Explicit Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree

Introduction to the Explicit Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, November 15, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn together to the Gospel of Mark and the 11th chapter, Mark chapter 11. And will you follow, please, as I read verses 12 through 14, and then verses 19 through 25.

0:40 Mark 11 and verse 12. And on the morrow, when they were come out from Bethany, he hungered. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if happily he might find anything thereon. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season of figs.

1:09 And he answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit from you henceforth forever. And his disciples heard it. Verse 19. And every evening he went forth out of the city.

1:26 And as they pass by in the morning, they say, I saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Rabbi, behold, the fig tree which you cursed is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, And shall not doubt in his heart, But shall believe that what he says comes to pass,

2:09 He shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever you pray and ask for, Believe that you received them, And you shall have them. And, Whencever you stand praying, Forgive, If you have ought against anyone, That your Father also who is in heaven, May forgive you your trespasses. It is said of the great patriarch Abraham,

2:55 In the passage that we shall read together, God willing, next week, That he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, But waxed strong in faith, Being fully persuaded, That what God had promised, He was able also to perform. As we were reminded in the reading this morning, All true believers are designated as the spiritual seed of Abraham, Who walk in the steps, And live in the faith of their spiritual forefather. And if ever we needed money,

3:39 Much of the spirit of the faith of Abraham, It is this morning as we stand before a body of teaching from our Lord Jesus, Which I find intimidating with respect to faith, By its sheer commands and promises with reference to faith. It is a strange paradox,

4:05 That a passage calculated to command, And strengthens faith, Actually intimidates faith, By its sheer magnitude, And the breadth of its provisions. In the course of our expositions of the Gospel of Mark, We've come today to examine the explicit lesson, Of the withered fig tree as recorded in Mark 11, Verses 20 through 25. And in attempt, To think our way through this profound statement of our Lord, We shall do so under three major headings. First of all,

4:49 We shall consider the prelude to the lesson concerning the withered fig tree, Verses 20 and 21. Then the substance of the lesson of the withered fig tree, Verses 22 to 25. And thirdly, The present message, Of the lesson of the withered fig tree. First of all, then, The prelude to the lesson of the withered fig tree, Verses 20 and 21.

The Prelude: Observation and Exclamation

5:24 And as they passed by in the morning, They saw the fig tree withered away from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, Saith unto him, Rabbi, behold the fig tree which you cursed, Is withered away. You will remember, I trust, from our previous exposition, That on the first morning of the so-called Passion Week, The first day after our Lord's entrance into Jerusalem, Our Lord, having gone back that evening to Bethany, Was returning to Jerusalem from Bethany

6:05 In the companionship of His disciples. And as He was making the two-mile journey from Bethany Up the slope of the Mount of Olives And on into Jerusalem, He saw a fig tree on the way, And being hungry, He came to it, Seeking figs, and when He found none, He cursed it. Well, late that evening, Obviously too late to even notice What had happened to the fig tree, They returned to Bethany, And on the next morning, As we read in verse 20, They pass by along the same path,

6:48 The same route that they had taken the day before, And they see that fig tree, And they respond to what they see, And this sight and response Constitutes the prelude Of the explicit lesson which our Lord gives Concerning the withered fig tree. And that prelude, according to the passage, Has two basic elements. First of all, the observation Of the twelve disciples, And then the exclamation of Peter And the interrogation of the twelve. Notice, first of all, There is attention drawn

7:31 To the observation of the twelve disciples. As they came to the spot Where the day before they had seen A fig tree, Unique and distinguishing Because of its singular profuseness of foliage, They beheld a sight Which arrested them By its shocking contrast. As they passed by in the morning, They saw the fig tree, The very one that stood out the day before By its plethora of apparent life. This unusual foliage At this time of the year.

8:14 Now they see it In its present condition Described as withered away From the roots. And what they beheld Was not merely That outer foliage Beginning to shrivel And to show signs of death. Not merely a tree That had the evidences of life Without foliage. But what they saw Was a tree that spoke of nothing But death throughout the entirety Of its existence.

8:54 They saw what was obviously A tree devoid of all plant life From the roots To its outermost branches. Now generally such a condition Is reached By a tree. By a tree. By a tree.

9:09 By a tree. Reached by a bush Or by a tree Only after a lengthy period of time. Now without going into the moot question Of the rightness or wrongness Of the commodity, I simply want to use it For an illustration Because it relates to most of us. Most of you know That when fir trees Are cut out of the forest And brought into the precincts Of our towns and cities And sold to the people As Christmas trees They have all of the signs of life Though they have been totally cut off From any source of sustained life.

9:52 After it is cut They are firmly embedded The tree has all the signs of life And it is only after several weeks That the death That is the true condition of that tree Becomes evident. When the needles turn brown You barely sneeze And they fall off The signs of death Gradually work themselves out Throughout the entire tree. But in this case They were going in on Monday morning And saw a tree

10:31 By profusely mourning They see a tree That is nothing but a monument Of total death As far as its plant life From its site That it's down to pass By no ordinary process. And so the prelude To our Lord's lesson Begins with this record Of the observation By the twelve Of the contrast Between the tree of the day before And the tree of the second morning.

11:16 And then the second part of the prelude Is the exclamation of Peter And the interrogation of the twelve. In verse fourteen Of Mark eleven we read That all of the disciples Heard our Lord's words When he said No man eat fruit from you Henceforth forever. This morning When they all beheld the tree In its nature The vociferous and the vocal one Exclaims, Rabbi, behold The fig tree that you cursed Is withered away

12:01 Peter is so struck By the contrast That he cannot keep his mouth shut And he blurts out Lo, the fig tree that you cursed And we heard you curse it Is withered away. And in the parallel passage In Matthew chapter twenty-one In verse twenty we are told That when the disciples The rest of the twelve saw it They marveled saying How did the fig tree Immediately wither away? So there is a combination of responses And the order is probably As I have suggested We know from other incidents In the gospels

12:45 That Peter often Uh shot with his mouth And aimed later Uh he opened his mouth And spoke and fought later And so from the general picture Of the impetuosity of Peter We can see the situation As the twelve make their way By the path They see the tree that the twelfth saw. They see the tree that the twelfth saw. the morning before was bursting with apparent signs of life, now it is there in all of the nakedness of death. Peter exclaims and says, Rabbi, lo, the tree you cursed is withered away.

13:18 And the other disciples chime in and they ask the question, how did the fig tree immediately wither away? Notice, they are not concerned for an answer about why the fig tree was cursed. And so often the commentators are preoccupied with what I do believe is a legitimate inferential lesson from the fig tree, the implicit lesson. But it's clear that the disciples were concerned, how did the fig tree immediately wither away?

13:56 And that Peter's exclamation was indeed almost a form of a question, lo, Rabbi, the fig tree has... has withered away so quickly.

14:08 And implied in that is the question, give us an explanation. By what means did such an amazing thing come to pass? Now, placing ourselves in that situation with the twelve, note that Jesus does not rebuke them for that impetuous exclamation, nor does he discourage their interrogation, rather, recognizing that a set of circumstances exist in which to teach them some vital lessons before he leaves them, he imparts the lesson of the withered fig tree.

The Substance: The Imperative of Faith

14:52 Now, having considered the prelude to that lesson, let us now proceed to examine in the second place the substance of the lesson of the withered fig tree. And in the second place, and in the substance of our Lord's teaching, there are four distinct but intimately related lines of thought. First of all, there is the imperative of faith. Verse 22.

15:21 The disciples have cried out, asking how did the fig tree immediately wither away? Peter has exclaimed, Rabbi, lo, the fig tree is withered away. And Jesus responds to the exclamation and the interrogation with a command. Notice, after the record of their question and their response, verse 22, Jesus answering, saith unto them, have faith in God.

16:01 And so the first part of the substance, of our Lord's response, is what I have chosen to call the imperative of faith. Our Lord's response to their exclamation and their interrogation is not an explanation, but a commandment. And the command is a terse, succinct, unmistakable imperative to be in the constant exercise of faith in God. Now, knowing that there may be some of you looking at the text with your Greek New Testaments, we have an objective genitive.

16:45 It should not be translated, have the faith of God, as though God had faith, and you're to have faith like God. But just as Jesus said, they have not the love of God in them, that is, they have no love to God in them, so likewise here, the imperative is a command to exercise faith. Exercise trust in, confidence in, reliance upon God Himself. So at the very outset, our Lord is making it clear that whatever else they may learn from the withered fig tree, they must see it as an object lesson

17:28 of the mighty power of faith in the living God, and of the moral, of continually exercising such faith in God. You see, our Lord in this terse response brings into the closest proximity these two very basic words, faith and God. He says in this imperative, be continually having faith in God. And the very use of, the word God should always draw to itself

18:12 the concepts of omnipotence, all mightiness, limitless power. One who could say to Abraham in Genesis 18, 14, is there anything too hard for Jehovah? And then the word faith, reliance upon, trust in, confidence in this God. It is that spiritual grace which takes man in all of his weakness, all of his dependantness, all of his impotence and vulnerability, and brings him into living contact

18:55 with the almightiness of God and with God Almighty Himself. So the first thing our Lord does in responding, to their question, how can this be? And to Peter's exclamation, Rabbi, lo, the fig tree you cursed is withered, is to give them the imperative of faith. Then the substance of his response is to be seen secondly, in the statement of verse 23, in which our Lord sets forth the unlimited power of faith.

The Substance: The Unlimited Power of Undoubting Faith

19:39 The power of undoubting faith. Having brought the subject of faith into center stage, our Lord carries on that theme in verse 23, by giving this statement of the unlimited power of undoubting faith. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he says comes to pass, he shall have it,

20:21 or it shall be to him. Now whenever we find our Lord prefacing any of His statements with the Amen, translated verily, often in John's Gospel, the double Amen, verily, verily, we must remember that we are confronting a peculiarly solemn and vital word from the lips of our Savior. And so having introduced the lesson of the barren and cursed and withered fig tree by the imperative to faith, have faith in God, having now riveted their attention upon the subject of faith,

21:03 He makes this amazing statement introduced by His Amen, by His verily I say unto you. And He does so in a manner that could only have swept over the minds and hearts of the twelve with nothing short of stunning power and vividness. Notice His language. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, not a mountain, but this mountain, standing upon the Mount of Olives,

21:46 that was some four thousand feet above the level of the Dead Sea and approximately ten miles away from it. Imagine how this must have come home to the twelve when He says, Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, this Mount of Olives, and then there follows two imperatives. Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea. Whosoever shall say to the Mount of Olives, be taken up from your subterranean roots

22:29 and mountain, rock and foliage and all that you are, Mount of Olives, be taken up and be hurled and buried in the Dead Sea some ten miles south and east. And in saying that, Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say to this mountain, be taken up and be cast into the sea, and in saying it, shall not doubt in his heart. And the word used for doubt is the word that speaks of an inner doubt. Disputation of the mind.

23:13 It's the word used in James 1.6. Let him ask in faith nothing doubting. It is the word used of Abraham in Romans 4.20.

23:25 He staggered not at the promise of God. It's the word used in Romans 14.23. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

23:37 He that doubts and eats, commits sin. So it's the picture of a heart that says, yes, when I speak to the mountain, be rooted up and be cast into the sea, I believe it shall be done, but I'm not quite so sure that it can be done. But yet I know that God is omnipotent and He is able, and if it is in His will and purpose, yes, I can say to the mountain, be rooted up, be cast, but suppose God somehow does not believe and does not doubt. You see, it's the picture of a disputing spirit, an inner debate between faith and unbelief.

24:20 And our Lord's statement pertains to the unlimited power of undoubting faith. Amen, or verily I say unto you, whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he says comes to pass. You see, the opposite of the doubting is the full confidence and assurance that what he says is coming to pass. It shall be to him.

24:58 He shall have it. Now, I know that you're experiencing exactly what I have as I've lived with this text for weeks. All kinds of questions are rising up in your mind. Is Jesus here giving all of his people a blank check to completely restructure his created order according to their own desires?

25:24 I think it would be nice if Mount Everest were over here in my backyard. Mount Everest, get up and come into my backyard, and if I don't doubt, it shall be done. Well, we know that our Lord is not giving a blank check to his people to rearrange his creation according to their whims. Even in this very context, he sets certain conditions upon being able to exercise that unlimited power of undoubting faith, for the passage closes with a strong emphasis upon the necessity of having no moral and ethical controversy with God or man if we are to prevail in believing prayer.

26:07 But keep down the many questions. Keep down the current abuses of this passage that you see by these who claim to be men great in faith and who go around commanding everything under the sun to obey them and use this passage as justification. Dear people of God, may I urge you, put down all of the questions for a moment. Put down all of the abuses of the passage which you see all around you.

26:39 And allow the word of your Lord and Savior to make its desired impression upon your spirit. Verily I say unto you, shall say unto this mountain, be thou taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he says come to pass, he shall have it. Granted, there is a stark, a bold, an almost overpowering figure of speech.

27:22 There is a hyperbole. There is a graphic illustration of the unlimited power of undoubting faith. This does not contain the full teaching of the word of God as to what it is that lies at the basis of being able to say in any given situation, do this, be this, believe that it shall be done. This is not the whole teaching of the word of God on the subject of faith.

The Substance: The Predominant Channel of Undoubting Faith (Believing Prayer)

27:51 But nonetheless, it is a solemn word from our Lord in this lesson of the withered fig tree in which he follows the imperative of faith with this statement of the unlimited power of undoubting faith. But then notice thirdly, we have in verse 24, the predominant channel or expression of undoubting faith. Therefore, I say unto you, there is a very intimate connection. Therefore, having made this generic statement

28:34 of the unlimited power of undoubting faith, therefore, I will now set before you what is the predominant, the ordinary channel or expression of undoubting faith. And that brings us, you see, to the subject of believing prayer. Therefore, I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that you received them, and you shall have them. And here the tenses are vital.

29:11 What our Lord says is this, all things whatsoever you are praying, present tense, and asking, present tense, be believing, present imperative, that you have received, an aorist. Whatever things you're praying, you're asking, be believing that they are already received in terms of the divine purpose and will and intention and future, you shall have them

29:53 or they shall be unto you. Now that's what our Lord said in the text. And though again, you see, a very passage intended to strengthen faith intimidates faith by its sheer breadth and its almost overwhelming obvious illusion of its implications. But we must not pair off what Jesus said simply because our faith does not rise to it.

30:26 Let Christ our Lord be true and every one of us be shown for what we are, poor little faiths, poor weak faiths, poor unbelievers, rather than pair off any of the obvious meaning of the words of our blessed Savior. He says that the predominant channel of undoubting faith will be this expression of faith in persistent prayer and petition which believes it has what it seeks and seeks until the desired blessing

31:09 comes within our actual possession. Now again, questions arise, questions abound. Abuses of this text come to the minds of many of us. But in spite of all of it, pray that the words of our Lord will sink down into your ears.

The Substance: Ethical Conditions for Undoubting Faith (Forgiveness)

31:34 Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever you are praying and asking for, be believing that you have received them and you shall have them. And then the fourth strand of the substance of our Lord's lesson on the withered fig tree is given to us in verse 25. It's what I've called the ethical conditions for undoubting faith and the fulfillment of the promises made to it. The ethical conditions for undoubting faith and the fulfillment

32:18 of the promises made to it. And whensoever you stand praying, forgive. If you have ought against anyone that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Note the connective, and, and our Lord is not moving to another subject or as some commentators suggest, Mark has not simply had a lapse of memory and stuck in this word because he saw it somewhere in Matthew's Gospel and thought it would be nice to include it and this seemed to be a good place.

32:58 No. This rounds out and in a sense unlocks the mystery of the preceding elements of this passage. It is an organic whole. And notice what our Lord says.

33:13 Assuming the common posture of public prayer, whensoever you stand praying. Remember the picture of the Pharisee and the publican went into the temple and they stood praying. Many records in the Old Testament of leaders in public prayer, they stood to pray. So our Lord is assuming the common posture of public prayer may even be referring to public corporate prayer.

33:45 Because He speaks in this section in the plural. And it may be that the emphasis is falling even more upon public corporate prayer. But surely it is falling upon prayer, prayer that is offered in the ordinary and common posture of public prayer, namely standing. And this is what our Lord is saying.

34:14 He is saying that undoubting faith, which is a grace of the Spirit, will not exist where there is any ethical and moral controversy with God or with our fellow man. Do you see that? And whensoever you stand praying. Here is a man who stands to pray.

34:37 And he has been told the words of the Lord Jesus. What things soever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them and you shall have them. And now he comes with that promise based upon the unlimited power of undoubting faith, about to exercise that faith in its most pronounced and common channel of expression, persistent believing prayer. And as he stands to pray, he is a man who has ought against someone.

35:16 He stands to pray with a heart which on the one hand is seeking to hold as a treasure the gracious promises of Christ, respecting, believing, and receiving prayer. But at the same time, he has ill will to one of his fellow men. And whensoever you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against anyone. If you have anything in your heart of ill will to any fellow human being for whatever reason, whether you were wronged

36:00 and your being wronged is demonstrated in the court of heaven and could be demonstrated in any legitimate court upon earth, it matters not if you come into the presence of the living God who welcomes you as a pardoned and a forgiven sinner. And you have a disposition contrary to the spirit of your heavenly Father, then you will not be forgiven. And the clear implication is that if you stand in a present state of being unforgiven, you will not exercise undoubting faith. And these promises,

36:43 though you may mouth them a thousand times, will never be fulfilled in your prayers. And so our Lord rounds out this whole amazing lesson on the withered fig tree by pointing to the ethical conditions for undoubting faith and the fulfillment of the promises made to it. Now having sought to open up the prelude to our Lord's lesson, having sought to open up the substance of our Lord's lesson on the withered fig tree, now then in the third place,

The Present Message: A Clarion Call to Vigorous Faith

37:27 what is the present message of this lesson of the withered fig tree? What does it say to you, to me in this situation, in the context of our own present experience as the people of God individually and corporately? Well, let me suggest that it sets before us at least three things, and may God give us ears to hear. First of all, it constitutes a clarion call to the duty of maintaining a vigorous and strong faith in the living God.

38:07 This passage in which our Lord sets forth the lessons of the withered fig tree constitutes a clarion call to the duty of maintaining a vigorous and strong faith in the living God. Now some have suggested that this promise was made to the twelve exclusively as apostles, and that the faith spoken of in this passage when Jesus says, have faith in God, the promise of the unlimited power of undoubting faith in verse 23,

38:49 the encouraging word of verse 24, that all of this is spoken to the twelve exclusively as apostles, and only has reference to what some have called the peculiar gift or charisma of faith, and not to the faith of ordinary believers. And I have wrestled with the arguments by which they seek to support the position. It would have made my task a lot easier, and it would have gotten my own conscience off the hook a lot quicker. But by comparing this passage and its strands of emphasis with the rest of Scripture, I have rejected that position

39:34 because at least at two points there are parallel passages in which these emphases apply to all of God's people without discrimination. In James chapter 1, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that's all the brethren, and it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith nothing, and there's the same word in the original, nothing doubting, no inner disputation between faith that the Father will give the needed wisdom and unbelief that looks with a jaundiced eye upon the largeness of his heart

40:16 or the openness of his hand. And certainly in what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer, recorded in Matthew 6, the appendix to that prayer, verses 14 and 15, is precisely the same note that is sounded at the conclusion of this passage. And no one questions, except extreme dispensationalists, that the framework of Matthew 6 and the Lord's Prayer is applicable to all of the people of God in all circumstances and in all ages. Therefore I believe our Lord is giving to His church for its entire existence

40:59 this sign of the consummation, this imperative, as we stand before this amazing miracle, a tree with foliage on Monday morning, dead from the roots on Tuesday morning, and say, how can our Lord say when believing people by faith engage the omnipotent God, not only can trees rich in foliage on Monday be dead as sticks on Tuesday, but mountains can be ripped up by their roots

41:43 and hurled into the sea, and that the earth is not in the form of the water, but in the form of a tree that will be a place of life in the midst of the world. And we are going to have faith in God. And we are going to have faith in the God described in Ephesians 3, unto Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can ask of Him. and a strong faith in the living God, does not the Scripture say without faith

42:26 that it is impossible to please Him? For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Now most of us in any state of spiritual health that could be called spiritual health, we are aware of the call of God to maintain a vigorous and strong pursuit of holiness. And we cry to God for grace to mortify our besetting sins.

43:00 We cry to God for grace that those graces that are not native to us would be cultivated in us by the Spirit. We pray for increased love and zeal. But dear people of God, how often do we cry, Lord! Lord, increase!

43:17 It is indeed a clarion call to the duty of maintaining a vigorous and a strong faith in the living God. But someone objects, Pastor, must not faith be given? Well, I answer by saying must not holiness and love and zeal be given? But in the language of Augustine, we say to the Lord, command what you will, O Lord, and give!

43:54 What you command! And it's only when we take the text seriously that we are under a moral imperative to be constantly found in the exercise of a vigorous faith in the living God. It's only when we're convinced that's our duty that we will be driven to the throne of grace to cry, O Lord, peace my faith, cleanse me of the sin of unbelief, and then furthermore, we'll say, O God, deal with all the moral that is keeping me from vigorous faith, that is keeping me from strong faith,

44:38 because the passage is a unit, and we know that if there are ethical and moral controversies with God or men, we cannot expect the increase of the grace of faith,

The Present Message: A Clarion Call to Biblically-Based, Persistent, Believing Prayer

44:52 but deliberately greed, toleration of ethical controversies with God. But then, the present message, the passage of this passage is not only a clarion call to the duty of maintaining a vigorous and a strong faith in the living God, but it constitutes a clarion call to biblically-based, persistent, believing prayer. It constitutes a clarion call to biblically-based, persistent, and believing prayer. Turn over to what I've said,

45:36 I believe is the most helpful passage in all of Scripture in terms of interpreting how we get to the place where we can do what Jesus describes in verse 24. How do we get to the place where while asking and praying, we are believing that we've already received, and we keep on asking and praying until what we believe we have received is in our possession. What is the key to that posture? Well, I believe John gives us the answer in his first epistle, 1 John chapter 5, 1 John chapter 5, and verse 14.

46:19 And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. John says, once convinced that what we are asking falls within the framework of the will of God, we may ask in full confidence that we are heard

47:04 and that we shall receive. And it is, it is that teaching which rounds out and keeps from the horrible wastelands of fanaticism this precious text of our Lord who told us in words that he desires that we believe. Verse 24 of Mark 11, I say unto you all things whatsoever you are praying and asking for, believe that you have received them and you shall have them. Now wait a minute.

47:40 If this all started with the imperative have faith in God. Oh, if I know I'm engaging God, I don't come and insult the great sovereign of the universe by thinking I can come with a grocery list of carnal goodies and claim the promises of almighty God to pander to my flesh. Have faith in God. When I know I'm engaging God, my greatest fear is that I would presume to ask anything that is an insult to His holiness,

48:24 an insult to His sovereign purposes, an insult to His purposes of grace in Jesus Christ, an insult to His commitment to make me like His Son. You see, when the passage is taken as an organic whole and we see that withered fig tree withered by the Word of the Son of God who had no doubt that His Word would wither it, it was because He could say, I do always the things that please my Father. I know that Thou hearest me always. I say these things for the sake of those that stand by.

49:03 I know I have been heard with reference to the resurrection of Lazarus. And how did He know that He was heard? Because He knew that He stood in the will of His Father. He thought the Father's thoughts after Him.

49:17 He willed the Father's will after Him. And when in the mystery of Gethsemane there is the conflict of that holy, stainless, human will of the Son of God, and there is recoil in His holy soul from the agony of drinking the cup, there He prays, not my will. There are times when our greatest struggle in prayer is precisely at the point of what is the will of God. And we've searched the Scriptures and we've asked God to search our hearts.

49:58 We've asked God to purge our motives and purify our desires. We've asked God to plumb the depths of the darkest recesses of our souls. And we've scoured the Scriptures and we've prayed for wisdom to bring together the various precepts and principles. And even then, there are times when all we can say is, oh, my Father, Your way is best.

50:25 Give what You know.

50:28 I plead for this. This I pray for. This I know I have received. And this I know I shall have.

50:36 Thy best.

50:39 Someone says, oh, that's a cop-out. No, it isn't. That's the pattern of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself with respect to prevailing prayer. But there are other times, dear people, when the uncertainness and certainty of our prayers is rooted in our willful ignorance of the will of God.

50:59 Our strangeness to the exceeding great and precious promises. Our strangeness and our distance from the Word of God in which alone the will of God is made known to His people. And so this passage constitutes a clarion call to biblically based, persistent, and believing prayer. And if it constitutes, it constitutes that.

51:23 It's a call to everything that produces that kind of prayer. And you see, that there begins to be erosion in the closet as individual believers and members of Trinity Church. It won't be long before that erosion will begin to be manifested when we gather to pray on Wednesdays and Saturdays. When various ones lead in public prayer, there will not be that sense that with one heart and one soul and one voice, we are drawing near to God, laying hold of His promises, pleading for Him to give what He has promised to give.

52:04 Dear people of God, I urge you, I plead with you, do not think that because you're only one among hundreds, you don't affect the overall climate of persistent, believing, biblical prayer in this place. You do.

The Present Message: A Clarion Call to Right Relationships with God and Man

52:24 And this passage constitutes a clarion call to all of us to biblically-based, persistent, and believing prayer. And thirdly, it constitutes a clarion call to recognize that believing, prevailing prayer, and being presently right with God and man are inseparable realities. Do you see that? And whensoever you stand praying, whensoever you would plead before me my promises given to you, whensoever you stand praying, in whatever circumstances,

53:08 at whatever time, for whatever concerns you are coming to the throne of grace, whensoever ye stand praying, forgive. There is never a moment in which a spirit of ill will and unforgiveness is not forgiven. It is justified in the heart of the Christian.

53:32 Do you hear me? There is never a moment when a spirit of ill will and unforgiveness is justifiable in the heart of the Christian.

53:46 And so ever forgive you have against and so ever and end. How are you going to wiggle out from under those words? I don't find no wiggle in space. You mean if a man comes up to me, sits in my face, calls me up, calls me a pig, calls my wife a slut, calls my kids a bunch of no-goods, that I'm not to have ill will to him?

54:24 Exactly. Not if you would prevail with God.

54:29 Now that does not mean that you may have fulfilled all of your duty to a brother who has wronged you by having a forgiving spirit. You may have a duty to go show him his sin. You may have a duty to rebuke him. You may have a duty to take him down to the local police station.

54:46 You may have many other duties as far as the application of the full spectrum of the teaching of the Word of God as to how wrongs are to be dealt with. But Jesus says, the spirit of your heart is to be his.

55:03 In the face of those who unjustly accused him and unjustly condemned him and unjustly crucified him and unjustly spat upon him and mocked him and jeered him, he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And the holy heart of our blessed Savior was the spirit of forgiveness. And this passage, dear people, is a clarion call to recognize that believing, prevailing prayer,

55:40 and being right with God and man are inseparable realities.

55:47 In some of the trials through which we have recently passed and people have said, how can you forgive if people say that and this and that and feel this and that and this to you and others? My friend, the answer is simple. I don't want a brassy heavens when I go to pray. I don't want God's face against me when I go to pray.

56:09 I don't want the promises to lie unclaimed because I think I've got a right to nurse a grudge and a feeling of ill will.

56:21 My friend, listen, if you can go on very long, willfully, deliberately, nursing a spirit of unforgiveness, the word of God says you have reason to question whether or not you're in a state of grace because that spirit is so contrary to the gospel that it cuts off all realized communion with God and anyone who would rather live in a state of unrealized communion with God than humble themselves and seek the grace of forgiveness in their own hearts. Such a person has never tasted the sweetness of communion with God. If you'd rather live with a horrible stench of bitterness and unforgiveness than the fragrance of communion with God you've never known.

57:03 Now, what are you justifying this morning? All but...

57:14 Can you just listen to the words of Jesus? Whensoever, if you have ought against any, that your Father who is in heaven may forgive your stepping aside. Remember, my friend, whenever someone has stepped aside from the standard of God's law and you have been the object, of the hurt, of the disgrace or whatever else has come, remember the times without number that you've stepped aside and Almighty God who had the right to cast you into hell has freely forgiven you in Christ and now He says

57:59 forgive one another as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. You see, people wonder why when we contemplate almost any doctrine we end up in the area of the experimental relationship of our hearts to God and to a life of holiness. My friends, it's because that's where Scripture takes us again and again and again. You'll hear the so-called faith healers and the Kenneth Hagans in his ilk, they delight to take out one of these verses and talk about, think it, command it, will it, and you'll have it,

58:43 but they totally rip it out not only of the larger context of the whole biblical teaching on prayer, but even the immediate context of the ethical demands of prevailing and believing prayer. Dear people, that's the great lesson of the withered fig tree. It's a lesson on faith. You say, ah, but I thought you were going to tell us that's a picture of Israel and God.

The Primary Lesson and Its Relevance for the Church

59:10 My friends, that isn't what Jesus gave as His interpretation, did He?

59:15 Now, I believe it can be properly deduced, but Jesus did not say when they said, how was it withered? And Peter said, behold, it's withered so quickly. He didn't say, ah, I'm glad you saw it because that's the great lesson that I am now transferring the main trump of redemptive activity from the magnation of Israel. He did not put the emphasis there.

59:39 I'm going to put it where Jesus did. Have faith. Have faith in God. And the great emphasis of the passage is on the duty of faith, on the wonderful promise given to undoubting faith, on that major channel by which that faith is expressed in believing persistent prayer, and on the moral and ethical conditions essential to being such a man and woman of faith who can pray prayers that prevail with God, do you see how they much more needed that lesson as our Lord was about to lead them?

60:20 They were to face all of the imposing structure of the pagan Roman world with a mandate to go into that world and make disciples of all the nations everywhere they went. They'd see mountains here, mountains there, everywhere. And the Lord's words would come back to them. Whosoever shall see me, say to this mountain, be rooted up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, it shall be.

60:52 So they faced the mountain of Jewish unbelief. They faced the mountain of pagan pride and philosophical arrogance. They faced mountains everywhere. And mountains were literally jumping into seas all over the book of Acts when you read it.

61:10 And dear people, God says to us, as we as a people face mountains everywhere, who in the world are we to be talking about sending the gospel to the ends of the earth? Church-based missions, church-based church planting, church-based this, that, and the other. Who are we? As we were reminded last, two weeks ago, God's Father will but make us a people who are careful to walk with a sensitive cup, careful not to grieve,

61:53 having our hearts permeated with the spirit of forgiveness one to another, grudges and ill-will to quench and grieve the spirit when we come to exercise our grandest weapon, corporate believing. We shall be able to go to the sea, strengthen our confidence, base our faith His Son may receive

Invitation to Unbelievers and Concluding Prayer

62:37 the reward of His suffering. Now my parting word in the last thirty seconds is this. Some of you sit here, strangers to the God who is to be the object of our faith, Jesus, have faith in God. He gave these wonderful promises and He assumes that He's speaking to those to whom God is their Father.

63:04 But my friend, if you've never seen yourself as one who is lost and under the wrath of God, deserving of His judgment, one whose condition is such that only the incarnate, the enfleshed second person of the Godhead, living a perfect life, dying a death under the anathema of God, if you've never seen yourself as someone whose need can only be met in that glorious person and in His redemptive work. Oh, my friend, listen. Listen. Get out that Bible that's been lying closed for too long.

63:41 Begin to read that book. Begin to cry to God that you'll understand who you are and who He is. And even here this morning in the Gospel He invites, He entreats, He beseeches you to take the mercy and the grace that is offered in His person. For this one who gave the lesson on the withered fig tree was now within but a few days of being impaled upon a Roman gibbet, there to lay down his life because there was no other way by which the fountain of salvation could be opened to sinners.

64:21 Go to that Christ and cast yourself upon Him and find in Him the life that He promises to all who will trust Him. Let us pray. Our Father, as we stand in Your presence with the words of our Lord Jesus ringing in our ears, we can only ask that You would search us and try us. If there is anything in any of our hearts grieving and quenching Your Spirit, ought against us

65:04 and ought against any, grant us the grace of forgiveness and that into such hearts there would be poured new supplies of the grace of faith, that we, like Abraham, would not stagger before Your promises, but that we may be fully persuaded that what You have promised You are able to perform. Thank You for our Lord's lesson and thank You for our Lord Jesus Christ. May He, by His own Spirit, teach us as only He can teach us. Seal, then, Your word to our hearts and may it bear abundant fruit for Your glory.

65:47 We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.