If someone asked me what preaching
was, I would probably say the best way I can describe it is
to go hear Joe Terrell. Really. Really and honestly. I'm truthful about that. I've
told Joe this. Preaching is one of the strangest things. And he's strange. To be honest
with you, he's strange. But, you know, when Joe's up
here preaching, you don't realize, sometimes you don't even realize, until he's finished, or maybe
you got out of the building, that I heard a message. I heard
more than just a bunch of facts. Scriptures comparing to Scripture.
I heard a message. That's what preaching is. Preaching
to my heart. You know, it may be from somebody
like this that's just stumbling along and reading a note or two
and commenting on it and going on and fiddling for phrases and
finding words. I like your preaching, Joe. I'm
honest. I'm just honest. If you ask me
what preaching is, I would just say go hear Joe Turrell. Thank you, ladies. Bless your
heart. I tell you what, I've eaten enough
food through the years that you ladies have fixed for me. And
it's always good. I could not believe yesterday
when I saw that table. And no room on it, no other room. And they said, well, we've got
more food in there, but no room to put it. It's putting on these
conferences, boys, tough. And we wouldn't, I wouldn't be
here if it wasn't for you ladies. We wouldn't have a conference
if it wasn't for you ladies, you know. Yeah. I hope that what I've got to
say this morning would be appropriate. This is one of the most solemn
parables our Master ever preached to us, I think. It's found in
Luke chapter 13. It's such an awakened parable. And one of the things I like
about the parables is that it It grants us the right sorta
to use our imaginations. You know, when you go read in
the epistles, you're just reading plain doctrine, plain instruction. But when you come to these parables,
you can use your imagination. You can learn from them. You
can get into them and say, look at that, now what's this about?
And that's what this parable is here. The Lord Jesus had been
preaching And some people, some Jews had come to him and they
said, did you hear about what happened up in Galilee? Some
folks up there worshipping and Pilate sent some soldiers up
there and went right into where they were worshipping and killed
them. And mingled their blood with the sacrifices they were
offering to God. And we thought these were good
people, but boy, these must have been real bad people. A bunch
of hypocrites and so on. And the Lord Jesus said, Do you
suppose that they were sinners above all the Galileans because
they suffered such things? No. But if you don't repent,
you'll perish. And there was a tower, Salome,
that was built at Salome, and it fell and killed 18 people.
And they said, Boy, these must have been awful, awful people.
And he said, No. No worse than anybody else. And if you don't
repent, you'll perish. And that's the context of this
parable that the Lord Jesus spoke to them in verse 6. Luke chapter
13 and verse 6. He spake also this parable, a
certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. And he came
and sought fruit thereon and found none. Then said he unto
the dresser of the vineyard, Behold, these three years I come
seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down. Why clumbereth it the ground? Why did it just take up space? And he answered unto him, Lord,
let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and
fertilize it, dung it, and if it bear fruit, well, and if not,
then, after that, you shall cut it down. Now, this is a parable. You can imagine it, can't you?
Here's a man who has a vineyard, big trees planted in his vineyard. He comes for three years and
seeking through the leaves of this tree to find fruit on it.
Beautiful tree. Leaves are beautiful. The bark
is beautiful. But he looks beyond that and
he peels back the leaves and the branches and seeking for
fruit. Looks in the bogs, the uttermost
bogs of the top. He says, there's none here. And
he does that three years. And there's a dresser there,
the dresser of the vineyard, the keeper of the vineyard, the
one that tills it and fertilizes it. And he says to this keeper,
why is this tree still here? It's just taken up space. I've
searched for fruit and there's none on it. Cut it down. And
the keeper pleads for the tree. The keeper stands between the
owner and the tree. and says, let me keep it one
more year. And let me dig about the roots
and loosen up the roots. And let me fertilize it. More
effort put into it. And then, if it bear fruit, well,
it'll be good for the owner. It'll be good for the dresser.
And it'll be good for the tree. It'll be well. But if not, Thou
shalt cut it down. And you know, we don't know how
this parable ends. Right here, if we stay right here in the
parable, we're left wondering, and that's good. That's good. This parable is meant to awaken
us to see if we have fruit. I want to look at this from two
aspects, and I want you to turn to a couple of passages of Scripture
with me. I want you to look to Isaiah
chapter 5. If you want to put a hold on that, you can, but
look in Isaiah chapter 5. I want to look at this from two
aspects. First of all, I want to look at it as it applies to
the nation of Israel. That's the first ones that this
parable applies to, because He was preaching to them. And I
think we can prove this from these two passages, but I think
it's needful here just to prove first who this is to, and see
how it affected them. In Isaiah chapter 5, and look
here all the way back in verse 1, I will sing to my well-beloved
a song, and of my well-beloved touching his vineyard, My well
beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. That would be
the land of Canaan. And he fenced it and gathered
out the stones thereof, and planted it with a choicest vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress
therein. And he looked that it should
bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you men of Judah, judge, I pray
you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more
to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I
looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild
grapes? And now, go to, I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof,
and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof,
and it shall be trodden down, and I will lay it waste, and
it shall not be pruned, nor digged, but there shall come up briars
and thorns. I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it." Now look at this, "...for the
vineyard of the LORD, of host, is the house of Israel." and
the men of Judah his pleasant plant. And he looked for judgment,
but behold, oppression, for righteousness, and behold, a cry." This parable
is first of all spoken to the Jewish nation. And God brought
them out of the land of bondage into the land of Canaan. My, he gave them prophets, He
gave them His laws, He gave them His promises, His covenants,
His prophecies, and what happened? They abused it all. As a nation,
He said, when I come looking for mercy and for judgment, all
I found was oppression. I came looking for truth and
all I found was lies. Came looking for trust in me
and all I found was self-trust in you. He came looking. Look in another passage in the
New Testament, in Matthew chapter 21. Matthew's gospel chapter
21. Here's where the Lord Jesus applies
it to the Jews of His day. And these are parables. We don't
establish doctrine by parables. We have to be careful when we
read parables. You have to know just how much
pressure to apply to get the good out of it. If you start
squeezing too hard, you'll get blood. So we can't squeeze it
too hard, but they're really self-explanatory. Though we don't
establish doctrine by them, we can learn so much from them.
And here is the same parable like that he tells us who he's
talking to and who he's talking to. Verse 33 in Matthew 21. Here
another parable. There was a certain householder
which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, digged
a winepress in it, and built a tower, and led it out to husbandmen,
and went it to a far country. And when the time of the fruit
drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandman, that they
might receive the fruit of it. And the husbandman took his servants,
and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he
sent forth other servants more than the first, and they did
unto them likewise. But last of all he sent to them
his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen
saw the Son, they said among themselves, This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and
slew him. When the Lord of the vineyard
therefore cometh, what will he do unto these husbandmen? And
they said unto them, He will miserably destroy those wicked
men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which
will render to him the fruit, in their season. And Jesus said
unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures the stone which
the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?
This is the Lord's doing, and marvelous in our eyes. Therefore
say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you,
and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruit thereof. And
whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on
whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder. And the
chief priests and Pharisees, when they heard this parable,
they perceived that He spake of them." This parable was to
them. It's to the nation of Israel.
And when John the Baptist came preaching in Luke chapter 3,
the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what He said to
the nation of Israel. O generation of vipers, who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath of God, bring forth therefore
fruit worthy of repentance. And don't begin to say within
yourself, we've got Abraham to our father. God's able of these
stones to raise up fruit unto Abraham. And then He made this
statement. He said, The axe is laid unto the root of the tree. And every tree which brings not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." Now,
there's a lot of you here on this mountain. You know something
about logging. You know something about cutting
down trees. You can cut down a tree, and if you leave the
stump there, all these sprouts will come out of it. If you ain't
careful, you'll have another tree, a bunch of trees. But if
you get at the root, if you pull that root out, that's
it. It won't come back. And John
says to the nation of Israel, listen. The axe of justice has
already been lifted, and it's been swung down, and it's at
the very root. And God is coming searching on
your tree of profession. And if he doesn't find fruit
on it, the axe is ready to slice the root out, and you'll be gone
as a nation. That's what he's telling us.
All through the Old Testament, God was so patient with Israel.
worked with them, labored with them. Here comes John the Baptist
and warns them of their barrenness. All through the book of Acts
you see the Holy Spirit working with the apostles, Paul always
coming back to this nation. And for three years Jesus Christ
labored among this nation. And you know something? After 40 years, after our Lord
Jesus had preached to them 40 years, this tree was cut down. By the roots. By the roots. It still is cut down. Is it not? If we didn't have history and
if we didn't have the epistles of Paul, you and I would have
never known what happened to this tree that was barren. But
listen to what Paul tells us about it. He was speaking of
the Jews in 1 Thessalonians 2 and he said they killed the Lord
Jesus. and their own prophets, and they have persecuted us,
they please not God, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that
might be saved, to fill up their sins always, for the wrath of
God is come upon them to the uttermost." He cut them down. He cut this nation down. How true the prophecy of John. The axe is laid unto the root. Man, this is one of the most
solemn parables that I think the Lord Jesus ever spoke. And
I think the Apostle Paul knew this parable. He knew what it
meant. I think that's why he kept coming
back to the nation of Israel. The axe is at the root. I have
this continuous sorrow in my heart for them. I pray for them. They are my people. Oh, God have
mercy upon Israel. Save Israel. Oh, they have a zeal of God,
but not according to knowledge. They cast the Word of God behind
their back. All they have is their tradition,
the commandments of men. Oh, God save Israel. Why was
he so anxious? He saw the axe at the very root
of the tree. If it bring forth fruit, well,
but if not, then, then. And I imagine this then, rang
in this apostle's head, then, after that, after that, there's
no use. After the ax comes to the root
and slices it asunder, there's no use. When the Lord Jesus came to this
nation, they knew nothing about the gospel of substitution. After
they had the Old Testament, all the shatters and tops, and they
knew nothing about the gospel of substitution. The Lord Jesus
preached to them, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood,
you have no life in you. And they said, this is too hard
for me. This is a hard saying, who can hear this? And they were
offended in Him and went back to walk no more with Him at all. The chief theologian of their
day, when the Lord Jesus said, You must be born again or you
cannot see or enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The Master of Israel
said, How can these things be? A new birth? Being born again? He was a man who studied the
Old Testament Scriptures all of his life, and he was teaching
everybody else, and he never knew anything about the necessity
of being born again, because he didn't know what he was the
first birth. He had no idea where the source
of that new birth was. From above, born of the Holy
Spirit, born of God. How can this be? And he had no
idea of the fruit of it. Are you a new creature? If you are born again, you are
a new creature. You can see the glory of God
in Christ. You can see yourself accepted
in Him. Your sin is forgiven. You can
see. But until you are born again,
you cannot see. He said, I have no idea what
you are talking about. He was in this vineyard and he was as
barren as he could be. The Lord Jesus said to him one
day, he said, I know you. I know you. I'm the keeper of
this vineyard. I'm here among you. I know you.
I have searched your hearts. I know your thoughts. I know
what you think about me. I know what you think about my
father. I know what you think about yourself.
I know you. Other people exalt you. They
look at you and they envy you. They look at you and they say,
well, I wanna be like those Pharisees and scribes. But he said, I know
you. You have not the love of God
in you. You don't have any fruit. And
the ax is laid unto the root of the tree. Our Lord Jesus,
for three years, he dug about this vineyard, fertilized it.
by preaching and miracles and examples to no avail. To no avail. Three things about
this vineyard, the nation of Israel. One, as a nation they
were fruitless. Absolutely fruitless. He came
seeking for fruit and found none. God who sees everything says,
I see nothing. When I look at them, I see nothing.
No fruit. The second thing about this was
this. He said it just cumbers the ground. It just obstructs
other trees from producing fruit. Takes up sap and moisture and
fertilizer. Just cumbers the ground. The
Jews as a nation had the greatest opportunity to get the truth
and light to the Gentile world. And did they do it? They could
have represented God because they had the truth right in their
writings. And boy, they bragged. They said,
we're guides of the blind. We know God's will. We're instructed
in the law. We're Jews. We're Jews. Yeah, Paul said you're Jews.
You teach other people you shall not steal, but you steal yourself.
You teach other people you shouldn't worship idols, but you commit
sacrilege all the time. Other people that you teach you
need to honor God and you dishonor Him. And the name of God is blasphemed
through you. You deserve to be cut down. You're
just cumbering the ground. You're no profit to yourself
or others. That's what he tells them. Thirdly about this is this. This is an amazing thing. Christ's
labor among this nation was in vain. Let me alone. Let me dig about it and let me
fertilize it. That's labor, isn't it? You that
have the flower gardens and you that have the vegetable gardens,
you know what work it is to take care of a garden. You dig about
it, you plow it, you dung it, you water it. That's what this
dresser is saying here. Let me dig and dung it for one
year. If it bear fruit, well, if not,
if not. And we know now it didn't. It
didn't. The Lord Jesus was said to rebuke
the cities wherein most of His mighty work was done, because
they repented not. He said, Woe to you, Chorazin!
Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the mighty works which have
been done in you by Me had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they
would have repented long ago. You've got privileges I never
gave to them. They'd have repented. But you
didn't. Again He said, "...Woe to you,
Capernaum, which are exalted unto heaven! You shall be brought
down to hell. For if the mighty works done
in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this
day." And he said again, the men of
Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation of Jews
and shall condemn it because they repented. The queen of the
south's gonna rise up and condemn you. She came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And I'm greater
than Solomon. He got all his wisdom from me.
I'm the source of wisdom. And you won't hear me. If another
come, you'd hear him. You won't hear me. Isn't this sobering? One of the
most sobering things the Lord Jesus made, a statement that
He made in Isaiah 49, verse 4, and I'd never say this if He
hadn't said it. But here's what He said concerning
His miracles and His preaching and His example among the Jewish
nation in His time. Then said He, I have labored
in vain. I have spent my strength for
naught and in vain. That's what he said. I'm not
saying that. That's what he said. He was the tiller of this vineyard.
Though he had done so many miracles among them, yet they believed
not. We've been talking about, some
of the brethren have been talking about the responsibility of man. I
believe that. That's not just a phrase with
me, brothers and sisters. I believe that. Men are responsible. That's what this parable is teaching
us. Men are responsible. This is to the Jews first. Three
years he labored and digged about it, and as a nation, boy, they
were cut down. If it bear fruit, well. If not,
cut it down. Secondly, I want to apply this
to the church age. And I think it fits well in the
church age. And I think so many things that
are said about the Jewish nation can be said about the church
age. A certain man, you often find this in the parables and
so many times, that's depicting God. You read the parables and
you find such things as this. He spake a parable, a certain
man made a great supper. He represents God as a man to
us so that He can relate to us. Jesus spake this parable and
said the kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which
made a marriage for his son. There's a father making a marriage
for Christ, his son. The vineyard, what is that? Well,
I think it's represented here as the local church, the visible
church. I'm a local church man, aren't
you? We're in a universal church, I know that. All of us here tonight
from different places and we're all in the body of Christ. But
there's local churches. Paul wrote unto the local churches.
The Lantana Grace Church. This is the local church. This
is the vineyard of the Lord. But it's a visible vineyard. You can see it, can't you? Your
tree's planted in this vineyard. That's what this parable represents.
Here in our parable, it's said to be God's vineyard. His vineyard. His vineyard. Why
is it called a vineyard? Well, let me just answer that
by some questions, by some scriptures, plain scriptures. Listen to this.
Those who are in this vineyard are called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified. Isaiah 61.3. the branch of my planning, the
work of my hands, that I may be glorified." Isaiah 60, 21. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God, and
they shall still bring forth fruit in their old age. Jeremiah
17, 7. And listen to this. Blessed is
the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope is in the Lord
his God. For he shall be as a tree planted
by waters, and shall spread forth his roots by the river, and shall
not see heat when it cometh. But his leaves shall be green,
and he shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither
shall cease to yield fruit." Herein is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit. Trees, and there's some things
in these passages you probably didn't take time to notice them,
but there's some things that he told us in those passages.
The Lord himself plants the trees in his vineyards. The planting
of the Lord. And they bring forth fruit. Even
in their old age they bring forth fruit. Grace will make you bring
forth fruit in your old age. And it's for God's glory that
the Lord may be glorified. So here is the vineyard. And
the Father plants trees in His vineyard. And they bring forth
fruit. But here we have a tree that
was barren. He was a burnt tree in His vineyard. This is where it comes, a search
in parable, isn't it? We're all here this morning in
the vineyard. We're taking unto us the name
of God. We're professing the name of
Jesus Christ. We're in His vineyard. I profess
to belong to Him. I profess He's my God. Then He
is going to come searching for fruit. to see if I have any. Who is this fig tree? He's someone
who professes to be in the visible church of God. He's in this vineyard. He's taken
upon himself to say, I am truly redeemed. I believe in Jesus
Christ the Lord. He owns me, and I own Him. I profess Him, some more than
others, but they profess to be in this vineyard. And yet, they're
fruitless. They have no fruit. They're in
the vineyard, but they have no fruit. Well, it's obvious that
God didn't plant them, because everyone He plants brings forth
fruit. But here was a tree in the vineyard,
and yet when God sought fruit on it, He said, I find none there.
How did it get in the vineyard? Let me give you two or three
ways it got in the vineyard. First, Satan planted it there. The Lord Jesus spake another
parable. He said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man
which sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept, His
enemies came and sowed tars among the wheat and went His way. And then He turned right around
and said, The enemy that sowed them is the devil. Would God
allow Satan to plant tars? To plant a tree in His visible
vineyards? The man Christ had them in His
day, didn't He? He had one among His own twelve. Call him a devil. And he said,
You're of your father the devil. He's planted you. That's what
he told the Jews in that day, wasn't it? Satan plants trees
in God's visible kingdom. Don't be surprised that God allows
him to do that. Sometimes the ministers of the
Lord plants them in our haste. In our haste to get a profession,
in our haste to get a convert, we plant them. Poor Philip went down to Samaria
and preached Christ unto them, and there was a man come to him
that was mixed up in this sorcery, magic. And he said, Philip, I
believe. And Philip said, good, I'll baptize
you. Baptized him, and Peter come down, and this guy said,
I'll give you money if you'll give me the Holy Ghost, and let
me give him to whoever I wanted. And Peter said, man, you're in
the gall of bitterness. The pods of iniquities, your heart is
not right with God. How come you're in this vineyard?
Philip put me here. He baptized me. In that very
same chapter, Philip ran into the Ethiopian Union, preached
Christ to him. And he said, here's water, what
hinders me to be baptized? And boy, Philip's mind went back
to the saucer. And he said, here's what hinders
you from being planted in your profession in this vineyard.
This is a heart thing, man. This is a heart thing. This is
not just a mental assent of your mind that you're agreeing with
what I've just preached to you. But if you believe with all your
heart. Why did he say that? He had done
put a fellow in the vineyard before that was a barren victory. Sometimes men put themselves
in this vineyard by their own free will. They admit it. They
admit it. I'm here by my own free will.
I got a free will and I've exercised it and I'm here by my own will.
There was a man came to the Lord Jesus one day and he said, Lord,
I'm gonna follow you wherever you go. Man, you better be careful,
dude. You got the power to do that.
You got the will to do that, to follow me wherever I'm going?
I'm going to a garden to sweat blood. You want to go with me?
You able to go there? I'm going to the judgment hall
to give my back to smiters. You going with me? I'm going
to the cross to suffer shame and spitting. You going there? All these men that brag about
how they decided for Christ. And they planted themselves into
God's vineyard by their own free will. Well, you better be careful.
When you take God's name upon you, He is going to come looking
for fruit. And He doesn't see the pretty
leaves or the beautiful bark. He looks beyond all of that.
And He looks for real fruit. And if a man doesn't have it,
he exposes himself to the acts of justice. I don't know who planted this
tree, but it had no fruit. What does this tell us? This tells us this, brothers
and sisters, this is the short of it. There was one thing, you
can narrow this down to one thing that this tree was like. This
professor was lacking this, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. That's what he was lacking. He
had no fruits of the Spirit. When God came looking for love,
there was none there. You know the first fruit of the
Spirit? Love. Perfect love. The love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us. You say, Bruce, I'm a believer,
but I don't have the Holy Spirit. That's my whole problem. No,
if you're a true believer, you have the Holy Spirit. You can't
believe without the Holy Spirit. And if He's in your heart, then
there's fruit there. You love God, you love the Lord
Jesus, you love the brethren, and you love forgiveness. And the more you're forgiven,
the more you love. That was their problem. Could
there be somebody here this morning, and God is gonna search your
heart, and all he finds there is hate, disbarred knowledge, bitterness, grudges, And His
love isn't there. The love of God is not in your
heart. Love? Joy? Joy? Are you rejoicing in Christ Jesus? Are you rejoicing that you're
in Christ Jesus? Are you rejoicing that God has
put you in Him? God has planted you in Him? Are
you rejoicing in Christ? Then God sees it. That's what
God's looking for. He sees the joy and the peace. Love, joy, and peace. Boy, down deep in your heart
if you're here this morning and God has planted you in this vineyard.
I tell you what, when He comes looking and searching in your
heart, here's the thing that He's going to find. His peace
is in your heart. Peace, peace, wonderful peace. My peace I leave with you. My
peace I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled.
I don't know how people get by in this world without the peace
of God in their hearts. I was somewhere and I saw this
painted. And it was a painting of a huge cliff on the edge of
the ocean. And these huge waves, you could
tell they were large and they were dashing against those cliffs. And the title of that painting
was Tranquility. Tranquility. And I thought, Tranquility? Man, look at the dashing of that
wave. Can you imagine the noise? The violence of the wave. Tranquility. And I just stirred. I'm slow,
Joe. And I just stirred and stirred
and stirred that pain and thought, tranquility. What is this tranquility? And finally I saw it. in a hole in the middle of that
cliff above the violence of the waves sat a little bird with
his eyes closed, resting, peaceful. That's what God's looking for.
Be anxious for nothing and everything by prayer and supplication. Let
your requests be made known unto God and the peace of God which
passeth all understanding. shall keep your heart and your
mind. That's what God is looking for.
He's looking for the fruits that He's put there. The fruit of
the Holy Spirit. Unto this man will I look. I'm
going to look to this man. I'm not going to look to my creation,
my hands that made them. I'm going to look to this man.
He that is poor. and of a contrite heart. Has
he broke your heart? That's what he's looking for.
That's the fruit God's looking for. He's pulling back the leaves. He's not seeing as everybody
else is seeing. He's looking for what he's planted, what he's
put there. Some of these trees bring forth
60 and some 30 and some 100. but they all bring forth fruit,
if God is blessed. The dresser of the vineyard,
verse 7, the dresser of the vineyard, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's the mediator. We know that because He's the
dresser. He prepares the vineyard, He
prepares the fruits for the Father, doesn't He? He presents us to
the Father, and He is the intercessor. What did He say? Let it alone
this year also. He's right in the middle of this
vineyard, isn't He? He's right in the middle. Do
you know He's here this morning? Do you know Jesus Christ is right
here this morning in our midst? And He's the mediator between
us and God. And we better be thankful that
He is. Do you know why somebody said
this before? Do you know why this world wasn't destroyed when
Adam sinned? Why it wasn't just wiped out?
There's a mediator between God and man. Men are so careless. We're so careless. But men take to themselves the
profession of the Lord. It scares me to death. It just
scares me to death. And sometimes you have to get
along with people and quietly and firmly tell them, listen.
Listen. You better be careful when you
profess the Lord's name. Don't toy around. Don't toy around
with the things of God. There is but one person holding
the justice and wrath of God from your soul. And that's Jesus
Christ. That's Jesus Christ. And oh,
how good He is, how faithful He is. He says here, If it bear
fruit well. That's the mediator between us
and God, well. He means nobody any harm, brothers
and sisters. He never did anybody any harm
when He was here. He's not doing anybody any harm
now. He's the mediator between God and man. He's a hard man. Where'd you get that? You don't
get it from what He said about Himself. I am meek. and lowly in my heart." We read
about the gentleness of Christ. And here He is now, staying the
justice of God from this barren fig tree. That's just His nature. He's
the mediator between God and man. And the only reason this
barren tree stood another year is because it had a mediator
between it and God, it and justice. Leave it alone one more year. If it bear fruit, does He know? Does He know if it's going to
bear fruit? Of course He knows. He knows everything. Do you and
I know? No. And it's not our business
to know. We need to keep our place, don't
we? Joe was telling me yesterday about a little dog. When Joe
mowed his yard on a riding mower, he had a little dog that trotted
along behind him. And he said one day he thought,
well, if he wants to follow me, he'd probably really be happy
if I put him up here with me. And he said he took his little
dog and set him in the seat there in front of him. What's going
on? The little dog got very nervous. So he had to put him back down
and he was happy again just to follow Joel. He didn't want to
be up in the controls. I don't know anything about the
steering wheel and the gear and the accelerator. I don't want
anything to do with that. You and I got our place, brothers
and sisters. It's to be followers of God as
dear children. We don't control anything. He
does that. Will it bring forth fruit? He knows. I don't know. And that's what makes this so
searching, so searching. If it does, well, well. And sometimes time will tell.
And sometimes he takes a barren fig tree, if we look at this
parable, and oh, when he's finished with it, when he's dug about
it, and he shakes it, and he fertilizes it, then he comes
and says, now I see fruit on it. I was that way. Weren't you that
way? I was a barren tree. I had professed
Him. I had the love of God in my heart. Knew nothing of it. You're nothing
of what it was to be broken in need of a precious Savior. But
boy, when He shook me to my roots, when He sent me under a true
ministry, when He afflicted my conscience, then I became fruitful. That's what this is about. That's
what this is about. And it's a very searching thing,
isn't it? Ain't none of my business. Whether you bear fruit or not,
I'm to look at myself. I'm to examine myself. If it does well, oh, heaven is
full of people tonight that was a burned fig tree to the keeper
of the vineyard, dug about him and fertilized him. But if not,
cut it down. cut it down. How does he cut
trees down that's barren? Well, by death. He does it by
death. That's the ultimate cut it off,
isn't it? We had a couple one time in our congregation and
I knew they weren't satisfied. I knew they wouldn't believe
in any gospel that I was preaching. They went on a vacation and one
of the people in the church came to me and said they told me they
weren't coming back here. They weren't coming back here.
That didn't surprise me. But little did they know, they
weren't coming back from anywhere. They were killed on vacation.
What happened? Cut it down. Cut it down. It's barren. God cuts people
off sometimes by sending them a strong delusion. We see it,
don't we? What would you say about some
dear men that equates the flat earth with the gospel. Is that not a strong delusion?
Let's be honest. To the breaking of our souls,
let's be honest. If I come up here and I tell
you this morning, if you don't believe in the flat earth, you
can't be saved. What have I just received? A
strong delusion. The axe has just got down to
the roots and it sliced me and cut me off. Sometimes the Lord cuts people
off by letting them fall into sin, open and profane sin, and
leaving them there, never to repent and never to return. Sometimes He cuts them off by
exposing falsehood to the embarrassment and shame of themselves and their
family in the church. Oh, if it bear fruit, well. What
a merciful Savior. He means you no harm. If you're
here this morning, I'm telling you what, you're an open and
profane sinner, I don't care who you are, He means you no
harm. Right this morning, He's between
you and God, and He's the only one that's kept you from being
cut off. He means you no harm. I'm telling you, the Jew said
He's a hard man. He's not. But He will be someday. Somebody read yesterday about
the Lord stretching forth His hand. I've stretched forth my
hand. And He says the same things in
Romans 9 all day long, I've stretched forth my hand. You know what,
if you study that closely, you know what that's depicting? That
is depicting a father reaching down to some hurt infant. That's what that depicts. I've
stretched forth my hand. All day long, I've stretched
it forth to a gang-saying and disobedient nation. Oh my soul, dear soul, if you're
here this morning, I'm telling you Jesus Christ is stretching
forth His hand. You say, Bruce, how do you know
that? Because the Bible says He is. What are we doing here? What are we doing here this morning?
What am I preaching? What did Joseph preach? What
does the pastor preach? Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thought, and let him return unto the Lord. He will have mercy upon him.
Is that not a merciful Savior? to the wicked, to the ungodly,
to the unrighteous? Is that not to you? Is there
a soul in you this morning that that doesn't apply to? I was
talking with a man I just met the other day and he was asking
me, I told him, I said, None of my children are converted.
All of them know the doctrines of grace. I've taught them to
it. They can articulate it just about
as well as I can. They know the doctrines of grace.
None of them are converted. And my son sometimes come to
me when I'm instructing him, son, you need the Lord. And you
know what he's often told me? Dad, I can't come unless he calls
me. You mean he's not calling you?
He calls the simple. He calls those who hate knowledge.
No, he's bestowing much labor upon you, my son. I'm a laborer with God. He's
laboring with me. And He's telling you through
me this morning, turn you at my reproof and I'll pour out
my Spirit upon you. And He's not calling you? And
you're using that as an excuse? I hope nobody here this morning
leaves this place. without truly and wholeheartedly
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. And to God by Him. Look at the labor He has bestowed
on you. You're not here by accident.
Nobody's here by accident this morning. You're here by purpose.
God has arranged this universe to have you here this morning. He's digging about you. He's
fertilizing you. He's got you under these preachers.
He's bestowing so much labor upon you. What will He say in
the day of judgment? Will He look at you and say,
I labored in vain. I spent my strength for naught.
I stretched out my hands and you paid me no mind. Ain't this an unawakened parable?
Ain't this a serious thing? You know what it does for my
heart? Oh Lord Jesus, don't let me be a barren fig tree. Please
work in me to will and to do and to love and to trust. Give
me your peace. Give me your joy. Give me your
Holy Spirit of promise, Lord. Don't leave me to myself. I can't
bring forth fruit. I can't affect a thing. But Lord,
you can. Come with me and give yourself
up to the dresser of the vineyard. That's what I hope all of us
do this morning. That's the burden of my heart. I don't know if anybody here
will see my face in the hills again. This may be the last time
you see me. If you see my face, you may have
to come north. But if I don't see you again,
oh, bless your hearts, I love you. I love you. I love you, Pastor. I love his
wife, and I love you. God bless us. God bless us. There's grace in Jesus Christ
that's flowing and flowing and overflowing. Oh, Lord, let it
flow on me, and let it flow on you. Amen.