False Teachers & False Confessions...Matthew 7:15-23

 


I took this picture because I thought it was amply put for taking a picture of it and getting a glimpse of the falls in the background.  Granite Falls is about 5 miles up from the Green Mountain Trailhead in the Rocky Mountain National Park.  It was not my final destination of the day but it was a great stop first stop of the morning.  This sign was placed in the perfect spot just like there are also people God puts in the perfect spot in our lives along life's way.


Farther up the trail is Sprague Mountain.  There is actually Sprague Glacier, a Sprague Lake and a Sprague Pass.  I know some Spragues and they were perfectly placed in my life to help, encourage and love me.  I looked for John's profile on this mountain but I could only see it from 3 sides so maybe its facing the front range.  The Spragues are just one example of people God has put as a sign in my life to grow from in my walk with Him.  We need good examples to actually see what walking with Jesus looks like.

We are nearing the end of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus is in the 2s section.  2 masters, 2 gates, 2 roads, 2 outcomes, 2 teachers, 2 trees, 2 fruit and the list grows.  This Sunday was a stern warning about false prophets or teachers and also the key thing to look for to determine their true heart.  Jesus tells His disciples and us to look at the fruit.  False teachers have many gifts and they use them to their advantage so we need to look beyond what they look like or what they can do or how they make us feel and we need to look at the fruit.  Do we see the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:21-22?  

Jesus also brings back up the concept of judgment by fire.  John the Baptist did this same thing in Matthew 3.  He also uses the same analogy of the tree and its fruit.  We need to see Jesus as the Savior and the Judge.  Both of these converge on His willful act of love on the cross.  The horizontal crossbeam is Jesus' mercy of a savior with His arms outstretched and bringing us cross.  The vertical post points to God and Jesus' justice as a judge to offer a way we could be right with God.  God's mercy and justice converge on the cross through Jesus Christ.

I'm thinking of having those words craved into our cross at the church, mercy on the crossbeam and justice on the post, to remind us not only of Jesus' love but also of the reason for His sacrifice.

Adam








A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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