How many people here are fans of the Bugs Bunny show? Truly the cream of the intellectual crop aren’t we. Out of all my favourites the one cartoon I enjoy most is the one with the Ralph the wolf and Sam the sheep dog. You remember, they clock into work together each morning, morning Ralph, morning Sam, spend the day doing what they do best. The wolf trying his hardest to steal a sheep and the sheepdog preventing him from stealing said sheep. And then at the end of the day they clock Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. out together and go home. Inevitability though at some point during the cartoon the wolf will dress up as a sheep and try to sneak in and get himself some mutton, but he always gets caught of course and that’s because the sheepdog’s expecting him and is vigilant in his task.
Matthew chapter 7 vs 15-23 begins with a admonition to be like Ralph the sheep dog. Matthew 7:15 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves.
Christ then follows that admonition with instructions on how to recognize a wolf when he’s dressed like a sheep. Matthew 7:16 You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? By the way, that is rhetorical question, it’s not meant to be answered. Kind of like: How Stupid do I look. The next 63 words then are simply commentary on the previous 7 words. In other words Christ explains why their fruit will betray them.
And it is really rather simple, if you have a tree in your back yard and all it produces is apples, chances are that it is not a plum tree. And if you have a tree that always produces peaches, then it probably isn’t a cherry tree, right. Come on stick with me folks. So the criteria that Christ lays down at this point for differentiating true prophets from false prophets is not theological, and it is not doctrinal, it is behavioural. Ouch, that stings because often we judge our brothers and sisters by whether or not they believe what we believe, and if they don’t then, we figure that they ain’t got it. Surprise! There are some doctrines that we just can’t compromise on, the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth, the trinity, salvation by faith. But there are a lot of doctrines out there that aren’t all that important in the eternal scheme of things and I can’t wait to see some of your faces in heaven when you find out who your neighbour is.
The interesting thing is this: the criteria for determining whether or not a Christian leader is genuine is the very same criteria that Christ lays down for determining whether or not a Christian is genuine. And Christ is not the only source in the New Testament that we have for this analogy between the Christian life and fruitfulness.
In Matthew 3:8 John the Baptist tells people to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Repentance means that you’ve turned from your sin. So the fruit of repentance means a lack of sinful behaviour. In John 15:8 Christ reminds us that producing fruit not only shows that we are disciples but brings glory to the father.
But what fruit are we supposed to produce? I mean after all if we are to be judged both in this life and the next life on the fruit we produce and we get such dire warnings as Christ provides in Matthew 7:19 So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire.
Then it is only fair that we ought to know what the produce is that we are supposed to produce if we are going to be judged on the things which we have produced, right?
Well at this point then we really should go to Galatians 5:22-23 and talk about the fruit of the spirit. But we’re not. Instead we are going to simplify it dramatically by going instead to Ephesians 5:8-10 where we read For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. In the NIV it reads this way Ephesians 5:8-10 for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
What Paul has done is to sum up, the nine fruit of the spirit that he mentions in Galatians into three things, and then narrows that down into one thing.
And so the fruit that the Christian is supposed to produce is that which is pleasing to God. Paul tells us find out what pleases the lord. And that is all goodness, righteousness, and truth. And so we are going to look at goodness, righteousness and truth, but not in that order. Now the reasons that we are looking at all goodness, righteousness and truth instead of the fruit of the spirit which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control is firstly because three point message are easier to preach then nine point messages. And secondly and most importantly because the three encompass the nine.
With that out of the way then let us look at the fruit which needs to be evident in a prophet’s life, and for that matter in a Christian’s life. The very first fruit then that needs to be evidenced is Truth. Jesus said in John 8:31-32 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” And so 1) You Have to Know the Truth.
He went on to say in John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. This may appear elementary but do bear with me, the very first test of the fruit of a Christian is that he knows Christ. Now there are a lot of people in church all over our country who know about Christ. There are all kinds of preachers all over our country who know about Christ but they don’t know Christ. And there is a vast difference between knowing about someone and knowing someone.
Ever meet a real royalist, I mean there are some people out there who have almost stepped over the line when it comes to royalty. They even obsess over ex royalty. I mean who really cares what colour Fergies eyes are or what Di’s favourite vegetable was. Now don’t get me wrong I have nothing against royalty I think it would be great work if you could find it, it does bother me that some Christians know more about a dead princess than they do about the living God
Anyway as I was saying there are people out there who know all about the royal family, from shoe sizes to favourite colours, but they don’t know the royal family. And there is vast difference between knowing about Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philipp, and knowing Liz and phil. And just because you know all about Jesus of Nazareth doesn’t necessarily mean that you have actually met him and know him as Lord and Saviour.
So the very first thing we have to note is whether or not a person has had a real encounter with Jesus Christ. Not as easy as it sounds though, because in Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
The first mark of a Christian then is that he knows Christ, but it is not enough that you say you know Christ, the experience is going to have to be real and the word of God says the way to determine whether or not someone has had a real experience is by the fruit they are producing, or dare we say their behaviour.
After knowing the truth then the two fruit which are evidence of that knowledge are all Goodness, and Righteousness. When the expert of the law asked Christ in Matthew 22:36-39 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
Ok, righteousness then is “loving the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Goodness on the other hand is “loving your neighbour as yourself.”
Goodness is morality, righteousness is holiness. And neither one can exist without the other. Well then what is the difference? The difference is this: goodness is what you do for your fellow man and by default what you do for yourself, where as righteousness is what you do for God. The very act of praise and worship. The Ten Commandments reflected that in a negative sense, you don’t take God’s name in vain, you don’t dishonour the Sabbath, you don’t commit adultery, you don’t covet your neighbours’, chariot, you don’t lie, you don’t kill, you don’t worship other Gods.
Under the new covenant it gets more difficult, because you can refrain from killing your neighbour, messing around with his wife, coveting his chariot and lying to and about him and still not love him. But Christ says that that is not enough, because if you are going to follow Jesus and if you are going to call your-self by his name that is a Christian then you are going to have to love others, and that is a positive and not a negative.
In other words you can fulfil the Ten Commandments simply by never having anything to do with your neighbour, but that is not goodness. And you could fulfill the Ten Commandments and never have anything to do with God and that is not righteousness.
And so the fruit of our Christian life consist of loving people, just as Christ loved people. And that is Goodness. 2) You Have to Be Good to People. Christ showed his love in very tangible ways, he fed the hungry, he healed the sick, he touched the untouchables. Things that we can do today.
There he goes preaching a social gospel again. Right, because the gospel is a social gospel. The liberal churches have ignored the need for salvation which is very much a part of the gospel, but we evangelicals have ignored our social responsibilities which is also very much a part of the gospel.
Do you remember the criteria that Christ used for separating the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:35-36 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
Sounds pretty radical to me, very social. I wonder if today he might say I was a homeless teen and you provided a place for me to sleep, I was an unwed mother and you offered me love and support, I was in the rehab centre and you read to me and pushed my wheelchair, I was the mom of a handicap child and you babysat for me and gave me a break, I was dying of aids and you held my hand and told me about a Jesus who loved me.
You see the fruit of goodness is showing people who are lost and dying and going to hell that Jesus loves them. I didn’t say that it is telling people who are lost and dying and going to hell that Jesus loves them, it is showing them and there is a vast difference. How much goodness do you exhibit in your life?
Pastor, I really don’t think it is appropriate that you are trying to make us feel guilty. I do as a matter of fact that ought to be in my job description. Wesley was asked once by a young preacher what his job was, and Wesley told him, “to comfort the afflicted, and to afflict the comfortable.” friends goodness is doing to other people what Jesus would do to other people. What would Jesus do? Shouldn’t just be a bracelet. Because while it’s not good works that save Christians it should certainly be good works that mark Christians.
And the last fruit of light is Righteousness and so the question is “What is Righteousness” put very simply righteousness is obedience. 3) You Have to Be Righteous Before God. And that means obedience to the will of God for your life. Not my life, not your child’s life, not your spouse’s life but your life. And it’s really easy to look around and determine how other people should be obedient and miss out on the fact that we aren’t where we are supposed to be. When you get to heaven, God will not ask you why I didn’t do the things I should have been doing. When and only when we are obedient to what God wants us to do then are we truly counted righteous.
And you may think that you have everything under control but listen to the words of Paul in Romans 6:16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. And the apostle John said in
1 John 3:7-8 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
You understand God will never change what righteous is to fit you, but he may have to change you to fit what righteousness is. There are times that I have spoken to believers that are in direction violation to the word of God, I’m not talking nit picking stuff, I’m talking about Ten Commandment stuff and they tell me that they have never felt convicted over their behaviour, or don’t feel that they are doing anything wrong. Martin Luther, father of the reformation said “You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the word which the Lord who receives sinners preaches to you.” You can and will justify most anything you want to do but that doesn’t make it right. But please if you are in that situation and someone confronts you don’t get all snotty and play the “Who are you to judge me?” card. The bible, the word of God gives us direction when it says 1 Corinthians 5:12 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.
Where are you when it comes to the fruit you are bearing? Do you know the truth, has it set you free and how is your life measuring up, have you become a new creation like the bible said you would be. And is that evidenced in the way you treat others and in your obedience to God.
Because ultimately we have to answer those questions before we are in any position to examine the fruit of others.
Free Powerpoint may be available for this message email me at denn@cornerstonewesleyan.ca
