Implicit Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree

Introduction: The Explicit and Implicit Lessons of the Withered Fig Tree

0:05 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, November 22nd, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:21 Now let us turn together to the Gospel according to Mark and the 11th chapter, Mark chapter 11.

0:35 And will you follow as I read, please, verses 12 through 14. And then we shall turn to the Gospel of Luke to read from the 13th chapter. 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.

1:05 And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season of figs. And he answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit from...

1:20 From you henceforth forever. And his disciples heard it. And now Luke chapter 13, verses 6 through 9.

1:34 Luke 13 and verse 6.

1:41 And he spoke this parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. And he came seeking fruit thereon, and found none. And he said, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none.

2:07 Cut it down. Why does it also cumber the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it. And if it bear fruit, thenceforth.

2:25 Well. But if...

2:27 If not, you shall cut it down. And now let us again look to God in prayer that the Lord would, by His gracious Spirit, make His word to us this morning, all that we have sung in our preceding hymn, that it would indeed be to us those things, as God knows we have need of them. Let us pray together.

2:55 Our Father, we do confess that Your word is, among many other things, a deep, deep mine of truth. And we confess that we do not have the tools to dig out the ore of its precious metal. We do not have light in ourselves to trace down its otherwise dark caverns. And we therefore plead that the Holy Spirit will be present to assist us, putting, as it were, here in the hands of our soul and upon the light of our minds, those necessary tools by which to extract that which You have deposited in Your Holy Word. We pray that as we meditate upon the implicit lesson of this fig tree, cursed by our Lord Jesus, that we will not only be instructed, but that we shall be brought, brought to new levels of fear, lest we should ever be found under the inspection of our Lord Jesus to be fruitless trees, and thereby incur His irrevocable curse. Speak to us then with clarity and with power, we pray,

4:22 in His dear name. Amen. Now those of you who attend regularly upon this ministry will know that we have, We have come to this section in the 11th chapter of Mark's Gospel, in which we have already considered the two central events of the second day of the Passion Week, recorded in Mark chapter 11, verses 12 through 19. As our Lord made His way into Jerusalem out of Bethany on that second day of the Passion Week, He cursed a barren fig tree, and then, as He went into Jerusalem, He cleansed a defiled temple. And as we saw together last week in our examination of verses 20 to 25, it was on the next morning, that is, the morning of day three of that particular week, that our Lord and His disciples passed by the tree which He had cursed on the previous day. And He said, And upon observing that the tree was utterly, totally dead, withered, as the Scripture says, from the roots,

5:45 Peter made an exclamation, while the twelve made an interrogation, according to Matthew 21 and verse 20. And in response to the exclamation and interrogation, our Lord gives what I entitled the explicit lesson of the withered fig tree. And the obvious focus of that lesson is the matter of faith. For our Lord responds to their exclamation and interrogation with the imperative of faith.

6:20 Verse 22, And then goes on to speak of the power of undoubting faith in the living God, under the imagery of removing mountains and seeing them cast, into the sea. And then He focuses upon that major channel for believing and undoubting confidence in God, namely persevering prayer and the efficacy of such prayer when it comes from a man who is presently right with God and right with his fellow man. Now today we come back to the incident of the cursing of the fruitless fig tree, in order to consider what I previously announced to you we would study under the heading of the implicit lesson of the withered fig tree. The explicit lesson is given by our Lord in unmistakable language in verses 22 to 25. However, there is an implicit lesson, that is, a lesson implied in the cursing of the fig tree, at this particular point in the ministry of our Lord Jesus.

Biblical Basis for a Symbolic Interpretation

7:41 And I return to consider with you this implicit lesson of the fig tree for two very basic reasons. First of all, the overwhelming consensus of responsible interpretation demands it. It is a simple fact of biblical interpretation, that the vast majority of the world, that the vast majority of the world, that the vast majority of the world, that the vast majority of the world, that the vast majority of devout commentators who have contemplated this passage have been convinced that there was more intended by our Lord than he explicitly addresses in verses 20 to 25. At present, the oldest commentary that we possess on the Gospel of Mark is a commentary by one Victor of Antioch, who remarks on this passage, Jesus used the fig tree to set forth in symbol the judgment that was about to fall upon Jerusalem, end quote. So very early in the history of devout interpretation of this passage, there was the emergence of this consensus that what our Lord was doing contained lessons that went beyond the lessons of faith,

9:05 and persevering prayer upon which he focuses in verses 20 to 25. And whenever we are handling the Word of God, there must be compelling reasons if we handle a passage in a way that contradicts the great stream of responsible, devout interpretation that has gathered around that passage throughout the history of the Church. This is one reason why the men in the Academy must spend so many hours in the discipline that we entitle historical theology, because we are not the first people who have ever opened our Bibles, cried to God for light, and then sought to approach the Word of God with a teachable spirit, allowing Scripture to be its own infallible interpreter. And so I feel constrained to come back to the passage, and consider the implicit lesson for reason number one, the overwhelming consensus of responsible interpretation demands it. But secondly, the pressure of genuine pastoral concern demands it. For this implicit lesson is a lesson that is so vital, so sobering, so filled with practical,

10:35 personal implications that only pastoral indifference or tremendously powerful constraints could ever cause a man to pass over this passage and not highlight its implicit message as well as responsibly expound its explicit message. So those are the two reasons why I am constrained now to consider myself to consider with you the implicit lesson of the withered fig tree. And as we do, what I wish to do first of all is to set before you the Biblical basis for asserting that this action of our Lord in cursing the fig tree was an intended symbolic action. On what Biblical grounds have interpreters throughout the centuries seen in this action of our Lord that which symbolized spiritual realities? Have they all been bitten with the same bug of carnal, imaginative, and irresponsible interpretive principles? No.

11:54 They have felt the weight of other Biblical light upon their minds when they have come to the passage. And I want very briefly to set before you the Biblical basis for asserting that this action of our Lord was an intended symbolic action. And that basis has three blocks in it. Number one, we see in the general purpose of miracles.

12:22 Miracles are intended as we see them in the Scriptures basically for two things. First of all, to validate the identity of a divine messenger. And you find this emphasis in Acts 2.22 where Peter is preaching to the Jews on the day of Pentecost speaks of Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by mighty signs and wonders.

12:51 The miracles validated the identity of the messenger. You find the same emphasis in Hebrews 2, 3, and 4 in which the writer to Hebrews says the gospel which began to be spoken by our Lord was spoken by those who followed him and the authenticity of the message was confirmed by signs and wonders. God bearing them witness by signs and wonders. And so that is the first purpose of miracles to validate, to authenticate a messenger as a messenger of God.

13:29 But then there is a second purpose of miracles and we see this throughout the Old Testament. The Old and the New Testaments namely to form the basis of some important instruction. Whether we go back to the miracles performed in conjunction with the exodus of Israel out of Egypt in the days of the Pharaoh or right on into the New Testament. For example, when our Lord fed the multitudes as recorded in John chapter 6 that miracle was intended to set the framework in the concrete realm of a miracle that all had witnessed the great truth that Jesus Christ was the bread of life.

14:13 And so the great discourse on himself as the bread of life follows and takes its lines of reference from the miracle of the multiplying of the loaves and of the fishes. Likewise with raising Lazarus from the dead in John chapter 11. Our Lord uses that miracle to form the basis of his teaching concerning his own power and ministry as the resurrection and the life. Now our Lord had already abundantly confirmed his identity to the disciples by the miraculous.

14:54 They had no question about his identity. You will remember that earlier in the Gospel of Mark and in the parallel passage in Matthew 16 when he said to them who do you say that I am? Their answer was clear. You are the Christ the Son of the living God.

15:12 And here was a miracle performed privately only in the presence of the disciples. So the purpose of this miracle is not primarily to validate his identity. He had already done that many, many times. And according to the parallel passage in Matthew's Gospel on that day on that very day before when he had entered the temple in the triumphant entry and subsequent to that went into the temple he had performed miracles of healing right in the temple.

15:46 And so to the masses there was still the validation of his identity but it had been well validated and authenticated. And therefore we must look for its significance to the twelve not so much in terms of its authenticating nature but in terms of its didactic purpose and coming precisely where it does. After our Lord has entered the temple on the day of the triumphal entry and according to Mark verse 11 had looked round about upon all things and the vision of what happened in the temple is indelibly stamped upon his mind and the minds of the twelve it was the next morning when going back into Jerusalem prior to cleansing the temple that he curses this fig tree that is profuse in its foliage but utterly devoid of any fruit. And it is in the area of the didactic that the significance is to be found and this is not at all incongruous with the didactic the divine intention with respect to miracles. But then secondly the basis for seeing in this cursing of the fig tree an intended

17:15 symbolic action is found in the uniqueness of this particular miracle. No other miracle recorded in any of the gospel records was a totally unmixed destructive miracle.

17:35 We studied together in Mark 5 the miracle of the casting out of the many demons from the Gadarene demoniac and in conjunction with the liberation of that man from the power of the demons that indwelt him there was the destruction of the two thousand swine. But you see that miracle was not totally negative or destructive. The destruction of the swine followed the liberation of the demons. The destruction of the demons of the demons of the demons of the demons possessed man.

18:08 But here and here alone in all of the gospel records is a miracle that is totally and unmixed in its negative or destructive nature. Now that should immediately say something to us. For according to John 20 and verse 30 Jesus did many miracles that are not recorded in John's gospel and by implication in the other gospel writers that are not and according to 21-25 John says if we were to record all the things that he did and he said the world could not contain the books. So what is recorded in the gospel records is already selected and among that selected number of miracles this and this alone is a totally destructive miracle. Now surely that ought to get our attention and ask the question why as our Lord is entering Jerusalem for the last time as far as this period in redemptive history not entering the city precincts for the last time he goes out in the evenings to Bethany or to the Mount of Olives but coming into that region for the last time his death just a few days away in the Father's eternal purpose and in his own self giving abandonment to the revealed

19:37 will of God. Why? At this particular time does he perform a completely destructive miracle that has not an atom of mercy manifested in it? Well you see it is the uniqueness of that miracle which draws attention to its symbolic significance and then thirdly the biblical basis for assuming it was an intended parable or lesson in action is not only to be found in what I have called first of all the purpose of miracles one of which is to be didactic the uniqueness of this particular miracle but thirdly the particular elements involved in this miracle the elements involved are a living tree that is with leaves upon it but no fruit which is subsequently cursed and is seen by those who heard the cursing as utterly withered totally denuded of any symbol or indication of life. Well these disciples as anyone who reads his bible for very long would know they were acquainted with the fact that the old testament was fulled of the imagery

21:07 of a vine of a tree and even a fig tree as a symbol of God's people Israel they had already heard what I read from Luke chapter 13 they had already heard from the lips of our Lord this parable spoken on the heels of calling Israel to repentance they had heard him speak a parable about a fig tree that for three years the master had looked for fruit upon it and it was still fruitless and he's about to have it cut down but then the vine dresser pleads for clemency and mercy for yet a little more time they had already heard those words and when we turn to the scriptures we do indeed find in such passages as Isaiah 5 Psalm 80 verses 5 and 5 following Ezekiel chapter 17 but in particular a passage such as Hosea chapter 9 and I ask you to turn here because unless your judgment is convinced of the validity of the tact that we are taking I cannot get to your conscience and I would use this passage to clinch the case in Hosea chapter 9

22:33 notice what God says in verse 10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season and you remember when we went into that whole phrase it was not the season of figs there were two or three seasons of figs and at that time if there was that much foliage that initial harvest of figs should have been present on that particular tree sour hard not like the full ripe figs in the later harvest and that very imagery is here in this passage I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season but they came to Baal Peor and consecrated themselves unto the shameful thing and became abominable like that which they loved and God speaks of Israel's idolatry and what is the result then of God's judgment upon their sin verse 15 all their wickedness is in Gilgal for there I hated them because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house I will love them no more

24:02 all their princes are revolters Ephraim is smitten and I will I will their root is dried up they shall bear no fruit yea though they bring forth yet will I slay the beloved fruit of their womb my God will cast them away because they did not hearken unto him and they shall be wanderers among the nations and here in this context you have the imagery of Israel like a fig tree and because of her sin the curse of God is pronounced upon them and part of that curse is that their very root is dried up they shall no longer have the ability to bear fruit so then this threefold cord in my judgment and I trust it carries your judgment forms the biblical basis for asserting that this action of our Lord was symbolic action and we are confident of that because of the general purpose of miracles the uniqueness of this particular miracle and the particular elements involved in the miracle well then having I trust established the biblical basis for asserting that it is a symbolic miracle

The Particular Message for the Nation of Israel

25:31 secondly what was the particular message of this miracle with respect to the nation of Israel what was the particular message of this miracle with respect to the nation of Israel well if we are to feel the weight of the implicit message of this cursed fig tree we must understand and remember several very simple facts but if we don't remember these things and do not understand them in conjunction with the setting of this miracle we will not feel the weight of this symbolic action of our Lord and what are the things that we must remember and keep in mind as we seek to understand the implicit message of the miracle of the withered fig tree well we must remember that the heart of Israel's unique position as a nation was her peculiar covenantal relationship to the living God there was only one nation upon the whole face of the earth into which God had entered with which God had entered into a peculiar covenantal relationship likened unto a marriage covenant God could say in Amos 3 and verse 2 to the nation of

27:00 Israel you only have I known of all the families of the people you only Israel alone was taken into that peculiar that unique that distinct covenantal relationship to God given peculiar promises hedged about with institutions and a form not only of religious but social and national life that scripture itself calls a wall of partition to mark her off and to keep her from being mingled with and defiled by the other nations of the earth we must remember that as we come to this passage that the heart of Israel's unique position was that she and she alone by grace had been taken in to that covenantal relationship with God the second thing we must remember is this that the center of all of the visible symbols of that unique covenantal relationship were to be found in the temple at Jerusalem the center of all the symbols of that unique covenantal relationship was the temple at Jerusalem and the things connected with it for you see it

28:30 was there in the temple that the Shekinah glory had rested it was there in Jerusalem in that temple and in the inner place where God's only appointed altar for sacrifice was established it was there that the only instituted priesthood was to function it was to Jerusalem that a devout Israelite had to go for holy convocations this is why at this season pilgrimages were being made by multitudes from all over making their way up to Jerusalem so if there were to be any place on the face of the earth that would reflect the heart and soul of the privileges and responsibilities of covenantal relationship to God where should you expect to find it in the temple at Jerusalem there God had his unique appointed priesthood there God had established his only altar there God had placed these institutions at the very center of the life of that nation with which he sustained that intimate unique

29:59 exclusive covenantal relationship and if there was any place that should reflect the heart of true religion it would be at Jerusalem and in the temple surely it would be there that heart love for and communion with God would be expressed surely it would be there that the pure worship of God would be maintained and administered and surely if there were any place upon the face of the earth where you wanted a pure unmixed witness to the nature of Jehovah as the covenant God there at the temple in Jerusalem there would be a vital witness to God's sustain but when our Lord came to the temple the night before what did he find Mark is careful to underscore that his last official act on that first day of the passion week verse 11 was to enter into Jerusalem into the temple and when he had looked round about upon all things he went out unto Bethany with the twelve and as we saw basing our conjecture on the

31:29 fact that he obviously had skipped his breakfast there is if we read between the lines the strong suggestion that what he saw so haunted and tortured his holy soul that he spent probably a restless sleepless prayerful spiritually agonizing night and never broke his fast with the others though no doubt urged in that loving household of Mary and Martha to join the others in their breakfast and it's only when he comes out and is making his way into Jerusalem that beholding the foliage upon that tree that he's conscious of his growling stomach and his hunger pangs and it is these facts that must be kept in mind as we think of the symbolic action of the cursing of this fig tree for what had our Lord seen the night before what had caused the trauma of his restless night what had caused his early morning fast well it was what he had seen in the temple precinct the night before instead of seeing the expressions of love for and communion with God what had he seen instead of seeing the maintenance of the purity of the worship of God what had he seen

32:56 and instead of the maintenance of a pure witness for God in the very court of the Gentiles what had he seen you see what our Lord had seen in the temple was the leafy fully rich of religious activity around every hand the temple precinct bustling with people the temple area full of those on pilgrimage the temple area full of religious leaders and chief priests and underlings the leaves of religious profession and religious activity were abounding but our Lord saw that as a nation its life as it were in microcosm was reflected there in the temple was there any heart love for and communion with God no for our Lord had said in Mark 7 this people honoreth me with their lips but their hearts are far from me in vain in vain in vain do they worship what should have been the center and citadel of the expressions of love to God

34:24 and holy enthusiasm in communion with God there was the mere empty ritual of drawing near to God with the lips while the heart was far from him and was there the maintenance of pure worship no he goes on to say in that Mark 7 passage in vain do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men if ever the language of Isaiah bore repetition it was at this time who hath required this at your hand to trample my court with these things and was there any pure witness for God no in the very place where Gentiles were to be welcomed there in that place commercialism had so taken over that Jesus said you had turned the outer court of the Gentiles into a cave of brigands and you remember he went through and overturned the tables and the benches and drove out the animals and the money changers now our Lord you see seen that the night before all the foliage all the leaves profusely present on that tree of God's planting Israel but when he had drawn near the night before what did he find amidst those leaves did he find the fruit

35:53 of that peculiar covenantal love did he find the fruit of that unique covenantal commitment of God to his people Israel did he find love for and communion with Jehovah did he find pure worship of Jehovah did he find true witness to Jehovah he found none of that upon the inspection of the night before he found leaves but no fruit and the next morning coming into Jerusalem seeing that one tree that for peculiar reasons unrevealed to us stood out among all the other trees it was distinguishable by the abundance of its apparent blessing under divine providence where the other fig trees of this season did not yet have leaves let alone fruit this one was profuse in its foliage it had in a unique way been the recipient of influences that made it to stand out above all of its fellows even as the nation of Israel under the unique sovereign care of God was replete with the indications of divine favor and blessing

37:22 but when he came to that tree seeking fruit and found none he cursed it saying no man eat fruit of you forever what was our Lord doing he was symbolically showing the curse that was to come upon Israel when at the very time when her divinely appointed symbol pointing to Christ were being enacted they were coming together for Passover slaying the paschal lamb looking back to the great redemption out of Egypt which looked forward to the great redemption under Messiah amidst all of the symbols which most spoke of Messiah they were about to commit their highest act of criminality and of apostasy they were about to slay Messiah as the ultimate expression of their utter rejection of the God of the covenant and our Lord is symbolically declaring in this cursing of the fig tree that judgment that God was about to bring upon national Israel what one writer has called in words that have haunted me as I've looked at them

38:51 simple words unadorned but all the pregnancy of them here our Lord he says was setting forth the dreadful the deadly and the irrevocable judgment of God the dreadful the deadly the irrevocable judgment of God so that the next day when the disciples pass the tree they are amazed they say how is it that in just this short time it is withered away from the roots it is deadly dead forever dead in the parable of Luke 13 it had been given further space it had been further dunged and watered and nurtured by the ministry of the Son of God but still no fruit and now the time to cut it down had come what our Lord here announces symbolically and in this prophetic parable he later on announces in those frightening words recorded more fully in Matthew 23 though recorded some here in the gospel of Mark and then Paul takes up the subject and opens it up

40:21 in terms of its relationship to divine counsel and eternal purpose in Romans 9 through 11 and again picks up the imagery of a tree there an olive tree and speaks of the breaking off of those natural branches and the grafting in of we Gentiles the unnatural branches later on in the gospel of Mark in chapter 12 again under an agricultural imagery our Lord speaks here in this parable about the vineyard that something would happen that would result in what is described in verse 9 what therefore will the Lord of the vineyard do he will come and destroy the husband men and give the vineyard unto others and in the parallel passage in Matthew it said the Jews understood that he was prophesying that the channel of redemptive activity would now be removed from Israel and would be given to the Gentiles and they cry out God forbid and so in the cursing of this fig tree we see a very solemn sobering manifestation of the dreadful the deadly and the irrevocable judgment of God that came upon that apostate nation and with it its great lesson forever

41:50 stamped upon the pages of history that religious privilege without religious life while maintaining religious forms can only precipitate the most severe judgments of God religious privilege without religious life while maintaining religious forms can only precipitate the most severe judgments of God there was only one pure miracle of cursing and the and it was that symbolic miracle of that fig tree replete with foliage even as the nation was in the midst of a bustling foliage of religious activity under a canopy of tremendous privilege but no fruits of true religion no heart love for and communion with God no maintenance of the purity of God's worship no sustaining of the purity of God's witness and it brings from our Lord that which alone is seen in any part of the gospels a miracle of utter destruction no man eat fruit from you

43:19 henceforth forever and though blessed be God according to Romans 9 to 11 God's purpose is not thereby been frustrated God yet has a remnant according to the election of grace and though God still has a people whom he will call to himself from the ranks of Jew and Gentile Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 that the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost they have dreadfully frighteningly and irrevocably been set aside as far as any special and peculiar and unique position in God's redemptive purposes now then having considered the biblical basis for asserting that this was a deliberate symbolic action having sought at least briefly to set forth the particular message of this miracle with respect to the nation of Israel now thirdly what is the present application of this miracle to us I said pastoral sensitivity demanded that I preach on the implicit message of this miracle well what is that pastoral sensitivity what is the present application of the principles of this miracle

Present Application: Nationally

44:48 well let me apply it in three categories nationally ecclesiastically and personally or individually nationally now follow me closely I am not saying that God has ever entered in to a distinct a unique a peculiarly redemptive covenantal arrangement with any other nation but the nation of Israel and any attempts to think of Britain or the United States or any other nation or country as some kind of a new Israel with which God has made peculiar covenantal arrangements has no foundation in the word of God whatsoever and so I make that disclaimer as plainly as I know how however scripture teaches us and general revelation confirms to us that in God's gracious providence and in the exercise of his unfettered sovereignty God is pleased to bring peculiar concentration of gospel light and privileges to some nations that he denies to others have been struck with that in my reading of the book of Acts in my own devotional reading recently in the New Testament they are saying to go into the finny of what the spirit of Jesus suffered them not

46:16 and as I meditated upon that all of the gospel light that would have been diffused and God said no I don't want the light going there now I want it over here and for the first time I saw the irony of how God starts with such small beginnings they had the vision a man of Macedonia Paul says a man of Macedonia in a vision saying come over and help us and he said we immediately concluded the Lord had called us to preach the gospel and he gets into Macedonia ends up in Philippi and what does he find he doesn't find any men he finds a few women by a riverside a man of Macedonia and all he finds is a few women having a prayer meeting what an unlikely beginning for one of the most powerful churches established in the purposes of God yes God sovereignly directs God in the exercise of his free unfettered sovereignty does direct that gospel light and privileges shall come with unusual concentration to certain nations at certain epochs in human history and when he brings that light and privilege what does he expect one thing friends fruit fruit fruit if they bring there to be fruit there will be trees with the leaves of religious profession and the leaves of visible religious activity

47:45 church buildings will be erected and pulpits will be constructed and pews will be set in places of worship yes the leaves will be there as the support system for the bearing of the fruit but oh my friends when the fruit is long gone and all that is left is the foliage the foliage of church buildings of well constructed pulpits and well constructed pews and remember the temple would be there and he cursed the administration of the nations there is no greater curse than the curse which comes when the privileges of gospel light no longer produce gospel fruit but only maintain the leafy foliage

49:05 of empty religion and my friends if that principle is true God have mercy on this nation God have mercy on this nation with all and with all of its leafy foliage of religious little love for and communion with the living God is to be found how precious little purity of his worship is to be found in our precious little purity of his witness is to be found and oh if we have any true love of country my friend don't waste your time don't waste your time filling out the farm to support the right wing organization that want to promote invigor bombs don't waste your time supporting nations that pursue if you have any concern for your country cry to God for mercy spend

50:35 your time I must be crying for divine judge have mercy upon us someone has said if God doesn't pour out more singular tokens of his wrath there already are tokens of it but if he does not pour out more singular tokens he will be forced to resurrect Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize now that may be a bit cheeky way to express it but it contains a kernel of profound truth remember what Jesus said to the cities wherein he had done most of his mighty works they had had great privilege he said it will be better off for Sodom and Gomorrah with all of their perverts and their homosexuals in the day of judgment than for you people yes you make your checks up to Jerusalem yes you go to Passover yes you go to the feast yes you go to the local synagogue you go to for money but here I think myself as Messiah and you won't repent you won't bring forth the fruits of genuine love to God and service to God and the heart to pursue him to know him dear friends this has a national application but then it has an

Present Application: Ecclesiastically

52:04 ecclesiastical application the church scattered throughout the world is God's covenant people now but you read Revelation chapters two and three and they have sobered me as I've reread them in my preparation for today and what do you find the Lord Jesus saying he says I know your works he introduces every single letter to the seven churches of Asia Minor with the words I know your works I've inspected your fig tree I've come near to look for fruit and what did he say to one you have a name that you're dead to another he says you have life and all the signs of life but the sap that will maintain that life has begun to drain out of you you've left your first love repent what is Jesus saying in those seven letters to the seven churches he's saying when I come to your fig tree if all I find is the leaves of profession and religious activity and the external forms

53:15 devotion to myself of love to myself of living communion with myself then I will remove your candlestick except you repent oh dear people this message this series of messages pastor Nichols is bringing to us on the heart of new covenant privilege being personal knowledge and experience of communion with God don't take it lightly if this church ever ceases to be , a place where the privileges bestowed upon us produce real love to the real God of heaven and real communion with him the maintenance of real living pure worship and the maintenance of living vibrant aggressive and pure witness he whose eyes are as a flame of fire will remove the candlestick that doesn't mean he'll send a bomb to obliterate the building he'll let the beams stand he'll let the pews hold up he may even allow them to be filled and may even have men who speak reasonably well in this pulpit but he will have removed the candlestick and you'll get no more of God to come within the walls of this place than a hungry hearted sinner would have found of God if he'd

54:45 gone to Jerusalem that Passover imagine having all your hopes awakened you had heard as the report by mouth that struck me again in certain portions of my Old Testament reading recently in Samuel how the report of the exodus and the mighty works of God were known throughout those pagan nations imagine people had heard that Jehovah had taken Israel to himself had given them a true altar and acceptable sacrifices and a true priesthood and there God was known and manifested imagine if anyone had an inkling of a God awakened hunger and had gone up to Jerusalem the same time Jesus went in and looked into the outer precincts and saw the wholesale commercialism the profanation of the worship right under the eye of the official guardians of the worship the chief priest and the scribes may God have mercy the day ever comes when someone in whom God awakens a hunger for reality comes within these walls and goes away saying ain't nothing there but empty religion is there anybody that knows God people who

56:14 take God seriously Paul says rather when the unbeliever or ignorant comes among us what should be the truth that grips him he falling down upon his face will cry is among you that should be the distinguishing mark of a new covenant assembly but then it has an individual and personal application and with this I close this cursing of the fig tree dear people goes beyond a message to nations beyond the message to churches it comes home into the inner citadel of every one of our hearts remember what Jesus said every branch in me that bears not fruit my heavenly father the great caretaker takes it away and he said if a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and then gather them and they are cast into the fire and they are burned that's the universal testimony of our lord every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire dear people it is not enough that you

Present Application: Personally and Individually

57:39 the leaves and the foliage of attendance at church and prayer meeting the issue is this are you bringing forth that fruit which has no explanation but that you are in vital life union with Jesus Christ the fruit of a heart that pants after God the fruit of a heart sensitive to sin grieved over sin in its first risings before it could ever be known by anyone else you live before God and you know it is known to him and you are ashamed and you blush and you cannot look up and you cry for forgiveness the fruit of a sensitive conscience the fruit of love to the brethren the fruit of concern for God's honor the fruit of detachment from this world and a heart embedded in the world come my friend are those fruits in you does God see them have you convinced your elders you have them because you don't answer to us in the last day but the inspector of the fruit trees that's the one that matters because he's going to be judged in the last day and you remember what his words are to those in whom there is no fruit depart from me you what you cursed

59:09 ones bear in trees depart I never knew you fruit that is the one indispensable and undeniable evidence of grace listen to old bishop ryle as I close I leave you with his words in your ears let us always remember that baptism and church membership and reception of the Lord's supper and a diligent use of the outward forms of Christianity are not sufficient to save our souls they are leaves nothing but leaves and without fruit they will only add to our condemnation like the fig leaves of which Adam and Eve made themselves garments they will not hide the nakedness of our souls from the eye of an all seeing God or give us boldness when we stand before him at the last day no we must bear fruit or be lost forever there must be fruit in our hearts fruit in our lives the fruit of repentance towards God and faith toward the Lord Jesus and true holiness in our manner of life without such fruits as these a profession of Christianity will only sink us lower

60:37 into hell dear people that's the lesson of the withered fig tree can you in your mind's eyes stand by it this morning and you see it in all of its profuseness of foliage but the inspector the Lord Jesus comes looking for fruit and finds none in just a word from his mouth and it withers and its death is pronounced you're going to deal with that same Christ in the day of judgment and the only thing that will vindicate you in that day from the perspective of the judge and his external vindication of his people is fruit fruit yourself what does he see in me today that has no explanation but divine life within implanted by divine grace producing fruits which only divine power can produce and if you come up short friend you better give yourself no rest nor peace until you are so united to Christ and in trust of him and love to him and dependence upon him

62:06 become an abundant fruit bearer who is a living monument of the grace and of the power of Christ let us pray our father we thank you for our blessed Lord Jesus Christ who not only teaches powerfully and searchingly by his words but also by his actions and we stand today trembling before that withered fig tree realizing that he who was on his way to Jerusalem to die has power to curse with an irreversible cursing oh may none of us come under his curse in the last day but may we hear him say come you blessed come you blessed come you blessed enter the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world oh lord bless your word to our hearts may we not be found impervious and insensitive and stiff necked before it but give us hearts to enfold it to welcome it and then to do whatever we must do to yield to its pressure upon our consciences and upon our

63:36 wills hear then our cry may the blessings of your grace rest upon us as we commit your word in ourselves to you through Jesus Christ our lord amen