people that he is won into Christ, where are all of his converts, I want to see them and I want to do an inspection to find out if his fruit is rotten or not. Now here is the thing, if people wanted to check me out and figure out whether I'm for real, well all they have to do is come to 2714 West Southern Ave, Tempe, AZ, 85282 and they can come down here three times a week, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and they will find a couple hundred people to talk to, many of whom who were won to Christ through my preaching, through this churches ministry, many of whom were baptized with these hands right here. Or even if they cannot make it all the way out to Arizona, we hold soul winning marathons all over the nation, they could of shown up in Atlanta where a hundred and twenty-five people showed up, many of whom were won to Christ by this ministry.
Probably half of them, a lot of them. They can see the souls being saved, the people being baptized, and not only that they can talk to those people and do a fruit inspection and figure out what they actually believe and find out that they are doctrinaly sound. Anybody who shows up at Faith Forward Baptist Church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night and walks around and talks to the people around this room will realize that the people inside this building are doctrinaly sound. Hey are rooted and grounded in the faith, the average church member, not talking about the pastor not talking about the deacon, the average church member in this church has read the Bible cover to cover, knows doctrine on salvation very well and is a productive soul winner themselves. I mean that's just the truth, that's your average church member.
I'd be more than happy for this fruit to be inspected. Now, do we sometimes have bozos in our church and false teachers? Well yeah, the Bible always talks about bozos and weirdos infiltrating and false prophets and so forth. But the vast majority of people that are here can show you this church is the real deal. Anybody who has been here knows that, anybody who has been to our soul winning marathons and just talks to the people, and by the way they are physically... this isn't a chat room. I'm talking about flesh and blood.
I remember when I was a kid they had this commercial on the Nickelodeon channel while I was a kid, they said it was beyond virtual reality, it's beyond any video game, it's actual reality. You know, you go out there and they show the kid going outside and he's bouncing a basketball, you actually feel the ball. You actually feel the air blowing, it's so real, you will swear it's real... because it is real. I mean I am talking about you can actually show up and there is two hundred and fifty people that show up and know and love and practice the Bible and they are right here, come look at them. Come talk to them, you can show up in Atlanta Georgia, Portland Oregon, San Antonio Texas, and by the way I'm not saying were not the only legitimate church. Other great churches, show up at Variety Baptist Church where my mother is a member. Show up at Steadfast Baptist Church, show up at Word of Truth Baptist Church, show up and talk to people and you will see that the fruit is good fruit, it's good people.
Doctrinaly sound because people will say, just because your church grew or just because your multiplying... so does Joel Ostein. Yeah, but if we went to Joel Ostein's church we would find some fruits all right. But it wouldn't be the kind of fruit that we are looking for, some fruit cakes, some tooty fruity dudes that aren't. I mean think about it you know and I know, and by the way, one of the great things about going soul winning you learn about all of the churches in your area don't you? Those of you who go in Gilbert, you know the Gilbert churches because you'll knock the doors of like twenty people from that church and their all saved. Your thinking to yourself, okay this church must be a pretty good church because I keep knocking doors of people from that church and they are all giving me the right answer, that they are saved. Then there will be another church and it could even be Baptist, where everybody from that church is giving you the wrong answer, everyone is telling you its work, everyone is telling you you lose your salvation.
What does that tell you about the tree? See your testing the fruit right there. When you go soul winning and you are talking to the people from these churches and their all showing corruption, that is telling you that is a rotten tree. Or it tells you that it is a good tree and honestly I will say this, every time I go out soul winning I always run into somebody who is already saved. Isn't that the truth? Virtually every... if not two or three people. There is a lot of people that are saved in this world, and especially in the United States of America, I mean when I go soul winning, I virtually never go out without running into to somebody that says it's all by faith, you can't lose your salvation, that knows for sure that their saved. That gives you a feel for what these various religions and churches and pastors are teaching because you check out the fruit.
It is impossible to check out this Denlinger's fruit, he doesn't have any. There is nothing there, there is nobody there it is just him. Okay, his wife comes on sometimes and they put on funny outfits and everything but the point is, you cannot show up at most of these places. There is no evidence, we are just suppose to take their word for it. Oh believe me there is a lot of fruit from this ministry, you know. By the way, we are not talking about clicks and likes and cyber chats and friends. Look, those are real people, I get that. But you know what, we don't really know some of them because we have never met them or anything. It is kind of a difference when you are standing in front of a flesh and blood human being, I know that a lot of people are starting to not understand the difference between real life and that which is online, but there is a difference. Look, I am all for having an online ministry. Look, our church, were streaming right now, we have three different live streams right now. We are streaming, this service is being streamed to YouTube and two different Facebook channels right now, simultaneously because the three fold cord is not quickly broken.
This sermon is getting out by hook or by crook. But the point is that I'm all for internet ministry, because like I said the other day, I think the internet is like the printing press of the 21st century. It's a revolutionary tool to get information out, and to get the gospel out, and to get the word of God and sound doctrine out. All for internet ministry, I'm talking about internet only ministry, internet only preacher. Because here is the thing, if the ministry is reaching millions of people on the internet right, but at least there is a physical place we can go and actually do a sampling, check the fruit. Well that is going to ensure you a lot more than some bozo that isn't even going to church, there is no physical place where we can go and do a physical inspection of that fruit, Brain Denlinger.
This guy, I just... you know what... he's earned it folks all right. You say why do you spend time talking about him? Because he deserves it, he has made hundreds of videos so it is time I give him the recognition that he deserves. But lets move on to something else, go if you would to Proverbs chapter number 22, proverbs chapter 22. Again, the reason I bring that up, I'm not just trying to get on him, I'm not saying this guy is real relevant to your life or anything. The reason I bring it up though is because it's not just him, there are a lot of people like him, a lot. Tons, some of them are like him where they... I'll give him this, at least he is being honest and actually saying hey, I don't go to church and neither should you. Some of these guys pretend they are pasturing a real church. No, no service times, no physical address, it is them and a buddy is what it really comes down to.
By the way, Brain Denlinger has the Gall to accuse me of being a Roman Catholic, I'm not a real Baptist? By the way he came out with a video saying you could lose your salvation, that's not Baptist doctrine. I will tell you this, every single Baptist church in the state of Arizona all believe in the eternal security of the believer, no matter how liberal they are. Even if it's a Southern Baptist they will still say the eternal security of the believer. I know there are some goof-ball Baptist in the south that think you can lose it. But every Baptist where I grew up in California and every Baptist where I live now in Arizona, they all believe in the eternal security of the believer. He said you can lose your salvation and he said that I've lost my salvation because I spoke against the Jews. He literally said, he said you know when you go against the Jews God will take away your salvation and he said you can lose it. Whose the Baptist here?
But lets move on. Proverbs chapter 22 the Bible says this in verse 6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Look at verse 15, "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." Now when we think about this concept of the tree being known by its fruit, the tree being good and the fruit good, the thing that comes to mind quite a bit is child rearing. Here is why, because we interact with a lot of people in our lives that are not fundamental Baptist, they are not even Christians. We strongly have a philosophy of being in the world but not in the world. We don't isolate ourselves and seclude ourselves from anyone who is not a Baptist or not a Christian. I strongly believe that your close friends should be believers, our best friend, especially our wives, husbands, a young person their girlfriend or boyfriend. It better be another believer, don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, you don't want to sit there and have your bff be some unsaved false teacher.
Here is the thing though, I don't believe in isolating ourselves from the world. I believe in being a part of the community, being sought and liked in the community, talking to people and not hiding somewhere or being in an ivory tower in a compound somewhere. I strongly believe in being in the world but not of the world, okay. We have all kinds of people that we interact with, whether that is through various food related groups of produce c-ops or group beef buys where people chip in and buy the whole cow. We deal with things like that, different organic food co-ops and different groups and... mid-wives or home birth community or home school community. Where we interact with, these aren't our best buddies or close friends necessarily. But they are people that we interact with, that we get along well with and you know what I have noticed is that even the ones who are completely liberal, completely left wing, completely non-Christian, or if they are a Christian they are more like a neo-Evangelical Christian and they are not a fundamentalist, even if they are saved. I have noticed that they all love our children and think, wow... your children are really well behaved.
They are really happy, their smiling, their obedient, and they love it. But here is what's funny, none of these people would approve of spanking in many cases. We will take our kids out in public and, awe your children are so nice I cannot believe it I mean so many bratty kids these days. Look how happy your children are, look how good they are being. But then you start talking about spanking and they get real quiet. See here is what's going on, the tree is known by its fruit. See they like the fruit, we show them the fruit and say here is our children and here is what they say, well you know you guys are the exception. I've even had people say this to me, they said well I'm against spanking but I'm not against you guys spanking because you guys are doing it right. You guys are the exception, but they're going to raise their one kid or two kids or whatever, you know without spanking. Then after a few years and their kids got footprints all over the sealing then all of a sudden they're saying "Now what was that about spanking again?" Why, because you've got to look at the fruit. I mean all kinds of people out there on the internet, books at the library, magazines articles, that'll tell you all these half baked parenting advice, and tell you all this stuff about attachment parenting. Parenting where's there's no consequences, not even no spanking, just no consequences or hey you never tell you never tell your children no about anything. It's all positive, you show them unconditional love and only positive reinforcement and it's going to be great.
Guess what, the fruit of that it an ugly site. The fruit of that, do you want to go see the fruit of that, it's the kid that's throwing himself on the ground at the checkout. Here's the thing look, I'm not saying that my children are perfect. My children disobey, my children get into trouble, but generally they're very happy well adjusted obedient children. All right kids, you like getting this little positive mention up here? They're good kids! Listen they do dumb things, they disobey but they're good kids. They're generally very obedient and they're very happy. That's the thing that really stands out is how happy they are, but I'll tell you one thing that my kids don't ever do, even though they do disobey, they get in trouble, they get a spanking. I'll tell you one thing that my kids never do, they never throw themselves on the ground and start throwing a fit. Who knows what talking about? Each of my children has done that once in their life, and they never did it again. They've all done it like once, but oh they know that that's unacceptable, and by the way when I was growing up, I would have never done such a thing either.
Now you say that's horrible because they're scared to do it. Yeah they're scared to do it, but look how happy they are. Look at the ... See your like oh man I don't like this tree man it looks ugly. If you're looking at spanking, you're looking at the tree. Why don't you take a look at the fruit. I mean that's really what matters at the end of the day, and by the way obviously it's ... If you spank your children right it isn't that ugly. I mean some people don't spank their kids right. Some people do go over board, or treat their kid like a jerk. You can strict and spank your kids and still be loving and kind and you don't have to get angry and scream and be a jerk. Sometimes people go to far in that direction. No question about that, but if you're doing it right spanking is essential it's not well it works for some people. No it's essential. The bible says "Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod he shall die" "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell."
I mean it's a serious subject in the bible. "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." It's not the whole thing, it's not the whole element of child rearing. There's a lot more that goes into child rearing, but it is a component that a lot of people don't want to face. They'll try to do everything else that we do, or try do everything else that other people do, and they'll try to do everything else like the bible says but I'm going to just skip that one component. That's like making a batch of cookies and just skipping one ingredient. If you leave out a single ingredient it's just not going to work. The whole thing is going to be ruined because it all has to work together and so you have to follow the whole counsel of God on child rearing. Here's another example of the tree and it's fruit, how about the schools. The public schools, that's a pretty good looking tree if you thing about it, because if you show up at the public schools those buildings are usually pretty impressive. They're up to date, they're well maintained, you walk into the computer lab and you'll see a lot of state of the art computer machinery. Looks very nice you'll go into maybe the gymnasium and there's a nice swimming pool or ... Are you help her? Let just say a quick word of prayer for her real quick.
Dear Lord we just pray that whatever the situation is Lord we just pray that you please just heal Lord and please just let everything be okay dear God. Give us wisdom in dealing with this situation right now dear Lord, and Lord just please bless Cathryn and help her to be okay. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
I'm going to continue preaching and let them handle that. We see a very beautiful tree there. We see something that looks like it's going to put out a great product, but when we look at the actual product that's coming out of it. When we look at the students, when we look at their beliefs, we can see that that is a corrupt tree. Why, because we look at the evil fruit that comes out of it, and that is the standard for judging anything in this world. If you want to know whether that's a good school, look at who's coming out of it. You want to know if that's a good church, talk to the people in that church. Look at the product of that's coming out of that church, and that will tell you whether that is a good tree or a evil tree. The bible says in Proverbs 19:27 "Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge." The bible say in Psalm 1 "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night."
Whether it's a church, whether it's a preacher, whether it's a school, whether it's child rearing principles, whatever the case may be we need to stop and examine the fruit of these trees. There are many false profits gone out of the world the bible tells us. There's a lot of deception out there. There are a lot of bad trees out there and we need to inspect the fruit to know whether that's something that we should be listening to or not. A lot of people are just blindly listening to all these internet teachers, without doing a fruit inspection, or they're just blindly dropping their children off at an institution where they're going to brain washed in a false belief system. Known as atheism, or agnosticism at the public school system, and so as the scripture said Matthew 12:33 "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.” Let bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much Lord for the opportunity to be in your house Lord. We thank you for these warnings because there is so much deception. It's hard to know Lord sometimes who to trust, but help us to follow your advise Lord and to check the fruit to figure out what is legitimate and what is not. What is real and what is unreal Lord, and please just bless us as we go our separate ways. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
