Kingdom Living 15 ATree and Its Fruit

Central idea of the text or main idea of the text:

You must be able to tell false prophets from true ones.

Homiletic idea: There are religious teachers who can mislead you. You must be able to tell the false teachers.

Introduction: When you go to the market and shop for produce, how do you determine what you buy? How do you know if an avocado is ripe, if a cantaloupe is sweet? What about watermelons? Look for the field spot, that cream colored spot on the bottom where it sat on the ground and ripened. If it doesn’t have it, don’t buy it. Don’t buy the shiny ones. Some people will tell you to thump it. It must have the right sound. One musician friend says that when you thump it, it should sound a B flat. I don’t know how you determine good fruit from bad fruit, but you need to have a way.

Jesus, wants to make sure his followers know there will be good and bad people who will try to lead them. In fact, I believe he is still directing His teaching at the Pharisees and He wants the people to know that just because they dress in religious garb and go around spouting religious words, that doesn’t make them righteous.

Matthew 7:15–23 NASB95

15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 “So then, you will know them by their fruits. 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS

False prophets, teachers, were already popping up and more were sure to come. They come in all shapes and sizes.

Sheep’s Clothing

They will come looking innocent and people will grab on to what they say. There is a pattern to some of these teachers. They will choose one or two facets of the faith and will teach those to the exclusion of the rest of the gospel. They will teach family values well, but ignore the deity of Jesus Christ. They will preach a gospel that sounds good and feels good, but as Paul will say later, “Any other gospel than the gospel of Jesus Christ, is really no gospel at all.” If it is not the good news of Jesus, it’s not good news.

Ravenous Wolves

They may look good and sound good, but if they are not preaching the gospel, they will eat you up. Wolves eat to satisfy themselves; they don’t worry about their prey, they devour them. They prey on the weak and the desperate and leave the carcass behind when they are done as they go in search of more victims.

– They may look good and sound good, but if they are not preaching the gospel, they will eat you up. Wolves eat to satisfy themselves; they don’t worry about their prey, they devour them. They prey on the weak and the desperate and leave the carcass behind when they are done as they go in search of more victims.

I am always amazed as I watch some of the television preachers make their plea for people’s money. Send your money in and God will bless you ten-fold! We will send you a prayer cloth that has been blessed. There are false prophets just waiting to take your money and your hope. It is easy when people are desperate. We will try almost anything when we are desperate and these false prophets know this.

So, what do we do?

We learn how to recognize good fruit from bad fruit.

16 You will recognize them by their fruits.

Are grapes gathered from thornbushes,

or figs from thistles?

An apple tree doesn’t put out oranges. A fig tree doesn’t bear grapes. And grapes don’t come from thornbushes. What comes from thornbushes? Thorns. This is basic stuff, but Jesus is all about giving us basic instructions that we can understand. The fruit that comes from a tree is based on what kind of tree it is; what is in its DNA. It cannot produce what it is not. People are the same way. The fruit that comes from us grows out of what is inside. What is down in the well comes up in the bucket. Pay attention to people’s fruit. If it is all thorns and no fruit, you have been warned.

Jesus makes this clear:

17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit,

but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit,

nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit.

This is basic agriculture stuff that his listeners would understand. Even folks in our time who have never planted a tree or a garden understand this. I’m watching my lemon tree again this year. You know, the one that has never produced a lemon. It is fuller than ever with dark green leaves. It looks healthy. I am expecting to get lemons from it this year. If it looked bad, I wouldn’t even get my hopes up. But here is what I know, also: If I don’t feed this tree and water this tree and take care of it, it will never bear good fruit.

Again, we are the same. Plants get their nourishment from the soil they are planted and the sun from above. If we are going to bear good fruit we need to be firmly planted in the Word of God and filled with the Son from above. We need to be reading God’s Word, memorizing the Word and reading about the Word. A diseased tree cannot bear good fruit. And a healthy Christian cannot bear bad fruit.

Trees that don’t bear good fruit don’t last very long.

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

A fruit tree that does not bear fruit is not much of a tree. It might provide shade or even a break from the wind, but it is not doing what it was made to do and is pretty much useless. Jesus said, that a tree that does not bear good fruit should be cut down and thrown into the fire. What good are we if are not doing what we are made to do? Like a tree, we are not totally useless, but there is so much more we could be.

We are made to worship our creator.

We are made to be image bearers of the one who created us. If we are being image bearers than we are producing fruit that looks like our creator. People should be seeing God through us and our actions.

20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

What kind of fruit should we be looking for?

For starters the fruit of the Spirit is:

Galatians 5:22–23 NASB95

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.

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.

If we are Christians this is what people will see, consistently. Good tree = good fruit. You can’t help but produce these kinds of things. So, here is the test. If you are not regularly seeing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, then you are not a good tree producing good fruit and you need to do a spiritual gut check.

NOT EVERYONE WHO CLAIMS TO BE CHRISTIAN IS

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,

but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,

did we not prophesy in your name,

and cast out demons in your name,

and do many mighty works in your name?’

23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

There will be people who will say, “Lord, wasn’t I in church every time the doors were opened? Didn’t I work the Food Fairs when we had them? I even had a fish sticker on my car so everyone would know.” None of that is the key.

The key is that we are doing the will of our Father.

If we are doing the will of the Father, then we will be producing fruit.

Conclusion:

Jesus, saw it in His day. He saw that there were hypocrites and hypocrisy. There were people who followed Him but they weren’t “followers.” There were people who would say and do all the things that looked and sounded right. There were religious people who saw that they could make a buck and they jumped on the bandwagon. He wanted to make sure they knew what it meant to be a follower and how to tell the real followers from the pretenders.