By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

In Nomine Iesu!

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Sermon Text: St. Matthew 7:15-23

“‘Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.’”

Prayer in Pulpit before Sermon:

Almighty and gracious God, the Father of our Lord + Jesus Christ, Who hast commanded us to pray that Thou wouldest send forth laborers into Thy harvest: of Thine infinite mercy give us true teachers and ministers of Thy Word, and put Thy saving Gospel in their hearts and on their lips, that they may truly fulfill Thy command, and preach nothing contrary to Thy holy Word, that we, being warned, instructed, nurtured, comforted, and strengthened by Thy heavenly Word, may do those things which are well-pleasing to Thee, and profitable to us; through + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior + Jesus Christ. Amen. 

My dear friends in Christ, there are those who question why it is so important to get doctrine right. They would say, “Are we not all Christians?” “Do we not all believe in Christ + Jesus?” So, for them it is legalistic to demand purity in doctrine. Why cannot we all just get along? Why does there have to be so much division in the Church? Our Lord + Jesus, the Christ, tells us today why it is important to maintain purity in doctrine. He tells us to beware of false prophets. Why? Because of the fruit they produce. This is why we do our very best to have purity in doctrine, because of the fruit that is produced by it, and the fruit that is produced when it does not exist. For what is really at stake? It is the pure preaching of the Gospel.

The Gospel is the good news of what our Lord + Jesus, the Christ, did for us poor miserable sinners. If we water this Gospel down in any way, the honor that solely belongs to the Lord + Jesus is taken away, and placed in our hands. In our hands there is no salvation. We are not saved by our works and merits. If we add any works at all to the works of the Christ, we have destroyed the Gospel. Our Lord + Jesus, the Christ, must do all to save us. He must be the Savior whole and complete. If we add our love, or our faith, or any other work to the Lord’s saving works, we no longer have the Gospel. And to be clear, faith when it is understood to be our work, as many Christians erroneously believe, is a false doctrine. Even the faith we have is a gift of the Lord God. He grants us faith through our hearing of the Word; of our hearing of the pure Gospel of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Even the love we have is given to us because He first loved us.

In these two things, love and faith, the adversaries of the pure Gospel show their fruits. They place the focus on us obtaining one of these two things, or both, by our own working and achieving. They claim that these things are readily achieved by us, that they are in us already, all we have to do is bring them to the top. And herein we begin to see the problem with such false teaching. For mankind can only contribute to his salvation; he can only complete the salvation that the Lord began, as they say, if a person’s understanding of original sin is flawed.

The true teaching of original sin is that our nature has completely and utterly been corrupted by sin. We have no good thing living in us. We do not have inherent grace, or love, or faith, hiding in us. All that was destroyed by the fall of Adam. If we wish to retain any of that for ourselves, we take away from the works and merits of the Christ. We are not fully relying on and trusting in the works and merits of the Christ, but are trying to give ourselves some credit for our salvation. On account of sin dwelling in us, corrupting our nature, we are dead in our sins and trespasses. A dead man cannot contribute anything to his salvation.

Our resurrection from the dead, our awaking into new life, must come from the only One Who conquered and defeated death. He is the One Who raises us from the dead. By the work of the Holy Ghost Who He sent to us, we are made alive again in Christ + Jesus. By the means of grace, the pure preaching of the Gospel, and the right administration of the Blessed Sacraments, the Holy Ghost creates and preserves faith and life in us. This is completely the work of the Lord God, of the Triune Lord God. For the Father sends the Son to redeem those whom He created, and the Son sends the Holy Ghost Who preserves and keeps us alive as a new creation through the faith He gave to us.

This is why it is so important to preserve to us the treasure of salvation only in the works and merits of the Christ. This is why it is so important to maintain pure doctrine. Because we are dealing with the salvation of our souls. Do we not want to be utterly sure that the way of salvation is maintained among us? Do we not want to be sure that the fruits that we produce are fruits of salvation? This is why we place so much focus on maintaining pure doctrine, for it involves our salvation. Not all who say, “Lord, Lord” will be saved. As our Lord + Jesus tells us in the Gospel from the Apostle and Evangelist St. Matthew, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy Name, and by Thy Name cast out demons, and by Thy Name do many mighty works?”

The false prophets think they are doing the work of the Lord. But they are producing bad fruit. They are producing corrupted doctrine which does not save. It leads mankind into thinking that salvation is somehow dependent upon them. Even when this is taught as a commingling of the Lord’s work and our works. The false prophets are good at saying that the Lord + Jesus saves. But then they add, now here is our part. A corruption on the doctrine of original sin, leads to a corruption on the understanding of good works. Good works are not necessary for our salvation. They are a fruit of the faith that has been created in us. We love because our Lord God has renewed in us the love that He created in us at our creation. We have been born anew. We are a new creation, which loves both God and man. Not because of anything we had to drum up inside of ourselves, but because our Lord God gave us this.

We are dealing with the salvation of our souls, this is why we demand and strive to maintain pure doctrine in our parishes. This is why the Lutheran Church wrote a whole big book called the Book of Concord. It is an exhibition of what the Scriptures teach us. The Book of Concord was not only meant as a testimony to what they believed, taught, and confessed, but it was also meant for their posterity; for us. It is given to us so that we may maintain the pure doctrine, which they taught and defended with their very own lives. Our Lutheran fathers did not view doctrine as something to be passed over lightly. They condemn outright the false doctrines of their time, and confess what is the true teaching to which they hold, and to which the Church has always taught. They firmly believed, as do we, that what is contained in the Book of Concord, our Lutheran confessions, is what the Church has always taught. They believed that they were purifying the doctrines that had been corrupted by many false prophets.

The fruits of the Papacy were plain to see. They had led many into erroneously believing that they were saved by their works. And if they did not have enough works for salvation, then they could buy whatever was necessary beyond that for both themselves and for those whom they loved. The Reformed do a better job than the Papacy in hiding their false doctrine. They talk a lot about faith in the Christ, and being saved by faith, but they make faith a work that we must do, not a gift of the Holy Ghost. Both of their doctrines lead men into despair when they cannot achieve it. Or, it leads people into pride, when they begin to believe how greatly they have achieved these things. When we are in pride or despair, we do not have the Christ.

By their fruit ye shall know them. If the fruit that is produced by a church body’s teaching leads either to despair or pride, you know that their tree is bad. A true church gives its sheep pure pasture, that is, it gives them only the Lord + Jesus, the Christ, for their salvation. Only His works and merits are given to its sheep, for a good shepherd knows how to feed the sheep of the Lord properly.

And notice that the wolf in our Lord’s parable always tries to come to the sheep as another sheep. The wolf does not try to come as a shepherd. For a shepherd cares about the sheep, the wolf does not care about the sheep, but only wishes to devour them. He does not care about leading them to pure pasture, but seeks only his own glory and fame.

Therefore, my dearly beloved sheep, let us strive always to preserve to us the treasure of the pure Gospel of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. For in Him alone do we have our salvation. He is the One Who has atoned for all of our sins, so that in Him, and by His works, the shepherd placed over us may declare to us that our sins are forgiven, in His stead, and by His command. For we find no good thing in us, but in our Lord + Jesus we find the perfect fulfilling of the whole will and Law of the Lord God. We find in Him the sacrifice that atones for all of our sins. When we believe on and cling to Him in faith, we can never be led into despair, for He has loved us to the point of death. And we can never be led into pride, for we know that our nature has been corrupted by sin, but by His grace and mercy, we have been made into a new creation, which clings to Him in faith for all of our needs of body and soul. By Him we have been saved to enjoy eternal life with Him in heaven with all the saints. May He grant this unto us all! In the Name of our Lord + Jesus, the Christ. Amen.

Prayer in Pulpit after Sermon:

Almighty God, be pleased to accompany Thy Word with Thy Holy Spirit and grant that Thy Word would increase faith in us; bring into the Way of Truth all such as have erred; turn the hearts of the unrepentant; and for sake of Thy Name grant succor to all heavy hearts and those who are heavy-laden, that they may through the mercy of the Lord + Jesus Christ be relieved and preserved so that they succumb not to the temptation of despair but rather that they gain the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil; through the same + Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with the Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

The Votum:

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!