Good Fruit
Pastor Gary Tolbert
Sermon on the Mount XVII
October 14, 2006

Intro: Ill. Mind-Defaults.What is your mind default position? Is it a joke like Jon Stewart? Is it a self putdown? Is it self-centered? That is probably true for most of us. Is that the mind of Christ who thought himself of no reputation and humbled himself (Philippians 2:7, 8)? This gets to the heart of what Jesus is saying when he talks about true and false prophets.

I. True and false

Matthew 7:15-20, Watch out for false prophets. Teachers of falsehood will arise to draw many away from the path of following Jesus. We are told to beware of them; though they look like ministers of Christ, inwardly they are ravening wolves. (Matthew 24:11), Many will be deceived. The apostle Paul gives us some startling information about so-called ministers of righteousness. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Not servants of righteousness. The devil does not come as in the little red man with a pitchfork. He comes as an angel of light. He looks like one of the good guys.

Jesus gives a test by which false teachers may be distinguished from the true. By their fruits you will recognize them. This is one of the tests of prophet in the Scriptures. There are at least three others.

1- Deuteronomy 18:21, 22, If the prophecy comes true; although, there are a couple of exceptions. When the prophecy is a conditional prophecy, and most of them are, the conditions must be met for it new come true. A good example of course is the prophet Jonah. He was a true prophet but what he said did not come true because Nineveh repented and God showed mercy.

When 2- Isaiah 8:19, 20, To the law and testimony. What a person says must agree with the Scriptures in clear reading. This cuts out all of the psychics, soothsayers, palm readers, and mediums, as well as some Christians to reject the clear word of God.

3- 1 John 4:1-3, Correct understanding of Jesus. Since there was a movie and book about Leonardo's code which used some ancient writings that are not authentic, we do need to be concerned about this one. The person must believe that Jesus came, was born of a virgin, grew up as a man in Palestine, but was also 100% God, died upon the cross for us, ascended into heaven and will come back a second time. These are the basic and clear teachings of the New Testament on who Jesus was and is. The preacher must uplift Jesus, not himself as the way, the truth, and the life.

4- Matthew 7:16, 20, By their fruits you will recognize them.

* Before we go on there is something I need to say about these tests of a prophet.

1- Each of these tests is very important when we apply them to someone who claims to have a special message from God. But they also are legitimate tests for any church or denomination that claims to be following God or any preacher, including myself who claims to be following God. If I or anyone else, who claims to the following God or speaking on his behalf, does not pass these tests, fail in any one of them, and then you do not need to listen to us.

2- Now let me say something on behalf of preachers, prophets and churches. We are all humans and humans are sinners, especially this one. When thinking about the tests we need to distinguish between the mistakes that sinful humans make and their teachings, character and general practices. Mistakes and shortcomings are one thing, general practices of life, teachings and the character of an individual is another thing. Don't use someone's faults as an excuse that they are not from God. Otherwise no one can measure up.

3- We need to also be careful about judging people. This last week for Prayer and Praise we looked at the experience of the Roman Centurion who send someone to Christ requesting that his servant be healed. We looked at this from the perspective of Desire of Ages, Chapter 32. The biblical story can be found in Matthew 8 and Luke 7. Some things that jumped out at me about the Centurion were; he was humble and felt unworthy; he was a Roman not a Jew or a Christian. He was an outsider. He didn't belong to any good church. He was a pagan Roman Centurion. Jesus proclaimed that the Centurion had a greater faith than anyone in Israel. Just because someone is not at a place in their life where they are mature in faith and belongs to our church does not mean they are not of God. Be careful of judging others. Faith is an individual thing. Ill. Amish shootings.

II. What isNot Fruit?

Now back to the fourth test of a prophet. Jesus tells us that by their fruits you will recognize them. What are fruits? Sometimes we have looked at fruits in a worldly sense.

Money: Many of us, even in the church, equate success with having lots of money. A snazzy new car; a large, beautifully decorated home; great clothes; the latest computer and stereo equipment; travel… these are the things by which we measure how we are doing. Think about it: Don't you sometimes feel a little inferior to someone who has more and nicer stuff than you and lives in a more affluent neighborhood? Wealth can be a sign of God's blessing. Yet look at what Jesus said to the church in Laodicea, You say, I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. Revelation 3:17. He goes on to say, But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. The Laodiceans had all the wealth the world could offer. Yet because they were spiritually lukewarm, he told them, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

God gives no special honor to people with buckets of money. The size of our bank accounts doesn't matter to our Lord.

Approval: Should we measure our success, then by something intangible -- like a good reputation? Which of us wouldn't love to win the respect and approval of our community group, coworkers, church -- or even just our family?

Certainly, God requires us to relate to others with love, grace, and truth. But how people respond to us is not a legitimate measure of our success either. Jesus said Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. (Matthew 5:11) Jesus himself was despised and rejected. Whether people think well of you or not is of little importance to God.

Ministry: Wellthen, let's pick a more spiritual measure of success. How about a fruitful ministry? Being pastor of the largest church; a powerful administrator in the Union Conference or the General Conference; lots of friends in high places; maybe winning a lot of souls and gaining numbers in the church.

Yet look at some of God's most commended servants. Under Moses leadership, the people of the Israel rebelled at the borders of the promised land and thus spent 40 years needlessly wandering in the wilderness. He didn't even get to go into the Promised Land with them because of his own mistakes.

Jeremiah faithfully carried out all of God's orders. Yet he was accused of lying, was imprisoned, targeted for death, and thrown into a cistern filled with mud as a result of the messages he brought. His entire ministry might be summed up by this verse: Neither he (King Zedekiah) nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the Lord has spoken through Jeremiah the prophet. (Jeremiah 37:2)

Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, (Acts 6:8) gave an eloquent speech to the Sanhedrin -- and was promptly stoned to death (Acts 7).

Some of the Bible's Saints saw God use them to change lives and the very course of history. But probably just as many were, in today's terms, flops. Yet God it seems commended them equally. It appears that stellar ministry results are not what God is looking for, either.

These and other yardsticks seem to matter little to God: Good looks (1 Samuel 16:7). Worldly wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:20). Human strength (Jeremiah 9:23, 24). These can even get in the way of God's purposes (1Corinthians 1:27-29).

So, if outward success is not important to our Lord, what is? What will make him say well done when he looks at our lives? What are the fruits that Jesus is talking about?

III. Good Fruits

I did a little survey in the Scriptures about fruit. Most of the Old Testament refers to fruit as the fruit on a tree or the kind we eat. Some of the Old and New Testament refers to fruit as a result of a person's character. Proverbs 11:30, Fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. (Proverbs 12:14; Proverbs 13:2) have similar statements in them. By far the clearest understanding of fruit in a spiritual sense is found in Galatians 5:22, 23, The fruit of the Spirit. I plan to spend time on these fruits, but not today. But will take a few minutes and look at three important concepts that are necessary for those who want to be true to God.

1- Commitment: Being committed seems difficult today. Maybe it's because there are so many things pulling for our attention, our lives are so complicated that it is difficult to be fully committed to any one thing. Yet some of us are able to commit to a few important things in life. We can commit to a spouse. We can commit to loving and caring for our children. Some of us can commit to a hobby in which we spend a lot of time and money.

Maybe it is difficult to commit to God because we don't have obvious, immediate benefits like we do with our hobby or our spouse. Ill. Jumping conditions, Nepal, Gurkhas, Brittan, 1964. We may not be asked to jump out of a plane without a parachute but when you commit yourself to Christ you are not always sure what will happen next. Commitment means you will stand for him anyway.

2- Obedient: Another clue to what pleases God appears in Philippians 2:8, Obedient to death. We learned that God has exalted Christ to the highest place in heaven, given him the name that is above every name, (Vs. 9, 10). Why this place of honor? Because he humbled himself and became obedient to death. On every occasion Jesus did what God wanted him to do.

God is not interested in the results of what we do; He wants to know if we are being obedient. In many cases, our obedience will not look successful: Missionaries may labor for years without souls won. Parents may follow godly principles of parenting and end up with rebellious children. We may lose a business contract to someone whose proposal is less honest than ours. But if we have done what God asked of us, we have gained his approval. Obedience is the test of discipleship.

3- Relationship: Finally, God measures our success by the depth of our relationship with him. This is what the Lord says: Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom… this: that he understands and knows me. Jeremiah 9:23, 24.

Jesus said, I am the good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me. (John 10:14). The cry of God's heart is for his people to know him. God knows us intimately -- and he wants us to know him intimately as well. He sacrificed his beloved son so that our relationship with him might be restored.

The Pharisees scored high on the obedience chart. They made a career out of following the law, right down to tithing the spices that grew in their gardens. Yet their connection with God was based on rules, not relationship. Jesus told them, You do not know me or my father (John 8:19). They did the right things, yet their hearts were so hard toward God that it led them to ultimate failure: They could not recognize nor believed in God's son.

We may have great faith. But if we stop there, if we never develop the intimate Father-child relationship that God longs for us to enjoy with him, we have failed at one of life's most important pursuits. On the other hand, if we are seeking God with all our hearts and souls, we will come to know and to love him. And we will be living in obedience to what Jesus said was the greatest commandment of all: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30). Ill. Maturing in Christ. The sooner we start the better. We are going to have to give ourselves to Christ if we want peace and we want to bear fruit for God.

Good Fruit
Pastor Gary Tolbert
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Matthew 7:15-20, Watch out for false prophets

2 Corinthians 11:13-15, Not servants of righteousness

Deuteronomy 18:21, 22, If the prophecy comes true?

Isaiah 8:19, 20, To the law and testimony

1 John 4:1-3, Correct understanding of Jesus

Matthew 7:16-20, By their fruits

Revelation 3:17, You say I am rich

Proverbs 11:30, Fruit of the righteous is a tree of life

Galatians 5:22, 23, The fruit of the Spirit

Philippians 2:8-10, Obedient to death

Jeremiah 9:23, 24 He understands and knows me

Mark 12:30, Love the Lord your God