Welcome to Truth Time, where you'll get a shot of the truth with no chaser.
And now, your Truth Time host, Trey Searcy.
I had a listener question here about a couple of verses from Paul where he speaks of fruit.
And the listener had mentioned some of the disparaging and condemning things her pastor said and how he used these verses.
You see, religion will teach us to be fruit inspectors.
But if you walk up to a tree and there's only one apple on it, walk over to another tree and there's 40 apples on that one, which one is an apple tree?
You see, we've got to stop judging people by their fruit.
Stop taking these verses out of context so that we can sit in the seat of self-righteousness.
Stop judging people by their fruit, not everyone saved is at the same place in their
walk with the Lord.
That's just common logic.
There's different levels.
We're not cookie cutter believers.
We're not God's robots.
One saved person may be way up here in their walk, while another may be way back there in theirs.
Which one is saved?
Both.
It's still, two saved people on the same walk.
Some say, well, if they were saved, they wouldn't do this, or they wouldn't do that.
We've got to stop judging them on the exterior things.
Someone could get saved on Monday, heard a clear presentation of the gospel, believed
what they heard, and as Ephesians 1:13 said, at that moment they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, eternally secure in Christ.
But when Friday night rolled around, they went to the strip club.
That doesn't mean they weren't saved.
It just means they haven't grown into what God wants them to grow into.
Not yet.
It hasn't even been a week.
Each believer needs space and time to grow with God.
Stop smothering them with your lordship legalism.
It hasn't even been a week, and here comes the legalists, all wrapped up in their false sense of self-righteousness, trying to put this saved person in hell.
Some will say, When will they stop doing the things they're doing?
Well, it's not according to me.
It's not according to you.
It's according to how fast their relationship evolves with God.
And that's never going to happen, as long as we keep beating them down with our tongue.
A relationship must be nurtured, not condemned.
It must be helped along.
As a saved person, it's part of our job to reach out to these folks and help them to
grow.
Not condemn them to hell, because they're not on your level yet.
What some fail to realize is the evolution of each individual's relationship with God
is different.
We're not cookie-cutter robots.
We're individuals in the body of Christ.
A peach cart may be full of fruit, but have no life.
Think about it.
The problem with fruit inspectors is, they're not capable of telling the difference from a basket of peaches and a peach tree.
So, if fruit is the main thing to knowing if someone is saved or not, then I know a couple of atheists that are saved.
They're very friendly.
They're friendlier than some of the saved people I know, and do a lot of good for a lot of people.
Let a man examine others.
Is that what it says?
Is that what our apostle tells us?
2 Corinthians 13:5?
No.
It says, examine yourselves.
Over the years, I've encountered scores of fruit inspectors that, if they were to come visit you when you're in the hospital, they'd say, well, now, you must have some sin in your life.
You're not right with the Lord.
But when they get sick, they sing a different tune.
Salvation is hearing and believing the gospel, transferring one's trust from self to Christ.
To believe, to trust in, to rely on, to rest your weight upon, to put your confidence in the person of Christ.
To finally admit that He alone can save you without your help.
Salvation is not counting the amount of fruit someone has.
It's believing on Christ alone to save you.
If someone has done that, they're saved.
We need his holiness.
His righteousness applied to our account.
That's how we're saved.
The holiness of a sinner can't clean anything.
That would be like cleaning a glass of dirty water with that same dirty water.
Lordship salvation is like telling a drowning person to dry off before throwing him a life jacket.
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Until next time, remember, when a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.
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