Luke 6:43-46 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Can anyone be a Christian just because they say they're one?? What about those who profess to be one while prefering to call sin a simple mistake that we all make, and lessens it, rather than agreeing with what it is and with what God calls it? What about those who excuse all sin (except the more grosser ones of murder, rape, etc.) by showing their continual acceptance and approval of less grosser sins by remaining silent? What about those who make excuses for sin because they, themselves live obviously sinful lifestyles? Are all these to be considered Christians as well, just because they say so?
Titus 1:16 - They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
Make no mistake, we are all prone to temptation. But those who tend to overlook their own or a loved one's sin, prefering to call them mistakes or something other, have already fallen away from Grace and Truth. One thing I learned is that no one is going to take God for a fool and live to tell about it! Murder is a sin. Rape is a sin! But so too are fornication, homosexuality, lying and coveting. Those who keep on making excuses for sin have turned the truth of God into a lie (Romans 1:25).
All of this makes one wonder if there are exceptions to the rule of the word of God, so much so that perhaps the rest of us can avoid the cross altogether? After all, why should they seem to have all the fun, by having the best of both worlds? I also wonder if anyone knows the real meaning of repentance and what causes the person to repent of their sins in the first place? Has anyone had the Comparison? The Conviction? (John 16:8-14) Has anyone really come to see God - get a glimpse their own flesh - and abhor themselves?
Over and over we hear God speak out against sinners and against their sins such as fornication, homosexuality, lying and coveting and against those who seek to gain what this world has to offer. Can any true Christian continue to live with or approve of these types of sinful lifestyles? NO! It is absolutely impossible!
Romans 3:7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
Believing themselves to be Christians, it is by silently tolerating the sinful lifestyles of their loved ones hoping that; by this act of theirs, the truth of God will increase through their lie (i.e. their bearing false witness against the truth - 2 Thes. 2:10-12) in order to glorify God.
My question, therefore, would be better-phrased like this: Is it possible for Anyone to become a Christian (i.e. a follower of Christ) who hasn't received the Annointing that 1 John 2:27 speaks of?...
1 John 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
So, according to the word of God, the answer shouts out a loud... NO!!!
Jesus makes this all perfectly clear when He says that we'll know them (i.e. know if they're Christians or not) BY THEIR FRUITS. In reading Matthew 7:13-21 it is obvious that Jesus is speaking of the fruits of "False Prophets". A false prophet is anyone who prophesies falsely. Simply put: What they say is NOT what God already said! Their fruits are in the very words they speak; the words which come out of their old, unchanged hearts, that prove them to be liars.
What we see and hear them doing or believing in or agreeing with, shows us clearly where that fruit is coming from on the inside (in the spiritual realm). So, either one has a New Heart or one does not! It's as simple as that! Either the fruit that comes out of that heart is all GOOD or it is all BAD! That is what GOD says, and those who are His and somewhat skilled in the word have their senses excercised to discern both good (what is of God) and evil (what is not of God).
In Matthew 12:33 Jesus says: 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 its fruit.
Therefore, first make the person GOOD and his fruit will be Good as well. (and this is what God does to those who love Him by keeping His word.)
Look at that last sentance in 1 John 2:27 again: and even as it (the annointing) has taught you, ye shall abide in him (The Lord).
How can someone who claims to be born again continue to live in sin while also abiding in the Lord? It can't be done! This "annointing" is not one that makes them proud and puffed up because of such knowledge, but humbles them instead. It condemns them in the flesh and sanctifies them to the Truth through the Spirit, because it does away with the Old and brings in the New, giving them a sure foundation of hope to live through Him, walk after Him, and abide in Him.
To abide in His words means to live in or with the Lord, and only His word is welcomed where there is life. There aren't two different annointings, teachers, interpretations, spirits, or gospels, etc. There is only One Annointing- and this One comes by way of having received the Holy Spirit. It is this very Annointing that makes the risen Christ very much real and alive to us and makes us all.. ONE in Him!
In order to abide in Him and be a believer in Christ, one must obey Him. How can one say that they believe in Him without believing all that He is saying? He is The WORD of God! To somehow go around believing ourselves to be Christian, and yet doing so without our having to amen and respond to Him in Spirit and in Truth as He is (i.e. abide in His doctrine), only proves that such a person has never received the annointing and does not know what it is or does. They have neither the annointing to know the Christian life nor the power to live the Christian life.
We are commanded to Flee from such things (1Cor.6:18). Having anything to do with sinful lifestyles (whether ours or someone elses) makes us nothing but a bunch of hypocrites. Being a hypocrit is to claim that we believe on Christ on the one hand, all the while rejecting much of what He has to say in order to maintain and/or tolerate these sinful lifestyles and lusts on the other.
Beware of the deceivers who say that we must tolerate and overlook the sinful lifestyles of our loved ones, if we have hopes of bringing them to Christ. What these deceivers want is for us to deny Christ by remaining quiet (thus quenching our light) in the hopes of winning our loved ones to Him, while they remain in their sinful lifestyles. Yet the word clearly says that they are rebels, and as such they must first repent of their sin (like we did) before anything can be done for them. IF Jesus is to be believed and followed, then so too must ALL of His words be believed, obeyed, and followed as well! Not just the ones that suit us.
1 John 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
The unction that Jesus speaks of (John 3:3) is that we would know God through a new and spiritual birth and become empowered with all things needful in order to live the Christian life in the life-giving power of the Spirit. Anything that stops short of this MIRACLE is of the antichrist. The antichrist denies Jesus in word, and/or in deed, and/or approves of sinful lifestyles, proving their ways oppose Christ and are not His way.
Allow me to use but one example to show you what I mean by this...
Let's say that a member of your family is a homosexual... and rather than you say anything to him that might offend him and his ungodly lifestyle (by simply telling him that he is living in sin and therefore he needs to repent and lay hold of Jesus), you would rather remain silent thus let him continue in it. However your silence is only giving him grounds to believe that you must approve of what he's doing or you would have said something! Greater still would it be if you tended to see little or nothing wrong with such an evil lifestyle and even began to socialize with him on a regular basis (even thinking that perhaps somehow you can win him to Christ in this way).
John 8:31- Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
The person who has received the Spirit has already determined (by seeing The Living Truth of Who Jesus is, through their newly-given eyes of faith) that NOTHING can hold a candle to Him! The Spirit; in giving us a choice, through this vision, makes it -easy- for us to want to give it all away and lay down everything we once considered important and gain to us, in order to abide in His words and win Christ (and daily keep on winning Him). (Phil 3:7-8) Without the Spirit all of this is impossible!
Shallow and Worldly grounded people (i.e. all those who believe in a cheap Gospel of Grace) fail to take into consideration what the costs may be in following Jesus. These will also fail at the very first test of their faith, when their carnal hearts and wills become tested against God's heart and will in doing what He says, and they will abandon Him and His teaching. These reject doing His will; thus their sin remains, as they continue to live in and/or approve of some ungodly life-style, as if obeying what He says means little or nothing to them, as they live and act as if nothing will happen to them because of it.
These are the ones who make God their enemy by loving the world (1 John 2:15-17). They fear the truth and consider all who preach it as if they know what they're talking about (i.e. speaking forth in the Power of the Spirit), as being ignorant and foolish. "Who do they think they are?" they say. "How dare they presume to be smarter than me or my religion?".
These shallow and worldy type of people are the ones who are fearful of losing their family and friends (for one), or their good name and reputation (for two), or of giving up their love for ungodly lifestyles and what this world has to offer along with its riches (for three), and even their own life (for four), by denying themselves daily, taking up their cross and following Him by doing God's Will. These are the farthest thing from their minds.
The word of God clearly states that if the seed of the Gospel that we heard at the beginning remains in us then we will continue living in the Father and the Son (1 John 2:24), and we will know the truth, and the truth will make us free (John 8:32).
Until one receives the Annointing with the Holy Spirit through continuing in His word and forsaking all they own, they will remain unchanged and think that nothing really changes and that for them life goes on as it always had in the past! However, once the Holy Spirit comes a persons life does change, and changes dramatically.
The change is mind-blowingly dramatic; because the new Christian has passed from death to life, experiencing for themselves the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the passionate and deeply personal Love and Holiness of God (John 14:23), that caused them to become Born Again. They are no longer the same. The Old (who they once were in themselves) has been put to death, for the New (who they now are in Christ) has come...
Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
1 Peter 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
To somehow believe that nothing happens when one receives the Holy Spirit, can only mean that such a person has never received Him in the first place! Being put to death and buried with Christ and then raised to new life in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit is a once-in-a-lifetime experience known personally and known only by the person who has received Him.
Paul says it like this:
1 Corinthians 2:12- Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
and Jesus says it like this:
John 14:15 - If ye love me, keep my commandments.
If we love Him above all then we will follow Him and do as He says, and if we don't, we won't (John 14:23-24).
To claim to have the Spirit all the while continuing to live in unrepentant sin, and/or silently sitting and watching the ones you claim to love living in sin, and/or excusing or exonerating such unholy and sinful lifestyles in any way, is totally unheard of.
21 - I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 - Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
32 - And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
13 - Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 - But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
16 - And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 - Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
John 8:31-32 has always been the test that determines whether one receives the Annointing with the Truth or not. Those who continue abiding in His word produce Good fruit, while those who don't abide in what He says can only produce Rotten fruit.
May God bless you in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!
Biff & Suzanne
