Matthew 3:7–12Scripture
Matthew 3:7-12 says this. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, what a welcoming."
Like you come to a church service, the pastor looks at you and calls you a snake. That doesn't just call you a snake. He calls you a snake with other snakes who are vom venomous and poisonous and troublesome. Bring death everywhere you go. What a welcoming, right? You brute of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Some translations say fruit worthy of repentance. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not promise, do not presume to say to yourself, "We have Abraham as our father." For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children from Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and is thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But he is coming. He who is coming after me is mightier than I whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with holy spirit and with fire. His winnowing fo fork is in the ha's hand and he will clear his threshing floor and gather him gather his wheat into the barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
These are serious words.
Introduction
This is an interesting greeting and although it is directed to the Pharisees and Sadducees, it is directed and pierces through generations from generation then to the generation today to us in the house today.
Because today the reality is the days of Pharisees and Sadducees are not over.
The reality is there's certain attitudes and behaviors that infiltrate the ranks within the church in greater evangelicalism today.
We have people that come to baptism waters with the same demeanor as those with whom John is speaking to. And it's a problem. It's a problem. So now we have this picture. The crowd is pressed close along the Jordan and dust rises up out of every footstep.
It's dusty there. A rough man in camel's hair stood waist deep in the water. His voice thunders across the water. Echoes off the mountains. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Some are weeping. Some are confessing their sin and some were baptized. And so we get the picture then through the crowd breaks this group of men, Pharisees and Sadducees.
And these are the religious elite. Their robes flowing as they walk towards the baptism waters. They have Scriptures memorized. They're publicly honored as holy men. Men whose words should be valued and listened to. They were the ones everyone else looked up to. If anyone looked ready for heaven, it was these guys. But then John sees them. He did not smile.
He was not impressed with the direct line they had to God. Can we just pause here for a second? The worst thing. Just everybody look up here just for a second.
The worst thing the church can do for people inside the church today is make them feel like they're special.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:46
Track with me. I know this is foreign to us in our culture and particularly how we've constructed the church because what you're making is not a follower of Christ.
You're making a monster. You're making a Pharisee. Somebody who thinks they're first cousins to Jesus. Someone who thinks they have a direct line to him and he speaks to them at a higher level than another in the church.
Someone who then begins to look down their nose at another brother and sister because they are such muty and so much in fact that they have been placed in a fellowship to judge all other people by their greatness.
In the church, we give people positions too quickly. And the reality is those positions corrupt the heart of that man and women.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:00
We release people because we want to keep them in the fellowship. All along we forsake them eternally. Are you with me? It's a problem today. You see, John didn't care about making people feel special. Truth above all things.
And sometimes the truth stings. Sometimes we need to understand we're not all that. And as we used to say back in the day, and a bag of chips. We're not so special.
The goal of the Christian life is not to make you feel awesome. The goal of the Christian life is to identify the fact that Jesus died because of you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:52
We're not all that. We got pro how c can you admit today you got some problems? I mean I got some problems. And
The reality is every morning I wake up, I am thankful for the price that Jesus paid because I wake up knowing who I am.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:14
And the reality is I'm not so special. And the longer I'm in the church and the longer I stand behind the pulpit and the longer I study his word and the more that I talk to him and the more that I commune with him, the more I realize I am not worthy to be forgiven.
Yet he did anyway. That's the good news of the gospel. New believers think they're awesome. Think they have a direct line. Think they have something to tell everybody. I just think I'm too stupid to even be here every week. You know how hard it is to get up here and preach something that I don't think I'm worthy to preach.
That's the kind of people we need to raise up in the church. People who know who they are.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:59
That's important.
You know why unity is broken in the church? Because we made the goal of the church to make people feel awesome. We don't hold mirrors up to people.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:12
We paint pictures of who they are that are not true and they believe it.
And then they come to baptism waters and they hear messages like repent and they say from what? He loves me just like I am. And
There is a relative idea of truth there, but that doesn't mean he's going to keep you that way.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:42
It doesn't mean he's going to accept you in that way. It doesn't mean he doesn't require you to bear fruit in keeping of repentance. It doesn't mean you won't have to endure to the end. It doesn't mean that you won't have to walk in humility today. We have you ever seen no one in our church of course, but have you ever seen somebody who walked in pride but masqueraded it as if it were humility.
Let me say it this way. How many of you have ever seen somebody be prideful but try to mask it as if it were humility?
And you can think of many things like this.
You say the right things, you do the right things, but your heart is infinitely prideful.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:52
That's just like the Pharisees. And it is amazing because the Pharisees thought that because of who they because of their heritage, they were special.
Like many people in the church today feel like they're special. And this put off John. No. It didn't just put him off. It set him off. Yeah, he didn't have a counseling pastoral counseling session pull him off in private and be like, "Well, I really see a little bit of pride popping up in your life and he sandwiched it and then he gave a positive statement and made a made a positive Oreo out of it and sandwiched a negative comment right in the middle of it so that they would not leave the church."
Are you with me today? John said, "You brood of vipers." Why would he do this? This is unloving. This isn't shepherdly. What is this? What is this?
The call to repentance and truth is more important than your feelings.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:01
Facts.
The problem is we've turned the pulpit into a place to market to people's wants and desires and their whims.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:08
And it is no longer a place of truth. And so then it is fitting then that we do not do what is necessary to call people to bear f fruit worthy of repentance.
John did not smile. He did not welcome them. He did not nod in approval. He looked them square in the eyes and said, "You brood of viples vipers." Why so harsh?
Because John saw through their robes and into their heart. He knew their religion was all leaves and no fruit, all appearance and no life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:47
And then came the command, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And here's the truth that follows this passage.
True conversion always bears fruit and fake fruit will not last.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:10
No fruit, no root. Only Christ gives lasting fruit. So we should take John's words seriously by considering three truths. One, false religion produces fake fruit. Two, true repentance produces real fruit. And three, Jesus Christ produces lasting fruit. And it's easy to point our finger at the Pharisees and Sadducees, but John is not just speaking to men in the first century speaking to us because the same danger lies and lives in every church pew or chair and every religious heart.
Point 1False religion produces fake fruit
So let's begin here. False religion produces fake fruit. I'll read it again so we can catch it. Verses 7-9. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to the baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." You know what this means? They were not bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. They were bearing false fruit. That's what that means. They were bearing false fruit. Did you know you can come to church and bear a false fruit? And do not presume to say to yourself, "We have Abraham as our father.
For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children from Abraham." And John exposes their empty confidence.
They thought ancestry being sons of Abraham would save them.
Ladies and gentlemen, who your parents are won't save you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:08
Young people today, your parents can be saved and go to heaven and you can not repent and go to hell.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:16
Who they are does not save you. Track with me today. Who your pastor is does not save you, nor does it condemn you.
Now, this is relevant today because we have story after story of pastors who have fallen from all in all into all types of sinfulness.
Or maybe they always lived in it, but masqueraded himself as something they were not like the Pharisees. But the reality is you could sit in a church like that and God can use whatever vessel he wants to lead us into all holiness. You can have a pastor that has been outed for being somebody who's bore fake fruit but filled the pulpit and that doesn't mean you ain't saved.
So your pastor doesn't save you because he's saved and he doesn't condemn you because he's not.
This journey is your journey. Your heart is your heart. It is attached to no other. You cannot ride in on the coattails of your friends or your family or the people you know.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:24
It is a choice and it is a decision that we make.
And quite honestly, it is a call that comes to all of us who were dead in our trespasses and sin. And we thank God that he called us. Amen. God can raise up children from stones. I think this is a connection to all of us having heart of stone and then him turning it into a heart of flesh.
They trust in heritage and ritual and reputation, but they had no fruit. They had no fruit. And this is not an isolated warning in Scripture right here in Matthew. So I'm going to give you a few verses, right? John 15:2 says this, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes it away, and every branch that does not bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit." This reveals that branches that reveals branches that are in him in a visible sense yet fruitless are removed.
In other words, apparently attachment is not saving union. Are you with me today?
You can be attached to the church and not saved. You can be attached to God and not saved.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:55
Say what? John 2:23-25 says, "Many believers in his name, many believers in his name, when they saw the signs that he was doing, but Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew the people."
Belief without new birth, attachment without trust from Christ. John 666, that's an ironic number. As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, those of you are truly my disciples."
We believe. Wh if you abide in my word, out of those people, those are my disciples.
Yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. It's talking to the same people. The people that profess they believe. Jesus says, if you abide in my word, those are my disciples.
After this, many after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. John 6:64-65 says this. Jesus knew from the beginning those who were who those who Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him.
Judas stands as the clearest case of close association with false conversion. Facts. I know you've heard a bunch of stuff. That's fact. I don't have time to go into the specifics of that. The Bible is clear and conclusive. He was not a believer. We could talk about that. We will talk about that later in Matthew. We'll talk about it.
But it's clear. It's conclusive. There is faith that looks real but not.
There is a religion that wears robes but has poison in its veins.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:41
This is serious. 1 John 3:8-9. I know I have a b bunch of verses, but I think it's important for us to read them. Not trying to bury us in other verses. I'm trying to find some supporting verses for us to evaluate. First John 3:8-9. Whoever makes a practice, everybody say practice. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil.
For the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning. For God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
So who will be saved? Matthew 24:13 says, "But the ones who endure to the end will be saved." It is amazing that those in the church that will dress in robes and dress in positions and dress and speak of their closeness with God and will continue on sinning and making a practice of it.
Everyone sins. But not everyone makes a practice of that sin.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 21:14
Is I've known people who profess, men in the church who profess.
They have a direct line to God and God speaks to them all the time about all these different things and all these different people only to find out a couple weeks later they have been making a practice of pornography and have been for 15 years and they've been in the church giving counsel to people about how to walk with the Lord because they have a direct line with him.
What is that? What is that? Oh, it's quiet. You know why? Because the percentages are high that even inside this room, people are making a practice. And John would say, "Repent. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and the axe is at the root. This is not a joke. Well, God loves me.
If he loved you, he would snatch you out of that.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:48
He wouldn't let you c continue to be destroyed by a sin that wrecks your marriage and wrecks your heart and wrecks your emotions and wrecks your mind and wrecks your connection with other people.
He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't do it. Those are his daughters. He wouldn't do it.
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. My mom used to always have a bowl of fruit on the table. It looked shiny, even appetizing. I remember when she first got it, I grabbed one and tried to take a bite and realized it was well, it was styrofoam.
Looked beautiful from across the room, perfect to eat, but when you touched it was cold and hollow and lifeless like some people in church today.
Fake religion is the same. Convincing to men, but empty to God. Fake fruit may fool men, but it does not fool God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:05
And the axe is at the root. And his winnowing fort is ready to separate those who are in fruit and those who do not have fruit. And he will throw those who do not bear fruit into the fire for eternity.
So repent. Repent.
Point 2True repentance produces real fruit
Number two, true repentance produces real fruit. Thank goodness we're off that first point. Give us the good sauce, Sean. Make us happy again. Make us happy again. Matthew 3:8 and 10 says, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree that therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Can I just break this down for you? Repentance is not just regret. You can be regretful of somebody and be a sinner. You can be regretful of something and be a pagan.
You can regret something and not be saved. You can regret something and not be repentant. It is not simply tears at an altar.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:28
Repentance is turning from sin and sinful behavior and sinful attitudes and sinful pride towards God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:40
From self-ruule to Christ's lordship. And
Where there is real repentance, there's real fruit. Fruit is not the cause of salvation. And it is the evidence of salvation.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:56
Fruit is not the cause of salvation. In other words, you are not saved because you bear fruit. All right? It's the evidence of it. It's the evidence of it.
Trying to manhandle and bear fruit in your strength is what the Pharisees did.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:23
So the call today is not for you to go out and begin bearing fruit so you can be a true believer because you cannot bear fruit in your own strength.
You are hard ground until you are his ground until he softens your heart and creates space to receive seed.
That seed which is Christ springs up and bears fruit because he softened your heart. He softens your heart. You know his means for softening your heart and tillering. Tillering I'll go with it. Tillering your ground. You know what it is? The word. The word is the power for salvation. It is the it is the tiller that goes through your heart and opens it up to receive the seed.
That's why his truth is paramount to be proclaimed to all men.
That's why his word rightly divided not taken out of context. His word rightly divided. That's why we don't need men and women who are untrained preaching his word. We need men and women who are trained, educated preaching his word because it has to be rightly divided to accomplish what God intended.
That is why Jesus said in John 15:8, "By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." How do we prove to be his disciples?
Bear much fruit.
Fruit does not make you a disciple. Fruit proves you are one.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:36
Did you catch that? And John adds urgency.
Even now the axe is laid at the root. Not in the shed, not hanging on the shed wall, not being sharpened, resting at the base of the tree, ready to strike.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:44
Every fruitless tree will be cut down and burned. This is urgent. You hear the urgency of this? This is urgent. This is urgent. Well, you know, I'll get to it. Well, you know, I mean, eventually I just need to It's urgent. Imagine a man who insists he planted an apple tree. He waters it. He brags about it. He shows it off.
But year after year, no apples come.
At some point, you stop believing him. Why? Because trees without fruit are dead.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:34
And so it is with the Christian without fruit.
No fruit, no root. Where there is real repentance, there is real fruit.
Point 3Jesus Christ produces lasting fruit
Number three, Jesus Christ produces lasting fruit, a fruit that perseveres. Matthew 3:1-12, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry.
He will baptize you with Holy Spirit and with fire. Oh, give me the fire, God. Let the fire fall. Oh, the fire. Yay. You know what that fire is?
I don't think you know what that fire is.
I don't think a lot of the church knows what that fire is today. I think we've done all kinds of things with this to make us feel such mushy. That's what I think. But you aren't special. God is. You know what this fire does?
This fire removes you. It eradicates you. And all that's left is his glory.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:06
Baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fort is in his hand. And he will clear the threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. And the chaff will be burned. Burned with what? Unquenchable fire. The chaff. The chaff. What is the chaff? That without fruit. It's amazing how we think that if we're if we're baptized by the fire, if we're baptized by the fire, we're going to be holier than everybody else, like a Pharisee.
This isn't talking about that. This is talking about people who look like they're believers, who look like they're saved, who look like they're good, who look like the Pharisees, but are worthy of eternal damnation and will be burned because they never bore fruit.
John knew his limits.
He could call for repentance. He could immerse men in water. But he could not change their hearts. That work belonged to Christ alone.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:19
Christ baptized with the Holy Spirit, giving new birth and dwelling power and living fruitful lives.
And Christ baptized with fire, purging his people, but also burning up the chaff of false religion.
Did you know that if you have the Holy Spirit, did you know there's some things in your life that still need to be burned and purged out?
Oh man. There are no middle piles. I tried to find one right here. I just tried to find one. There's no middle pile. There's only wheat and chaff. Which are you? There's no middle pile. Which are you? There's only saved and condemned.
Jesus alone gives lasting fruit that will endure the fire.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:50
It's not the atheist on judgment day, but the church member who sat under sermons, sang hymns and songs and spiritual songs, nodded at truth, but yet never bore fruit.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:02
Those are the ones who should be most concerned. There are believers and true believers, disciples and true disciples, branches and true branches. Which are you?
The good news is Jesus Christ makes barren trees bloom. He forgives the hypocrite. He restores the forgetful saint and he saves to the uttermost.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:29
Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
The axe is at the root. The winnowing fork is in his hand, but grace is still extended.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:54
Will you come? Will you believe?
Years ago, a farmer planned planted two trees side by side. One of the trees grew tall with thick leaves and casting wide shade. The other looked weaker and thinner and peaked. But when spring came, the tall leafy tree bore nothing. It was grand. It was beautiful. It looked healthy, but it never bore fruit. When you walked up to the trees, you would only notice the big tree, the leafy tree, the thick tree, the grand tree, and you would be disgusted by the weaker one, and wonder to yourself, "What happened to this poor, meek, little peaked tree?"
The thinner tree, though smaller, produced apples year after year. One day the farmer took an axe and cut down the leafy giant. The neighbor stood around in circles and gasped, "Why cut down such a fine looking tree?" And the farmer answered, "Because it looked alive, but it never bore a single fruit."
"Beloved, on the last day, God will not count leaves. He will not weigh appearances. He will look for fruit.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:34
Real fruit that proves repentance, fruit that lasts because Christ himself has given life to the root.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:47
So
I ask you, when the farmer of heaven looks at your life, what will he find?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:55
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