“Fruits of Repentance” – FBC Morning Light (10/15/2024)

Well, good Tuesday morning to you. Today, in our Bible reading, we're reading in Matthew chapter 3,

Luke chapter 3, and sandwiched in between those two passages, Mark chapter 1, verses 1 to 11.

As I was reading in Luke's account of John's beginning of his public ministry, his calling people to repentance, we have this situation where John is really blunt and forthright as he speaks to some who come out to see him, and he says to them, you brood of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

That's pretty blunt and straightforward, isn't it? Well, what he recognizes is that there are some in the audience that has come to hear him who are critics.

They're not there because they have repentant hearts, they're not there because they really want to hear the truth.

They've come to find fault, find reason to criticize and reject.

They are a brood of vipers. But then he says this, he says, therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, bear fruits worthy of repentance.

He says, don't begin to say, well, we have Abraham as our father. In other words, don't be relying upon your

Jewishness. You're a brood of vipers who need to repent. Bring forth fruits of repentance.

Well, that remark, bring forth fruits of repentance, compels some people who are there listening to him to ask him the question, well, what shall we do then?

And John goes on to say, he says, okay, here's what that looks like, fruits worthy of repentance.

He says to the one who has two tunics, let him give him who has none. Share one of your tunics.

To him who has food, he who has food, let him do likewise. There's somebody starving and you have plenty to eat, share what you have to eat.

And tax collectors, they came and said, well, you know, what shall we do? John replies, he says, collect no more than what is appointed to you.

Tax collectors were notorious at gouging people for more than the demanded tax from the authorities, and they would pocket the difference.

And soldiers came and said, well, you know, what shall we do? And he says to them, don't intimidate anyone or accuse falsely and be content with your wages.

Again, he's addressing some of the vices of soldiers at the time. Now, what

I want us to understand, when John says, bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, he is not saying, bring forth actions that merit repentance.

So, in other words, when people say, well, what are we to do? What are we to do? And he replies with some examples of some things to do.

We shouldn't understand those examples to be meritorious, as if, okay, any profession of repentance is not really going to be considered genuine until there are works that are meritorious, that, you know, deserve forgiveness.

That's not what John is saying. What he is communicating is that those works are going to give evidence of a repentant heart.

What is that, after all? What is repentance? Repentance is a change of heart, and I don't mean simply by that one's feelings.

I'm talking about the nature of the heart in its full capacity in terms of our thinking and our feeling and our choosing.

So, repentance involves a change of mind, a change of the way you think about something, which will then affect how you feel about that thing, and will therein affect what you do, how you choose, how you live.

And so what John is communicating here is, if you really have a repentant heart, it's going to show in the choices you make, in what you do with the subject at hand.

So, consequently, here are people who have wealth, who have plenty, they have an abundance, who rub shoulders all the time with people who have nothing, and they don't even have hardly anything to wear and clothes on their back.

And they're going to change the way they think about those people and about their own stuff, their own material goods.

They're not going to look at their stuff as that which must be held on to and hoarded for one's own pleasure, but will look at that as a stewardship, and look at the needs of somebody else, and look at their own supply, and conclude that, well,

I have abundance, so you have a need, I will share, I will help.

We see this most recently in some of the disasters that have hit our nation, haven't we?

I trust that if you've had the opportunity to help in the needs in the southeast of our nation, at that Hurricane Helene, I hope if you've had the resources and the wherewithal that you were generous and were able to give and be a help in some way.

What does that indicate? That indicates a heart that's been changed by the grace of God. So, bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, fruits that demonstrate a true change of heart, change of mind, change of will.

Our Father and our God, I thank you for this challenge today, because so often we can mistake the fruits of repentance as works that are deserving of some merit from you.

Oh, deliver us from that mistaken thinking, but Father, at the same time, give us truly repentant hearts, we pray.

We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Tuesday.