So let's get into our devotion tonight. I've been looking at Mark, Mark 11. So if you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Mark 11. And I think I have my little markers here. Mark 11, and we'll give a devotion here this evening. So let's read Mark 11, and then I'll give an introduction to what we're going to look at. and how we're going to apply this short parable. And I want to start reading in verse number 12. So if you're with me and you have your Bibles, look at verse number 12 in Mark chapter 11. And here's what it says. It says, And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if happily 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 fruit of thee hereafter forever, and his disciples heard it. Now, we'll drop down for the sake of context and time for our devotion. Look at verse 20, I'm gonna read 20 and 21. And in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. Now watch what Peter says, and Peter calling to remember it, saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursed is withered away. And so this is a neat little parable, and it's kind of neat. It's not long, but we're going to expand it, and we're going to develop it. We'll start developing it tonight. This will probably be a three-part series. You know, those that know me, I like series, and I kind of break them down, unpacked these parables and we'll see what we can gather from it tonight. So let's open by prayer and then we'll get into our introduction here on this lesson or devotion tonight. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we bow before you this evening. We do thank you for this day you have made. And Father, we're thankful for giving us the opportunity to come to the people of Hope Baptist Church and those that are viewing. by way of digital camera and live streaming. But Father, we want to think about those that we normally pray for on a Wednesday night and those that need prayer. And we want to lift them up quickly before you tonight that you would, Father, heal the sick, comfort the feeble-minded. And Father, bless those that have a hunger for your word, and fill me with your Holy Spirit. Be with your words tonight. Let it be a blessing to us and suit our needs. We ask all this in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, so here in Mark 11, we've read this passage, and let me say, one of the questions that comes up when you're dealing with parables or you're in the Gospels is the question, why did Jesus, Why did Jesus speak in parables? And so that is a question that I've had to answer and I've actually had myself. And I remember asking my father years ago, and there's some good questions to it, but I believe there's a twofold reason why Jesus taught or spoke in parables when he was teaching or preaching. And so the twofold reason, I believe, so there, um, Those willing to hear Jesus could better understand what he was saying or teaching. And the second was those unwilling to hear would not understand what he was saying. And I think even in Matthew it alludes to that on the reasons why he used parables. I think that the disciples were asking him why he spoke like this or why he spoke in a parable. I think he wanted to bring a blessing on those who would hear what he was saying, but he also wanted to keep judgment on those who were unwilling to listen or to hear Him. It's kind of like somebody, I hate to say it, but I've seen in my time in church, people come in and sometimes people are not there really to learn in church, to hear the preaching or the teaching, but they're there to audit and and they're kind of analyzing how the pastor or the preacher is going to say something or not say something, or his take on this or that, and they kind of audit his words. They're not there to learn. And so you find in scriptures, in the Gospels, that the Pharisees were great at this, and they were there to audit. I'll bring a little politics into this right now, being as we got this kind of devotional setting, but you'll notice that the left-wing media kind of audits what the pastors or the administration kind of does or says. And they're constantly, constantly trying to put the administration on guard with these I got you type questions. Not every one of them, but a lot of them do. And this is kind of a good illustration of what was going on and why Jesus taught or spoke in parables. And so hopefully that helps those that have questions on why did Jesus teach or preach in parables or use parables. So here in this portion in Mark 11, you have the fig tree. So let's get into this fig tree. The fig tree is a picture in the Old Testament of the promised land or Canaan land that the nation of Israel was promised from God. from Jehovah. And so it was a picture of the promised land. And it even says this in the Old Testament, it says, of wheat, of barley, of vines, and a land of fig trees. And so it was a representation of what that land was like. It even spoke of the milk and honey, meaning that the grass was lush there, it produced a lot of milk. The honey, it flowed because there was a lot of pollen, a lot of stuff growing that was very good. And so it was a rich land. And so even the Bible says that the pomegranate and the figs were a part of the treasures that the spies brought back. You remember the spies, the twelve spies? Well, they brought back a treasure and one of those was the fig tree and it showed the fertility of the land of the promised land that was promised to the nation of Israel. So it's a picture of a peace and prosperity the fig tree is and the peace and prosperity is connected to the fig tree. So let me look at my notes here. Also something else that the fig tree typed in the Old Testament was the nation of Israel. Not only was the land, or Canaan's land was a picture of the fertility and the fig tree in that land, but the nation of Israel is pictured as a fig tree. And so we see this in Mark. Now we're in Mark 11. Look with me in Mark 13, right across the way. And I want the latter part of Mark 13. Look at verse 28. Notice what scripture says here in dealing with this. Now learn a parable, it says. I'm in Mark 13, verse 28. Now learn a parable of the fig tree, when her branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, Ye know that summer is near. And you say, what is that making reference to? That's making reference to Christ using the nation of Israel and the going on of the nation of Israel, its political platform, its religious platform, its social platform. What it does is kinda represents, the fig tree represents the nation of Israel. And keep that in mind when you look prophetically at scriptures in the Bible, how you look, at scriptures, especially when it's referring to the nation of Israel into the future, is that God uses the nation of Israel and the temperature of it and what the world does or reacts to the nation of Israel as its time stable. Summer is nigh. We live in the last times. I believe we're very close to the catching away of the saints according to scripture. And this is making or alluding to the reference that Christ uses that fig tree. Hey, look at this fig tree. This is gonna represent Israel in the last time. Summer is nigh. And so this is what this verse is alluding to in Mark. or saying in Mark 13, verse 28. So let's move on. Now with that being said, looking at scriptures and understanding scriptures, we are in a gospel. And so we need to understand that when we look at scripture, We need to look at scripture three different basic ways, all right? Let me share with you, take your Bible, turn with me to 1 Corinthians. I have this in my notes, and I do wanna share this while we're here. This is kind of a sidebar, and I was meant to tell you that I'm not going to be long tonight, and I am relatively speaking about the time. So all jostling aside, I try to be careful of my time. And 1 Corinthians 10, hopefully you're turning with me. 1 Corinthians 10, notice with me verse 32, and here's what the scripture says, Give not offense neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the church of God. You say, why are you showing us this verse? Well, it's very important when you look at scriptures and you read scriptures, you get the right or correct sense of the scripture and one of the three categories or three types of people that the bible is written to number one the bible says here that neither to the jews so he's going to view this jewish from the jew standpoint and then he says nor to the gentiles gentiles and then it says to the church of god So the Jews represent the chosen people of God. This is a Jewish book, by the way. If you have your Bible there, you're reading your Bible, Holy Bible, it is a Jewish book. All right, it has Jewish authors, and it's a Jewish book. You need to always keep that in mind, especially when you're in the Gospels, and we are. All right, the second one he mentions here in 1 Corinthians 10 is the Gentiles. Those are the lost people that the Bible is going to speak to or to the Gentile nation. If you're not a Jew by blood or nationality, then you are a Gentile. There's only two. And so the third group of people that the Bible is going to be written to or speaks of or deal with is, it says, the Church of God. You say, what is that? Well, that's the Jew and Gentile that have trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and they make up, according to 1 Corinthians 12, the body of Christ. That's the church. And the Bible goes on to say further that he purchased the church with his own blood. That's the body of born-again believers from the cross on, you might say. And so, there's three categories of people you want to make sure you understand that you're not pulling something out of context. Let me add this a little bit further as we move back to Mark 11. And so, let me say this about looking at scriptures more than one way. We teach here at our institute, at Hoosier Hill Baptist Institute, and then even from the pulpit, you'll hear pastors say that you'll have a historical setting of scriptures. Any scripture in the Bible will have a historical setting. It will have a doctrinal setting or application, and then it will have a spiritual setting or application. Every verse in the Bible, it's just a little key of learning and knowing. This goes along in this area or this question that you might have heard. Why are there so many different denominations in the world? You have hundreds of different types of Baptists. You have hundreds of different types of Methodists. You have different denominations all over the world. Why is that? Well, one of the reasons, one of the main reasons why is because you'll have different people take and pull verses from different areas of the Bible to try to make a doctrine. There might be a doctrine, but it might not be for that particular person. You might be pulling a doctrine out that might be to the Jewish people. Over here, you might have a Gentile pulling out Jewish doctrine. You might have a Gentile pulling out church doctrine and applying it in a different time age. So you have to be careful and be studious of that there is a historical There's a doctrinal application, and then there's a spiritual application. Tonight, in Mark 11, here in our little parable about the fig tree, is we are going to apply this spiritually. Doctrinally, it would apply to the nation of Israel found in its context, its historical setting, and its doctrinal application is to the nation of Israel. But we can spiritually apply this to you and I as Christians today, and that's what we're going to do. Now, I said I would be calm. and I need to calm down and then we'll move on. All right, so Mark 11, we've said some things about the fig tree, where it comes from. And here in our setting, we've looked at what Jesus said. Now, Jesus wants these disciples here in Mark 11 to look at this fig tree and to learn some lessons about Israel and about themselves. And so when we look at the fig tree tonight here in Mark 11, we want to learn some lessons about ourselves and about our spiritual life. So that's what we're going to do tonight. And so there are three things that we can learn from this fig tree. Now we're just going to deal with one of them this evening. You say, why are you just going to give me one? Well, for time, because I promised I would be short. And secondly, I don't have the other two fully developed. And so we just developed the first one, which is going to be, if you're writing and you're following along, the first point we're going to deal with tonight is the fruitlessness of this fig tree. is the fruitless, the fruitless, this tree didn't have any fruit on it. And this is what Jesus began to deal with, with this tree, said he spoke to it. And so the fruitlessness, I have in my notes here, and that's a mouthful to say, and it's another thing to spell it. So hopefully you have spell check or you're writing down fruitlessness. A tree with no fruit. You know, this parable is a parable about production. Yeah, that's what it is. It's about production. This tree had leaves, but it didn't have any fruit. And so we're going to apply this spiritually. So let me, I'm going to slip to my notes here and then we're going to read and we're going to get into this. A tree that does not bear fruit or bear the fruit that it's designed to bear has become useless and of no value. And that's what this tree had done. You know, Jesus, if you back up in this chapter, He had went into Bethany and Bethpage, and He had rode on Anastas colt into Jerusalem. And then it said on the morrow, as we get closer to verse 12, on the morrow He had come and He was hungry. And he was going to go back into town, whether it's Jerusalem or Bethany, he was going to go back into. He was hungry and he said he saw a fig tree. And now you say, well, what's unique about that? Well, it was early. It was probably in early April, kind of like now. I know we're in the latter part of April here in the Western hemisphere. I think I have the right hemisphere, correct? here in America, I might say. But in Israel, in that parallel, it was in that month, I believe it was Abib, if I have my Jewish calendar correct. But it was in April, around April, well, this fig tree and the fig trees of that time in that area in Israel, it had leaves. And it was one of the first trees in that area to grow leaves. And so with leaves, with a fig tree, if it had leaves, it more than likely had fruit. And the fig trees of that day in that area, that region, had two different fruits. In early April, it had leaves that said it had a little bulb-like fig on it. And then later on, in about June or early June, it would develop, it would lose the small fruit, the mock fruit, and then it would develop bigger figs and sweeter figs. And so, but you say, well, so what's that significant? Well, here we find that this tree had leaves and Jesus knew that it probably would have a little, some little figs on it that he could eat, uh, for his, for his breakfast. I think it was early morning, but it didn't have any. And so then this brings us to what we're going to apply to ourselves. You know, as Christians, save Christians. Now, when I say Christians, I mean save Christians. Blood bought, born again. We should want to bear fruit. We should not be fruitless. And so if you find yourself this evening fruitless, not having fruit, That's a tough situation to be in because God or Christ has a lot to say, and we're gonna look at some of these verses, so let's get into this. I want you to turn to John. Turn with me, and I think I have this marked out. Yes, I do. I have the right markers in the right place, so if you have your Bibles, hopefully you do. John chapter 15, and I wanna look at verse eight. John chapter 15, verse eight. Here's what it says here, and I want to bring this out because we're talking about fruitless, are being fruitless in our Christian life. And so here's what it says in John chapter 15 verse 8. It says, Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. Christ wasn't silent that one of the main ways to glorify God is to bear fruit. And he said, so shall ye be my disciples. That means the disciples, they knew they were his disciples because they followed him. They bore fruit. And so in your Christian life and in my Christian life, we want to make sure that we are able and willing to have fruit or bear fruit or be bearing fruit for God. Why? Because it glorifies God. I say this a lot. And I understand I'm repeating myself when I say this, but it needs to be repeated. There's a lot of Christians who say they love God. There's a lot of people who testify that they love God and they know that God loves them. But to show your love to God, to bring glory to God, he says there that you bear much fruit. That's how you glorify God. You can say you love God. I can say I love God. But when I cease or stop to bear fruit or I'm fruitless in my Christian life, It doesn't bring any glory to God. Matter of fact, God has a different view, even of Christians who do not bear fruit. And this is what we're going to get in tonight. So that's John chapter 15. We looked at here and it's my father glorified. It says that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples bearing the fruit of the spirit. As we yield ourselves to God, you say, well, how has that done? I'm turning back to Mark. Now you said, how has that done in my life? Well, I know you live in a neighborhood. I live in a neighborhood. So you have neighbors or you have somebody that lives close to you, whether he's 10 miles away or 500 feet or 50 feet. You have neighbors. You say, well, I don't care for my neighbors. Well, of course, I like my neighbors and I'm hopefully they're not watching. I'm not going to lie. I do. I have nice neighbors and I'm not going to mention their names, but I have decent neighbors. I'm the type of person that likes isolation pretty much. When I go home, I don't want to see neighbor. I want to be by myself, relax. But I do have good neighbors and I'm thankful for that. But one of the ways to bear fruit is to be neighborly to your neighbors. You know, you can show fruit, the fruit of the spirit to your neighbors. Not only your neighbors, but what about in your home? Let's move in a little closer. You guys are sitting in your comfort chair, your lazy boy, your couch, and you're watching this. Hopefully you're not driving. If you're driving, you need to pull over. Keep watching, but pull over. So here's the thing, in your home you have either husband or wife, spouse, and you have children, maybe, maybe not. You might be retired, you might have grandchildren, you might have an extended family, but you have a home is what I'm saying. You have connections and you have relationships. That's an area where you could bear fruit for God in your home. You say, well, that's a little bit harder hit. That's hard to do. Yeah, it's hard to do. It's very hard to do. And so we're talking about being fruitless tonight. What about your neighbors? What about your home? It's important that you bear the right fruit in your home and with your neighbors. Not only that, but what about at your workplace? You say, well, I'm laid off. I don't have a job right now." Well, you might, and you probably will if you want to pay your bills and stay ahead of the wolf, you might say. You say, well, I do have a job. Maybe I'm retired. You still have somebody you work around or acquaintance that you run into, maybe at the grocery store, the hardware store, or the shopping store for the ladies. Hey, there's people that you come in contact with that you can be a blessing to, a witness to, and bear fruit, showing the fruit of God. This brings glory to God. And so these are the areas where you can do that. What about your young person, the young people watching, you go to school or you have school, you can bear fruit, not only in the workplace or in the home and your neighbors, but at school. You know, you're to be an influence. You're not to be influenced, although most we Christians get influenced by the world, but we're to influence the world, not the other way around. And so we're to be the light of the world, but we're to bear fruit. This is what we're talking about here. Are you fruitless? Are you fruitless this evening? And that's the question I'm gonna put forth to us. Take your Bibles, turn with me to Luke. Now we're in Mark, Mark 11. Let's go to Luke. To the right. We wanna turn to Luke 13, I wanna share another portion with you. I'm watching my time, I gotta watch right here. Luke 13, notice with me now in verses six and nine. Now watch this parable and what goes on here in this portion of scripture. Luke 13, verse six, he says, he spake also this parable, a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. And he came, and he sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree. He's a pretty patient man. One year, I got the chainsaw out still. I saw it down. No, I don't know a lot about fruit trees, just what I've been looking at for the last three or four days on this devotion. But here, this man waited three years. He waited three years. And he says, and I come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down. Why cometh it the ground? All right, verse eight. And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung it. And if it bear fruit, well, and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. And you say, what is going on here? Well, Jesus was teaching in this context, again, it's Jewish, and he was teaching in the synagogue, if you read on down on the Sabbath. And he was teaching them, again, dealing with the nation of Israel. But spiritually speaking, this is what's going on. You have a fig tree that should be producing fruit, but it doesn't have any fruit and it has leaves. It looks good, but it doesn't have any fruit. And God says, look, the Lord here says, cut it down. It's cumbering the ground. It means it's pulling nutrients from the ground, messing the ground up. We could grow something that's productive here. Remember, these parables are productive parables. There should be some fruit there. and applying it to you and I this evening, you should have fruit in your Christian life. And I'm encouraging you, and I'm asking you, do you have fruit in your Christian life? Are other people able to partake of the fruit in your life? For instance, Could I call you this evening after I get done here and maybe bear on the fruit of hospitality that the Bible says that you should have? Or maybe when I get done here, I get the phone call from one of you and you're going to bear on the fruit of long-suffering or patience on me or pastor. Hopefully it's pastor, I'll give you his number here in a minute. But anyways, we should have fruit that we should be able to bear. And so as we look at this parable in Luke chapter 13, look, he's saying, cut it down. It's not bringing forth anything. He's waited three years and the thing hadn't brought forth fruit. Let me look at my notes here. So we've got the ideal. Some of us have the ideal that as long as we're saved, it doesn't really matter what happens after that. We kind of put it in the guise of, my fire insurance is paid, I trust it in Christ, and I'm good to go, I'm fine, eternity, heaven is my home, and so that's all there is. Well, let me ask you again, is there any spiritual fruit in your life? That's just not it, it doesn't work that way according to scripture. God wants to make sure that you give an account of what you do and what you don't do. And so it's very important that we grasp this. Let me share with you one of the ways that's important that pastors share with us quite often. But take your Bibles. Let's move to 1 Corinthians, that is. I'm watching the time. 1 Corinthians 4. I'm turning over there, 1 Corinthians 4, and I believe we're looking for verse 15. And here's what it says, For though ye have 10,000 instructors, this is the Apostle Paul speaking to the Corinth church, and he says, For though ye have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers? For in Christ Jesus have I begotten you through the gospel. So when I asked the question this evening, do you have any fruit to your account? Are you glorifying God with the fruit that you should have? One of the ways to have fruit is to be to beget somebody through the scriptures. And he says this, this is what Paul had done. And to his account, let me ask it this way. Have you ever led anybody to a saving knowledge of Christ? Have you ever shared the gospel on a one-on-one basis with somebody, sharing with them what Romans 10, 9, and 10 says? What Romans 3, 23 says? What Romans 5, 8 says? What Romans 6, 23 says? And share with them that, look, they need a Savior. So bearing fruit, another way is to beget somebody through the gospel. And hopefully you have, if you never have led anybody to Christ, you know, that could be a first goal. Number one goal, pick somebody, pick them out, begin to pray for them. Begin to pray for yourself that God would give you wisdom and understanding and sharing the gospel to bring forth fruit to glorify God. We're talking about, are you fruit? this evening as a Christian. This tree here, Mark chapter 11, was fruitless. It didn't have any fruit. Now, it had leaves. You see, when Christ looked at it, He looked at it, even Christ Himself. Now, Christ knew all things, but this is, in the parable, it's kind of His human side, His humanity side, looking at this fig tree, seeing the leaves that it had, but it didn't have any fruit. It looked good, but it didn't have any fruit, fruitless. Are you fruitless this evening? Let me move on with my notes here. So Paul speaks of begotting, or he said, I've begotten you through the gospel sake, and I've asked you, are you bearing any fruit? Do you have any fruit to your account? When religion for a people becomes a thing and not a reality, they will become fruitless. You kind of walk through a religious pop or tradition. You know, what happens is fruit ceases. You have leaves, but you have no figs. You have a nice looking tree, but no fruit on it. As a Christian, God doesn't like that, and we see this from scriptures. And so when we come to a point where there is no fruit in our Christian lives, a life where we say, I'm satisfied where I'm in, Jesus says in this parable, right here, we looked at Luke chapter 13, he says, cut it down. That's what Christ thought is on a tree that doesn't bear fruit. It withereth away. And the one in Mark chapter 11 where we looked, it withered away. And they marveled that the next day, Peter says, man, he said, it withered away from the roots. And so be careful of this. And in my conclusion this evening, my ending, had you stopped bearing fruit. You know, there's a lot of Christians that have been saved a long time, but they kind of, you've heard this, dry up on the vine. And so they don't reproduce. And to glorify God, there's no glorification about God in their life. They go, well, I've done this, I've done that, I used to do that. Listen, when you hear somebody speak more of the past than the present, There is a spiritual disconnect, a deficiency in their heart and in their minds and in their lives. They don't know it. They might not be recognized, but if you listen carefully to what is said about somebody talking about the past rather than the present, Listen, I want to encourage you this evening, right now, tonight, this evening, you need to seriously consider bearing fruit. Don't be fruitless. And so the conclusion is, have you stopped bearing fruit? A lesson on fruitlessness. Now, next Wednesday evening, if pastor lets me, and he probably will, we're going to develop the second point. All right, and I'm not gonna give it to you tonight. You gotta hang in there and you gotta tune in with me next Wednesday evening. But tonight, Mark chapter 11, hopefully that's been a blessing to you and we've learned something from this short parable. God bless you, love you guys, hang in there. Don't forget about Sunday, even you lazy people out there. You can get in your car and drive. We have a good time in the parking lot. And if you just gotta hang in there and stay in there because you wake up late or whatever the excuse is, catch us on Facebook live stream. Thanks again. We wanna pray for Barb. McLaughlin. Thank you, Ms. Rachel. And it's Ida's niece and Debbie Eaglin's sister. So we're going to pray for her, Barb, tonight. And we're going to close in prayer. We'll mention her real quick. But I also want to mention Brother Fancher, Brother Marion Fancher. He's in the nursing home in Batesville. We want to pray for him by name. And I know he's probably listening or going to watch or listen. And we want to lift him up and Mrs. Fancher also. Let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Our Heavenly Father, we bow before you. And Father, we thank you for this short time. Thank you for those that are catching our live stream, maybe for the first time, suit a blessing to the hearts. But Father, we also want to mention here Barb, and we want to lift her up tonight, strengthen her, encourage her, heal her, what she needs. And Father, we want to we wanna ask you that you be with these families tonight. Be with Brother Marion Fancher, lift him up, give him strength. Father, maybe a chance to get to come home, I know in his latter years, but I know he would love that, and Mrs. Fancher also would enjoy that. Be with them both this evening, and those that we pray for, and those that are on our hearts tonight, lift them up. Be with our church, encourage our pastor, and be with him as upcoming services begins Sunday morning, and we ask all this in Jesus Christ's name we pray, amen.