Sermon on the Mount - False prophets vs. good fruit

Wednesday Readings List

April 12, 2017

False prophets vs. good fruit

Hymn 337

 

Theories, which thousands cherish,

Pass like clouds that sweep the sky;

Creeds and dogmas all may perish;

Truth Herself can never die.

 

Worldlings blindly may refuse Her,

Close their eyes and call it night;

Learned scoffers may abuse Her,

But they cannot quench Her light.

 

Thrones may totter, empires crumble,

All their glories cease to be;

While She, Christlike, crowns the humble,

And from bondage sets them free.

 

THE HOLY BIBLE

 

Matt. 7:15-20

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

 

Gen. 1:27, 31

God created man in his own image. . . And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

 

Gen. 2:6-7, 16-17; Gen 3:4-5, 6-7

But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked . . . .

 

Jer. 14:14

The Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name.

 

Ezek. 18:1-4

The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine.

 

Ps. 119:104, 105, 128

Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

 

Num. 12:1-3, 6-8, 10-15 (NLT)

Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses . . .They said, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Hasn’t he spoken through us, too?” But the Lord heard them. (Now Moses was very humble—more humble than any other person on earth.) And the Lord said to them, “Now listen to what I say: “If there were prophets among you, I, the Lord, would reveal myself in visions. . . .But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the Lord as he is.” As the cloud moved from above the Tabernacle, there stood Miriam, her skin as white as snow from leprosy. When Aaron saw what had happened to her, he cried out to Moses, “Oh, my master! Please don’t punish us for this sin we have so foolishly committed. So Moses cried out to the Lord, “O God, I beg you, please heal her!” The Lord said to Moses, “Keep her outside the camp for seven days, and after that she may be accepted back.” So Miriam was kept outside the camp for seven days, and the people waited until she was brought back before they traveled again.

 

Jer. 23:2, 10, 11, 14, 17, 21, 26-27, 32, 35

Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, . . . both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. They commit adultery, and walk in lies: . . .they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. They say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

I have not sent these prophets, . . . yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, . . . and cause my people to err by their lies,.. . . Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, . . . What hath the Lord spoken?

 

Deut. 13:4, 6, 8

Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him.

 

Deut. 11:18-19

[L]ay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

 

Luke 4:14, 33-36

Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: . .. . And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not. And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.

 

Matt. 24:23-31

If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

 

John 15:1-2, 5, 7-8

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. … I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. … If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
I John 4:1-6

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. . . . Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

 

Rev. 12:7-10; 21:1; 22:16, 14, 2, 6, 7

There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life . . . and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: . .. blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

SCIENCE & HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES by Mary Baker Eddy

 

SH 581:4-7

Angels. God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality.

 

SH 593:4-5

Prophet. A spiritual seer; disappearance of material sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth.

 

SH 492:3

For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its unlikeness, mortality.

 

SH 526:19-22

The “tree of knowledge” stands for the erroneous doctrine that the knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as the knowledge of good.

 

SH 567:27-28

The beast and the false prophets are lust and hypocrisy.

 

SH 307:3

This pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, insists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying, “Ye shall be as gods;” that is, I will make error as real and eternal as Truth.

 

SH 279:22

Every system of human philosophy, doctrine, and medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic belief that there is mind in matter; but this belief contradicts alike revelation and right reasoning. A logical and scientific conclusion is reached only through the knowledge that there are not two bases of being, matter and mind, but one alone, — Mind.

 

SH 524:1

The idolatry which followed this material mythology is seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites, in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphrodite, and in a thousand other so-called deities.

 

SH 110:32

No analogy exists between the vague hypotheses of agnosticism, pantheism, theosophy, spiritualism, or millenarianism and the demonstrable truths of Christian Science; and I find the will, or sensuous reason of the human mind, to be opposed to the divine Mind as expressed through divine Science.

 

SH 112:3

Is there more than one school of Christian Science? Christian Science is demonstrable. There can, therefore, be but one method in its teaching. Those who depart from this method forfeit their claims to belong to its school, and they become adherents of the Socratic, the Platonic, the Spencerian, or some other school. By this is meant that they adopt and adhere to some particular system of human opinions. Although these opinions may have occasional gleams of divinity, borrowed from that truly divine Science which eschews man-made systems, they nevertheless remain wholly human in their origin and tendency and are not scientifically Christian.

 

SH 299:18

Knowledge gained from material sense is figuratively represented in Scripture as a tree, bearing the fruits of sin, sickness, and death. Ought we not then to judge the knowledge thus obtained to be untrue and dangerous, since “the tree is known by his fruit”?

 

SH 226:25-29

The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of their own beliefs and from the educational systems of the Pharaohs, who to-day, as of yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage.

 

SH 165:1

Physiology is one of the apples from “the tree of knowledge.” Evil declared that eating this fruit would open man’s eyes and make him as a god. Instead of so doing, it closed the eyes of mortals to man’s God-given dominion over the earth.

 

SH 389:15-18,

This false reasoning is rebuked in Scripture by the metaphors about the fount and stream, the tree and its fruit, and the kingdom divided against itself.

 

SH 196:31-6

The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and diseases among the human family. It does this by giving names to diseases and by printing long descriptions which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought. A new name for an ailment affects people like a Parisian name for a novel garment. Every one hastens to get it. A minutely described disease costs many a man his earthly days of comfort.

 

SH 174:4-6

Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry, that man should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to baths, diet, exercise, and air?

 

SH 143:5-8, 31-1

It is plain that God does not employ drugs or hygiene, nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have recommended and employed them in his healing. Inferior and unspiritual methods of healing may try to make Mind and drugs coalesce, but the two will not mingle scientifically.

 

SH 268:14

In this final struggle for supremacy, semi-metaphysical systems afford no substantial aid to scientific metaphysics, for their arguments are based on the false testimony of the material senses as well as on the facts of Mind. These semi-metaphysical systems are one and all pantheistic, and savor of Pandemonium, a house divided against itself.

 

SH 65:13-16

The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of the age, struggling against the advancing spiritual era.

 

SH 260:24-28

Selfishness and sensualism are educated in mortal mind by the thoughts ever recurring to one’s self, by conversation about the body, and by the expectation of perpetual pleasure or pain from it; and this education is at the expense of spiritual growth.

 

SH 82:31-2

In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to consider whether it is the human mind or the divine Mind which is influencing one.

 

SH 216:9

Spirituality lays open siege to materialism. On which side are we fighting?

 

SH 494:15-19

Jesus demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring human sense to flee from its own convictions and seek safety in divine Science.

 

SH 270:31-1

The life of Christ Jesus was not miraculous, but it was indigenous to his spirituality, — the good soil wherein the seed of Truth springs up and bears much fruit.

 

SH 496:9

Ask yourself: . . . Am I demonstrating the healing power of Truth and Love? If so, then the way will grow brighter “unto the perfect day.” Your fruits will prove what the understanding of God brings to man. Hold perpetually this thought, — that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being.

 

Hymn 141

 

If the Lord build not the house

They that labor build in vain;

Father, may our corner stone

Stand foursquare, without a stain.

 

Make our planting timely, true,

Governed by a power benign;

Nourish by a heavenly dew

All the branches and the vine.

 

Fruitful shall our tillage be,

Known the work of perfect Mind,

Leaves be gathered from the tree

For the healing of mankind.

 

Cleansing men of fear and hate,

Lifting hope above the sod,

Truth will summon, soon or late,

All the earth to worship God.

 

Hymn 226

 

O Lord of life, to Thee we lift

Our hearts in praise for those,

Thy prophets, who have shown Thy gift

Of grace that ever grows,

Of truth that spreads from shore to shore,

Of wisdom’s widening ray,

Of light that shineth more and more

Unto Thy perfect day.

 

Shine forth, O Light, that we may see,

With hearts all unafraid,

The meaning and the majesty

Of things that Thou hast made:

Shine forth, and let the darkling past

Beneath Thy beam grow bright;

Shine forth, and touch the future vast

With Thine untroubled light.

 

Light up Thy word; the fettered page

From darkened bondage free:

Light up our way; lead forth this age

In love’s large liberty.

O Light of light, within us dwell,

Through us Thy radiance pour,

That word and deed Thy truths may tell,

And praise Thee evermore.

 

 

 

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