Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits, Part 2

Introduction: The Urgency of Discerning False Prophets

0:05 Let us unite our hearts in prayer.

0:12 O searcher of hearts, indeed thou knowest best what each of us needs most. So let thy will be done as we open the word of God together.

0:29 Amen.

0:34 I would ask you to turn again this morning to the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew chapter 7. We have come in our studies of this marvelous section of the word of God, Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7, to this section that in a very real sense is the climax of all that has preceded.

1:10 Our Lord has laid before us the characteristics of his children, those who are members of the kingdom of grace. He has laid out the rules by which they will be governed, both in their contacts with men, in their relationship to God, and in their relationship to the world about them. But not content that men merely be informed about the nature of his kingdom, our Lord in a very urgent way, beginning with verse 13, impresses upon men the necessity of entering the kingdom of grace, which he has in such searching detail described in the preceding portions of the sermon. You have that strong invitation in verse 13, Enter ye in.

1:54 There is but one way to enter the kingdom of grace, and that's by a sound Bible conversion. And our Lord tells us here that true conversion is a difficult and a rare thing. Difficult because it's a narrow gate, and it leads to a compressed way, and it's rare, for he said, few there be that find it. And then contrasted with that, he laid before us spurious conversion, a very easy and a common thing, for it's a wide gate, and it leads to a broad road, and many there be which go in thereat.

2:30 Immediately following this gracious invitation to enter the kingdom, our Lord gives us a very searching warning which carries from verses 15 down through verse 20. He who said enter in says beware of the false prophets, for no greater danger comes to any person intent upon entering the kingdom of heaven than the instruction of the false prophet. For we enter the kingdom on the basis of the words that are uttered to us in the name and authority of God. And it's only understandable that the enemy of our souls would come and pose as the mouthpiece of God in order to give us wrong direction about entrance to the kingdom. And so for three or four weeks we have been studying this section, verses 15, excuse me, through verse 20. First of all, we have the definition of the false prophet. When our Lord said beware of false prophets, He was including in this warning all men, women, books, programs, anything that comes to us claiming to be the mouthpiece of the truth of God.

3:45 Whether that person comes holding a Bible or whether the literature comes quoting Scripture, it matters not. Our Lord is warning us against all who would come claiming to speak the truth of God who in reality are not speaking that truth. Then we looked at the deceptiveness of the false prophet. He comes as one in sheep's clothing but inwardly as a ravening wolf.

4:10 And we looked at the doctrine of the false prophet continually marked by glaring omissions to God's truth and subtle additions to God's truth. Someone has rightly said, that one of the primary marks of the false prophet is that he makes vital godliness to be a less strict and an easier thing than it really is. He makes it more agreeable to fall in human nature and thereby encourages unregenerate men to be satisfied with something that comes short of true grace. Dear ones, I'm convinced that's the truth of the word.

4:50 The false prophet is primarily the false prophet. He's marked in his doctrine by an attempt to make the gate other than an arrow gate and the way other than an arrow way. You have on one hand the legalist who would cause a man to think he can enter that gate on the basis of his own works. He doesn't want to be stripped down to the place where he's a naked, helpless, hopeless, hell-deserving sinner.

5:16 You have on the other hand the antinomian who would say since salvation's all of grace and the gate is narrow, you want to make it and pack your baggage of pride and selfishness and self-salvation, but then they say the road is a broad one. You can do as you please once you've taken Jesus. But Jesus invited men not only to a narrow gate but to a narrow way and there's no other way that leads to life. You'll no more get to heaven if you miss the narrow road than you can get there if you miss the narrow gate.

5:45 It's the gate and the road and life and our Lord inseparably joined the three. And the false prophet in his doctrine is marked in his doctrine is marked by his attempts either to stretch out that gate like an accordion and make it wide or his attempts to somehow smooth out and broaden out that narrow road that leads unto life. Now last week we began a study on the discovery of a false prophet. Notice the words of our Lord.

The Discovery of False Prophets: By Their Fruits

6:12 Verse 16, Ye shall know them by their fruits. And then he asked a question. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? And the answer's obvious.

6:24 You may find a bunch of grapes hung on a thorn bush but you'll never gather a crop of grapes from a thorn bush and you'll never find nice figs if you like figs hanging on a thistle bush. You just won't find it. And now our Lord makes an affirmation. He said, Even so, even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

6:50 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. And so we are studying together the discovery of a false prophet. How are we to discern whether the person, the book, the tract, the movement that stands before us and says, I am the mouth of God.

7:12 How are we to discover? Jesus said, Ye shall know them. And the word know is the strong word. Ye shall know them for what they are.

7:19 So we can't plead ignorance and say, well, we're just poor, humble lay people. And that's for preachers. No, Jesus said to everyone to whom He addressed His words, Enter ye in. He says, Ye shall know them.

7:31 Are you concerned about going to heaven? Yes or no? I hope you are. Is there anyone here so foolish as who willingly, knowingly wants to damn his soul to hell?

7:41 I don't think we have anyone like that here this morning. Are you concerned about heaven? Eternal life? Then you've got to be concerned about having discernment in the truth of God.

7:51 For Jesus said, Ye shall know the false prophet. And the means by which he's to be discovered is by his fruit. Fruit is the expression of the light and the nature of a tree. That which the bush or tree brings forth naturally, brings forth continually, and brings forth in abundance, that is fruit.

8:12 Now it does not mean something it may bring forth contrary to its general nature. You might find a deformed expression of that light, some shriveled up fruit here or there. But fruit is the general issue of the light. That which a man brings forth continually, naturally, and in abundance is fruit.

Fruit in Creed and Character (Review)

8:31 Now our Lord said, the false prophet is to be discovered by that which he brings forth naturally, continually, that which he brings forth spontaneously. And we looked at fruit in several areas and we want to pick up the third area where we just began to touch last Lord's Day. Fruit is a man's, a man's creed, a man's character, and his converts. We looked at the creed of the false prophet.

8:59 The false prophet is one who not understanding the truth cannot communicate the truth with clarity. We looked at the creed of the false prophet. Then we looked at the character of the false prophet. His character is marked by the absence of the expression of the Beatitudes.

9:18 One of the key marks of most false prophets is either the expression of the Beatitudes or a bombastic dogmatism completely devoid of the overtures of love and graciousness or a feigned humility where he makes himself the stomping mat of everybody and people say, well, he's such a humble, sweet fellow, he can't help but be right. This is why many people were led to listen to a man like Albert Schweitzer, a man who didn't even believe we could know that a man named Jesus Christ lived in history. He wrote a book, The Quest for the Historical Jesus. Albert Schweitzer was not a Christian according to the Word of God for the Bible says he that denies that Jesus Christ is coming to flesh is antichrist.

10:08 And yet people by the groves say he a fine Christian. Why, he was such a sweet, humble man willing to throw over all his ambition and his attainment as a musician and all the rest and go on out there in the middle of nowhere in Africa and live his life. Our beloved Jesus said, Judge thee, false prophet, by his fruit, the character. And when you face a man like Albert Schweitzer with the Beatitudes, you don't hear the confession that humanity is fallen, degenerate, lost, helpless, undone, and that Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin, who died upon a cross and rose and sits at the right hand of the Father is the only hope of sinners.

10:51 You don't hear any of that expression of true poverty of spirit that acknowledges I am nothing and he is all day. And I am not the judge of Albert Schweitzer. God is. But you and I have the right to take the man and his words and evaluate them in the light of the word of God.

11:07 And so the false prophet will be marked either by a deceptive meekness or by a captivating bombasting and absence of meekness and gentleness. But we're to evaluate a man's character in terms of the total spectrum of those characteristics and the Beatitudes. And then we began to look at the fruit in terms of their converts.

The Fallacy of Evaluating Converts by Numbers or Impressiveness

11:31 And I want to sit on this principle this morning. I hope to perhaps move on to the next section. But I'm convinced this is so absolutely essential. We are to know the false prophet by his fruits, by his converts, by those whom he produces under his teaching and his ministry.

11:51 Now what is the general judge of whether or not a movement or a man or a church is preaching a pure message? Well, we say, let's look at the results. Let's look at the fruit. But when we go to examine the fruit, what do we usually look at?

12:08 Number and impressiveness. Isn't that what we look for? So often when I've discussed with fellow ministers certain things, discussed our own church and other churches, as ministers will do, well, the first thing they want to do is to show, well, God must be there because it's big or God must not be there because it's small. Or God must be there because there's plenty of activity and God must not be there because it looks small.

12:33 It looks like people aren't doing much. May I state, and I trust the Spirit of God will impress it upon our minds, when we come to evaluate the fruit of a man, of a movement, you evaluate the fruit of my ministry, and when we zero in on this matter of the prophets' converts, we are not to evaluate those converts in terms of numbers.

12:57 The Jehovah's Witnesses are growing by leaps and bounds. The Mormons are utterly outstripping most evangelical groups. And the people who are committed to those groups are soundly converted. Not in the biblical sense, but they're converted to Mormonism.

13:12 They come in lock, stock, and barrel. Do you know that when I take my son to nursery school on Tuesday mornings that I see about 15 or 20 cars at quarter to nine in the morning down at the Mormon church? Mothers, just like you mothers, with all the responsibilities you have and all the pressures who get their children out every Tuesday morning for systematic instruction in the Book of Mormon, and in the doctrine of the Mormon church,

13:40 they're converted. They're committed.

13:44 They're in it. Lock, stock, and barrel. They're all tied.

13:48 They don't even drink coffee and tea.

13:52 Now the fact that they are numerically growing, is this a proof that God is upon them? If we're going to judge fruit in terms of converts numerically, then we would have to concede that the Spirit of God is moving upon them in a way that He's not moving upon us and others who claim to believe the truth. So you see, the absolute fallacy, of evaluating fruit in terms of number of converts or the zeal of their adherence to the standards of their particular group. I read an article the other day that made me sick at heart.

14:25 I was going to bring it into the pulpit this morning, but it won't be necessary to read it in detail. But it said something like this. Is the, and then it mentioned the particular Christian movie, an instrument of God, and then it went on to say no issue can be more important to a Christian than to know whether or not a certain thing is of God. And then the article went on to say the answer is absolutely yes.

14:48 And then it's going to prove to us why this certain Christian film is absolutely an instrument of God. And then it begins to quote figures. Out in St. Louis, there were so many hundred people, so many thousand people that came to see the movie, so many hundreds that made decisions.

15:04 Absolutely this is of God. Now in the next paragraph it says there were at least 500 people actively promoting the movie. This jockeys over the secular stations were playing the hit tunes from the quote Christian movie. And they have all the boogie beat of the rock and roll stuff that comes over WABC because I sat through the movie.

15:28 Then it said that a milkman in the area printed advertisements on two million milk cartons. Another man who owns the bus company had big signs on 500 of the buses. There was TV, radio coverage. What does this prove?

15:43 All of those multitudes of people, coming to that movie, simply proved that a good job was done in promotion and in advertising. And that's all it proves. For you could have filled the same theater with the Supremes or with the Rolling Stones or with the Vinyls if you advertised enough.

16:04 And yet this article moves on the assumption that because multitudes were there, it's an instrument of God.

16:11 Then it goes on to talk about the many decisions. Dear ones, I sat through that movie. God bearing me witness. There was not five minutes instruction of who God is, what sin is, who Christ is, what it means to repent, what it means to truly believe, anything about the narrow gate and the narrow way.

16:34 Yet up and down that land, this thing's being acclaimed as a mighty instrument of God. You say, Pastor, you just didn't get enough sleep last night and you've got an ax to grind. No, I don't, beloved. I've cried to God that he would make this assembly an assembly of God.

16:49 Of discerning people. And God says, by their fruits, ye, you individual members of this assembly should be able to discern what is of God and what is not of God. And you'll never be able to do it if you can't get beyond this whole idea that numbers is the proof. Numbers is not the proof.

17:08 Either numbers of so-called converts or numbers who are committed with great zeal. I got a card the other day from a Christian school. It said, Praise God for the greatest enrollment ever. At our particular school.

17:21 That doesn't prove God's in it. Every school across the country is bursting to the seams. There's a population explosion in our colleges. Doesn't prove anything.

17:31 For the secular universities are bursting at the seams. The liberal universities bursting at the seams. So the fact that a school is bursting at the seams doesn't prove God's in it. It just proves their kids clamoring to get an education.

17:44 That's all it proves.

17:46 That's all.

17:49 The Pharisees made converts and they made them zealous. Jesus said they made them two-fold more the children of hell. But they got people who'd fast twice a week, give up eating two days a week. Who would tithe everything they possessed.

18:03 No indication that God was in it. Secondly, no indication that God is in the so-called converts simply because buildings are erected. If you get multitudes, then you've got to have a place to put them. So you've got to build buildings.

18:16 And this becomes one of the hallmarks of whether God's in something. How long's it been since you built? Boy, if a preacher can say we've just built and poured $250,000 into a building, everyone's a gas. God must be there.

18:27 Now, he may be. Now, I'm going to give the balancing truths in a moment. But the fact that buildings are erected doesn't prove anything. In fact, it may prove something terrible.

The Acid Test: Quality, Not Quantity (1 Corinthians 3)

18:35 Let me read to you about the enthusiasm of some disciples in the New Testament about the erection of a new building and see how our Lord answered it. I'm reading from the 13th chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. And we read these words. Verse 1.

18:52 And as he went out of the temple, one of the disciples said unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here? He said, Lord, what do you think of our new building project? It's pretty good, isn't it? Huh?

19:05 Lord, look what we got. Notice what the Lord said. Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

19:18 Listen to me, dear ones. Get it. The system of religion housed within that building was always already under the curse of God.

19:33 Jesus said, it's just a matter of time before what happens outwardly is a revelation of what's already happened in it. So you see, the erection of buildings doesn't prove it. You say, you're just jealous because you don't have a new building. No, not at all.

19:47 There's plenty of opportunities to walk into some nice new big buildings as a preacher. Two, three, four times the size of this. My conscience is clear that I speak not out of jealousy or envy for beautiful buildings.

20:02 Buildings are not the proof.

20:06 Money raised is not the proof. Missionaries send out for the flesh can, has, and is producing all of these things. Well, you say, Pastor, what is the real test of the convert then? If it's not numbers, if it's not zeal, if it's not buildings, if it's not money, if it's not missionaries, what is the acid test?

20:24 Well, you look at a very practical and helpful text that perhaps will unlock the answer for us in 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3, throwing light upon Matthew, Matthew 7, the passage we're studying. Notice what the Apostle Paul says. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 13.

20:48 Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 13. Because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what size it is. No, what is the word?

21:08 Of what? Of what? Of what sort it is. Not size, but sort.

21:13 Not quantity, but quality.

21:18 You got it? There's the key.

21:22 If numbers of converts, the buildings they build, the zeal they demonstrate, the missionaries, if these are not the acid test, what are the tests? Not quantity, but quality. Looking for that good fruit which only a good tree can produce. Let me illustrate.

The Master Sculptor Analogy: Only God Can Produce True Fruit

21:43 There's a master sculptor.

21:47 He's a man who's mastered the art of forming human figures and other expressions of his artistry. In wood, he can carve out of solid blocks of wood. He can form with clay. He can make productions with plaster.

22:04 And he's also an expert in chiseling out of solid marble. Beautiful works of art. Now there are three fakes in the area who've learned how to copy the work of the artist in wood. When they finish making a production in wood, the artist himself can hardly tell it from his own.

22:23 They've learned how to imitate his work in clay and in plaster, but when it comes to the work in marble, they just don't have it. They haven't learned that delicate art of being able to chip away at that which is so hard and so brittle and to make it into a beautiful work of art. It's in that area that the master shows himself. His distinctive abilities.

22:45 Now we come into a certain room and there displayed before us are a number of works of art. Some are sculptured in wood, some in clay, some plaster, and some marble. Four men stand there and we say, whose work is this? And they all speak out in unison, it is mine.

23:04 And we say, wait a minute, whose work is this? And the first fellow says, it's mine. Second fellow, it's mine. Third fellow, it's mine.

23:10 Fourth fellow, it's mine. Well, how much is yours? First fellow says, it's all mine. Second fellow, it's all mine.

23:15 Third man, it's all mine. Fourth man, it's all mine. Now what are we going to do? Well, if we want to find out whose work it is, we've got three phonies and we've got one real master.

23:28 What are we going to do? Well, we're not going to start by comparing the wood productions because the frogs are able to produce in wood equally as well as the master. We're not going to look at the plaster. We're not going to look at the clay.

23:42 But where are we going to look? We're going to look at the marble production. And we're going to analyze those marble productions because it's in the area of producing a work of art in marble, follow me now, that will show with authority and finality the workmanship of the master.

24:05 Now do you see the application to our text this morning? It is the presence or absence of the evidence of the master's hand in the areas where only he can produce fruit that reveals the true quality of that fruit.

24:25 Let me repeat it. As we try to obey the command of our Lord, by their fruits ye shall know them, it is the presence or absence of that which only God can produce which reveals the true character of that fruit.

24:43 Now does God produce crowds? Sometimes he does. I read in the book of Acts that the Lord added 3,000 on the day of Pentecost. The Lord produced crowds.

24:55 But can the flesh produce clouds? Yes, it can.

25:00 It produces buildings. God ordered the building and construction of that first temple and to show his approval, his glory came into it so much so that people were driven back with the sense of his presence. And I believe God is in the building of buildings today and the work of his church. They're a necessary thing to carry out the effective teaching ministry of the church.

25:22 So we can't judge the work in terms of crowds, in terms of building. Well, what about in terms of zeal? When God works, are men filled with zeal? Sure they are.

25:32 You read the book of Acts. Filled with such zeal and holy fire that people said these men are beside themselves. They're drunk with wine. It says these are the men that have turned the world upside down.

25:43 Well, you say you're making it hard for us, Pastor. If God can produce crowds and the flesh and the devil can produce crowds, how are we going to know? If God can be in the building of buildings and the devil and the flesh can be in it, if God produces zeal and if the devil and his cohorts produce zeal, look at Paul. He said, there's zeal persecuting the church.

The Touchstones of True Fruit: Beatitudes, Fruit of the Spirit, and Philippians 3

26:02 How are we ever going to discern? Ah, listen carefully. There's one thing that the fraud can't produce. The flesh can't produce.

26:10 And you know what it is?

26:12 You know what it is? The Beatitudes. Can't produce that in a man. Flip back to the Beatitudes.

26:20 See it. Illustrate. We'll not go into great detail. But notice.

26:24 Flip back to the Beatitudes. By their fruits ye shall know them. Those fruits cannot be crowds, impressive buildings, zeal. But the great touchstone is found here.

26:39 Matthew 5 and verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Listen to me. When has liberalism, which denies the innate sinfulness of man, man's fallen nature, when has liberalism produced churches filled with men and women who are poor, who are poor in spirit, who gladly sin, vile and full of sin I am?

27:09 Thou art full of truth and grace. Liberalism never produced a church full of people like that. And listen to me, dear ones. Modern evangelicalism isn't producing churches full of people like that.

27:29 Because we have tried to shortcut the work of conversion and bypass the deep plow work of God's holy law, making men deceived, that they have not only done some bad things, but as Paul says, that in me, that is in my flesh, their blood hath no good thing, that they themselves are corrupt to the heart. That's the test. A Pharisee never produced a man who was poor in spirit. All Pharisees could produce were men who'd stand in the temple and lift their eyes to heaven and say, I thank thee, I'm not his other man.

28:02 Notice the next touchstone. Blessed are they that mourn, for they should be comforted.

28:09 When did liberalism ever produce people mourning over their sins? Seeing their sins as that which is offensive to a holy God. Seeing their sins as that which opened up the wounds of the Son of God and caused him to cry out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken?

28:30 Modern evangelicalism with its emphasis on simply nod your head to Jesus and trip into the kingdom with light steps and with a giddy smile upon your face, it isn't producing people who know, who know what it is to mourn in secret for their sins. The only people Jesus said are blessed are those who know what it is to mourn. It's not past tense, it's present. Blessed are they who are mourning.

28:56 Blessed are the meek, the absence of self-will to God and the absence of ill-will to our brethren. Blessed are those that are hungering and thirsting after what? Righteousness. People who long to be holy in heart and mind and motive and thought and deed.

29:15 Jesus said they're the blessed people. Blessed are the people that are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers and people whose commitment to God and righteousness is so marked that it raises the fern of the world and they're the persecuted people because the world can't stand them. They're so utterly different.

29:39 That's the touchstone. To what extent are the Beatitudes being reproduced? When Jesus said by their fruit you'll know them and we seek to evaluate fruit in terms of creed and character and converts, here's the touchstone. Are the Beatitudes being produced in men by the power of the Holy Ghost?

30:02 I tell you, beloved, that's the touchstone I place before my ministry.

30:10 And at times it's awfully humbling because I don't find too many people becoming holy mourners.

30:18 I don't find too many people who are really hungering and thirsting to be holy. Hunger and thirst are not pleasant sensations. They're terribly uncomfortable.

30:30 People are willing to bring interest and ambition subservient to this one great goal to be conformed to Jesus Christ so that it touches what they're going to let them in the eye gate when they watch the TV. It's going to touch what they let come in the ear gate when they're listening to the radio and talking on the phone. People who are desperate enough to be holy to govern their time and their interest and that to which they expose their minds and hearts and thoughts.

31:01 This is the touchstone. The second basis of evaluating the fruit is not only the Beatitudes but Galatians 5, 22 and 23. We need not turn to them and you may if you wish to. Most of us are familiar with them.

31:16 The fruit of the Spirit, only He can produce this in its genuine form, is what? Love. What is love? Not an unprincipled sentiment that simply sits back and just gushes out anywhere under any circumstances.

31:31 But love is that selfless affection that seeks the good of others even at personal cost. God so loved that He gave. Love is that which will make apparent against everything within His own bowels set up standards for His children which even though the children may balk at and chafe at the bit and get angry with you, you'll love them enough not to relax the standards to keep their smile. That's love.

31:58 And only God, the Holy Ghost, can produce it. He knows that.

32:04 Love to my neighbor, it'll speak to him about the Savior even though it means he may treat me coolly.

32:12 Joy, not giddiness. Giddiness is the product of Jackie Gleason or Tony Martin or somebody else, but joy. Jesus said that my joy might be in you. There's no account He ever laughed.

32:28 I'm sure He did, but there's no account that He did. So joy must not be particularly evaluated in terms of a moon-shaped mouth. But joy must not be evaluated in terms of a moon-shaped mouth. No, no.

32:38 Joy is that deep, abiding, inner contentment that all is well between me and my God. True to the Spirit's joy. Joy of the Holy Ghost. That other thing is just the joy of good circumstances.

32:52 I'm saying people feel good when the bills are paid and the sun is shining and they've got a few bucks in the pocket and the car's running fine and the wife is sweet and the kids aren't sick. Boy, you feel wonderful. That's not anything that God produces.

33:05 True joy. Peace. Peace.

33:10 That inner rest that can face the storms and not be shaken by circumstances because God dwells in the midst of that boat as it rides out the storm. Long suffering. Bearing up under the difficult circumstance. Gentleness.

33:27 Gentleness. Dealing with people remembering they're people. They're not stones and stocks and bricks. They're people with feelings.

33:38 We don't run roughshod over them.

33:42 Goodness. Just plain being good. Faith. Meekness.

33:47 Self-control. When we see that being produced in men there's a sign that God's working. Then in Philippians 3 we have another test. Will you look at it?

The Touchstone of True Fruit: No Confidence in the Flesh (Philippians 3 & 1 Corinthians 2)

33:58 Philippians chapter 3. And I trust this won't be the last you look at these. I want you to evaluate your own life in the light of them. I want you to evaluate the ministry of this pulpit.

34:07 The ministry of your Sunday school class. The ministry of a so-called Christian movement or work.

34:16 These are the tests that God has given us by which to evaluate. Philippians 3. Notice what Paul says in verse 3. For we are the circumcision.

34:26 We are the true people of God. Here's the marks. Who worship God in the Spirit. Who rejoice in Christ Jesus.

34:37 And who have no confidence in the flesh. Ah, beloved, there's the test. Is that ministry of the individual or the church or that Christian movie or Christian camp or whatever else it is? Is it producing people who worship God?

34:56 Not people who run around hell to stout or like fidgety little water bugs busy for Jesus. But people who know how to eat what it is to pause in adoring wonder and be lost in worship of their God.

35:12 Remember, we're not producing worshiping people in the whole army.

35:17 Those are the true circumcision who worship God by the Spirit. Secondly, who rejoice not in their decision, not in the fact that they got smart and decided it was time to accept the Lord. No, they rejoice in Christ Jesus. He chose me.

35:40 He laid hold of me. He drew me. He won me. He died for me.

35:44 He lives for me. He will come back for me. Hallelujah. Christ is all and all.

35:51 He said, that's Christian. Isn't that what he says? We are the true circumcision who rejoice in Christ Jesus. And ah, notice the last one.

36:00 Who have no confidence in the flesh.

36:04 And the real proof that a man has no confidence in the flesh is not what he says with his lips, but you watch his methods as he seeks to minister. Listen to me here once.

36:17 The proof that we have no confidence in the flesh is found not in what we say with our lips. Oh God, bless our church. Oh God, save souls. No, no.

36:27 The real proof of where our confidence is is to watch a man's methods. That's the proof. That's the proof.

36:36 Let me give you chapter and verse for it. All right, let's turn over to the great example of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look at the great example of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

36:49 Here's a man who was a true mouthpiece of God, a true spirit-sent teacher of truth.

36:57 Notice what he says in 1 Corinthians 2 beginning with verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

37:21 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. Why? Notice, here's the key. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

37:38 Now, what's Paul saying? I believe he's saying this.

37:42 He said, My confidence was revealed by my method. What was my method when I came to you? He said, I did not come with the methods of rhetorical excellence. I did not come with excellency of speech or of human wisdom.

37:59 I did not come with all the embellishments of a human orator. He said, I deliberately came and planted in front of me a jagged Roman gibbet. And I talked about a bloody cross and about a Lord of glory who came down from heaven and died on that cross and went from the cross back to heaven. And he said, My purpose was this.

38:22 He said, I knew if people responded to my message, they'll respond to one of two things. Either they'll respond to my manipulations as an orator, verse 5, that your faith should not rest in the wisdom of men, or he says, they're going to respond to my manipulations to respond to an operation of the power of God.

38:44 And he said, because I wanted men to respond to an operation of divine power, I chose a method that deliberately cut out the flesh. You got it? Paul's method proved where his confidence was.

39:01 Let me let my hair down and share a deep burden of my own heart. When I was an evangelist for five years, and spoke in churches all across this country and some in Canada, not all across, but out as far as the Midwest, down south and here in the east, you know what I had evangelical pastors tell me again and again and again and again until I just felt I couldn't take it anymore. Men that I loved. Men to whose churches I came with no guarantee of any amount of money, many of them small country churches.

39:35 They say to me, Brother Martin, you can't, you can't build a strong Sunday evening ministry anymore on just preaching. You can't do it. You've got to have a scintillating musical program you've got to have a movie occasionally you've got to have something to get people in people won't come just to hear the word anymore.

40:01 So what'd they do? They showed where their confidence was. They began to adopt methods that were not warranted in the word of God. And then, listen, listen, having adopted their own methods, then they have the audacity to pray that God will own their message by a method that they have themselves conceived.

40:30 You see, those dear men told me something. They were telling me where their confidence was. It wasn't in the God who could send the spirit of spiritual hunger and bring man to hear the word of God. Their confidence was in a gimmick that could get people in.

40:48 Do you think it's just happenstance? We've never used any of those methods to get a crowd in this place. No, dear ones, this is purposeful action.

41:03 Do you know that our Sunday night audience here has just about doubled over the past four years? Our Sunday morning crowd has dropped off. And that's not by accident either. I would be giving lie to the confession of my lips when I say my confidence is in God the Holy Ghost to build the church of Christ in this place and then to adopt methods that are geared to the wisdom of the world and will produce a response to that wisdom instead of the method that leaves us in the place where either God comes or God.

41:42 Or either God comes upon us by the Holy Ghost or we fold up blessed place to be. Because if God's done with us it's time we fold it up. But I don't believe He is.

41:56 I believe that God wants to vindicate His name and His cause in this generation and this community and to build an assembly on Bible method the method of which will declare to the world our confidence is not in the flesh but in the living God.

42:15 And I wouldn't even get upset if some of you believed that if you said, oh man, I hope some of you do.

42:21 Because if you don't we're going to be uncomfortable in the same book.

42:28 That's the test. We're the circumcision. No confidence in the flesh.

The Purpose of God's Work: His Glory Alone (Isaiah 61)

42:36 You say, Pastor, why is that the acid test? Well, you turn to a passage in Isaiah 61 and say, you're jumping all over the place this morning. Well, if I can get a verse to explain a passage I'm confident that what God says about it is far more authoritative than my comments. So, will you look at Isaiah 61 for a moment?

42:58 Then several words of application and we're done.

43:05 Isaiah 61, verse 1. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me. This is a messianic passage speaking of the Lord Jesus. He quotes it in Luke chapter 4 as fulfilled in himself.

43:17 Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, now here it is, get it, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified.

43:59 You see what the Lord said? He says when Messiah comes anointed of the Spirit with a mission of salvation, he is going to do things in people that are so obviously the work of God that people will stand back and say, that's God's work, let us bless and glorify his name and his name alone. Isn't that what it says? They shall be called trees of the Lord, trees of righteousness, the planting of God that he may be glorified.

44:28 Does that remind you of a New Testament passage?

44:32 Jesus said, Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. And what is the fruit? The fruit is that which only God can produce, those characteristics of the Beatitudes, the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, those three characteristics of Philippians 3, worshiping him in the Spirit, glorying in Christ Jesus, gladly confessing he's our only hope for time and eternity, and putting no cost on the flesh. Only the confidence in the flesh.

45:04 Only the master workman can produce that.

Application to Ministers: Producing God's Fruit or Mistaking Man's Work

45:09 Now by way of application, I speak this morning to every Sunday school teacher, I speak to my own heart, I speak to every future pastor and missionary and preacher. Will you listen carefully?

45:23 You can produce converts to your system of doctrine that may be true and straight as a gun barrel. You can produce people who be zealous for that system of doctrine and would give their lives for it. But you can't produce poverty of spirit, mourning over sin, true meekness, submission to God, a heart that hungers to be holy, a life that seeks to make peace in a troubled world, a life that's so different from the world that it brings the scorn and the rebuff of the world. You can't do that.

46:03 And when you face that, it's going to do one of two things to you.

46:07 It's going to either drive you down on your face to where you're crying, to the God who alone can do it, and keep you there until he's pleased to do it. Well, you know what you're going to do?

46:18 You're going to begin to mistake that which you can produce for that which only God can produce and think it's fruit. And because you've got that kid in your class or because a pastor, you as a pastor or missionary, have somebody who nods to your doctrine, who gets into the straitjacket of your regulations and doesn't do this and doesn't do that and doesn't go here and go there and is full of zeal to propagate those things, you'll say, oh, that's fruit. No, it may not be.

46:44 If it's devoid of the Beatitudes of Galatians 5 and Philippians 3, it's not good fruit. That's pretty searching. It makes you feel pretty helpless then. And that's why Paul said, I came to you in weakness, fear, and tremor.

47:08 Was he a young seminarian preaching his first sermon before the school? No, he was an experienced missionary.

47:22 Because he realized only God could provide and produce the fruit that he longed to see.

Application to Believers: The Church's Purpose and God's Desire for Quality in Quantity

47:29 That's my word of application to you. My word of application to you as members and friends of this assembly or whatever church you attend, and I trust you'll listen with equal eagerness. What are we here for? Certainly not just to listen to somebody preach to us.

47:44 We're here, all of us, not only to attend to the word of God and by the word to be built up, but Ephesians 4 says that we are to be built up unto the work of ministering. Now, what is the work of ministry? In this church, to be busy doing something somehow for some end? No.

48:03 But under God, to be coordinated together into a working unit, an instrument in the hand of God, through which he can produce in men poverty of spirit, mourning for sin, meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, purity of heart, worship in the spirit, glorying in Christ, no confidence in the flesh, that's what God's put us here to do.

48:34 Now, that'll help you. If the place begins to grow and attendance begins to get big, don't say, oh, boy, God must really be blessing. No, no. It just may be proof that we're doing some good promoting.

48:49 But we've got to ask ourselves, do we see these things being produced in the hearts of men? We're not to be instruments to do something somehow, but to be instruments of God to produce what only he can produce. You say, well, pastor, then? Is it an axiom that if we're going to be spiritual, we have to be small?

49:07 No. God's desire is not quality or quantity. Don't put these as enemies, but God's desire is quality in quantity. Chapter and verse, all right?

49:21 Romans 8, whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. God wants quality. He's going to have people made into the moral likeness of Jesus Christ. But my Bible also says, and I beheld and saw a great multitude which no man could number out of every tribe and kindred and tongue and nation.

49:45 God's going to have quantity as well.

49:50 What should our desire be? Exactly what God says. Quality in quantity. Put in that order.

50:00 And let us unite our hearts and bow before God that by his grace we shall pray, preach, witness, teach, pass out tracts, plead with men, cry to God that he would send his spirit upon us, that we might see men broken over their sin, come to see Christ by the revelation of the spirit and abandon their lives to him. Let's pray that God might visit our whole community. Let's not be stringent in our prayers. Let's not have narrow desires.

50:33 Let us never, on the other hand, forget that multitudes and crowds of themselves mean the world, and refuse to ever lower either the standard of God for our message, our method, or what we evaluate as valid fruit. And it's only as we as a church come to understand. It's not enough that I as a pastor and a few spiritual leaders, the elders and a few others, but it's when we as a church understand this, see it and know it, that we shall be able to move ahead intelligently and prayerfully. And God alone knows what his purposes of grace for us may be.

Final Warning and Call to Mercy

51:08 By their fruits ye shall know them, the fruit of their creed, the fruit of their character, the fruit of their converts. And my Bible says, and we'll deal with it next week, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Listen to me, dear friend, you may not be here next week, and if those things are not in you, if you don't know what it is to see your sin, so that it drives you down in emptiness, pleading for mercy, you may not be from the hand of a sovereign Christ.

51:42 God says you'll be cut down and cast into the fire. If you do not worship God in the spirit, glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh, you're none of his. And I plead with you to seek mercy from the hand of this Christ, who spoke these sober words to his people then, and who speaks them to us today. Let us unite our hearts in prayer.

52:15 Our Lord, we pray that we may be able to see you again. We pray that your word shall come to our hearts with power and with clarity, and that as your people we will understand what you meant when you said, by their fruits ye shall know them. O Lord, make us a discerning people. Deliver us from that gullibility that swallows everything that comes with a flair of Bible and with some kind of an atmosphere of Christianity.

52:44 Deliver us from hyper critical spirit. For you've said that your true people are peacemakers as well as those who hunger after righteousness. So give us that unique combination of discernment coupled with Christian grace and tenderness. O our Father, only you can keep us from those twin errors of gullibility or a hyper critical attitude.

53:13 Keep us from either of them, our Father. And may your word lead us into the kingdom of God. Into that razor's edge experience of being both discerning and yet loving. We pray for those among us who are strangers to those blessings of your word, who know nothing of true poverty of spirit, who've never fled to Christ empty and naked and pled for mercy from his hand.

53:40 O Lord, may your word today cause them to begin to seek after you and to find mercy. And for each one of us, as you see we have need, seal the word to our hearts. Take us to our homes to meditate upon it.

54:00 Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit abide with each one we ask through Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.