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Where's the fruit?
From Spurgeon's sermon, "FIGS AND OLIVE BERRIES"
It would be a monstrosity, a thing to be wondered at and
stared at as unnatural and absurd if a fig tree started
bearing olive berries; and it is just as unnatural for a
Christian to live in sin.
Can he so live as to bear the fruits of iniquity
instead of the fruits of righteousness?
God forbid that it should be so!
If the fig tree should ever bring forth olive berries,
we might have good reason to question whether it
was a fig tree, for a tree is known by its fruits.
So, when one who professes to be a Christian lives as worldlings
live, there is grave reason to fear that he is a worldling
notwithstanding his profession.
If we are to know him by his fruits, which is our Lord's infallible
test, how can we imagine that he is a partaker of the divine life
when he acts as he does?
Inconsistency of life casts a very serious doubt upon many
who call themselves the children of God.
No wonder they are themselves often the subjects of doubts and fears,
as they ought to be; for, if they judge themselves by their fruits,
they may well question whether they have ever been born again.
Those who are new creatures in Christ Jesus seek to live
as he lived, so far as it is possible for them to do so.
An inconsistent 'professor',
a double-dealing 'professor',
a worldly 'professor', (what an anomaly!)
a 'professor' that holds with the hare and runs with the hounds,
a 'professor' that makes a great profession
but has little or nothing worth having in possession-
such a man is the scorn of the world,
a mere blown-up football for men and devils to kick wherever they will.
An unholy man or woman, who 'pretends' to be a Christian,
is a stench in the nostrils of the thrice-holy God,
and a by-word and reproach among those
who make no pretence of being the Lord's people.
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