Is My Faith Sincere

Introduction

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Meaning & Application

I EXAMINING THE FRUIT OF SINCERITY

We ought to be able to tell an authentic Christianity by the fruit that their life produces. Hear Christ’s words.

Luke 6:43–45 ““For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

A What is Jesus Teaching: In this passage Jesus is inviting us to examine the fruit of our lives. He likens people to different kinds of trees. There are healthy trees that produce healthy fruit, and there are sick trees that produce unedible fruit. We ought to be able to look at the fruit of a person’s life and determine the condition of their heart. If we see particular fruits coming out of a person in a consistent way, we can be quite confident that he or she is healthy, as a soul before God. On the other hand, if we see lack of particular fruits, or a consistent production of sick fruits, we can be quite confident that he or she is unhealthy as a soul before God.

Treasury: I love how Jesus uses the word treasure. The word can be translated “treasure” but it is better to translate “treasury.” In other words, in the soul of a man is a treasury. It is the place where the greatest possession of his life are stored. The greatest ideal, the greatest wonder, the greatest love! of a man’s life are stored in this treasury. And Jesus that different men will keep different things in that treasury. And out of that treasury is where the fruit of our lives comes.

The True Treasure: The true treasure that we are to store in the treasury of our soul is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That God so loved the world that he sent Christ, His Son, to save it. That God so loved you, that he sent Christ, His Son, to undergo the wrath of God on a cross for you. That Jesus death and resurrection means that through faith in Christ, you have a covenant relationship with God that can never be taken from. That though hardship, sickness, persecution, poverty, and the like may be thrown at you by this world, you have an everlasting hope in Jesus. If that treasure, the treasure of the Gospel, resides in the deepest part of your soul, there are certain fruits that provide the evidence.

What Constitutes Fruit: And so it behooves us to ask ourselves what is our great treasure, and is their evidence in our lives that what we think is our treasure, actually is treasure. As I was thinking about this week I came up with five different fruits that the Scriptures speak of that are evidence of a heart treasury filled with Christ.

Fruit of the Spirit: First, and perhaps most obvious for many who have read the Bible before, is the fruit of the Spirit. We read in Galatians 5 of this fruit.

Galatians 5:22–24 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

The fruit of the spirit is more than a temperment. It is more than a general outlook on life. It is a synopsis of an entire life that is fit together around the gospel. It is very difficult, if not impossible to grow in one of these areas while backsliding in another. They’re all connected. They are like the various petals of a single flower. Each is beautiful on its own, but when viewed as a whole, one sees the extraordinary creativity of God on display.

Love: A godly love, that extends far beyond those who are easy to love, but as Kensen taught last week, a love that extends even to our enemies.

Joy: a deep and abiding sense of the goodness of God in one’s life. That despite circumstances, your soul is alright, and you are confident in that.

Peace: Peace, not some stoic pasting of unemotionalism. No, the peace that is the fulfillment of Isaiah 2 which says that in the days of Messiah men will beat their swords into plowshares. This is description of a man or a woman known for making peace. For seeking shalom. Driving in the car.

Patience: A supernatural patience because you know the depravity of man. You know the sickness of other’s souls, and of a place of love of souls, you have patience with others.

Kindness: Kindness. Not a kindness that is self seeking, but a kindness that loves to see others thrive, even their enemies, even their detractors.

Goodness: Goodness. Perhaps a better translation of this word is generosity. There is a giving away of oneself in love and service to others. There is a liberality of one’s resources for the upbuilding of others.

Faithfulness: Faithfulness. Dependendability with God and with man.

Gentleness: Gentleness, as a father of three little girls, I have learned the need for more gentleness in my life. A gentlness that sees through others insecurities, into the wounds they carry with them, and loves their soul enough to be delicate with them and be a source of healing rather than breaking.

Self Control: The ability to deny oneself. To see when your emotions or desires are out of line with God and to choose God or emotionalism.

Again, this is all simply the Fruit of the Spirit. I ask you to examine yourself before God and before the Scriptures. Do not give lip service to the Fruit of the Spirit, and not ask yourself the hard question of whether or not you really are exemplifying these qualities?

Fruit of Obedience: The second fruit that I see in Scripture, is the fruit of obedience. That’s a word that our culture hates. The outside world believes in the of Self Determinism. That we are our own masters. We are our autonomous. But this false gospel of self determinism is in fact rotten fruit that poisons the body. Good fruit is a life of enjoying obedience before a Holy God.

Psalm 119:17–20 “Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times.”

If you have the right treasure in your treasury, you will love God’s law. The thought of disobeying God will make you sick in your stomach. I tell men this regularly when I counsel on addictions on pornography. The fact that a man is hating that sin, and desiring to be free of it, is a sign of the spirit of God at work in him. It is when a man stops hating the sin, shows signs of complacency, that I begin to fear. And my counsel is to lean into Christ so heavily that the hatred of sin causes you to do away with it once and for all. Are there any areas where you are in disobedience to God’s law and it doesn’t grieve you…Your’e attitude is “I kind of dont’ care.”

Fruit of Heart & Mouth Integrity: Third is what I call, from this passage, the fruit of heart and mouth integrity. See what he says at the end of verse 45,

Luke 6:45 ESV

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

This is connection of your inner voice and your outer voice. This one is so easy to let slip because nobody ever needs to know that your inner voice is quite ungodly. We can say all kinds of things and think all kinds of thoughts in our heads, and if we have enough self-control we can fool a lot of people.

Does your inner mologue of wickedness of bother you? If not, you may have bought PHariseeism…

Fruit of Evangelism: Fourth, the fruit of effective evangelistic witness. Each Christian is uniquely designed with a variety and a degree of different gifts from God. And yet each Christian is given the same commissioning to make disciples, to win people to Christ, to be in sinners lives and be prepared to lead them to salvation. I am often surprised how few Christians share their faith with anybody over the course of a year. More importantly, I am often very surprised how few Christians feel in their inner being a horror over the conditions of the souls of their friends. Many Christians are complacent to see their friends running in the fast lane to an eternity in hell, with no concern whatsoever for their soul. That is rotten fruit to me. It’s confusing fruit at best. The Apostle Paul loved the umbelieving Jews so much that he said.

Romans 9:3 ESV

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

Examine yourself. Do you carry with you the fruit of evangelism? To me it makes me question what is the treasure in your treasury..?

Fruit of Wisdom: Lastly, I will speak on the fruit of wisdom.

James 3:17 ESV

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

I have met many over the years, who call themselves Christians, but who are foolish. Who give foolish counsel. And whose lives are not worth imitating. Wisdom is learned and slowly incorporated into a life. It doesn’t happen overnight. It happens by a steady, persistent, intake of God’s Word into the soul. Slowly, you not only begin to see the world through teh lens of Scripture, but you begin to process decision making through the counsel of Scripture. This is slow. It is very rarely rushed. And it is often quite easy to see in others.

Test Yourself: I have put forward five types of fruit that reveal the contents of the treasury of our soul. I ask you to examine yourself now, and consider very seriously Christ’s words. Good fruit comes from a good tree, comes from a proper treasury. Bad fruit means something is wrong, something is off. We must not settle! To settle in any of these areas to be like salt that has lost its flavor. Jesus teaches us. Coming to Church does not make you a good tree!

If you’re in here now and you’re thinking that most of that list is really not in your life, well you may be a baby Christian or you may not yet have truly believed in Jesus. And I want to invite you to come to the end of yourself today, to fall before Christ, and to allow him to begin producing this kind of fruit in you today. The fruit I have described is the kind of fruit that our lives were meant to produce. It is only possible in Christ. Either the Gospel is being held in the treasury of your soul, or some counterfeit false gospel is. You can tell by the fruit of your life.

“Is Christ dwelling in your heart by His Spirit? Is your religion more than a mere outward profession? O, it is an awful thing to go into eternity with your Bible, and your psalm book, or your prayer book in your hand, but without Christ living in your soul; with the elements of the Savior’s love melting upon your lips, but without the experience of the Savior’s love glowing in your heart…”

Don’t go to hell holding your BIble in you hand.

II FOUNDATION

Big Picture: In the first metaphor, Jesus spoke of the fruit in our lives giving evidence to the sincerity of our faith. The fruit revealed our treasury of soul. Here Jesus uses a different metaphor, that of a foundation of a building. The foundation of a building, much like the treasury of a soul, is either laid correctly or it is laid incorrectly. And the test of whether or not the foundation of your life is correct, is how you endure storms and trials.

Luke 6:46–49 ESV

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”

His Question: First, consider the question Jesus begins verse 46 with. “Why do you call me Lord Lord, and not do what I tell you?” The question is designed to reveal the hypocrisy of some of those who he is speaking to. They’re recognizing with their mind the truth of who Christ is, but their disobedience to his teaching reveals that their heart has not caught up to what their head knows. That is hypocrisy.

Danger of Hypocrisy: The rest of this text lays out the danger of hypocrisy. The hypocrite is the person who has never truly laid the foundation properly in their life. That person is in a perilous situation. According to Christ they are like a house built on a pour foundation, that when the storm came and the river burst upon the house, the house fell. And Christ emphasizes how great the fall of the house was. The storm reveals the foundation. Trials reveal what we have actually built our life upon.

Consider the Last Storm Your Endured: This of course leads us to quite a simple test for ourselves that we can consider right now. Consider the last storm you endured. What foundation was revealed? Perhaps it was difficult person or conversation at work. Perhaps you were slandered. Perhaps it was sickness in the family or among friends. Perhaps it was a marital conflict. Perhaps your struggling to pay the bills. What came out of you during that season? When the river burst against the house, what foundation was exposed?

Using Gurnall as a Test: William Gurnall, a wonderful teacher from centuries ago, provides us with two simple tests to ask ourselves if we want to know what foundation we’re living upon.

#1 The Test of Desire: The first test is what I would refer to as the Test of Desire. What is meant here is that the soul that is sincere in following Christ is inwardly pricked and provoked by a strong desire of its duty to obey Christ no matter the cost. Where most men turn is… Even when it is beset by infirmities and by sin and by every weakness of the flesh, there is a willingness, an inward urge to obey, and to stay the course. Like a man who heads out on a journey, and seeing a storm brewing, does not turn back, but simply grabs an umbrella and continues walking forward despite the setback.

Storms Can Make Us Stray: One effect storms in life can have on us is that they often cause us to abandon our foundation that has worked so well in the past and look for quicker fixes. Rather than standing on the rock that is Christ, and letting him be our peace, our patience, our joy, we flee to the shifting sand of retaliation, anger. This is why storms in life are so important! The storms have a capacity to increase your faith and devotion to Christ, because when you come through on the other side, you stand with more confidence in teh resilience of faith that God has provided you. You may have been weakened, battered even, in the process. But there you stand, still, confidently praising God on the other side.

Degrees: This desire in a sincere Christian will be found in degrees, but it will be found nonetheless. He writes,

“It may be when the sincere soul is about a duty, he does it weakly; yet this very willingness of the heart is wonderful pleasing to God.”

Testing: I would like to ask a few questions of your soul to discern whether you pass this test of desire, and are standing on the right foundation.

Is obedience to Christ’s commands in all areas of life something that deeply concerns you?

Does the discovery of some wayward action, or misplaced emotion, or inward spiritual laziness within you, stir up a sense of desiring to get past it, in order that you might glorify God.

#2 The Test of Honesty & Openness With God: There is a second test Gurnall proposes, and that is the test of honesty and openness with God, or what I might repurpose as ‘An Experience of the Gospel Through the Trial’. See what storms do, is they place you in a position where you are no longer able to rely on false religion. If your Christianity, at the end of the day, was not truly built upon the gospel of grace and forgiveness in Christ, the storm will reveal that immediately. Those on the true foundation, will experience a humbling, that leads them to greater intimacy and vulnerability with God. Trials reveal how much sin and self-reliance we still have inside of us.

The Gospel: See, the Gospel is that we are far more self-righteous and foolish and sinful than we could ever imagine. But God shows his love for us in that He sent Christ before we had ever done anything to earn God’s favor. While we were still enemies of God, Christ died for us. His love was not dependent on our strength, in fact, his love came to us when we had no strength. To be a Christian, is to proclaim that on our own we are broken, helpless, vulnerable, and powerless or the next. See, a storm reveals whether or not you actually believe that.

Illustration: Renting a House: The man without sincere faith, without the right foundation, he’ll never learn this real vulnerability with God. We might compare him to a man who rents a house, and on the first night breaks some of the owners goods. Hoping the owner will never find out he just decides to throw the remains away. When the owner gets to his property and discover his goods missing, he is even more angry than if the man had simply told the truth, and apologized for his actions. This is not hte Christian! See the difference between the hypocrite and the sincere man is not that it is only the hypocrite who breaks the master’s goods. We all do that, and will continue to do that. Sin continues to plague us, and often, we often take our eyes of Christ nad fall into all kinds of troubling circumstances as a result. The question is what do you do, when you break the goods. Those on the right foundation, get very vulnerable and honest with God. Those who are hypocrites, hide, because they have not yet learned grace.

Questions for Testing: Let me ask you a few questions

Did your last trial open up more dialogue with God, more prayer, more experiencing of the gospel, or did it cause you to push away from God?

Do you have an open dialogue with God that regularly is filled with your own weaknesses and own discoveries sin in your life?

Closing

Today we have discussed sincere faith, and compared it against insincere faith. And I want to plead with you. Following Christ is so much more than your ticket to heaven. To be a Christian is to be a person who has beheld the reality of Christ crucified, and fallen on their knees in humble awe and adoration, and received Christ’s free gift of forgiveness. This is a life-overhauling event. The Bible calls it being “born again.” It affects one’s desires, one’s habits, one’s vision for life, one’s vision for their family, one’s motivations, one’s relationship. True Christianity rejoices in giving Christ access to every area of their life, none excluded. Until Christ returns, every faithful Christian will struggle in various degrees to believe, to trust, obey, to love, to be holy. The bible affirms on every page, that this Christian is no simple thing