TOPIC: Fruitfulness [Discipleship; Sanctification]
TITLE: BELIEVER’S FRUIT: Where does it come from?
Adapted from - Spurgeon's Morning & Evening Devotions, “Morning” September 8
TEXT: Hosea 14:8b
CONCISE OUTLINE
Scofield says,
The context for our focal text is Israel's ultimate restoration, and like Job, blessing in the Latter Days. Oh, if they'd only have listened to their Mishua (my transliteration).
TRUTH CLAIM: Henry Blackaby in his classic curriculum on discipleship, Experiencing God, reminds us we are often so focused on our own work for God we fail to notice God is working far and away from us.
In 14:8 we understand ...
EXPANDED OUTLINE
CHALLENGE: Since our God is the author of our spiritual and natural graces, let's give him all the glory and all the praise of our common salvation. And then let's live like the blessed and mighty children of the King we are! Amen! And amen!
TITLE: BELIEVER’S FRUIT: Where does it come from?
Adapted from - Spurgeon's Morning & Evening Devotions, “Morning” September 8
TEXT: Hosea 14:8b
I am like a luxuriant cypress; From Me comes your fruit.FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: How is that the fruitless are able to bear fruit?
CONCISE OUTLINE
I. WE BEAR FRUIT BY WAY OF OUR UNION WITH GOD!CONTEXT: In this "in your face" book of prophecy, we find Israel as Jehovah's adulterous wife, repudiated, but ultimately purified and restored. The prophet's distinctive message is summed up in one Hebrew word Lo-ammi, "not my people," and amplified by its antonym, Ammi, "my people."
II. WE BEAR FRUIT BY WAY OF GOD'S PROVIDENTIAL PLAN!
III. WE BEAR FRUIT BY WAY OF GOD'S GENTLE CONSERVATION!
Scofield says,
"Israel is not merely apostate and sinful--that is said also; but her sin takes its character from the exalted relationship into which she has been brought."Though directed at Ephraim, the teaching is to all Israel; and so too the context fits our present Western Civilization, especially the Western Church, like a glove and certainly better than O. J.'s glove.
The context for our focal text is Israel's ultimate restoration, and like Job, blessing in the Latter Days. Oh, if they'd only have listened to their Mishua (my transliteration).
TRUTH CLAIM: Henry Blackaby in his classic curriculum on discipleship, Experiencing God, reminds us we are often so focused on our own work for God we fail to notice God is working far and away from us.
In 14:8 we understand ...
We need go no farther than God for the supply of all our wants; not merely the protection implied by the shadow of the cypress, but that which the cypress doesn't have, namely, fruit, all spiritual and temporal blessings.FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: How is that the fruitless are able to bear fruit?
It may be also implied, that whatever spiritual graces Ephraim seeks for or may have, are not of themselves, but of God (Psalm 1:3; John 15:4-5, 8; James 1:17). [Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; edits are from The CRIB]
EXPANDED OUTLINE
I. WE BEAR FRUIT BY WAY OF OUR UNION WITH GOD!A. United with the Root!II. WE BEAR FRUIT BY WAY OF GOD'S PROVIDENTIAL PLAN!The fruit of the branch is directly traceable to the root; sever the connection, the branch dies, and no fruit is produced.B. Christ is the Root! [Isaiah 11:10]
Every bunch of grapes have been first in the root, it has passed through the stem, and flowed through the sap vessels, and fashioned itself externally into fruit, but it was first in the stem.By virtue of our union with Christ we bring forth fruit; every good work was first in Christ, and then produced in us.C. Root is the Source!Believers, cherish your priceless union with Christ [Romans 6:5-9]; for it must be the source of all the fruitfulness which thou can hope to know.
If you aren't joined to Christ, you will be poorer than a barren tree indeed.A. Nature by God's Design!III. WE BEAR FRUIT BY WAY OF GOD'S GENTLE CONSERVATION!When the dew-drops fall from heaven, when the cloud looks down from on high, and is about to burst forth with its treasure, when the sun swells the berries of the cluster, each heavenly gift may whisper to the tree and say, "From Me comes your fruit."B. Not All is Supernatural!The fruit owes much to the root – that is essential to fruitfulness – but it owes very much also to external influences.C. Our Daily Bread!How much we owe to God's providential and creative grace, from which he provides for us constantly; to this we owe our all of usefulness or virtue.A. Divine Grooming!The gardener's sharp-edged knife promotes the fruitfulness of the tree, by thinning the clusters, and by cutting off superfluous shoots.B. Divine Pruning!So is it, Christian, with that pruning which the Lord gives to thee."I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. "John 15:1-2
APPLICATION: Believers today seem to have forgotten these elementary truths. They've become powerless in the forgetting - forgetting that our union with Christ has made us powerful and wise not powerless and ignorant.
CHALLENGE: Since our God is the author of our spiritual and natural graces, let's give him all the glory and all the praise of our common salvation. And then let's live like the blessed and mighty children of the King we are! Amen! And amen!
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