Transcript
Luke chapter 6. We want to begin reading at verse 43. Luke 6 and verse 43,
For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, hears My sayings, and does them, I will show you whom he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently. And immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.
I almost do not believe the story that I am about to tell you this morning. And if you don’t believe it yourself please don’t come to me. Instead just sue the Dallas Times Herald which printed it in the first place. Anyway here goes.
Two weeks ago last Tuesday morning right here in Dallas Debbie Heydad was on her way to work. Now Debbie happens to be a physics and chemistry teacher at the Talented and Gifted High School here in the city. As she was driving to school she noticed a car stopped at an angle in the middle of Inwood Road. A man was running laps around the car and a little girl inside was hollering her head off.
Debbie stopped her car. She got out. She ran to the other car to see what was going on. When she looked in the window guess what she saw? She saw a pregnant woman in the very process of becoming a mother. So Debbie leaned in the window to see if she could be of help. And according to her the baby just sort of popped into her hands. By the way it was a boy.
Meanwhile the father continued to jog around the car. So Debbie got a motorist to call an ambulance. She wrapped the little baby boy up and she held him until the paramedics arrived. At the time that the story was written mother and son were doing fine at Parkland Memorial Hospital. And please don’t ask. I don’t know how much longer that father continued to jog around his car.
Now I know we’ve got some joggers in the audience this morning. And I hope you will not be offended if I suggest to you this morning that as important as jogging can be it isn’t in the same league with your wife having a baby. And at first glance this is a story about a man who had his priorities mixed up. But I don’t really think that’s the real significance of the story.
If you ask me this is a story about fatherly panic. Fathers are notoriously nervous when their wives go into labor. And I have a feeling that jogging was just about the only thing that this guy could think of to do when he had to face the nerve-wracking reality that his wife was having a baby in their car in the middle of Inwood Road.
Wait a minute. We all act a little bit like that sometimes you know. Sometimes instead of facing the really crucial issues of life we sort of jog around and jog around them. Jog around them. And we can bury ourselves in meaningless activity all for the purpose of avoiding facing the truth about ourselves, about our relationships, and about our situation in life.
And because all of us are subject to that danger the title of my message this morning is in the form of an exhortation. And it is drawn from the story that I’ve just told you. And my title is this: Don’t jog around reality. Think about that for a moment. Don’t jog around reality.
We all have to admit don’t we that sometimes reality doesn’t quite measure up to the way that we would like it to be. And there are a lot of times that we would like to run away from reality. Or other times that we would like to refuse to face it. But you know the harder we run away from it the more certain it is that it will catch up to us someday.
Take the humorous story of Mary Caldwell Watson. A couple of years ago Watson shoplifted two packages of sausage and a ribeye steak from a Minimax market down in Houston. A couple of clerks spotted him and so he ran out the door with the clerks in hot pursuit. About five people joined in the chase. That’s when Watson got a really bright idea. He saw a pickup truck passing him along the road so he ran over to the truck and hopped into the bed of the truck.
That’s when he came face to face with hard-nosed reality. You see that truck belonged to an off-duty sheriff’s deputy who was still in uniform. And all he did was to stop the truck and place Watson under arrest. And folks the harder we try to escape from reality the more certain it is that reality will someday stop and say to us stop. You’re under arrest. You’re under arrest.
So I’m going to assume that everybody in the audience has stopped jogging for a few minutes okay. And I’m going to assume that you have stopped at least for the present moment running away. And I would like to confront you with a very sobering piece of reality. Are you ready for this? Here it is. The way you talk is the way you are. Think about that a minute. That’s a fact of life. The way you talk is the way you are.
You see Jesus is coming to the end of this great sermon about the lifestyle of His disciples. And as He brings His teachings to a conclusion He is confronting His audience with one of the most basic and fundamental facts of life. This is what He says. He says a good tree does not bear bad fruit. And a bad tree does not bear good fruit. Every tree is recognized by its own fruit. You don’t go and collect figs from a thorn bush. You don’t gather grapes from a bramble bush.
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. And here’s the bottom line. Here’s the bottom line. Out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks. Out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks.
Some of you know that I grew up in south central Pennsylvania in the lovely, lovely Cumberland Valley. And our part of Cumberland Valley at least is orchard country. And the two most prominent kinds of fruit trees are peach trees and apple trees. Now I have to confess to you that when I was growing up I was enough of a city slicker that if we took a drive out in the country during the wintertime I had trouble telling the difference between a peach tree and an apple tree. An orchardist would have laughed his head off at that because they’re not all that difficult to tell apart. But I had trouble sometimes telling them apart.
But if we drove out in the country during the spring when there was fruit on the branches I didn’t have a bit of trouble. If I saw a bunch of peaches hanging from the limbs of a tree I concluded that was a peach tree. If I saw a bunch of apples hanging from the limbs of a tree I concluded that was an apple tree. And I knew some other things too. I knew if the fruit on a tree was big and luscious and ripe looking that that was a good tree. And if I saw some peaches on the limbs of a tree that were all stunted and small and maybe looked a little bit moldy I knew that that was a bad tree. That was a tree perhaps that had a disease on the inside.
And you see folks that’s the way it is with the way we talk. The words that come out of our mouth are the fruit of our inner life. The speech in which we engage reveals the nature and character of our heart.
Now please don’t misunderstand me. I’m certainly not saying that this passage is talking about whether we’re saved or unsaved. It is not talking about that at all. A person can be saved and go to heaven by simply trusting the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for his sins. By just simply receiving the free gift of everlasting life. And we’re not talking about that in this passage. We’re talking about something else. We’re talking about a basic fact of life. And it’s this. That your words reveal the kind of person that you are on the inside.
You could sit down with somebody for long enough and listen to them talk. Do you realize that you’d have a pretty good idea of what kind of a person they were? And if they talked about themselves a whole lot you would know you were talking to a self-centered person. And if they talked a lot about money and property and possessions you would know that you were talking to a materialistic person. And if the things that they said about other people were harsh and unkind and ungracious you would know that you were talking to an unmerciful person. But if the words that you listened to were wise and generous and gracious you would know that you were talking to a Christ-like person.
That’s a law of life. A good man speaks out of the good treasure of his heart. A bad man speaks out of the evil treasure of his heart. Or to put it another way the way you talk is the way you are.
Now you ask me that little dose of reality went down pretty hard. I don’t know about you folks but it went down hard for your preacher. In fact it went down a little bit like a dose of castor oil. I guess mothers don’t give castor oil anymore to their children. It’s a good thing. It’s too old-fashioned and it was awful. My mother assures me that she only rarely gave me castor oil although I have one very vivid memory of her doing that from my very early years in childhood.
And I want you folks to know if you’ve never tasted castor oil that that has to be one of the ugliest tasting medicines ever invented by man. If you take one dose you will never want another. Now I wish I could tell you that all we needed this morning was one dose of reality from the words of Jesus Christ. But I’m afraid we can’t stop there. We’ve got to take another spoonful.
You see talking is only part of what we do. The other part of what we do is doing. In fact if you took out of your life everything that you said and everything that you did there wouldn’t be much left would there? Talking and doing make up the experience of life by and large. And that is why after confronting His hearers with some grim reality about speech Jesus now confronts His listeners with a sobering dose of reality about behavior, about deeds, about acts.
And if it is true my friends that the way we talk is the way we are it is equally true that the way we act decides the way we end. Did you get that? That’s a very basic fact of life as well. The way we act decides the way we end.
Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ says Jesus, ‘and do not the things which I say?’ Whoever comes to Me and hears My sayings and does them he is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose the stream beat vehemently against that house and could not shake it for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation against which the stream beat vehemently. And immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.
I don’t have to talk to an audience at Victor Street very much about this passage do I? We sing about it all the time. We did it this morning. Or at least we think about the closely similar passage in the Gospel of Matthew. And we not only sing about it folks we do the motions. I want you to know that Victor Street Bible Chapel is the only church I’ve ever attended where the song leaders insist that the grown-ups do the motions right along with the kiddos. And I do. You know why? Because most of you do them and I figure that I will be a whole lot more conspicuous if I don’t do them than if I do.
But you know my hat is off to the song leaders. I compliment them on this. You know what they’re telling us? They’re telling us you can’t just stand there and sing that song. You got to do something when you’re singing it. This is an action song. Do something while you’re singing it. And that’s very true to this biblical passage. Because you see this is an action passage.
And Jesus is saying to us look you can’t just sit there and listen to My word. It won’t do your life any good. If you listen to My word and obey it then you’re building the kind of life, the kind of house that can be assaulted by the troubles and difficulties of life and it will survive. If you just sit there and listen to My word and you don’t do anything then your house is a sitting duck. A sitting duck for all of the storms and difficulties of life. And sooner or later your house, your life will be in ruins.
Do you know what it’s possible to do right here at Victor Street Bible Chapel? You can come to the services every Sunday morning and you can sing the wise man and the foolish man. And you can build the foolish man’s house like this. I got the motions right. I used to lead them myself believe it or not. You can bring the rains down and the floods up and you can make the foolish man’s house go boom. And then you can sit and listen to the sermon and you can walk out the door and you can make your marriage go boom and you can make your family go boom and you can make your life go boom. You know how? By just listening and not doing anything about the things that you hear.
Do you want your life as a Christian to end as a success? Then the way you act in response to the Word of God decides the way you end. In November of 1898 a steamer by the name of the Portland steamed out of Boston Harbor into a storm. All of the danger signals were flying. The government agent in the office had radioed the ships to remain in port. The owners of the Portland had commanded the Portland to stay in the dock. No one knows why the Portland steamed out of Boston Harbor that night. But evidently the captain had some concerns because he said to the lighthouse keeper keep your light bright tonight because we may come back.
But they never did. And no one ever heard what happened to the Portland or its crew. And folks you can steam out onto the high seas of life ignoring all the warnings of the Word of God. Forgetting everything you’ve ever heard that God has said to you. You can steam out that way but it’s a straight ticket to spiritual and personal shipwreck.
We have to do something. We have to do something about what we hear. You know I’ve always enjoyed Martin Luther because he had a very delightful sense of humor. And on one occasion he was asked for a contribution to a certain worthy Christian cause. And he was penniless. But then he remembered that he had a beautiful medal of Joachim who was an official of the German state of Brandenburg. And it was something he prized very highly. But right away he went to the drawer where he kept the medal and he opened it and he looked down at the image of Joachim on that medal. And he said what are you doing in there Joachim? Do you realize how useless you are? Come out and do something. And immediately he picked up the medal and gave it to the Christian cause.
You know it wouldn’t hurt some of us sometime to go to the mirror and to look in the mirror at ourselves and to address ourselves by name and say hey Jack what are you doing standing here? Do you realize how useless you are? Come on. Pull it out and do something. Be obedient to God’s Word.
Wallis Johnson was fired as a teenager from a job that he held in 1939. Starting with two hundred and fifty dollars which he had borrowed he started a business. In process of time his business grew enormously. And he had employment for tens of thousands of people. And he built many, many structures. And millions, literally millions of people stayed in the structures that he built. And on one occasion Wallis Johnson said this. He says I depend completely on God for everything that I do. Otherwise I’m convinced that it would all start to unravel within a few months.
And guess what? A lot of us have stayed in one of the structures that was erected by Wallis Johnson. Because Wallis Johnson is the founder of Holiday Inns. The innkeeper of America. And don’t get me wrong this morning. I’m not going to suggest to you that if you are obedient to the Word of God you will become a multimillionaire and that you will own a nationwide chain of motels. But I am suggesting that if you are obedient to the Word of God you’ll build something. You’ll build a life that will be a shelter and a protection to you when times get hard. And not only to you but also to other people whose lives have collapsed. And they will come to you for the counsel and advice which they need.
It’s really very simple. If you want to end your life on earth as a success you have to do what Jesus is asking you to do. And if you want to end it as a failure, a tragic failure, just go out and do anything you want to do. But know this. That the way we act decides the way we end.
In Chickamauga National Park near Chattanooga Tennessee there is a very remarkable monument. It’s a monument to a horse. I think you will agree that there are not too many monuments around in our national parks that are monuments to an animal. During the Battle of Chickamauga during the Civil War a Union cavalry officer was killed in the first charge of his cavalry unit into the battle. And he fell off the back of his horse. But that remarkable animal instead of withdrawing from the noise and fury of the battle continued all morning long to charge with its fellow horsemen into the fray.
About noontime when the battle had subsided a little bit the horse was struck by a stray bullet and died. But some friends of the fallen Union cavalry officer who had seen the gallant and almost human bravery of this horse buried its remains and marked the spot as best they could. Years later the state of Wisconsin from which both the horse and its rider had come constructed this monument in Chickamauga National Park. And the monument is called Wisconsin’s Riderless Horse.
Now if ever there was a horse that deserved a monument that certainly is the horse. Because even after its master was dead it continued to do what its master had taught it to do. And friends in eternity there are no monuments to people who live life their own way. In eternity all of those lives are a wreckage and a ruin. The monuments of eternity belong to those whose good character is revealed in their words and whose commitment to Jesus Christ is revealed in their deeds of obedience. In fact a life like that is its own monument. Because its benefits, its results and its rewards never end.
The Bible says the world is passing away and all of the things that the world wants are passing away. But the one who does the will of God abides forever.
Shall we pray? Father in these most fundamental areas of our lives in our speech and in our behavior teach us to face reality to cope with it to come to grips with it and to live in accordance with Your truth. We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.