Bitter Fruit or God's Fruit 1974

I'd like to read two brief passages. The first is from Deuteronomy 29, verse 18 and 19. Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away this day from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations.

Lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who when he hears the words of this sworn covenant blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. This would lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. And from Hebrews 12, a related passage, 12, 15.

See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled. In our Lord's teaching about the vine and the branches, he makes the whole outcome of our abiding in him turn on the bearing of fruit. I'm the vine.

You're the branches. And if you abide in me, you absolutely will bear fruit. Now, if there's a branch that looks like it abides in the vine but doesn't produce any fruit, the father's going to come along and he's going to lock that thing off and throw it into the fire, because it never was abiding in me in the first place.

By this is my father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Now, understand that the fruit that he's talking about has nothing to do with the results that impress human eyes. How many souls we think we saved, or how many people come to our meetings, or what kind of reputation we have among the heavies or among the believers, this is not the measure of fruit.

But Jesus is talking about the fruit that pleases God. And the proof that this fruit pleases God is that it abides. You did not choose me.

I chose you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. Work that's well done. People that are really brought from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

That one prodigal welcomed at the father's gate, that one lost sheep brought home. This is the kind of fruit that God is looking for. And when we're about that kind of fruit, when we're really bearing that kind of fruit, we know this.

And we don't get proud and self-righteous about it when we're on that kind of track. We know when we're bearing fruit, really we do. And we also know when we're spinning our wheels and keeping ourselves busy and running around trying to build up our own image or our own kingdom.

Now, we may not be aware, praise God, how much fruit we're bearing. And certainly if we're in the will of God at all, we'll never be satisfied with what we're doing. But we will at least have peace that this is the part of the vineyard where God put us to work.

And this is what he wants us to accomplish. And we're gonna be about doing this. And we're gonna be faithful with this.

We're gonna be satisfied at least that the word is going forth and that the wounded souls are being taken care of and the hungry are being fed and the naked are being clothed and the sick are being attended to. We're at least gonna have peace that this is where God put me. And this is what God wants me to do.

And by his grace and power that he gives me today, I'm gonna do it. That much we can be clear about. You know, there ought to be no question in our minds that far.

We ought to be able, each one of us, to get up in the morning, every morning, and come back again into the vine, our Lord, and every day receive his word afresh into our hearts and go forth into that day knowing that we are an extension of the body. We are a branch in the vine and we are doing the thing that he wants done today. We're gonna get something done that he wants done.

See, but what if instead of this happening, there's another kind of fruit that comes off from our lives and we can see it. What if instead of this, we are in fact bearing a bitter fruit? What if the things that we touch, instead of springing to life, wither every time? You know, you pick up the outer skin of appearances and they're beneath the surface of the places we inhabit. And the lives that we touch is the fruit of death.

We like to think of ourselves as healers. But what if instead of being healers, the lives that we are around all the time are made nervous and uneasy. And I'm not talking about the self-righteous ones made nervous by a prophet of God, but I'm talking about souls that are really looking for the kingdom and troubled and wounded and upset, just made more troubled and wounded by our presence, sometimes even physically sick by being around us.

If this is happening, and don't be too quick to say it isn't and shrug it off and say somebody else's problem. If this is what we have, then the picture is not the picture of a branch abiding in the vine, Jesus, producing fruit that is good and that glorifies God. But what we have then is the picture of a root that goes down into our hearts and saps our strength and produces things after its own kind, which are evil.

Now in scripture, this root is called the root of bitterness. And in the Old Testament, it is identified as that soul who has heard the words of God's covenant, understands what this is all about, and yet shrugs it off and blesses itself in its own heart and says, I shall be safe, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart. And we know when we're walking in the stubbornness of our own heart.

In the New Testament, it's the same root. And it's pinpointed as the person who trifles with God's grace, knows what Jesus did on that cross, knows what he has now required of those who are going to live in his forgiveness. And yet, knowing these things, blesses itself in its heart and says, I shall be safe, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.

And in both the Old and the New Testament, this root of bitterness is declared to be a thing which not only brings death to the heart in which it grows, but also defiles those around it, brings trouble to the many. Now, nowhere are we told in scripture to go around trying to find the root of bitterness in other people's hearts. I may think that I've discovered a monstrous root in my brother's heart, but how in the world am I gonna get that root out of his heart when I've got a bigger one in my own that's choking me to death? Just as I have to get the log out of my own eye, so I also have to get this root of bitterness out of my own heart.

We're told in Hebrews to make sure that no one fails to obtain the grace of God that no root of bitterness springing up should cause trouble, bring difficulty to the many. And I can have all kinds of insight into God's word, I can be loaded down with the gifts of the spirit, I can just be anointed with the authority of God, and yet if I allow the root of bitterness which starts getting hold of my heart to grow without pulling that thing out, very, very quickly, all the things that God has enabled me to do, my entire ministry dries up and dies. I may go on fooling people for years, I may rise to success and glory in the eyes of men, but as far as God is concerned, everything that I'm doing is gonna be destroyed at the end, it's gonna be burned out.

And it's a strange thing, this root of bitterness. It grows like a weed, it grows very fast. You don't even know it's there, you don't even pay attention to it, and suddenly, there it is, it's just absorbed your whole heart and sapped all your strength and pushed the life of God right out of you.

And it's our responsibility, it tells us, to make sure that this doesn't happen. And you don't need to have radar to find that root. Because it gives off an aroma of bitterness, a cynical atmosphere, a critical, sour attitude begins to well up like a mist in our hearts.

And all you have to do is follow the odor in your own heart, and you'll find your way right down to that root. It may be, for instance, and this is the basic one, the root of unbelief. Which simply means that somewhere along the line, you've really stopped taking God seriously.

And you said to yourself, I shall be safe even if I do walk in the stubbornness of my own heart. And you can still be going to meetings, and running around trying to build up the body, doing all kinds of Christian work and reading Christian literature until it comes out your ears. But if you're not listening to God, then your faith dries out.

When I listen to God, I have faith. And when I turn to God a deaf ear, then my faith dies, and in its place comes this root. And you're not in the same position as that person out there in the world who's never really heard the gospel.

All he has to do is listen. But you're in the position of a person who tasted the gospel, experienced God, knew these things. See, but now in that part where once there was the seed of God's word growing is this root.

And before you're ever gonna hear the word of God at all, you're going to have to dig down and pull that root up and throw it away. When the people who have a root of bitterness, the root of unbelief particularly now, in their hearts, come under the hearing of the word, they don't even hear it. And they won't hear it until they pull that thing out.

Then there's the root of an unforgiving spirit that Dave talks about in this sermon. And I really recommend it to everybody here. Read that thing more than once.

And you've been forgiven a whole lifetime of bigotry and narrow-mindedness and pride and self-righteousness and perversity and lies and deceit have been lifted off your shoulders by those nail-pierced hands of Jesus. See, your guilt wasn't ignored, nor was it counteracted by those few little piddly good deeds that you did to try to work it off. But your guilt was paid for with innocent blood.

It cost Jesus far more than we can begin to imagine to take that away. But now, in the heart that was forgiven so much, this foreign root is growing, which is not of God. And the evidence of it is that you won't forgive your brother or you won't forgive your mate.

Or you say, I'll forgive, but I won't forget. Or you won't forgive the black man or you won't forgive the white man or you won't forgive the poor lady at work or you won't forgive that teacher years ago who let you down and you've never forgotten it. And you poisoned your life with this, even though you have heard from the lips of the man who laid down his life for your sins, that if you're gonna keep his forgiveness, you are going to forgive.

See, but you bless yourself and you say, I shall be saved, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my mind. And then you wonder why the atmosphere of death goes everywhere you go and everything you touch withers and dies. This will never change till you get down into your heart and pull that root out and you have to do it.

Nobody can do it for you. Then there's the root of an unbending will. And this is very often found in people who are extremely pious.

You know, when you find yourself talking about the act of faith you're gonna perform, that leap of faith you're gonna make, that marvelous thing you're gonna do, and you talk about it and you talk about it, years go by and you still haven't done it. Or when you know clearly in your mind and heart that God is telling you to relax your grip on mammon, to let go, and you have it so well you can teach everybody else about it, but you haven't done it. These are signs of an unbending will.

And you're as much as saying, yes, Lord, I'll come, I'll follow you, but first let me take care of this business and let me take care of this thing. Let me first go and bury my father. But when Jesus says to Peter, come, walk to me on the water, Peter jumps out of the boat and he walks.

When he says to Levi, follow me, Levi gets up from his tax office and he goes. And it's absolutely impossible to walk with Jesus and have an unbending will. If my will won't bend, even as Jesus bent his will constantly to the will of his father.

See, if even your wife has to constantly bend her will to yours, and you always manage to avoid any situation where there may be change for you, you don't wanna change, you wanna keep things the way they've been for years and years. This is a sign that you have an unbending will and you may have a saintly face and you may say saintly things and you may do saintly deeds from time to time, but it's all for naught. You're wasting your time in God's until you get down there and pull up the root of a stubborn will.

Now there's the root, and this is found in many of us that we don't like to admit, or we say it's really not that important. The root of an impure eye. Our Lord tells us that the light of the body is the eye.

And if the eye is single, the whole body is full of light. But if the eye is evil, impure, double, then the whole body also is full of darkness. See, the impure eye is the eye which instead of thanking God for the blue sky and the green grass and the rain, the clouds, the faces of children, is forever scanning the universe, looking around all the time, 24 hours a day, even in its dreams, looking for something that it can use or lust after or covet.

You know, we wear out 15 Sears catalogs before we wear out one Bible. You know, and I'm not anti-TV, but you know, TV helps to develop. The impure eye, if we're not very careful.

Jesus tells us to go and preach the gospel and heal the sick in such and such a village. And he tells us to salute nobody along the way. But we fill our impure eye with so much darkness on the way, looking around, coveting, lusting, and all these things, that by the time we get to the place he sent us, we have nothing to offer.

And we try to shrug it off and say the impure eye is a very innocent weakness. No, it isn't. It's a root of bitterness and it pollutes our minds and our hearts and it defiles even the people that we deal with.

Now, the promise we have from Jesus is so simple and so clear. He tells us that if we abide in him, we're gonna bear fruit. May the spirit of God give us vision to honestly see right now, whether in fact we are bearing fruit after the likeness of the vine, Jesus Christ.

Whether in fact the lives that we touch are being quickened and are being drawn into the peace of God. Or whether in fact beneath the surface of all our religion and all our apparent goodness, the things that we touch are constantly withering and dying and shriveling because it's the fruit of bitterness. May the spirit show us right now today if there is such a root of bitterness growing in our hearts.

And may he help us before we leave this gathering today to come to the cross and confess that root and pull it out. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from my presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of my salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors, thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we ask that The blessing of your grace and mercy will just flood like a mighty river across this entire flock, including every one of us. You know our needs, and you know what we're into, and you know our problems, and you know where we're deceiving ourselves. And where it is that the root of bitterness is growing in our hearts.

And where it is that we're producing things that are really bitter and cynical and sour and hard and not glorifying you. We pray, Lord, that you'll just deal with us and open our eyes to see this and admit it. And give us the courage, whatever it takes, Lord, to confess these things to you.

And to get rid of them before we leave here today. We ask it for your mercy's sake. Amen.