 What are the fruits worthy of repentance? In the previous video we looked at John the Baptist's message of repentance and we saw with supporting evidence from Matthew 21 and Acts 19 that his message about repentance wasn't turning from sin to be saved. It was believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that was coming after him. But what we didn't explore in that video are the fruits worthy of repentance or meat for repentance because many people would argue that the commands that John gives regarding those fruits shows that true repentance cannot be faith without works. It must have works to accompany it if it's genuine repentance and by works they usually mean turning from sin. Well before we begin let's just remind ourselves what we saw in the previous video that and why John the Baptist's message of repentance was definitely about what we believe not about correcting our behavior. In the previous video we saw that John's Old Testament quote was quite specific. John the Baptist could have quoted an Old Testament passage about turning from sin or wickedness or iniquity etc but he didn't. He quoted a passage that points us to the Christ that was coming as this was who John was paving the way for. We also saw that they only confessed their sins. Those who were baptized confessed that is to admit or acknowledge their sins but the text does not say that they repented of or for suck their sins. Anybody with the basic ability to read or understand English should have no problem discerning this obvious fact. John preached repentance but not of your sins. Once again somebody who understands English should have no problem discerning the fact that John said repent or repentance but he didn't follow it up with the christiany suffix of your sins. He did follow it with for the remission of or the forgiveness of sins but this changes the meaning of the sentence. And then finally we saw that Matthew 21 32 and Acts 19 4 prove it. These two verses prove that John's message of repentance was to believe. That's how Jesus understood it in Matthew 21, that's how Paul understood it in Acts 19 and anybody who says otherwise is not only rejecting these two verses but accusing Jesus and Paul of either being liars or mistaken. Okay then so if John said repent and he was telling people to believe on the Christ people will wonder why then when the people ask what to do does John tell them to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance and he's telling them to do specific works he's not telling them to believe. So you know this will obviously confuse a lot of people in light of what I just said in the previous video. Well what we'll do is we'll go to Luke's Gospel because that gives us the most detail about these fruits meet for or fruits worthy of repentance that John was talking about. In Luke chapter 3 verses 8 it says bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance and begin not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children on to Abraham. So make sure that you understand this that the first thing that John actually points people to is to not think within themselves that they have Abraham to their father because many Jews thought that they were God's chosen people or they were not in bondage to sin simply on account of being Abraham's physical descendants we see that throughout the Gospels. I did briefly mention that in the previous video that John chapter 8 particularly gives a very good indication of this especially in verse 33. But if God wanted physical descendants he could have just used the stones themselves. God wasn't interested in physical descendants he wanted descendants by faith as Paul talks extensively about in the latter half of Romans. So the first thing that John points them to when he says fruit meet for repentance it's it's not trusting in the flesh okay it's not trusting in their origins or genealogies okay that's the first thing that he's getting people to see. He then goes on to say and now also the axe is laid onto the root of the trees every tree therefore which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Now the first and biggest mistake that a lot of people make when they see the word fruit in the Bible and a lot of work salvation is to make a very big deal about this fruit is that they just replace the word fruit in their head with the word works okay so oh I have to do works to justify my salvation or prove my you know faith with works because it says fruit okay but that's that's not what fruit means all right now if you just think about the analogy of a labor growing fruit which the Bible uses this analogy frequently fruit itself is not work okay when you're growing fruit you don't massage and squeeze the grapes until they're strong enough you know or large enough to make them grow more okay the work is that you plant the seeds you trim the branches okay you tend to the tree and throughout most of that time no fruit actually grows okay but you're waiting for the right time and season and in that time and season then you're expecting to get fruit as the product of or the result of the work that you've already put in okay so fruit if anything is the product of doing something not the doing itself so to illustrate this this at the top is the work you must do and this at the bottom is what you hope to get after several months or years of work pretty simple when you look at it like that now if you want to disagree with me that's that's up to you but the thing is if you interpret fruit as works and then in that you're including repenting of sin well then ultimately you have a workspace salvation one way or another even if you give lip service to faith alone you have a workspace salvation if you're going to jump to that conclusion but anyway what exactly then is the fruit what is the product that john is hoping that people will get well the ending of luke matches the ending of matthew and mark's account and tells us exactly what the end result is he says further down in luke chapter three that john answered saying on to them all i indeed baptize you with water but one mightier than i comes the latchet of whose shoes i am not worthy to unloose he shall baptize you with the holy ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor and will gather the wheat into his garner but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable and so once again if i didn't already make this perfectly clear from the previous video john is pointing them to the christ he's not telling them to look introspectively or looking into their own selves but looking towards the christ who's going to separate the wheat from the chaff so how does christ do this well how does christ decide who is wheat and who is chaff or tears would be another biblical word well the most like for like passage i suppose would be the parable of the wheat and the tears in matthew 13 so for the sake of time and stay on topic we won't delve too deeply into this passage but i'll list some key points in matthew 13 verses 24 to 30 jesus describes the kingdom of heaven as a field where a man put good seed in the field but his enemies came in while he was sleeping and sowed bad tears among the wheat consequently when the harvesting time was ready the servants noticed both good wheat and bad tears and were surprised because they knew the master planted good seed the man tells them to gather both but throw the tears into a fire and to store the good wheat prior to the parable jesus had already explained the parable of the four seeds to a multitude who were dull of hearing this essentially describes the word of god going out to four different kinds of people but only one type of person profited from the word of god on to everlasting life and brought forth more fruit after the parable the disciples asked jesus to describe it verse 36 jesus explained that he the son of man was planting good seed which are the children of the kingdom in verse 38 satan likewise planted tears which are his own children verse 39 and the angels shall eventually cast his children into hellfire versus 40 to 42 so what jesus is getting at here is that he came to plant or make known the children of the kingdom or you might say the children of god and his death on the cross would be the means of how that would happen as he explained in john 12 he says in john 12 24 except a corn of wheat so there's that wheat analogy again fall into the ground and die it abides alone but if it die it brings forth much fruit and obviously this is in reference to jesus dying so jesus was referring to his own death and the fruit that he was bringing forth were the people who would be saved through his death burial and resurrection the work that jesus was doing would enable god's children to get saved and adopted into the family of god and the new testament talks extensively about how saved christians are the true children of abraham right not those who think to say within themselves that they have abraham their father as john the baptist was also getting at so the fact the bible is very clear how you become a child of god like it says in john chapter one verses 12 13 but as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of god even to them that believe on his name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of god now man's will is thinking that he can get saved by his works or because he's repented of his sins but those people are chaff okay they're the tears the ones who are the children or the sons of god are according to god's will okay those are the seed that jesus has planted they're the ones that receive him and believe on him so that's the fruit that's the end goal and that's why the repentance that john the baptist preached was to believe on christ as we saw in the previous video and as matthew 21 32 and acts 19 for proof without a shadow of doubt because that's the kind of repentance that leads to somebody being a son of god or a child of the kingdom so everlasting life then is the fruit of that that's what god gives the children as the opposite of the fire where the tears are cast or hell fire but then now we're getting to the crux of the matter aren't we if the fruit is everlasting life and that that's the product we hope to get and if it's by faith as i'm arguing then what's the point in telling people to do various works in luke chapter 3 because he could you know he could have just told them to be planted in the good field by jesus although that's perhaps not a very practical instruction because think about it if salvation is not of works what would the point in telling them to do works then that's obviously a very tough question so you can understand why people struggle with this passage so let's go to luke see what john the baptist says and as most of you know he lists three groups of things to do so in verses 10 and 11 of luke chapter 3 the people ask sir john saying what shall we do then he answered and said unto them he that has two coats let him impart to him that has none and he that has meat let him do likewise he goes on to saying verses 12 and 13 then came also publicans to be baptized and said unto him master what shall we do and he said unto them exact no more than that which is appointed you and then finally in verse 14 it's the soldiers that likewise demanded of him saying what shall we do and he said unto them do violence to no man neither recuse any falsely and be content with your wages now for those of you that are heavily entrenched in the repentance of your sins to be saved gospel i do understand that common sense kind of goes over your head okay see if you can employ some common sense for one miserable day and stay with me here okay just think about this if the fruits of repentance are all about turning from sin and that's the big thing that we've got to be doing here what sin are they being told to repent of in verse 11 is it a sin to own two coats is it a sin to have meat is it a sin to own more property than somebody else is it a sin to live in the same place where other people have fewer possessions than you what about the person who doesn't have any coats what sin is he being asked to turn from in this verse so the first thing that's listed is not a sin issue now people will say well they were being selfish and wouldn't share their possessions with the poor and needy well you can inject that narrative into the text but that's not what it says so the first thing that's mentioned is not even a sin issue okay so how are you going to say that this is all about turning from sins when the first thing that he mentions has got nothing to do with sin so you've seen then how people are getting so confused over this topic because it doesn't make any logical sense for a start and you say well all right fine okay but what about the other two examples because they probably are sin issues and it's highly likely that the soldiers and publicans were probably trying to get a little bit of extra money on the side well the thing to notice in these three examples is that every single one of them is quite specific in fact even that's an understatement because john's been very exacting and very specific they're not about all works under the sun or all sins under the sun the people which I'm guessing were probably of Jewish persuasion I suppose maybe some of Gentile persuasion they were told to impart spare coats and meat to the one who doesn't have any coats or meat the publicans were told to exact no more money than they were entitled to the soldiers were told to do violence to no man not to accuse falsely and to be satisfied with their wages which I assume presumably means not to accept bribes now again once again I understand this is hard for those of you that are entrenched in this repent of sins thing okay but just just try and use some common sense if this passage is all about turning from all of your sins then why is john's message to each group of people extremely specific I mean you know do you think any of these people didn't struggle with alcohol or you know prostitution or anything like that but you know they don't even get a mention every single thing is extremely specific to the group of people that he's talking to and the first group of people is very very generic actually in the specific action that they're being told to do so stop and think about this why weren't the soldiers and publicans content with their wages if they were living an otherwise honest life why would they need to be discontented perhaps the reason why their wages didn't stretch very far is because they were spending their wages on halls at the brothel or they were spending their wages on getting drunk at the tavern or they were buying too many coats and more meat than they could actually eat did the soldiers and publicans have no other sin in their life than trying to exact too much money and of the soldiers falsely accusing or doing needless violence were all the soldiers and publicans like this or just a few of them did the common people live a very wholly decent life except for the fact that they had a notable coat hoarding problem and meat hoarding problem and kept far too many unnecessary spare coats or spare meat in the house now when you look at it like that you don't need me to tell you how ridiculous that sounds okay the works being listed here are far too specific they're not being told to repent of all of their sins and it's very highly likely that most of them would have done far worse things than what john is actually listing here so why didn't john list those other sins then well let's just compare scripture with scripture let's try and get a discernible relationship with other passages in the bible instead of just guessing or picking a random answer like repent of your sins so let's start with the spare coats and meat not only is this command very specific it also speaks only to specific individuals within the people that asked john anyone who does not have a coat or meat was not told to do anything or to repent of anything they weren't told to bring forth any fruits whatsoever so obviously it's absurd to say that john was telling them to repent of their sins when not only is this commandment not a sin issue in the first place but for a large number of people this commandment didn't even apply if you didn't have any spare coats or meat and you're not a public and order soldier well you're literally being told to do nothing to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance there's no commandment for you to do anything so you know those of you that went to bible college i suggest you suit for a refund but anyway what's the meaning of sharing coats and meat in this passage why tell them this if he's pointing them to the christ can we compare this to anything to do with jesus later in the gospel account well funnily enough there is actually in matthew six it says therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or where with the shall we be clothed for after all these things to the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father knows that you need of all these things but seek you first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added on to you now this is a fantastic passage it sounds lovely when we read it in church if only we'd actually believe it in our hearts but you know jesus tells us that we don't need to worry about what we shall eat well there's your meat okay or what we shall wear so there's your coats because our heavenly father takes care of our basic needs and if we don't trust god to provide for our basic earthly needs which we can see and touch how are we going to trust god to provide for our heavenly hope which is a far off okay if we can't even see it yet we don't even know for sure if it actually exists okay now you know don't worry i'm not saying that to gaslight anybody's faith please don't misunderstand if that's the the message that you just got there but i'm i'm saying this to exhort you to grow in faith okay to learn to trust jesus more that he successfully filled fulfilled what he said he would so you know for example when he says that he should lose nothing that he's given eternal life to as it says in john six believe it and don't argue about it now i'm sure many of you watching this have probably got a whole coat rack at home with a winter coat and a summer coat and a formal coat you've probably got more than two coats some of you okay especially that the ladies will like a bit of fashion right but but clothing in our day is in age is not very expensive you know we're not accustomed to seeing naked people freezing to death in the streets but historically before the industrial revolution clothing was very expensive it took a long time to make materials were not as abundant as they are now so it cost a lot of money to obtain clothing and meat and food was also much more expensive relative to salaries especially if you couldn't grow it very well yourself and so having excess clothing or food in that day and age was rather like having more than what you need now because you're worried that things might happen okay are you worried that you know but thing is god told us god told us not to worry about these things so the man with two coats and excess meat who gives these articles away can learn to trust god more by learning to live by faith and not worry about storing up for tomorrow as for the man with no coats and no meat he can feel like he is having his needs met because a fellow believer in the lord will see him and as james two instructs give those things that are needful for the body he can likewise learn to trust god more because god has already met his earthly needs by instructing somebody else not to hoard excess so the goal then really is that both of these parties can learn to trust god more through this transaction but just for different reasons okay and just in case it sounds you know it sounds like we're going back to work salvation let's just shoot that in the face okay Jesus did say to seek his righteousness whereas the people who are entrenched in repent of your sins so-called they love to quote passages like Ezekiel chapter 18 because they're trying to establish their own righteousness okay but there is more to the coats and meat as well it's not just about not worrying let's see what else Jesus says about this topic in Matthew 10 verses 9 to 10 remember that in context Jesus is sending his disciples to various cities to preach the kingdom just as John the Baptist had also preached the kingdom and he says to his disciples provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses nor script for your journey neither to coats neither shoes nor yet staves for the workman is worthy of his meat when Jesus sent his disciples out to preach you could really say that he sent them without things that even we would consider to be the bare minimum right the implication was that hopefully enough people would receive their teaching and would provide them with meals and a place to stay and if for some reason their coat you know needed a replacement well then they would provide a replacement coat hopefully because a workman is worthy of his meat okay a workman is worthy of these things now some houses would receive them some houses would not receive them as Jesus went on to say in Matthew 10 and into whatsoever city or town you shall enter inquire who in it is worthy and there abide until you go from there and when you come into the house salute it and if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it but if it be not worthy let your peace return to you so there is Jesus sends his disciples without spare coats without spare meat with the expectation that through their preaching somebody that's worthy in that town would receive them and provide for them and give them their basic lodging and their basic needs now I'm not I am going to have to risk a bit of conjecture here okay we don't know a lot about what the John the Baptist's preaching was because we have very little dialogue from that story okay and he was arrested some time after Jesus was baptized so we know very little about John the Baptist really it's not really known how much John the Baptist knew Jesus even though there was a connection between their mothers but John the Baptist preaching from what we know from the dialogue reveals very little about Jesus other than that he's coming to separate the week from the chaff right so it's possible that people went away from his baptism not knowing very much about this Christ person anyway when Jesus sent his disciples out to preach in various towns and cities it's very likely that but it's probably quite obvious really that they knew a lot more about Jesus than John did because they're his disciples and because they were going into these different towns and cities it's very very likely although it's not documented that they would have bumped into some of the people that were baptized of John okay and they could give them more detail about who this Christ figure was and give them more doctrine about this Jesus person that they were told to believe in so think about this what if you had been baptized by John who had told you to give your spare coat and meat to him that has none and then the disciples came to preach at your town or village even to your very house and were in need of these things but you declined to part with these things or what if Jesus had come to your town to preach and to heal and you not knowing exactly who he was after John's message declined to help him at best you could have missed out on the chance to have Jesus or his disciples lodge at your house and may have embarrassed yourself if you realised and repented later at worst you could have declined to help them and consequently missed out on some very important truth about the kingdom if John the Baptist had not made it entirely clear to you beforehand and you might not have another chance to hear a once in a lifetime experience now I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how bad that would have been okay so if you had the selfish attitude of not helping those in need and not sparing a coat or not sparing a meat you could have whether intentionally or unintentionally turned away Jesus as very disciples so the goal of giving your spare meat and coat to him that has none is not to work your way to heaven it's to teach you to prepare your heart for Christ and to be alert for his coming okay and so that's the common people dealt with what about the publicans so this is a very specific group of people who were told to not do a very specific thing of taking money they were not entitled to so this is quite specific and it doesn't really address all of the sins in a publicans life and this doesn't necessarily either assume that all the publicans were guilty of doing this anyway they could have been a handful of them that did act with integrity for all we know we just don't know so you can probably hazard against us to where we can link this elsewhere with the gospel accounts although this one is perhaps not quite as clear in Luke chapter five and Levi's name Matthew in Matthew's gospel it says in verses 27 to 29 and after these things he went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom and he that's Jesus said on to him follow me and he left all rose up and followed him and Levi made him a great feast in his own house and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them now this story doesn't reveal much about Levi or the publicans but you might be inclined to ask some questions what if Jesus had caught Levi in the act of exacting more money than what was owed what might have happened what if Levi was more concerned about obtaining money than dropping everything and putting on a feast for the Christ obviously we can't delve into all those you know what ifs because we'd just be stepping too deep into the injection but that's a good enough reason to consider what John the Baptist was saying what if Jesus said follow me you know put on a dinner for me essentially and you don't want to do it because you're more concerned with earning money and then you missed out on a chance to hear the gospel directly from Jesus okay and I'm just asking the question what if Zacchaeus could be another example that we could look at in Luke chapter 19 verses 2 and then verses 5 to 8 it says there was a man named Zacchaeus which was the chief among the publicans and he was rich and when Jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him and said on to him Zacchaeus make haste and come down for today I must abide at your house and he made haste and come down and received him joyfully and when they saw it they all murmured saying this uh that he has gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner Zacchaeus stood and said on to the Lord behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation I restore him fourfold now people will obviously use that as a repent of your sins passage right but the thing is again we can't delve into too many conjectural details about how Jesus would have reacted if Zacchaeus didn't show any inclination towards making amendments or repaying back what he owed that there's just not enough information in that passage but what's interesting about the story of Zacchaeus is that previously in Luke's gospel Jesus had already had an exchange with a rich young ruler who trusted in his riches and could not enter the kingdom whereas uh G sorry Zacchaeus seemed to understand that Jesus's kingdom was greater than earthly riches he at least understood that much and even in the chapters before the rich young ruler in Luke Jesus gives some quite detailed discourses to the publicans about the parable of the lost coin for instance or the cost of discipleship or the unjust steward right and so you know the rich man didn't and who didn't make it into heaven despite being a descendant of Abraham in Luke 16 so quite a lot of money-oriented discussions in relation to the kingdom in that section there so John the Baptist's warning against unappointed money and taking that is that it's consistent with Jesus's teachings about not trusting or becoming attached to the riches of this world which may be an obstacle to somebody turning to Christ okay so again it's about preparing their hearts to be ready to receive the Christ and again I know I've kept repeating this in the last couple of videos but in Matthew 21 Jesus explicitly stated that the publicans go into the kingdom because they believed John the Baptist's preaching okay whereas the chief priest and elders didn't so that was the publicans what about the soldiers and once again we've got a very specific group with a very specific list which does not necessarily include all of the sins that the soldiers were probably guilty of well we can look at an example of good soldiers versus bad soldiers to understand this one so a good example of bad soldiers would be those who crucified Jesus he says in Matthew 27 27 to 31 then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered on to him the whole band of soldiers and they stripped him and put it on him a scarlet robe and when they had plaited a crown of thorns they put it on his head and a reed in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying hail king of the Jews and they spit upon him and took the reed and smoked him on the head and after that they had mocked him they took the robe off him and put his own remand on him and led him away to crucify him and in the next chapter it goes on to same verse 12 that when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel they gave large money on to the soldiers saying say you his disciples came by night and stole him away while he we slept and if this come to the governor's ears we will persuade him and secure you so they took the money and did as they were taught and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day so you can see here that the soldiers took a bribe to give a false accusation and in John's gospel chapter 19 it tells us that the soldiers when they had crucified Jesus took his garments and made four parts to every soldier apart and also his coat now obviously it tells us that the soldiers did this to fulfill scripture but it doesn't say exactly what they personally got from doing this it's highly likely that they wanted to sell it and then further in John 19 the soldiers break the legs of the first and of the other which was crucified with him but then they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already so they didn't break his legs but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith came out blood and water now we don't know if any of these soldiers were present at John the Baptist's preaching but we do know that whatever behavior they're displaying is the very opposite of what John the Baptist told soldiers to do they did violence to the Christ when John the Baptist said do violence to no man they took bribes and presumably sold Jesus clothes because they weren't content with their wages when John the Baptist told soldiers to be content with their wages and the elders paid them to bear false witness and they did take that money and bear false witness you know in telling the about how the disciples stole Jesus when John the Baptist specifically told soldiers not to make false accusations and so we see that this once again has absolutely nothing to do with doing works to be saved or to justify genuine repentance it has to do with preparing the hearts of people because Christ is coming okay and you don't want to be on the one of the soldiers that would end up being on the bad side of history and is one of these deplorable acts to Jesus if anything you want to be a good soldier like the faithful centurion because when we're reading Luke 7 of the faithful centurion he is a very humble man who didn't even dare to trouble Jesus he said I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof neither I thought myself to be worthy to come near you but say the word and my servant shall be healed for I am a man of authority having unto me soldiers and then look how Jesus replies he doesn't say I have not found so great a repentance of sins no he says I have not found so great a faith in Israel it was the centurion's faith and so hopefully when you get that whole picture of the gospels you see that you know the fruits of repentance it has nothing to do with trying to earn your salvation or you know prove your salvation because John the Baptist was preparing the way of the Lord and many of these people would never see John the Baptist again so he had no way of knowing whether they genuinely repented of sin anyway okay he had no follow-up with these people he just they confess their sins he baptizes them and they're on their way and we never hear about any of them again so if you're one of these people that were with John the Baptist and he's telling you you know do this or do that you don't want to be any of the people that are on the wrong side of history okay you don't want to be one of the houses that turned away Jesus and his disciples because he wouldn't spare a bit of meat and coats okay you don't want to be one of the publicans that loved money and turned down the offer to have a feast with the Messiah one of the greatest moments that you could have had in history you don't want to be one of the soldiers that did violence directly to the Christ and mocking him and you know taking brides to spread misinformation you don't want to be one of those people in the next video we'll be looking at Jesus carrying on this message from John the Baptist because Jesus carries on this very same thing repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand just like John the Baptist has preached before him this is no nonsense Christianity reminding you that nowhere in the bible does it say repent of your sins to be saved