Harvest of a Fruitful Heart

How do wormholes get into apples? This was a question that was on my mind after I recently consumed most of a Granny Smith apple. As I carefully examined the remaining portion of this juicy fruit, I lost almost all my sense of joyful pleasure that I had gained up to that point. As I saw the wormhole, I quietly wondered (as I chewed less enthusiastically) what happened to that worm… Had I eaten it already or was he still in there somewhere? And if I had eaten it, would it do any damage to my insides? I had suddenly lost my appetite for the apple and began to do a little research. It seems that most of the time, when someone sees a wormhole, the worm has already left the apple. The egg larva that became the worm had tunneled its way out of the fruit some time ago. The worm had not traveled from the outside in, but from the inside out! And he had been there since the time of the seed germination, long before the apple was ever an apple.
This example of the challenges of growing fruit in our culture is analogous to understanding more about Becoming Fruit-Bearing Disciples in a Kingdom Culture. This is our theme in which we are currently engaged and today we look into the Harvest of a Fruitful Heart. Looking into the Word of God can be much more beneficial for us than some agricultural journal since we understand that the fruit-bearing is referring to fruit of an eternal nature. Chapter 7 of the Gospel of Mark is our text for today so let us now hear the Word of the Lord:

The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?”
And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER’; and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH’; but you say, ‘If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),’ you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
When he had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned
Him about the parable. And He said to them, “Are you so lacking in understanding
also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot
defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?”
(Thus He declared all foods clean.)
And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles
the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
But she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”
And He said to her, “Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your
daughter.” And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left.
Again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of Decapolis. They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him to lay His hand on him. Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue with the saliva; and looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, He said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he began speaking plainly. And He gave them orders not to tell anyone; but the more He ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it. They were utterly astonished, saying, “He has done all things well; He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”

The Lord is giving private instruction to His disciples as to the heart of man’s problem in His relationship with God in verses 14 through 23. The central teaching is that heart of man’s problem is the problem with the heart. As Jesus, the Word of God engages humanity, the Gospel writer gives us insight in how the heart problem is beyond help on a human level. Let’s look at two examples that the text reveals.

I. RELIGIOUS HYPOCRITES SPEND MORE TIME LOOKING OUTWARDLY THAN INWARDLY.

The Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?”

The value of a judgment depends upon who is doing the judging. These religious people asked the Lord a question. But they weren’t seeking an answer. They were making an accusation and judged these men guilty of breaching a serious tradition. They had eaten with unwashed hands. The judgment was even more condemning than it first appears. These men are called Your disciples. The disciples’ behavior was called into question and the implication is that the teaching was flawed because their Teacher was flawed…the disciples just hadn’t been taught right was their judgment. The words of their Teacher were inadequate and insufficient. Then Jesus gives His judgment.
Hypocrites are more concerned with appearances than with reality. Humans will instinctively look at the perceived sin of others rather than look at their own reality. This is a spiritual anomaly that humanity never grows out of or recovers from. Jesus calls the religious practitioners hypocrites. Our understanding of this word is often defined as someone who pretends to have admirable principles and doesn’t do what they say or practice what they preach. The word actually has a much deeper meaning. The hypocrite is a fraud…a charlatan…a pretender. The Biblical language means an actor…a player on a stage. These Pharisees and scribes were judged by Jesus as people who were playing to an audience…people playing a role to be seen by men and measured by their outward appearance. Jesus had identified the inward reality. It was a heart problem.

THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR
AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS
DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you
hold to the tradition of men.

Traditional truth is grounded in the revealed Word of the Living God, not in the man-centered teaching of dying men. This tradition of the elders was never commanded by God but was practiced by people who chose to “wash their hands” of any contact with common people in the market place, or pagan people who were not the covenant people of God. They had extended this teaching to include the washing of eating utensils as well. Now God does not have a problem with sanitary procedures. And He does not have a problem with traditional teaching. In fact, even today, we must endeavor to hold fast to the Apostolic tradition, handed down through the generations from the earliest Christ-followers. But any made-made additions or man-centered standards of righteousness is substandard to the clear meaning of what God has said. Traditionalism is a hindrance to true worship.
True worship grows out of a true heart’s desire to be obedient to God’s word. False worship, futile worship, is traditionalism…teaching as doctrine the precepts of men. It is possible as religious people that we can hold the Word of God in our hands and it is far from our hearts. The ugly reality of this kind of person is that they measure their holiness by looking at the outward appearance of others rather than the inward reality of their condition. They spend their times listening to the voice of men rather than the voice of God. They say the right things and live the wrong way. They are ignorant of the immense distance of how far they are from the Lord. They think they’re right with God. They are foolish in their thinking. They really don’t know what they think they know.

II. TORMENTED OUTCASTS KNOW THAT THEIR DESPERATE CONDITION IS MUCH DEEPER THAN IT OUTWARDLY APPEARS.

But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit
immediately came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of the
Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

Some people are acutely aware of their separation from God. This woman was a Gentile, or a Greek, as some translations include. More specifically she was a descendant of the Canaanites, those who were sentenced to a judgment of death and destruction by the Lord in the time of Joshua’s conquest. These people bore the fruit of the seeds of idolatry and it was easy for all to see. They were to be separated from God’s covenant people. The deeper condition was that their sin separated them from the life of God. Such is the case from all idolaters. Here was a woman who did not have to be reminded of this separation. She lived in the region of Tyre and Sidon. A dark and foreboding region of human existence. She was born there. And she knew her condition and the condition of her daughter was dreadfully worse than it appeared. No one need remind her of how much of an outcast she was. And the demonic manifestation in the life of her daughter was more than she could bear. The gods of her land would not help the woman out of this condition…they remained silent…idols cannot speak. But she had heard of Jesus… She heard about the absolute power in His word.
It is far better to persevere with God in our desperate condition than to assume we do not need the Word of God as the People of God. The problem with God’s people is the thought that we “own” the word of God…to do with as we please rather than understand what this woman understood. The desire to really be delivered from our condition is often tested by God Himself. When God’s word owns us…it is only then that we can learn knowing Him requires acknowledging our helplessness and our unworthiness. Being real with God. This mother knew that her own depravity and the demon tormenting her daughter was beyond her ability to change. Jesus tests the woman’s resolve. And she passes the test. She says that a crumb from the Master’s table as the children are being fed is more than she ever deserves and all that she ever will desire. Matthew’s Gospel adds these words of Jesus,your faith is great; be it done to you as you wish…(Matthew 15:28)
Faith comes by hearing…and hearing by the Word of God. She had heard about Jesus. She had heard the Word of God and surrendered her sorry life to Him. And her faith in God was miraculously manifested. When a human being acts upon the Word of God, accepts it as authoritative, and acts upon their desire to be delivered from their desperate and depraved condition, God’s Word can set them free. Not free to live any way they would like…but free to worship Him and enjoy the Living God forever. When the People of God yawn at the Word of Yahweh, and think that it is not so much for them as it is for pagan people, their lives will only be the best that men can make it. And this is the lesson. Human beings will bear fruit from the core of their being. They will bear fruit according to what they listen to, to the counsel they give credence to, according to the values and principles they live by. It is fruitful for us to know that every human life will bear fruit. But the kind of fruit a human life will produce is either natural or supernatural. Bearing godly fruit is a partnership between the Spirit of
God and the obedience of men. Men can bear bad fruit all by themselves.

III. FRUIT-BEARING DISCIPLES BENEFIT GREATLY FROM UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF THE HARVEST.

“Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever
goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?”

God’s questions to man are much more instructional than man’s questions to
God. Jesus uses a physiological analogy to teach a theological lesson. The men following Jesus, His disciples, at their core, are still men. The word also gives us a clue about what Jesus is getting at. The people called by God are supposed to be different. They are supposed to be gaining an understanding of the nature of the fruit that they are expected to bear. Disciples of Jesus are expected to bear the fruit of God, not of man. Human beings have a root problem. The root affects the fruit. And in their natural state, the fruit they produce comes from within…from the core of their humanity…from the depths of the depraved human heart.
If you’ve ever eaten a Vidalia onion, you know there is a difference between it and every other kind of onion. The taste is distinctively sweet. And every onion that is advertised as Vidalia is not necessarily so. The difference in the taste is attributed to the difference in soil conditions in which the plant bears fruit. The Vidalia onion is one that is grown in a specific geographical region in the state of Georgia, involving several counties. The proclamation of where a true Vidalia onion is produced is even mandated by the Georgia state legislature. And the kind of fruit produced in a human being is proclaimed by the King of Kings.
The heart we have determines the nature of the fruit. It’s not about the hands we wash, or the vessels we clean, or the food that we eat. The naturally ugly fruit of the human heart is revealed to the disciples in graphic terms. The outward behavior of a human being is on display before a watching world. Disciples do well to understand the nature of man. We are not born basically good. Our evil deeds is not the product of a life of deprivation where we were raised wrong. Our evil deeds are not the product of the socially or economically disadvantaged where we were raised poor or have low self esteem. Although this is the bogus teaching of some in the culture today, the plain truth is
revealed to disciples of Jesus in terms that a child of God can easily understand.

For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.

Disciples of Jesus benefit greatly from understanding the nature of their
natural-born hearts. Everything these hearts will ever produce is described as by Jesus as defiled before a holy God. There is no hope of holiness to grow in the natural-born human heart. It must be changed into a supernatural one. Regeneration is necessary. New life. We must be born again. Only the power of God found in the Word of God is able to change the sinful heart condition. Only God is able to change the heart so that it can bear any other kind of fruit other than fruit that is rotten at the core.

IV. A FRUIT-BEARING HARVEST GROWS FROM THE INSIDE OUT AND NOT THE OUTSIDE IN.

An illustration is helpful here from Paul Tripp, author of Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hand:

Let’s say I have an apple tree in my backyard. Each year its apples are dry, wrinkled, brown and pulpy. After several seasons my wife says, “It doesn't make any sense to have this huge tree and never be able to eat any apples. Can’t you do something?”
One day my wife looks out the window to see me in the yard, carrying branch cutters, an industrial grade staple gun, a ladder and two bushels of apples. I climb the ladder, cut off all the pulpy apples, and staple shiny, red apples onto every branch of the tree. From a distance our tree looks like it is full of a beautiful harvest. But if you were my wife, what would you thinking of me at this moment?
If a tree produces bad apples year after year, there is something drastically wrong with its system, down to its very roots. I won’t solve the problem by stapling new apples onto the branches. They also will rot because they are not attached to a life-giving root system. And next spring, I will have the same problem again. I will not see a new crop of healthy apples because my solution has not gone to the heart of the problem. If the tree’s roots remain unchanged, it will never produce good apples.
The point is that, in personal ministry, much of what we do to produce growth and change in ourselves and others is little more than “fruit stapling.” It attempts to exchange apples for apples without examining the heart, the root behind the behavior. This is the very thing for which Christ criticized the Pharisees. Change that ignores the heart will seldom transform the life. For a while, it may seem like the real thing, but it will prove temporary and cosmetic.

All fruit, evil or good, grows from the inside out, from the condition of our heart. So if no good fruit has its origin in the human heart, is there any possibility that the heart can be changed to produce godly fruit? Are we without hope?

V. HELPLESS HUMANITY HAS HOPE IN THE ONE WHO DOES ALL THINGS WELL.

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

Hope awakens in a human being when we are able hear the Word of God. The religious hypocrites would not hear. The desperate outcast wanted to hear. And now the Lord encounters someone who had ears…but could not hear. He was utterly helpless. He could not even ask for help. He could not speak…because He could not hear.

They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty…

Herbert Lockyer writes about this event in All the Miracles of the Bible:

What a picture is here presented of the sinner’s moral and spiritual condition as the fruit of the Fall! God lost man’s ear in the garden and since that fatal day he will listen to anyone else rather than God…The tongue of the unsaved person is as estranged from God as his ear. Even the most cultured and educated sinner betrays an impediment in his speech as soon as spiritual truths are introduced.

In other words, deaf men cannot speak well, if they can speak at all. And dead men cannot talk to God, even if they are most eloquent in their oratorical skills. Dead men don’t talk to God and dead men cannot hear God until they are made alive by Christ, the Word of God.
Jesus does some specific things here that are instructive for us. He took the deaf man aside from the multitude. Lockyer writes:

It is only in the hush of God’s presence that we learn of our sin and guilt and of our deep need of sovereign grace.

Jesus touches the man…the Word of God touching the entry point of a human life. He spits…a crude but intimate and effective way to transfer the DNA of the Word of God into a man. He looked up to Heaven as sign language to a man who could not hear where the source of His healing was located. He sighed…He groaned, emotionally connecting with flawed humanity miraculously healed by the awesome power of God. Then He spoke…and the man heard…and spoke plainly.
There is one more encounter that the Lord has with humanity. It is with His disciples then and disciples here and now…Jesus does all things well. We will only speak plainly about the things of God when we hear the word of God. The heart of man will keep us deaf to the Word of God…until Jesus takes us aside…in a private moment, even now to consider…Do I really understand that my heart is wicked…and the only hope for its change is by the touch of the Word of God at the entry point of my life?

Summing up the So-What of today’s message can be found by answering the following questions:

Do I really know what kind of fruit my heart is producing?
When I recognize the fruit as evil fruit, do I really want it to be different?
If I do desire godly fruit, will I surrender all of my life…my heart…to the Word of God?

“Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”