Fruit of Repentance

Introduction: The Necessity of Repentance for Salvation

0:04 In looking out over those of you gathered here tonight, it is evident to me that we have an unusual number of visitors. I think I can count somewhere around 15, 20 faces that are not familiar to me. And before we turn to the Word of God, I want to say to you who are visiting with us, I don't know what your background is, what your experience in terms of the public worship of God is, what kind of contact you have had with biblical preaching. There may be much that you've heard even tonight that doesn't compute with you.

0:42 I do not know, since I don't know you. But I want to assure you that everything we do in this thing called a pulpit is calculated to glorify God and to do good to your soul. And those of you who are visiting especially, you're coming in at the fourth of a series of messages I have been bringing. And I want to do you good.

1:08 And I wish I could have at least two or three minutes with every one of you to get a little synopsis of what your background is, how much you know of the Scriptures. But I can't do that. But I want to assure you that I want to do you good. But I can do you no good unless God, by His Holy Spirit, is pleased to help me as I preach and to help you as you listen.

1:31 The Scripture says a man can receive nothing. Except to be given him from heaven. And God the Holy Spirit alone can help us to understand the Word. So may I urge you to join with me as together we pray and we ask God to help us.

1:48 And really ask Him. Not just go through the mumbling of a prayer. But I'm going to be asking God to help me and to help each one of us to hear His Word with understanding. And to receive it to the profit of our own souls.

2:02 So let us bow our heads and our hearts. Let us bow our heads and our hearts together in prayer.

2:09 Our Father, we do thank You for the privilege of gathering here again tonight as we have done hundreds of times over the years. And we thank You that in many times of the past You have helped us to understand Your Word. You have helped Your servants to preach that Word. But we know that all the help we have known in the past does not answer to our present need.

2:35 And so here we are. A congregation of several hundreds bowed before You. And we do so because we need You our Father. I need You that I might handle Your Word aright.

2:48 And each one sitting here need You to understand Your Word aright. And so in our consciousness of need. We look to You our gracious God. And ask You to come and to speak to us with clarity and with power that we may see beyond one another and beyond the consciousness.

3:06 of fellow mortals around us, and that we will know in a very real way that you, the living God, have spoken to us through the scriptures. Hear us for the good of our souls, and for your praise we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Now in what is a very familiar verse to many Christians, 2 Peter 3 and verse 9, the Apostle Peter, writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, penned these words,

3:44 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering to you, word, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

4:01 And among the many things taught in this verse, one thing is abundantly clear. If you've heard it read for the first time, it's that the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, but that all should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And here the Apostle says that one of two alternatives is before every single one of us, that we must either perish, or we must come to repentance. Whatever it means to perish, perish will be our lot unless we come to repentance.

4:34 And whatever it means to come to repentance, is the only way to avoid perishing. And so this matter of repentance is of crucial importance. If we would not perish, be consigned to that place that the Bible describes as outer darkness, the place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, all of that is compressed into the word to perish. Then we must know what it is to come to repentance.

5:07 And so for several Lord's days past we have been looking together into the Scriptures to seek to understand what do the Scriptures say concerning this matter of coming to repentance. What is evangelical repentance? That is, the repentance that is always found in a saving response to the Evangelist, the good news that we've sung about in our last hymn. The good news that Christ is coming to us.

5:36 The good news that Christ is coming to us. The good news that Christ is coming to us. The good news that Christ is coming to us. That is the fruit of repentance.

5:37 has come into the world to save sinners. The good news that Christ lived and died and was raised from the dead and now lives to offer Himself to all who will have Him. What is that repentance that is always found in connection with the saving embrace of the Lord Jesus? Well, in our first message, we went to the Scriptures and sought to see from the Bible the necessity of this repentance.

The Necessity for the Fruit of Repentance

6:07 And we discovered from Luke chapter 24 that the only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ contains a clarion call to repentance. And then we looked into the book of Acts at seven verses, seven texts of Scripture in which we saw that the only gospel proclaimed by the apostles also contained a clarion call to repentance. And then in the second and third messages, we looked at the nature of repentance. What is involved in this repentance which is commanded in conjunction with the gospel?

6:47 What is that repentance which the apostles preached? And I suggested that the most helpful way to me over the years as I've tried to study this doctrine from the Scriptures is to use the definition of repentance found in the Bible. And I suggested that the most helpful way to me a very ancient catechism called the Westminster Shorter Catechism in which the question is asked what is repentance unto life? And the answer given is this.

7:16 Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with a faith of repentance. The full purpose of an endeavor after new obedience. In that definition is brought together the biblical teaching that the source of repentance is the grace of God. It is a saving grace.

7:51 And there are three texts of Scripture which explicitly state that repentance is the gift of God. The soil of that repentance is a spirit-wrought conviction of sin and a spirit-wrought conviction of sin. It is a spirit-wrought faith in Jesus Christ. And then in our last message, number three in this series, we looked at the substance of repentance.

8:14 What is it in its very heart and essence? It involves genuine sorrow for sin, a resolute turning from sin, and an unfeigned commitment to live out this new mindset in the totality of life. In the language of 1 Thessalonians 1-9, it is a turning unto God from our idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. Now, I've condensed into about five to six minutes the essence of three hours of expounding the Scriptures.

8:52 But we come tonight to the fourth and final study in this subject, and that will be the fruit of repentance. We focus our attention on the fruit or the fruit of repentance. We focus our attention on the fruit on the fruit or the fruit of repentance. on the fruit or the fruit of repentance.

9:04 of repentance and we shall do so under three very simple headings first of all the necessity for the fruit of repentance secondly the nature of the fruit of repentance and thirdly the source of the fruit of repentance first of all then the necessity for the fruit of repentance will you turn with me if you have your own Bible to Acts chapter 26 Acts chapter 26 a text we looked at in our first study when we were considering the fact that the gospel preached by the Apostles contained a clarion call to repentance we come back

9:47 to it tonight to see that it also establishes the necessity for the fruit of repentance in Acts 26 the Apostle Paul is speaking and here in our text he is describing how he was commissioned by the risen Christ to be a priest preacher and an apostle and the goal of that preaching is stated in verse 18 and following to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive remission of sins and in inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me whereupon all

10:30 King Agrippa the man before whom Paul is standing to whom he is giving an account of his conversion and his commission and his labor as an apostle wherefore all King Agrippa I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision but declared both to them of Damascus first and that Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God doing works worthy of repentance for this cause the Jews who are not in the temple and sought to kill me having therefore obtained the

11:10 help that is from God I stand under this day testifying both to small and great saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come how that the Christ must suffer and how did he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles this gospel that Paul preached is a gospel the forth the wonderful possibility of being delivered from darkness and the power of the devil. Notice verse 18. I was sent to proclaim this gospel among the Jews and the Gentiles to

11:51 open their eyes that they might turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. Paul's gospel didn't traffic in empty notions concerning mere figments of the minds of religious people. There was real spiritual darkness. There is a real devil. There is a real

12:14 blinding of the minds and hearts of those whom the devil holds in his clutches. And Paul says, I was commissioned that by means of the proclamation of the gospel, men might be brought out of darkness and out of iniquity. And I was commissioned to do this gospel. And I was commissioned to do this gospel. And I was commissioned to do this gospel.

12:28 the power of the devil furthermore it is a gospel that held forth the remission of sins and an inheritance in the believing community again verse 18 that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me his gospel proclaimed that every sin and all sin could be remitted upon faith in the lord jesus and that all whose sins are remitted come into the gracious inheritance that god has prepared for all of his believing people and then

13:09 it is the gospel according to the latter verses that i've read in your hearing that was founded upon all that the scriptures teach concerning the death and the resurrection of the lord jesus paul can say in verses 22 and following i testify to both small and great saying nothing but what the prophets did say should come how that christ must suffer and how he must be raised from the dead that is paul's gospel that comes to men in all of the bondage of the devil in all of their native blindness and promises to them deliverance from that power deliverance from the power of the devil in all of their native blindness and promises to them deliverance from that power

13:53 the devil, promises remission of sin and inheritance in the believing community, a gospel founded upon the death and the resurrection of Christ, but a gospel, according to verse 20, in which the note of repentance was not only clearly sounded with respect to the necessity of repentance, but look at the text, I declared both to them of Damascus first and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, full stop,

14:32 no, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. God did not stop with merely saying to men, you must, with grief and hatred of your sin, turn from it unto God, with purpose of, and endeavor after new obedience, but He insisted that each one who professed to have repented, bring forth fruits worthy, consistent with that professed repentance. The very language

15:13 of the text is, in keeping with repentance, works, continually doing, it's a present participle, in keeping with, with repentance works continually doing. Now this is an amazing statement from the man who was the champion of salvation apart from our works. We just finished reading the book of Galatians in our morning worship services several Lord's Days ago. And in that epistle, the Apostle Paul loads up his guns and goes after these who are trying to teach that one can be saved by Christ plus his own works.

15:56 Religious works, ceremonial works, works of the law. And Paul says, no, a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. We read in our consecutive reading this morning, Ephesians 2 and verse 8 and 9. For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

16:15 It is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast or glory. This great champion of salvation apart from our works, here says that he was a preacher of the necessity of doing works. Well, is he hopelessly confused? Or is he pathetically self-contradictory?

16:37 No. He understands that while works have nothing to do with the ground of our acceptance before God, it is Christ himself, Christ alone, Christ crucified, buried. And risen from the dead, who constitutes the ground on which God accepts sinners. But the setting in which he accepts sinners is that they repent and believe.

17:04 And if they truly repented and believed, they will bring forth fruits, works, answering to the consistent, answering to the professed repentance and consistent with that profession. Paul is not preaching that we take our works, and put them back into the foundation on which we find acceptance with God. Other foundation, he writes, can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Don't tamper with the foundation.

17:36 It is Christ alone, Christ crucified, Christ risen. But don't tamper with what the Bible says is the fruit of all who really get settled on that foundation. If you are truly settled upon Christ, you got settled on Christ, when by the Spirit you were brought to repentance and faith in Christ. And if you've truly been brought to repentance, you will bring forth fruits consistent with that repentance.

18:07 And Paul says he preached the necessity of fruits, meet for, answering to, consistent with the professed repentance. And in so doing, Paul was able, he was echoing, and you look at it in the original text, and the language is almost precisely parallel. He was simply echoing what John preached, and what his Lord preached. Turn to Matthew chapter 3, the account of John's ministry, parallel to the passage read in our hearing tonight from Luke chapter 3.

18:47 John comes preaching as the forerunner of the Lord Jesus. And these people who were the epitome of the religious ones, the very devout ones, the meticulously holy ones, according to their standards, the Pharisees. Verse 7. They are coming out to John's baptism, and he calls them a brood of snakes.

19:07 And says, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Now verse 8. Bring forth therefore, and here's the phrase, exactly parallel to Paul's language in Acts 20, 26 and verse 20. Bring forth therefore fruit, worthy of repentance.

19:27 You come to my baptism, professing that you along with others are repenting. I want to see the fruits of that repentance. Bring forth therefore fruit, worthy of repentance. And don't think to say within yourself, we have Abraham to our father.

19:44 We don't need repentance. We have good breeding. We have good religious background, and breeding, and associations. No, I say to you, God is able of the stones to raise up children to Abraham.

19:56 Now verse 10. Even now the axe lies at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. As surely as the Bible teaches, it is faith or the fire.

20:17 He that believes not shall be damned. The Bible teaches, it's fruit or the fire. Faith or the fire. The wrath of God abides on him that believes not.

20:32 John says, it's fruit or the fire. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and is cast into the fire. Now go back or over to Matthew chapter 7. And here we have a record of the words of the Lord Jesus himself.

20:51 And in the context where he is speaking about false prophets, he takes this broader general principle and addresses it in language again, parallel to the language of John forerunner. Verse 17 of Matthew 7. Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit, but the corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

21:23 Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you shall know them. Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. We could turn to John 15 for a further word from our Lord's lips.

21:52 But I want us to look at one other text that underscores the necessity of fruit. And here it is found in that rich doctrinal epistle, the letter of Paul to the Romans, chapter 6, Romans chapter 6. In the last half of this chapter, Paul is demonstrating that all who are united to Christ by faith, all who have indeed repented and turned to God through Christ, have a new master. They have an exchange of masters.

22:21 And in summarizing all that he's been teaching from verse 15 onward, we come to verse 22, Romans 6, 22. But now, being made free from sin, that is, free from the dominion of sin, the willful, joyous pattern of serving sin, he says you've had a change of masters. Sin will still plague you, but sin is no longer your boss and your master. Being made free from sin and become servants to God.

22:55 You have, not you ought to have, you may eventually have, it would be nice if you had, you are having your fruit unto sanctification and the end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Eternal life is the free gift based upon the work of Christ. But in all who receive that gift in Christ, there's a change of masters.

23:26 They become free from the dominion of sin. They become the joyful, willing, bondservants of God. And as the bondservants of God, they bring forth fruit unto holiness, unto sanctification. And the end of such a life is eternal life.

23:43 And you don't have the free gift and eternal life, and in between, nothing but the gnarly, unwholesome, bad fruit of a life of sin. You have the fruit unto repentance. And many other passages could be multiplied to underscore the necessity of fruit. Now to state it very personally, let me say it this way.

24:11 Sitting here tonight, if your life is not a tree of God's planting bringing forth fruit that has no explanation, but that God has brought you to repentance and faith in Christ, and you're bringing forth fruits, answering through, consistent with, reflective of that repentance, God says you're slated to the fire. Unless there's a radical transformation by His grace. Faith for the fire. Fruit for the fire.

24:44 And it won't do to sit there right now and say, I never heard such crazy stuff. Who in the world does that preacher think he is, my friend? I have read these passages from the infallible Word of God. The God before whom you'll stand in judgment.

24:59 And you may go out of here tonight and say, I never heard such wacko, weirdo, fanatical nonsense. But my friend, what you say about it doesn't change the reality. It is Jesus Christ, truth incarnate, who says every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. The absolute necessity.

The Nature of the Fruit of Repentance

25:20 If your life does not bring forth fruit answering for repentance, and that condition is not turned on, that condition is not transformed before you die or Jesus comes, it would be better for you if you had never been born. Oh, having considered the necessity of fruit unto repentance, now secondly, what is the nature of this fruit? What is the nature of this fruit unto repentance? There's one basic principle that you and I must grasp.

25:48 If we grasp that, the rest just falls into place very naturally. Repentance and its fruit are of the same nature. They are the same fabric of God's gracious working. Let me state it this way.

26:05 The fruits of repentance are nothing more or less than an extension into the whole of life of the very essence of the beginnings of repentance. What happens in the beginning of repentance? The sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. What is the fruit of repentance?

26:36 It is just the flowering, blossoming out into life of the principles inherent in the repentance itself. That's where the imagery of the tree and its fruit. If you go to a well-kept, well-pruned apple tree in October, and you see on it luscious, ripe apples, what are those apples? They are simply an expression into that particular fruit of the very life of the tree.

27:06 That's what it is. If it's an apple tree, and a good apple tree, it will produce good apples. Make the tree good, Jesus said, and its fruit good. For a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit any more than an evil tree can bring forth good fruit.

27:25 Repentance is not the act of a moment. It is the acquisition of a disposition that will be with us until repentance is no more needed. And that's when we pass into the realm of the spirits of just men made perfect at our death, if we are God's children, or at the return of the Lord Jesus. What is the fruit unto repentance?

27:51 It is simply an extension into life of the issues involved in real repentance. Specifically, does repentance consist in a genuine grief and sorrow for sin? Yes. We looked at 2 Corinthians chapter 7 in our last study.

28:10 For you were made sorrow with sorry with a godly sorrow unto repentance. For godly sorrow works repentance not to be repented of. Well, what is the fruit of repentance but an ongoing grief and sorrow for the ongoing commission of sins. That's the fruit of repentance.

28:34 That's why in the Beatitudes Jesus did not say, blessed are those who mourned past tense, had a period in their lives, an epochal upheaval spiritually where they grieved for sin and that's all taken care of and behind them. He says, blessed are those who are mourning present tense for they shall become for them. Why? Because when we come into the kingdom that initial grief for sin becomes our lifetime companion wherever we confront sin.

29:09 That's the fruit of repentance. That's why David could say in Psalm 51, 17 as a child of God the sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart. A broken and a contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise that heart that is broken in the initial repentance.

29:28 And the initial repentance becomes our lifetime companion until repentance is no more needed. Does repentance consist in an honest owning of sin and a turning from sin? Yes it does. Well then the fruit of repentance is a continual owning of sin and a continual confessing and turning from sin.

29:51 And here I ask you to turn with me to 1 John chapter 1 for a clear statement of this fact. 1 John chapter 1. Verse 7. If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus His Son present tense is continually cleansing us from all sin.

30:16 And if someone says oh I have no sin that needs cleansing John says we deceive ourselves the truth is not in us. Now note verse 9. If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In what setting does the blood of Jesus go on cleansing us from sin?

30:38 Is it automatic or is it conditioned upon our owning the sin? Confessing the sin. Bringing together verses 7 through 9 it's clear what the answer is. When John says if we walk in the light as He is in the light the blood of Jesus His Son goes on cleansing us from all sin.

30:58 And as we walk in the light and the light of God's truth and God's countenance exposes the dark shadows of our hearts and our sins are brought to light what do we do with them? We do with them all along the way what we did with them on the threshold. We own those sins. We say with David against you and you only have I sinned.

31:22 And even when we are struggling with the ugly reality of our remaining sin we own it as ours. Romans 7 is not a litany of blame shifting. Paul says the good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not that I do. Wretched man that I am.

31:41 He owns His remaining corruption as the baby of His own fallen heart. And though He is redeemed and in union with Christ the remnants of His sin produced in Him that ongoing fruit of repentance owning and confessing sin. Furthermore if repentance consists in an owning and a turning from sin and an ongoing confession of sin turn to Romans 8.13 the fruit of repentance will be a continuous effort to put sin to death.

32:20 Not to nurse it not to cherish it in our bosoms and to feed it but to kill it. Romans 8 in verse 13 For if you live after the flesh you must die but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you shall live for as many as are led by the Spirit of God. These are the sons of God who are the true sons of God who come into the kingdom in spirit wrought repentance and faith. Those who are led by the Spirit in the context who are led by the Spirit not getting divine twitches and saying oh the Lord told me to do this and the Lord told me to do that.

33:03 It is in the power of the Spirit putting your sins to death. If we by the Spirit do put to death do mortify the deeds of the body we shall live. And if initial repentance is an owning of our sin a mourning of our sin a confessing of our sin a turning from our sin is it not always a turning from our sin in faith that the Lord Jesus who died and rose again is the great sin bearer that he is the one whose blood cleanses from sin. Isn't that part of initial repentance not only this sense of sin

33:47 but this apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. And so is the fruit of repentance a continual ongoing and a continual fleeing to Jesus as our only refuge. That's why Peter can describe the Christian in 1 Peter 2 verse 4 in this language to whom coming present tense you not only came to him you continually come to him. 1 John 2 if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous one.

34:22 Philippians 3 verse 3 we are the circumcision the true people of God who glory in Christ Jesus. That's one of the marks of true repentance. And then does repentance involve a full purpose of an endeavor after new obedience. I called it in our last message cheerfully going out of the God business.

34:47 No longer committed to run our lives by our own standards to our own ends in our own way setting our own rules. No we say God I wasn't made for that. I was made to live by your rules. I was made to live to your ends by your means to pursue your goals by your standards.

35:06 I am getting out of the God business. You turned unto God to serve the living and the true God. That's the very essence of repentance. What's the fruit of repentance?

35:18 The fruit of repentance is a pattern of purposeful real obedience to God's will as revealed in the Bible. Not a perfect obedience but a real and purposeful obedience. The best of our obedience still needs the mediation of Christ or we'd be damned. But the obedience of a true penitent is purposeful and it's real.

35:51 That's why Jesus can describe his true people in this language. John chapter 10 and verse 27. Very simple language. Nothing complicated.

36:01 My sheep not heard past tense my voice calling them to forgiveness and acceptance and they ran to me and from that point on they've gone their own way but I'll remember them when I come again know. My sheep hear present tense are hearing my voice and I know them that is I regard them with distinguishing love. I cheerfully acknowledge my identification with them. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they are following me and I give unto them who are the them his sheep who are the sheep those who are hearing and those who are following.

36:42 Now if you say you follow so perfectly you have no sin John says you're a liar and the truth is not in you. But if you ain't hearing and following you're a liar if you say you're his sheep. You see both sets of truth are equally demonstrated in the Bible. If you say well I'm his sheep I'm hearing perfectly I'm following perfectly I don't need the ongoing mediation of Christ.

37:08 John says you're a liar the truth has never taken up its hold. But if you say you're his sheep and you're not hearing and you're not following. If you are not hungry to know the mind and will of Christ in the scriptures so that you read your Bible not as a religious ritual oh there are days when it may be a ritual I'm not talking about the valleys in our experience but the base line of your heart is you come to this book to hear the voice of your heavenly shepherd with a view to obeying it. You sit under preaching not to judge the preacher.

37:40 I like his style I don't like his style too soft too loud too many illustrations no no no you don't come to judge the preacher you come to have Christ through the word impress his word upon you. You come to have Christ through the word impress his word upon you. You come to have Christ through the word impress his word upon your heart. You hear you follow you hear when the promise is still like dew upon your part soul.

38:09 You hear when some of his rebukes sting like alcohol on an open wound. But you hear his voice when it comforts when it wounds when it consoles when it bites and burns and you follow him. He leads at times by waters of quietness into green pastures sometimes he leads into dark foreboding valleys but you follow him. One thing matters to you Jesus Christ is my shepherd and I'm his sheep and I'm committed to hear and to follow

38:53 and in that confidence I know I'll join the ranks of those described in heaven as those first on earth. And if you've got any silly notion that you will you're deceived and the best thing I can do is rip the lie from your breast that you might see your true state. What are the fruits of repentance? They are simply repentance flowering out into ever increasing circles of our own personal experience our relationship to God to wife to husband to friends to work.

The Source of the Fruit of Repentance

39:33 It is simply flowering out of the life of that tree of repentance into more and more fruit to the praise and to the glory of God. Now having looked at the necessity of fruit the nature of the fruit now we come thirdly to the source of this fruit. At the end of the day where does this fruit come from? Well all the passages we read show that it's a duty for the one professing repentance to bring forth the fruit.

40:07 John did not say pray that God will produce the fruit. John said you bring forth fruits if there's no fruit it's the fire. Jesus says bring forth the fruit. Paul preached bring forth the fruit.

40:25 So the fruit incorporates our conscious activity. We must seek to hear the voice of the shepherd and to follow. We must own the fruit. We must go to Christ as our advocate.

40:41 We must bring forth the fruits. But at the end of the day we do so because he works in us to will and to work for his good pleasure. I want us to look at two verses in the book of Philippians that take us to the source of all of the ongoing fruit of repentance and any of the other fruits of grace. Philippians 1 beginning in verse 3 he thanks God upon every remembrance of them tells them when he prays for them he does so with a glad heart.

41:21 And then he says in verse 6 being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it not at the day of Jesus Christ but at the hour of his death. He says in verse 7 I am confident of one thing you Philippians there at Philippi where I came some time ago to preach and found a group of women by a riverside and began to meet with them and then I

42:06 was thrown in prison and the prophets that Christ had to suffer and Christ has been raised and there is forgiveness of sins and there is an inheritance that there is a mighty working of God to open blind eyes and to deliver sinners from the power of Satan and to give them remission of sins when I preached that message and you know I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it carry

42:51 it on to perfection until the day of Jesus Christ at the end of the day the source of the fruit of repentance is precisely what the initial repentance is it is the grace of God that makes you a true believer in Jesus and in the Lord Jesus Christ and in all the world and in the world and in all the world and in all the world and in all the world and in all the world and in

43:35 all the world and in all the world and in all the world and in the world and in all the world and in all the world is telling us our story age and origin age being in b the hand c drin so fat the realization this is serious business to be a Christian in the fallen world. He will go on to tell them in this very setting they are like luminaries against the darkness of

44:19 this world, this crooked and this perverse generation. It's no light thing. Some of you wonder, visiting with us, you say, you know, everything looks kind of plain Jane around here. I don't see a bunch of mic stands and I don't see a brace of drums and a bunch of this kind of old fashioned Puritan worship. And I notice preacher, though you throw yourself

44:40 into preaching, you've made no effort to tell us jokes and make us laugh. You're right. You're right. Heaven and hell are too serious to play games about them. And to tickle your

44:53 funny bone and have you go out and say, hey, ain't he a great preacher. Man, oh man, can that guy tell jokes? Frankly, I don't care what you think about me. Because if I never see your face again in this earth, on the day of judgment, I'll act like I'm a Christian.

45:08 I'll act like I'm a Christian. I'll act like I'm a Christian. I'll act like I'm a Christian. answer for whether or not I cleared my hands of your blood. That's what Paul

45:12 is saying to these Philippians. You work out your salvation, not with a pure, oppressive legal spirit. No, he speaks in this very epistle. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again

45:27 I say, rejoice! But at your pinnacle of rejoicing, never forget, it's a serious business to be a real Christian in the falling world. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. But now notice what he says in verse 13.

45:40 For, here's why you can give yourself to working it out with all of your faculties and powers. You're not on a fool's errand. It is God who is working in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. You're working it out, and when you find your will choosing the will of Christ, behind your choosing is God's working. And then when

46:05 you choose to follow, and you're given the strength to follow, behind your doing is His doing. You see that in the passage? For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

46:22 What's the source of the fruit of repentance? Exactly what the initial repentance is. The grace of God. God's commitment to perfect and complete what He has begun.

46:34 And therefore, we can depend upon Him. We can plead His promises when we feel the raging tumult of our own sin, and the seduction of the world that, like a powerful magnet, pulls on the iron filings of our hearts. And we can say, Oh God, I'm in this struggle because You put me in it. Left to myself, I'd be floating down the stream of humanity into hell with no conflict with sin in the world. But Lord,

47:04 I'm swimming against the current. I'm standing against the flow. Lord, You put me in the flow. You put me in this posture. Now, Lord,

47:12 having put me here, You've got to bring me safely home. You've begun the good work. Lord, carry it on to completion. In the language of John 15, we can abide in Christ as the branch abides in the vine.

47:29 And we have the promise of Christ that abiding in Him, we shall bring forth fruit. More fruit. Much fruit. There is a progression in John 15.

47:41 Having said to his own without me, you can do nothing. At the end of verse 5, he goes on to say if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done to you. Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit and so shall you be my disciples. That is, you will be marked out as my disciples as fruit is continually born.

Conclusion: Self-Examination and the Call to Christ

48:10 And the ultimate source of that fruit is not in you, but in the one who is the vine. And it's His life, His grace, in us by the Spirit that enables us to bring forth that fruit. So you see, this brings us around full circle to where we began when we started. When we were defining the very essence and substance of repentance, we went to that first phrase in the shorter catechism. Repentance

48:37 unto life is a saving grace. Its source, is the grace of God. In the beginning, in the continuance, until that time when we'll leave all our repentance behind us. We'll leave faith behind us. Faith will turn to sight

48:53 and sin will be forever dealt with. No more need for repentance. Worship and praise and following the Lamb wherever He goes. That will be our eternal, blessed, blissful task and privilege.

49:07 But until we're there, repentance and its fruit, will be our constant duty. Sitting here tonight, can you say that your life is a life in which there is fruit unto repentance? Not perfect fruit. Not as much fruit as you desire. Perhaps not as

49:31 much fruit as you've even known at certain periods in your Christian experience. But I'm asking you, can you listen to these texts and say, oh God, thank you by your grace. I'm not only professed to have repented and turned to you, but I am bringing forth fruits, answering to repentance. I am not an evil tree bringing forth evil fruit.

49:57 Lord, by your grace, I'm a good tree bringing forth good fruit. If you can't say that, my friend, don't take lightly what you've heard tonight. Remember our opening text, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance? If you don't come to repentance and throughout the remaining days of your earthly pilgrimage bring forth fruits for repentance, you must perish. God's word says

50:26 you shall perish. But my friend, you need not perish. Christ is a willing and an able Savior. And in the word and promise of the gospel he bids you come to him.

50:38 With the promise, him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out. But in bidding you come to him, he also bids you take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Take my yoke upon you. Be prepared for me to direct your life.

50:56 Learn of me. Be prepared to put down your arrogance and your pride that you think you know how to run your own life and determine your own standards of right and wrong. That's got to all stop and you say, Lord Jesus, I come to have the burden of my sin removed. I come to bend my neck and shoulder to your yoke.

51:15 I come to be taught of you. You come to Jesus in that posture. And he says, him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out. May God grant that your life and mine will be living monuments that when the Lord Jesus embraces his own, he does indeed work in them to willing to work for his good pleasure. And

51:38 they bring forth fruits meet for answering to consistent with repentance. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray that you would bless the preaching of your word that you would cause it to find deep root in every heart and that your word would so fasten it upon human hearts that the last day will reveal that some this night came to grips with their true state as they never had before and that you gave them no rest until they knew they were in Christ. Do bless your word.

52:22 Be with us now as we transition into the baptism. We pray that our minds and hearts will be drawn to your truth, that our hearts will be filled with joy, that this night we witness another declaring that you, the great and loving shepherd, have gone forth to seek your sheep and you have brought one of them home to yourself. Hear our prayers and be with us, we plead in Jesus' name. Amen.