In Themselves

"In Themselves" - Luke 6:43-45 Jesus uses the illustration of the tree and its fruit. A tree will bear fruit, good or bad, depending on what it is in itself (what refers, by the same in itself, to its idea, believes in yourself, is within you). What is in oneself, is not that you learned it, it is what one is. Therefore, Christ died and rose again, to save us, and that the Holy Spirit may reign and His truth and His good may come and be transformed.

I. A tree will bear fruit, good or bad.

A. It depends on what's in one.

1. A tree is judged by the class and quality of the fruit it bears.

2. And so, it is in the area of the disciple.

3. A morally pure and spiritually sound man can give blessing to others "from the good treasure of his heart."

4. On the other hand, a basically impure man only "brings out the bad." What agony!

5. So, as it says from verses 6:39-45 the Lord shows the disciples that their ministry must be a ministry of character (a way that one usually reacts to a situation).

6. What you are as a disciple is more important than what you will ever say or do.

7. The end result of your service will be decisive for who you are in itself.

8. Do not look to another but "in himself."

9. The problem is one, do not accuse and defend what you are.

10. (Luke 6:38) Love manifests itself by giving. (John 3:16; Ephesians. 5:25)

11. When you give material things, we reap spiritual treasures of inestimable value.

12. It is also certain that what we keep we lose, and that what we give we have.

13. He receives it in his lap, that is, in the fold of his robe.

14. (Luke 6:39) He now warns them that the extent to which they can be for the blessing of others is limited by their own spiritual condition.

15. A blind man cannot lead another blind man; "Both" will fall into a hole.

16. We cannot give to others what we ourselves do not have.

17. If we are blind to certain areas of God's Word, we cannot help someone in those areas.

18. If there are blind spots in our spiritual life, we can be sure that there will be blind spots in the lives of those who receive from us.

19. (Luke 6:40) A disciple is not above his teacher; but everyone who is well prepared will be "like his teacher."

20. A person cannot teach what he does not know.

21. He cannot lead his students to a higher level than that which he himself has reached.

22. The more you learn by learning, the more you become like your teacher.

23. But the growth stage is the upper limit to which you can take them.

24. A disciple is perfectly well prepared as such when he becomes like his teacher.

25. Deficiencies in the doctrine or life of the teacher will pass into the lives of the disciples, and when the instruction is completed, the disciples cannot be expected to be more than the teacher.

26. (Luke 6:41-42) This important truth is most notably exposed in the illustration of the speck of sawdust and plank.

27. One day a man is walking through a threshing floor where they are beating the grain. A sudden gust of wind lifts a “speck of sawdust" of the threshing floor (land, workplace, is the normally circular and paved terrain, where cereals were threshed, remove the grain from the chaff) and settles on the eye. He rubs his eye to get rid of it, but the more he rubs, the more irritated the eye becomes. Just at that moment another man comes and sees the problem of the other and offers to help him. But this man has a plank sticking out of his eye. "It can hardly help him because he can't see what he's doing."

28. If we are to help others, our lives must be exemplary. Amen.