May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the Gospel
of Matthew chapter 3 and we'll read verses 8 and 9. The Gospel
of Matthew chapter 3 and reading verses 8 and 9. We'll bring forth
therefore fruits, meat for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our fathers. For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. These were wonderful days in
the Church of God. They were the days when the Gospel
was to be proclaimed in all the glory of New Testament truth. and we observe that John the
Baptist was the one ordained by God to come and to speak and
to give evidence of the Lord Jesus Christ who he was and indeed
to baptise him. John did not live for very long
after that. He was very shortly after that
beheaded by Herod. Herod of course hated him because
he had spoken against his marriage. And so, as we have these words
here this morning, we should consider that they are very important
and very relevant to us. In this account, it's stated
that John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees that had come to
his baptism. And there's a very similar account
in the Gospel of Matthew And there we see that he's speaking
also, he's speaking to not only the Pharisees and the Senecies
but also to a great multitude. So he was speaking to all the
people and what relevant words they were then and what relevant
words they are to us today. Now just a statement first. bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance. It is clear from that that there
is no true repentance unless there is the evidence of spiritual
fruit following that. So there is no benefit and no
truth in those who may pretend to repent without the evidence
of spiritual fruit. Now, please let us remember that
very important and salient fact. Because people may think, well,
it's very easy to repent. On the face of it, it is. But
through repentance, before God has a very deep-seated effect
in our lives. And it shows forth. It's not
something which is just held within. There is the evidence
of true repentance. Now, John the Baptist here, he
came speaking then, and he saw these many of the Pharisees and
Sadducees come to his baptism. And he said unto them, O generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? It is a very important statement
that he gives. And as we think of what he says
here, who has warned the people to flee from the wrath to come. The statement he's making here
is that all those who are not true repentees are found in this
situation. And he says they are to flee
from the wrath to come. I suppose today it's not a statement
that is often made. People don't like to speak about
the wrath to come. They don't like to really think
about it. But it is of vital importance
to us to realise, for all those who are not true believers, there
is a wrath to come. And that is an eternal wrath.
And John the Baptist here tells us, he says, flee. Well you know what, I expect
you understand what fleeing is. If you were being chased by a
bull, you would run pretty fast, wouldn't you? And you could say
that you were fleeing away from the bull. You didn't want to
be tossed on his horns. Well, this is a far more serious
situation than being chased by a bull. Because what it means
is that we have before us eternal wrath, unless we're amongst those
who are truly saved. And let's not forget then, this
statement of flee. I wonder, I wonder this morning,
if I was to ask you, have you fleed from the wrath to come? Have you been really concerned
about it? And you run away from it as fast as you can. Now then,
if you and I have run away from the wrath to come, where will
we flee to? Where will you and I flee to?
There's only one place. Do you know where that is? The only place of safety? The
only place of safety is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this morning, you and I are
either following that road that leads to the Roth to come, or
we are fleeing to the Lord Jesus Christ. All of us here this morning are
in one of those situations. We are either on our way to eternal
damnation and the wrath to come, or we are fleeing from the wrath
to come to The Lord Jesus Christ. So if you had two questions to
answer this morning, by the grace of God, which one would you be
able to tick? Which one would you be able to
tick? See, John the Baptist was very
forthright. My friends, the Word of God is
very forthright. People tend to make it very woolly.
But it's very clear. So we have this statement then. O generation of vipers, who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And then he says, bring
forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance. The Lord Jesus
Christ began his ministry. The record in the Word of God
tells us he started with those words, repent. You might ask,
well what does that word repent mean? Well, it means that we
should be sorry for the wrong things that we have done. And we should desire to follow
a new way, a right way, a God-honouring way. And what does that mean? It really means this, to turn
around and to go in the opposite direction. Again, just thinking
what that means. It means that we've been following
the devil. and then to turn around and to
be directed by the Spirit of God to follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. True repentance means then to
go in an opposite direction to that one which we were pursuing. And all of us have been born
and into this sinful world have been following the wrong way. Oh, bless God this morning, if
the Holy Spirit of God has come into your hearts and has brought
light so that you have turned away with that desire to go in
the opposite direction to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the effect
of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts will be set forth
by those fruits which are the evidence of true repentance in
our lives. Well, you may ask, well, what
are those fruits? Well, thankfully, we have a very
clear description of what those fruits are. When the Apostle
Paul wrote to the Church at Galatia, he spoke to them. And he said
this, If ye be led of the Spirit. Now if you and I are called by
the Spirit of God, called by God's grace, then we should be
amongst those who are led by the Spirit of God. And that's
an amazing favour. To think that the Spirit of God,
as it were, should take us by the hand and to lead us. And so he says, if ye be led
of the spirit, ye are not under the law. And then he gives examples. First of all, he speaks of the
works of the flesh. And then he speaks of the fruit
of the spirit. There is a very clear distinction. The first one is the works. It doesn't say actually the works
of the Spirit. It says the fruits of the Spirit. You see here in this word, bring
forth therefore fruit, meet for repentance. There is therefore
a very clear distinction. And the works of the Spirit we
have which are set before us, which are manifest. They are
observable. They are to be seen. and a very
sad description of what those are. If you and I are following
the flesh, are following the devil, are following his way,
this is what we shall observe. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, and you may classify this lasciviousness as sexual
activity, and then idolatry. and idolatry. It is a very comprehensive
word because it doesn't just mean bowing down to an idol,
a wooden stone. It means bowing down to anything
that we consider to be very important and dear to us. Perhaps things
in our homes are sometimes made reference to. It's very easy
to come and make things like a car, an idol. You may get out
and polish it up very nicely and want it to look very wonderful.
So that as you ride down the road, you're very proud of the
car you're driving. Now you have to be very careful
that such a situation is not idolatry. That's why we have
this word idolatry. Well that's just an example.
There are many, many other things you and I can be very proud of.
How good we look, the clothes we wear, it's idolatry. So we must be very aware of such
a statement as that. Idolatry. witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envies, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. And then you see the apostle
says, as I have told you before, as I have also told you in time
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God." Well, we have not time this morning to go through
that list, but it's a pretty incomprehensive list, isn't it?
Which tells us those things which, remember, are the works of the
flesh. They don't have anything to do
with the grace of God. They are our old nature, our
old nature. That which we were born with,
our flesh, the evilness, which is within. But then the apostle
goes on and he says, but, and here is the difference. Here is the evidence of the grace
of God in the heart. Here is the evidence that we've
been blessed with God given repentance, which is not to be repented of. And he gives the list here. The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. It's a beautiful picture, isn't
it? And how different from the works
of the law. You see, there's no peace in
those things of the law. All we are is stirred up in our
old nature. It doesn't do us any good, but
here, it's beautiful things, received by God, as He gives
us His grace. And so we read here, the fruit
of the Spirit is love. Love. It's a lovely word, isn't
it? Love. And as we see the evidence
of it, one to another perhaps, In a special way, husband and
wife, and father and mother to the children. It's a very wonderful
scene, isn't it, to observe love. It means care, and they're concerned
about each other. Love. And then we think beyond
that natural thing. What do we think of? We think
of the love of God. The love of God. which is so
extensive and so wonderful and so glorious as we think of God's
love to those who have been involved in the works of the flesh that
really deserve no love. And yet, Almighty God has loved
His Church with an everlasting love. And it's a love which was
totally free. We didn't pay for it. We couldn't
pay for it. We received it. The love of God
is rich and free. Is it not fixed on his own eternally? Oh, what a blessing, my friends,
to know this love of God. And what's the effect? The effect
is this, our love in response to God's love. It's a love to
Him, a love to Him. Bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance. If you and I are truly repentant
of our condition, of our sin, then the evidence will be of
our love in response to the love of God to Him. Our love to Him. And it will be a fruit, meat
for repentance. It will bring forth, it will
show forth our love to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the first
statement, which is the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit. Love. Again, do we love God? Not because we love God, but
because He loved us. You think of that. You know, if you were an enemy of someone, if you treated
someone really badly, just think perhaps you might
have taken things from someone, robbed them and spoken evil of
them. You wouldn't expect that person
to turn around and embrace you and love you, would you? But that's what by nature we've
been to God. We've gone against Him. We've
spoken against Him. We've done those works against
Him. We've been very evil against Him. Do we expect God to look upon
us and love us? Such a wretch, such a filthy
wretch, such an evil person. We wouldn't expect it naturally.
Why should we expect it spiritually? We cannot expect it. But my friends, what a blessing
when God comes. and shows us His love toward
us. And that love may be, in the
first instance, recognising our condition against God. How that we walk contrary to
Him, against God. In Leviticus we read, we walk
contrary to God, he'll walk contrary to us. And then to think that God, that
holy, righteous God, should have loved us. And indeed, have loved
us so much, beyond our comprehension. And I just go back to my illustration.
You know, if you'd done much evil against someone, perhaps
even committed murder, you wouldn't expect the person
you've wronged to come and take your punishment, to, as it were,
be hung or executed in your place. And yet, the love of God was
so great that Lord Jesus Christ, he left his throne in glory and
came into this sinful world in order that he might stand in
our place, the condemned sinner's place, and to bear the punishment
instead. Why? Because of his love. My friends, therefore, love so
great, does it not bring forth a response from our heart to
love the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, here we have then the first
evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Love. Love to God. And what an important
view it is And what a wonderful blessing it is. And I believe
it will show forth in our lives. Bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance. Because I believe if we understand
the love of God to our hearts, we shall be sorry for our sins. We shall not want to sin. It
doesn't mean to say you and I will be free from sin. Because we
never will be. this side of the grave, because
of our flesh, our old nature, which is still sinful, but that
new nature, that God-given nature, which is pure and holy, will
be seeking after righteousness and will desire the fruits of
the Spirit. So here we have, then the fruit
of the Spirit is love. There is no doubt. This is the
principal movement of our hearts to God in response to His amazing
love, grace and favour and mercy toward us. And so we have this
first point, love. And then joy. This is, I believe,
a spiritual joy. Joy in our soul. That God has
looked upon us that God hasn't dealt with us as our sins deserve. He hasn't cast us away. He's
had mercy upon us and what does that produce? Well, humble thankfulness
and joy in our heart that God has had mercy upon us. This is
a holy joy. It's a spiritual joy. You won't
go around with a long face go around thankful that the Lord
has looked upon you and has had mercy upon you. Joy. Again, it's a fruit of the Spirit. It's a gift of God. Joy. Spiritual joy. It's a gracious
and a wonderful thing. Again, do we know this spiritual
joy in our hearts? Because If we are to know repentance,
true repentance, this is one of those fruits which will be
indicative that we are one who has really repented of our condition,
of our sinfulness, of the evil of our heart. Then there is peace. Why does God tell us this? There
is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. No true peace. And there will
be no true peace, and I'll tell you why. Because you and I have
a conscience, and if we do wrong things, our conscience will still
nag us that we've done something wrong, and you won't find You
have peace. You may try and have it. You
may think perhaps you have it. But friends, it's not that peace
of God which passes knowledge, because you'll have that guilty
conscience. But when God gives peace, and
that peace comes through His cross. Peace by His cross as
Jesus made. And what that means is this.
You and I are blessed with that knowledge that Christ has loved
us. And if he's loved us, he's died
for us. He's given his life for us upon
that cross at Calvary. So what's the effect of that? Peace in our hearts. Salvation
is secure. Not because of what we've done.
But because of what Christ has done, there's the peace. It's not in what we've done,
it's what Christ has done. What a blessing it is to know
this peace of God which passeth all understanding. It's that
which the Church of God know and enjoy and rejoice in. And it's a wonderful evidence
of true repentance. bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance, that peace of God in the soul, the gift
of God. It's a wonderful favour and it's
a wonderful blessing. Long-suffering. Oh, there is
a wonderful favour of being blessed with this, as we think again
of God toward us. Just think of God, a holy righteous
God. Has He been long-suffering to
you? Has he been long-suffering to
you? The answer is, if you're a child
of God, the answer is yes, he has. And he hasn't cut you off. He's
been long-suffering to you and therefore you and I are to be
long-suffering to others. Just think how many times you
disobeyed God. Just think how many times you've
spoken against God. Perhaps people have been wrong
in their statements to you. You are not to retaliate. You
are to be long-suffering towards them. What is it? A fruit of
the Spirit. And bless God for it, if he makes
you and me have a spirit of long-suffering towards others because of what
He's done for us. And then gentleness. Has God
dealt with you gently? Well, He has. You may not perhaps
always think so. Let's say this. He hasn't dealt
with you as your sins deserve, has He? He's been gentle towards you. And therefore, we are to be gentle
to all men. Gentle. may not come naturally
to us, but it's the fruit of the Spirit, and we should desire
to be gentle with our dealings with one another, not harsh,
gentle. The fruit of the Spirit, the
evidence of true repentance. Bring forth therefore fruits
made for repentance, goodness. We ought to go about doing good.
Think of what God's done for us. Goodness. You and I are to
do good unto all men, especially to the household of faith, especially
to the Church of God. That means we're to really go
out of our way to be good one to another, to do those things
which are good unto all men. All men. It's a very full statement,
isn't it? Faith. We walk by faith and not
by sight. And again that will be an evidence
of fruitfulness. As you and I call to walk by
faith, to move forward in faith. Understand still, in the things
of God we are to move forward. We are to walk by faith. We are
indeed to run the race, but we are to walk by faith. and not
by sight, and it is a blessed evidence of God's goodness toward
us, his love toward us, as he gives us the gift of faith to
trust him. We go forward with that living
faith, believing that he will be with us. He has said, I would
never leave thee, Nor for Satan, so we may boldly say, the Lord
is my helper. It's faith that he gives. God-given
faith. And there's the fruit. As we,
by faith, go forward in his name. Relying upon his help. Upon his
strength. Remember this. He gives more
grace. He gives grace. A merited favour. We walk this way. Yes, the blessing
it is, then, that we fail with faith. Meekness. Well, it's very similar, isn't
it, to gentleness, really. Naturally, we're not a meek people,
are we, generally speaking. And, no, we're not meek. Remember
God's servant Moses. He was referred to as a meek
man. Just you think of the conflict
he endured taking those children of Israel through that wilderness.
How often they spoke against him. They were fed up with the
journey. They didn't like the food. They
complained. They blamed Moses. He didn't respond. No, he went
to God. He told the Lord. There was a
meekness. What an example for us. What
is it? A fruit of the Spirit. What is
it? A sign that we've been blessed
with true, God-given repentance. Temperance. Temperate in everything
that we deal with. A balanced view of things. Temperate. Against that there is no law. And then we have this, as it
were, sweep up clause. And they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. That means crucifixion is a painful
death. And that means that you and I
are to get rid of those things which are worldly, And those
things which are against the flesh, and it won't be easy. That's why we have this statement,
have crucified the flesh. It's not easy to live a godly
life. It's not easy to give up the
things of the world. It's not easy to turn our back
upon the things, the works of the flesh. But it's the evidence of the
fruit of the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. See, there's a walking out. Bring
forth therefore fruits, meet for repentance. And just very
quickly, John the Baptist goes on to say,
and think not to say within yourselves, this is kind of a secret thing
in your heart, that we have Abraham to our Father, there have been
those who have relied upon their parents' religion, who have relied
perhaps on their forebears' religion, and because they follow an outward
walk, they think that that is true religion. My friends, true
religion is, as we've just gone through, the evidence of the
fruit of the Spirit setting forth there is true repentance. So we have this very solemn warning. It's not sufficient, therefore,
to have a religion that relies on what our parents did, or what
our grandparents did, or perhaps what our friends have done. It's
not sufficient to say within ourselves, you may not blurt
it out, but you think, well I'm following that way so I should
be alright. We have Abraham to our father. It won't matter,
that condition. What will matter is whether you
and I possess this blessing of bringing forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance. And I believe it really centers
very simply in this, that we will be, by the grace of God,
a true follower of a despised and crucified man. And that when
you and I hear the name of Jesus, it'll be a sweet name. And we'll
understand, in other words, how sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. It would be a sweet name because
we would know that here it is who stood in our place, who has
died for us. He shed his precious blood upon
that cross at Calvary in order to take away all our sins so
that all our hope is in Him. All that we desire is to be found
in Christ. What a blessing then this morning,
if we have the evidence that we are in Christ by the fruits
of the Spirit, and the evidence that we are blessed with true
repentance, because there is no admission to heaven without
those who have truly repented of their sins. It is not a theory,
it is a reality, and how you and I need to possess this great
and glorious gift of repentance, which is evidenced by the fruits
of the Spirit in our life, to the glory of God, for His honour
and for His praise. Amen.