“Fruit marks a changed life”
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Good Morning turn with me to Luke chapter 6 and we will begin in verse 43. As you are making your way there I want to thank those that have been working with our children. I want to thank Rebecca and Brittany and all of our volunteers for their help. It is so wonderful to see and hear about what our children are learning. We praise the Lord for this. Today I want to help us see that real fruit in our lives marks a changed life.
Sometimes we use the expression an "acid test." This term originated during times when gold was widely circulated. Nitric acid was applied to an object of gold to see if it was genuine or not. If it was fake, the acid decomposed it; if it was genuine, the gold was unaffected. The same can be said about a Christians life. We can tell someone who is a genuine Christian by the fruit in their lives. Today I want us to look at the Lesson, the Illustration and the Application that the Lord gives us in these 3 verses.
43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 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.
1. The Lesson about fruit.
1. The Lesson about fruit.
43 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit,
Over the past several weeks we have seen the Lord use several illustrations too drive home His points. Jesus now turns to agriculture to explain his lesson. As the Lord just finished addressing those who were hypocrites we see the connection that He makes in the lesson now at hand. The people the Lord is speaking about are the spiritually sick, they are not bearing fruit. Jesus helps us to see here that our hearts are the tree, and our words and actions are the fruit. Good fruit that is produced shows that the tree which it comes from is healthy. On the other side of the lesson we also know that bad fruit shows that the tree it comes from is sick or dying. Why is this? Because every tree is known by its fruit.
In this passage the Lord narrows things down to two options. Here he discusses the difference between good and bad trees. What is interesting is that throughout the Bible we see distinctions between two things. We see the difference between good and evil, between light and darkness, and between the sheep and the goats. In other words we find the difference between people who are truly saved and people who are not. There are only two options. You are either born of the Holy Spirit or you are still living in the flesh.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
The reason why you need to understand the importance of this lesson today is because it’s of eternal importance. You need to come to a clear understanding of where your are in this lesson.
A. No good tree produces bad fruit.
A. No good tree produces bad fruit.
I want to start here because this is where the Lord begins. Here is what we need to understand. If the tree is good and healthy than we know eventually it will produce good fruit. If you are truly saved and Christ has changed your life than although there may be some times where your life is barren of fruit or you go through a winter season, you will produce good fruit. This means that your character, speech, thoughts and deeds will reflect good, healthy, and righteous fruit.
rotten and unhealthy to it’s core, than the produce of the tree will be rotten as well. We have all see rotten fruit. When I was a young man my grandfather had an apple tree in his back yard. Most of the time the apples that came from the tree were rotten and eventually the tree was taken down.
B. No bad tree produces good fruit.
B. No bad tree produces good fruit.
However if the tree is rotten and unhealthy to its core, than the produce of the tree will be rotten as well. It will not produce good healthy fruit.
I once read of a little boy who used to escape his bedroom after being punished. He would crawl out of his bedroom window down an old fruit tree to the ground. One day, his father told him that he was going to chop down the fruit tree, because it hadn’t borne any fruit for a number of years. That evening, the boy and his friend bought a bushel of apples, and during the night, tied those apples on the barren branches. The next morning, the man could not believe his eyes. He said to his wife, “Honey, I can’t believe it! That old tree hasn’t yielded any fruit for years, and now it’s covered with apples. And, the most amazing thing is that it’s a pear tree!
We have all see unhealthy trees and rotten fruit. A bad tree does not produce good fruit even if it has a few green leaves on it. This tree shows its true character. The character of this person is corrupt and marked by unhealthy speech, actions and thoughts. Ask your self this morning am I bearing fruit? Paul tells us in Romans chapter 1 verse 5 that we have been saved or justified by our faith. We know that our works do not save us, however Jesus calls us to do good works. Jesus is concerned about the fruit that we produce. Martin Luther once said that justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. If you don’t have works, this shows that you don’t have faith, and if you don’t have faith, you don’t have justification. All you have is a profession of faith. You are a bad tree that brings forth only bad fruit.
2. The Illustration about the fruit.
2. The Illustration about the fruit.
44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
Taking the illustration further Jesus now shows us the point is that each tree is known by its fruit. It should be rather evident to us that trees and plants produce fruit according to their nature, therefore the illustration that Jesus points out is that figs don’t come from thornbushes and grapes are not picked from a bramble bush. In this illustration here we see that the bad trees are the false teachers. This is clear to us when we look at Matthews account of this.
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
We are to watch out for the false teachers. How do we recognize them? You will recognize them by their fruits or lack thereof. If you want to go a gather up some healthy figs or grapes to eat you are not going out to the West Texas desert to find a mesquite bush and hope to find figs or grapes. If you were to go to the Holy Land today there are many varieties of figs. Most figs grow in a particular season. In Israel figs are regarded as a delicacy. On one occasion Jesus saw a fig tree that was in leaf but it had no figs on it. In other words this tree was a hypocrite. The fig tree had all the outward signs of fruit, but it had no fruit. Jesus used this lesson to describe to us that not fig trees but people who give the appearance of fruit but have no fruit.
5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
The point of the illustration here is that we need vines and roots that will produce good fruit like figs and grapes. As you take a look into your heart today, what are you producing. Is there good fruit in your life? What kind of fruit am I talking about?
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Ask yourself today, do I have a love for Jesus and a desire to love others? Do you have a desire to obey and please God or are you living for yourself. Is there healthy fruit in your life?
3. The Application is the people.
3. The Application is the people.
45 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.
Just as trees produce fruit in keeping with their nature, so also do people. When our hearts and minds of those who are righteous have been transformed we come to understand what salvation truly is.
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
What the Lord helps us to see here is that our hearts are the treasure, and the words that we speak and the actions that we do are the produce from the treasure. It is interesting here that the Greek word for treasure is the word (thesauros) this is where we get our English word thesaurus. A thesaurus is a collection of treasures this is ours in the form of human languages or words. The Lord here uses this same term for the storehouse of our hearts. What we see here in this application is that the thesaurus is either a storehouse of goodness or a storehouse of evil and corruption. Jesus is telling us here that what a man treasures in his heart determines what he is.
What have you determined in your heart? Are your words evil? Do you talk like the rest of the world, cursing and telling crude jokes? Is your life full of drunkeness and sexual sin? Do you steal, lie and cheat?
Those who follow false ways, false teachers and ultimately the Devil will produce the same fruit that they do. Only those who follow Jesus can come to produce the fruit of repentance and this fruit marks a transformed life.
8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
As you look at your life today is it marked by fruit? Has there been a true change in your life and your heart? If you are saved then you will recognize that the old things are gone and you are a new creation in Christ.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
If the habit or pattern of your life is living in sin then you are still a sinner. You are living in the flesh and you are not saved. If the habit or pattern of your life is doing right and god honoring things, then you are still a sinner but God has declared you righteous. You are God’s child. What we learn here is that the fruit in our lives reveals the root. And that root is Christ.
Close in Prayer:
Communion:
