The old prophets used to speak of the burden of the word of
the Lord. I can't begin to tell you, I
can't begin to describe, it's impossible for anyone to know
except someone who's experienced it, the weight, the awesome,
awesome weight of the burden of preaching the gospel. Let
me tell you why it is such a heavy burden. I am fully aware that
salvation is of the Lord. You know that. All God's elect
shall be saved. Every sinner purchased by the
blood of Christ at Calvary will be with him in glory. There is
no possibility that the grace of God or the work of Christ
or the call of God's Spirit shall be thwarted by the will of man
or by the powers of hell. That's not possible. But I'm
also aware of the fact that God uses human means and instruments
to accomplish his work. He uses human instruments as
a means by which he speaks to the hearts and souls of eternity-bound
men and women, either to the saving of their souls or to their
utter everlasting damnation. For both purposes. For both purposes. Our Lord spoke to the Father
on one occasion and said, I was tid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. And that which
led to that prayer and that praise was his declaration that if the
things that you have seen and heard had been done in Sodom,
they would have repented. But God kept them from that which
would have wrought repentance in them. and brought it to you,
and therefore Sodom shall rise up in judgment against you."
What a declaration of God's sovereignty. Turn with me, if you will, to
2 Corinthians 2. I am more aware today than ever that if God is pleased to grant
what I constantly pray and what I know you pray, if God is pleased
to give me the power of his Spirit so that I can preach in the If God will speak by me, you will not be the same as a
result. You won't leave here indifferent,
not if God speaks. Paul speaks here in 2 Corinthians
and says, we're always triumphant. We're always accepted with God,
a sweet savor of Christ, and then they're saved. and in them
that perish. And in verse 16, he explains
himself. To the one we are a saver, a
sweet frankincense of death unto death. Now this is what that
means. Somebody comes in here and hears
the gospel, preached in the power of God's God speaks to them and
they refuse to hear. Stick their fingers in their
ears and say, I won't hear it. They came in dead and they go
out doubly dead. That's exactly what passage says.
To the other, a savor of life unto life. You come in here living
now by faith in Christ and God speaks. and you go out living. God's word never returns to him
void. When I see people come in, Brother
Joe Carroll made this statement the other night. We were standing
at the door after services Tuesday night and Celeste or someone
mentioned someone was here last Sunday. I said, well I'm glad
folks came and heard the gospel. And Joe made a response that
I have often made. He said, I just wonder why God
sent him. Well, I pray he sent you here
in mercy and not in judgment. He sent you here to hear life
and not to increase your damnation. You see, while it is a great
indescribable privilege, the greatest privilege anyone on
this earth can have, to sit where you sit in the house of God under
the sound of the gospel of God's free grace, that privilege is
also a tremendous responsibility. For if it brings forth no fruit
of faith, no fruit of repentance, that which you experience here
tonight will add to your condemnation. And I promise you that will keep
you from volunteering for the ministry, if ever you understand
that. Most sober, heavy work in the
world. Now that's the message of the
parable our Lord gives in Luke chapter 13, verses 6 through
9, and I want us to look at it. Now if we're going to understand
this parable correctly, we must understand it in the context
in which it is given. Our Lord Jesus is teaching, and
there were some folks present, scribes, Pharisees, religious
hypocrites, who came and challenged him about Herod's or Pilate's
wickedness, and having mingled the blood of some folks with
their sacrifices. And our Lord said, He's wicked,
and you think those Galileans were wicked? More wicked than
all who dwelt in Jerusalem? He said, oh no. He said, except
you repent. You good folks. You church-going
folks. You folks who have a Bible in
your hand and carry tracts in your pocket. You folks who tithe
everything you have and pray three times a day and fast twice
every week. You folks who memorize scripture
and have no idea what it says. Except you repent, you shall
likewise perish. And then he gives this parable.
Verse 6. He spake this parable. A certain
man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. And he came and
sought fruit thereon, and found none. That's pretty reasonable.
You plant a fig tree, you expect sooner or later to get a little
fruit. I had some plum trees out here. We got fruit one year.
One time we got fruit off of them. Kept on taking care of
them. Mowing around them. Stumbling
over them. Hitting them with my face when
I walk out at dark. And no fruit. One spring I decided I had enough
of that. They're just taking up a good spot on the ground.
Down they come. We came and saw fruit and found
none. But then said he unto the dresser, the farmer, the fellow
who tended the field, 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, spread manure on it, and if it bear fruits,
well, oh, that's good. If it bear fruit, we've saved
the tree, you've got your fruits, I'm happy, you're happy, everything's
happy. And if not, that's well also. After that, thou shalt
cut it down. Read in this context, there is
no question the parable speaks immediately of the Jews and the
Jewish nation. The Jews, as a people, were chosen
of God, to whom he would give, and to whom he did give alone,
his revelation. God chose Abraham and made of
him a great nation. And on Mount Sinai, God gave
his word to the Jewish nation. And he sent prophet after prophet
to that nation. They alone had the oracles of
God, nobody else. The rest of the world was left
under the delusion of satanic foolishness. The rest of the
world, if you want to read about our wonderful history, read about
the religion of the Gentile world. The heathen worshipping stumps
and stones and thinking stump water has magical potions won't
bear a candle to the foolishness of the gentile religions of mythology. This horrible idolatry. But God
gave his word to the Jews. God sent his prophets to the
Jews. God sent the tabernacle set up among the Jews. God gave
those pictures of redemption among the Jews. God sent his
priesthood and raised him up out of the Jews. God sent his
Son from among that nation into that nation. For three years,
the Lord Jesus Christ walked among them, preached to them,
showed himself to them, miracle after miracle, demonstrating
his Godhead and his power. And he told them plainly who
he was. So plainly that they understood
his words. They said, you're a man and you
make yourself God. We're going to kill you for it.
They understood what he said. They understood his doctrine,
and they despised his doctrine. Our Lord Jesus came and taught
them spiritual truth, and they reveled in nothing but carnal
customs. That which should have been for
their everlasting good became a snare to their souls and resulted
in their damnation. The religion which arose from
God's revelation being perverted had become nothing but idolatry.
And therefore the Lord Jesus said, this tree bears no fruit. Cut it down. Cut it down. For 2,000 years God sent his
word to them alone. And now he cuts them off. Cuts them off. In 70 A.D. he
sent the armies of Rome in there and leveled that city to the
ground, and it would be impossible for anybody to ever find any
kind of suggested connection between the tribes of Israel
anymore. I know the nation has gathered over there. Try to find
the twelve tribes of Israel. Nobody knows where they came
from. None of them. None of them. You see, our Lord
made a statement. You find it in the last verses
of this chapter. He spoke it in Matthew as well. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou
that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto
thee. Send prophet after prophet. You
kill them and then raise up a monument to them. You stone them and then
you say, oh, what great men they were. I was over in England preaching. I went by Bedford spent a good
bit of time there visiting the area where John Bunyan was imprisoned.
They've got monuments to it now. Same folks who were imprisoned
have got monuments to it. Thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens
under her wings, and you would not. Now what's the result? Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. God cut them off. God cut them
off. Oh yes, God has an elect written
among the Jews, just as he does among the Gentiles. God has his
elect out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. But as a people
distinctly favored and blessed of God, as his covenant people,
they were cut off. And now God sent the gospel to
the Gentiles. And the purpose of God is accomplished. The purpose of God stands fast. His purpose, His will, not thwarted
in the least. But they perished, Rex, because
of their unbelief. Not because God wouldn't be merciful.
Not because God wouldn't save. Not because God didn't send his
word, not because God mocked them, oh no, they perished because
they would not bow to God's Son. Now, that's the message of this
parable. But if anyone imagines, and multitudes
do, that that's the end of the message, they've made a horrible
mistake. You see, that aspect of the parable
and the judgment of God has come to pass. It's not going to happen
again with the nation of Israel. Does that mean we just cut this
out of the Bible and say it hasn't got any word for us? Oh, no.
David Peterson, this parable is addressed to you. This parable is addressed to
you. This parable is addressed to me. And the word is a word
of warning. It is the intent of our Lord
in this parable to awaken folks like you and me sitting where
we sit in the Church of God, professing to be the people of
God and yet having no faith in God our Savior. May God the Holy
Spirit give us grace to hear it as though it fell for the
first time from the lips of our Savior this very hour and spoke
it directly to Bobby Estes and Don Fortner. Mr. Spurgeon said this parable
is so simple that it needs no explanation, therefore the Lord
Jesus has not given any. Let's then make personal application
of every teaching in it. I'm not going to do any more
in this message than give you some statements. I've written
down ten specific statements, lessons that I'm certain this
parable is intended to teach. I'm going to just give them to
you. with very little comment and pray that God the Holy Spirit
will speak to your heart. Number one, the church, the gospel
church, this local church right here, this local church right
here, I can say a lot more about all of the things and applications
I'm talking to you, this local church is God's venue, God's
garden. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 5.
That's what our Lord is talking about when he talks about the
vineyard of the Lord. In the Psalms, he talks about taking
his vineyard out and planting it in the wilderness and visiting
his vine, or taking his vine out and planting it in the wilderness
and visiting it and caring for it. Here in Isaiah 5, the Lord
speaks by his prophet, and says, Now I will sing to my well-beloved
the song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved
hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered
out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and
built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress
therein. And he looked that it should
bring forth grapes. He looked, came to his vineyard,
said, I want some grapes. It's time for the grapes to come
in. I want some grapes. He looked
that he should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. It produced that which springs
from nature without the aid of a tender vine dresser, just wild
grapes. It brought forth wild grapes,
and therefore he speaks in judgment against it. God has planted here in our midst,
for us, his vineyard. Planted his church, set you in
it. What a privilege. What a privilege. Unless God
will it, we bring forth no fruit, except that which is produced
by nature. Number two. because the Lord God has given
you the privilege of sitting here under the sound of the gospel. Are you listening to me? It is
your responsibility before God to believe the gospel of his
grace. He holds you responsible to walk
in the light he gives you. Read the first chapter of Romans,
you see it plainly. The heathen shall suffer the
wrath of God because they refuse the light that God gives them,
the light of nature, and the light of creation, the light
of conscience. They despise that light and turn the truth of God
which is given them by nature into a lie, and so God gives
them over to practice unclean and vile things. And they shall
be damned according to the measure of their light. Paul said, now
the Jews, the Jews, they have the oracles of God, and he speaks
plainly. Theirs shall be the greater condemnation.
Our Lord said to that generation to whom he preached, yours is
the greater condemnation. The greater condemnation. Why?
Because you sinned against greater right. You lived, all men by
nature live with their fists shoved in God's face and say,
I will be my own God. You live here in God's vineyard,
here in God's gospel, walking in light that few people in this
generation have ever heard, walking in light that God has given to
few, and yet you sit where you are in your smugness and determined
pretense of piety and say, No! I'll be God. I don't want you. I don't want you. I won't have
you. I will bow to you. And that, my friend, is the essence
of unbelief. I know folks like to get all
their ducks lined up in a row, and folks who want to fight over
Calvinism, fight over Arminianism, say that doesn't jive with this,
that doesn't jive with that. I've had folks tell me, when
you talk about human responsibility, responsibility means that man
has the ability to respond. No such thing. I'll tell you
what it does mean. It means you're going to meet
God in judgment, and he's going to hold you accountable. Turn
to 2 Corinthians 5. In the realization of this fact,
Paul says in verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, knowing that soon Knowing that
soon you're going to meet God Almighty on His great white throne
judgment. And you're going to spend eternity
either under the wrath of Almighty God that no man can describe,
or in the bliss of heaven's glory that no man has even imagined.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. And look how he does it. Verse
20. We are ambassadors for Christ. I never read this without being
astounded. Listen to this. As though God
did beseech you by us. This is what God Almighty does
when he speaks to sinners by the gospel. The infinite, omnipotent God
bends over, as it were, the banisters of glory and begs sinners to
believe. Which that doesn't fit my system.
I don't give a hoot what your system is. God beseech you by
us. We pray you, as though Jesus
Christ were speaking to you, in Christ's name, be ye reconciled
to God! Quit fighting God! Stop your
warfare with God! For he that made him to be sin
for us, whom you know sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Now read on. We then, as workers
together with God, beseech you also that you receive not the
grace of God in vain. Oh, don't let the gospel fall
on deaf ears. Don't walk out of here without
faith. Don't walk out of here without seeking Christ. Don't
walk out of here despising God. Don't walk out of here still
obeying to Him. And yet, here's the third thing. Some of you in this place, some of you who profess faith
in Christ, some of you who perhaps have been in church a long time,
some of you in this are yet without fruit toward God. And notice
the word fruit, singular, not fruits, plural. He's talking
about one thing. Fr. Brad is talking about one
thing you've got to have. One thing you're responsible
for. One thing you've got to yield to God. One thing. Not
talking about your works, not talking about reforming your
life, not talking about cutting your hair and shaving your beard
and pulling earrings out of your ears and men and all that stuff.
That's not what he's talking about. By all means, pull them
out. That's not what he's talking about. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about one thing. He's talking about faith. Not just faith, but faith in
Christ. What shall I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. With the heart man believes unto
righteousness. But you who are here and have
no faith, you've taken refuge elsewhere. Turn over to Isaiah
28 for a moment. Isaiah chapter 28. You've made for yourself a refuge
of lies. I don't know what your refuge
is. I don't know what it is. It doesn't
really matter. It doesn't really matter. Every
man has a refuge. Every man. You and me too. Either
a good, safe, true refuge, or a refuge of lies. But every man
has a refuge. You're sitting here You know
you're going to meet God one of these days, and you're taking
refuge. You may take refuge in your experience. You may take
refuge in the idea, well, if the Lord's pleased to call me
then, I'll believe. You may take refuge in doctrine. You may take
refuge in baptism. You may take refuge in your works.
You may take refuge in church membership. You see, every son
of Adam will somehow or another, if he can, make him a fig leaf
and try to hide from God behind some bush. Everybody. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men, you that rule this people, which is Jerusalem,
because you have said, We have made a covenant with death. Don't
talk to us about hell and judgment and salvation and grace anymore.
All right, we've got that taken care of. We've made a covenant
with death. And with hell we're in agreement. I'm not afraid
to die. When the overflowing spirit shall
pass through, it shall not come nigh unto us, for we have made
lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore
thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation
stone, a tribestone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.
He that believeth shall not make haste, shall not be confounded,
shall not be ashamed. He won't have to run to another
refuge. Judgment also will I lay to the lion, and righteousness
to the plummet. And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of
lies, and the water shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant
with death shall be disadultered. You are going to scream for mercy,
and there will be none. And your agreement with hell
will not stand, when the overflowing scourge shall pass through. Dead
shall you be tartened down by. From the time that it goeth forth,
it shall take you, for morning by morning it shall pass over,
day by night it shall be a vexation, only to understand the report,
just to hear about God's judgment, just to hear about God's wrath,
a vexation. For the bed is shorter than that
a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower
than that he can wrap himself in it. I'm sure some of you fellows
my size or better know what that's talking about. You lay down on
a bed, I've been places, I lay down on a bed hardly big enough
for my grandson to sleep on and try to sleep. Just can't stretch out and get
comfortable. You get some covers, And my mother-in-law used to
make great quilts. But all of her family like Shelby,
they're kind of small folks. And there wasn't a cover in the
house big enough for me to wrap up in. I'd turn over one side
and my back would be exposed, turn the other way and my stomach
would be exposed. There's just nothing to be comfortable. And that's
exactly how God describes a refuge of lives. You've made a refuge. You've made a covenant with death.
You're in league with hell. Everything. Go ahead and stretch yourself
out and find some comfort. Go ahead and lap yourself up
and see if it comforts you. Be honest now. Be honest now. You yet have no faith. And God's
going to judge you for it. 4. There is a period of time
set and determined by God Almighty beyond which He will not tolerate
the insult of rebellion and unbelief and the despising of his goodness.
Behold, today is the day of salvation. God told Noah to build an ark. And then he sent Noah to preach
righteousness to his generation. And he gave this word. He said,
My spirit shall not always strive with man. One of these days,
I'm going to shut Noah in the ark, and I'm going to shut you
out. And when God shut the door on that ark, not a drop of rain
had fallen. The Lord God spoke concerning
you three. to his prophet. Ephraim is joined to his idols. Leave him alone. Leave him alone. He told Jeremiah, he said, don't
pray for this people, I ain't going to hear you. I ain't going
to hear you. For two thousand years he sent
his word to Israel. For three years the Son of God
in human flesh walked and preached among them, and they despised
his word and despised his Son. Forty years still he stabbed
them and sent his apostles to Jerusalem, until at last he sent
judgment upon them. I can't say when it is. I can't
say what it is. I wouldn't attempt if I were
asked. But there is a day of grace. And when it's ended, you can't
be saved. There is space for repentance
that God gives to men. And when it's over, there's no
repentance granted. Let me see if I can illustrate
it for you. Give you two illustrations. You remember when Moses was going
to deliver Israel. Next is chapter 4, and God met
him in an inn. Now, yes, Moses is the appointed
deliverer. Yes, Moses is going down to Egypt. Yes, Moses is going to bring
Israel out. Yes, Moses is going to leave them in the wilderness.
That's God's purpose. It's going to stay in. We understand
that. But God met him in an inn and sought to kill him because
of disobedience. And the Lord tells us plainly,
Moses, you're either going to circumcise that boy there, no
matter what Zipporah thinks of it, or I'm going to kill you
right here. God crossed his path, and it
was either bow or die. There comes a time when God Almighty
crosses a sinner's path. And the New Testament is described
this way. Bartimaeus heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing
by. Here's the King. Here's God. Here's the Savior. He's coming
by here. And He might never come again.
And if I ever hope to have sight, it's got to be now. And so he
cried, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me!" And folks
said, shut up, don't bother the master. And he cried all the
more. I've got to have him right now. Right now. Years ago I heard
Ralph Barnard preaching. He described his time as an evangelist
and preacher establishing church down in Boulder, Texas. Right
on the Oklahoma border. And it was a wild oil town. It
was a wild oil town. ungodly, vile, corrupt town. And he had often preached the
gospel to folks. And there was a gal in town of
ill repute. He called her Dixie. That was her name, I guess, her
nickname. And she was queen of the dance hall, and that was
a pleasant word for it. One night, here in a brothel,
this woman to whom Roth had often preached the gospel, was accidentally
shot. And she called for the preacher.
Brother Barnard made his way up the back stairs to that dance
hall, her little apartment, and there she laid on her bed. And she talked to him a little bit,
and he talked to her. And he said, I said to Dixie, Dixie,
repent now. Repent now. And he said, she looked at me
and I saw hell in her eyes. And this is what she said, my
God preacher, I can't repent. And she died. There is a time when God will
be gracious. And beyond that, he will not
be. The barren, fruitless souls are not only useless themselves,
but they are a hindrance to others. I looked at this word, comfort. This tree, there was something
wrong with it. It looked like a fig tree. It
was planted as a fig tree. It's called a fig tree, but it
had no fig. Something is wrong with the tree.
But not only that, the word cumbereth means to prevent, to spoil, to
ruin the ground. The poison is in that tree, it's
in that ground. And religion without Christ is
not only useless to your soul, it is a hindrance to everybody
around you. God's servants, faithful pastors,
faithful gospel preachers, intercede and plead with God that He might
spare the barren soul that deserves to be cut down. I've heard of preachers praying
for God to kill folks, praying for God to send judgment. I thank
my soul. Moses, yeah, Moses was God's
prophet. He was a man who walked with
better credentials than I do. I can't bear the thought of you
perishing under the wrath of God. Lord, leave it one more year,
and I'll dig around it, and I'll manure it every day. Listen to this word. Let the
priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch
and the altar. Let them say, Spare thy people,
O Lord. and give not thy inheritance
to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them? Wherefore
should they say among the people, Where is your God? Number seven. It is my great privilege and
responsibility before God to faithfully labor for your souls
everlasting salvation. By modern standards, by the standards
of what is expected in this world, by the standards of what I was
taught when I was in college, by the standards of what everybody
thinks about preachers and religion and what the television folks
called men of the cloth and men of God. I don't know anything
at all about pastoring. I don't make any pretense. But I know what pastoring involves.
I know what being a pastor to your soul involves. Tell you what it is. It involves
laboring for your soul before God. laboring for your
soul before God. In that sense, Paul says, count us your servants for Jesus'
sake. The pastor, the gospel preacher,
is the man who gives his life, laboring for the souls of men
committed to his trust by the hand of God's providence. Number eight, there's only one
thing that will save you from the acts of divine judgment.
Just one thing. Faith in Christ. What do you
expect from the fig tree? Figs. What does God require of
you? Faith. That's all. Yes, faith
is the gift and operation of God the Holy Spirit. Yes, it
is true, no man can or will believe except the Spirit of God give
him life and give him faith. Yes, it is true, all God's elect
shall believe, all who are redeemed shall believe, all who are called
shall believe, but you must believe. It's your responsibility to believe.
Number nine, every soul without the fruit
of faith toward God, like this barren fig tree, shall be cut
down by the hand of God. Judgment is His strange work,
but it's His work. I hear men who imagine that they're
better than God, gooder than God, more gracious than God,
more merciful than God, and they say, well, God doesn't send anybody
to hell. Well, who do you reckon does?
Nobody's going to volunteer to go. Oh, no. The Lord God Almighty will
take every rebel sinner, refusing to believe on his own. and bind him by the hand of holy
angels and cast him into hell, headlong, without mercy. And when he does, nobody in heaven,
earth, or hell will care one whit. Nobody. Nobody. Because you see, This
is the last thing, and you'd better learn it. Whether you
believe or believe not, whether you are saved or whether you're
damned, God does well, and all his servants will acquiesce in
his work. I'll leave this tree stand one
more year. And I'll dig around it. I'll spread over it manure. I'll
labor for it. And if it bears fruit, great. And if not, cut it down. It's the only thing
it's good for. It's the only thing it can do. The fig tree is just two things.
You can either get figs off of it, or you can use it for fuel.
You can't build a house with it. You can't build a battering
ram with it. Just get figs off of it. If you
can't get figs off of it, at least you can burn it. And the
tree belongs to God. And I'm telling you, the God
of all the earth must always does and shall do right. And we will acquiesce in what
he does. The purpose of God will stand. What if some believe not?
Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
God forbid. God forbid. The Lord knows them,
there is. He knows them. And he'll get
them. All God's elect are going to be saved. Everyone of them.
Every rebel is going to hell. And if you believe on the Son
of God right now, salvation is yours. So why will you die? Why will you die? I understand by experience the
reasonings of the rebel, but I can't understand why on earth,
if a fellow is thirsty and there's water sitting there, he won't
take a drink. Well, I don't know whether that's for me or not.
If you ever get thirsty, you'll drink.