Now let's turn in our Bibles
to the book of Luke chapter 13. Last week I dealt with the first
five verses of this chapter, leading into the parable that
God the Holy Spirit recorded through Luke, the evangelist
Luke, in verses 6 through 9. This is the parable of the barren
fig tree. a fig tree that bore no fruit."
And he spoke this parable. Now, in the first five verses,
the point that the Lord was making as He addressed some of the religionists
of His day, some of the self-righteous religionists, was that all men
and women need to come to repentance. Repentance. What is that repentance? It's a change of mind, it's a
change of spirit, it's a change of heart, it's a change of life. It begins with a change in the
mind. In fact, that's what the word
in the New Testament literally means. But it's not just an intellectual
thing. It's a whole new way of life. And then repentance is not just
a little change. It's not like you're going in
one direction and then you just veer off into a a few degrees
into another direction. Repentance, in fact, in the Old
Testament, the word for repentance was a change of direction, literally. You're going north, you turn
around, you go the exact opposite, south. Going east, the exact
opposite, west. So you understand this repentance.
And it's a fruit of salvation. Repentance is a fruit of salvation.
We'll see this. But he spoke this parable to
those who would who would look at certain things that happen
in life, such as natural disasters, or such as evil men and women
doing their evil work on earth, and people getting hurt in tragedies
and sorrows, and people who would look at such things and say,
well, that's the judgment of God upon them. They got what
they deserved. Have you ever done that? Let's
say an enemy of the United States. And suddenly a hurricane or a
tornado just comes through their country and wipes them out. Would
you be apt to say, boy, God got them. He put it to them. They deserved it. And you know
what? Now here's the thing. If you
said that, you're right. They got what they deserved.
But here's the point of repentance. Here's the point of this parable.
Here's the point that the Lord was making to the ones to whom
he was speaking, we don't deserve any better. And if I don't get what I deserve,
it's of the Lord's mercies, Lamentations chapter 3, that I'm not consumed.
And we ought to pray for people. We ought to say, Lord, be merciful
to me and to them. This self-righteous attitude
that in our minds brings God's just judgment upon sinners ought
to lead us to this frame of mind, this way of thinking. I need
to repent. Why didn't it happen to me? I
deserve it. If God gave me what I deserved and what I've earned,
it would be eternal damnation. Somebody says, well, is that
what all of us deserve? That's exactly what all of us
deserve. Every man and woman born of Adam. Fallen human race. Ruined in
Adam. We don't deserve anything. We
haven't earned anything but death. Eternal death. Now, I know a
lot of preachers in today's religious world say, boy, that fellow preaches
a negative message. And we just don't want negative
messages. We want to go out feeling good. But I want you to walk
out of here today feeling good, but not about yourself. I want
you to walk out of here today feeling good about Christ, for
he is our only hope. He is the grace of God. Now,
in the parable, he picks up and illustrates this point he's making.
We all need to come to repentance. God said he's commanded all men
everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness. by that man whom he hath ordained,
and that he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead." Acts 17, 30 and 31. In other words,
that means that when we stand before God in judgment, Christ
will be the judge. He's the judge of the quick.
That's the born again and the dead. That's the unbeliever and
his sins. We've already been judged in Christ. We who know
Him, we were judged at the cross. Our sins were put away. He gave
us His righteousness to stand before God complete. But we're
also going to be judged by that standard of Christ. And we must
have a righteousness we cannot produce. That's what this parable
is all about. That's what this repentance is
all about. But in the parable, look at it, verse 6, it says,
He spake also this parable. And he said, a certain man had
a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit
thereon and found none, a fruitless fig tree. And what does fruitlessness
signify? Death. An apple tree that doesn't
bear fruit is a dead tree. And so he says in verse 7, 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. It's just taking up space. Why
cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him,
Lord, this is the dresser, he answered the Lord, and he said,
let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung
it. That is, work the ground and
fertilize it. That's what he's talking about.
And this is not a command to you. He's requesting this of
the Lord. And it says in verse 9, and if
it bear fruit, well, if not, then after that thou shalt cut
it down. Verse 10, and he was teaching in one of the synagogues
on the Sabbath. Now, the reason verse 10 is there
is to show you exactly who he was talking to. You know, if
you're going to understand these things, you have to know who's
talking, who they're talking to, and what they're talking
about. And that goes back to what I've always told you, the
three rules of scriptural interpretation. Context, context, context. And that's it. So many people
will jerk things like this out of the scripture and just make
it say what they want. Now, there is an application here that is
more than just the immediate application. But I want to show
you this, what he's talking about in this parable. In the first
five verses, he says, repent. In the parable, he's basically
saying, repent now. Right now. Because fruitlessness
will not endure forever. In other words, if there's no
fruit, that tree's not going to stand there forever. The master,
the vine dresser, or the man who owns the vineyard is going
to have it cut down. That's what he's saying. Now,
I want to give you three applications of this parable. First of all,
I want to keep it right in its context and show you exactly
who the Lord is speaking to and what he's speaking about. And
the first application, and this is what is intended in the scripture,
and again, now that doesn't mean that we can't make other applications
of it, because truth is truth for everyone. And what he's talking
about, number one, is this is addressed to the Jewish nation
under the Old Covenant. That's the first application.
That's who he's talking to. He's teaching in the synagogue.
That's a religious gathering, a gathering of the Jews to worship.
The Old Covenant is still in effect here because the Lord
had not yet gone to the cross. And he's speaking of that time
the Jewish nation was brought under the covenant of Sinai,
what some call the Mosaic economy, the economy of Moses, the law,
and they've been under that for about 1,500 years, give or take
a few years. All that time, most of the Old
Testament is written, the history about that time. And what he's
saying here is this, the Jews, the Jewish nation under the Old
Covenant, as a nation now. And the reason I stress that
is because I want you to understand that this doesn't refer to every
individual Jewish person. Because there were some Jewish
people who were fruitful, individually. For example, the disciples whom
Christ saved. They were brought to faith in
Christ. They were brought to, they were born again. And then
there were some back even past that. We could even go back to
Moses. We could talk about Joshua. We could talk about David the
king, Solomon. We could go on. The prophets,
they knew the Lord. They were not bearing fig trees
individually. They were sinners saved by the
grace of God. We read that in Psalm 1 there
about the tree planted by the waters, bearing fruit in his
season. There were some individuals And
the Bible teaches, if you read the prophets, that in any given
time period of that 1,500 year period, that it was just a small
remnant. In fact, in Isaiah's day, in
Isaiah chapter 1, he made this statement. He said, except for
a remnant, he said Israel would be just like Sodom and Gomorrah.
You know what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. There was no fruit
there, there was only lot, and he was let out, and the whole
nation was destroyed. And what Isaiah is showing Israel
there is that because the nation as a whole had rejected the law,
they had rejected the promises of God, and they turned them
into a self-righteous system of works religion, He said if
it were not for a small piece of Israel, a small remnant of
believers saved by the grace of God who were looking to the
future, looking to Christ, the promise of Christ to come for
their salvation, he said we'd be like Sodom and Gomorrah. But
the nation as a whole had rejected the God of the Covenant, the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now that's who he's talking about
in the first application of this parable. That's the barren fig
tree. God had given the Jewish nation under the Old Covenant
privileges. He'd given them promises. He'd
given them revelations of Himself. Think about the tabernacle and
the priesthood. And instead of looking beyond
the elements, beyond the physical types and pictures, to the spiritual
truth of the grace of God in Christ and how God justifies
the ungodly by the blood and righteousness of Christ and resting
in him by faith, they turned those things into a self-righteous
system of works religion. They sought righteousness by
their works. They had basically three things
that they would boast of. to prove that they were children
of God eternally and spiritually. Number one was their physical
connection to Abraham. Look over at Matthew chapter
three that Brother Ron read. Here comes John the Baptist,
the forerunner of Christ, the last of the Old Testament prophets.
And what's he do? What's his purpose in his preaching?
He says repentance. He says, Repent ye, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. How does he do that? He points
sinners to Christ. The only way you're going to
get to repentance and I'm going to get to repentance is to look
to Christ. I'm going to show you that. If you look to Christ
as your only hope of salvation, if you look to Him as your only
way, by the grace of God, then you have to come to repentance.
In other words, you can't serve two masters. If you turn to one,
you've got to turn away from the other. That's what repentance
is all about. You can't drag the baggage of
the one behind you to the one you're going to. You see, that's
no repentance. But here John the Baptist, he
comes and he preaches repentance. And he's talking to the Pharisees
and the Sadducees who were the religious leaders of the day.
They came out to hear him. And he called him, you know,
he wasn't he he must have missed Dale Carnegie's book about how
to win friends and influence people. Because he, look there
in verse 7, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees
come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers,
you know what a viper is, don't you? It's a poisonous snake.
You generation of poisonous snakes. He said, who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come? Now these were men who self-righteously
thought they were not even in danger of the wrath to come.
But he says, you need to flee from the wrath to come. And look
at verse 9. He said, and think not to say
within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. Now, you see,
they both, oh, Abraham's our father. We're not under the wrath.
We're not in danger of wrath from God. Abraham's our father.
He said, don't say that. He said, for I say unto you that
God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
You know what he's saying there? He's telling them that God's
purpose in having a people is not just to populate a number
of people. It's like these churches who
are trying to get numbers in. That's not godly. I mean, it's
not that we don't want numbers. We want God to bring in everybody
He wants to and not everybody He will. The wall is busting. But if we change our message
and our methods and provide entertainment for people to get them in, listen,
That's not God's purpose. If there was a pile of stones
out here, God's able to raise them up to be His children. If
all He wants is a bunch of dumb rocks sitting in a pew, He can
put them there. But God's purpose is to glorify
Himself in bringing sinners to repentance, bringing them to
Christ. That's what He's telling us. If all it was is your physical
connection with Abraham, then all you've got to do is go out
and have as many children as you can. I mean, just populate
the earth. But that's not God's purpose. His purpose is to glorify
himself in the salvation of sinners by Christ. And so he says, don't
think. to say that in yourselves. And
he says in verse 10, And now also the axe is laid unto the
root of the trees. Now, what's the parable about?
What's he saying? The barren fig tree? And he says, cut it
down. You see what John the Baptist is saying? Where there's no fruit,
the axe is going to be laid to the root. He says, Therefore
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire. So just because you're a physical
child of Abraham means nothing. Means nothing. If there's no
fruit, meet for repentance. There in verse 8, he says, bring
forth therefore fruits, meet for repentance. That's appropriate
and evidence is repentance. If there's no repentance, there's
no fruit. Cut her down. The second thing,
go back to Luke 13, the second thing the Jews would boast of
is their circumcision. It was for the males, but the
males represented the families of the nation. And of course,
physical circumcision means nothing. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of Christ by whom the world is
crucified unto me and I unto the world. And he said, for in
Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. Your physical condition has nothing
to do with your relationship with God. There's only one thing. One thing, and that's Christ
and Him crucified. Am I washed in the blood of Christ?
Am I clothed in His righteousness? Am I a new creation in Him? That's
what a new creation is. That's His church. That's His
people that He presents unto the Father in the end. And so
the circumcision meant nothing. In fact, Paul said in Galatians
chapter 5, he said, if you be circumcised, Christ will profit
you nothing. In other words, if you're circumcised
thinking that it will attain or maintain God's favor and blessings
and salvation, Christ will profit you nothing. You're a debtor
to do the whole law. You better keep the law. Remember
in Romans 2, he said that if you be circumcised for that reason,
that's okay if you keep the law, if you're not a sinner. You see,
if you're a sinner, if I'm a sinner, only a sinner, the only thing
that's going to do me any good is saved by Grace. Saved by grace. And grace comes
to us through Christ and the cross. And then the third thing
that they would boast of was their obedience to the law of
Moses. But they had perverted the law of Moses. Christ said
that in John chapter 5. When he spoke to them, and he
said in verse 39, he says, You do search the scriptures, for
in them you think you have eternal life. But they are they, he said,
which testify of me. And he said, you roast about
Moses. You say you keep the law of Moses. But he said, Moses will be your
judge. You haven't kept the law of Moses,
he said. What was the law of Moses given for? Two reasons.
Number one, to show them their sinfulness and depravity, their
need of a righteousness they could not produce, and bring
them to repentance in guiding them and leading them to Christ.
Galatians chapter 3 and verse 24, the law was our schoolmaster,
that is to those Jews, to lead them unto Christ, that they might
be justified by faith. That is, that they might look
to Christ for their justification and believe in him. And yet they
perverted it. So here in Luke chapter 13, he's
saying that because they refused his truth, because they rejected
him as a nation. Now again, not every individual.
There were some of God's elect among the Jews. But because they
as a nation rejected Christ, he came unto his own and his
own received him not. But see now, they didn't just
reject Christ when he came on earth. as God in human flesh. There was that time, but they
rejected him for 1,500 years under the old covenant. And therefore
it proved to be a fruitless fig tree. Let me show you this in
Romans chapter 9. Turn there just a moment. And
that's the first application. Now, understand now that what
is seen there in the Jewish nation as a whole is not exclusive to
the Jewish nation. You see, they're kind of like
a microcosm or a picture of all of us by nature. That's right,
isn't it? And I'll show you that in just
a moment. Look at verse 4 of Romans 9. He says, Who are the
Israelites? To whom pertaineth the adoption?
That was their national, temporal adoption under the covenant.
The glory. The glory of God resided in the
tabernacle, in the temple, above the mercy seat. The covenants.
You can talk about the covenant with Abraham. You can talk about
the covenant of Sinai. You can talk about the covenant
with David. The royal covenant. All those covenants given to
that nation. The giving of the law on Sinai.
And the service of God. That's speaking mainly of the
tabernacle and the service of the priest. And the promises. the promises given to Abraham
which not only pertain to the Jewish nation but to all of God's
people, and mainly the promise of sending Christ into the world
to save His people from their sins. He says in verse 5, "...whose
are the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of whom as concerning
the flesh Christ came. He was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, who is over all God blessed forever."
Amen. Now, the majority of the nation
was fruitless, like a fruitless fig tree. They rejected God's
grace. But didn't God promise to save
Israel? Didn't He say all Israel will
be saved? Paul dealt with that in Romans chapter 11. He quoted
from Isaiah 45. Israel shall be saved in the
Lord, world without end. All of that. So if the majority
of the nation rejected the Messiah, And when He comes, they reject
Him. And if they're the barren fig tree and they're going to
be cut off, did God lie? Didn't He say He was going to
save Israel? Or was the Word of God, look
at verse 6, was the Word of God of no effect? And Paul says,
no, not as though the Word of God had taken none effect. God
didn't lie. He did not lie. God did not make
a promise He could not and would not fulfill. And listen to me
now. God did not make a promise to
that nation that was conditioned on that nation. God did promise
to save Israel. God is saving Israel, and God
will save all Israel. But who is Israel? Who is Israel? That's what he started off with
in verse 4. Who are the Israelites? Well, look at verse 6 again.
Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they
are not all Israel which are of Israel." He's talking about
something else here. And a lot of people today don't
understand this. He's not talking about a physical
nation in a physical land today. He's talking about a spiritual
nation. For they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. Can you get any plainer than
that? And he goes on, he says, in verse 7, neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they all children. In other words,
just because they are the physical seed of Abraham, that doesn't
mean they're children of God. But in Isaac thy seed shall be
called. Now, some people say, well, that's
talking about Isaac and the Jews rather than Ishmael and his offspring. But that's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about Christ. Isaac was the child of promise,
born of a miracle. He pictured Christ to come. It was through the seed of Isaac
that the Messiah would come according to the flesh. He had already
said that. Verse 8, that is, they which
are the children of the flesh, physical children, these are
not the children of God, but the children of the promise are
counted for the seed. Now, who are the children of
promise? We'll turn to Galatians chapter 3. Some of you knew I
was going there because I've done this so many times, but
it's important. Because if we're going to see what this barren
fig tree is and what a fruitful fig tree is, this is where we
have to go. Here's what he's saying. It doesn't matter whether
you're Jew or Gentile. You say. It's only the children
of the promise who are counted for the seed, they are the children
of God. Now, the question, am I a child
of the promise? Now, some would say, no, because
I'm a Gentile. I'm not a Jew, and I don't have the... But you
see, the promise that he's talking about in the book of Romans and
here in the book of Galatians is not a promise to a physical
nation of a physical land. It's an eternal promise of an
eternal salvation and an eternal land, heaven itself. And he says
it in verse 26, or verse 24. Look at that. He says, wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified by faith. Now that was the law given to
the Jews under Moses. The Gentiles never were under
that law. Oh, I know there are Gentiles who try to bring you
under that law, but we were never, by God's purpose and command,
under that Mosaic law. That was for the Jews. But it
was given to them as a schoolmaster to do what? To cause them to
boast about their physical connection with Abraham or their circumcision
or their keeping? No, to bring them to Christ in
repentance. Faith in Christ. And so he says, but after that
faith has come, now that's referring to the coming of Christ to do
his work. We are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Now that covenant's gone. We're not under it now, he says.
The Jews aren't under it. Some of them think they are.
And many men try to put them back under it. And even Gentiles
will try to do that. But God says no longer. What
does that say there? Read it. No longer. Is that what
that means? No longer. Pretty plain, isn't
it? Look at verse 26. For you are
all the children of God. How? By faith in Christ Jesus. Now there it is. Who are the
children of the promise? Who is spiritual Israel? Those
who have faith in Christ Jesus. They've experienced the circumcision
of the heart, Romans 2, 28 and 29. Not the circumcision of the
flesh, but the new birth. They've been born into the kingdom
of God, and as a result, they have faith in Christ Jesus. For
as many of you as have been baptized, that doesn't mean water baptism,
that means you're united to Christ. The word baptized means placed
into. You were placed into Christ.
You were placed into Christ before the foundation of the world,
the scripture teaches. God's elect in grace. You were placed
into Christ when He justified you by His blood and righteousness.
You were placed into Christ at the cross when He died for your
sins and was buried and rose again the third day because of
our justification. And we're placed into Christ
at the new birth when the Holy Spirit gives us life and brings
us under the preaching of the gospel and we come to faith in
Christ and repentance, the fruit, the fruit of grace. So he says,
and as many of you have been baptized into Christ and put
on Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek. Now, in Christ, there's
neither Jew nor Greek. Now, what does that say? I'll
tell you exactly what it says. It says in Christ, there's neither
Jew nor Greek. And the reason I say it like
that is I know you're not stupid. I'm not trying to talk down to
you. But it's amazing to me that men can get this in Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek.
Those distinctions are gone. In the Old Covenant, that distinction
was there. He made its distinction between
Jew and Gentile. But now it's gone. And you know,
people talk about He's coming back to establish His kingdom
here on this earth. Didn't he say, he told Pilate,
my kingdom is not what? Of this world. He told his disciples,
the kingdom of heaven is within you. And yet people want to hold
on to these things because of self-righteousness. There's neither
Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither
male nor female, you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you
belong to Him, that's what that is, if you be Christ, if you
belong to Him, Then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise." There's the children of the promise. Now go back to
Luke 13. Now, this barren fig tree that
bore no fruit, there was no fruit of grace, there was no fruit
of faith, there was no fruit of repentance. Let me make another application.
I'll do this. Secondly, I think we can make
an application to man in general, not just to the Jews, I was thinking
about this in the book of James chapter 1 and verse 17. Let me
read this to you. It says this, every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the
Father of life with whom is no variableness, that means no change,
neither shadow of turning, no repentance. There's no change
with God, there's no repenting with God. I know that there's
a couple of verses in the Old Testament that speak of God repenting,
but that's not the kind of repentance that we do. We change our minds,
we change our direction. God doesn't. In fact, the Bible
also says God is not a man that he should repent. He doesn't
change. In fact, that's our hope. Malachi
3, 6. Young probably quoted, I am the Lord, I change not.
Therefore, you sons of Jacob, you sinners saved by grace are
not consumed. But it does say every good gift
and every perfect gift is from above. And I believe you can
address that to men and women in general, all over the earth.
Because you know everything that we have that is good and complete
is from God. You sitting here in this audience,
you've had troubles and trials and tribulations in your life,
but you've had good things too. God's in control of all of them.
God sends them all for a purpose. But think about the good things.
Think about the times of joy and happiness. Think about the
good material things that you have. Think about the opportunities. What do you do with them? Well,
if you do not seek the Lord, what does that make you? If you
don't come to faith in Christ, if you don't seek Him in His
Word and worship Him, What does that make? If you don't come
to repentance, what does that make? Just like a barren fig
tree. That's exactly what it is. And
you see, the problem today is that churches, so-called churches,
are conforming to man's desires. Aaron and I were coming back
from Cincinnati yesterday, and I saw a sign outside of a building,
a church building, and I said, Aaron, you know I can't leave
that alone. I've got to mention it. But it said this, it said, a
church for people who don't like going to church. A church for
people who don't like going to church. Now let's assume, I don't
know what that church preaches or anything, or what the guy
does or what, but I hate the sign. But let's think about this
now. If it were a true church, let's
say if the gospel was really preached there, the true gospel,
Then change the sign and say it like this, a place where the
gospel is preached for people who hate the gospel. Or a place where God is worshipped
for people who don't like to worship God. Or a place where the people of
God meet in fellowship where people don't like to meet in
fellowship with the people of God. I want to say, what in the world?
What in the world are people thinking? Well, they're just
thinking naturally. And in reality, what you do when you say a church
for people who don't like to go to church, you're saying,
well, let's just conform to what people want. Well, they don't
like to go to church, so we'll conform to them. You see, you
don't need that. You need repentance. You need
to conform to God's Word and God's way and God's will. We
don't need the church to conform to your way and your will, because
that's down. That's the world. Be ye not conformed
to the world. Somebody said, well, don't you
want people to come in who don't really want it? Well, sure I
do, but I'm not going to conform to that. I'm not going to stand
up here and entertain you. I'm not going to provide activities
so that you can enjoy coming here when you really don't want
to come here. I'm just not going to do that. That's not the way
of God. That's not the scriptures. That's the way of the world.
Get away from it. You see, think about all the
good things God has given us. What should that do? It should
bring us to repentance, the goodness of God. But now, turn to Hebrews
chapter 2. Let me make this last application.
I want to talk to us, every one of us in this building
today, who are sitting under the preaching of the gospel. And I'll tell you, and I'm going
to say this, and it may sound bad, but it's not. Right now,
you ought to see yourself as the most privileged person on
God's green earth. Not because I'm here, behind
this pulpit, up here preaching. Whoever's up here preaching the
gospel, that's what I mean. That's what I mean. Think about
that. Now, think about the Jews under
the old covenant. All the privileges they had. All the blessings,
temporally, they had. And they ended up bearing a barren
fig tree. Well, what about us here? What
if you're sitting there, and you're hearing me, but you're
really not hearing me? You know what that is? That's
a barren fig tree. That's right. You say, well, you're bringing
that down to the home. That's right. What good is the
scripture if it doesn't hit me? It's like the lady that asked
Brother Mahan one time said, were you talking to me? And he
said, were you here? Talking to everybody that's here.
I had a fellow one time told me I was throwing pot shots at
him. Well, I must have been throwing at everybody then. Because I
was preaching to everybody in the audience, including this
one up here. You see, if you're sitting there
hearing me, but not hearing, you know what I mean. You need
to hear with the ear of faith and repentance. Now, we know
faith is the gift of God. That's right. You know what you
ought to do? Well, if faith is the gift of
God, I'm going to go in here, I'm going to sit down, and I'm
going to fold my arms and wait until He gives it to me. No, I'll tell
you exactly what to do. Ask for it. You know why I know
that? You say, how? Because he said,
ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and you'll find. Knock,
and it shall be opened. Somebody says, well, what about
the sovereignty of God? God's still sovereign for Him.
He's never stopped being sovereign. If He gives you faith, it's His
sovereign will to do so. But He commands us to ask for
it. What did John the Baptist tell the Sadducees and the Pharisees? He said, you don't go back home.
If God's going to save you, He will. And if He won't, He won't.
No, he said, bring forth fruits, meet for repentance. That's a
command. Listen to Hebrews chapter 2 and
verse 1. Therefore, he's just been talking about the glory
of Christ. He says, therefore we, we who
heard about this glory, who listening to the gospel of God's grace,
who are commanded to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and
repent, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things
which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. Now what that means is the picture
here in the literal language is like a boat out on a river
just floating down the river. And there's the dock of safety.
A storm comes. There's the dock of safety. And
instead of hooking up to the dock and staying right there
at that dock in safety, you just slip on by. Don't do that. Don't let these words just go
right by you and slip onto the back there. Take them to heart. Don't. Don't neglect. He says
in verse 2, for if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and
every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
reward, would you like to be in a position before God where
every transgression and every disobedience received a just
recompense of reward? You want to be rewarded for your
works? You know, I hear preachers talking,
let me tell you something, get out of that thought, repent of
thinking like that. I do not want God to reward me
for my works, because I know what I'll get. And if you don't
think you'll get the same thing, and you think you'll get better,
I'm going to tell you what, you need to repent. You say, well, I've done a lot
for the Lord. I ought to get a bigger mansion in heaven. Repent. Because whatever you've done
for the Lord, if it was truly from the Lord, it wasn't of you,
it was His grace, my friend. You didn't earn it and you didn't
deserve it. We've seen parables about that, haven't we? You know
who our reward is? It's Christ. He's our reward. So he says in verse 3, How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Don't neglect this.
which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed
unto us by them that heard." Don't neglect this great salvation. Don't let it slip by you. Let
me tell you this, where Christ gives life, there's fruit, not
barrenness. Where He gives life, it's the
fruit of His death. Did you know that? It's the fruit
of grace in His death. He said, except a corn of wheat
fall on their ground and die, It won't produce fruit, but if
it die, it'll produce fruit. And he said, he said, and I,
I must be lifted up. And I will draw all men unto
me. And that word draw, I know some people don't like this,
but it's drag. John 6, 44, the same word. No
man can come to me except the father which has sent me. Draw
him, literally drag him. And I will raise it up again
at the last day. You know what that means? It means I won't
come and you won't come to faith and repentance of our own free
will. We won't do it. We have to be drugged. Now, that
doesn't mean that we're drugged against our will. And you know
why? Because God does a work of grace and he makes his people
willing in the day of his power. You see, faith is not a decision
you make for the Lord. Faith is a persuasion he brings
you to by his power. You've got no other choice. I'm
telling you, there's no other choice for us than to run to
Christ and keep in Him and under His wing, stand on the rock,
hide in the cleft of the rock and say, God be merciful to me,
the sinner. This is the fruit of the Spirit.
It's the Holy Spirit's work as He comes forth from the Son,
convincing us of sin. and bringing us to Christ in
faith and repentance. Life, faith, and repentance are
gifts from God. We are born dead in sin, bringing
forth fruit unto death, but only God can create us anew in the
new birth and bring us to bring forth fruit unto Him. But because
the Lord has given us the privilege of sitting under the gospel,
it is our responsibility to seek life in Christ, to seek after
faith and repentance. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. Ask, and it shall be given. Seek,
and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened
unto you. Don't be content with just hearing what you're hearing. Believe it and repent. Repent. If not, there'll come
a time when the master will say, why cumbereth it the ground?
Cut it down. Unfruitful trees just take up
space. They're not good for anything. But God is long-suffering. You
know, the dresser said there, let me dig around and dung around. And you know what that means?
That means just doing what I'm doing right now. Just keep preaching
the gospel. Now, if you're sitting out there and you're not really
hearing me, if you come back again, I'm going to tell you
the same thing. I'm going to preach the same gospel to you.
And I'm going to keep on doing it. That's what it means. Dig
about it. I'm going to dung it. I'm going to fertilize it. I'm
going to preach the gospel. And I'm going to pray for you.
And we need to pray for each other. That's the issue, see.
Now, turn to Philippians chapter 3, and I want to close by just
reading a portion from this passage. Let me just say, what is the
nature of this repentance? Now, most people, when they talk
about repentance, they want to talk about what they quit doing.
You know, they smoke. Well, they repent and they stop
smoking. They drink and they repent and they stop drinking.
They stop doing this and start doing that. They've got a whole
list of things. Or if they don't go to church,
they start going to church. Things like that. Rededication.
Whatever. Let me tell you the essence of
repentance. Now, look at verse 3 of Philippians 3. He says,
For we are the circumcision. Now, Paul is talking about the
born again there. The children of God. Circumcised
in the heart. which worship God in the Spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus." That word rejoice is boast or have
confidence in. Our confidence is in Christ.
We have no confidence in the flesh. That's us, what we can
do. He says in verse 4, though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh, I more. Then he lists these things. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the
Hebrews is touching the law of Pharisee. concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."
Now that's what the Jews boasted of, their connection with Abraham,
their circumcision, their law-keeping. It was self-righteousness. But
he says in verse 7, now here's repentance, look at this, "...but
what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ."
That's repentance. In other words, when I see the
glory of Christ and His person and His finished work on the
cross and His blood and righteousness, I see that everything I thought
that I could do or was enabled to do that would recommend me
unto God, it was nothing but loss. I repent. And he says in
verse 8, look how far he goes, Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dumb. that I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Jesus Christ." That's
repentance. Read that again on your own.
I read through it pretty quick. Study it. Ask God to open your
heart to it. Ask God to reveal himself to
you. Plead with him. Don't remain
to be a barren fig tree, if that's what you are. Bring forth fruit,
meat for repentance.