Goes to the cross just a few
days. It's amazing here in the next few chapters how much teaching
is fitted into those next few chapters, those three days. I
mean, you're talking about intense, intense teaching. We'll see this
as we go along here in the next few weeks. But just the next
few chapters is done in three days. And all this teaching is
done. It's like the seriousness of
it and the brevity of it. It's about to happen. Taking
advantage of this opportunity, if I can call it that, of teaching
His disciples. So this is all happening here
in just a few short days. Now in the morning, as He returned
into the city, He hungered. He was hungry. When he saw a
fig tree in the way, this one lonely fig tree standing by the
way that leads up to Jerusalem, Bethany was about two miles from
Jerusalem. And on his way there, walking
there, there's this one lonely fig tree in the way. It didn't belong to anybody.
It belonged to him. But it didn't belong to any one
person. It was just standing there by
the way. But it belonged to him. He came to it. And he found nothing
thereon. It was a fig tree and it was
in full leaf. And when he came to it, he was
going to eat of it. And this shows here, this shows
his absolute, this thought struck me when I read this. He was hungry. He got up early. He was on his
way to Jerusalem. He's very hungry. He goes to
this fig tree. This shows his absolute dependence
on God for his daily bread. I mean, it just struck me how
every day they did not have a refrigerator. They did not have a pantry. Vicki's
want me to build a pantry. So we put all the canned food
and stuff in. But all the stuff we buy at the
groceries that last all week and sometimes throughout the
month. He ate, day by day, exactly what his father provided. He got up that morning and headed
to Jerusalem to do his daily business, his father's business,
and just trusted his father to give him something to eat that
day. That thought just struck me as I read that. What an example
for us. Well, he found nothing on it
but leaves only. And I'll touch on this here in
a minute. Just leaves only. And he said unto it. And this
is the first time where we read where he actually pronounces
judgment on something and it dies. This is the first time
we read of this. He looked at that fig tree. He
said, let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. He cursed
it. That's what Peter says. Over
in Mark chapter 11, this same incident is recorded. And Peter
says, that fig tree you cursed. You passed judgment on it. And
presently, the fig tree withered away. It just withered away. And when the disciples saw it,
they marveled. saying, How soon is the fig tree
withered away? Jesus answered and said unto
them, Verily I say unto you, Truly I say to you, if ye have
faith and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done
to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain,
Be thou removed. Now you can imagine The Lord
is saying to you, you know, there's a mountain right across this
road. If you had faith and doubt not, you could remove that mountain
if it was necessary, if it was needed. And if it's in the will
of God, it would move. There'd be bulldozers in here
tomorrow taking that mountain out. Something would be in here tomorrow
removing that mountain. And He said these disciples,
they have a mountain in front of them. When He dies, The suffering
they are going to do. The things they are going to
face by the Jews and the Gentiles and the troubles and the trials
that they are going to face. They've got a mountain in front
of them. A mountain of problems and trials.
But He said, you'd say to this mountain, be thou removed and
be thou cast into the sea. It will be done. It shall be
done. And all things whatsoever you
shall ask in prayer, believing, Oh, there's the key. There's the key. And I want to
say in our problem, there's the key and there's our problem.
Believing, not doubting. Not doubting at all. I'd say
most prayers, many, many, I can say for sure, many, many prayers
are prayed with doubt. Would the Lord really do this? believing that he's actually
going to do it. He said, you shall receive. You shall receive. Well, our Lord has cleansed the
temple. We saw that last week. He went
in and cast out those money changers, those money-making adventurers
that these false prophets or false teachers had taken advantage
of. Taken advantage of the people.
They were making money on it and he goes in and he cleans
house. And I thought again, as I looked at this this week, I
thought this must happen in salvation. We are also, we are the temple
of God. And he's got to cleanse this.
He's got to cast out the money changers that goes on in this
part, in this heart. He's got to cast out that covetousness
that dwells in this person. It just struck me this week as
I was looking at this again that we are the temple of God and
He's got to cleanse the temple and He'll do it. Well, after
He cleanses the temple, He drives those money changers out and
He heals. After that, He heals people that
are sick, people that are in need of Him. He leaves that place
of tumult, that place where So much trouble is brought to him. And he goes to Bethany. Bethany. Two miles away, he goes to Bethany.
Why go to Bethany? Lord, why go to Bethany? Well,
there's a family in Bethany that loves him. And he loves. Lord, he whom thou lovest is
sick. And he whom thou lovest lives
in Bethany. Lazarus, Martha, and Mary live
in Bethany. He went where he was welcome.
He went to lodge with believers. Now, he had to deal with unbelievers,
but he went to lodge with those who love him and those whom he
loves. He went to Bethany to stay with
his family. And then early in the morning,
right at the earliest part of the morning, at daybreak, He's
up. I'd say He's up before praying,
communing with His Father, because He's about to go on this journey
again back to Jerusalem. And all these things are about
to happen to Him. So He's up very early. Then He gets His
disciples up. He would have been a tough one
to follow. I mean, you're talking about someone that was busy.
Busy. I mean, he would have been...
I mean, you better be in shape to follow this. Someone was telling
me they worked for, you know, Ed Ballard. Ed would work, they
say, you couldn't keep up with him. If you're going to work
for Ed, you better be ready to work. And here, our Lord is up
early. And it's about his father's business.
And he heads back to Jerusalem. And on his way, he's hungry. He's hungry. He got up before
breakfast and wasn't even thinking about breakfast. He had all this
other more important things on his mind. So on his way, he's
hungry. Which shows his humanity. Even though he was God, He was
a real man who suffered hunger, who suffered the same things
that we suffer, the same needs that we need. He had. He had
those needs. Being God did not keep him from
being hungry. It didn't keep him from being
hungry. He suffered our needs. If he's to be our substitute,
he must be touched with everything that I'm touched with. Everything. Well, on his way, being hungry,
he sees this fig tree in the way. It doesn't belong to, you
know, no one planted it. It's other than God. God planted
it. It's the Lord's fig tree. It's
His, that's for sure. Well, he sees this fig tree in
the way, so he goes to it. This fig tree is full of leaves.
It's just all green and looks all healthy. It's a good-looking
fig tree. It's a good looking fig tree.
So he goes to it. Expecting it says fruit on it,
he's expecting fruit, he's expecting to be able to eat from this fig
tree. To partake of the blessings of
this fig tree. So he goes over there and when
he comes to it, when he comes to it, there's no fruit on it,
there's no fruit. Here's what I learned in reading
this week about the fig tree. The fig tree puts forth its fruit
first. I didn't know that. It has those
little figs, they come out first. The fruit comes out first. And
then the leaves come out later. So when you see a fig tree in
full bloom, I mean in full leafage, when you see that, Well, it's
just automatic. The fruit's ready. The leaves,
the full leaves on it say that the fruit's ready. So here's
a tree he sees at a distance. It's full, it's green, it's very
leafy. And it's saying there's fruit
here. And when he gets to it, there's absolutely nothing on
it. It's just green. It's a good looking tree, but
it's a fruitless tree. It's a fruitless tree. Now, there's
a real lesson here. There's some real teaching here.
This is why it's so important. I say I said this because it
keeps coming up to my attention as I study. It's so important
going verse by verse. These things are profound. These
teachings are necessary. Here is a here is a lesson we
are going to learn, and I titled the message A Fruitless Profession.
A fruitless profession will eventually be cursed. It will soon dry up
and be cast away. So anyway, on his way, this happens.
Now, what are we to take from this? What are we to take from
this lesson here in the Word of God? Well, first of all, it's
no doubt it's a parable, but it's also a prophecy. against
Israel first, and against hypocrisy, an empty profession. Israel was like this fig tree. Outwardly, the Lord said to His
Pharisees, outwardly you look good. Outwardly, you're like
white acetylchurs. Outwardly, you look good. You're
decorated. But inwardly, you're full of dead men's bones. It's
empty. No fruit. And we'll look at this
fruit in a minute. But no fruit. They had the form
of godliness. But they denied the power of
it. Their lives denied the power of what they professed. They
professed to love God. But when the Lord healed someone,
they were angry. They got angry. When the Lord
blessed, they were jealous. They were envious. They had the
form of godliness outwardly. They looked good. They looked
godly. Looked like somebody you might
want to live beside. But He said inwardly, inwardly it's empty. Empty. Israel had all the types. They had all the pictures. They
had all the leaves. They had all the leaves. They
looked like they were very fruitful. They had all that. They had the
Word of God. Look over in Romans chapter 3. In Romans chapter 3, listen to
this. Verse 1, What advantage then
hath the Jew? What advantage is it to be a
Jew? What profit is there of circumcision? Well, Paul said, much every way.
Much chiefly, and this is the chief reason, because that unto
them were committed the word of God, the oracles of God. They
had the advantage. They had all these things. And
outwardly, they looked very promising. They looked very fruitful in
the things of God, yet they were fruitless. They were fruitless. They had not the fruit of the
Spirit. They didn't have the fruit of
the Spirit. All they had was the letter. Those two stones
you talked about. All they had was the cold, dead
letter of the law. Ceremonies. And that's the way
they went through it. That's the way they went through
their services. It was just like a cold, dead meeting. There was no life in it. It was
like sitting and having a lecture in college. Just sitting there
listening to the professor give you the lessons and write them
on the board and say, let's go home. Cold. Dead. That's all it was. They
didn't have the Spirit of God inward. It was all outward show. That's
all it was. It was outward show. And no fruit. No fruit had grown on that tree
since Christ crucified. It hadn't grown on it before
that even. It was dead. It was dead. I tell you what,
70 years, well, it was about 70 years after the Lord ascended,
that place was dried up. That place dried up. Over in
Mark, over in Mark, It says the next day they came back by, the
next day they came back by this tree and the disciples marveled,
just like here, they marveled that it was so soon dried up
from the roots. Not just the leaves withered
a little bit here and there. No, it was dried up from the roots.
From the roots. Even now, even now, you look
at that place over there now, it's fruitless. It's fruitless. There are no prophets produced
from that place now. None at all. The Word of God
does not come from that place now. Fruitless. And if fruit, if fruit ever comes
from them, if fruit is ever found on them in that place again, they'll have to be converted
just as we are. God will have to save them and
give them a new birth just like He has us if there's ever to
be fruit. Fruit can only come from the
Spirit of God dwelling within. That's where it comes from. That's
the only place it can come from. This also speaks to all hypocrites.
All hypocrites who make a fair show in the flesh. They make a profession. But love is not there. Kindness
is not there. The fruit of the Spirit is missing.
Love, joy, peace. Look over in Galatians chapter
5. This is the fruit. In Galatians 5 verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit...
See, this is what was missing. In Israel, this is what's missing
in all hypocrites, empty professions. Love is missing. An opportunity comes along to
demonstrate love. And they pass it by. They don't
show it. Nowhere a hypocrite does not
show it. An empty profession does not
show that love when the opportunity comes along to show it. Kindness. An opportunity to show kindness
comes along. And you don't show it. See, that's
an empty profession. There's no fruit, because fruit
is for who? It's for you. You know, the fig tree, when
it bears fruit, it's for the people to eat. It's like kindness. All these things here mentioned,
love, joy, peace, Long-suffering? When an opportunity comes along
to be long-suffering, instead it's like, get out of here! You don't show long-suffering.
You know, all that is missing. Gentleness, goodness, and faith. When all that fruit is missing,
it's because the Spirit of God is missing. Now, we may look
green. We may look good on the outside.
We may make a fair show, as Paul said, in the flesh. But when
these graces of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is missing,
it's just an empty profession. So let's look what our Lord does
here. First of all, He curses that tree. He has the authority to do so.
Does He not? He has the authority to pass
judgment on all. All judgment, it says, all judgment
in John chapter 5 has been committed to the Son. All judgment is committed
to Him. He has the right to pass judgment
on that fig tree. That fig tree is His. Does He
not have the right to expect fruit from it? Does He not have the right to
expect fruit from my hands? Does He not have the right to
expect fruit from my lips? Over here in Hebrews chapter 13, look here.
Over here in Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13, look
in verse 15. By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit
of our lips. Does he not have the right this
morning to the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name? He
sure does. He sure does. He has the right
to do it. The fig tree is his as its creator. He's the creator. And he has
the right to expect fruit from it. And notice his power here. But let me say this before I go on
to that point. He has the right to expect that tree for fruit. And he has the right to expect
fruit from that tree because it's his. He's the Lord. He's the judge of the quick and
the living. of the dead and the living. And
here's His power. Look here at His power to execute
judgment. He said to this tree. Now, He's
not upset with a tree. There's a teaching here. He's
doing this to teach us, His disciples at that time and us now. It's
a real teaching lesson going on here. Let no fruit grow on
thee henceforward Now, for that to happen, there
has to be the absence of God's Spirit. That's a hopeless case. That
tree right there never bore fruit again. Never. This curse is most
dreadful. No matter how much you dig and
fertilize about that tree now, once He curses it, it's not going
to produce fruit. Only Christ can enable us by
the indwelling of His Spirit to produce love, joy, peace,
long-suffering. That's of God. That's of Him. It's serious, isn't it? It's
serious to confess Christ, to believe on Christ, to look to
Christ, to confess Him. There's nothing more serious
than this. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And then the disciples marveled
at this. They marveled that by His Word
the tree was dried up. They should not have marveled. How long have they been with
Him? How many miracles have they seen? It's no wonder He spoke
to them concerning faith. Have faith and doubt not. Here
they stand marveling over a tree that he spoke to and it dried
up. Did he not raise Lazarus from
the dead? Did they not go stay in his house?
Lazarus was there and they watched him raise him from the dead.
Did they not see him feed 5,000 more than once? Give sight to the blind? Hearing
to the deaf? Speech to the dumb? He healed
limbs? Did He not do this? And they
stand marveled. Marveled that this happened. We wouldn't be so amazed if we
believed. We wouldn't have to be so amazed or stand marveled
if we truly believed Him. This wouldn't be a marvel. It's
Him. It's God. If He says that, you know what's going to happen.
You know it's going to happen. So the Lord is going to teach
them a lesson here concerning faith in Him, in His power, in
His judgments, to trust Him, to call upon Him at all times and in all troubles. Call upon Him. If you have faith, He said, and
doubt not. If you have faith, true faith,
Where it is will produce fruit. It will produce fruit because
it's a fruit of the Spirit. I just read that to you at Galatians
5. It's a fruit of the Spirit. And it will produce fruit. It
will produce kindness. When kindness is needed, it'll
come out. When longsuffering is needed,
it'll come out. When love is needed, it'll come
out. If it's there, it will. Unbelief is never allowed. It's
never commended and there's never any room made for it. Our Lord
doesn't do that. To doubt the promises and power
of Christ is a death blow. It's a death blow to being fruitful
in any good work. It's a death blow. The Scripture
says, He did not many mighty works there because of their
unbelief. Because of their unbelief. And
he says to them, doubt not. That needs to be prayed over,
doesn't it? That we doubt not. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Help me to believe. Help me to
trust. Help me to have that faith that
you're talking about right here. Doubt not. Doubting that anything's
possible with God? We shouldn't do that. Really,
truly, that should never cross our minds. That should never
cross our minds. Nothing is impossible with God.
The apostles were going to face, as I said, a mountain of difficulties,
a mountain of troubles. They're about to face these things. And He's saying to them, Doubt not. Don't you doubt the
promises of God? Don't you doubt the power of
God to keep you? Don't you doubt the love of God,
the care of God? I mean, look what happened to
them. I've been reading in the Fox's Book of Martyrs, and these
men burned at the stake in some of the terrible tortures that
was done to these men. And doubt not? Standing there
in flames, you doubt not the love of God? Doubt not. That's what he said. And if he says doubt not, then
we ought not doubt. Really. Oh, if you have faith,
if you have God-given faith, that faith that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ, you will be able And He's not just saying this
to the disciples, He's saying this to me and you. You will
be able to overcome any trouble that comes your way. If you have
the faith that's of God, if you have faith, if you believe Me,
rely on Me, trust Me, you will overcome all trouble that comes
your way. All of it. Nothing will overcome
you. Just doubt not. Doubt not. And the exercise of faith that
he's speaking here of starts with prayer. Prayer. Man, I just cannot emphasize
the importance of this. Prayer. And the exercise of true
faith starts with prayer. It starts with calling upon God.
Whatsoever you ask, he said, in prayer. Believing, but whatsoever
you ask in prayer. Prayer is commanded. Prayer is
of God. True prayer is the Holy Spirit
moving you to pray and to ask what God has purposed to give
you. That's what it is. Now a lot of our prayers, as
James said, we ask amiss, consuming on the lust of our flesh. He's
not saying ask in the sense of just loading ourselves up with
worldly possessions. He's talking about praying according
to God's will, because that's thy will be done. Praying according
to God's will and asking, believing. Believe me, first of all, you
have the right to ask. He said to ask. James says you have not
because you ask not. Whatsoever you ask in prayer,
it's commanded, it's of God. Listen, and prayer and faith
go together. They are joined together. True
prayer and faith are truly joined together. If you don't believe
while you pray, Really, why are you praying if
you really don't believe? If you really are not convinced
of a matter, then why pray about it? If you're truly convinced that
God Almighty hears you and He answers, thou who hearest prayer,
David said, thou who hearest prayer. How many times did he
say, hear my voice? He believed he was going to.
He believed God was hearing him. True prayer and faith go together. And true prayer, listen, true
prayer has conviction in it. He said believing. Believing
that you're going to receive what you're asking for. Believing. Ask believing. Listen, to pray. Without faith,
without believing God, without believing what you're asking
for, it's like shooting a blank pistol. It's like shooting a
blank pistol. It's a lot of sound. I've got
a blank pistol I use training my bird dogs. It's loud, but
you couldn't shoot a fly with it. Nothing comes out of it.
It's just a blank. Prayer without faith is like
shooting a blank pistol. But prayer joined to faith, well,
that's loaded. That's loaded. He says, all things
whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believe Him. Boy, that covers a lot, doesn't
it? All things. All things. And I'm just going
to leave it there. I'm not going to try to explain
this. All things, whatever your need is, situation, all things,
whatsoever, you shall ask in prayer, believing. He said you'll
receive it. You'll receive it. I'll close with this. In our prayers. In our prayers. Ask for particulars. Ask for
particulars. Lay out your case before Him. And I try to be more and more
careful as I stand here and when I pray. I try to be more and
more careful about what I'm asking for. First of all, I'm using
the name of Christ. Be careful how you use that name
and how you go to the throne of grace with it. But I try to
be more and more careful as I stand here and I ask God this morning,
bless this service, give us a spirit of worship. I don't want to ramble
on. I don't want to I don't want
to sound like a blank pistol going off. But I do want to ask for particulars.
His blessing on us. Listen to Paul here. Let me close
with this. Let me close with reading you something here out
of Ephesians. Not Ephesians, but Colossians chapter 1. Listen
to this prayer of Paul. It's a prayer of faith. You know,
the Lord joined this matter of faith and praying with this drying
up of the fig tree and it being fruitful. Fruitful or not fruitful.
He joined it together. Now, listen to this. Paul says
here in verse 7 of chapter 1, As ye also learn of Epaphras,
our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit,
For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, since the
day it came to us, we do not cease to pray for you and to
desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will
and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Wouldn't you love
for someone to pray that for you?" Well, Paul did. Paul did. This is a powerful
prayer. That Paul prays for the church.
That they would be filled with the knowledge of his will. The
knowledge of God's will. That it would be in all wisdom
and spiritual understanding. That ye might walk worthy of
the Lord. This is his prayer. Unto all
pleasing. Listen. Being fruitful. Being fruitful in every good
work. Every time the opportunity comes
along to be kind, you're kind. To show love, you show love.
Long-suffering, you're long-suffering. That you're fruitful in every
good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Increasing
in the knowledge. You cannot exhaust that knowledge.
You cannot exhaust it. Strengthen with all might according
to His glorious power unto all patience long-suffering, with
joyfulness." This is part of that fruit. "...giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son." That's a powerful prayer. Also, this is my prayer for you.
I thought this morning, instead of, well, I tell you what, that's
going to be our prayer. That will be our closing prayer.