To Which Do You Belong?
Posted By Brett on July 14, 2010
Matthew 7:16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
This is just a sampling of the passages that speak to this issue. Do you get the feeling that Jesus is trying to convey a point here? In the kingdom of God, in the church, sitting in pews right along with everyone else will be false professors. Some of them may boast that they cast out demons and prophecy in his name, but God never knew them. At the end of of the age there will be a gathering and a sorting. The wheat will be separated from the tares, the sheep will be separated from the goats, the good fish will be separated from the bad fish, the foolish virgins will be left out, the good steward will be given more, and the wicked steward will be cast into the outer darkness, the wheat will be separated from the chaff, the fruit bearing trees will be separated from the non-fruitful trees.
And in each of these instances, there will be blessings and punishment. The unquenchable fire, the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, that is the end of those who are part of the visible church but who are not part of the invisible church.
Dear church attender, I urge you not to look to your right or to your left. I urge you to look at yourself. You may not make it. You may be deceiving yourself. You may have come to church all your life and you know the stories, and you tithe, and you serve on every committee there is, but if you have not come to the point of repenting of your sins and resting in Jesus alone for the salvation of your sins, then you are not saved.
Do not disconnect yourself from these passages. This is not about some group of people in 1st century Palestine. Jesus spoke about you. You are in these verses. It may seem a strange thing that you were in the mind of God when these verses were penned, but it is true. The only question is which group do you belong to? Are you the wheat or are you the tare that will be thrown into the fire? Are you the wheat or the chaff that will be burned?
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