Where Are The Figs?
Mk. 12:11-21
Many are like that famous painting of olden time, in which the artist depicted what seemed at a distance a holy friar with a book before him,, and his hands crossed in devotion, looking like a saint indeed, but when you came close to the venerable impostor, you found that his hands, though clasped, enclosed a lemon, and instead of a book there was a punch-into which he was squeezing the juice.
- On a close inspection of our life what do we find.
- It’s a sorrowful discovery to find that my years of privileged & opportunity through my sin & indifference has carried me future & further from God
Mark 11:12 (KJV)
And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
Matthew 25:42 (KJV)
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink
John 19:28-29 (KJV):
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.
29 Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put [it] upon hyssop, and put [it] to his mouth.
- Do I give Him vinegar?
Three Things - 1. The Search
2. The Discovery
3. The Judgment
1. THE SEARCH
A. Who Is The Seeker?
- The hungry Savior Son of God
- Think how much he has done for this tree.
- It’s very existence depends on His Good
- Am I much different?
- He parts the leaves of my life
Leaf of Ambition -- Action --- Goals Words - Desires -- Thoughts
- What is He receiving?
- He is seeking what will satisfy His soul
- Deuteronomy 32:16-21 (KJV)
- Deuteronomy 32:16-21 (KJV)
They provoked him to jealousy with strange [gods], with abominations provoked they him to anger.
17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new [gods that] came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
18 Of the Rock [that] begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.
19 And when the LORD saw [it], he abhorred [them], because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end [shall be]: for they [are] a very froward generation, children in whom [is] no faith.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with [that which is] not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with [those which are] not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
B. Where He Seeks
- A Fig Tree
- Not from Thistles
- Not from Thorns
- Not from Briars
- The tree had a name of a Fruit Bearer
- Awe if we bear the name of Christ
- He looks for the Fruit of a Christian Life
Mark 11:13 (KJV)
And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not [yet]. note italics: -- (not the season for figs)
- Fig trees bear fruit before leaves
- This was early & had lots of leaves
- The fruit should be ripe & juicy
Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
- Lots of fruit here
2. THE DISCOVERY
v. 13 - He found nothing
13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
- It had the appearance of abundant life
- Had a great display of activity & attractiveness
- So with our lives full of vigor & action
- We may be morally attractive
- One thing lacking FRUIT
“Simple Faith P.166 Chuck Swindoll - Robert Robinson
3. THE JUDGMENT V. 20, 21
20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.
It was cursed because it was useless
- What is the value of a
• Creed,
• Church membership,
• A Hope
• A Life
- If there is nothing to satisfy the living yearning soul of Jesus
- The day of grace is passing
• The curse affected the roots
- At the word of Christ sap was kept from it’s roots
- If the gracious word of God is not allowed to become fruitful in our life it will be taken from you
John 15:5 (KJV)
I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
- The curse affected the leaves
- The sin of the fig tree was the sin of omission
- The leaves wither when we chase the wind
1 Corinthians 11:28-30 (KJV)
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of [that] bread, and drink of [that] cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
30 For this cause many [are] weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
Is. 37:31
. . . . . . take root downward, and bear fruit upward:
“Simple Faith P.166 Chuck Swindoll
Robert Robinson was born in England more than two hundred years ago.. When he was just a boy his father died and his widowed mother sent him to London to learn the trade of barbering. In that great city Robert came under the persuasive influence of a powerful man of God, the great Methodist revivalist George Whitefield. Robinson was soundly converted and felt a call to the ministry; he began a once to study for a lifetime of serving Christ
At 25 Robert Robinson was called to pastor a Baptist church in Cambridge, where he became very successful. But the popularity was more than the young minister could handle. It led to the beginning of a lapse in his life of simple faith. Ultimately he fell into carnality, another tragic victim of “sins foul bondage.” As the years passed he faded from the scene and few even remembered his earlier years of devotion to Christ.
Years later Robinson was making a trip by stagecoach and happened to sit next to a woman who was reading a book with obvious pleasure. She seemed to be especially interested in one page of the volume, for she kept returning to it again and again. Finally she turned to Robinson -- a complete stranger to her -- and held the page toward him. Pointing to the hymn she had been reading there, she asked what thought of it.
Robinson looked at the first few lines
- Hymn Book p. 26 “Come Thou Fount”
He read no further. Turning his head he endeavored to engage the lady’s attention on the passing landscape. But she was not to be denied. Pressing her point she told him of the benefit she received from the words of that hymn and expressed her admiration for its message.
Overcome with emotion, Robinson burst into tears “Madam he said, “I am the poor, unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them. to enjoy the feelings I had then.”
Robert Robinson was now many years older and light-years removed from his earlier commitment to Christ. How ironic that, at the end of the hymn. he seemed to prophesy his own downward course.
- “Come Thou Fount” ------ other verses
This is precisely what he did Robert Robinson died shortly thereafter at the young age of 55, the victim of the lure of a lesser loyalty. He had left the God he once loved and had become “a wicked old man.”
