I will start this by having you pull out a Bible and turn to Matthew 7:15-20. Read it.
Now, for a moment I want to focus on the last verse in this passage. Vs 20. “Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.” This passage has been on my heart for quite some time, but I found it rather ironic that the story I am about to relay to you took place this week. As everyone knows, at least everyone that has contact with the outside world, Michael Jackson died and the media coverage of everything has been constant. Presidents who pass away do not receive the coverage that MJ did and will continue to receive. I found it rather disturbing that so many people would say things like, “The king of pop is with the King of Kings.” or “He is looking down on us right now.” Statements indicating that his arrival in heaven has now been concluded have been tossed about as if the status of his soul was sealed without any credence given to the Word of God. I posted on my FaceBook page this statement, “I am astonished that there are so many people that believe MJ (Michael Jackson) as the "king of pop" is with the "King of Kings". There is no evidence that this would have ever been the case or that there was a regenerated heart...wake-up! Wow, the feedback was incredible. I was hit with everything from “you are right “ and “I agree “, to “you don't not know the condition of a man's heart”, and the Bible says “judge not lest you be judged.” Jesus says that you can know the condition of a person's heart, and the whole judgment verse (Matthew 7:1) has been taken out of context. Let's take a look.
A person's heart is evident by the fruit they produce. In the passage we just read the false prophets will be known by their fruits. While the bulk of this passage deals with discerning the false prophet pretending to speak truth, the actual discerning process takes place by the comparison of the bad fruit to that good fruit produced by the good tree. So, you will know each by the fruit produced. The Good, and the Bad. Dr. Ed Glasscock says, "Jesus was saying to watch the lives of the teachers to know the genuineness of their teaching. Fruit is a metaphor indicating the end result of one's character or efforts." D.A. Carson says this... "Living according to kingdom norms can be feigned for a time; but what one is will eventually reveal itself in what one does. However guarded one's words, they will finally betray him." You will know them by their fruit.
Matthew 12:33-37 is another passage where Jesus is rebuking the religious leaders of the day, and after He compares the fruit of the bad and good trees again he calls them vipers and says, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Jesus demands that we take a close look at those who would lead and counsel and we should seek to see the real fruit of their life. For those who would say that we are not to judge citing Matthew 7:1, they are correct that we should not judge in the context meant – arrogantly judgmental as the Pharisees and Sadducees were. They are quite wrong when it comes to what they are really saying. They are really saying that we shouldn't hold anyone to any standard, even Biblical standards, and, in not doing so, not be held to any standard themselves. Jesus did not see it that way. Here, the disciples are taught to compare good and bad fruit in order to be discerning, and in John 7:24 He says to "...judge with righteous judgment". Stott puts it this way. “The command to judge not is not a requirement to be blind, but rather a plea to be generous. Jesus did not tell us to cease to be men (by suspending our critical powers which help distinguish us from animals) but to renounce the presumptuous ambition to be God (by setting ourselves up as judges)." I agree...The pharisees were constantly judging others by comparing what the others did to what they did, and in doing so supplanted the role of God with themselves. We are never to do that. Jesus rebuked them constantly for such things and it was the pride of the religious leadership that God the Father used to place the Son on the cross. We are not to be judgmental, but we are to take a look and ask “is the fruit I see good fruit or bad fruit”...the end result determines the very nature of a man's heart. Is it God's heart, or has your heart remained with lawless one?
Let's take a look at the fruit. What is the fruit? The first fruit of a life that has been turned over to God is the fruit of repentance. In other words, a life once led by the lawless one and is going the path of this world – to hell – is now changed and repentance has occurred. The focus is now on Jesus the Son of God instead of self and the way of Satan. Repentance will occur at the point of true belief, and for the Christian it must perpetually occur. At the point of salvation it is by nothing of us that it happens, only through the changing power of God. In Matthew 3:7-8 we find John the cousin of Jesus rebuking the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance." Ironic isn't it, both John and Jesus call the same people snakes and let them know exactly who they were. It wasn't judgmental, it was the truth and John was telling the religious people that he wanted to see the fruit of repentance. True repentance, that is turning away from sin and in faith turning to God will always yield more fruit, or visible signs of such a radical change. The Pharisees and Sadducees did good works all the time and John was letting them know that their works were not good fruit, in fact, they needed to repent and then their fruit would be worthy. Jesus said you will know them by their fruits and the first fruit is repentance, which only occurs through the power of Almighty God.
There is more fruit spoken about in scripture. In fact, James says this in chapter 2:26 "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Do you display the fruit of faith or the fruit of an unbeliever. Works will not save anyone from hell, but if you are a true believer you will perform works, not for you, but for God, out of love for what He has done for you. James wrote it for us plain and simple – there is no faith without works as the fruit of that faith. What kind of works? Well, what does your neighbor need? What does your fellow church member need? and what does your brother/sister in Christ need? You tell me what kind of works are needed in your sphere of influence. James asks earlier in chapter 2 "will you feed the hungry and clothe the naked or will you tell them to leave and you will pray about it?" Umm, that was paraphrased... You do not have to pray about it – help them out...period. Do it because you love God and through that you can love others. The fruit of a true believer is shown in works born of faith and displayed not only to our neighbors but in an even greater way to our brothers and sisters in Christ. In I John 3:17 it says "But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" And he goes on to say in verse 18 "My little children, let us not love in deed or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." If you claim to be a Christian, don't you dare just talk about faith and the good stuff you have heard, show it, if you do not, the love of God does not abide in you. If the love of God does not abide in you, then you have to ask yourself are you really of God...Don't believe me? In verse 14 of the same chapter John writes "We know we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death." If you have a truly regenerated heart, meaning you are a true believer, your works, your actions will show it and you will love each other, and others you come in contact with by actually helping them. The Bible says so. So, you will be known because of the fruit of good works to other believers and to others you come in contact with throughout life.
There is the fruit of the Spirit. We have all heard of that, right? Maybe even have them memorized...Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." We have spoken of love, but is there joy in your life? True joy which is founded in Jesus...the kind that sustains through hardships and difficulty, that joy is what we are talking about. The joy that can only be of God. Do you have peace? Do you live in the peace that flows from God and is evident in your life? There is a settled state about a person that is in God's will and is doing what he or she has been told by God to do – no matter the outward circumstances, there is a peace, and it is from God, and it will show. Is the fruit of patience evident in your life? Paul has written here that we will be patient or long-suffering, why? Because God is that way with us. Period, it is that simple. Husbands - is your wife not being the wife that she should be? We are to be patient like God is patient with us. Wife, is your husband not the man of God he should be? Be patient, as God is patient with you. There is nothing your spouse can do to you that you have not done to God. Kindness will overflow into our daily life. Goodness will be part of who we are. Gentleness will become the norm even for those of us who are not so gentle. And we will have self-control because we are living for God, all these things are fruits of the Spirit. We will not be perfect, but we will constantly be perfected, and these fruits will shine through because God is in control and His Spirit lives within us. The fruits of the Spirit will be known to those who see you and watch you, they will know you by your fruits.
So far we have covered a small portion of the fruit that will be evidenced in your life if you are of the good tree bearing good fruit. What does fruit from the bad tree look like? Just prior to the fruits of the spirit we have a list. Galatians 5:19-21 says this, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Now that is a list of bad fruit. Does this mean that if you commit one of these sins you will go to hell? No, but it does say that if you practice these, meaning you habitually stay in one of these sins the chances that you are truly a believer is slim to none. God will not allow you to remain in that sin forever if you are his. You will be convicted and ultimately, He can choose to kill you if you are His and you do not get out of the sin you are in...He will not allow bad fruit to be shown to the world as being from Him for long. By this fruit people will know you. Are you of the lawless one or are you of God?
In I Peter 4 we find another list of bad fruit that is very similar to the one from Galatians. Peter lists lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. We could go on for quite some time listing all the bad fruit, but it truly comes down to one thing – bad fruit is sin. In I John 3:4 it states, "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. In verse 8 it says, He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning." That is bad fruit – sin is the bad fruit. If you take a look at the fruit you bear, do you see good fruit or bad fruit. Do you know that you are constantly sinning and breaking what God wants us to do and you feel no conviction? Perhaps the Holy Spirit isn't present in your life. I saw a video clip this past week from a sermon and the preacher was saying some much-needed and little said things. He was saying to run from gospels that preach anything other than the gospel we have here, run from preachers who steal your money, and run from a church that you attend and you do not feel convicted of your sin for it is a den of devils... Let this be a warning to you, if you feel no conviction of sin you are not saved. In that case I tell you to run to the Saviour. If you see good fruit, that is great. I encourage you to see where your fruit can improve, better yet, ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you need to improve – your eyesight may not be that good. If you see bad fruit and that is all you see, then you need to understand that verse 8 in chapter3 of I John doesn't stop at He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. It goes on to say, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. "
In this statement is the Gospel. We spoke earlier about the first-fruit of repentance. One of our jobs is to share the gospel – this too is a fruit of righteousness. The salvation experience is accomplished only by the power of Almighty God when we choose to believe that Jesus is who He says He is. Let me explain – The Son of God was manifested in order to destroy the works of the devil. Satan came to Eve and tempted her and she caved – Adam sinned with her and so sin entered the world and all man kind has been born a sinner from that time on. The path is laid and the choice is made – we are going to hell and our fruit or works is of Satan and for him because we are trapped in the bondage of sin. But there is a way out and Jesus provides that way because He is the only way, the truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father except through Him. Now pay attention – this is great. All three aspects of the Trinity are a part of conversion. God the Father draws first (John 6:65), God the Holy Spirit grants understanding and conviction of sin (John 16:13), and God the Son (Jesus) provides the way which was the death, the blood sacrifice, the final atonement and the resurrection again through the power of God by virtue of the Father and the Spirit through His body. But we must choose to believe in faith and upon that, we are granted forgiveness and continued restoration as we are also given a new heart that produces the good fruit. The first of which is repentance and as we grow in Christ-likeness more and more fruit of the Spirit will show as He is manifested in our life. What's your fruit look like? Is it Good fruit or bad fruit?
You can know the condition of someone's heart by their fruit. More importantly, you can know yours.
