NORTHSHORE CHURCH OF CHRIST

Jesus said, “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7.15–20). He immediately launched into a heavy message:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast our demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7.21–23)

The term “Lord, Lord,” indicates a perceived closeness, as if they considered Jesus a close friend. But Jesus will say to them, “I never knew you.” He surely knew who they were, but He did not know them as a friend; He never had a good relationship with them, despite their protestations. Why did He not know them? Because they did not do the will of His Father.

Do you say you believe in Jesus? Are you bearing fruits which prove your faith?

You see, God does not save people so that we might continue doing the works we have always done. He does not save us to leave us alone. He saves us to change us into something better, more glorious, more just, more kind, more loving. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5.17).

Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.22–24, which is: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Paul taught Christians to “continue in the faith, and...through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14.22)

If a Christian is ever unsure about his standing with God, 1 John is an excellent letter to read. Everyone should think about himself or herself as he or she reads the following:

1. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1.7)
2. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1.9)
3. By this we know we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. (2.3)
4. Whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. (2.5)
5. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He [Jesus] walked. (2.6)
6. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in Him there is no cause for stumbling. (2.9–10)
7. Do not love the world or thing things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (2.15)
8. Whoever does the will of God abides forever (2.17)
9. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. (2.23)
10. You may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him (2.29)
11. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. (3.4)
12. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (3.9)
13. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. (3.14)
14. Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hear before Him” (3.18–19)
15. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He has commanded us. (4.23)
16. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. (4.2–3)
17. Whoever knows God listens to us [the apostles]; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. (4.6)
18. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (4.8)
19. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. (4.12)
20. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (4.15)
21. And this is the commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (4.21)
22. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. (5.1)
23. By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and obey His commandments. (5.2)

Don’t get the wrong idea from this list, as if this is a to-do checklist of how you are going to prove to God that you’re a good person and on His side. That is not it at all! This is a list of PROOFS which will show YOU that you have, indeed, been born again.

If these fruits are not in your life, the solution is not to simply start doing them. The problem is that you do not know the Lord, you have not been born again! But if these fruits are present (even in embryonic stages), you can take heart in your relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

If you believe you do not have a relationship with the Father based on this list, what should you do? Go back to the top and focus on the Gospel message. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why was He crucified? To pay for your sins, to take your sins upon His own shoulders on the cross, and to make a great exchange with you. Sink your teeth into 2 Corinthians 5.14–21:

14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

The great exchange is right here. It is just as it sounds: Jesus took something from us and gave us something else in return.

Jesus took our sins: “not counting their trespasses against them.”

Jesus gave us righteousness: “so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

A changed man, a new man, lives now not for himself but for the one who died for him and was raised for his sake. He is a new creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2.10).

Praise God for His awesome work through Jesus Christ! Let us live for Him always.

Jesus told a parable to the Jewish leaders concerning a master of a house who expended a lot of effort to develop a property, cultivate it, and plant a vineyard. He then appointed tenants to take care of his property while he went off into a far country. When fruit season rolled around, the master sent servants to collect the fruit from his vineyard, but the tenants mistreated them and even killed some. The master sent more servants, and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son thinking they would surely respect him, but in their evil and twisted minds, they thought they could gain ownership of the vineyard if they killed the son. They dragged the son out of the property and killed him.

Jesus flat-out asked the Jewish leaders what the master would do to those wicked tenants. They answered, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their season.”

Good answer.

But then Jesus brought home the point:

“Have you never read in the Scripture: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore, I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”

The Jewish leaders, the self-appointed “builders” in charge of God’s people, had rejected this stone (Jesus). It’s as if they said, “This one is no good; we don’t need it.” But that very stone has become the cornerstone (the first and chief building stone from which the whole building is measured). How? The Lord did it; the Lord said so.

The Jews would no longer lead the kingdom of God. God would take it away from them and give it to another people. They would produce fruit for the master, unlike the Jewish people.

What fruit does God expect?

Isaiah 5.1–7 contains another parable about a vineyard. In Isaiah’s parable, “the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting.” God expected grapes from his vineyard, but it yielded wild grapes, so God decided to make it a wasteland and destroy the entire enterprise. What did the grapes and wild grapes represent? God “looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, and outcry!”

God expects justice and righteousness—those are the good fruit he wants from us.

When a people do not produce justice and righteousness, they provoke God to lay waste their country. Expect judgment, all who are violent, lovers of bloodshed, and arrogant. Many nations have fallen because they trampled the poor and powerless instead of protecting and helping them. Many countries are no more because their leaders accepted bribes and twisted truth.

But this parable is specifically about the people of God. Are we his? Do we produce this fruit in ourselves? Are we concerned for justice, fairness, doing what is right? God’s law can be summed up in this word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Said another way: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Let’s live in such a way that, when the Master returns, he will find us working for him.