“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers.45
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 46
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47
As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.
48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
It is a law of life that false principles will produce false living just as it is a law of life, that when God gives a man or woman a new heart, there will, by necessity,
be a changed life. In our text Jesus continues, “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit…for every tree is known by its fruit.”
We do not read these words and think that a bad heart, one not seeking to walk with Jesus, will always produce behavior that is publicly disgraceful and abominable,
that is not what Jesus is saying. Some people appear to be what they are not and that would apply to the typical average Christian person as well as the professor of theology, pastors, teachers, and elders. But what we are, is never hidden from our God, He
sees it all very clearly. Jesus is saying that the ultimate test of what a person is will not be found in what he or she claims for himself or herself, but in how life is lived. What is said, or professed in times of difficulty will tell part of
the story but how we live, will tell the whole.
We live in a time when the teaching of the Bible is being trimmed to fit all kinds of modern sensitivities and this is being done by ministers and laity alike; A time
when Christian it is being made “easier”…where fewer and fewer things are counted as sin, and fewer and fewer sacrifices are required for Christ and for the glory of our Father in heaven. Jesus says; by their fruit you will know them…the truth of who has our
allegiance and our hearts.
In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, and here in our text where Luke Jesus is teaching his disciples. In Matthew and in Luke we are told that Jesus lifted his eyes
toward his disciples and taught THEM saying…The words are particularly for the church, for those who would profess Christ and follow Him. That is why there is no call to repentance, or for the hearers to put their faith in Jesus. This instruction is
not about how to become a Christian, rather, how Christians are to live in this world. But it is also true that in both texts that the teaching of the disciples came in the hearing of the multitude. The crowds, in effect, listened in on the instructions
that Jesus was giving to His own. Jesus let them, maybe we could say that Jesus wanted them, to hear what He was requiring of those who would follow Him. He wanted people, even those who were not wanting the life He was offering, to hear of just how high
the bar is set for a disciple’s thinking, feeling and acting. Jesus never seems to mind that the world would know what it is that He expects of those who are called by His name, He is more than willing for it to be out there for everyone to understand.
This is not a small thing. Every day that you leave your house, every day that you get into your car and go to work, or to the store, to a meeting, or to the park,
in a basketball game, in a debate, you have the reputation of Jesus in your hands and upon your lips. And the Lord expects that you will care for that reputation, that you will honor it. He expects that because of who you are as belonging to Him, that you
will live opposite those of this world, that you will be pure, honest, respectable, and sincere. You will be more merciful, loving, kind, gentle, and forgiving. You will seek excellence, but define success and pursue success in a manner that is other-worldly
and that might escape the understanding of those who would watch you…they won’t get it.
These are our standards for this is what grace and faith work, what they produce in the heart of the man or woman that God has made “a good tree”. However, and this
is an enormous however, Jesus admits in the text’s final warning and he lets the multitude hear this as well, that there will be, in the church, among those who profess his name and say they are followers of Him, people who hear and nod their heads, but who
do not do. It is the “doing” and “not doing”, the obeying or not obeying that is in question, AND that is the distinguishing characteristic and emphatic point of our Savior’s words.
Jesus tells a story about two groups of people under the heading of two separate men, one wise and one foolish. Both men hear the Lord’s words: In other words, both
are part of the covenant community, who both hear sermons and who both are somewhat acquainted with the Bible. The question is not whether we have walked an aisle sometime in the past and muttered some prayer.
The question is not, ‘have we been brought up in the church’. The question is not whether we say nice, polite and even orthodox things about Jesus and the gospel.
It is not about memorizing our catechism, or knowing outlines to every NT book and being able to recite the kings of Judah in order…backwards. ( I knew a guy who could do that!)
The question is that of faithful living….it is that of putting the words of Jesus into our hearts so that they come out of our mouths, our fingers and our feet. The
issue is that of obedience and there is no getting around it, no qualifications anywhere in the text, just plain and simple: Are you doing the words of Jesus? Do you live in obedience to His words? The Anglican minister JC Ryle picked up a refrain
from the life of King David when he said: “Open sin and avowed disbelief has slain its thousands, but profession without practice slays its ten thousands.”
Jesus is warning the church, in the hearing of the world, that mere intellectual faith is insufficient. What is more, that this intellectual faith, this “profession
only faith” offers a very dangerous form of deception, making one feel and think they are something in the eyes of God that they are not. So, here is the warning of our Savior. There are many who have abused the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus by
making them an excuse for worldliness and self-indulgence. There are a multitude who want Jesus to save them from hell, but other than that, are just as happy for Him to then leave them alone.
There are those who are happy to have Jesus die for their sins, but who never take the time to realize that if God had to become man, leave the majesty of heaven,
come to earth and suffer so great a suffering, so that sins could be forgiven…Then sins, your sins, must really be the horrible, wicked, ugly and hellish thing that the Bible, time and time again, says they are. And any right-thinking person would want to
be done with them and stay far from them. Sadly however, for some, the work and calling of Jesus have scarcely left a mark on them at all, neither on their hearts, or on their minds, but definitely not reflected in the way they live.
As harsh as it sounds it must be said that for such a person the foundation is not rock…it is sand. Oh, the house might look fine, in fact, look as fine from outward
appearance as the one that is upon the rock. However, the foundation will not withstand the shocks that come in this life nor in the world to come, when God once again shakes the earth so that only the unshakable things will remain. (Hebrews 12:26-27)
Some years ago I heard a minister boldly assert that there are two reasons why people do not give themselves over to the Christ of God: First, they do not want to
admit and will not admit that they are as bad as the Bible says they are, that they are as needy as the Bible says they are, that they are as helpless as the Bible says they are. Man’s pride is deeply offended at the message of the Bible that you are so bad
that only God, coming in the flesh, to live and die for you, could be enough to save you from that which your wickedness deserves. Man simply refuses to believe that he is that bad and that we needed such an extravagant, excessive and dramatic rescue as Christ
has come to secure.
The second reason he gave was because folks do not want to live as the Lord Jesus requires His people to live. I think it is true that many non-Christians see this
more clearly than some who profess faith. I think many non-Christians realize that to follow Jesus, too much would have to change, they couldn’t live the way they now live, there would be too much to give up…And, there would be the doing of things that the
man without faith says he couldn’t bear. They don’t want to become a Christian because they don’t want to LIVE as Christians. I have to admit, there is more honor in that, than in so many who say they are Christian but who refuse to live according to their
family name.
Perhaps this devotion makes some nervous. It sounds as though the way we live matters. “Pastor, while I agree with you that we are called to faithful living, don’t
you think you should mention that it is only by grace through faith that we are saved? Aren’t you worried that someone might think that their obedience is what saves them?”
While understanding the question, and not trying in any way to be snarky, I would humble ask: Re-read the text. Did Jesus have that worry? Did Jesus think that He
needed to qualify His comments so that no one thought that their obedience was getting more attention than it should? No. Remember, so certain is God’s work that He can argue from the faith that He gives to the fruit that such faith necessarily produces. Or,
He can argue backwards, that is, from the fruit produced back to the faith He gave. These two, faith and works are never pit against one another, rather they are beautifully married in the believer. Jesus says, without qualification: Why do you call
me Lord…and not do what I say?
Prayer: Gracious Father, keep me from saying words that are vain and empty. Fill my profession with fruit that adorns the words I speak and the Spirit who has birthed
new life in me. May the sweetness of Your warnings to me, overwhelm my heart and mind and ignite in me a desire, born out of love, to please You, honor You, and live my life in such a way that glorifies Your Son, my Savior, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Hymn: For the Beauty of the Earth. (Another John Rutter! Beautiful and inspiring!)
If you are enjoying Mr. Rutter, here is his arrangement of Be Thou My Vision.