Sunday School - Partial Notes On Matthew 7 Part 3

The Curse of Israel’s Unfruitfulness and the Need for Fruit

As it reveals all the intentions and thoughts in man's heart and everything will be laid to bear before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Father, we do pray, God, that you would grant us even now a hastening for that great day, a hastening for the day of reward to come.

And also, Lord, in anticipation of our own hearts, as we apologize to the Lord, that we would be ready, that we would be found approved, that we would be found bearing fruit on that day. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

So I've got these, we're going through kind of my notes in Acts chapter 7. And my notes are like, just a couple of verses that are like 30 pages. And so it's actually maybe like four verses, I've compiled off 30 different pages of course of material.

And so I'm kind of skipping over a couple of things that may not be relevant to what we're doing. But essentially what we're looking at is Matthew chapter 7, verse 19. I want you to look at that, we don't have the verse in front of you.

But you should look at that text with us. Matthew chapter 7, verse 19. And it says, every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn, cut down, and cast into the fire. Now, what did we establish earlier on in our notes in our series in Matthew 7?

What is it that Christ is looking for? What is it that Christ commands of his people? Faith and truth. What else? What does faith produce? That's a great question. Fruit. Produces fruit. Faith produces fruit.

And the fruit that Christ is looking for is the fruit of obedience. It's the fruit of the Word. Now, let me be very clear about this. We are good, warm, evangelical Baptists who believe that we are saved by faith through grace, not by words, so that no man may boast.

Right? There's no doubt in regard to our doctrine of what we believe. We're saved by faith through grace. Grace through faith. However, where evangelicals tend to go wrong is that because we're saved by grace through faith, we don't focus on works.

I had in my previous church, one of my elders was so allergic to the word works. Any time I mentioned the word works, he would get like an allergic reaction thinking I was a linguist or something. And that's the hyper-grace that has infiltrated church systems.

It's grace, grace, grace, grace. We don't even talk about works. Less we fall prey to our works of exaltation. Now, that's an error. And the error in that is because Christ has called us to good works.

Ephesians 2, verse 8, by grace we've been saved by faith. Not ourselves, it's the gift of God. For God saved us. Verse 10, unto good works. In which we should walk and in which He's waiting for us on the Lord's morning.

We were saved for good works. And so that's an example. So Paul's theology, I was just watching this right online. But someone's been controversial. They've been saying that Paul's theology should not be held to a higher thing than Christ's theology.

What's wrong with that statement? They're the same. They're the same. Some people want to pit Paul's theology over Christ's theology. Some people want to put Peter's theology over Paul's theology. You have this back and forth of these supposed contradictions.

James versus Paul, for instance. James chapter 2 works with Paul, faith is dead. And you have Paul saying, no, by grace you've been saved. You have people spitting against each other. And the issue is that there is no contradiction.

They are teaching the same theology. So Christ's theology is indeed Paul's theology and vice versa. And so Paul and Jesus are teaching the same thing in regard to salvation, fruit, and works. So when Jesus says, every tree that brings not forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.

What does this tree represent here?

What does it represent? I was going to say it would be the individual, but in some sense it would be Israel. That's really important.

That's a great point. As a matter of fact, in the rest of my notes, I actually don't go really deep into that. We're not going to do that today. But Israel is the tree that Christ is likely to talk about.

We can bring it down a little bit. It is also true of the individual. What's true of the collective Israel is also true of the individual. And so there is a personal application that can be made for individuals today.

If your life is like a tree, you can as a matter of fact, Psalm 1 talks about a man who is trusting the Lord like a tree planted by a tree. And so there is that personal connotation that can be drawn derivative of the text.

But it's not the exact meaning of the original text. Does that make sense? One could derive that from the text, but it's not necessarily what Jesus was originally talking about. So, for instance, in David, I do have this in front of your notes.

You're going to get it in Hosea chapter 9. You have verses 10, 13, 16, 17, and it talks about Israel being a fig tree. It talks about how Israel had a pleasant place. It's talking about coming on God's planting, Jacobite inheritance, putting him in that land, making that his possession, making that God's treasured possession.

Matthew 21 and the Kingdom Taken from Israel

Good morning. Good morning. We're in the sunshine. Thank you. We're still just talking about looking at some military maps. We've got chapter 7, verse 19. So when Jesus says, every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn out of it, and out of it passes not water.

Now, I would say what Jesus is actually talking about here is national election. He's talking about two peoples. He's talking about two nations. Okay? And Jesus has said some pretty interesting things.

I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 21. Matthew 21. And start looking at verse 41.

And Jesus says this is terrible. What did they say to him? We will put those wretches, measure that out, and let out the vineyard and other tenants who will give him the fruits in their season. Again, Jesus' favorite use of terms usually involves something regarding agriculture.

And that's important because that is the language of the time. It's like Jesus, you know, he was talking about farm and cheese and cows. That's what he was talking about. He was here in Silicon Valley while he was talking about microchips and I don't know, whatever else they talk about here in Silicon Valley.

But for Jesus, he uses agriculture quite a bit because it also accomplishes something wonderful in the reverse of teaching here. He goes on to say,. Jesus says this in verse 42. How have you never read his scriptures?

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous to our eyes. This is the key, verse 43. Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you.

Talking to who? Who are you talking to? Talking to Israel, the Israelites, the Jews.

And given to a people whose what?

It's fruit. Okay. Now when you go back to Matthew 7, Jesus says, talking about the trees. Trees that bear good fruit. Trees that bear bad fruit. It's not so much he's talking about the individuals. Although we can, again, we can deduce that and we can make personal application.

That's totally fine. But what we are, what we should actually be looking at in regard to what Jesus is teaching here is nationalizing. He's talking about the Jews, the nation of Israel being a nation that is not producing fruit.

It's going to be cut down and thrown into the fire. He's talking about the coming destruction, actually, in the year 70. He's pointing towards the future destruction there. And so when he talks about the tree that's not producing fruit, that's going to be hewn, cut down, tossed into the fire.

He's talking about the destruction of Israel that's pending. It's the day of the Lord. So it's not, again, it wouldn't be wrong to look at Matthew 7 and think, okay, well that's talking about me. That's how I got to produce good fruit.

That's good. That's good. We should think that way. But it's not the original intent of the Scripture. The original meaning of the text is talking about national election. God taking Israel and destroying her for her disobedience because she does not produce the fruit.

And exactly what Jesus says in Matthew 21, that the human body will be taken away from you and given to a people, a nation, producing its fruit. He says that the one who falls on this stone are broken pieces.

When it falls on any, it will crush them. He's talking about the independent destruction of Jerusalem in the 70 years, 70 A .D. Any questions so far on that? So it would be pretty clear when you look at Matthew 7 now that that understands this lens.

He's talking about what's often referred to as national election. So there's individual elections. We've got God elects his people, you, me, everyone who gives predestined rights. He's also talking about a national election.

That God's people of Israel were nationally elected through a binding of Abraham and the Abraham covenant. But God has now chosen a new nation of all tribes, nations including the remnant of Israel.

Does that make sense? So the new nation is essentially the Gentiles? Well, the new nation is the church.

Or the Christians. Yeah, or Christians. That's right. So the tribe that God now has approved is the Christian tribe. Right. But the Christian tribe is not an ethnic group. It's a multi-ethnic group. It's made up of Jews, Gentiles, people of all colors, of all languages.

And that's the grand vision that we see in Revelation chapter 7 on that redemption day where it says, this great multitude of every tribe, nation, tongue, language was gathered before the throne. And they all sing salvation.

We know it was the land of the Lord. We've seen it on the throne. And so this is the New Testament church. And so with regard to, again, the idea of bearing fruit, being cut down, this is all talking about the context of national election.

He's talking about Israel being the tree that is producing bad fruit that will be cut down. It's the false prophets. As a matter of fact, well, it's a big, long story. And you might catch it by surprise.

But in Revelation, there's three bad guys. You know who they are? Who are the three bad guys in Revelation? The beast. The beast. Antichrist. Well, the antichrist, people usually make that the beast. It's actually not.

But that's another discussion. The Lord of the devils. Huh? The Lord of the devils. That's a good one. But really the three main big bad guys in the book of Revelation is the serpent or the dragon. Beast.

And the false prophet. When you look at Revelation chapter 16 onward, those are the three main bad guys. And the false prophet, in my opinion, I've got a lot of compelling reasons for this, is actually Israel.

Israel is the false prophet of Revelation. You also have the beast, which at that time was Rome. Rome under Nero was the beast. That's where it appears in 666. The other, so there's a variant in the text of Revelation 13.

And it says, the Bible says the beast's number is man's number. And it's 666. There's no other variant of that. It's 616. 616. You don't buy that stuff. Both are variants. 666 or 616. It brings us to the numerical value of Nero and Caesar.

Okay. Nero and Caesar being, excuse me, the, in my opinion, the emperor under which John writes this. So I would put up Revelation as early writing. Not 370 to 380. Not in the 90s as most people do. And the reason most people put Revelation in the 90s is because of a quote from Domitian.

Actually not from Domitian. Domitian was the emperor. But they put Revelation under the writing of Titus Michael, which was in the 90s. And the reason for that was because there was a church father in the 2nd or 3rd century who had said such that Revelation was written under the writing of Michael.

And the same church father also said Jesus died when he was 50. So probably not the most accurate person when it comes to timekeeping. That is actually the reason why we believe that most people believe that Revelation was written in the 90s.

It's because of Jesus' thoughts when he wrote that. During that time of Domitian. I would say the original evidence of Nero and Revelation puts it towards early writing. So the big bad guy in Revelation is the serpent, the dragon, the beast, and his false prophet.

And obviously the false prophet is Israel. And the reason for that is partially because of Matthew 7. In Matthew 7 Jesus was talking about false prophets. Now who is the worst false prophet that there could be?

Jesus and other New Testament writers like John. Since he's the Antichrist. The one who does what? Denies that Jesus is the Christ. Who does that? What nation has taken that stand? Israel. Israel collectively as a nation has said it's not going to stop.

We've rejected it. And so you can't be a false prophet denying Christ. Denying the Son of God. That is Antichrist. That is the work of a false prophet. And so partly also one of the reasons why I believe that Israel is a false prophet in Revelation is because verses in the Bible, Isaiah chapter 9.

In Isaiah chapter 9 God talks about the death of Israel. God chose Israel. Israel is like a tree, a fig tree that he had chosen. He had planted in a pleasant place. But then he says Israel's root is withered.

And they're bearing no fruit. This is because of their consistent apostasy. Turning away from Yahweh. Turning to other gods. Being apostasy, being a whore. So let me be very clear too. In regards to the statements he made about the false prophet in Revelation.

I would actually say that it's the religious leaders' clergy of Israel that was acting as a false prophet. Not just the nation collectively. I would say the nation collectively is actually Babylon. But the nation's leaders acted as a false prophet because they had consistently falsely prophesied regarding Christ and the independent destruction.

Similarly as we see in Jeremiah and Isaiah. When Jehovah prophesied doom over Israel. Either through the Assyrians or the Babylonians. What did the prophets of Israel at that time say? Do you remember?

What the prophets of Israel said when prophets were prophesying calamity? Peace. They say peace, peace, peace. Don't listen to these damn pastors. Don't listen to these guys who are just always so negative now.

And they prophesied peace. But what does the prophet say? He says there is no peace. There is no peace. Peace in our times. Right? And how did that work out? And that's exactly what we see happening here in this picture of scripture here.

The false prophets at the time of the New Testament. The Jews. The clergy passed. The Pharisees actually passed. No, no, no, no. We're going to make it through the fact. Josephus who is a first century Hittorian.

I have his book. It's fascinating. We have to reread it. It's really incredible. And Josephus reports that as the city of Jerusalem was encamped by the Romans during this three and a half year siege. Which is exactly the time Peter says this is how it happened.

The religious leaders all gathered right as the city was being ransacked by the Romans. They all gathered on top of the temple complex. And they were all essentially saying come here. We're going to gather here.

And we're going to see basically the Lord is going to deliver us. So we're going to all gather here. We're going to wait. And we'll be delivered. And they were all destroyed. So this entails the very last minute hope that God would intervene.

But Jesus says no. The intervention was going to be through him. If you had faith in Jesus, that was going to be your protection. But if you had faith in the Messiah, you'd be destroyed. So Jesus was the true prophet.

The leaders of Israel were the false prophets. And so Jesus talks about rightly that their end had come. They were destroyed. But they were a nation, a tree, that were not producing fruit. They were unbelieving.

They were unregenerated. So now we understand the big idea here. The tree in Matthew 7 represents the nation of Israel. The one that's producing bad fruit, that's going to be cut down, destroyed, that is what Jesus is actually teaching in that text.

Now, again, it's not incorrect for us to kind of bring it down to our level and have an application for us. We can use certain truths from Scripture, even if it's not the original. It's still an application that we've received.

Any questions so far?

The Fig Tree Cursing in Mark 11 and Matthew 21

Yes. I was going to say, years ago, I was reading through Mark, and I was very upset that Jesus, who was supposed to be holy, would curse the fig tree for not bearing fruit. And when I was reading Mark recently, you know, I was thinking, okay, that's the answer.

He's talking about national Israel.

So that's Matthew 21. And Matthew 21 in terms of verse 18. It says in the morning, as he was returning to the city, now this is different from what we just read earlier in verse 43, where Jesus talked about the kingdom of God would take away from them and give them the fruit that produces fruit.

This is where we get this whole idea of promise, which is verse 18 and onward. And seeing verse 19, seeing the fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but a leaf. And he said to it, may no fruit ever come for you again.

And then the fig tree withered and was. Now, that's a powerful imagery that Jesus looks at that tree. Just remember, keep Matthew 7 in mind. It says, every tree that produces good fruit, it's going to be blessed.

Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is going to be cut down. So you see that a tree already is not producing fruit. It's already not producing fruit. Understand this, that Christ's first coming is the greatest eschatological fulfillment up until even today.

The only time it will supersede the first coming of Christ will be the second coming of Christ. So Christ's first coming is of such eschatological importance. It is the visitation of the Lord. It is Christ's visitation to the earth.

And throughout the prophets, what have they been warned? To be ready. To be found ready on the day of the Lord. And they were not. Which is why Jesus also gives a lot of purpose about his second coming.

I would say, you know, don't be like the unfaithful servant. Be like the faithful high servant. Don't be like the, you know, the terrible virgin. The terrible talent. The terrible bad manager. Be the good manager.

Be the good virgin. Be the good one waiting for their master. Israel was warned also to be ready. So we have to be ready.

We have to be found expecting him. I remember the commentator that I read once, someone whose theory was after the fig tree. And Jesus says, if you have faith, say this fig tree be thrown in the sea, say this mountain be thrown in the sea.

And that mountain would be the mount upon which to temple. So that would refer to seven. Have you heard that before? I agree with that, yeah. I can't remember who wrote that. Yeah, I think Gentry did.

Oh, Gentry did, yeah. But that's, I would certainly agree with that assessment. He goes on to say in verse 20. And when the disciples saw it, they all said, how could a fig tree be thrown together at once?

And Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to that mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will not happen.

And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith. So that's exactly what we were just alluding to, Pastor. I believe this is a clear reference to Jerusalem's destruction. Jerusalem is a fig tree.

How do we know this? Hosea chapter 9, the fig tree is Israel. It couldn't be clearer. Jehovah's status in Hosea 9, that Israel is the fig tree. There's other places too in Scripture where we see the same thing.

Israel is the fig tree. So we're going through, what? Matthew, let's just look at that real quick in Hosea 9. Just so you know, I'm going to mix this up. Let's look at verse 10 first of Hosea 9. It says, like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season I saw your fathers, but they came, but they came to Malchus.

And I know that they cast off their old, and they incorporated yourselves, and they came and they came to the testament, like they came from now all the way down to verse 16. Ephraim is stricken. Their root is what?

It's withered, dried up. And they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. My God will reject them, because they have not listened to Him. They shall be wanderers among the nations.

My goodness. Isn't this incredible? The accuracy of Bible prophecy. And that they are now essentially a nation that is a wandering nation. Now of course they've come back to the land, many of them. And they have their own nation in Israel today.

Which I think could be significant. But the Scripture prophesies that they will be rejected, because they have not listened. The big truth that Jesus verses is because there is no fruit. No fruit shall come, it says in the Scripture.

It's quiet. And they shall be a nation of wanderers.

That's exactly what's happening. That's exactly what's happening in Bible prophecy.

And so clearly Israel is the big truth. So again Matthew 7. Our main text is clearly showing how the cursing and the blessing. It is a covenantal blessing. Blessing of obedience versus disobedience. And the nation of Israel is now in full circle, full fruition.

The veteranical blessing and cursing is now coming upon their heads. In the visitation of Jesus Christ. So Jesus is the one who is enacting judgment on Israel. Because the Lord has come in person in Jesus Christ.

Judging them, judging Israel. Which is why again this is of such logical importance for the people of God. Now there's a law associated with wearing a fruit. And it's really interesting. If you look at my notes.

A fruit bearing tree may not be cut down for use in battle. So in the Old Testament there were trees. We'll look at what Deuteronomy says. A dollar bearing fruit may be cut down. So let's look at Deuteronomy 20 verse 19 and 20.

When you shall besiege a city a long time and make war against it, take it, you shall not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an act against them. You may eat of them. And you shall not cut them down.

For the tree of the field is man's life. To employ them in siege. Only the trees which you know that may not bear fruit. That may not be trees for fruit trees. You shall destroy them and cut them down.

And you shall build wall works against the city that makes war against you. As though it be subdued. There's a law associated with bearing fruit trees that bear fruit. So if you were in a time of war and you were to go to the city to ransack and to have a meeting over it, and there were trees that bore fruit, you're not supposed to cut them down.

You're supposed to leave it. Why was that? It is a man's life. It's the way they found sustenance. It's the way they found food. It's the way they were able to feed the army that was in demand. Similarly, there's a spiritual principle behind this.

This is what Jesus is pulling from. He's pulling from the scriptures. He's pulling from the Torah. As he's talking about ideas of trees that bear fruit in Matthew chapter 7. A tree that bears fruit is to be protected because when it bears fruit, it demonstrates life.

When we as Christians bear fruit, what are we demonstrating? The life of Christ. We're demonstrating that there is spiritual life in us. If there is no spiritual life in us, then we won't bear fruit, which is evidence that we're not Christians.

Similarly, in the election of nations, when you have Israel collectively not bearing fruit, they were collectively apostatized. They were collectively rejecting Christ. Now there's a remnant. That's what the Bible talks about.

When you see Israel, you see Isaiah, you see Jeremiah, you see Hosea. They're all talking about this remnant. I'm out. These are the believers of the New Testament church. The tree did not bear fruit.

What did they do with it? They cut it down. Do you know why they cut it down? The City of Galveston used the wood for weaponry, for fuel, for other products, just so that they could use that. So spiritually, this is spiritual.

When a people or a person does not bear fruit, they are cut down, and they are used, for instance, in the New Testament church, as examples of unfaithfulness, of disobedience, and used as fuel to further the work of the Christian church.

Similarly, when you look at national elections, Israel serves as an example of what not to do. They are a memorial of disobedience, of a covenant breaking people. There's a law associated with the bearing fruit, the cutting down of trees, that has spiritual indication, which is exactly what Jesus is capitalizing in on in Matthew chapter 7.

The Blessed Tree, the Living Water, and the Fruit of Salvation

Now, there are fruitful trees that are blessed and endure. So look at Psalm 13, you'll hear it in the notes. Who is the man of Psalm 1? The New Testament church, yes. Overall, yes. What does the text say?

Verse 1, Psalm 1. Do you remember Psalm 1? That's right. But delights in what? That's Psalm 1. Who is the man of Psalm 1? Who was that man? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is a true man who walked not in the counsel of wicked, but who delighted in the law of the Lord.

He was the faithful one. He was the man that was truly planted by the river of water, who brought fruit and meat in due season. And we, as Christians, get to partake in his redemptive work. We get to partake in the life of Christ through both obedience by being like Christ, being like the man who was planted by the stream of water, the stream of living water that Jesus offers.

Psalm 92 says, So what is the condition of the man who was planted in the house of the Lord? He's what? He flourishes. He flourishes! Can I tell you something? If a man, any person, plants himself in Christ, plants himself in the house of God, That means he's a prosperity gospel.

But, he prospers.

He prospers. He prospers not just in material things. That can be an alphabet. But we're talking about spiritual blessings. Spiritual. Do you know what money can't buy? Money can't buy peace. Money can't buy time.

Money can't buy love and happiness and all these things. It can certainly help. It can amplify things. But money really has an amplifying effect. If you're miserable, you're probably more miserable than you're rich.

If you're happy, you're more happy than you're rich. But money has an amplifying effect. Whatever it is that your heart, the condition of your heart is now, money will just amplify that. But the prosperity of God's people, the prosperity of God's house is those who are planted.

Those who are rooted in the house of the Lord. Those who are rooted in Christ. Is that they shall bring more fruit in old age. Now what's interesting about that is as things get older, they usually become less and less effective.

It's not true of a Christian life though. The older we get, the more effective we become. In a sense. Right? The more faithful we are over time, over longevity, the more value we actually bring to the kingdom.

Isn't that wonderful? And this is why even in old age, in the New Testament church, we value those who are older. Even the terms that we use in the Christian church. Elders. In terms of the way that we refer to pastors.

Elders and pastors. My wife and I are interchangeable. We're in the same office. Elders and pastors are referred to as the older men. We don't know that at all. In the Old Testament, I might be pretty old.

Back then, I might have been 20, 60, 50 maybe. I'd be middle-aged. So I'm an older man at that time. But even men like Timothy were young men. We know that. That text of scripture was also a pastor. So older men were revered.

Older women were also revered in the New Testament church. In the New Testament church, the welfare system that was put in place to protect older women as well. And so older people were revered, were looked to, and looked upon in the New Testament church because of the value of the fruit that they were able to bear.

So let us never forget this. Regardless of whatever age you are, life you're in, God values us. God values the fruit that we bear. For me, one of my favorite texts of scripture is Hebrews 6 .10. It talks about, it says, God is not unjust to forget the lovely labors you have shown toward these men in your ministries and sins.

And God is not unjust to forget. That's really important. So sometimes as we get older, and as we get jaded, and as we see things, and we experience things, how can this be? God is not unjust. That's the whole overall look of love and ministry that we share in the New Testament church.

Any questions so far?

Yes. I was just thinking about Simeon and Anna and waiting, you know, for her, looking toward the Lord. That's very appropriate. I'm preaching on today. Is it? Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's very appropriate. Jeremiah 17 says, For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when the heat of fire comes. For her leaves shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought.

Neither shall seeds from yielding recruit. Now, that's pretty appropriate because the time that we're in, you know, California, the last two years, there's been a major drought. And this is giving us an image of a tree that's planted by the water.

And, again, another example of a river tree that pollutes that. A tree that's planted by the rivers, a tree that's planted by the water. So what it does is that the root has a source of water, regardless of the exterior conditions, whether it's raining or not, you know?

And so that has a source of water where it's going to continue to be nourished, even in years of drought. What is that picture? What are the waters? Jesus is certainly the living water. And the water that he is that flows between my life is the Word of God.

It's the Word. The Word is that which swells up into us, leading to eternal life. And the tree, you know, generally talks about initiation. But we can, again, bring up a personal occasion about that. As individuals, what kind of tree do we want to be?

We want to be a tree that's far away from the source of water. And we want to be a tree that's close to the source of water. We want to be one of those.

An interesting thing, Psalm 103 especially, I think the other two follow the same wording, if I recall. It's that the river is not just a stream that happens to be there. It's one that was intentionally prepared and the tree intentionally planted.

So there's this passive part of it where the tree is planted by itself and the water is provided. It's not just a root that happened to be there. It's a canal, if you will, that the Lord put in place.

Amen.

Amen. We want to be a tree that's planted by the waters, that its roots are spread by the river. As the heat comes, the trials and temptations of life, the difficulties of life come, the droughts of life come, we will not cease yielding fruit.

We will not cease doing what the Lord requires of us. Which is, again, to bear fruit. To be a people, to be a nation that produces fruit. Remember what Christ said to the nation of Israel. He says the kingdom of God will be taken from them and given to a nation that produces fruit.

We need to be a people producing the fruit that Jesus promised, that Jesus said that we would follow and walk in. Again, we're not saved by works. But works is what? It's evident, right? So I put it this way.

Fruit is the, well, works is the fruit of salvation, not the root of salvation. What's the root of salvation? What's the tree being nourished by? By Jesus, by the waters of living water, by the streams of mercy, by the Word of God.

This is salvation. It's Jesus, the Word of God. But, if we're being nourished by the waters, what will we naturally produce? Fruit. This is the evidence of the Christians. This is the evidence of the Christian nation.

It is a people producing good fruit. Now, what does good fruit look like? It's one thing to kind of think about, you know, metaphysically. That sounds like an analogy, but what is it? What is good fruit?

What is it that Israel failed to do that we must do? Remember, they weren't bearing fruit. Faithfulness is certainly a fruit. Amen.

In Galatians 5, 16, about joy, peace, self-reconciling, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That's the fruit of the Spirit. Is that where you're going? Because that's very individual.

That is very individual. That's true. Those are the prospects. Those are the things I constantly want to see in a Christian life. You know, walking in the Spirit. Magnifying the desires of the flesh. And the fruit of the Spirit being, again, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Again, such thing as there's no law. Those are certainly true. And that is more so much individual. But I want to talk about collectively. What is the fruit that he's looking for? Point towards Jesus.

What's that? To edify towards Jesus. Absolutely. That's part of it. Amen. Obedience. Yes. But obedience of what? We're looking for specific answers. Yes.

Are you going towards a great commission?

I think so. Why don't we look at Ephesians 3 for a moment? There's a great mystery at play here. Ephesians chapter 3. Let's look at verse 6. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Of this gospel I was made a minister, a gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of His power. To me, through the life and the release of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

So there's part of the mystery. To preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ in the Messiah. And to bring light for everyone. What is the plan of the mystery of interfaith? Jesus gave God the free will to do all things.