Jesus said,
Matthew 12:33 Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Paul said,
Romans 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God had hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; andwith the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
We cannot hide and be a secret follower of Christ.
We must confess him openly before men.
Matthew 10:32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven.
We cannot be closet Christians.
To say, “it is my private thing” is to deny him before men.
To speak of good things that happen in our lives that God does on our behalf and say it was “fortunate” or “it just worked out” or give credit for it to anything other than God is not giving the glory and honor where it is due.
The WORDS we say do matter. Our words that we speak are the only things that are truly OURS, it is our free will to speak what we believe. The Bible speaks of a “sacrifice of praise”. Hebrews 13:15 says, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. 16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased”. Our praise and thanks and actions are the only things we can give that are truly ours.
Another thing Matthew 12:33 makes me think of is: are our actions and words equal? By that I mean: Are the good works accompanied by giving praise to Jesus? Are the “Praise the Lord” comments accompanied by a life of good works? We are not saved by good works for it is by grace alone. Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
I also notice that it says, “make the tree good” and it will produce good fruit. We make the tree good by trusting Christ! If we don’t do that then our tree will still be rotten and produce rotten fruit no matter how hard we try otherwise. It is not the fruit that saves us as noted above. If we trust in Christ for our salvation, that he paid the full payment of our sin debt, then our mouths need to ‘prove’ it and so do our actions. (James 2:14-26 is very clear about this.)
On this celebration of Resurrection Day, take time to consider a few things. We have all broken God’s holy moral law, often referred to as the ten commandments. Read them. They are in Exodus 20. Then flip forward to Matthew 5, 6 &7 and read Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Here Jesus points out to us that there is no salvation in outwardly keeping the ten commandments because it is our inward heart attitude behind them that condemns us. Hmm… the tree must be good to have good fruit, that tree would be our heart by the way. We are all sinners. Our sin requires judgment and a payment. Just like a criminal. He is condemned and gets a life sentence, say, confinement to prison. Our sentence as a sinner is confinement to hell. (Read Luke 16:19-31 and take note that at the end it says, “neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”) Jesus Christ paid that sentence/sacrifice for our sin as a gift of love to us and ROSE AGAIN!!!
It is a free gift for anyone who will receive it.
If someone gives us a gift, it is not ours until we accept it.
We must accept Christ’s gift to truly call it ours.
We cannot claim to have salvation in Christ if we have never realized:
What we are: sinners.
What we deserve because of that sin: hell.
What Christ did for us: died in our place on the cross of Calvary and paid our sin debt.
We must personally accept his gift to us.
In prayer, humbly tell God you realize these things:
that you are a sinner,
that you deserve hell,
that you can do nothing in an of yourself to pay that sin debt,
and that you accept his gift of salvation in his Son Jesus Christ.
We are saved by placing our belief in Christ, which makes our “tree” good which should bring good fruit in our words and our actions.
Something to ponder as we hike along today noticing all that spring growth all around us.
