The Root of our Fruit
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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.
Now it is important to remember what we talked about last week as we enter into this week’s message because when we talk about fruit, it is especially important that we remember to look inward before we look outward. To look at our own fruit before we begin inspecting the fruit of others.
Some people are self proclaimed professional fruit inspectors. They see it as their life goal to inspect the fruit of all those around them.
Fruit inspection is not a spiritual gift, and tends more to be a hindrance so let’s remember Jesus’ warning from last week as we begin our study today.
In this section Jesus uses the illustration of the tree and it’s fruit to teach a spiritual lesson.
Jesus did this often as He taught to illustrate spiritual truths.
Illustration and analogy is a powerful tool for connecting truth to life.
Oreos
This illustration is pretty cut and dry:
A tree can only produce fruit after it’s own kind.
You can’t get figs from thornbushes or grapes from a bramble bush.
We usually say it this way, “you can’t get oranges from an apple tree.”
In Matthew’s gospel, he adds this:
18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
Just as a tree can only produce fruit according to it’s kind, so it can only produce fruit according to it’s health.
A healthy tree will produce good fruit and a diseased tree will produce bad fruit.
Every tree is known by it’s fruit.
Now all this is easy enough to understand and logic and reason support it.
But here is where it gets a little bit more difficult.
We know that Jesus’ purpose in teaching this is not so that His disciples will know how to grow healthy fruit trees.
This isn’t about how to have healthy trees.
This is about how to have healthy disciples.
The primary point that Jesus is illustrating here is that actions flow from the heart in the same way that fruit flows from a tree.
This is not a new idea but one that comes from OT, especially in Proverbs.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Heart: The ruling center of the whole person, the spring of all desires. The seat of the will, intellect, and feelings. Heart and soul are often used interchangeably in Scripture. The heart is the inner person.
Using the word fruit to describe the actions and attitudes of people is very common in the New Testament.
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.
Also:
8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Our fruit is the product of our life. It’s how we live, the way that we treat others, the things that we say and do, both in public and in private.
Now if that was all this passage was saying then we might come away with the idea that I just need to do better, I just need to produce better fruit, make better choices, think better thoughts.
Here’s the problem with that:
You Can’t!!
You can’t change your fruit any more than a tree can change it’s fruit.
Imagine taping apples to an orange tree, or taping good fruit to a diseased tree.
You may be able to dress that tree up and make it look better, but you can’t change what it is! The tree remains the same!
This is what man is like in his sinful state.
Having a biblical anthropology is just as important as a biblical theology.
You can try all the behavior modification you want, you can change your environment, you can get more education, you can increase your standard of living, but all of these are superficial solutions to a spiritual problem. They do absolutely nothing to change the heart!
And if the heart doesn’t change, then nothing changes.
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
The only thing that can change the heart of man is the Spirit of God.
Our problem is bigger than we think and God’s solution is more amazing than we think.
Don’t you see that when Jesus says:
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.
He rules out the possibility of any person in this world producing good.
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
The problem isn’t just that we do bad things, the problem is that we are bad people.
Do you want me to tell you lies that make you feel good or do you want the truth that hurts?
Our refusal to call ourselves what we really are is a clear testimony against us.
Don’t you see that all the elements of the fall are right here in the words of Jesus.
Genesis 3
It is no coincidence that the very last picture we have in Revelation 22 of the renewed creation also includes a certain tree and it’s fruit.
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
This is the clear message of Scripture from beginning to end, that we are rotten to the core, that we are sinful from the womb, that we are broken beyond repair, that all of our good works are like filthy rags, that if God had not through the cross intervened in the tragic history of human affairs we would not have survived till this day.
It’s only when you surrender to Him, when you finally give up and let Him provide the solution that will heal you at the core, to bring true and lasting change to your heart through His Spirit, only then can you produce the fruit that He desires.
By the grace of God I am what I am, and by nothing else, no human effort whatsoever could effect the changes that needed to happen in my life. But what is impossible with man is possible with God.
This is as much a message for the believer as it is for the unbeliever, because too often we start by the Spirit and then we try to finish by our own effort. It can’t happen!
