Every Good Tree Bringeth Forth Good Fruit

Prayer for Illumination and Welcome to Visitors

0:04 Our Lord, we acknowledge again this morning that it is destructive to human pride to acknowledge once again that without you we can do nothing, that unless you are pleased to open the eyes of our understanding, we shall look upon the pages of this book with unseeing eyes, we shall hear the utterance of its truth with unhearing ears. O God, be pleased this morning because we plead with the psalmist, open thou our eyes and we shall behold wondrous things out of thy love.

0:48 Speak now for the glory of your name and for the good of our own hearts. Thank you.

1:02 We have an unusually large number of visitors, friends among us this morning. It's a great joy to look out and see my own mother and dad who bore with me so long before I...

1:13 flew the coop and got out on my own. Bud Ayler, formerly high B.A. director in the area with us, Mr. and Mrs. Will Metzger,

1:24 staff workers with InterVarsity, some friends from NIAC, I see, students.

1:31 We certainly welcome each of you here.

Review: The Narrow Gate and Warning Against False Prophets

1:35 But it's particularly difficult when one is preaching really the last part of a message that never got finished last week. And so it would be necessary this morning to...

1:46 perhaps review with a little bit more detail than we normally do so that you visitors who are with us especially might catch the train of thought and feel the full weight of that which we seek to consider this morning. In our studies of the Sermon on the Mount, we have come to a very key section in that sermon, what we might call the application of the entire sermon beginning with verse 13. Matthew chapter 7 and verse 13. In the preceding parts of the sermon, our Lord has laid out with great clarity the characteristics of the members of His kingdom.

2:28 He has laid out the rules, and I don't hesitate to use that term, for they are gracious rules. The rules, the principles by which they are to be governed within the framework of His kingdom.

2:45 And now we come to this section in which He is urging upon men, men to enter His kingdom and to be wary as they enter lest they come under false direction. So in verse 13, our Lord says in the imperative, Enter ye in. There is but one way to enter the kingdom of grace, and that is by the experience of true conversion. And it's a difficult and a rare thing, for our Lord said it was a straight gate or a narrow gate, and it led to a compression, or a narrow way, and at the end of the gate in the way there is life.

3:25 But for anyone to seek eternal life and bypass the narrow gate of sound conversion and the narrow way of true biblical holiness, that person is entertaining a delusion, for it's the gate, the way, and the life. And in that order,

3:46 men having commanded us to enter, our Lord warns us, in the next imperative in verse 15, Beware of false prophets, for it's only those who are concerned, a narrow gate, and a successful walk upon the narrow way who would be prone to receive false directions about that gate and about that way. And so to the same body of...

The Question of 'What Do Ye More Than Others?'

4:12 I'm thinking all... Hey, that, I don't look at this, I don't think that.

4:25 We could have a lot of those. But the Lord doesn't ask you that question this morning. He does not...

4:29 He does not say, What don't you do that others do? But this is what He says, What do ye more than others? What positive evidence do you have that things are being produced in your life which bear no explanation but that Almighty God has made you a new creature in Christ?

4:48 Well, you say, I go to church and my neighbors don't. Ah, but thousands and millions are going to church this morning who are as graceless as a dog. Well, I go twice on Sunday. The Pharisees, they did more than that.

5:03 They even fasted twice a week.

5:07 Ah, but I prayed. So did they. They made long prayers. They didn't have little five-minute devotional books.

5:12 They made long prayers.

5:17 Yes, so did they. They tithed mint and anise and cum. What do ye more than others? That's the question.

5:23 That's the issue that the Spirit of God would press upon our consciences this morning.

5:29 And I soberly ask you, do you have that fruit in your life manifested in a positive way which only God Himself can produce? And you know what it is?

Good Fruit Defined: The Beatitudes

5:44 Well, there you go. Taking us back to the Beatitudes. That's right. Because there it is.

5:48 When we looked at the converts of the false prophet, we were looking at the character of those converts and we evaluated them not in terms of numbers, not in terms of zeal, or in terms of buildings they produce, for the flesh can do this. God does that. There are times when God moves in multitudes, swept into the profession of Christianity, and to house them great buildings must be built. But multitudes are adhering to Christless systems and building great cathedrals as monuments to that system.

6:21 So the decisive proof of the genuineness of our fruit in terms of converts is not size, is not numbers, is not zeal, but the decisive proof is this. Are the Beatitudes being produced in those who say they are coming to conversion under my ministry? Because only God can make a man poor in spirit. Only God can show me the desperate plight of the heart that my mother and father gave me.

6:52 Only God can show me the horror of sin as criminal offense against the Holy God. Only God can produce poverty of spirit so that I gladly acknowledge I am nothing, I have nothing, I can do nothing apart from the grace of God. It's only God that can produce holy, only mourning for sin. Blessed are they who mourn, not who mourn the past tense, but who are mourning present tense.

7:20 For repentance to be sincere must be perpetual. Blessed are the meek, those who have an absence of self-will to God and an absence of ill-will to their brethren. Blessed are those who hunger and who thirst after righteousness. They long to be holy.

7:39 Blessed are the pure, the pure in heart.

7:45 That's the positive fruit that only God can produce. What do ye more than others? Do you know anything of the Beatitudes experimentally?

7:56 Could you right now with the absolute honesty that you'll be forced to have in the day of judgment, could you open your Bible to Matthew 9 and drop to your knees right where you are, Matthew 5, I'm sorry. I'm not going to ask you to do it, but could you?

8:14 With that same honesty that you'll be forced to have in the day of judgment, could you drop to your knees and looking over those Beatitudes, could you say, Oh God, I know they are not there to the extent they ought to be. And Lord, you know that I long that they be more fully manifested in my life. But could you say, in the presence of God, Lord, I do know at least a little bit what it is to be poor in spirit. How well I remember how the Holy Spirit first stripped me down Can you say that?

8:51 How I can recall that day by day as I seek His face and read the Word, He shows me increasingly my weakness and the terrible tendencies of my human heart that it's a veritable tinderbox of all forms of iniquity. And so I call upon God day by day that He would keep me from sin. When I pray, lead me not into temptation. God knows I'm not uttering words.

9:17 Can you say that?

9:20 When He says, I am blessed. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. Do you know what it is,

9:28 alone with God, to mourn your sin?

9:32 Do you?

9:35 Do you? That hasty word to the wife or husband, that unkind word that cut your brother or sister, maybe it wasn't even meaning to do it at the time, but upon recollection you realized you're hurt. Is there an inward pain that sends you down before God saying, David, against thee and thee only have I sinned. Have mercy.

9:56 Upon me, O God.

10:00 Dear ones, I'm not just taking up time to fill up a sermon. This is a matter of life and death. This is good fruit. Jesus said the only blessed people in time and eternity are people who manifest these graces worked in them by the Spirit.

10:14 Blessed are the meek. Could you go down through on your knees this morning, young people, adults, and say, God, by your grace, I must be a blessed man or a blessed woman because I see these things in me that I know Adam could never, could never have produced. Lord, you've done it by your grace and the power of your Spirit. That's good fruit.

10:37 And every tree that bringeth not forth this good fruit shall be hung down and cast into the fire. For as surely as our Lord says, blessed are the poor in spirit is doing no injustice to the main drift of divine revelation to say, cursed is everyone who is rich in spirit who knows what it is to mourn. Blessed are those who do not hunger and thirst after righteousness, cursed are those who are not pure in heart.

Good Fruit Defined: Galatians 5, Philippians 3, Ephesians 2

11:15 Good fruit is not only the Beatitudes, but as we saw last week in examining the converts of the false prophet, good fruit is Galatians 5, 22 and 23. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Not a principle-less sentiment that gushes out in a general sort of way, but love that is the product of the Spirit that is like unto God's love. That selfless affection that seeks to be loved by God.

11:41 That selfless affection that seeks the good of its object even at personal cost. That's the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering. Philippians 3, these are the true circumcision who worship God by the Spirit. Listen, dear ones, it's not enough that you're not found worshiping idols this morning.

12:00 Do you worship the living God by the Spirit? That's the proof that you're His. We are the true circumcision, Paul says in Philippians 3, verse 3, who worship God by the Spirit, who glorify, glory in Christ Jesus. It's not enough that you don't glory in a false God, but do you glory in the true and the living God?

12:22 And it says, who put no confidence in the flesh.

12:28 Now, he said, those are the true people of God. And what are they? Three positive evidences. They worship by the Spirit.

12:37 They glory in Christ. They put no confidence in the flesh. Ephesians 2.10, in the context of those well-known words, by grace you say through faith, and that not of yourselves.

12:49 It is the gift of God, even the faith,

12:53 not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unstopping the bad works. But what does it say? Created in Christ Jesus.

13:08 Unto what? Unto the only proof I can have that I have been quickened anew and created in Christ is the production of the bad works. The positive production of good works.

13:29 Why is this? So, for the simple reason as one honored servant of God has said, there is no innocent sterility in the invisible tree of the heart. There is no innocent sterility in the invisible tree of the heart. You see, truth rightly received always produces fruit.

13:46 Listen to Paul's word to the church at Colossae. When he reviews how the gospel came to them in chapter 1, verses 3 to 6, we give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which He had to all the saints, for the hope that is laid up for you in heaven. Now notice, where long ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you as it is in all the world, and bringeth forth as it doth also in you since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in truth.

14:31 Oh, get this. When the grace of God comes and that grace is communicated by the word of the truth of the gospel wherever it is savingly embraced, it always produces fruit. Positive fruit. Beatitude fruit.

14:50 Galatians 5 fruit. Philippians 3 fruit. Ephesians 2 fruit. That's the fruit.

14:59 You read it again in the history of that church at Thessalonica. Paul says in chapter 1, similar words, chapter 1 beginning with verse 3.

15:11 Verse 4, Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God, how our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Verse 6, Ye became followers of us and of the Lord. Verse 7, Ye were in samples to all that believed. Verse 8, For from you sounded out the word of the Lord.

15:33 Now get verse 9. For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God. You see, Paul said the thing that was a manifestation that the truth had come with power and not with word only was not that they merely quit serving idols,

15:57 but that their service was redirected to the living and to the true God. Positive fruit. Now we could take many other passages, but these will suffice to bring home the principle. Our Lord said every tree that brings not good fruit shall be hewn down.

16:13 Why? Because that's a tree that has never savingly embraced the truth. For when the truth is savingly embraced, it always produces fruit. The fruit that only God by the Holy Ghost can produce in life.

Two Great Errors: Theoretical vs. Practical Heresy

16:27 So if there is no production of fruit, there is no embracing of the truth. And if there's no embracing of the truth, there is no salvation. You see, one of the great, errors or two great errors that have plagued the Church of Christ in all of its history is that men err either in the area of the theoretical aspects of Christianity or Christian truth or in the practical aspects. Now follow closely because if we get hung up on either one of these horns, then the truth of the text will stand as a witness to our folly.

17:10 The core of the gospel is this. Number one, that sinful men are restored to the favor of God, entirely on the basis of the doings and sufferings of Christ. Get it? Upon what basis may sinful men be restored to the favor of God?

17:28 Sin has brought His disfavor. How can I get back into His favor? The gospel message is this, that sinful men are restored to the favor of God entirely, no pluses, entirely on the basis of the doings and sufferings of Christ. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ.

17:51 Second principle under that, sinful men become partakers of those benefits of Christ's sufferings entirely by faith. It will be a penitent faith, yes. It will be a faith that will lead to something else, but there is no other hand that can reach up and take the provisions of God but the hand of faith. Now in the area of the theoretical knowledge of the gospel, thousands have been dashed to pieces on the rocks of spiritual shipwreck because they didn't know those two things and embraced them.

18:25 The only basis of restoration to God's favor, the doings and sufferings of Christ entirely. How do I partake of those doings and sufferings? Entirely by faith. You see, the church of Rome leads multitudes into delusion because she adds to the sufferings of Christ the merit of our works and the church's and the sacraments and the saints.

18:52 And she clutters up the way to the Savior with all the accoutrements of a decadent religious system.

19:00 Liberalism. It would make man his own savior. We evangelicals, we stand on those two principles. I trust we do, don't we?

19:07 I hope I'm not speaking out of turn. Don't you believe that the only basis that you can be restored to the favor of God is the sufferings and doings of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that?

19:19 Are you convinced that the only way you become partaker of the benefits is entirely by faith? I trust you are. Now there are two other principles revealed with equal clarity in the Word of God. Listen to them now.

19:33 Here's the first one. All who become partakers of the favor of God through faith, based on the doings and sufferings of Christ, all, without exception, are partakers of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 and 9, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of His. They are made partakers of the Holy Spirit and by that infusion of the life of God they become new creatures.

20:04 If any man be in Christ by faith, he is a what? New creature. Without exception, whether it's a five-year-old or a fifty-year-old, if any be in Christ, new creature. Now get the second principle that flows out of it.

20:19 All who are made new creatures will manifest it by a new life. Expressed in walking the narrow road of Bible holiness. For my Bible says,

20:34 Romans 6, 22, being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. Hebrews 12, 14, follow after the holiness without which no man will see the Lord. Matthew 5, 8, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. And those two principles are revealed with equal clarity that those who partake of the benefits of Christ by faith are also partakers of the Holy Spirit and are made new creatures and a new creature will be manifest in a changed life expressed in walking the narrow road.

The Damning Nature of Theoretical Heresy (1 John 2:21-23)

21:11 Liberalism and Romanism have denied the first two principles. I'm thinking particularly now of liberalism that would take away our supernatural Savior and take away a supernatural salvation. And what does God say about that system? We return to 1 John.

21:25 I want us this morning to look at two texts within the same chapter. 1 John chapter 2 verses 21 and 22, 23.

21:44 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth but because ye know it and that no lie is of the truth.

21:53 But he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ he is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son whoso denieth the Son the same hath not the Father. See what God says about the Jehovah's Witnesses and about liberalism that would give us a merely human Savior or even wonder if we can know there ever was such a person as a historical Christ. God says the person who denies that is a liar. He has no part in God if he does not embrace the Son as revealed in the Scriptures who is true God and true man the anointed Messiah the only Savior of sinners.

22:30 Now we're pretty straight on that, aren't we? And where do all liars go? Revelation 21.8 All liars have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.

22:38 Now we're pretty straight on that. That when people come along with theoretical heresy we recognize it we label it and we run from it. And thank God for that. May we ever run from it.

The Damning Nature of Practical Heresy (1 John 2:3-4)

22:49 But dear ones there's a heresy in the area of practical experience that is just as damning as heresy in the realm of theory. For if you'll turn back to the early verses of the same chapter there's another person called a liar. And all liars will go to the same place. Notice chapter 2 verses 3 and 4.

23:10 Hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith I know him I know that there's no way to be restored to his favor but through the doings and sufferings of Christ and I know that there's no way to partake of the benefits of his doings and sufferings but by faith and I have believed I know him.

23:35 Notice what he says. The person who makes that profession and does not keep his commandments is not earnest in knowing and doing the will of God not perfectly but purposefully.

23:50 What is he? He is a liar and the truth is not in him. Follow me now.

24:00 And the man whose lie is in the realm of practice will perish as the man whose lie of his doctrine and his theory. For the same Holy Ghost labels both of them liars.

24:17 The Holy Ghost says in Revelation 21.8 all liars whether theoretical or practical shall be cast into the lake of fire. And would to God that there would come upon the evangelical church an awareness of this aspect of truth that is justice clearly revealed in the scripture for the pain of my heart is not that you dear people here may perish through embracing a heretical theory.

24:45 I fear that some of you are about to perish unless you repent and flee to God for mercy because of heresy in the realm of your experience.

Evidences of Practical Heresy in the Church

24:59 Oh you say what you said. None of us are running around. Chasing somebody else's wife in the best of your knowledge. Yes.

25:06 But where are the positive fruits of the Beatitudes of Galatians 5 of Philippians 3.

25:17 Some of you have no desire apparently to pray.

25:21 Never see you at a prayer meeting. Some of you are providentially hindered from coming. I realize that. Don't think that as your pastor I've judged you and written you off because you don't come to prayer meeting.

25:30 No, no. But some of you know the reason you aren't here is because you have no heart to seek God. You have no heart for the interest of his kingdom. And that concerns me because one of the positive fruits of a man who is born of God is he wants others to know his God.

25:59 And he knows that somehow God is linked to prayers of his people with the precipitation of spiritual blessing and the quickening of sinners.

26:10 I'm concerned because I know that some of you have no private closet life of prayer and study of the word of God. You don't crack a Bible from Sunday to Sunday. That concerns me because one of the positive fruits of a Christian is that he keeps the commandments of God and if he's going to keep them he's got to know them. And so Jesus said he that hath my commandments is he that loves me.

26:32 So the proof of my love is that I go to my Lord and ask him to show me his will.

26:43 Is your heresy in the realm of theory? I doubt it. But it could be in the realm of practice.

How to Become a Good Tree: Look to Christ

26:50 I conclude this morning by asking or answering this question that I trust is uppermost in the minds of some. If Jesus said every tree that brings not forth good fruit shall be hewn down, and cast into the fire. And as I seek to be honest in the presence of God I must confess I don't see that good fruit of the Beatitudes in me. How can I become a good tree?

27:12 For Jesus said make the tree good and then it's fruit good. Don't start to try to produce fruit out here for fruit is but the expression of the nature of the tree. And our Lord recognizes He said you've got to change the tree and then the fruit will be changed as a result. And so the problem is not that you're not reading your Bible enough.

27:30 The problem is not that you don't come to prayer meeting or witness. No, no. That's a manifestation of the problem. The problem is you've got a bad tree.

27:37 Bad heart. Now you need to apply yourself to the one who can change the heart. The one who said I will take out the heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my laws within your heart and I will cause you to keep my statutes and to do my judgments. Ezekiel chapter 36.

27:59 What must you do to become a good tree? You must look away from yourself and fix the gaze of your soul upon Christ as he's offered in the gospel. For the scripture says without faith it is impossible to please him. For faith unites us to Christ and it's only as we're joined to him that there can be good fruit.

28:20 Romans 7 says that we might be married to another that we might bring forth fruit unto God. There must be union before there can be production of fruit. And so the scripture says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto fruit unto good works. If any man be in Christ all things are passed away.

28:42 Behold all things have become new. So you must look to the Savior in faith.

28:49 You must call on God to renew you by his spirit for they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You must call on God to renew you by his spirit for they that are in the flesh cannot please God. There is no good fruit unless it flows from faith. Unless it flows from a heart that's been transformed by the spirit.

Abounding in Righteousness for Assurance and Final Exhortation

29:10 Then to those of us who by the grace of God can say weekly many times feebly and falteringly I see a little glimmer of hope as I look at the Beatitudes. I see a little glimmer of hope as I look at Galatians 5 and Philippians 3 and Ephesians 2. What should be our prayer in the light of this? Our prayer should be the prayer of Paul for the church at Philippi when he said this I pray for you I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in all knowledge and discernment that ye may approve the things that are excellent that ye may be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.

29:53 You'll never have more confident assurance of your standing before God than when by his grace you are most productive of the fruits of righteousness. That's why the Lord said to the church at Ephesus who'd lost their first love what did he tell them to do? Sit around and contemplate until they got it back again? He said no.

30:10 Repent he said and do the first works. You just set out to get back in that book that you've been neglecting. You just set out to begin to take your responsibility of being a witness and as the fruits of righteousness begin to abound the intensity or the degree of your assurance will increase and in so doing you make your calling and your election sure. Isn't that what Peter said?

30:35 He said if you do these things don't sit around and contemplate get up and move and do the revealed will of God and in so doing God will bring corresponding blessing into your life.

30:51 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. May God grant that we shall honestly face this text now while the offer of mercy is still extended and we shall lest we be faced with its terrible consequences in that day when the door of mercy is forever shut and barred and sealed by the hand of an omnipotent God. Is there good fruit? What do ye more than others?

31:24 What is there about you that's got no explanation but that God has done a work of grace? That's the only question I ask this morning. Explain it any other way but God if he hasn't you cry to him and continue to cry plead his promises until the God who knows your heart witnesses to that heart and evidences in that life that he has savingly joined you to himself. Let us pray.

32:09 Our Father as we have held before our minds the sobering words of our Lord Jesus Christ we confess again that we know that no man could have written this book.

32:27 O Lord surely your word is a two-edged sword that pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And O we plead for the grace of spiritual honesty. Help us not to dodge and excuse and rationalize but O our Lord for those among us today who have no positive evidences of the working of your grace may the text of your word be burned into their hearts by the spirit until they are they seek and seek you earnestly and look away to your son and plead his mercy

33:11 and plead the promises of his grace to all who come unto you by him. O our Father we plead today you may use your word to move some to yourself and then we plead for us as your people that you'd help us in our concern for loved ones and neighbors. Help us not to be content that they merely conform to the do's and don'ts of our little group but may we long to see those positive evidences of grace which only you can produce. To this end seal your word to our hearts keep us from that carelessness of mind and speech that would grieve your spirit

33:54 dismiss us with the consciousness of your hand resting upon us we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.