the message for this evening,
fruit. Fruit. Now this is the last week of
the Lord's life here on earth before the cross. He had made
the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey the day before this.
and heard the cries Hosanna and the accolades with regard to
himself from the crowd. And he went back to Bethany to
stay presumably with Martha and Lazarus and Mary. And now he
is coming back and he is returning to Jerusalem. And we read in
verse 12, and on the morrow when they were come from Bethany,
Here's a very remarkable statement. He was hungry. You know what it is to be hungry.
The God man was hungry. This speaks of the humanity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He had all the limitations of
the flesh. He was hungry. He was thirsty. He was wearied with his journey
and sat down on the well. He had all the limitations of
the flesh, you and I have, and he didn't use his deity to create
anything for himself. You'll remember when he had fasted
40 days, if you're the son of God, command that these stones
be made bread. Well, he could have done that
easily, but I can't. and you can't, and he's going
to have all the limitations that you and I have. Isn't that glorious? He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree, let me
make this comment before I say anything else. What's the only
kind of tree he cursed? A fig tree. A lot to that, isn't there? A
fig tree. And seeing a fig tree afar off
having leaves. Now, I try to picture this in
my mind. I don't understand every way
of how to say this, but the Lord was hungry and he saw a fig tree
afar off. And you think, well, as God,
didn't he already know it didn't have any figs? Well, I suppose
so. But as man, he didn't. He was
looking afar off and he saw a very leafy tree. And he was very hungry. And when he comes close to that
tree, seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if
happily he might find anything thereon, some figs to eat. And when he came to it, he found
nothing but leaves. No fruit, nothing to eat, nothing
but leaves. The time of figs was not yet,
and Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit on thee
hereafter forever. And we know as we go on reading
in that chapter, I've already read that verse of scripture,
the next day when the disciples passed it, it was withered up,
dried up at the roots. Peter said, behold, the fig tree
that you have cursed. Now what this is, first of all,
is an indictment against Israel. Only leaves. No fruit. As a matter of fact, if you look
at Matthew's account, after this, he gives four or five parables
dealing directly with Israel. And in this, in Mark's account,
that parable of chapter 12 is about Israel, Christ being sent
to them. You can read that on your own.
And Matthew's account says, when the chief priests and scribes
heard his parables, they perceived he spake of them. Now, this is
a picture of Israel, the Jews. Nothing believes, no fruit at
all. Now, I want to talk about fruit,
and I desperately want this message to be an encouragement. to me
and to you. I tried to listen to several
messages where preachers were talking about fruit, and I couldn't
get very far through them. I'd have to turn them off because
they were nothing but threatening. If you're not showing fruit,
you know, all that kind of stuff. And as soon as somebody starts
speaking that way, you start thinking, well, I'm not showing
fruit. I was telling Lynn when we were driving over here, when's
the last time you had somebody say, well, I got a lot of fruit.
I'm doing real good. You'd hold them suspect, wouldn't
you? But at any rate, I want to talk
about fruit, and it's my prayer that this message will be a great
encouragement to every single believer without exception. Now in Psalm 1, the blessed man,
now we know first of all, that's the Lord. He is the blessed man. But it's also talking about every
believer. The blessed man is like a tree planted. by the rivers
of waters, that bringeth forth his fruit in a season." Now that
describes every single believer. They've been planted. God planted
them. The Heavenly Father planted them.
And He planted them by the rivers of water and they bring forth
fruit in their season. There's a passage of scripture
in Hosea chapter 14, verse three, and this is so encouraging. He
says to the church, from me is thy fruit found. It didn't come
from you. From me is thy fruit found. Now in the parable of the sower,
what was the difference between the good ground here and the
wayside here, the stony ground here and the thorn choked here?
There's one difference, fruit. The good ground here bore fruit. The other three bore no fruit. In Matthew chapter 12, verse
33, the Lord says a tree is known by its fruit. If an apple tree bears anything
other than apples, you know it's not an apple tree, don't you?
A tree is known by the fruit it bears. And then in Matthew
chapter seven, the Lord said, every good tree bringeth forth
good fruit. Every one of them. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth
evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit. It's incapable of it. This is
talking about the new nature, obviously. That's all it could
be talking about. An evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and a corrupt tree cannot bring
forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, wherefore
by their fruits you shall know them. And in the context, he's
talking about false prophets. He introduced this statement
saying, beware of false prophets. And he says, you'll know them
by their fruits. And that means three different things. First
of all, you'll know them by their doctrine. Do they preach the
word of God? They don't preach the word of
God to false prophets. Secondly, you'll know them by their converts.
What do you mean by that? Talk to the people these guys
preach to and see what they believe. See what they believe. You'll
know them by their converts. You'll know them by what the,
the way you can find out what I believe is by what you believe.
That's the way, no other way. And you'll know them by the fruit
of their lives. Any true prophet, any true preacher, Christ is their Lord. Christ
is their everything. And that will be evident. Look in Luke chapter 13 with
me for a moment. Verse six. He spake also this
parable. A certain man had a fig tree
planted in his vineyard. Luke chapter 13, verse six. And
he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none, just like the
Lord sought fruit on that fig tree, and there were leaves only.
Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these
three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none.
Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? How many times have
you read that and thought, huh, I know who that's referring to,
me. Why cumbereth it the ground?
Verse eight, and he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone
this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it. If
it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that, thou shalt cut
it down. Look in John chapter 15. Verse one, I am the true vine
and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. and every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it. Have you ever seen how a vine
is cut back to nothing? That's what gives it its health.
He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are
clean through the word which I've spoken unto you. Abide in
me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you except
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, severed
from me, apart from me, you can do nothing. You know that so
don't you? You're just well aware of it.
Look down in verse eight. Herein is my father glorified
that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples. Look in verse 16. You've not
chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you
should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain,
that it should continue. Turn with me for a moment to
Philippians chapter four. I'm sorry, Philippians chapter
one, verse 11. Being filled. Now that is very
significant. Not you fill yourself. being
filled. This is God filling you, being
filled with the fruits of righteousness, the fruits of having the righteousness
of Christ and the fruits that accompany that, which are by Jesus Christ. I
love the way he says that. Christ is the author of these
things. You're not. unto the glory and praise of God." That
certainly is encouraging. Now, both the writer to the Hebrews
and James spoke of the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Now, there is something every
believer possesses, righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And you know what that produces?
Peace. It's the peaceable fruit of righteousness. The joy and peace of having His
righteousness as your righteousness before God. You see, the only
thing that causes someone to not have peace is to think that
salvation has something to do with them. But if you really
believe that His righteousness is your personal righteousness
before God, and that's all God's looking for, you know what you
have? Peace. the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Romans 14, 17 says the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness. That's not
talking about righteous living. I'm all for righteous living,
but that's talking about the righteousness of Jesus Christ
as the believer's personal righteousness before God. And what comes as
a result of that? Peace and joy. in the Holy Ghost. The writer to the Hebrews spoke
of the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. You said it in your prayer, in
the reading, His name is our salvation. His name is His attribute,
it's His person, it's who He is. His name is our salvation. This is the name we call upon
when we call upon the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We give thanks for
His name, don't we? From the depths of our hearts,
we give thanks for His name. Now, true fruit comes from repentance. John the Baptist said to those
people who came to hear him preach that he obviously was not impressed
with. He called them you snakes, you generation of vipers. He
said, bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. True fruit comes from repentance. Now, let me remind you what repentance
is. Repentance is a change of mind.
You think differently. You used to think one thing about
God. You don't think that anymore. You used to think something about
yourself that you don't think anymore. You used to think something
about salvation that you don't think anymore. Your mind's been
changed. That's what repentance is. It's
repentance toward God. It's a change of mind concerning
God. And what always accompanies it
is faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. What a change. What a change of mind. Repentance. You know, people always talk
about repenting of sin. Well, that phrase is not in the
Bible. I'm sure it's implied, but that
phrase is not in the Bible. Repentance, of course we ought
to have a change of mind with regarding to sin. We ought to
hate it. I'm not, we ought not sin as far as that goes, ever.
That's the truth. But if repentance is just being
able to stop sinning, I've repented of that sin, I don't commit it
anymore. I won't be saved, neither will you, if that's what repentance
is. Repentance is a change of mind,
and repentance brings fruit. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter seven for just a moment. 2 Corinthians chapter seven. Verse 9, now I rejoice, 2 Corinthians
chapter 7 verse 9. Now I rejoice, not that you were
made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. For you were made sorry after
a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing.
For godly sorrow worketh Repentance to salvation, not to be repented
of. You know, most repentances, you
need to repent of that repentance. It wasn't any good. It was dishonoring
to the Lord. And that's true of most so-called
repentances. But he talks about godly sorrow
that worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of for the
sorrow of the world worketh death for behold the self same thing
that you sorrowed after a godly sort. He named seven things that
accompanied that. What carefulness it wrought in
you, earnest diligence. What? Clearing of yourselves. That's where we get the word
apology from. It means literally giving full
account. And I was thinking about this.
Are you one of those people that has a hard time apologizing?
That's very ugly. Very ugly. It's a terrible character
flaw to not be able to say I'm sorry, but I'll tell you this.
We have true sorrow before the Lord, not as sorry as we ought
to be, but we have true sorrow. David said against thee and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And then he
speaks of indignation. And who's that indignation toward?
Yourself. Yourself. If you have true repentance,
this is the fruit of repentance. And then he speaks of fear. And
you know what fear is? It's the fear of God. And what
is the fear of God? There's only one proper answer.
If you have the true fear of God, you look to Christ only
and you're afraid to look anywhere else. Anything else is just some
kind of slavish fear of bondage. The fear of God is that you're
afraid to rest anywhere but Christ alone. And then he speaks of
vehement desire. That same word is longing. Paul used this word when he says,
I long to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. What zeal, zeal for God's glory,
zeal against anything that's opposed to God's glory. Yay,
what revenge. Now this is not talking about
our personal vengeance. The word is literally doing justice
to all parties. This is the fruit of true repentance. And if there's no fruit meat
for repentance, it's not genuine repentance. I still love what
Brother Mahan said. Repentance is a change of mind
that is caused by a change of masters that brings on a change
of motives and a change of manners. And if we're going to speak of
the fruit a believer bears, every believer has this fruit, the
fruit of God, the Holy Spirit, not the fruit of your works.
Remember what God, the Holy Spirit calls this fruit, the fruit of
the Spirit. God, the Spirit says, this comes
from me. It didn't come from you. It comes from me. The fruit of
the Spirit. Now this fruit is the result
of being born of the Spirit. This is the sovereign work of
the Spirit of God. He births. He fathers. He gives life to all that God
elected, to all that Christ died for. Life from the dead. Hence, the fruit of the Spirit. Now, turn with me to Galatians
chapter 5. This is the fruit of God, the
Holy Spirit. He names this, and this is something
that every believer possesses, every single one of them. If
I'm born of God, I must have the fruit of the Spirit. Everybody
that's born of God has all the fruit of the Spirit. Nobody has
one, two, three, or a nine. Every believer has, possesses
the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Now look in verse 22, Galatians chapter five, verse
22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. I love his editorial comment
after that. Against such, there is no law. No law needed for the fruit of
the Spirit. Nine fruits. Some have said there's
one fruit, love, and it's manifested in all these different ways.
But they can be divided in three clusters. The first three have
to do with my attitude toward God. The second three have to
do with my attitude toward you. And the third three have to do
with myself, the fruit of the Spirit. Now the first fruit of
the Spirit, and maybe the only fruit of the Spirit, and everything
else is just manifested by these things, but I like what he mentions
first, love. The greatest of these now abideth
faith, hope, and charity, these three, but the greatest of these
is what? Love. Now I want to ask you,
because maybe all of us, At least some of us are thinking, oh,
I'm afraid I don't love enough. Let me answer that question for
you. You don't. You don't. There's no question about that.
But what I'd like you to do and what I'd like to do for a moment
is just quit thinking about yourself and think about this glorious
God. I love him. I love his sovereignty. Don't
you love the fact that he rules and reigns and everything, and
he controls everybody and everything, and the king's heart is in the
hand of the Lord, and as the rivers of water, he turneth it
whithersoever he will? Don't you love that? Don't you
love his power, the fact that whatever he wills, he has the
power to perform? Aren't you thankful for his purpose,
that he's purposed everything, and that he controls everything?
Aren't you thankful for his immutability? However he is, that's the way
he always is. In that sense, he's utterly predictable. Don't
you hate being around people that are unpredictable, that
are liable to fly off the handle, or they might be nice to you
one day, aggravated death? Oh, I hate that. The Lord's not
like that. He's utterly predictable. He's
predictable. He's immutable. He never changes. He's independent. He has no needs. Isn't that glorious? He says,
if I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you. The cattle on a thousand
hills are mine. He's holy. He's other. He's separate from anything,
anybody, anyone. He's absolutely just. Everything about Him is just. Oh, His wisdom. He's made a way
to be just and justify people like me and you that really is
just. Oh, what about His grace? What about His love? What about
His mercy? What about His goodness? He's
good. Oh, the Lord is glorious. You
know, I love His Son. His son is altogether lovely. I love his character. I love
his person. I love his way of saving. I love
his salvation. I love the father's love toward
him. I love being in him. I love him as my prophet. I love
him as my priest. I love him as my king. I love
his lordship. Oh, he's altogether lovely. I love God the Holy Spirit, the
third person of the blessed Trinity. All I know of God the Father
and God the Son is given me through God the Holy Spirit, giving me
this new nature, this fruit of the Holy Spirit. He gave me the
love to love him. The fruit of the Spirit is love.
The fruit of the Spirit is joy. Now, you can't love and not be
joyous. It gives me, what I just said
about my God, Father, Son, and Spirit, it gives me joy. I am
happy with regard to who He is and how He saves. And oh, the
peace that comes from that, the peace of knowing that the righteousness
of Jesus Christ is my personal righteousness before God, the
peace of knowing that God controls everything. I read an article
by John Chapman in a bulletin this week, and he said, somebody
said to me that they're so glad 2020 is over because it's the
worst year we've ever had. He said, now, wait a minute. Was God's will done? Yes. Was everything that happened
in 2020 his purpose? Yes. Then it couldn't be better. And that's true, that's true.
That's the peace of knowing he's on the throne. And then he says,
and these are with regard to men, longsuffering, gentleness,
and goodness. Now, this thing of longsuffering,
if you love somebody, you're patient with them. That's just
all there is to it, if you love somebody. Now, I know you can
get impatient, and every time I start talking about patience,
I just thought, well, I hope I have this one, I can't see
it, but I believe it's there, because I'm a believer, and it
didn't come out to the top too much, it's one of those, but
when I see the Lord's patience with me, this is the only time
I ever feel impatience, When I see the Lord's utter patience
and long-suffering with me, it's easy to be patient toward you.
If I see my own sinfulness and contradictions and inconsistencies,
it's easy to be patient with you. The problem is, is when
we've got too high a view of ourselves. But the fruit of the
Spirit is long-suffering. The fruit of the Spirit is gentleness. You know what that means? Graciousness. Not holding people's feet to
the fire. Not giving them a standard that
I don't give to myself. Graciousness. That's the fruit
of God the Holy Spirit. And the next thing he mentions
is goodness. You know what goodness is? It's
a capacity for mercy. The Lord say to Moses when he
said, show me your glory. He said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before thee. I will be gracious. To whom I will be gracious, but
I will show mercy. God's good all the time. Everything with regard to him. And then with regard to each
other, the fruit of the spirit. I mean, with regard to ourself,
the fruit of the spirit is faith, meekness, and temperance. Now, what is the evidence that
I have the fruit of the spirit? Faith in Christ. If you look
to Christ, you have the fruit of the spirit. If you really
are relying on him only, he's all you got. He's all you got. If you're relying on him only,
you have the fruit of the spirit. This is proof. You believe the
gospel. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I really am. He's all I got. And I'm fine with that. That's
the evidence of having the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And then
he speaks of meekness, meekness. Now, meekness is the twin sister
of humility, where you have one, you have the other. Humility
is how you feel about yourself, and meekness is an attitude toward
God. Humility is a just estimate of
yourself. Meekness is a proper attitude
toward God. Now let me give you a couple
of scriptural illustrations of what meekness really is. Remember,
this is the third beatitude, blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Here's meekness. Shemai is throwing
rocks at David, he's casting up stones, he's saying, your
blood's on your own head, it's coming back to get you because
of what you did to Saul. He's cursing him, he's cursing
him, he's cursing him. David doesn't say anything and
Shemai, and then Abishai says with regard to Shemai, let me
go take his head off. He said, no. He said, the Lord
said, curse David. The Lord told him to do that. Listen to David's words when
he's being brought back to Israel after he'd been fleeing from
Absalom. He says, If I find favor before
the Lord, he shall bring me again and show me both it, the ark,
and his habitation. But if he say, I have no delight,
in thee. Behold, here I am. Let him do what seemeth him good. Samuel said to Eli, God's going
to kill both your sons. It's the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. Meekness before God It's the
Lord. I like what Joe McSherry used
to say, I know two things. God is, and I'm not him. A lot
of wisdom in that, isn't there? Whatever he does is right. And then he speaks of temperance.
Temperance means control from within. And the best way I know
how to describe temperance, this gift of the Holy Spirit, is this. The spirit lusts against the
flesh, the flesh lusts against the spirit so that you cannot
do the things you would. You have God the Holy Spirit
in you. Now, you would be without sin. It ain't gonna happen, not
as long as you're in the flesh. But you would be so intemperate
and monstrous, there's no sin that you would not commit. But
God, the Holy Spirit, will not permit it. That's the temperance
from within. Remember, it's the fruit of the
Spirit. It's not the fruit of your self-ability to govern yourself
and pull yourself up by the bootstraps and keep from, no, it's the fruit
of the Spirit. Now, fruit, isn't the fruit of
the Holy Spirit beautiful? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. And the Lord said to Israel,
for me is thy fruit found. Against such there is no law. You know if you need law, you
know what that means? You don't have the fruit of the Spirit.
You don't. If you need law to regulate you
and rule you, I need to know the rules, I need to know the
laws, you don't have the fruit of the Holy Spirit. I love that
scripture, the law was not made for a righteous man. but for
the lawless and disobedient, for sinners and unholy, profane,
for murderers of fathers, for murderers of mothers, for whoremongers,
for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing
that's contrary to sound doctrine. Against such there is no law. Let's pray. Lord, we ask By your grace, by
your spirit, by the new nature you give, we might have fruit. The fruit of thy spirit, love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
temperance. Give us the peaceable fruit of
righteousness. Lord, how thankful we are that
our fruit comes from thee. Bless this message for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.