Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Known by Your Fruit - Luke 6:43-45

If you would open up your bibles with me to our text for today.

We're going to be in the Gospel of Luke chapter six. We're gonna be

reading verses forty three to forty five. If you're counting correctly, that is

three verses. If you don't have a Bible, we have some available for

you in the back. Please help yourself to one so that you're able to

follow along with us this evening. We'll also have it up here on the

screen, but I do encourage you to have your own Bible as well,

so I hope you're there with me. We're gonna read it Luke chapter six

versus. Starting in versus forty three, let's read. No good tree bears

bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is

recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes or grapes

from briars. A good man brings good things out of the goods stored up

in his heart, and an evil man brings out of the evil sort up

in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of,

says God's word. Let's pray or God, we give you this time,

and we thank you so much that we could to be here together worshiping your

great name. We asked that as we've opened your word and already sung your

praises, that you've already begun to work in our hearts, that as this

word goes forth, or God, it would not return void. We would

not return empty, Lord God, but as your word goes forth, it

would pierce our hearts and start to plow and dig in and take root in

our lives, or God, that we would look more like you. So

we just asked the Lord God that we'd sit here expecting and ready to listen

for the word that we have for us today, and it would be all

to your glory and things in Jesus name. Everyone said amen. So several

weeks ago, actually not weeks ago, it was actually months at this point,

my wife and I and a handful of us from the church got to

attend a local parenting conference and it was actually super dope. It was about

shepherding your child's heart. The whole kind of main idea being instead of just

trying to correct external behavior, actually learning how to get to the heart or

the root of the issue and learning to shepherd that because that that actually determines

what comes out of the person, right. And it was kind of funny

because the pastor who was leading this seminar he gave this example, or I

think it was his brother in law. It was kind of ridiculous either way.

He was telling this story about a man who had a fruit tree in

his front yard and the tree was dead and didn't produce any fruit, and

his wife one day expressed to this man how much she wished that she could

look outside and see fresh fruit hanging from this tree that was sitting in their

front yard. That she wished that she could just go out there and pluck

a piece of fruit off this tree and get to enjoy it for herself.

And so the husband, loving his wife while his wife went away one day,

went to the local grocery store and picked up a bunch of fresh fruit

out of the produce section and went home and proceeded to start taping it and

hanging it from the tree. Now, very quickly we see that this is

kind of an absurd or ridiculous picture or even solution to this problem, because

ultimately what's happening here is is he's not fixing the real problem. The tree

was dead at its core. This tree was never going to produce any fruit.

All the husband had done was tried to fix the external invisible problems,

but didn't deal with the internal problem. Now today, that is what we

are going to be seeing our Lord Jesus addressing. We have been going through

a series going through the Gospel of Luke. This isn't just a one off

message, but we've actually been going verse by verse through the Gospel of Luke.

And we titled this series Luke the Orderly Account of Truth. I don't

know if we have that side there we go Luke the Orderly Account of Truth.

In the series Luke, the writer has been taking us step by step

through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. So that and he's been laying

this account out so that we can know the exact truth about who Jesus is

and have certainty regarding our Lord Jesus. And it'd be a lot to recap

and go over what we've been going over the last several months, and so

I encourage you to go check it up or check it out if you haven't

been following along with us. We started at the very beginning of Luke and

we've worked our way here to chapter six. Where we find ourselves today is

actually in a section of a message that Jesus was preaching. We have been

breaking it down, and what we've been examining. We've instead of just letting

or going through the entire message and letting it kind of speak for itself,

which it already does. That we being that we're not or I'll say,

at least myself, I have to slow down when I'm reading Jesus. And

I also think it's good sometimes that we do slow down when we're reading Jesus

because he has a lot to say, and sometimes we're like, all right,

I read my chapter for the day. I did it, you know,

I got to move on from my Bible reading, but actually slowing down

and going, hey, what is Jesus actually trying to say here? And

so we've actually gotten to do that. We're still looking at the big picture

of what Jesus has been preaching through this message, but we've been kind of

taking it section by section, breaking it down, making sure that we're really

plumbing the depths of what Jesus is trying to get at. Jesus had started

this message preaching to his disciples about what it truly means to be blessed,

and this ultimately culminated in the fact that those who were persecuted because of the

name of Jesus were actually blessed. Jesus then went on to speak how we

are to treat our enemies, how we are to treat others, that we're

to love them with undeserved kindness, and the reason being because our heavenly Father

has shown us compassion and kindness when we have not deserved it. Then we

saw last week Jesus spoke of how we are to deal with the addressing sin

in other people's lives. I don't know how called out you guys felt,

but that was pretty convicting for me last week. How we are to addressing

sin in other people's lives, That we are to make sure that we are

to humble ourselves and deal with our own sin first and in the proper way,

and then to use the measure of judgment and forgiveness that we would want

others to use on us. That that would be our starting place. And

now we get to today's text talking about fruit. And if you're taking notes,

today's message is titled Known by Your Fruit, Known by Your Fruit.

Like I said today, we only have three verses, really excited because there's

a lot in these three verses. We need to remember that Jesus here is

preaching an entire message. There weren't any verses or section breaks when Jesus was

preaching. He was going straight through preaching. But we have been breaking it

down chunk by chunk to make sure that we're truly understanding what's being said here.

That is very, very important. We need to remember the context as

context is, Jesus is not just speaking to a couple of his disciples,

but he's speaking to a great crowd of his disciples. There's people from all

over the place who are there to listen to Jesus. He's been teaching them

what they can expect after their follow or while following him, and how they're

to act towards others, and how they're supposed to act towards others when other

people are treating them unfair because of following Jesus. And Jesus has been doing

practical kind of lesson after practical lesson, which has actually been really cool for

us as a church because it's practical. Messages are really nice because there's something

really easy to grab onto, right Okay, well, I need to work

on how I'm calling out sinning other people's lives. It's going to work on

that this week. You know, I want to work on loving my enemies.

I want to continue working on that one. You know, we've gotten

to work through these and now Jesus is kind of turning his teaching a little

bit to get to the heart or the crux of this of his teaching.

So if you're taking notes, you can write this down for our first point.

Our first point is the source determines the fruit, and the fruit reveals

the source. Let's look at it, Luke. Our first two verses,

We're going to tack them right now. Says no good tree bears bad fruit,

nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by

its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes or grapes from

briars. Here, Jesus puts it plainly. A good tree doesn't produce bad

fruit. Tracking we're with you, Jesus, go on, But a good

tree produces what good fruit? Same with a bad tree. It does not

bear good fruit, but bad fruit. So how do you know if a

tree is a good tree or a bad tree? Well, Jesus is putting

it plain as day. You look at the fruit. This is how the

tree is recognized. You know, an apple tree is an apple tree.

Why there's apples on it? Right, This is not this isn't a hard

message, guys. Just to be clear, this isn't like a hard message

to preach. It's gonna hurt. It's gonna sting a little. We might

be limping out of here today. But that's okay. You know we are.

God's a great physician, he's a healer. We're all right. So

this is like I just want to say that I feel like maybe that would

be helpful to get it out of the way. This is not a hard

message, but this message is probably gonna hurt. Okay, you're bearing with

me, all right. So you know an apple tree is an apple tree

because as apples on it. Now, when you take an apple off of

that tree, take a bite into it, you're going to very quickly find

out whether whether or not that is a good apple tree or a bad apple

tree. It's gonna be very very clear. A tree and the fruit that

it bears are one in the same. A tree in the fruit that it

bears are one and the same. A good tree will produce good fruit or

will produce bad fruit, thus revealing that it's actually a bad tree. How

many times can I repeat myself? Guys? So, yes, the source

will determine the fruit that it bears. That is true. Whatever is that

the source. If it's a good tree, it will bear good fruit.

What Jesus is saying here, what he's actually trying to get at, is

that the source, what's actually inside, what's going on in there, is

revealed or known by the fruit that is being born or that it is bearing.

It's pretty straightforward. And this isn't the only place that Jesus uses uses

this example. He actually elaborates it in different places. And so we're gonna

look there. In Matthew seven, Jesus is warning the people about false prophets

that are gonna come in and create in among the disciples, and how they

are to recognize them. Let's look at it. Matthew seven, verses fifteen

through twenty says, watch out for false prophets. They come to you in

sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Okay, so out externally

they look away, but internally they are a wolf coming in among the sheep.

Jesus tells us how we're to recognize them. He says, buy their

fruit, you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from or from thornbushes

or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but

a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit,

and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. I can't get in trouble for

repeating myself, Okay, Jesus is very clearly. He's trying to make this

point so clear. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down

and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize

them. So as we see, Jesus tells us to look at the fruit

and to find out who among us are false prophets. So that is one

of the way that we can look out among us and see who are these

people who are trying to creep in? Who are these wolves? Because outwardly,

initially they don't seem like they're wolves, but they are. And how

are you going to recognize them? Well, it's by their fruit. Something

that's kind of good to remember is fruit doesn't happen overnight. Usually that's a

culmination of months and weeks takes time. But these people they might profess what

these these these false prophets might look like, these people coming into the fold.

This might be a person who professes to fall Christ, but there's absolutely

no way you would know it from looking at their life. If their coworkers

heard they were Christians, they'd be like, really, are you sure?

Like okay, they must give you a lot of grace. This could be

someone who said that they have found peace in something other than Jesus Christ,

other than the way that Jesus has provided, But then you look at their

life and it's a roller coaster of doubt and anxiety. There's some people maybe

who eve even called on Christ's name and said that, like I've found peace

in Christ. And then you're like, I don't know if you really found

it yet. It is in Christ, but you're claiming something and it's not

lining up with the life that you lead, or what about this one?

People who have an outward appearance of holiness, but once behind closed doors you

see their true colors. So Jesus says, if the treat is good,

you can expect to find good fruit, and that good tree will be confirmed,

not by saying it's a good tree, not by telling other people that

it's a good tree, but by the good fruit that it's actually bearing.

Last week, Pastor Greg brought up actually one of my all time favorite verses.

It's in Hebrews thirteen seven, and it says this says, remember your

leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome catch that,

consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

As Christians, we are to look at our leaders and their way of life.

Period. If they are good Christian leaders, we will see the good

fruit, the good outcome of their way of life. And honestly, I

think one of the fastest ways if you just want to pro tip, okay,

if you want to pro a pro tip on how to recognize a good

Christian leader is what authority do they appeal to? What do you hear most

coming out of their mouth? Is it the stuff that they heard on the

most recent TED talks? Is this the stuff that they've recently heard in the

latest sociology or psychology or maybe even leadership podcasts. We Christians love our leadership

podcasts. Nothing wrong with them, nothing wrong with them, but we love

them. But they're not our highest authority. Those are not the leaders that

we ultimately need in our life. It says to remember those leaders who did

what spoke the word of God to you, Those are the leaders that we

need in our life. That is, leaders whose foundational authority is the very

word of God. And here Scripture says that you should be able to or

that you should and that you should examine their life and see the good outcome

and then imitate that faith. You should see the outcome of their faith and

then actually set out to imitate them. They're leaders. They're taking you somewhere.

You're following. They're your leaders. They're my leaders. And like Paul

says when he says follow me as I follow Christ, those are the types

of Christian leaders that we need in our life, so that as we follow

them and we become like our leaders, that we actually become we start to

imitate Christ and become more like Christ. Because we've seen the leaders who are

now actually following Jesus. We're seeing what's going on in their life, and

we're going like, I would love to have that in my life, and

not even in an envious way. Now it's not like, oh I hate

that you have that. I hate that you love people so much in that

I wish you didn't and I wish I could love people more. It's not

that, it's like, no, I see you actually living out this life

that you're proclaiming to walk. You're saying one thing, and you're actually walking

in step with that. I respect that and I actually want to see that

in my life. Some things that we do need to understand is that we

won't ever find a perfect Christian, which means we won't ever find a perfect

Christian leader. Right, That's just helpful. That's just helpful to remember.

I want ever find a perfect Christian, which means you will never find a

perfect Christian leader. But we do need those in our lives who hold fast

to the Word of God and have the conviction to walk in accordance with it.

We do need those people in our life. They won't do it perfectly

all the time, but like that's kind of that's what they should be known

for. And I know that in my own personal experience, I've had many

different Christian leaders, and I've looked to these different leaders for guidance basically in

multiple areas of my life. Right, there have been some leaders who have

incredible parenting. And I'm like, man, I'm at the stage where I

would love to have godly parenting. So I'm looking around me going like,

all right, who are the people who stand out? Who are around me

who have just great godly parenting? And I don't want to follow that.

It's been literally the same thing if it comes to finances, if it's the

same thing if it comes to people with amazing marriages. Some people have incredible

knowledge and understanding of God's word and it's put into practice, and you notice

that. And here's the deal. Not every Christian leader has all of those

That's just true. Not every Christian leader has every single one of those points

or every single one of those ducks in a row. So I've had to

look to multiple and it's not the dog on these leaders. It's just I've

had to look around me and go like, there are people who have been

excelling in different areas. And the way I kind of put it down is

that some people are going to have areas of strength that they excel in and

areas of weaknesses that they are growing in. And so for us as believers,

we should give race to the weaker areas of our leaders and our brothers

and sisters in Christ. Let's just put that on there, right, not

just our leaders, but we need to give grace to those weaker areas and

at the same time look to as worthy of imitation those areas where others are

excelling. Let me say that again for us as believers. We should give

grace to the weaker areas of our leaders and our brothers and sisters, and

at the same time look to as worthy of imitation those areas where our leaders

are excelling, as wanting to follow them and excel in those areas ourselves.

Why are we talking about leaders. We're talking about leaders because Jesus has given

these examples of trees and fruits as a warning about false teachers, about false

prophets, people who are coming in saying follow me, I know the way.

So that was the text that we looked at from Matthew. But in

Luke's text, he's actually just putting it out there for everyone, which makes

it way more fun. And he's not just talking about false teachers. He's

not just talking about false prophets. He's talking about everybody. He says,

whoever you truly are, will be shown by the fruit that you bear.

Wow, Okay, Jesus isn't just talking about bearing fruit, not bearing fruit,

but also the type of fruit that we bear. That the type of

fruit that we bear is directly related to our source. And Jesus points us

out when he's actually calling out the Jews of his day in the Gospel of

John Well John chapter eight, I'm gonna read this, says, I'm telling

you what I've seen in the Father's presence. This is Jesus speaking, and

you talking to the Jewish population. Are doing what you have heard from your

father. Abraham is our father. They answered, if you were Abraham's children,

said Jesus, then you would do what Abraham did. As it is,

you were looking for a way to kill me, a man who has

told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such

things. You were doing the works of your own father. We are not

illegitimate children, they protested. The only father we have is God himself.

So they started with Abraham. They're like, that didn't cut it. Let's

move up to God as well. Jesus said to them, if God were

your father, you would love me, for I have come here from God.

I have not come on my own God sent me. Why is my

language not clear to you? Because you were unable to hear what I say.

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry

out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding

to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies,

he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father

of lies. Yet, because I tell you the truth, you do not

believe me. Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I

am telling the truth? Why don't you believe me? Whoever belongs to God?

Here's what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you

do not belong to God. It's a lot of text. Jesus is saying

that there's this, there's something at the core that is affecting the outcome.

There's something at the base of it all that is determining the fruit. Jesus

is telling them, you do the works of your father, the devil,

because you belong to him. It's not something you want to hear from Jesus.

By the way, if you belong to God, you would do as

God desires. And actually it's kind of This is an interesting parallel back in

our message and the message that Jesus has been preaching, and that we're breaking

down just a little a couple verses earlier. This is what Jesus was saying

when you were talking about loving your enemies, says, but love your enemies,

do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything

back. Then your reward will be great and you will be children of the

most High. Why because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be

merciful, just as your father is merciful. If you're gonna claim God to

be your father, well then you should look like him. That's what Jesus

is saying, Father who loves his enemies, that's good to them, lends

them all these things that we've gone over the last couple of weeks. If

you're gonna call him your father, what others should expect to find is the

same fruit in your life. They should be able to recognize that that's from

God, the Father. Jesus has already said in our text that we don't

go looking for figs from thorn bushes or grapes from briars, which means what

he's trying to get to the point of we need to go to the proper

source to find what we're looking for. So if you want an apple,

where do you go to an apple tree? If you want a good apple,

you go to the farmer's market. Right, So our first point today

is the source determines the fruit. That's just true, and the fruit reveals

the source. And that's what Jesus is talking about. It's really what he's

trying to get at. And we're gonna see this because of the next ample

that he gives. He's kind of doubling down but making it even more clear

if we're not getting it already. So if you're taking notes right down the

second point, it says, what's stored up is what comes out. So

get our final verse from this text not for the Night verse forty five.

A good man brings good things out of the goods stored up in his heart,

and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in

his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. I

think we could just sit with that, honestly, just let this text sit

for a minute. Says that the good man brings good things out of the

good stored up in his heart, and the same goes for the evil man.

Jesus already said that a good tree won't bear bad fruit, a bad

tree won't bear good fruit. Why it's because a good tree bear is good

fruit and a bad tree bear is bad fruit. Now, what Jesus is

saying is rest assured, there is no fooling anyone is what is on the

inside is what will come out. It is what will come out of you.

And here's the deal. We want to come up with the exceptions in

our brains. Well, I mean maybe maybe maybe, but I think that

really what it is is that it's possible for some of us to try to

hide our fruit. We try to hide our bad fruit. We're kind of

like the husband hanging the fruit from the grocery store on our tree and just

hoping, hoping that no one comes close enough to us to see that I've

used the nail to get this piece of fruit onto this tree. And maybe

that's why we don't let people into our close relationships. We don't get into

close relationship with people because they'll just see that it's all fake. That the

only thing that I do look that like, that's good that I have going

for me, that's good fruit. It's actually just fake. So I can't

let anyone actually close to me, because then they're going to see that I'm

I'm it's a facade. They're going to see that it's it's not real,

it's for show. And this isn't to scare you off from letting people get

close to you, because it's actually something that we do need in our lives.

But the thing is is that if we've been hanging up fruit that we

didn't produce, we're just trying to make it look good and then keeping people

away and now want to call ourselves a good tree. We're only fooling ourselves.

And you can try and fool the church for some time, that could

happen. You'll fool them for some time, but you're not fooling God,

and that's just the reality. He knows your heart. Now. Something kind

of interesting here is that the word where it says stored up, where is

that how does the evil stored up out of the good? Stored up?

Is actually the Greek word the sorrows, which is actually where we get our

English word for thesaurus. This word means a treasury or a treasure or a

place where things are stored up and held makes sense. Our modern daythosaurus is

a collection, a storehouse of different words and whatnot. Jesus says, out

of the treasure stored up within you, that is what is going to come

out of you. I think Galatians, we actually get a contrast between the

fruit of the flesh or the works of the flesh, and the fruit of

the spirit. And we're gonna take a quick look at this, and I

think it's actually helpful because we can just say that, like, yeah,

there's bad in the heart and there's good in the heart. That can be

kind of vague, so let's just make it crystal clear what's in there?

What are we dealing with when we're talking about good fruit and bad fruit.

Galatians five, starting in verse nineteen, says, the acts of the flesh

are obvious. Well, that's helpful. They're obvious sexual immorality, impurity and

debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage,

selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the

like. It's a big storehouse. I warn you, as I did before,

that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things

there is no law. And pay attention to this. Those who belong to

Christ, Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Here we're

seeing the fruit of the flesh. We're seeing the fruit of the spirit.

This is how you can recognize them. This is what these things look like

if you caught that at the end. I pointed it out on purpose that

at the end of the verses says that those who belong to Christ have crucified

the flesh with its passions and desires. Jesus accused the Jews of his day

that they carried out the desires of the one that they belonged to, which

was the devil. But here we see that those who belong to Christ are

set free from those desires and are now able to bear fruit from the Spirit.

And Romans it just kind of puts it even better. Romans seven,

verses four through six says, so, my brothers and sisters, you also

died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to

another, to him who is raised from the dead, in order that we

might do what bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm

of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law, we're at working

us so that we did what we bore fruit for death. That doesn't sound

like good fruit. But now by dying to what once bound us, we

have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way

of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

To before Christ we bore fruit for death. But now alive in the Spirit,

after having put our faith in Jesus, we are to live in such

a way as to bear fruit for God. We're no longer enslaved our old

passions and desires. We no longer have to obey those. We're set free

from that, and we're called to live a new way. We're called to

live in accordance with the spirit, walking step keeping step with the spirit.

And we already saw what that looked like. Do not it's not those were

those were bucket terms forbearings. Well, that's that looks like when someone slaps

you on the cheek. You turn it self control that looks like when someone

slaps you on the cheek and you turn the cheek, that you're not throwing

hands back. You're willing to give up your coat. You're willing to love

your enemies. This isn't something that we can just muster up ourselves. Though,

all right, I'll just burn good fruit. Then I'll just do it,

because, like we've been talking about, it's what's on the inside that

determines what comes outside. And what we need is the evil that is within

us actually dealt with. If our old heart is full of evil desires,

we need a new heart, which is exactly what God has promised his people

and promises people in Ezekiel thirty six says, I will give you a new

heart and put a new spirit in you. Praise God. We need that.

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart

of flesh. Thank you, and then listen to this. This is amazing,

And I will put my spirit in you cool and move you to follow

my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. This new spirit is going

to move us in such a way as we actually pay attention to how we

live. And we're gonna actually pay attention we're moved to obey, and not

in the way that I'm like flying. I'll obey because you're moving me and

I have no choice. It's like I'm moved internally, going like this is

what I want. And this is our hope and prayer for those who do

not yet believe on Christ as a savior, that God would give them a

new heart, and that they would believe in Jesus Christ's Lord and become a

new creation. And honestly, frankly, sometimes we need to remember ourselves that

our old self has been put to death and that we are now a new

creation in Christ, that we have a new heart. That it's not going

I'll bear the good fruit. It's going like, all right, God,

let's do this. You're the one who's going to move in me. Teach

me what that looks like. You've enabled me, You've set me free,

So let me walk in that help me. And here's the deal. This

is in my notes. That's why I had to stop. Here's the deal.

When God tells us something, I don't think we should have any problem

saying God, you said, so help me. Yeah, does that make

sense? God? You said, I believe it. I don't know how

I don't know how this is gonna happen. I don't see it at all,

but you said do that humbly. But we see time and time again

in the scripture. It's because of the promises that God has given us that

we can have assurance. So it strengthens our faith. So we rely on

these promises to go like, God, I know you didn't change your mind,

so you set so I don't know what the plan is here, but

I believe it. Please show me, Please help me. I think that

just needs to be set. We can take these promises and we can remember

them for ourselves, but also take them back to God and be like,

all right, this is what you said, so help me here, help

me walk this out, help me live this out. Going back to our

Luke text. If you're taking notes, we can write this last point down

pretty straightforward, says, examine your speech and you'll examine your heart. Back

to our Luke text. Right at the end there after he's talking about the

storing up or what's stored up, it says, for the mouth speaks what

the heart is full of. Your translation might say, out of the abundance

of the heart, the mouth speaks, I believe Jesus here is giving us

the diagnostic tool for checking our hearts. He's given us a tool. He's

helping us out. He's been telling us to look at the fruit. And

the first thing that he points to is what comes out of your mouth,

what comes out of my mouth? What comes out of our mouth? And

yes, there are a lot of other things that he could point to.

He could point to our actions, he can point to our thoughts, all

kinds of different things like that, But I think Jesus is pointing to the

fastest way to inspect someone's fruit. You might not see me help the person

that I'm helping. You might not see the good deeds you're hearing what I'm

saying right now, I'm talking when you meet someone, It only takes him

not too long to start to kind of get a picture of who this person

is. He says, watch what comes out of your mouth, and not

like watch it, He's saying, watch it like on a movie screen,

Like take it and examine what is coming out of your mouth, because you

tell me what comes out of their mouth, and I will tell you what's

in their heart. Now, what's interesting is that several times in the New

testament that this illustration for bearing fruit is used by Jesus. It's almost always

in the context of speech, which is interesting. As you saw earlier,

Jesus said that you would know a false prophet by their fruit. And what

if something a false prophet does speaks falsely? We see in Matthew twelve Jesus

is addressed or directly addressing speech because the religious leaders are like hurling accusations out

and they're like, you're healing people and casting out demons because you have Satan

inside you. And Jesus is like, watch your mouth, bro, this

is what we get to. Matthew twelve thirty three says make it good,

or make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a

tree bad and it's fruit will be bad. For a tree is recognized by

its fruit. You brew to vipers. How can you who are evil say

anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A

good man brings good things out of the goods stored up in him, and

an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

But I tell you that everyone will have to give an account on the day

of judgment for every empty or idle word that they have spoken for by your

words, you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.

What does that mean. It's revealing what's on the inside. That's why

you will be acquitted or condemned, because it show what's going on on the

inside. It's the evidence brought before you before the judge. So Jesus once

again is making the point saying, how are you who were evil? How

can you say anything good? He's pointing out these inconsistencies. You're saying you're

good. You're saying you're the religious leaders, and have you seen your mouth?

Have you seen what's come out of it? You're calling me Satan.

You're saying that I'm working by Satan's power. They're calling the power of God.

Salvation has arrived to them, and they're calling it a bad thing.

They were all backwards. They were slandering the power by which God was working

miracles. They couldn't even recognize it. And they were out there hanging up

their fruit on the rotten trees. They were rotten to the core and it

was showing. And Jesus was pointing this out. He's pointing out saying,

hey, yeah, you only care about the outward appearance. But Jesus always

had the or pointed out the fact that they were whitewashed tombs, which was

what. Yeah, they looked okay on the outside, but they were dead

on the inside. They were dead on the inside. And he's showing us

how we can know they're dead on the inside. So get another example,

Matthew fifteen. They want to say, like, hey, we do all

these things to look good, one of those things being we do these ceremonial

washing of hands before we eat. Washing your hands is good before you eat.

But the saying we have this special ceremony that we're gonna do and everyone

has to do that because that's what the righteous people do. Jesus response,

you hypocrites, people who say one thing and do another. Isaiah was right

when he prophesied about you. These people honor me with their lips, but

their hearts are far from me. They worshiped me in vain. Their teachings

are merely human rules. Jesus called the crowd to him and said, listen

and understand. You can go to the next text. Please thank you.

What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of

their mouth. That is what defiles them. Then the disciples came to him

and asked, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when you or when

they heard this, which is hilarious? And he replied, every plant that

my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave

them. They are blind gods. If the blindly the blind both will fall

into a pit. Peter said, explain this parable to us. Are you

still so dull? Jesus asked them, don't you see that whatever enters the

mouth goes into the stomach and out of the body, or then out of

the body. But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from

the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil

thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual morality, theft, false testimony, slander.

These are what defile a person. But eating with unwashed hands does not

defile them. What is Jesus saying. He's saying, it's about the heart.

It's what's in you is going to come out to save. Forty minutes

later, maybe that's too generous to me. Sometime later, it's the same

thing Jesus has shown us here once again, what's in is going to come

out. This is why we need that new heart that God provides to his

people. We need to be the plant that God has planted so that as

to not be uprooted, we need him to do the heart surgery. And

James also regarding our speech, he's pointing out our inconsistencies. He says,

with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse

human beings who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth

come praise and cursing my brothers and sisters. This should not be. This

should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same

spring, my brothers and sisters. Can a fig tree bear olives or grapevine

bear figs? Neither can a salt water spring produce fresh water. James is

showing the inconsistencies. He's saying, you're saying one thing, you're acting another.

Stop. This is not how you are to act. This should not

be. We show who we really are by what comes out of us.

And I'm really hammering it, like I said, not to be annoying,

and I put it in my notes because I was like, I'm saying this

a lot. But the reason I'm doing this is in hopes that we will

actually stop and consider what's coming out of us. Just stop and consider what's

coming out of us, and once we've done that, actually start to examine

the root of our problem, which I'll give you the answer. It's your

heart that's the problem. Am I a bad tree internally? Do I have

bad treasure stored up in my heart? Because if so, I'm in real

trouble. I've already seen what they do with bad trees that have fruitless deeds,

chop down and thrown into the fire. Here Jesus tells us the plain

facts. A good che will bear good fruit, but a bad tee will

bear bad fruit. A good man, out of his heart will do good,

the same with the evil man. So what are we to do?

And praise God that Jesus gives us the answer. I could use the answer

and some of the example from him ending his message. But we're gonna do

that next week, which is gonna be awesome and awesome, And and said,

I'm going to go to John fifteen, and I need the band to

come up John fifteen, starting in verses one through sixteen or six, not

sixteen. That'd be a lot, says I. This is Jesus speaking.

I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts

off every branch in me that bears what no fruit, while every branch that

does bear fruit he prunes, so that will be even more fruitful. You

are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Remain in me?

Is I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself.

It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you

remain in me. That's helpful, okay, Jesus, I am the vine.

You are the branches. If you remain in me, and I and

you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do

a couple things. That's not what it says. He says, nothing.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. This is also one of those

things that we take and go like, all right, Jesus, you just

said it. I believe it. But ma'am, we can do nothing if

you do not remain in me. If you do not remain in me,

you are like a brand that is thrown away in withers. Such branches are

picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. Jesus is the only perfectly

good tree. He's the only one we could look at and go like,

ain't nothing but good fruit come out of that man? That is Jesus.

And he says he is the true vine. So we are to remain in

him so that we can bear fruit. That those who do bear fruit are

pruned. And that's actually interesting, right. Pruning is cutting off those parts

of us that are not bearing fruit sometimes, or I was looking up today

pruning because this word stuck out to me today. Pruning is also just there's

things that are in the way of growing, that there's something that is keeping

us from growing, and there's this sense which like it might not have been

the worst, but it's not the best. It wasn't good. We're gonna

cut that off so that we can actually grow and we can actually start to

bear more fruit, so that we can be even more fruitful. That's why

we're pruned. But those who do not bear fruit, those who don't remain

in him, are removed. He says. Those who are in me will

bear much fruit. So someone's like, well, I'm in you and I'm

not bearing any fruit. It's like, what does that mean if you are

going to be in him. And if you are in Him, and you

will bear much fruit. If you're not bearing fruit, I'm concerned about you.

I'm concerned for you that you have been hanging up the fruit thinking you're

fine. Jesus says, apart from Me, you can do nothing. That

is, we won't even bear fruit if we are not remaining and abiding in

Christ. Apart from Christ, the only fruit we can bear is that of

the flesh. And what good is that fruit? It's not good. Instead,

we are to abide in Christ, remain in his light, have is

the treasure of our heart, and then start to actually watch Him work through

us. You would look more like Him every single day. And I wrote

down some application pieces for us in light of what we've been reading, how

do we actually apply this to our lives? And our three main points for

the day were the source determines the fruit, and the fruit reveals the source.

Our second point was what's in store is what comes out? And our

third was examine your speech and you'll examine your heart. And I had a

different order for the application, but I actually have to I'm gonna flip it

around because I think it's more it's a better logical progression and more helpful for

us. Like where do we start? I want to tell you to abide

in Christ, but obviously we'll get there. What I don't want to start

with is actually the third slide. It's our so it will be your first

application. Point says, examine your speech and examine your heart. That is

what we were to do with this text. Examine your speech and examine your

heart. And I probably don't have to tell you that you might not like

all that you find. That's why we do it. This is something we

need to be doing constantly. We don't want to fool ourselves into thinking that

we're good trees. By hanging up the fruit for maybe just a couple hours

on a Sunday. I know the fruit won't spoil. Then you know I

can make it last picked this up on the way here. I could tell

you to look at your entire life, but just look at your speech.

What comes out of your mouth? What does your speech say about your heart?

Do you grumble? Do you slander? Do you complain? Do you

worry? Are you crude in your joking? Are you careless with your words?

I could keep going, but I would be in pain too. We

need to examine our entire lives. But let's just start with our speech.

What does our speech reveal about us? And then what? Okay, I'm

not loving all the things that I'm finding. Okay, well, let's let's

go back to what Jesus had told us. He said, remain in me.

So then our first or our second one. See, I'm all mixed

up. Our second point would be to stick to the source, stick to

the source, that is Jesus, the true, true vine, and in

doing so that will help us store up the good. We'll store up the

good. That's our Yeah, there we go. Thank you that we will

store up the good. We need to examine our speech and examine our heart

and where we go from there. Regardless if you find good or bad,

we still need the same thing. It's the same answer, and that is

to stick to the source, that is, to remain in Jesus, the

true Vine, and in doing so will store up the good. And that

is that as we abide in Christ, abide in his words, that we

are filled up with the love of God, in the truth of his word,

so that when we are pressed with pecutions or worries, anxieties, or

maybe we're wrung out like a sponge. We're at our WIT's end by exhaustion

or frustration, that what comes out of us isn't the evil stored up,

but it's actually the good. And when we're starting to press, because that's

really when our true colors show, right when we're upset, when we're frustrated,

when we don't feel like things are going our way, we're kind of

sick and tired of all of it. That's when we show who we really

are. Not when everything's going good. I can pretend too. That's when

things are hard, that who we really are is coming out, is going

to come out. And so those are our three application points for today.

In this message from Jesus is pretty cut and dry. He doesn't leave a

lot of wiggle room. We like wiggle room. It makes us feel like,

okay, I can kind of hiden this corner over here. Jesus doesn't

give us that today in this message, a good tree bear is good fruit.

A bad tree bear is bad fruit. In your life, where do

you line up? We need these and I think we need these messages because

honestly, they're just sobering. It's an opportunity to stop kidding ourselves and actually

start to examine our life and go like, all right, I have some

things need prune. I have some things that I need to take care of.

I have some bad fruit, and I don't like what that says about

my heart. And if this is convicting, which I know it is for

me, we can have confidence because we have been told that if we confess

our sins, the Lord is faithful and just to forgive us. So we

can have confidence. That's whether you're a believer, you just maybe need to

remember remember that grace, start to walk in it. And if you don't

know it at all, this is a great opportunity. Your life is full

of bad fruit. And I know I've had a life full of bad fruit

too, Still working on it, still trusting it, still clinging to Christ.

But the reason we can have confidence in Christ and our forgiveness is because

of the finished work on the Cross that Jesus died and paid for our sins,

paid the penalty that we deserved by dying in our place, but then

rising three days later, conquering death and promising life to anyone who would call

him the name of the Lord. That's something we need to remember, we

need to hear so if you have fallen short, I'd say to you is

run to him, confess to him, abide in him, and find life

in him. Would you please stand