Now, if you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 12. I titled the message this
morning, The Good Tree and the Good Fruit. That's what he tells
us in the lesson this morning. And it's about hearing from God. That's what the message is about,
hearing from God. Matthew 12, verse 31. Let's read
through these several verses. Wherefore I say unto you, all
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven
him, but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not
be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to
come. Either make the tree good." Now,
he's talking about himself. The accusation was made that
this man was not a spokesman for God, but that he was being
used and his message and ministry was of Beelzebub, the prince
of devils. In other words, he was Satan's
spokesman, not God's spokesman. And this is in answer to those
accusations. And he said, either make the
tree good, talking about himself and his message, and his fruit
good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. For the
tree is known by its fruit. O generation of vipers, how can
ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you
that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account
thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be
justified." That is, his claim to be a spokesman from God, by
his Word, he can justify, he'll be justified by that statement,
by that claim. And by thy words, thou shalt
be condemned. Charges had been made. The Son
of God whose miracles and ministry among the people could not be
refuted. Over and over it tells us in
the Scriptures that the Pharisees would have done this, would have
done that, but they couldn't because of the people. They couldn't
because of the clear miracles that he had done had won over
the favor of the people. They couldn't refute these things.
They couldn't deny these things. They couldn't say he pretended
to do these things. He couldn't deny those miracles.
They were such things as as normal men could not do. And they were
done in such a way that there was no way for these things to
be hidden. They couldn't be refuted. So
they went after his motives, and they went after his source
of power. Now, to get an idea of what's
going on after hundreds of years of slow transition, The Jews
had mixed the ceremonial law of God with worldly philosophy
and religion to form the traditional religion that they now practiced. These things had been mixed with
those who had taken them captive. It had been mixed with the Gentile
world. It had been mixed with other
religions. And it had been mixed with men's own philosophies.
Men, you know a church exists for a little while and then somebody
gets angry and leaves and they start another little church and
usually the name on the church will signify what the problem
was and then that'll continue on for a little while and that'll
split and another church will be formed and so on and so on
and so on. And over, you see what I'm saying, over hundreds
of years, it's been 400 years from the book of Malachi until
the appearance and birth of Jesus Christ. 400 years had went by
and there was no prophets. Wasn't anybody to preach to them,
talk to them, and tell them. And so these things over hundreds
of years had been mixed in this slow transition until they came
up with this religion that they now practice. And it was a mixture
of man and God. It was a mixture of works and
grace. It was a mixture of ceremonial law and legalism, and yet trying
to preach a hope of a coming Redeemer. It was a mixture. And it was an evil mixture. And
then along came John the Baptist. And he exposed their errors and
deceit. That was his ministry, to come
and make straight the ways of the Lord. To make the path straight.
Set these things in their proper light. And so he did. And he
exposed their errors and deceit and called upon the people to
be aware of these things and what these things were all about,
the person and work of the coming Redeemer. And then suddenly,
a man came upon the scene. John the Baptist was preaching
and baptizing out there beyond Jordan, and suddenly a man came
down the path, and John stopped, and he pointed to him, and he
said, Behold, the Lamb of God. This is Him. This is Him. God's promised Redeemer. God's
substitute. The Christ. And this man, Jesus
of Nazareth, began to preach and to teach in the streets and
synagogues, and what he preached was noticeably contrary to their
traditional religion. It was contrary. Everything about
it was contrary to what they taught. The structure of His
kingdom was contrary to their ideas and concept. The way of
salvation was totally different. Their way of salvation was works
by the law and self-righteousness, man obtaining his own righteousness
to win God's favor. And along comes Christ and He's
preaching something totally contrary to that. He said, I am the way.
I'm the way. This is not the way. I'm the
way. And he told those around him,
he said, now you go learn what this means. He preached grace. They preach law and works. And
he told them, he said, you go learn what this means. I'll have
mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not sent to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. He said, the well, the hole need
not a position, but to sit. And he said that men were lost
and only God could find them and bring them to Himself. He
exposed their vain traditions. He said, why do you do contrary
to the Word of God, make void the commandment of God by your
traditions? He exposed their vain traditions
and questioned their calling and instructed his hearers to
avoid them at all costs. He upset the apple cart. He upset the apple cart. And
they were angry and they lashed out at him with accusations saying
that he was under the deception and power of the devil. Now here's
the thing. If there is no God, If there is no God, if there
is no supreme being, no higher power, no creator and sustainer
of the universe, if we're just creatures of evolution and live
in an ever-changing environment with no particular end or purpose,
things just spawn out of a big bang and they're just going and
going and going and their end is whatever their end is going
to be. Now, if that's the case, with no particular end or purpose,
Then we can debate. Then we can argue. Then we can
speculate. You can have an opinion and I
can have an opinion. You can have something to say
and I can have something to say. We can debate and argue and question
the foolish and superstitious ideas of men. We can gather like
the Greeks in Acts chapter 17 and tell and hear some new thing
and all things and erect memorials and devotions to every man's
God and live and let live if there is no God. But if there is one true and
living God, if in fact He is the Creator, and sustainer of
the universe. If He made all things to a certain
end, and worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,
if He speaks, we better listen. Now, if He's not there, if there's
no such thing as God, if the living God is just a farce, just
something that superstitious men pull the wool over men's
eyes and they're going and worshiping a God who don't even exist. Now,
if that's so, then we can debate and argue and speculate. But
if there is one true and living God, and He speaks, we better
listen. We better listen. How do men hear from God? Conscience. Man hears from God in his conscience. It's what Romans chapter 1 says.
That which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God
hath showed it unto them." He showed it unto them. Creation. God speaks through creation.
That's right. You can walk out here in the
yard this morning, and you can look up into the heavens, and
you can look at the sun and the trees and everything in creation. You can look at it, and God speaks
through that. He says in Romans chapter 1,
the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead. These things
witness that there is a God, and that this God sits on the
throne, and that He has all power, that He created all things, He
sustains all things, He keeps all things in motion, and He'll
wind all things up when it pleases Him. Creation will tell you that. God speaks through creation.
And God speaks through His Word. He tells us in the book of Hebrews
that the Word of God is quick. It's alive. And it's powerful. And it's sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. The joints and marrow. And it
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It's
the only book on this planet that you can read and it will
tell you what you're thinking. That's right. It will tell you
what you are and bear witness in you that that's what you are.
The Word of God. It exposes the thoughts and intents
of the heart. But primarily, God speaks to
men through other men. In the Old Testament, God spoke
to our fathers through the prophets. That's what it says in Hebrews
1. He spoke to our fathers through
the prophets. He didn't speak to them in dreams. He didn't speak to them in visions.
He didn't speak to them in the still of the night. He spoke
to them through chosen individuals. And he verified these men as
men of God. He said, if anything they say
doesn't come to pass, you take him out and stone him. He's not
a prophet. That weeded out a lot of false
prophets. That's right. And then he says in verse 2 in
Hebrews chapter 1, that in these last days God has spoken unto
us by His Son, who is heir of all things. This One who stood
before these Pharisees was the heir of all things, Winston, by whom He made all things, who
is the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His
person, and by whom all things are upheld. And having accomplished
the redemptive will of God, He now sits on the throne of glory
on the right hand of God, expecting till His enemies be made His
footstool. Until which time at the last
days He'll fold up the vesture of creation. When He's finished,
He'll fold it up like a vesture. And He'll usher in the eternal
bliss and blessings of the gospel. And then in Hebrews 2, He asks
this question, How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation
which at the first, Hebrews 2, verse 3, began to be spoken by
the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him? The apostles and witnesses which
He chose and sent into the world on His behalf is who He's talking
about, like the 70 that we studied about here a few weeks ago that
He anointed and sent them out to preach. And He said, He that
heareth you, heareth Me. They were His witnesses. And
these apostles whom He blessed, some of them, to write Scripture
and pen Scripture, And then he tells us in Hebrews 2 verse 4,
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and
with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to
His own will. And then if we had time this
morning, I could take you through the books of Timothy and the
book of Acts and Ephesians and show you that these things were
being committed to faithful men of good report. who unto this
day stand as ambassadors for Christ and witnesses of God to
men." God primarily speaks to men through other men. In our text, in referring to
Himself as God's spokesman, our Lord said, a determination must
be made. Here this wishy-washy thing,
These smart-aleck, self-righteous religionists, vipers our Lord
called them, they came in and cast some aspersions
on his person. They came in and drawled suspicion,
put a question mark on him and said, he's not the ambassador
of God. He does these things by the spirit
of Beelzebub. And our Lord said, a determination
must be made. Is the tree from which the people
are eating good or corrupt? A determination must be made.
Why? Because there is nothing in between. Nothing in between. He said,
if you are not with Me, just a few verses back from our text,
you remember the study we had that Sunday morning? He said,
if you are not with Me, You're against me. And if you don't
gather, if you're not gathering with me, in other words, if these
other ministers, his disciples, his apostles, these seventy whom
he sent, who claim to be ambassadors of God, if they didn't gather
with him, then their ministry was a scattering abroad. Now
that's what he told them. So a determination must be made,
this one who stands before us, is he of God? Either he's good and his fruit
is good, or he's evil and his fruit is corrupt. Because there's
nothing in between. There's nothing in between. Is the tree God's tree or Satan's
tree? He's one or the other. Now, this
not only applies to Christ, this applies to the apostles, the
prophets, and to myself, and to every other minister who stands
before me and says, I'm the ambassador of God. God sent me. God called
me to preach. God sent me to tell you the truth. A determination has to be made,
is this man called of God? How are you going to know that? where the tree, he said, is known
by its fruit. What does he preach? What does
he preach? What do we eat? And my friend, faith feeds on
Christ. It feeds on the gospel of Christ.
That's what it feeds on. What kind of fruit does this
tree bear, John? Does he preach grace or works?
Does he preach Christ or man? Does he preach an accomplished
redemption or God's helping hand? Does he preach salvation is all
together of the Lord, or does he preach that God's done all
He can do and the rest is up to you? What does he preach?
Where's the fruit? What's the fruit? Does he preach
free grace or free will? Either make the tree good and
its fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and its fruit
corrupt, because the tree is known by the fruit. It's known
by the fruit. Listen to what our Savior tells
us in these next verses. He said, old generation, verse
34, of vipers, deadly, venomous snakes, how can you being evil? speak good things. Huh? Where'd the fruit come from?
That's what he said. Where's the fruit coming from?
Now they said his fruit was coming from Beelzebub. And he told the
people, he said, you look at the trees. I'm a tree, and here's
a man who says he's a tree. And you make this determination.
Which one is the tree of God? Which one is the tree of God? Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. So first of all, He said, examine the tree. Look
at the tree. Look at the fruit. Examine what
you put in your mouth. And Christ is the tree to which
he refers. He is the true vine and His Father,
the husband man. It is in knowing Him that constitutes
eternal life. This is life eternal that they
might know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom Thou
sent. He's the heavenly water. He's
the bread which God rained down from heaven. He's the righteous
branch, and apart from Him there is no life, no faith, no blessing,
and no hope. These men who hurled these accusations
against the Lord were highly regarded religious leaders, venerable
men. honored by all regarding their
stations and their education and their sanctity of life. Yet
in spite of these things, the Lord said they were evil. They
were evil. The natural man can be used of
Satan, and we're told that clearly in the scriptures, and he makes
them to appear as an angel of light and as a minister of righteousness. He can carry a Bible. He can
visit hospitals. He can cancel the trouble. Their
boast, our Lord said, in the judgment. At the judgment, these
men will make this boast in argument of God's justice against them.
And they'll say, have not we preached in thy name? We were
preachers. We preached in your name. We
did many wonderful works in thy name. What did he tell them? Depart from me, ye workers of
iniquity. Paul said, of those in Romans
2.19 of whom I just spoke, he said, they are confident that
they are guides of the blind, a light of them which are in
darkness, instructors of the foolish and teacher of babes,
but who have only a form of knowledge, a hollow form. They have a form, he said, of
godliness, but deny the power thereof, ever learning, but never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Christ is the good
tree. And then secondly, all those
who are in Christ, who are sent of Him and taught of Him, called
and anointed of Him, are recognized the same way. They're recognized
by what they preach. They're recognized by their message
and ministry. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. Now why would the Lord call these
religious men, these Pharisees, why would He call them evil? What's so evil about trying to
get men and women to reform their lives? They need reforming, don't
they? Men out here taking drugs and
running loose and going to bars Drunk every night and can't save
his money and can't pay it. He needs reforming, don't he?
What's so evil about telling him that? What's so terrible
about trying to get men and women to obey God's law? His law is
holy and just and good. There's nothing in that, evil
in that law. What's so terrible about that?
Nothing evil or bad in the law. What's so bad about trying to
get folks to join the church and give their lives to the Lord
and change their ways? Because these men tell folks
if they do those things, they can appease God. They can appease
God. And by these things, win the
favor and blessing of God. Because they tell the people
that in doing these things, they can produce a righteousness acceptable
to God. There are two things in the Scripture
that God the Holy Spirit tells us specifically and repeatedly
that cannot save sinners. Let me give that to you again.
There's two things in the Scripture that God the Holy Spirit tells
us specifically and repeatedly that cannot save sinners. The
first thing that he tells us that cannot save sinners is the
will of man. So why the controversy? He said,
it's not of him that willeth. Well, let's just get that off
the table then. Huh? Let's just write that off
the table. That's not even an issue anymore,
is it? It's not of him that willeth. Turn with me to Romans chapter
9. God singled out a woman who was
pregnant with twins. And before these two babies were
ever born or did any good or evil, God chose one unto salvation
and passed the other by. Passed him by. And He did it
to establish His sovereign election of grace. That's what he tells
us here in Romans chapter 9. Romans 9.14. What shall we say
then? What's your reaction to that?
What are you going to say? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he said to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. Now listen. So then, it's not
of him that willeth. Ain't that what that says? Then why are we telling men they
have a free will and salvation is altogether by their choice?
Why are we telling them that? That's contrary to the message
of God. You see what I'm saying? If you're
eating that, you're eating rotten fruit. That's what Christ said. Look at the tree. Listen to what
he says. Listen to what it is you're about
to eat. If it's corrupt, don't eat it.
Don't eat it. John 1, verse 12, But as many
as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. You see what I'm saying? Here's
two times I've just read to you where He said specifically and
repeatedly that salvation is not by the will of man. And the second thing that the
Word of God says repeatedly that salvation is not of man's works. Not of his works. Titus 3, verse
5 says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the
renewing of the Holy Ghost. Ephesians 2, verse 8, By grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. In
Romans 3, verse 28, Paul says, Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Preaching
the free will of man and righteousness by man's obedience to the law
is contrary to the Word of God and deadly to those who ascribe
to it. It robs God of His glory. It robs God of His glory that
He purposed in their creation and salvation and denies the
necessity of Christ's offices, His incarnation, His life, and
His death on the cross. And for a man to be so much as
circumcised in obedience to the law boards the work of Christ
on his behalf. Or as Paul says, Christ will
profit you nothing. And then secondly, the good man
and the good treasure. He says, there's none good but
God. To produce good fruit, we must
be grafted into the good vine. In John 15, verse 4, as the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more
can ye except you abide in me. There is a grafting. into the
vine of Christ. There is a new creation in the
heart of man. And apart from that creation
in his heart, apart from that regeneration in him, apart from
God's work in him, that man cannot bear the fruit of God. He can't
do it. Oh, he'll ascribe to the doctrines,
but he'll preach works. He'll preach works. He'll stand
and argue with you on the street about man's depravity and particular
redemption. And he'll stand there and argue
with you, but not in the pulpit. He gets in the pulpit, you know
what kind of fruit he bears? Works. Works. Works. Works. He don't preach
Christ. You see what Christ is saying
here to these men? There was a multitude gathered
to hear Him, and He said, either make the tree good, and his fruit
good, or make it corrupt and its fruit corrupt. Now if that
tree is corrupt and its fruit is corrupt, quit listening to
them. Quit listening to them. John went so far as to say, if
any comes among you and brings not the doctrines of Christ,
he said, you treat him as a curse. Don't even bid him good day.
Don't even bid him good day. You see him coming down the street,
just cross over, get on the other side. Go on down the road. Leave
him alone. Leave him alone. God give us
the wisdom to know the difference. Thank you.