As the Life -- So the Fruit
True fruitfulness in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ requires inner fruitfulness, which is cultivated through essential graces such as faith, virtue, and brotherly love.
C.H. Spurgeon emphasizes that to glorify the Lord through fruitfulness, we must cultivate certain virtues within us, starting with faith as the foundation. He explains that qualities such as virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, and brotherly love must not only be present but also abound in our lives to prevent barrenness. Spurgeon warns that mere knowledge without these graces leads to unfruitfulness, and that true usefulness in the Kingdom of God comes from being filled with these virtues. He encourages believers to reflect on their spiritual state and strive for growth in grace to produce meaningful fruit in their lives.
Text
For if these thing be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:8)
If we desire to glorify our Lord by fruitfulness, we must have certain things within us; for nothing can come out of us which is not first of all within us. We must begin with faith, which is the groundwork of all the virtues; and then diligently add to it virtue, knowledge, temperance, and patience. With these we must have godliness and brotherly love. All these put together will most assuredly cause us to produce, as our life fruit, the clusters of usefulness, and we shall not be mere idle knowers but real doers of the Word. These holy things must not only be in us, but abound, or we shall be barren.
Fruit is the overflow of life, and we must be full before we can flow over.
We have noticed men of considerable parts and opportunities who have never succeeded in doing real good in the conversion of souls; and after close observation we have concluded that they lacked certain graces which are absolutely essential to fruit bearing. For real usefulness, graces are better than gifts. As the man is, so is his work. If we would do better, we must be better. Let the text be a gentle hint to unfruitful professors and to myself also.
Sermon Outline
- The Necessity of Inner Fruitfulness
- The Consequences of Barrenness
- The Priority of Graces over Gifts
- The Connection Between a Man's Character and His Work
- The Need to Be Better to Do Better
- The Role of Godliness and Brotherly Love
Key Quotes
“For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” — C.H. Spurgeon
“Fruit is the overflow of life, and we must be full before we can flow over.” — C.H. Spurgeon
“As the man is, so is his work.” — C.H. Spurgeon
Application Points
- We must recognize the need to cultivate essential graces such as faith, virtue, and brotherly love in order to be fruitful in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Our character determines our work, so we must strive to be better in order to do better.
- We must not be content with being mere idle knowers, but must seek to apply our knowledge in action.