is a cursed fig tree and corrupt
religion, the corrupt religion of the Jews specifically, to
teach us very, very important spiritual lessons. I want to
show you three things as we move through this passage of scripture
and I ask you to give me your attention very carefully. Number
one, the Lord Jesus Christ is just exactly the Savior and friend
we need. The Lord Jesus Christ is just
exactly the Savior and friend you need and I need. And Jesus
entered into Jerusalem and into the temple. And when he had looked
round about on all things, and now eventide was come, and he
went to Bethany with the twelve. After riding into Jerusalem,
the Lord Jesus Christ made himself known as the Messiah, the Prince,
the King, the Son of David. And he was announced as such,
the children singing, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. And thus the scriptures were
fulfilled. But he didn't stay in Jerusalem. He left the city
that night and went out to a little town called Bethany. And in that
little town called Bethany, our Lord Jesus found a blessed, blessed
place of lodging for himself and his disciples. The scriptures
often speak of Bethany. I would think you'd do us good,
any of us, to spend a little time looking at how this town
was blessed of God. Blessed above most any town in
its day. And indeed, there's a reason
for that. There was an elect family in Bethany. a family loved
and chosen of God. Mary and Martha and their brother
Lazarus lived in Bethany. It seems that the Lord Jesus
never missed an opportunity to stop by Bethany. Every time he
was in the general vicinity, he went to Bethany. Apparently,
he had spent the night in the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Oh, how blessed, indescribably
blessed, eternally blessed is that home where the Son of God
and his disciples are at home. Blessed is that home that entertains
and feeds and gives rest to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now maybe
you think to yourself, well, Brother Don, how can anyone do
that today? Let me tell you. This book plainly
tells us exactly how you and I can do that today. That which
is done for the Lord's children is done for him. He said, In
the day of judgment when he comes again, he will say to those on
his left hand, those self-righteous religious Pharisees and hypocrites
who claimed they had done so much for him. He said, I was
hungry and thirsty and in prison and sick and you didn't visit
me, you didn't comfort me, you didn't give me anything to drink,
you didn't give me anything to eat. And they said, when did we do that?
He said, when you refused to do it to the least of these my
disciples, my brethren. And He says to those on His right
hand, those who truly worship Him, those who are truly born
of His Spirit. You see, those who truly walk with God, those
who are born of God's Spirit, who know the experience of God's
grace, never talk about what they do. They just don't. Religious folks talk all the
time about what they used to do, what they're gonna do, and
sometimes about what they're doing. But those who know the
Lord don't talk about what they do. They recognize their works
are nothing. Their works are utterly insignificant. But good works always have to
do with doing good to God's people. And our Lord said, inasmuch as
you gave a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, you'll
not lose your reward. In as much as you came and visited
my brother when he was in prison, my sister when she was sick,
my mother, my father, when they were hungry, when they were thirsty,
you've done that to me. Come, blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
We would be wise to learn that that which is done to and for
the Lord's children is done to and for Him. Same thing. We really are one with Christ. Believers really are His body. He really is our head. And the
Lord Jesus considers that which is done to and for His people
as being done to and for Him. And on the other hand, that which
is done against the Lord's people is done against Him. God told
Samuel, they didn't reject you, they rejected me. They didn't
persecute you, they persecuted me. Saul came persecuting the
Lord Jesus Christ. He couldn't get to him, he was
already in glory, but he got to his body and he persecuted
his church. And our Lord considers it the
same thing. Wherever there is an open door then, a room provided,
a chair, a spare plate, a bed, a welcome sign for God's people
in this world, the Lord Jesus Christ is there present to bless. Bethany was a blessed, blessed
place, because Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, this elect family
lived there. Just as God's elect are the salt
of the earth, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were the salt of Bethany. The name Bethany means house
of sheep, and it was certainly that. Here were three sheep chosen
of God. The name Bethany also means house
of obedience. And it was certainly that. Mary,
Martha, and Lazarus were obedient disciples to the Savior. And
the name Bethany means house of affliction. It was that too.
Martha and Mary sent word to the Lord Jesus that their brother
Lazarus was sick. And then Lazarus died. And they
wept in pain because of Lazarus' sickness and his death. And the
Lord Jesus teaches us thus, that wherever His people are, wherever
there is obedience to Him, wherever His sheep are found, affliction
will also be found. The three things always go hand
in hand. There is no possibility of a believer walking in this
world, walking before God in the steps of Jesus Christ without
suffering affliction in this world to one degree or another. And as we make our pilgrimage
through this world, the more we experience of God's grace
in this world, the greater the afflictions are. They are given
to wean us from the world. They are given to take our hearts
away from this present world and to set our hearts upon the
Son of God. Now then, Look at this sentence
here. The scripture tells us that the
Lord Jesus was hungry Back here in this text again in verse Verse
12 and on the morrow when they were come from Bethany He was
hungry hungry imagine that Now there's more to be learned from
that and I'm going to get said this evening But I want you to
understand that our Lord Jesus Christ is both God and man. He really is a man. He really
is a man. In verse 17, when he speaks of
the temple in Jerusalem, the house of God, he calls it my
house. And thus he plainly declares
his divinity. He could not have stated his
divinity more precisely, more clearly, or more frankly. If
he had stood up in front of the temple and said, everybody look
here, I, this man in this body of flesh, Jesus of Nazareth,
am God Almighty. He couldn't have said it any
plainer. He said, this house is my house. And thus he stated
his divinity. And yet this great God really
did assume our nature. He took into union with himself
humanity. We read that he was hungry. While
he lived upon this earth, our blessed Lord Jesus had a nature
exactly like ours, except for sin. I know I haven't begun to grasp
that yet, and I'm sure you haven't. He assumed humanity unto himself. God did not become a man, but
God took into union with himself an everlasting, indivisible union
with himself. Humanity. Jesus Christ walked
on this earth as a man. That means that he felt and experienced
everything we feel and experience sin alone accepted. He wept. He rejoiced. He felt pain. He felt gladness. He got tired
and needed rest. He got thirsty and needed a drink.
He got hungry and needed something to eat. Now these wonderful,
amazing things, we ought to meditate on with reverence constantly.
He who is God, the eternal God, the creator, sustainer, and disposer
of all things. He who feeds every sparrow, who
clothes every lily, he who holds in the palm of his hand. Now,
that's, it's just too much. The infinite God who holds in
the palm of His hand every beast of the field, every fowl of the
air, every fish in the sea, and every creature on the earth.
That God stood on this earth as a man hungry. Hungry. He from whom all things came
and to whom all things go when He came to save His people from
their sins. So perfectly assumed our nature
that He walked on this earth hungry. And yet, that doesn't
begin to tell the story. The Son of God condescended to
become a man. He condescended to every weakness
of humanity. He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God made himself of no reputation and took on
him the form of a servant and still continued to humble himself.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, this man who is God, though he knew no
sin, though he was and is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
from sinners, in order to redeem and save our souls, was made
to be sin for us. I won't say this carefully, but
say it, I must. Even that which is felt, and
experienced in the bitterness of our souls of what sin is. When he was made to be sin for
us, he felt and experienced in the bitterness of his soul as
none of us ever have. Jesus Christ then is God mighty
to save. Preacher, can he really save
me? Oh, yeah. He is able to save unto the uttermost all then that
come unto God by him. He is a man like us, able to
suffer, bleed and die, that which God could never do, the God-man
has done. He suffered for us and died for
us. This God-man, who has redeemed
us by the sacrifice of himself, made a sacrifice unto God of
infinite worth and merit and efficacy. He who died at Calvary
is more than a man, more than a great man, more than a holy
man, more than an angel and a man. He who died at Calvary is the
infinite God. That means His sacrifice is of
infinite value and can never fall to the ground and be wasted.
His blood obtained eternal redemption for us. And though He is exalted
to heaven's highest glory, He sets you under At the right hand
of the majesty on high, he has in his hands the reigns of the
universe. He controls the thoughts of every
man's heart. He controls the imagination of
every man, every angel, every demon in hell. He controls everything. Yet still, bless his name, he's
a man. A man touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. Now this is what that means.
Whatever it is, Bob Putzer, that touches you right now, touches
His heart who rules everything for you. Now that ought to float
your little boat. That ought to get us through
some troubled waters. He who is our God is just exactly the
Savior and friend we need. He knows all the experiences
of humanity, all of them. He knows what pain weakness,
weariness, and hunger are. He knows the feeling of abandonment,
isolation, betrayal, and slander. He knows what it is to visit
the sick room of one who is dearly beloved. He knows what it is
to stand beside the grave and weep. He knows everything that
you know. He's touched with everything
that touches you. When we speak to the Lord Jesus Christ, our
God, about these things, We're not talking to a stranger. When we speak to him about these
things, we're not talking to someone who doesn't understand. We're not talking to someone
who doesn't know what we feel, who doesn't know what we experience.
We're talking to one who knows exactly what we feel, exactly
what we experience. He's no stranger to trouble and
sorrow. What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear. What, oh what a privilege to
carry everything to God in prayer. Now secondly, look at verses
13 and 14. And Jesus seeing a fig tree far
off having leaves He came, if haply he might find anything
thereon. And when he came to it, he found
nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus
answered and said unto it, No man eat the fruit of thee hereafter
forever. And the disciples heard it. Nothing
in all the world is so disgusting to the Son of God. and so surely
damning to our souls as religious hypocrisy. That will bear repetition. Nothing in all the world is so
disgusting to the Son of God and so surely damning to our
souls as religious hypocrisy, fruitless, formal religion that
has nothing to do with life. Our Lord Jesus And his disciples
were walking along. They were hungry and it's time
to eat. And they were walking nearby some fig trees. And the
time of figs wasn't come yet. Most of the fig trees were just
beginning to shoot out their buds. And there was one fig tree
standing over there just waving in the wind, saying, look at
me. Look at, look at me. Look, look,
I got leaves all over me, kind of like that The pear is sitting
out in our orchard. Everything else is barren and
got frostbit last night. But he's standing out there full
of leaves. And our Lord Jesus walked over the fig tree deliberately
to teach a lesson. It wasn't as though he did not
know the fig tree didn't have any figs on it. He's the one
who puts figs on trees. He went over there and approached
the tree as if to take something from it because it had the pretense
and show of life and fruit. And when he got there, the scripture
says he found nothing but leaves. And I'll be honest with you,
that's about all there is to most everybody's religion. Nothing
but leaves. Nothing but leaves. This is certainly
a word of warning that our Lord gave to apostate Judaism. The
Jews were rich in religious ceremony, religious tradition, religious
creed, religious orthodoxy, religious custom, religious punctuality. They observed their feasts, they
observed their holy days, they observed their new moons, they
observed their Sabbath days, and didn't have the least slight
knowledge of God Almighty. Their religion had become a snare
to them. Their religion was nothing but
a show, just a sham pretense. And therefore the Lord Jesus
spoke plainly and said concerning that nation, henceforth shall
no man eat fruit of this tree forever. And he said, your house
is left to you desolate. And thus Judaism was forever
abandoned by God. Jews as a nation, not the Jews
individually. Please don't suggest or think
that there's somehow something about this that's anti-Semitic.
Nothing could be further from the truth. But the Jews as a
nation, the Jews as a people have been forever cut off by
God. They are no longer the special
objects of God's favor and the special objects of His goodness,
but rather God has sent His grace to the Gentile nations of the
world out of which He gathers the true Israel of God. There
is here a warning, for this fig tree clearly represents every
apostate church, every apostate religious denomination in all
the world. Would to God I could get the
ear of religious people in the churches of our day, churches
in this town. I'm not talking about liberal
folks. I'm not talking about folks who deny the word of God
and the virgin birth and all that stuff. No, everybody knows
they're going to hell except them. I'm talking about folks
who claim to believe the book, the blood and the blessed hope.
Folks who stand for the things of God, stand against pornography
and abortion and liberal politics and all that stuff religious
folks stand against. We're for America and apple pie
and religion. I'm telling you, the greatest
missionary field in this world are the churches of this town
and this nation. The greatest missionary field
there is. If I could speak to every man, woman, and child in
the churches of this day, where the word of God is despised,
the truth of God is despised, the glory of God is despised,
the will of God is despised, I would say escape for your life.
Get out of Sodom, God's fiction to burn it. Get out of Babylon,
God's curse is upon it. Flee for your life. People say
to me all the time, I get so, I bite my tongue. You wouldn't
believe how pleasant I am. I just, I get upset, and I try
my best to avoid saying anything out of turn before saying to
me, well, you know, I feel like I ought to go to church somewhere. Don't
go to church anywhere if you can't go where God's worshipped.
I'm dead serious. Don't even think about gathering
with the Babylonian worshippers of free will, works, religion.
Don't even think about it. Where can you find a church this
day where the Word of God is faithfully free? I'm not talking
about once in a while somebody refers to it. I'm not talking
about once in a while somebody gets up and reads a passage of
scripture and then they start talking about something that
might as well be written out of the book of Koran. Where do
you find a church where the word of God is faithfully preached?
Where can you find a place where the glory of God is paramount? I'm not talking about just talking
about God's glory. I'm talking about a congregation
of men and women devoted to the glory of God. Where can you find
a congregation? where the will of God is rule. The whole revealed will of God. When you can find such a church,
you found the house of God. When you can find such a people,
you found the people of God. And until you do, you're walking
in the roads of Babylon. But above all else, this barren
fig tree represents religious hypocrisy. Oh, the destructiveness of religious
hypocrisy. All carnal, half-hearted, hypocritical
religious professors, men and women who profess to be Christians,
are represented in this fig tree. Would to God, you who are content
with the name that you live, though you're dead, you who content
yourself with a religious name. Wouldn't to God you could read
this text of scripture while you lay on your bed tonight?
It might stand as a mirror over your bed. You'll see your face
right here in the book. Unless God snatches you from
your religious self-righteous hypocrisy, it will take you to
hell. Those things that impress you,
your leaves. Oh, look here at my leaves. I
got leaves no other tree in the woods have got. I've got marvelous,
look how shiny they are. Look how they blow in the wind.
They impress you. And they might even impress me.
But I'm going to tell you something. They don't even think about impressing
God. Mean nothing to God. They stink
in His nostrils. Most of the religions of this
world, James, stinks before God. It stinks. It's not, you know,
you oughtn't to be so judgmental. I'm not. I'm just telling you
what this book says. God says, you're a smoke in my nostrils. I abhor it. Your great experiences. Yeah, I know I'm saved. I was
there when it happened. Your emotional delights, your displays
of religion, your precise doctrine, your showy sacrifices. I see folks make a little gift
and they want you to know what they did. You know, I'm gonna
give God a 10 cent tip. Get up and pop the check and
wave their money and look at what I did. And if they can't
get you to look that way, they pull you aside and tell you,
you know, I helped out with that. Your showy sacrifices. Your comforting
ceremonies. Go to church and say your little
prayer and sing your little song and listen to your little sermon
And go home and say, well, I've done good now. I've done good
now. I'll take comfort in this refuge
of lies. Oh, your religion is a damning delusion if your religion
is without fruit. Fruitless religion is lifeless
religion. And I'm not talking about the kind of fruit that
impresses me and those things I've just discussed, what men look
at. Those things I've just discussed, what men look at and applaud
and say, boy, lookie here, he's a fine Christian. She's a fine,
upstanding spiritual woman. You know, she reads 30 chapters
a day. What kind of fruit you talking
about, preacher? Life, spiritual life, life that comes from God
produces a thing called faith in Jesus Christ. And I'm not talking about saying
I have faith. The just shall live by faith. It produces something
called hope in Jesus Christ the Lord. What's your hope before
God? I wonder what first thing went
through your mind when I said that. I mean the very first thing.
If that's what your hope is, I'll guarantee you. I'll guarantee
you. What's your hope before God?
preacher when I was a boy yesterday or 20 years ago or this morning
I you missed it you missed it I'm talking about a hope Rex
that'll stand you in good stead when you think about standing
before God Almighty naked before the eyes of his omniscient justice
now what's your hope the blood and righteousness of God's Son
that's all and that's enough that's enough This thing of life
causes men and women to love Jesus Christ the Lord. If any
man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned, because
the Lord's coming. Now examine yourselves. Examine
yourselves. Not examine your works, not examine
your feelings, not examine your experiences. Examine yourself,
whether you be in the faith. lest you prove to be reprobate
like most everybody around you. All right, now one last thing. In verses 15 through 19, our
Lord came to Jerusalem into the temple. They began to cast out
those that bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the
money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and would
not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the
temple. He threw them all out, cleaned house. And he taught,
saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all
nations the house of prayer? But you've made it a den of thieves.
And the scribes and chief priests heard it. They said, This fellow's
fixing to upset the cart. He's fixing to change what's
going on. He's talking about us changing the way we've always
done things. And they sought how they might destroy him. For
they feared him, because all the people were astonished at
his doctrine. And when evening was come, he
went out of the city. Now, the temple of God was typical
and representative of the church, which is the house of God. Now,
when I say it was typical and representative of the church,
which is the house of God, I don't mean that it was typical and
representative of this material building. This is not a holy
house of God. This is not the church. It's
just a building where we meet. This is not a holy sanctuary.
It's just a good-sized room where we all sit together. This is
not a holy desk. It's just a pulpit behind which
I stand to preach the gospel. It's just handy to lay my Bible
low so I can preach to you. But we don't look at any material
thing and call it holy. There's no such thing as the
holy land, that ground over there in Israel, no more holy than
the ground on your farm. There's no such thing as holy
material things in this world. We worship God in the Spirit.
And yet, having said that, I want you to understand, this is God's
house. When God's people come together,
the scripture tells us that we are the temple of the living
God. The house of God is the assembled saints of God for worship.
When we come together, two or three, gathered in His name,
Jesus Christ is in the midst of them, and the Holy Spirit
dwells in them. The church does not belong to
you and me. It is not our church. It belongs
to Christ. is purchased with his blood.
That means that Christ alone makes the rules, enforces the
rules, and exercises the rule. Jesus Christ is the only ruler
in Zion. His word is our only creed. His revealed will, the whole
revealed will of God, Genesis to Revelation, is our rule. His
glory, our guiding principle. The primary function and business
of the house of God, our Lord says, is prayer. worship, worship. And it's utterly abhorrent that
anyone should make the house of God a place of trade, commerce,
or entertainment. When we come into the house of
God, then let us beware that we're coming to the house of
the living God. We ought also always to do so
reverently. Amen.