In your Bible, if you join me in Matthew 21 today, Matthew 21, we're going to read verse 18 down to verse number 20, Matthew 21.
Love the season of Easter as we reflect upon Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Matthew 21, we're going to read verse 18 down to verse 20. This is the last week of our Lord's life. This is actually on a Wednesday morning of crucifixion week where we pick up in verse 18. It says, Now in the morning as He returned into the city, it says, He hungered and when He saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away.
When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away? And Father, as we break open the Word of the living God, we pray that our hearts would be riveted with its truths. Draw us into clarity and understanding of Your Word. I pray that our attentiveness to the Word of God today would reflect the value that it has in our hearts, but even more so may we be those who are not just hearers only but doers. And may the way we carry out the truths that we receive today reflect how much we love You, Lord. Help us to stay focused and to be filled with the truth that we might live out in obedience, what You would call us to be. Anyone today doesn't know Christ, may today be the day of their salvation. We ask this in Jesus' name and God's people said, Amen.
You may be seated today. You know, something you probably do clearly see and understand is this, we live in a world today that is absolutely filled with deception, incredible deception. One reason for this is the fact that people have left the foundation of the truth of God's Word and they have replaced the rock of truth with the shifting sand of man's opinions. Man changes the truth of God for a lie.
They believe they are more trustworthy than their Creator. So people reject the Bible as the authority and they lift up their own self as the authority and they place the thoughts, the feelings, and their own opinions as the standard of truth in their life instead of the Scriptures. In so doing, man now becomes their own authority, man becomes in essence their own God and begins to define truth based on self as the final authority.
Therefore, truth shifts from person to person on the ocean of subjectivism. That is why you see the implosion of so many in the world of politics these days and the incredible lies that are being permeated by so many. No matter what is really happening, some will redefine reality to what they think and the reason they do this is because they think that their thoughts are the authority. They think they define reality. That is why you will find yourself undoubtedly sometime in this last week, perhaps in the last 24 hours, saying things like this, how on earth do people believe this?
How on earth can somebody think that way? When man divorces himself from the truth of God, he will divorce himself from reality and he will begin to think things that he thinks defines reality. That is why we have seen God redefined, marriage redefined, and genders redefined.
It's a level of insanity. The creation thinks it defines truth and it builds its little castles on sand, but I can make it clear today man does not define truth, God does. Man plays God by building castles in the sand while God's eternal truth will stand forever and when the storm of death comes, all the sand castles get dissolved. Truth is not simply information friends, truth is defined by God. In fact, Jesus said, I am truth. God is truth. He defines ultimate reality and when you come to the Bible, what you read is what is, what was, and what will be. One day all the world will stand before the eternal God of truth. In that day, the question will be, did your life align with truth or lies? Did it align with God's Word or man's opinion?
Here in Matthew 21, Jesus comes to Jerusalem one final time. This is the last week of our Lord's earthly life and when Jesus comes to Jerusalem, he does not come with any opinions. In fact, in the Bible, God has no opinion. God has no suggestion. God only gives axioms. He only gives definitive. He only speaks commands and truth and I love it.
What I don't like in the world is when people shift opinions back and forth, not sure, can't make up their mind, aren't stable on anything, and waffle around. We have a God who never gives an opinion because he knows what the truth is and he says what the truth is. When Jesus came to earth, he declared he is the truth and if you ever disagree with him, you're wrong every time. He is the most narrow-minded person that has ever lived on planet earth and he's absolutely right.
I'm so thankful that there is a God of truth. I remember being on a university one time talking to a college student and he says, you know, there is no such thing as an absolute truth. I said, are you absolutely certain of that? I said, does 2 plus 2 always equal 4?
He could not answer either one of those. I said, within five seconds, I have undermined your entire foundation. I said, don't you think you should build on something a little more stable?
It's incredible what people want to build on. And so today we have to understand there is a God of truth and when you come to the Bible and Jesus enters Jerusalem the last week of his life, you would have found a nation and a city that was perhaps the most religious city in the world, very likely the most religious city, and one of the most lost cities in the world. And why were they lost? Because they added their opinions to God's Word. And they added their opinions to God's Word in the form of tradition.
They created different traditions that began to pollute the Scriptures and the Word of God. Back in chapter 15 of Matthew's Gospel he said, you have made the command of God of no effect by your tradition. In Matthew 15 9 he says, in vain or for nothing you worship me, teaching for doctrines and commandments of men.
True worship must be built on Holy Scripture. Some of you grew up in churches where you never learned the Bible. Some of you grew up in churches where you knew what to do but you didn't know the whys. You knew you were supposed to do certain things, stand and kneel and recite and whatever else, but if you were to ask the question, show me in the Bible where you're supposed to do that, you would say, I don't have a clue where to find that in the Bible.
You have no idea why. My job is to open up the Word of God to reveal to you the truth of God's Word. The Word of God is the standard. And when my life and my family was transformed, it wasn't through religion, it was through truth. And there is nothing in your life more important than the truth. Truth is more important than your sincerity. Truth is more important than your feelings.
You can be sincerely wrong, right? Those who fulfill and assign fatwa in Islam and blow themselves up in a holy jihad are extremely sincere, but they're sincerely wrong. And so today truth is the most important thing, and for you that is what I want to bring us to. And so Jesus came into Jerusalem and He comes head-on with religion. Truth and religion come in direct contact in conflict with each other, and religion by Friday crucifies the truth. That's what religion does. Religion is not man's exalted attempt to seek after God. Religion is in fact man redefining God to suit his own self, and it's a race away from God. Religion is the most polluting thing on planet Earth. There's nothing worse than religion. We don't come here to be religious, we come here because we have a relationship with the King, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, based on truth.
We're not guessing here. I'm not coming here to give you my opinion, that's why verse after verse after verse we go through Scripture, right? I show you verses on the screen because there's no way you could turn to all the places we're going to go to.
But you can, if you ever want them, you can go online at our website or our app and we have an outline of the sermons with all the verses that I use and you can have those there. In John 4, Jesus comes to the woman at the well and He says, you don't even know what you worship. He says, we know what we worship for salvation is from the Jews. And in verse 24 He says, God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him two ways, in spirit and in truth.
That's inwardly and accurately. God has not worshiped how we think He is, that's what Cain did, isn't it? Cain came on his terms and God says that's not acceptable. You don't define your avenue to God, you come on God's terms. And that's the only way that you can come. I was late getting in here today, Roger was probably singing thinking, I hope pastor comes into the sanctuary soon.
None of you probably knew that, but I can tell you he was sweating that last song. But prior to this service I was in our foundations class getting the wonderful opportunity to share with a young 22 year old who grew up in a Catholic Church who had never understood the gospel, was always confused about religion, and had a chance to go through the gospel, answer his questions, and he trusted in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. And I thought, well if I'm a little bit late to service that'll be okay, but I'll get in here. So I ask you the question, is your faith based on God or is it based on your opinion? Is it based on God's Word or your opinion? Is your faith based on what you think or what God says?
And there's a way to test that. Is your faith based on what the Scriptures say or what you think it is? Do you have biblical whys for your spiritual whats? What you do in your faith?
Can you go back and say, this is biblically why I do that? And so today we will look at Jesus returning to Jerusalem on a Wednesday and something happens on his journey that carries extreme significance, and I have entitled this, Lessons from the Fig Tree, as we pick up in verse number 18 and we see the hunger of Christ here. It says, Now in the morning as he, or Jesus, returned into the city. This is on a Wednesday morning. The Greek word here for morning is p-r-o-i, proi, and it could be even translated as early in the morning.
The word proi is a word that spoke about the fourth watch of the night. It would be from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. So this is early.
I like that. You know, there is a 6 a.m. in the morning. I know some of these young bucks in our congregation may be like, I thought that only came one time a day, 6 p.m. You know, there is an a.m. There's even a 3 a.m. I know most of us glance by that on the way through nights. Now Jesus is journeying to Jerusalem. It's in the morning.
It's early in the morning. He's returning to the city, and verse 18 goes on and says, He hungered. Now the Jews typically had two meals that they ate in a day. I have found through the years people say, you know, you need to eat three full meals a day. If I eat three full meals a day, I would be sinning. Two meals is sufficient for me.
I'm like one good meal and then something light, but maybe you eat three meals a day, nothing wrong with that. I just know myself, two meals is enough for me, and for the Jews that's how they would do that. They would eat breakfast, and then they would eat dinner. Their breakfast, though, could go all the way up till around noon, and depending on how their workday would shift, but it would be a morning, and then after they came in at night, they would eat a big meal. That was their biggest meal was the evening, but breakfast was an important meal. It was one of their two staple meals of the day. In John 21, you remember when the disciples fished all night?
They caught nothing. What did Jesus do for the disciples? It says He made them breakfast and fed them. Now, why didn't Jesus eat breakfast that morning?
This is a question I would ask. Jesus has been staying in Bethany. He's at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Just a couple weeks before what we read here, Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead. According to John 12, there was a massive feast that they had for that, and Jesus and Lazarus and everybody was there.
They fixed a big meal. Mary comes in and breaks in out of the bastard box of ointment, pours it on Jesus's feet, anoints his head, and that box of ointment was worth about a year's wage in that day. And you remember in Luke chapter number 10, where Jesus comes to their home with the disciples, and Martha serves, and Mary's sitting at Jesus's feet hearing His Word. Whenever you read about Jesus being in Bethany at the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, they always took the best care of Him.
They just lavished Him with care and kindness and an attentive ear and a meal and anointings, and Jesus was taking care of first class there. So my question is, how on earth does He leave Bethany hungry? How could He be journeying to Jerusalem on an empty stomach? Well, the answer would be pretty clear. There's something that kept Jesus from eating that morning, because it doesn't say any of the disciples were hungry, only Jesus is found as being hungry.
So I think if we could read between the lines a little bit, we could probably figure out some things here about what happened that morning. Because if you read the Scriptures, there were other times that Jesus missed meals. In John 4, by the way, the disciples went away to get lunch, they came back and they said, did anybody give you anything to eat?
He says, I have meat to eat that you know not of. He said, my meat is to do the will of my Father which has sent me. In other words, Jesus would sometimes forget to eat because He was so focused on the work that God had Him to do.
He was so focused on the will of the Father that food took such a backseat, sometimes it didn't even come. Jesus put the spiritual before the physical. Now another element of the story that is absolutely essential to know is found in Mark 11. If you would hold your place in Matthew 21, if you would flip over to Mark 11 with me.
This story of the barren fig tree is only spoken of in Matthew's Gospel and in Mark's Gospel. Jesus comes into Jerusalem in Mark 11 verse 1 through 10, that's His triumphal entry, that's on a Monday. Tuesday is when He cleans out the temple, He cleanses the temple. We looked at that last Sunday, but Mark 1 verse 1 through 10 is Jesus coming to Jerusalem, they're hailing Him as the Messiah, we looked at that a couple weeks ago.
That Monday evening, Mark adds something that happens, and you need to see this, verse 11, and Jesus entered into Jerusalem and into the temple, and when He had looked round about upon all things, and now the evening tide was come, He went out unto Bethany with the twelve. So the night of His triumphal entry, He goes into the city, He goes into the temple, and He sees everything that's going on, and what does He see there? What does He see? He sees the money changers, He sees the extortion, He sees the corruption, He sees everything that He's going to confront the next morning. He sees the selling of doves and animals and all that has happened to pollute the temple. In John 2, Jesus cleansed the temple three years before this.
Three years later, nothing's changed. And Jesus doesn't say a word, He sees it all as they're finishing up their night of corruption, and He walks out and He goes home to Bethany. What do you think He's thinking about? What do you think's on His mind when He wakes up the next morning? You think He's thinking about breakfast? You think He's thinking about eating?
This last week we had two precious lives that passed away, and one of our dear members, Maxine Miller, went home to be with the Lord, had her funeral Tuesday. I'm in hospitals many times of the week, and one thing I always have to encourage people when they have a loved one in the hospital is to say, listen, you need to make sure you eat. You need to eat and take care of yourself, because they often don't. Sometimes they're usually just not hungry. And I'm like, listen, you have to eat because if you don't take care of yourself, how are you going to take care of them?
You need to be healthy, you need to take care of yourself. And so I'll press that for people, because when you have something heavy on your heart, it's hard to eat. And I imagine Jesus' heart was extremely pressed after what He saw Monday night. And so what probably would have happened that Tuesday is because the disciples, it doesn't say we're hungry, they probably had breakfast, and Jesus probably did what He always did.
He went away and prayed by Himself to be with the Father, to be in prayer, in silence. And He often did that, but on His journey as He's coming to Jerusalem that morning, He gets hungry. And the Bible tells us that He comes to this fig tree. And what's also important to know is this, according to Mark, He actually comes to the fig tree on a Tuesday, curses it, and it's Wednesday that they come to it and see that it's withered away. Look at verse 12 of Mark 11. And on the morrow, this is the next day, this is Tuesday morning in Luke, or in Mark 12, Mark 11 verse 12. And on the morrow this Tuesday morning, when they were come from Bethany, He was hungry, 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 the time of figs was not yet. Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And His disciples heard it. What you have from verse 15 down to verse 19 is Jesus going to the temple, cleansing the temple. Verse 15, they came to the Jerusalem, Jesus went into the temple, began to cast them out that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of money changers and the seeds of them that sold doves. All that goes on down to verse number 19. Now look at verse 20, and on the morning, and in the morning, this is the next day, this is now Wednesday morning, as they passed by they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots, and Peter calling to remembrance, Sayeth in a master, Behold the fig tree which thou cursest is withered away. Now in Matthew's account, Matthew is more focused not on the chronology of this, but on the event. So he combines both days together, Jesus curses it, it withers away, Mark separates it, lets us know that this cursing actually happened on Tuesday before he cleansed the temple.
There's a lot of significance to that. I want you to know this, there is only two times in the Bible where there is a negative miracle that Jesus does. One is when he cast the demons out of the swine of the demon-possessed man of Gadara.
The thousands of demons go into those 3,000 pigs and they go over the cliff and die. That created a negative effect. The only other time Jesus did a miracle, used his power to create something that brought destruction, was here, where he curses a fig tree and it withers up. So if there's, if this is like one of the only times Jesus ever does a miracle that brings a negative response, something that creates destruction or death, do you think it carried some significance? In other words, do you think it has more to do than just a fig tree?
You think it's just about the plant? You think it might have something to do with a more significant reality? So we see Jesus returning to the city, he becomes hungry, he's preoccupied that morning, clearly would have been weighed down with what's going to happen as he confronts the city and the temple. Very likely, spending time in prayer that morning, he's on his journey and he becomes hungry. That brings us to verse 19, if you go back to Matthew chapter 21.
This is the expectation of Christ. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it. Now I'm not a botanist and I'm not a fig tree expert, but I've done a little study on the fig tree and let me just mention a couple things about it.
The average fig tree would grow to be 10 to 20 feet tall, it would span about 20 feet wide. The fig tree is actually the first tree that's mentioned of in the Bible. Deuteronomy 8 spoke of Israel as being a land of fig trees.
Remember when Nathan, fig trees, because they spanned about 20 feet, they became a good shade tree. And you remember when Jesus called Nathaniel in John chapter 1 48, Nathaniel was underneath a fig tree praying. The most common reference to a fig tree in the Old Testament is metaphorical. Generally speaking, the fig tree, it referred to the nation of Israel, but it also spoke about fig trees being a sign of the blessing of God, that it would be healthy, that it would be prosperous, that the blessing of God was upon it. And a withered fig tree in the Old Testament, a dying fig tree that was languishing according to Joel 1 7 verse 12 and many other places in the Old Testament, spoke about the judgment of God upon a people and nation.
So that's how the fig tree was used. The fig tree was used in a parable of Jesus in Luke 13. James talked about a fig tree in James 3 12 about the fruit of our lips should be consistent with the tree that we are.
If you are a believer, your lips should evidence that. It was used to depict the coming end of the world in Mark 13. Jesus says, now learn a parable of the fig tree when her branch is yet tender, puts forth her leaf, you know that summer is near. Now, so the fig tree was used again and again and again in the New Testament, metaphorically, as teaching something.
It was a sign pointing to something else. Now a fig tree would produce crops two times a year, it would produce in early summer, but the chief crop would come in the month of autumn, or in the autumn months, I should say. Normally the first fruit of the fig tree would appear around late February. And one important thing you need to know about a fig tree is the fig tree would always produce the fruit before any leaves came on it. So the figs would come on the tree, and then later the leaves would come. In fact, by the time you saw a fig tree with leaves, the fruit would be ripe by then. Therefore, when Jesus sees the fig tree with leaves, that should have been a sign that that fig tree had what? That's why Mark 11 13 says, "...and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, if haply he might find anything thereon." So the expectation of Jesus was with leaves there should be fruit. Although Mark tells us it was not the season for figs, this tree clearly was in a fertile situation, and through its leaves made a profession that there should have been fruit. The Lord comes to the tree with anticipation, and verse 19 says, "...and he found nothing thereon but leaves only."
You could say it looked good on the outside, but it had no fruit. It had a profession of fruitfulness, but upon inspection by Christ, he found it to be, in fact, fruitless. Now how does Jesus respond to the fruitless tree? How does he respond to the tree that looked good on the outside, but had no real fruit on it?
And that comes to verse 19, the second part of it, the curse from Christ. "...And he said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away." As a result of the fig tree having no fruit on it, Jesus curses the fig tree.
He pronounces judgment on it, that it would be permanently fruitless. The tree failed the inspection. It failed the fruit inspection, and as a result it felled under the judgment of God. Again, in reading Matthew's account of this, it would seem the tree immediately withered, but when including Mark's account, it was actually the next day that it withered. What happened was, when he cursed the fig tree, it died immediately, but the evidence of that exposed itself the next day. You have a tree that dies, some days you could be watering it again, and you know over-watering can be as bad for a plant as under-watering, don't tell me how I know.
Yes, one of our staff guys is guilty of that, and it's like, maybe it needs more water, and then you find out, oh, there's no hole under the bottom of this thing, and it's drowning. And so this fig tree died, and it was revealed the next day. Now what is the meaning of the fig tree?
What is the meaning? Because if Jesus is this the only other time he has a negative miracle that creates a some kind of destruction, wouldn't it seem that it carries a level of significance that should cause us all to pause and say, what is the meaning of that? That brings me to the fourth thought here today, the meaning of the fig tree. So the nation of Israel in the Old Testament was likened unto the fig tree. Jeremiah 8, Hosea 9, Nahum 3. Jesus came to the nation expecting fruit, but instead he only saw leaves without fruit.
They looked good on the outside, but they were corrupt inwardly. In Matthew chapter 15 verse 8 he says, This people draw near unto me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In Matthew 23 25 he says, You may clean the outside of the cup and platter.
You look good on the outside, in other words, but inwardly you're full of extortion. In Matthew 23 28 he says, You also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but you are within full of hypocrisy and iniquity. In the words of Paul in the book of Titus, they profess to know God, but in works they deny him. Jesus had warned them months ago the nation was living on borrowed time.
They were living on borrowed time. Back in Luke 13, if you actually jump over to Luke 13 with me, this is a passage of Scripture that's incredibly significant to understanding the weight of what I'm talking about. Look at Luke chapter 13.
In Luke 13 Jesus, this is several months before what we're reading about here in Matthew 21. In Luke 13 Jesus tells them in verse 3 and in verse 5, Except you repent you will perish. They had been asking him about people who die through tragedy. Like, do the people who die in a tragedy, did they sin more than other people? And Jesus says, No, I tell you except you repent, all of you will perish. And he's saying that everybody will come under the judgment of God, and those people did not do anything extra to bring about an early physical death, and Jesus turns it to the spiritual judgment that they need to be concerned about. So after he says this, he goes into a parable in verse 6. But before we go into that parable, I just want to talk about what repentance means. He said, Except you repent you'll perish. The word repent is from a Greek word that means to think differently, to change your mind about sin. To repent is literally to agree with God about your sin.
It is to say the same thing about your sin as God says about it. Repentance is getting heaven's view on evil and sin. You know, there is nothing more destructive to the planet than sin.
Nothing. Sin has brought ruin, death, destruction, disease, brokenness, everything that you see that is evil is from sin. The only remedy for the curse of sin, because it is a curse and it has stained and polluted everything, the only remedy is repentance. Repentance is the glorious pathway out of sin to God.
It is the road out of the mire into the presence of God. The person who repents is the blind man who sees, the lame man who walks, the dead man who's back to life. Repentance is the man who has been set free from the shackles of sin. And the Bible tells us repentance is given to us by God. Romans 2 4 says it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.
It amazes me the blessing, the greatest blessing in your life is to repent of your sin. That's why it amazes me that some preachers won't even preach about repentance. Jesus says, as many as I love I rebuke therefore be zealous and repent.
Repentance is a blessing because it turns us from that which will destroy us to that which will save us. That's why John the Baptist came preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's why Jesus said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
That's why in Acts 3, Peter at the beginning of the church said, repent and be converted that your sins would be blotted out. True saving faith does not exist apart from repentance. I've been amazed through the years that some people say you don't have to repent, you only have to believe. Well you have to believe, but true belief always equals repentance. There is no such thing as turning to Christ and not turning away from sin. There is no such thing in faith toward God and not repenting of sin. That's why in Acts 20 21 Paul says, I testify both to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
You cannot divorce them, they're joined together. In fact, heaven rejoices over one sinner that what? Repenteth. Repentance is likened unto and equal to true saving faith. Now the problem with the nation of Israel and its religious leaders is they chose not to repent. They wanted blessings from God and they wanted to hold on to the world of their sin.
And in Luke 13 6, Jesus gives them a parable after he tells them again and again they must repent. Verse 6, and he spake also this parable. He said a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came and sought fruit thereon and what was the problem?
And he found none. Then said he unto the dresser, or the person taking care of the fig tree in his garden. He said to the dresser of the vineyard, behold these three years I came seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none.
Cut it down. Why come birth at the ground? Do you find it fascinating that he says for three years he's been looking for fruit on the tree?
What do you think that's compared to? How long did Jesus minister? For three years he's been waiting for fruit, waiting for fruit, waiting for fruit. Now the owner of the vineyard is the Father, Jesus is the vine dresser, the vineyard is likened really unto the world and the fig tree is Israel. And so he came seeking fruit on the fig tree and finds none.
And what does the vine dresser in this situation would be? Jesus, verse 8, and he or the Lord is replying back to the Father and says let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung or fertilize it. Verse 9, and if it bear fruit well and if not then afterward thou shalt cut it down.
So what do we see here? The nation of Israel has been given an extension by grace. God is giving them some extra time. They're living on borrowed time and they're taking lightly the message of Christ.
And now he's come to the end of his ministry and that's why in Luke it says when he came to the city for the last time he wept over the city. He says because if you knew what is offered to you, but what did they do? They rejected him. Not only did they reject the Father and turn his house into a place of corruption, but they reject the Son who came to try to cleanse the temple. They rejected God over and over and over. They thought they were worshipping God, in fact they were rejecting him. They were living on borrowed time and judgment is impending. And except they repent and see real fruit in their life, God's judgment will come.
Listen, leaves are not enough. They had leaves without fruit, religion without truth, the external without the internal, performance without true piety. Note in Mark 11 20 it said how the tree dried up from the roots. Three years before this John the Baptist said the axe is laid to the root of the tree.
He says, therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn or cut down and cast into the fire. And what did the nation do? Did they believe it? No. They did not believe it.
They heard it but they did nothing with it. So several months before we come to Matthew 21 Jesus does that. He said that. And so when he comes into the city and he's hungry and he sees a fig tree, and he curses the fig tree, and he goes in that morning and cleanses the corrupt and pollute temple, and they come back the next morning and the fig tree's dead, what do you think it's pointing to? It's not about the fig tree.
Hint. It's about the judgment of God coming on a nation that is bearing no fruit. You don't have any fruit?
You will be broken off. Romans 11. The natural branch was broken off that the wild olive could be grafted in. Romans 11. Who is the wild olive tree? It's you Gentiles.
That's us-ins. Look at verse 43 chapter 20 Matthew 21. Look what he says in verse 43. Therefore say I unto you the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. Anybody thankful that the grace of God has extended salvation to Gentiles? Right?
You were on the outside. Now is God done with the Jews? The answer is no. Has the church replaced Israel?
No. The Bible says in Romans 11 that all Israel shall be saved. It says because you've been grafted in, it says if the if the falling away of the Jews be the salvation of the Gentiles, what shall be the salvation of the Jews be but reconciling of the world? So when you come to the seven-year tribulation, what do you find in Revelation 7? A hundred and forty-four thousand, twelve thousand Jews from every tribe of Israel, and then you see a host of people. And so the tribulation, the seven-year tribulation, has two purposes. One, judgment of the world. Two, national salvation of the Jewish people. The 70th week of Daniel will be fulfilled in that Daniel 9 will be fulfilled verse 27 through 30.
All Israel will be saved. That's why at the end of Romans 11, Paul breaks forth in his doxology, oh the riches of his grace and his goodness, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? For of him and through him and to him are all things. Paul just begins to worship God because he sees now that salvation was open to the Gentiles, it rejected the gospel, it's now given to the Jews or the the Gentile people, the Jews rejected it, it now opened up to the Gentiles, but one day all the Jews will be saved. God will bring them back to himself.
Romans 10, Romans 11 both speak of clearly. So what are some lessons we can take from this? What are some lessons we can take from this? You know, when God removed his hand from the nation of Israel, you know what happened about less than 40 years after this? Israel was surrounded by the Roman armies. 1.1 million Jews were killed. They came and destroyed the Jewish people and leveled the temple. They would not cleanse the temple, it was the most beautiful building, they would not cleanse it, and God let it be destroyed. So let me give you three lessons from the fig tree.
Three lessons from the fig tree. First of all, you need to know this, Jesus will examine our lives. Jesus is going to examine our lives. 2 Corinthians 5 10 says, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every man may receive the things done in his body, whether they be good or bad. Bad, there it isn't talking about sinful bad, it's talking about worthless. Worthy works and worthless works. There are things you do in life that you will be rewarded for and things in life that will matter not.
It was just a waste of your time. Romans 4 10 says, why do you judge your brother? Why do you set it not your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.
So then every one of us, verse 12 says, shall give an account of himself to God. We'll all be there. Are you living a life that is bearing fruit for the glory of God? Are you living a life that is ready for that day? Listen, inspection day's coming.
It is coming. You must know that. Most Christians are pretty diligent about making sure their physical examinations are being done. They go to the doctor, they make sure their body's taken care of. All that's good. It's important to do. I'm so thankful for our medical community. I'm so thankful for doctors and nurses that we have in our church and those who serve in that capacity.
That's all good. But can I say this? Much more important than examining yourself physically is to make sure that you are spiritually healthy. The world is only concerned about their physical health. What do you think God's most concerned about? Your spiritual health.
Which one are you most concerned about? The second truth is not only is inspection day coming and Jesus will inspect fruit in our lives, but secondly, He expects to find fruit. Leaves without fruit is insufficient. Leaves profess life, but fruit reveals the reality of it. Leaves are not enough.
Fruit is necessary. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 7. He says, every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn or cut down and cast into the fire. Verse 20, wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. He does not say, wherefore by their words you shall know them.
There's a lot of people who can talk and talk, but their life does not match up with their lips. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him. That's why Jesus says in the very next verse, in verse 21, not everyone who sayeth unto me. I love the King James Bible. I'm not a King James only guy, but one thing I greatly appreciate about the King James Bible is when they put these little I-T-H's or E-T-H's, this little thing right here, they didn't talk that way back in the 16th, 17th century, but they did that because that lets you know that that is a present continual action.
It's something that's going on and it continues to go on. You could read it like this, not everyone who keeps saying to me, Lord, Lord, it's the way they keep, they say it throughout their life, not just once, but their life they say that I'm their Lord. It's not the person who always says that I'm their Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that notice what's added here. You don't get, again, there's a lot of great translations, but I'm telling you this is one benefit of having the old English there.
It'll let these markers highlight some of those things. They do, they don't just do it one time, but their life is defined by doing the will of their Father which is in heaven. So what you find according to Jesus, it's not a profession that saves you, it is the revelation of your life that reveals true salvation. It doesn't mean your works save you, it means your works reveal you. If the root is real, the fruit will be real. If you're truly saved, you'll truly work, because if Christ comes in, He comes out.
It will be revealed in your life. Leaves without fruit, profession without fruit is meaningless. Not everyone who calls on the Lord shall be saved. You can call on Him and not be saved.
That's why Jesus says, not everyone who calls me, Lord, is going to heaven. I would ask you, does your life define your faith or does your lips? Do people in your life see fruit in your life that evidences you're a Christian or is your fruit lacking? So let me come to this and ask the question, what is fruit? Because I remember growing up and people would say, you need to have fruit in your life, and preachers would say, if you don't have fruit in your life, and they talk about that, I'm like, what is fruit? You're telling me I need to have fruit? What is it? It's this abstract word, like, I know what it means in the physical side of it, like, hey, there's an apple or an orange or something like that, but spiritually, tell me what it is.
Anybody ever feel like that? Like, can you put this into—look at you, all afraid to answer, you're like, yeah, no, I never thought that, preacher, what are you talking about? So what is fruit? Let me—well, if you don't have a question about it, then we'll just skip that whole—so let me give you some things on fruit.
Let me answer that. The easiest way—and I'm gonna explain this and walk through some things and show you some tangible ways this works itself out—the easiest way I can define fruit is this. Fruit is when what you read in the scriptures becomes true in your life. Fruit is when the truths of the Bible become true in your life.
What you read here can be read here. The truths here begin to hang off of your life. So what are some things that should be found in our life? The first, would it not be that I love God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength? That means that my life should have the fruit defined by I love God most and I don't love the world. That's why 1 John 2 15 through 17 says, Love not the world, neither the things in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So my life should be defined and people should see that the fruit of my life is a life that is in love with God, that he is the primary leader of my life, the joy of my life, the longing of my life. Secondly, you desire the glory of God in your life. 1 Corinthians 10 31, Whether you eat or drink, whatever you do is for his glory. Thirdly, you give God the most worship or the most weight in your life.
The word worship carries the idea of giving God weight, the authority, the most reverence. Number four, you love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus said, A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another by this shall all men know you're my disciples.
By the love you have one for another. The way you can evidence that you're a Christian and a fruit that should be real in your life is you love your brothers and sisters in Christ. That's why there is no such thing as a Christian by himself. If you're watching online and you're sick, I'm so thankful you can watch online. If you're not able to be here because you're working and you work in some place where you're, you have to, you know, we got people in law enforcement, we got people in health fields, somebody's got to do those jobs and sometimes there's those rotations, I'm so thankful you can do that. But if you're just sitting at home and you know you can be here, there's no way you can minister to the saints by yourself at home.
You can't do that. The word church, ekklesia, means the called-out assemble together. My finger doesn't live by itself. This is designed to do things in my life. What my finger can do when I was like two years old, I don't, right? Some of those two-year-olds, they use this for wrong reasons, picking their nose or flicking their sister, but you use your body, your whole body, it all works together. It ministers to yourself.
That's the body of Christ. You're to love one another. One of the other ways of fruit in your life is to love your neighbor as yourself. What's the greatest way you can love your neighbor?
This last week we gave a challenge. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, or am I? But if you were to invite your neighbor out, did you do that? Did you reach out to them? I had most of my neighbors where I was living at before, we would have them over to the house, get to know them, share Christ with them.
It's important. Reach out to them. Have a meal with them. Tell them about Christ.
Tell them about what God's done in your life. Another way you can evidence fruit is by repenting of sin and living for God. It's to turn away from sin and turn to God.
Whenever you give up sin, that's an evidence of a fruit in your life, because you're saying, God, I value you more than this sin in my life. Another way is you love the Word of God and you long to know it. Job 23 12 says, neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips, I've esteemed his words more than my necessary food. You love the Word of God. You study to show yourself approved unto God. The Word of God is a treasure to you. Do you love the Word of God?
Is it evidenced in your life? Every Christian here should be involved in like a small group, you should be involved in here journals, whether at your house or here on Sunday nights at five if you're not. So important. You need to be in a life group. You need to be back Wednesday night. We're going through the book of Proverbs.
So important to plug into that kind of stuff. Daily in the Word of God. Number eight, you desire to please God over pleasing men. Your aim in life is not to be accepted by men, your aim in life is to be accepted by God.
You want to please him. You want to hear God say, well done, now good and faithful servant. And another way to have fruit in your life is you have a burden for lost souls. Because you follow Jesus, you fish for men. You tell others of Christ because he is most valuable to you.
You agree with Paul in Romans 10, brother, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they might be saved. Number 10, you're open about Christ instead of silent. You confess Christ to others, you're not ashamed of him.
That's a fruit. Another fruit is that you trust God. You're a Proverbs 3 person, you trust him with all of your heart.
You don't live in doubt of God, you don't keep questioning him, you trust him. Another way that you have fruit is your life is defined by humility instead of pride, as 1 Corinthians 5 speaks of. Your life is content instead of covetous. You're thankful instead of complaining, Ephesians 5 20. You're selfless instead of selfish, 1 Corinthians 13. You're loving instead of hateful, Matthew 5 44. You forgive instead of live in bitterness, Ephesians 4 31 and 2. You're generous instead of greedy, Romans 12 13. You're faithful instead of inconsistent.
You have a faith in God instead of doubting God. You're pure instead of lustful, Ephesians 4 22. You're plugged into church instead of being unfaithful to church.
You value the assembling of the Saints. You obey the command to assemble together, as Hebrews 10 25 says. You minister to the body of Christ instead of doing nothing to build it up. 1 Peter 4 10 says, as you've received a gift, minister to the body. There are some Christians that don't attend church and they think they're going to be one day standing before God hearing, well done thou good and faithful servant. You're a finger or a body part that is that has removed itself from the physical ministering one to another. Over 50 times in the New Testament one another is used of the church ministering to each other. There is no such thing as being a Christian by yourself outside of the body of Christ. You can be saved and not be in a church, but if you're saved you're gonna end up in a church.
It's not a physical building, it's the assembling of the Saints together. You help others grow. How can you help others grow if you're not apart?
That's why again if there's people who who find themselves content watching online, that should that should rivet your soul. I can tell you God will inspect that in a person's life and it will be found wanting. Just look at Jesus, did he stay away from people? What did the early church do?
They were together. We have this this idea that again when I divorce myself from the Word of God and the truth of God I begin to define truth by myself, I become the standard, and I now define the way I'm going to serve God based on my standards. Ask Cain how that worked. Cain said, God I'm gonna offer you this how I want to offer it, and God says it's not acceptable. But Cain's sincere.
Sincerity doesn't matter. Sincerity divorced from truth is idolatry. It's paganism. And Cain went out and killed his brother instead of getting right with God. He's gonna serve God on his terms. Well you're not the God Cain. There's one God and it's not you.
Adam and Eve like, hey we're gonna make a bunch of fig leaves and cover ourselves. God says that's not good enough. You sinned, your covering isn't sufficient.
I'm gonna make a coat of skins and cover you. Death is required. The death of innocence is required to cover the sins of the guilty.
You understand? God bases judgment of our life on what He says, not on what we think. We better make sure our lives are lined up with the truth, amen?
Now how do I bear fruit? I'm gonna wrap this up. John 15 4. Jesus said, abide in me. It's a Greek word, meno.
He used it like eleven times in this chapter. Abide in me, abide in me, abide in me. He says, abide in me and I knew as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abides in the vine. No more can you except you abide in me.
He said, I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. So how do you abide in Christ?
Again, it seems like some kind of a abstract thing. I abide in Christ by abiding in the Word. You want to grow? Grow in the Word and you'll grow in Christ. Christ called himself the Logos, the Word of God.
On his names written, the Word of God in Revelation 19. You want to grow in him? Grow in the Word of God. It's what defines him. It's what gives us his commands, guidance, truth. That's why John 15 7 says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you'll ask what you will and it will be done. How do you know you're abiding in Christ? His words abide in you. That's why at the end of the week, if you could say, I haven't really read this week, how you gonna be abiding in him? How you gonna be fruitful? And if you're not abiding in a word, then I can tell you've prioritized something less.
And as a fellow fig tree, I'm just saying, plug into the vine. He will inspect you. He's going to check out your life.
Just know that. He says in John 15 8, here it is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit so shall you be my disciple. And then lastly, the fruit of our lives will result in God's judgment of our lives.
Judgment will either be blessing upon us or he will bring judgment cursing upon us. Matthew 25 gives a story about three different stewards, three different disciples, and it's a picture of Jesus giving different gifts, different responsibilities out. One man received five talents, it was a sum of money.
One received two talents and another received one. The Bible says in Matthew 25 verse 19, after a long time the Lord of those servants comes and reckons with them. The first guy doubled what the Lord gave him. And in Matthew 25 21, his Lord said in him, well done now good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things, I'll make you ruler over many things, enter into the joy of your Lord. When your faithful judgment day is the best day of your eternity, you'll stand before God and he will bless you and bless you. Well done now good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over little things. Let me tell you how eternally blessed you're going to be because of what you did in that little vapor length lifetime that you chose to put me first to love me, and I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do for you forever.
Live for that. The second man comes and it says that he was faithful with two talents, two different amounts of money, and he doubled it. And his Lord said in him, well done good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over a few things, I'll make you ruler over many things, enter into the joy of the Lord. I think judgment day should be the greatest day we look forward to that day. We all know man, I've fallen short, I've not lived like I should, but I love Jesus and I want to serve him.
I'm going to tell you God will bless your life forever. When I read Hebrews 11, it's the Hall of Faith. Those guys in Hebrews 11 made all kinds of mistakes, but when you come to Hebrews 11, none of their mistakes are highlighted, only their faith is highlighted. All their faults are covered in grace and all their faith is elevated incredibly. One day when you stand before God, it's not your faults that are going to be judged, it's your faith that's going to be judged, and what did you do for him?
And then lastly, look what happens, there's a third guy who did nothing. And in Matthew 25 26, Jesus says you are a wicked and lazy servant. Jesus calls a man wicked and lazy, and he tried to make every excuse why he wasn't faithful, and none of it flew. And in Matthew 25 30, Jesus says, cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Faithfulness, incredibly blessed, lazy Christianity that evidence is actually no Christianity because there's no real fruit, eternally judged.
When you come to God, it is extreme on both ends. And today let me ask you, what does the fruit of your life say about the faith of your life? If you're here today and you say, you know what, Pastor Josh, I I know that I'm not maybe where I need to be, but I love Jesus and God knows it and I know I'm saved, not because I'm good enough, because He's graciously saved me, but I need to be more fruitful.
I've not been placed in Him as the priority I need to. Today, listen, at your seat at an altar, why don't you just humble yourself before Him and say, God forgive me, let me detach from some of the things of the world so that I can attach my heart more fully to you. Cleanse my heart of any of these idols that want to come in and take your place. Inspection day's coming, friends, it is, it is. You're not gonna hear this on Fox, you're not gonna hear this on definitely on MSNBC, you're not gonna hear this on the news, you're not gonna hear these kind of things, but you will hear it from the Word of God. This is so important for us to hear. As we get caught up with all the stuff that goes in the world and things the world makes a big deal of, Jesus says, no, this is a big deal.
This is what you really need to be worried about. And if you're here today, you say, pastor, if I stood before God, I'm not sure if I'd be in heaven. I'm not sure that heaven's my home.
We'll have men and women down front, I'll be down front. Listen, today you can do the same thing as that young 22-year-old did. Give your life to Christ. Nothing more important. And you know when you come to Jesus, He's not angry with you. He is, He is not ready to bring judgment on you. He is ready to extend compassion and grace and forgiveness. He puts a safety lock on His judgment and a trigger finger on His grace, and He extends grace so fast to those who would come to Him in humble repentance.
Repentance, you know what that means? God, I want you more than my sin. I love you more than what the world offers me. I want to live for you. You be the Lord of my life. You sit on the throne of my heart, and today, if you're not saved, why don't you come and trust in Christ? Would you stand this morning with His about nice clothes?
