Luke chapter 13 and reading from verse 6. And he spake also this parable, that is the Lord Jesus, 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 his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit On this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, Till I shall dig about it, and dung it. and if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. Amen.

May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word.

Can I just check, are you on, have you opened that up there now? Thanks.

It isn't easy to explain this parable. As I was preparing it, I wondered if I ought to have joined these four verses with the previous verses where the Lord was speaking about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. and those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them.

You might remember that that was the passage that we read together and thought about last week. And as I was preparing this week, I'm thinking to myself, you know, these four verses may well have been better included in last week's message. To me, it seemed to be separate until I came looking at or looking for the message for us today.

And now I wonder if the lesson of today's verses of this parable are simply a repetition of what the Lord said in verse five, except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish. It may well be that coming to that statement in his teaching concerning the Galileans and the 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, that the Lord simply recounted this parable, as it were, to reinforce and support the point that he had made. except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

As I say, I'm not entirely sure that apart from that, I have got a good interpretation of these verses today. Let us just pause and think about what it says. What does the Lord tell us here? He speaks of a fig tree. in a vineyard and the owner seeking and expecting fruit. But he finds none after three years growth. He speaks of the owner's instruction to the vineyard dresser. to cut down the fig tree rather than letting it cumber the ground.

Cumber the ground just means that it obstructs the ground, it spoils the ground, it troubles the ground. The fig tree was drawing off strength and nutrients from the earth around about it and therefore it was robbing the vines of the water and the sustenance that they required while bearing no fruit itself.

The Lord goes on in this parable. He tells us of the dresser of the vineyard appealing for a reprieve from destruction for the fig tree, despite its persistent barrenness. And he tells us of the vine dresser's commitment to dig and dung around the tree one more year.

Now, At first reading, surely we might imagine there's a message in here concerning grace, mercy, and the gospel ministry. The vine dresser shows mercy to the tree and gives it a final chance to bear fruit before it's destroyed. And yet, I'm perplexed at that. When we try to think about who these parabolic characters might represent. It isn't so clear that that is a proper interpretation at all.

Is the owner of the vineyard the father and the vine dresser the Lord Jesus? This would have the father calling for judgment and the son appealing for mercy. and yet with no apparent certainty of subsequent fruitfulness in the fig tree. It is strange to conceive of the Lord Jesus asking his father for just one more year to try to obtain fruit from a barren fig tree. That's not the way the scriptures speak about the sovereign purposes of God at all. That might suit a free will reading where it's up to the man to respond positively to a general call from the Lord, but it does not comport well with the sovereign grace gospel. Our Saviour never merely tries to make something fruitful or tries to convert something. and digging and dunging around it to see if it would be fruitful in another 12 months hardly seems consistent with the view of our sovereign God.

Is the vineyard the nation of Israel? Well, Israel is often called the Lord's vineyard in the Old Testament, sometimes bearing good grapes, sometimes bitter grapes. If it is the nation Israel, then maybe we can draw some comparisons, some contrasts between that and the church militant, the outward professing church. But then who is this fruitless fig tree? And what is it doing in the vineyard? Is it an unbeliever hiding in the congregation? Is it someone with no profession? Or maybe it's the owner who is the Lord Jesus, and the dresser, the vine dresser, is gospel ministers. And is it Christ who is calling for the fig tree to be cut down, but his ministers who show more mercy than the Saviour? Are Christ's preachers being presented as more long-suffering than Christ?

Maybe I just settle on one interpretation and try and bring out a few applications. But I did not find it easy to think about what the message of these verses actually was. The trouble is that none of these scenarios do justice to the gospel. Our God knows who are his. They are his chosen elect people. He would never call for an elect child to be cut down for being unfruitful. He sovereignly gives grace to his own redeemed people and they live and are fruitful. He doesn't come along in hope of finding fruit that he has not first created. nor is the presence of spiritual life and fruitfulness a function of a minister putting in some extra effort for one more year in hope that a barren tree will produce a little more fruit. That doesn't seem to add up to our gospel message.

So while I'm not entirely sure, I understand the message of these verses properly. I'm not sure I understand them properly. I do think that there are a couple of things that I can say. Some things which perhaps, sometimes, because we are fallible men and women with natural passions, we are apt to neglect or even at worse, deny and feel offended at. Here's what I mean.

God's sovereign will is eternally settled and everlastingly fixed. God's sovereign will is eternally settled and everlastingly fixed. We say this, we know this, but the implications of that can be a great burden to us. We live in hope that those we love will be saved, that they will obtain grace from God and repent of their sins. But the reality is that they may not. And today I'm saying the quiet part out loud. Sovereign grace is the teaching of the scriptures. It is the heart of the gospel. were it not that the Lord moved upon our dead soul, we never would have spiritual life. And that is true for all men and women. If he did not infuse his spirit, the Holy Spirit, there would never be repentance, never faith, never forgiveness. never any spiritual fruitfulness. Saving grace is uniquely a divine gift and it is given according to God's will. It is given to those he has loved before the world began. If this were not so, our sin would render us all guilty, all condemned, and all without hope as Paul describes it, having no hope and without God in the world. It is God's grace that makes the difference and we none have anything spiritual or fruitful that we have not received as a free gift from God.

But this has another side as well. God's sovereign will secures salvation for his elect, but the same divine will leaves others outside of Christ. When the Lord set the elect apart in divine ordination, he passed others by. The other side of election is reprobation. The fruitless fig tree will be cut down. The Lord asks, why cumbereth it the ground? It is appointed to this condemnation.

I'm regularly reminded as we read through the scriptures together, I'm regularly reminded how that in the epistles of Paul and Peter and James and John and Jude, that these men understood and confronted the implication of reprobation in their letters. And indeed, the fact that reprobates were embedded and entrenched within the churches of their time and ours. The reprobate are in the professing Church of Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah prophesied of this. He said in Jeremiah chapter six, verse 30, reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them. And Paul speaks of those of whom he says, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. This doesn't mean that God actively makes people reprobate. but he leaves them in that state, their hearts hard against God, and God leaves them there, even confirming them like Joseph's Pharaoh in their hardness. He neither wills nor gives softening grace or converting mercy to them.

And Paul tells Titus of those who profess, Titus 1 verse 16, who profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. Jude speaks of certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2 verse 9, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. But these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed speak evil of things that they understand not and shall utterly perish in their own corruption and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness.

It is not easy or comfortable for us to realise that those around us are in this state. Those we love may be in this position. But humility and peace ought to quieten the hearts of God's people, who accept that the judge of all the earth does right, and grace is God's gift to give, and our rare privilege to receive.

Lord told those in his own day, ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. And here's just another point that I want to leave with respect to this. These vinedressers, if that is the interpretation, if they are the Lord's servants in the parable, that is, if they may be likened to ministers in his church today, they ought to be wise to obey the word of their master. and not suppose they know better than he does. They may dig about it and dung a barren fig tree, but their digging and their dunging will not make the barren tree flower and fruit. The finest preacher with the finest sermon cannot make the dead live, except grace attends their work. There were whole towns and villages consigned to destruction when the disciples were told to shake the dust from their feet and pass on with the life-giving gospel withheld where there was no hearing given to them.

Now, I don't suggest that we should neglect praying for those that we love. I do not intend to imply that we do not long for and work towards bringing our loved ones under the sound of the gospel. May God give us grace and long-suffering to continue to do that.

But there will come a time when the Lord will say, cut it down. And when he does, his word is to be received and accepted with humility and meekness. We have no grounds to be angry or bitter against the owner of the vineyard when he does what he wills with his own.

And here's the last thought. How blessed are we who have been planted in the vineyard of God's garden and made fruitful under the provision of his love and mercy.

Fruitful vine or barren fig tree, it is all of God's grace and all of his sovereign choice and he has done all things well. May God grant us the humility to accept these heavy truths

And where does that leave us? Well, it leaves us back at the beginning with the Lord's stark declaration. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Amen.