A lot of truth and blessing in
that hymn. Certainly has often been my own
experience. The Lord exposes our weakness
in order for us to find him to be our strength. It's a blessing. It's not easy, but it's a blessing.
Let's open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 21, Matthew 21. We just read the story of the
cursing of the fig tree in Mark. Matthew also records the same
event with a little different perspective. I've heard people
try to compare the the gospel accounts and conclude that there
were contradictions in them. And that's just simply not the
case. It's just the Lord is using different men to observe an event
from different perspectives and record them in a little different
way. Nothing contradictory, just more
of the revelation of that. of that event given to us from
different writers. Matthew chapter 21 verse 17, and he left them and
went out of the city into Bethany and he lodged there. Our Lord
often went to Bethany. It seems that he probably went
to Mary and Martha and Lazarus' house often. When Lazarus died,
you remember, many of the Jews came from Jerusalem. Bethany
is a small village just outside of the city of Jerusalem, about
a mile or two away. on the other side of the Mount
of Olives. And it seems like that Mary and
Martha and Lazarus were probably people of means and provided
for the Lord and for the disciples often when they were in Jerusalem. So he's making this journey back
and forth from Bethany into the city. And now in the morning as he
returned into the city, 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 for
ever. And presently the fig tree withered
away. That word presently doesn't mean
right that moment. We know from Mark's account that
it was the next morning when they came by and the disciples
realized the fig tree is completely dried up. But nevertheless, it
happened at the word of our Lord. And when the disciples saw it,
they marveled saying, how soon is the fig tree withered away?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
if you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do this which
is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say to this
mountain, now they're standing on the Mount of Olives. So the
Lord speaking of that mountain in particular, if you say unto
this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea,
it shall be done, and all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer,
believing, you shall receive. I've titled this message, What
is Undoubting Faith? What is Undoubting Faith? If
you believe and doubt not. Not only will you be able to
curse the fig tree, but you'd be able to say unto this mountain,
be removed and cast into the sea and it shall be done. Now, every child of God who's been
given faith knows that with that faith, they have an old an old
man, they cry with that father all the time, Lord I do believe,
help thou mine unbelief. All the poisonous weeds of sin
come from the contaminated soil of unbelief. And if what the
Lord is saying here is that the child of God never struggles
with unbelief, then we can find no comfort in this story and
find no real hope that our faith is undoubting. If we could believe God as we
ought, we would never have any problem with sin. The thing that
distinguished the Lord Jesus from us is that he trusted his
father perfectly, perfectly. If we could live in such a way
as to never take our eyes off of Christ, we would have perfect
rest, perfect peace all the time. The sin that doth so easily beset
us is the sin of unbelief. Our unbelieving flesh grieves
our hearts as we struggle to trust the Lord as we ought. But as long as we carry this
body of death, we battle We battle unbelief. The Lord Jesus walked in perfect
obedience with his father. He walked in perfect faith and
he walked in perfect light. So, What is the Lord teaching
us here when he says, if you have faith, verse 21, and doubt
not, undoubting faith, you shall not only do what I've
done to this fig tree, but you shall say unto this mountain,
be thou removed and cast into the sea and it shall be so. how Peter so represents every
believer when he asks the Lord, bid me to come unto thee. And
we're reminded of Peter taking his eyes off the Lord and being
brought to a place of fear when he saw the wind and the waves.
And he began to sink. And how he cried out in that
moment, Lord save me. Lord save me. And what did the
Lord do? Immediately the Lord stuck out His hand and saved
him. But also the Lord said, O ye
of little faith, why did you doubt? Why did you doubt? Isn't that what we do? We look at our circumstances,
we look at our trouble, we are often distracted by our own sin
and unbelief, we take our eyes off of Christ, we begin to sink
into the mire of despair, and the Lord causes us, as we sang
in that hymn, he uses that experience to bring us to the end of ourselves
and cause us to cry with Peter, Lord save me, Lord save me. This is the believer's experience
as we walk in this body and in this world and how the Lord lovingly, lovingly
rebukes us and how often we're reminded of how little we do
believe as we ought and how often we hear him saying, oh ye of
little faith, why did you doubt me? Why did you doubt me? And the child of God never wants
to doubt God. They always want to believe.
We want to walk by faith, not by sight. I believe what the Lord's telling
us here in this miracle is that true God-given saving faith has no
doubt when it comes to the rebuking and the cursing of this fruitless
fig tree. And when it comes to the casting
of this mountain into the sea. Whatever fears and doubts we
struggle with in this life and in this world, there are two
things that we're sure of. We're certain. Don't you love
it when Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have
the words of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Whatever doubts and
whatever fears we struggle with in this life and in this body
of death that we that we carry about, and in this world of sin
in which we live, there is something that we're absolutely certain
of, and that is who the Lord Jesus is and what it is he accomplished. Those that have been given God-given
faith, they don't question that. They've been taught of God. Now,
they may, in moments of weakness, wonder if that was done for them. But there's absolutely no doubt. Later on, you remember after
Peter denied the Lord and Peter told the other disciples, I'm
just gonna go back to fishing. I've ruined everything. And the
Lord came to Peter and asking, Peter, do you love me? Three
times, feed my sheep. The Lord restored Peter. But before that restoration,
if you had asked Peter, if Jesus was the Christ, the son of the
living God, he would have given you the same answer that he gave
you, that he gave us when he said, where are we gonna go? To whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. Peter would have affirmed that confession. Peter would
have said, absolutely. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ,
the son of the living God. Peter, are you saved? Probably
not. Probably not. Did the Lord Jesus
fail in what he came to do? Absolutely not, he can't fail.
He can't fail. My point being that We may have
moments of weakness where we wonder if we're saved and where
we wonder if what the Lord did was for us. But even in those
times of unbelief, there is something even then that we know for absolute
certainty. And that is exactly what Peter
knew. We know and believe. who the Lord Jesus is and we
know and are sure that he accomplished what he came to do. That is undoubting faith. And
I believe that that is what this miracle is given to us to teach
us. These words are not to be understood
literally. We don't go around cursing trees
or believing that if we just had undoubting faith that we
could speak to this or to that and make this happen or that
happen, no. No, the Lord, how often, the
disciples asked the Lord, Lord, why do you speak to them? This
is a parable. This is a parable. A parable
is a physical event with the purpose of teaching a spiritual
truth. And so the disciples asked the Lord,
Lord, why do you speak to them in parables? And I love it, one
of the times the Pharisees heard the parable and they thought,
we think he's talking about us. We're not sure exactly what he
meant, but we think this is a rebuke against us. And even the disciples
didn't understand that parable. It was the parable of the soils
is what it was. And the disciples had to ask the Lord, Lord, what's
that parable mean? And the Lord told them, he taught
them. And what did the Lord say when
the disciples asked, why do you speak to them in parables? And
the Lord said, because it's not for them to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God. Just as the fullness of the Godhead
is veiled in the likeness of sinful flesh. The Lord Jesus
walked on the face of the earth and he was God incarnate and
men couldn't see it. Men couldn't see it, they still
can't see it. The Lord has to reveal it. All the truths of God have to
be revealed, we can't. We can't come to these truths
without divine revelation, without a miracle of grace and faith,
without the Lord open in the eyes of our understanding, without
him causing us to believe, we've got to be taught of God. So the Lord, much of scripture,
is given to us. Much of the spiritual truths
of the gospel are given to us in parables. There's one place
where the scripture says that he spake not unto them except
in parables. It's the only way he taught to
them. He didn't make anything clear. He taught everything that
he taught in parables. We're left with those disciples.
Lord, what's this parable mean? What does it mean? I want to
have undoubting faith. What does the cursing of the
fig tree really mean? What does the taking of the Mount
of Olives and casting it into the sea really mean? Because I know it doesn't mean
what's on the surface. And I know that, Lord, you're
not angry at this tree. Mark tells us that the time of
figs was not yet. I know, Lord, you weren't hungry
and you came upon this tree and the tree wasn't able to provide
you with the food that you needed and so you, out of anger or disappointment,
rebuked the tree and killed it. That's not the meaning of this.
So what does it mean? Because the Lord tells us, he
says, you have faith without doubting, you're gonna do the
same exact thing that I just did. And more than that, you're
gonna say to this mountain, be thou removed and be cast into
the sea. How we need the Lord. And he teaches us with scripture. We compare the spiritual to the
spiritual. We compare the scripture to scripture. And God begins to open up the
truth of scripture and reveal to us what these things mean. And so, let's go to a fig tree. In particular, both Matthew and
Mark tell us We just read the story that these fig trees had
leaves on them. They had leaves on them. It had
leaves on it, I should say, without fruit. And when we find the first
mention of a fig tree The revelation given to us in God's Word has
to do with its leaves, not its fruit. After Adam sinned and tried to hide from God and
tried to cover his nakedness and justify himself and hide
his shame, he was trying to atone for his sin. And the scripture
says that in the garden, all the way back there in the first
chapters of Genesis, Adam and Eve took fig leaves and sewed
them together to cover their nakedness before God. And we
have a fig tree in our yard. And it's amazing to me that the
leaves on the fig tree in our yard, I can pick one off and
lay it on my hand and it looks just like my hand. It has five
fingers to it and it's about the same size as my hand. What is the Lord teaching us
in this parable? Is it not clear? Do we not have
any doubt whatsoever that anything that we produce with our hands
would not be sufficient to cover our sins before a holy God? Are we not taught of God, that
that blood that was shed by God in the garden, that lamb that
was killed, that skin of an animal as the scripture says, that fleece
of a lamb had to be given to them from God in order to cover
their nakedness, that all of the attempts to to justify themselves
before God and hide their sins and cover up their shame. Unbelievers do it. We thought
that was the way to be right with God. Men by nature go about
trying to establish their own righteousness. They try to atone
for their own sins. They sew together fig leaves.
They trust in something that they have produced with their
own hands for the hope of their salvation. If we've been taught the gospel
and if we have the robe of righteousness given to us in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. that there's
nothing that we can do to atone for our own sins or make ourselves
acceptable to God. That we are completely dependent
upon the Lord Jesus Christ for all of our acceptance before
God, for all of our justification before God and for all of our
righteousness before God. And so we see in our own lives fruitless fig tree now we know
these things are true we know that that we can't that we can't sew together fig
leaves right now we're believers you
say amen I I know that's true and I believe that that's the
hope of my salvation that Christ is all of my righteousness before
God. And yet, in so many subtle ways,
in so many subtle ways, how many times we try to fix our sin problem
with the works of our own hands. And the Lord has to remind us
again and again and again, doesn't he? So, we curse. We curse the fruitless
fig tree. Now this fig tree was growing
on the side of the road. It wasn't a fig tree that was
cultivated in a garden. And how oftentimes we find ourselves
on the side of the road without any fruit. And the Lord reminds
us again of how this desperate attempt, this desperate attempt,
these subtle thoughts that we have to try to atone for our
own sins and try to make ourselves right with God are futile and
we're brought again to come to Christ. Lord, the fruits
of the Spirit is what I need. Lord, I curse that big tree.
We curse that big tree first and foremost in our own lives. I believe that's what the Apostle
Paul was talking about when he said, I die daily. The unbelief that we bear in
this body rears its ugly head all the time and he has to be
put to death. It has to be, I believe this
is what the Lord is talking about when he's talking about taking
up your cross. Putting that old man to death
again and again. And how oftentimes the child
of God is brought to that place where he curses. He curses every
thought. He curses, you know, The Lord tells us to build on
one foundation, and that foundation is Christ. But he also tells
us that whatever we build that's wood, hay, and stubble is going
to be burned up. And how much of what we try to produce is
nothing but wood, hay, and stubble. And we take sides with God against
ourselves about burning that up. Lord, I curse that fruitless
tree. I curse that wood, hay and stubble.
I curse any attempt to deny Christ his glory and salvation and to
try to save myself. Lord, when you remind me of who
you are and what you've done, I can say to that tree, wither
away. Wither away. You remember in
John chapter 1 when Philip, the Lord revealed himself to Philip
and Philip had a brother by the name of Nathanael and Philip
went and got his brother and said, we found the Christ. That was Philip's first reaction. It was the Lord that found him.
Jesus of Nazareth, remember what Nathanael said? Nathanael said,
what good thing can come from Nazareth? Nathanael, the Jews
in the area of Jerusalem, in Judah, in the Southern part,
looked at the Galileans as being backwards people, and Nazareth
was a part of Galilee. And so, when, and Philip said
to Nathanael, come and see. Come and see. And when Nathanael
came to the Lord, what did the Lord say to Nathanael? He said,
an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile. And Nathanael said,
Lord, how do you know me? We've never met before. And what did the Lord say? We're
comparing scripture to scripture here to find out what the cursing
of this fig tree is all about. What did the Lord say to Nathanael?
I saw you when you were under the fig tree. And Nathanael confessed right
there on the spot that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah,
the Son of God. Nathanael was doing what you
and I do. particularly this time of year,
find a shady spot to get out of the sun to get some reprieve
from the heat of the day. But there's symbolism in this
story. There's a parable in this story.
There's some spiritual truth in this story because if we try
to hide under a fig tree to escape The wrath of God, whatever that
fig tree is, the Lord's gonna say to us, I
saw you when you were under the fig tree. Now I suspect that
Nathanael was praying under that fig tree and asking the Lord
to reveal himself because he was, the Lord knew his heart. Scripture doesn't tell us, but
it seems like that's the conclusion. But if we try to find comfort,
if we try to find peace, if we try to find safety, if we try
to find protection from the wrath of God under any fig tree, that fig tree needs to be cursed.
That fig tree needs to wither up so that we can find ourselves
like Nathanael before the Lord Jesus saying, thou art the Christ. Oh Lord, save me. You're the only one that can
protect me. You're the only one that can save me from the wrath
that is to come. You're the only one in whom I
can have rest and peace and comfort. So what am I saying, brethren? We're constantly cursing the
fig tree, aren't we? That's the believer's life. because
we're constantly trying to find comfort somewhere other than
Christ. We're trying to find anything
that we can. And what a blessing it is when
the Lord shows us that that tree has no fruit and it needs to be cursed. And
not only do we curse the fruitless fig tree in our own lives first
and foremost, but we curse the fig tree in the world. It's the false gospel. You know
that whatever fruit the believer has, it's given to them of God. It's the fruit of the Spirit. And I'm the vine, you're the
branch. Except the branch abide in the
vine, it can bear no fruit. And whatever fruit it bears,
it's getting from the vine. And when it does bear fruit,
the husbandman's gonna come and he's gonna prune that vine. He's gonna prune that branch
so that it produces more fruit. And here's the trials and troubles
that the Lord has given us in this life that we have to say,
without Christ, I can do nothing. He's my life, he's my sustenance. And Lord, whatever pruning you
have to do in order to make me fruitful for your glory. And whatever fruit there is,
he gets the glory for it. We make righteous judgments about... about a tree that produces fruit and a tree that doesn't produce
fruit. The Lord said, a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit
and a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit. And then he went
on to say, some will say unto me in that day of judgment, Lord,
we have done many wonderful works in thy name. We're still cursing the fig tree,
aren't we? And the Lord Jesus is gonna say to those who are
trusting in the works of their hands, hiding under the shadow
of a fruitless tree, he's gonna say to them, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. The things that you've
been trusting in for your righteousness before God, I see them as iniquity. And we say amen. Amen. A gospel that doesn't give to
Christ all the glory. A gospel that robs him of his
glory. A gospel that robs me of my hope. A gospel that robs sinners of
any hope of salvation. That's what a works gospel does.
That's exactly what a works gospel does. This fruitless fig tree
that was cursed of God is the works of the flesh. It's the
works of man. And it's our works first and
foremost and it's a works gospel. It's a works gospel. Now when
we expose the error of a works gospel, the religious world in
particular will accuse us of being unloving. They will accuse
us of being intolerant. They will accuse us of being
judgmental. But it's not true. We're cursing that fig tree because
that fig tree robs me of my hope. It robs Christ of his glory.
It robs men of their salvation. And we're making righteous judgments. We're judging righteous judgments. We're not being unloving. The most loving
thing that we can do is tell the truth. We're agreeing with God. We're
doing what the Lord Jesus said. If you have faith and doubt not, you will curse the fig tree and
the fig tree will die. And how blessed we are when God
gives us the undoubting faith to curse that fruitless fig tree
in our own lives and in the world. And then the Lord said, by the way, there's a verse of
scripture in Hosea chapter 14 where the Lord said, from me,
from me is thy fruit found. You know, we're not, we're not
running around trying to inspect one another's fruit and we're
not taping fruit onto the tree in order to try to convince other
people. No, the fruit of the Spirit.
It's the fruit of the Spirit. It's love and joy and peace and
long-suffering, temperance. These are the things that God
gives. This is the fruit that God gives. And it's evidenced
in our confession. Our confession, salvations of
the Lord. He's all my righteousness, I
have none outside of him. Quickly, not only does undoubting
faith curse the fig tree, but undoubting faith says unto this
mountain, be cast into the sea and it shall be removed. Now
this miracle takes place at the very end of our Lord's earthly
ministry just before he went to the cross and what's going
to happen in a very brief time from here is that the Lord's
going to go to the Mount of Olives to Gethsemane and he's going
to pray And in that time of prayer, the weight of the sin of God's
people is going to begin to be put on him. And he's going to
sweat drops of blood. And that weight is going to increase
all that night until the next day. And at three o'clock in
the afternoon, the time of the evening sacrifice, the Lord Jesus
Christ, having bore all the sins of his people, is gonna bow his
mighty head on Calvary's cross and he's gonna cry, it is finished,
it is finished. The bearing of our sin, Scripture
says, he bore our sins in his body upon that tree. He put them
away by the sacrifice of himself. And the burying of our sin began
on this mountain. And I believe the parable that
the Lord is teaching us. Matter of fact, we don't have
the time tonight to go to all the passages, but let's think
for just a moment about Revelation chapter six. When the Lord Jesus
comes, the scripture says that when the judgment of God is clear
to the world that the world is going to run to the mountains
and they're going to cry for the mountains to fall upon them
and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. The wrath of the
Lamb, we don't think of the Lamb as being a wrathful picture of
Christ but when he comes in judgment the unbeliever is going to run
to the mountains and ask the mountains to fall on them to
hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. Now those mountains are
what men cry when they say, Lord, we've done many wonderful works
in thy name. You see, both the casting of
the mountain into the sea and the cursing of the fig tree is
the same parable. And it's what we have no doubt
about. We have no doubt that when the wrath of the Lamb comes
to judge this world, that we can't run to our works, we can't
run to our mountains, we can't find any comfort or hiding place
from the wrath of the Lamb. We've got to be found in the
Lamb. But here's what the world does. They don't cast that mountain
into the depths of the sea. When the Lord Jesus bore our
sins in his body, the scripture says he buried them in the depths
of the sea. He put them away by the sacrifice
of himself. The only hope that we have to
stand before God is that that mountain symbolized our sin has
been cast into the depths of the sea. And we say, we say into
our sin, the hope that I have to stand before God is that the
Lord Jesus put my sin away. He separated them from me as
far as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more. I have no claim on God. I have
no hope of salvation outside of what the Lord Jesus did and
who he is. This is our undoubting faith. In all the fears and all the
unbelief that we suffer in the body of this flesh and in this
world, this is the parable. The Lord said, if you have faith
and doubt not, you will do what I just did. You'll curse the
fig tree and you'll say to this mountain, be ye cast into the
sea. The Lord concluded this miracle
by telling us that whatever we ask in his name,
verse 22 of Matthew 21, and all things whatsoever you ask in
prayer, believing, you shall receive. We come to God believing
that the leaves of our fig tree cannot cover our nakedness before
God. And that tree needs to be cursed.
We come before God believing that that fruitless tree of manmade
works religion cannot save. And we curse that
tree. We curse that gospel. We believe. that when the Lord
Jesus bowed his head on the cross and said, it is finished, that
everything that God required for the judgment and justice
of his righteousness and the putting away of our sin was accomplished,
fully accomplished. This is our unwavering faith.
We believe this. And in believing that, the Lord
tells us, whatsoever you ask in my name. That doesn't mean
that, it means that we come on the basis of who Christ is and
what he's accomplished. How many things that we ask for,
we have to say, Lord, if it be thy will. If it be thy will,
Lord wasn't saying you just ask for anything. No. If we come to God on the basis
of who Christ is and what he accomplished, there are things
that we can ask for that we know. We know. Lord saved me. Wherever you ask to be saved,
I'm gonna save you. Lord, deliver me. Lord, you said that if I
resist the devil, he'll flee from me. Lord, you, these are
the things that, Lord, you said if any man lack wisdom, let him
ask it of God and he'll give it to all men liberally. Lord,
I need wisdom. Lord, I need the love of Christ
to be shed abroad in my heart. I need you to give me faith. Lord, I need peace with God. And I need the peace of God to
keep my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. These are the weighty matters.
These are the things that we ask for without wavering, believing
God. And these are the promises that
he made to us. The promise to forgive us of
our sin. The promise to give us the grace to forgive. The
promise for his face to shine upon us. The promise for him
to show us the meaning of the scriptures. Help us in our unbelief. The promise that his grace would
be sufficient in all the times of our trials and troubles. and
whatsoever you ask in his name, believing. We can. There's some things we
can't ask for and know for certain that it's the Lord's will. We
have to say, Lord, if it be your will. And we trust him to do
whatever he wills. But there's so much There's so
much according to the promise of God that we can ask for and
be certain that it's His will. And those are the things that
we come to Him believing that we shall receive. Tom, let's close. 125, let's stand together, number
125.