Fruitless Believers 07/15/2018: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Okay we’re going to continue on our topic of Satan secret weapon remember secret weapon number one was [unclear] he doesn’t want us to understand the word and when we don’t understand the word we don’t believe and we don’t get saved we showed you how simple it is to understand the words there’s only two laws that wrap up the whole Bible the first law is to love God with all your heart soul mind strength or abilities by obeying his word the second one is love your neighbor as yourself now the first law all your heart and soul soul is the spirit that’s the one that will live eternally the heart is the mind will the emotions and the moral standard of that inner spirit that will live forever that heart connects with your physical mind your intellectual brain okay and strength is just simple abilities for example if you can go to school and learn the ABCs [unclear] and learn to read and write and compute and calculate then you can read the Bible and understand it if you’ve got these natural abilities you also got the spiritual abilities you got it you got it you got to discipline your physical body to do the things that you do to go to work provide for your home and so forth okay is that an amen it’s really that simple don’t make

▶ 1:30 it any heavy-duty thing if you can take time to watch football on Sunday night you can take time to get up and read the Bible and pray to God if you can exercise physical abilities you can exercise them toward God that makes sense yeah. So love your neighbor by doing no harm to others. belief and faith are the process to the goal remember they are not the goal as Americans think they’re always saying my faith and it’s got nothing to do with your faith [unclear] truth the Bible is a book of truth being saved from sin the lake of fire and the day of wrath or the season of wrath if you don’t follow [unclear] and being saved from these things to do good and to possess eternal life is the goal now weapon number two hearers [unclear] understand that mistreatment and trials and false doctrines are common and winnable they understand that trials are just common to men and God will make a way of escape that you can bear up under trials so don’t make big deals out of trials alright they do this because they have no root no depth and no water in their life.

▶ 2:49 Remember that’s why. So they stumble and they fall away quickly when these mistreatments and trials and false doctrines come by now. Abusers mistreaters are friends family and Christians and non-believers enemies shall be those of your own household you know if you think that you’re going to raise kids and you’re gonna have a family and your brothers and sisters and all this are gonna live in harmony [unclear] get over it because the more you follow God the more they’re gonna oppose you the more you choose to embrace the fullness of the Bible the more they feel threatened and they’re gonna attack you are you there they gotta make you look bad so they don’t look bad.

▶ 3:44 that’s just Bible so what does the Bible say they hate they criticize and they harm and separate from those who follow Christ they divide he says rejoice in that day for great is your reward in heaven so mistreatment is not a big deal either if God is telling us to rejoice we got a great reward in heaven you know you don’t rejoice over real tough tragic things he gives you the ability to handle mistreatment without sassing back. Are you with me. So.

▶ 4:25 mistreaters are opposers of those that reject immoral sex lust alcohol partying and other [unclear] behavior that God rejects they think it’s strange that you don’t run with them to do these things but you’re a Christian now you’re a follower of Christ you reject those things and they don’t like it so they’re gonna mistreat you because again they feel threatened are you with me see that’s his secret weapon number two all right and remember this the apostles [unclear] we’re built on the foundation of the apostles prophets and the chief cornerstone Jesus Christ the apostles and prophets and Jesus Christ themselves interpret the scriptures they’re the only ones that can interpret the scripture not you not some mega church minister not some famous author we don’t have a right to say everybody’s got their own interpretation that is a unjustifiable statement out there in the world Baptists justify their doctrines and the Pentecostals justify their doctrine the Catholics [unclear] you cannot do that only Jesus and the apostles back there not modern and prophets back there not modern can interpret the scriptures is that an amen so we have to go to them to get the interpretation.

▶ 5:58 alleluia. Weapon number three if Satan can’t ruin your life by way of not understanding the word or by falling away for lack of the root and depth and water of the word in your life then he will work on you being a fruitless hearer or a fruitless believer a fruitless receiver of the gospel of Christ if he can’t get you in the first two weapons he is going to come heavily after you in the third one to make you fruitless. He is not concerned about if you got a spiritual gift he could care the least if you can heal the sick and prophesy or whatever he just doesn’t want you bearing fruit all right so we go to the Bible in Matthew 13 Luke 8 and Mark chapter 4 seed is sown among the thorns they hear the word of the kingdom ok.

▶ 7:01 And the thorns and the word grow together. If you live down south like I did and you have to rely on a garden to provide yourself with food for the winter and all that you don’t let thorns grow in your garden you remove them you don’t let weeds grow in weeds grow faster than the vegetables and they crowd them out and they suppress the vegetables so you got to get rid of the weeds you got to get rid of the thorns they did not get rid of these thorns. They’re both growing together these are the seed among the thorns the thorns choked and crowd out the word so that the word brings forth no fruit to maturity or none at all in the hearer see.

▶ 7:54 No fruit to maturity or no fruit at all and it amazes me in my 40 some years of walking with God. 50 some years wow time goes by. How many Christians are fruitless. They’re just flat-out fruitless and it’s mainly because they rely totally on faith and belief which are the process to the goal and not the goal they believe because they believe everything’s okay and there’s no fruit could that be true it is true all right now. There’s two kinds of fruit first one is character as we heard this morning in the worship the second one is being born again of the spirit and God’s word like a woman produces the fruit of the womb by birthing a child God produces the fruit of the spirit by birthing you spiritually in his spirit and in his word amen in other words it’s others coming to Christ but through your life others are coming to Christ all right now the fruit of character in John 15:16 you have not chosen me but I have chosen you get over yourself.

▶ 9:23 He come to you he presented the gospel to you and you responded but he initiated everything. These testimonies I came to God and I gave up all this stuff look he came to you he gave up his life so don’t give me this stuff about you gave up drugs and you gave up [unclear] and you gave up partying he come to you and he gave his life. Does that make sense to you see we forget these simple things of the scripture. ordained you to go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit remains you know it sticks with you for the rest of your life that whatsoever you shall ask the father in my name he will give it to you and then he says love one another so what fruit is he talking about the fruit of character.

▶ 10:25 Fruit of character love is character love. Love love ask the father in my name it amazes me how people will run to prayer when they want something from God and never go to prayer to retain and develop their life in God people will go to prayer at 9/11 the churches were filled with people praying for America and when the threat was gone three months later they were gone from the church it amazes me that we have a day of prayer and America every year and we go wow this is great presidential [unclear] this is terrific listen we need to declare a day of character in fact we need to declare a year of character in fact we need to declare a lifetime of character we can hide behind prayer and get up and still live a wrong kind of life are

▶ 11:32 You with me now this scripture is insinuating that we’re not getting answers to prayer because we’re not fruitful. Is that true that scripture is implying that if you become fruitful. Whatsoever you ask the father in my name he will give it to you why don’t we get answered prayer. According to this scripture it’s because we can be people who have sown the word among thorns in our life and we are fruitless. and if he does [unclear] some simple little thing God answers then you say oh God answered prayer God answers prayer [unclear] like this morning if you seek me you will find you draw nigh to him he draws nigh to you you don’t wait for tragedy to come you need his strength you need his love you need his empowerment now.

▶ 12:44 Is that correct so far. It’s a powerful parable this parable Satan’s secret weapon. Secondly in James 1:18 of his own will birthed he us who birthed us Jesus we are the result don’t give yourself credit he come to you he chose you and he birthed you it’s all him you were just asked to respond all right yeah. he birthed us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of what first fruits of his creation and so when we get saved that is the other fruit when we lead others to Christ through our life and through preaching and the word [unclear] God births them that’s the other fruit that’s why.

▶ 13:47 In Matthew 28:19 go to all people and make disciples of Jesus and his word teaching them all that I command [unclear] not your opinions what he commanded are you with me the question is are we converted to our own opinions and our own faith and are we converting others to our own opinions and our faith instead of Jesus Christ and his word. are the Baptists are the Catholics are they converting people to Christ and his word are they converting people to that denomination’s faith it’s a big problem are you with me you in your walk with God are you just changing things for your opinions your convenience or are you really converting to Christ in his word.

▶ 14:46 The difference is the fruit why can so many Christians can’t control their tongue it’s because their life is growing among thorns. They can’t control their anger oh they can [unclear] Pentecostals and they can bow and do the cross and everything in Catholic churches and they can [unclear] once saved always saved in Baptist churches but the fact is they have no self-control as we heard this morning and worship beautiful worship by the way beautiful worship if you couldn’t learn anything in that worship you’re just brain-dead. Are you there. Now. So thorns rob time and maturity from Jesus in the Bible.

▶ 15:41 thorns is what’s gonna rob your time and because you won’t take time you are going to not mature in your Christian walk and bring forth fruit. Is this right so far yeah. he said in Matthew 13 Luke 8 and Mark 4 the thorns of the cares the concerns and worries of this world of this age okay. From childhood. Children want approval of mom and dad they want approval of their friends they want approval of schoolmates they want approval of friends when they get older and they’ll do anything to get their approval.

▶ 16:39 they’ll do anything they’ll conform to almost anything to get their approval and that hinders a lot of teenagers from coming to Christ because they want to conform to the group and get their approval rather than conformed to Christ and get his are you there so they won’t take time and adults are like that too all right education we’ve got to get an education and we get worried about the education and if we’re capable and so forth and then we get wrapped up in education education is something that you’ve got to live with in this life but if you just get wrapped up in it and don’t take time for God and get educated in God then you don’t grow to maturity are you there a Job same thing there’s nothing wrong with education nothing wrong with a Job nothing wrong you’ve got to live with people in this world but how you choose to live with them is can rob you of the time to spend with God in his word and be fruitful or no time for God in his work.

▶ 18:08 Okay. Health everybody’s concerned about their health somebody with a PhD comes up and says that wax milk carton is causing cancer everybody stopped drinking milk and cartons and then ten years later they find out it’s not true cranberry sauce is a cause of cancer so everybody stopped eating cranberry sauce then they found out it wasn’t true anytime somebody with a PhD says something America [unclear] oh my God we’re scared to death we’re scared to death of sugar. We are we’re petrified of sugar and and parents think they’re really being good parents by forbidding the forbidden fruit sugar. When science came out about six years ago said sugar is good for kids but too much of anything is what bad for you I don’t care what it is you eat bread all day you’re gonna get fat eat candy all day you’re gonna get fat come on is there anything wrong with bread no it’s your problem you’re eating too much.

▶ 19:17 But nobody blames cavities on bread they blame it on sugar and if you ever had chemistry in school and biology cavities aren’t made from sugar it’s made from bacteria okay eating away at the enamel are you with me so it could be meat lodged in your teeth and getting old and fungus is growing in there and you’re not brushing and flossing and bang you got a cavity are you with me so they they worry and they spend time they’ll do research man especially today they’re on the net from the time they get home to the time they go to bed [unclear] research and finding out what they could be afraid of getting a mate. And all these things. They’re just natural things in the world but they can consume us and rob us of our Christian maturity.

▶ 20:19 The deceit of wealth and riches oh [unclear] rich like [unclear] I’d be happy the Bible says the rich can’t sleep because of their wealth. You know everybody’s after him they wanna kidnap him get a ransom and all this stuff they got their own problems are you with me and we know when we study Job that God wants to bless you and he’ll put a hedge around you where Satan can’t touch your children and your wealth and your you know your health or anything are you there but folks that’s just normal life we he will supply your needs not your want you may want a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow and he may give you a Volkswagen bug but you can still get from point a to point b just like everybody else are you with me yeah and so.

▶ 21:12 These are natural things that we can take too much time we can become workaholics. Have no time for our family have no time for God because we’re work work work work work. The Bible says the rich can’t sleep as I said because of the riches and Christ came to the rich man and says tonight your soul is required to you what’s all these riches gonna do they’re gonna be given to someone else and here you consumed your whole life with getting things and you’re gonna leave them [unclear] bird brain who’s gonna sell them and squander it and what did it do you any good when it took time from you and you and you didn’t take time for me and now you’re [unclear] going to the lake of fire your souls required and you’re not ready.

▶ 22:05 Thorns rob you of time for you to spend with God to grow to maturity and be fruitful are you with me got no time for church got no time for Bible reading you have all these excuses. [unclear] you’re encumbered with these worldly things that are necessary and some things aren’t necessary when we want to be a surfer or a rock star or whatever and it consumes all of our time that that isn’t even necessary working and getting education and all this stuff is necessary. Now here’s the big one oh not the big one yet Ecclesiastes 3:13 and Ecclesiastes 5:19 to show you that working and providing for your home is just.

▶ 22:58 God ordained twice in Ecclesiastes he says to do good you hear that to do good what have we been learning the last couple of months the goal is to what do good love God love your neighbor love yourself don’t do harm that’s the goal don’t get into this heavy [unclear] stuff that you got some Revelation about the second coming that nobody else does or whatever if you’re doing good and living good and treating yourself right and people right you’ve got the Bible mastered to do good and enjoy the good of one’s labor is a gift of God that’s a gift that most people never preached about. It’s a gift of God that you can work provide for your home and enjoy the fruit of your labor you can enjoy a western on tv after you’ve done everything else you can enjoy golfing or whatever you can enjoy steak instead of cornbread and beans.

▶ 24:08 Or he can just enjoy cornbread and beans amen the fruit of your labor it’s a gift of God how many like that get yeah. How many can really say God has given me that I didn’t even know it till today that God has given me that and I appreciate the gift yeah yeah. Thorns are the lust and pleasures of this life and this is what gets them the lust and the pleasures of this life immoral sex and today immoral marriage the Bible talks about the stupidity of the world how they grow [unclear] I mean when Harvard graduates and Yale graduates and intellectuals of America can stand before Americans and say that it is natural for a man to marry a man and a woman to marry a woman we have come [unclear] down to a low level a

▶ 25:21 permissive sin in America there is nothing natural about that is there it’s just not natural and yet the so-called Harvard graduates Yale graduates college graduates and they’re being brainwashed in the colleges to believe this nonsense they actually are telling us that a boy can be in a girl’s body. You know and a girl can be in a boy’s body because they feel like I feel like I’m a girl I want to wear panties I want to wear a dress [unclear] give me pills to grow breasts and they do all these artificial things to try to live out their fantasy and America our politicians are promoting it even the Supreme Court justices everybody is getting dumber this is just common sense isn’t it.

▶ 26:25 How can they say they’re a girl when they got boy genitals. And the chromosome is a male chromosome I don’t care what they do their body chemically is still male isn’t that correct and yet they believe this nonsense. Drugs and alcohol. we’re legalizing drugs marijuana and we even promote alcohol knowing that it cost Americans billions in health a lot of accidents and a lot of deaths we still hero alcohol and now we’re heroing marijuana. Instead of using it as a medicine if it is.

▶ 27:20 They use it to get high and to feel good and now our politicians are promoting it it’s just not natural the proof is out on this stuff that destroys homes it destroys lives why in the world would we legalize government is there to protect the people the Constitution says the government is there to protect its citizens not only from war but from you know plagues you know we we quarantine they never quarantine the homosexuals did they they quarantine people with the [unclear] they quarantine people with smallpox and all that but oh no we can’t be cruel to the homosexual. there’s nothing natural in thinking of that at all just like the scriptures say and the last day difficult times will come and [unclear] these things that’s going to be happening and it’s happening in our day in fact when we taught this scripture 40 years ago we had no idea that we would be calling girls boys and boys girls and and marrying girl to girl and boy to boy we thought it was bad then how many know it’s worse now yeah and we don’t know how much worse it’s gonna get till Christ comes.

▶ 28:44 Secular music. secular music is addicting its influential it influences people. dependent on the kind that’s played entertainment sports. Now that famous scripture in Chronicles if my people which are called by my name will. Humble themselves and pray. churches use it all the time and they stop [unclear] humble themselves and pray and then the next part is turn from their evil way then what I hear from heaven forgive their sin and heal the land yes we got a lot of prayer ministries out there a lot of people believe in prayer but they don’t turn.

▶ 29:40 To Christ and get his fruit and become a real light to the world and our prayers are not being answered you can say what you want but they’re not being answered. And we’re living in a fantasy when we think because we prayed they’re answered God is looking for fruit and if we give him the fruit to love him love ourselves no harm to ourselves no harm to others then God will answer and heal our land. Could that be true. Galatians 5:22 here it is the fruit okay now when I grew up I got saved in Pentecostal circles Assembly of God church and all that and emphasis was gifts gifts gifts gifts miracles miracles you know tongues interpretation on gifts gifts gifts I never heard in

▶ 30:45 a balance the fruit of the spirit and A gift is something that God gives you you don’t have to do it so you may go your whole life without the gift of word of wisdom the word of knowledge [unclear] you may never have that gift are you there but fruit there is no limitation everybody can have it. Amen yes. Fruit of the spirit is first love and love in itself. Covers all the fruits look. First Corinthians 13 love is patient love is kind love does not envy doesn’t boast of itself it’s not proud it’s not rude.

▶ 31:40 Doesn’t speak rudely to their spouse of their kids or whatever. Doesn’t demand its own way. It’s not easily angered it keeps no record of wrongs delights not in evil but the truth bears all things believes all things hopes all things and endures all things love never gives up and never quits. Do we have Christians quitting on the marriage quitting on their kids kids quitting on their parents yeah and then we wonder why there’s no power in the church. see love is covering almost every

▶ 32:32 fruit listed here in Galatians. The wisdom from above is first pure see and then peaceable pure goodness peaceable gentle mannerly kind. Meek. Yielding willing to work with each other willing to work with the spouse willing to work with the kids willing to work in the church in their place yielding not wanting to dominate. Are you there yes they’re willing to come under. No hypocrisy saying one thing and doing another no partiality that’s the wisdom from above isn’t that much greater than the wisdom of earth knowing that there’s a solar system and so many planets and you know we think we’re so all intelligent.

▶ 33:29 When I was in school they came out with evolution carbon dating. and I believed it for about 30 or 60 days I forget very short period of time and then my mind they taught me how to think and be a free thinker and so I was exercising my free thinking from the scientific method things have to be observed then they have to be tested and when it’s proven without a shadow of a doubt then it’s called a law they don’t use that anymore they have they have tainted the scientific method now that if there’s enough proof it is a law not total proof are you there I just read this I several years ago I can’t believe it in my day it was that way a law will work every time a theory won’t all right so they call this carbon dating and all this and and and I fell for it and then a few weeks later I had three questions and I asked the teacher these three questions all right [unclear] how do they know that rock

▶ 34:47 carbon dating or radio dating I said how do they know what that rock was four billion years ago they weren’t there to see it they weren’t there to analyze it could that rock have been created just the way it is now. and they had no answer I am 16 years old and they can’t answer a 16 year old simple question I asked them how come the atom does not blow up you got protons in a small area that repelled each other why doesn’t it blow up and why doesn’t the electron being drawn by gravity [unclear] into the nucleus why doesn’t it fall in and where does this electron get its energy to [unclear] around you have to have energy and there has to be a loss of energy and everything that’s what you taught me so how can this atom work.

▶ 36:00 They had no answer. Are you there and immediately I’ve told you this before when I believed evolution I mocked my parents I thought they were a bunch of numbskulls I mocked religion immediately rejected God rejected my parents when they could not explain my questions I went back to respecting my parents and respecting God and probably God did that to prepare me to be in the ministry now [unclear] you need proof of everything. Not your feelings well I feel like this is who cares about your feeling where’s the evidence that this works and will work.

▶ 36:52 Amen. Joy. How many Christians really have joy that no man can take away the joy of the Lord is our strength how many Christians are strong not very many why fruitless Satan want you fruitless peace they quarrel they fight they argue peace is the absence of conflict. Patience how many Christians you know are patient when people are badgering them talking about them and difficult they’re going through difficult [unclear] traffic and I got to get home. Are you there. Kindness. Goodness meekness.

▶ 37:50 Loyalty. How many Christians faith you know it says faith in your Bible but it’s their faith is loyalty commitment. see if you stick in there love never fails how many people are Christians are really loyal to their family loyal to their kids loyal to God. And this has been going on in the Christian church for a lot of years since I’ve been in it we emphasize faith we emphasize prosperity we emphasize prophecy and all this stuff miracles and the fruit [unclear] is what people can see in your life and being drawn to God. is not talked about hardly at all and

▶ 38:44 Then there’s self-control. Am I looking at some people that lose it when the pressure comes off you lash out verbally you lash out physically. Self-control. It’s just controlling yourself. Listening to your heart doing what is smart. Against such there is no law. There’s no law against any of these things and I’ll tell you people won’t be opposing you if you really live this kind of life and this way now they will mistreat you because you threaten them you exposed them but they don’t make laws against love and joy and peace do they.

▶ 39:43 You can’t exercise self-control we got a law you gotta just let it all come out see there’s no law like that. In closing the apostles understood. They believed they received the gospel of Jesus they never fell away or stumbled because the root was in Jesus their depth was in Jesus and his word and the water of the word that causes the fruit to grow I mean you know the seed is the word of God [unclear] Jesus is the word I mean you know when that seed germinates he is the root he is the stem as well as the seed. Amen.

▶ 40:35 So we need to have depth in Jesus we need Jesus the connected to Jesus the trunk the stem and we get our life from Jesus all right so. They use spiritual gifts all through the book of acts didn’t it but also they exercise the fruit of the spirit. You never see them out of control you never see them in prison all depressed and cast down do you. When they were threatened with robbery and they were shipwrecked and all the rest they were never depressed cast down mad at God or whatever were they. So why did they have the gifts because God could trust them with the gifts because they had the fruit.

▶ 41:35 we need to not let everyday life take away our time from God his word and let him grow in us that people see our good works and bring honor to the one who does that in us.