Well, congregation, we've been working through the book of Mark. Let's return there again this morning to chapter 11, Mark chapter 11. Now, last Lord's Day, we began the chapter looking at verses 1 through 11. We're going to continue this morning. We're going to be looking at 12, 13, and 14, but we want to set the context. So we're going to read beginning at 12 and through to verse 33. If you got the email that I sent out, you'll know that there is this broader context, which is significant. That is to say, we, in a certain sense, are moving all the way to the cross, to the tomb, his resurrection, to the ascension. That's a section which began with verse one of chapter 11, but within that section, 11 to 16, there are some subsections. And we are in a particular subsection now beginning at verse 12. We're gonna see in the next coming sermons the prophet and then the priest and then the king showing forth the need for the people to repent. And so let's set that before us. We'll come back to our text in a minute, but let's begin our reading at chapter 11 of Mark and verse 12. The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard him say it. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, is it not written, my house will be called a house of prayer for the nations, but you have made it a den of robbers. The chief priests and teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, they went out to the city. In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, look, the fig tree you cursed has withered. Have faith in God, Jesus answered. I tell you the truth. If anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him so that Your father in heaven may forgive you your sins. They arrived again in Jerusalem. And while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders came to him. By what authority are you doing these things, they asked. And who gave you authority to do this? Jesus replied, I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John's baptism. Was it from heaven? or from men, tell me. They discussed it among themselves and said, if we say from heaven, he will ask, then why didn't you believe him? But if we say from men, they feared the people, for everyone held that John was really a prophet. So they answered Jesus, we don't know. Jesus said, neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. Now, congregation, then back to our text. Mark 11 at verse 12. The next day as they were leaving, Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seen in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard him say it. Thus far, dear congregation, God's glorious and perfect word, God's word never errs, never is wrong in any way. So let's ask that we would receive his word this morning. Let's pray. Our Father most glorious, we praise you that you sent your only begotten son into the world, that whosoever shall believe upon him shall never perish but have everlasting life, and that our Lord Jesus Christ at his ascension promised and then did pour out at his, when he was at the Father's right hand, the Holy Spirit, who now fills every believer, leading us to all truth. And so, Lord, Because of these facts, we ask, lead us, teach us, that we may understand your word rightly and apply it, oh Heavenly Father, to our lives. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, we've said it rather strongly last Sunday that the church needs to know Jesus. We have the calling and the duty as the pillar and the ground of the truth. First Timothy 315 to know Jesus Christ. To a world more and more quickly and more and more deviously denying the Lord Jesus Christ comes the church. to speak of him, to tell of him, to woo the nations in, to sit with us and hear of him. But to do that, we must know him. And that means striving this morning to know his intention and his words and actions with this fig tree, a passage often misunderstood. So here's something we notice from the start. This last section in Mark, which we just mentioned, beginning in chapter 11, going through chapter 16, has these subsections within it. And the subsection we're going to be resting in for quite some time is from this text, chapter 11, verse 12, to the beginning of chapter 14. And what marks it, now dear Christians, listen, what marks this subsection Is Israel's reckoning? Is Israel's reckoning? Again and again, Jesus will be judging the false worship, the hypocritical living, the worldliness of the erring covenant people. That reckoning begins here with an analogy. Israel, the erring people, It's like this fig tree. And here comes the great prophet to proclaim their deadness by means of this prop, the fig tree. It is an analogy of the death that has come upon a disobedient people. The prophet proclaims the spiritual deadness of Israel, and we take note. In the coming text, we'll see what then the priest does, think of the temple, and then what the king does, think of the competition about authorities. But this morning, it is the prophet proclaims the spiritual deadness of Israel, and we take note. Well then, first of all, hungering, especially spiritual, is normal. Blessed is he who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, as the Lord said in Matthew chapter 5 verse 6. So here he does. Now let's get that. He hungers and thirsts after righteousness. That is to say, not that he needs it, but that he seeks to find it. Not that he is lacking in this, but he desires to see it in his people. And so he leaves Bethany. Isn't this strange? When you read the Bible, ask questions about what you're reading. Isn't it strange that he leaves the place where he is staying, there in the Burg of Bethany, we said just a few miles outside of Jerusalem. He leaves without eating breakfast. Now I know we're probably so 21st century that we wouldn't think of going anywhere without having a bite or a sip of water or something. We just do that as a natural course. It's normal. But he here leaves without eating. The next day as they were leaving, Bethany, Jesus was hungry. The problem in the text, however, is that the second part of the Lord's Word in that Matthew chapter five passage we know so very well, blessed is he who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, the second part of that cannot be addressed by the fig tree. He will be filled. Blessed is he who hungers and thirsts after righteousness, for he will be filled. And this, thinking of it again as a spiritual analogy, Jesus cannot find with the fig tree. We need to understand this in the context of the office of the Old Testament prophet. Grasping that properly here is extremely important. I'll say it again, the next time when Jesus comes to the temple, it will be in the office of the high priest, and then near the end of the chapter, we read it this morning, will be the confrontation on the authority question, Jesus in the office of the king. But here, the prophet. And so when we begin thinking that way, when our biblical minds are firing in that way, we think of the Old Testament prophet as one often hungry. often needing the supply that only God could give. And so when Jesus comes in the office of the prophet here to the tree, we ought not be surprised that he is looking for some food to satisfy his hunger. But it is an analogy. He is on the lookout for some food to satisfy, spiritually speaking, His bodily hunger represents his urge to find spiritually satisfying food. And when he looks at Israel, will he see them, the covenant people, to be juicy and delectable spiritually? That's the question we're supposed to wonder about. Now beloved, I'm sort of setting you up because sometimes the passages we're dealing with this morning and the next coming sermons are easily misunderstood. So in a little sense, I'm repeating myself, but this is because I want to set us up. That is, I want to have our feet firmly placed in the context of these passages because you see this assessment and the dilemma is gonna continue when the Lord comes to the temple and the money changers are there. What are they doing? Why are they doing it? How could they be doing these things? Israel seems like a vineyard business, which kills the air of the business. Jesus will make that point later on in the same very broad context, asking the question, what has happened to the covenant people? showing the grave and deadly condition of the covenant people and setting forth himself, remember this, frequently we see this in Mark, Jesus setting forth himself as their only hope and as the perfect answer. But now let's pause. And let's ask the question about churches of our day. Is this at all the situation with churches in our own day? Is it the case that churches of our own day have picked a different master, are seeking to serve a different Lord, want to find some other way, some easier way in terms of the agreement they want to find with the world and the ease they want to do their thing and not have confrontation and not be called to account by the worldly forces? Is that the situation in any of the churches of the world today? Well, the answer to that question is easy, isn't it? Yes. Now, not all of the churches, but some. Now I want you to notice that the litany we just went through about what some churches in the world today are doing for the ease of acceptance by the world around them, we say because this is exactly what Israel of old was also doing. Make no mistake about it. The movement of our culture is not novel. This isn't the only generation. This isn't the only time when the church has said, I'd rather not take the hard road, the narrow gate. I'd rather take the easy road and the wide gate. And so when we come to a text like this one, the church needs to take note. Not just to the fact that some churches are somewhat like this and not just to the fact that in most all churches are hypocrites and fake Christians hiding. But more importantly. We this morning need to take note that we too are being assessed by God. By his word, we are being assessed by the great prophet Jesus Christ. But by this assessment, he intends to bring us to a hungering for great spiritual health. No dear congregation does the church in America in the 21st century need that, a hungering for great spiritual health. So let's look at it again a little bit more carefully from the text, because secondly, from a distance, the tree seemed full of life. So again, picture the scene, having not gotten breakfast at the Bethany Airbnb, we would call it the Bethany Airbnb, or something like that. Peter is watching as Jesus begins the journey toward Jerusalem proper, and Jesus looks, and Peter sees that his gaze is fixed off in the distance. Probably quite a ways away, actually. The King James Version, which we ought to at least consider and evaluate, says it this way, and seeing a fig tree afar off, afar off. Verse 13 of our text, seeing in the distance a fig tree. Now imagine as we're reading through the Bible in our private devotions or our family worship time, that's a part of the text we'd probably Rush past. Well, that's not very consequential. That's not very significant. Oh, beloved, it is incredibly significant. Well, why? Because you see, sometimes when you're looking at something a long ways away, you don't get a correct evaluation of what is actually going on with it. That's particularly true with fruit bearing trees. If you've ever lived in, vacationed in, been around orchards and groves, if you're a long ways away from the orange grove or the apple orchard or the cherry orchard and you look, you might see those trees and they might look very green, lots of leaves, and you can't tell. Is there an apple hanging there? Are there cherries on that tree? Beloved, remembering that it is an analogy, we realize that this is what the covenant people looked like from afar, at a distance. Oh, they looked beautiful. Oh, they looked resplendent, full of life, you see. Just like imagine the first time Jesus glimpses from the distance the temple. It would have looked as a beehive full of activity. And who doesn't want a church full of activity and brimming with all kinds of people doing all sorts of things. You can't see the details yet, but it sure looks alive and active. And this was Israel from the distance. It looked green and lush. It looked like a tree in a garden. It is an analogy. Israel seemed to be very religious. really righteous, full of prayers, full of worship, full of singing, the giving of offerings, living sacrificially. That's what they wanted to portray, anyway. What's the old adage? How does it go? Looks can be deceiving. I want you to consider this as if we were this morning going to just now stop and I'm going to ask you, I'm not going to do that, but just imagine we were, that I would ask you to turn to the book of Revelation chapters two and three. As Christ, now listen, looks for spiritual fruit in the seven churches. What does he find in Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamum and Thyatira? What does he find in Sardis and Philadelphia and, oh, let's not forget Laodicea? Would we make the proper connection with what we have here, the call and the duty of the Old Testament prophet? The one who is called by God to look around and to be ready in his assessment to speak the word given to him from heaven, the word which he must say. Thus saith the Lord about you and your condition and your situation. Would we say this is a part of the duty and the responsibility of every true church in its preaching? That when the word comes to churches and to church members of every age and place, it comes with a cautioning. It comes with a challenge. Is there really life there? And so we say, we take note. Well, why? Because the record of how things really were with Israel is a record of caution for our instruction. We are supposed to read it and weep. And I mean that really. Read it and weep. Beloved, I'm gonna say this again, this will be the tenor, this will be the motivation, this will be the purpose of the Lord's teaching from now to the beginning of chapter 14. Again and again, you can read all of those sections, again and again will be the assessment. Israel as a people had come to resemble the Pharisees they followed, whitewashed tombs on the outside, with rotting corpses in. Oh beloved, how the church needs to take note. So thirdly, after an intimate investigation, there was no life after all. Verse 13 then is easily dividable into two parts. Notice that 13a, seen in the distance, a fig tree, He goes to find out if it has any fruit, then 13b, when he reached it. So it's Israel from a distance. Oh, they look pretty good, healthy, glorious. Israel up close. Now some of you right now, especially if you're more conscientious about your Bible reading and Bible study and you want to know very much about every phrase and sentence and every passage right now, you're saying, but wait a minute, hold on. It says he finds no fruit because it was not the season for figs. This has served as an escape hatch out from under the caution of the text for a great many people. Exegetes included in them, Bible commentators have said, well, look at here. Of course he finds no fruit. It's not the season for fruit. What do we make of this? Beloved, I say to us, we do not let this trip us up. Why? Because, you see, the tree with leaves but no fruit is a teaching tool. Of course there are no figs. Of course there are none, because it's not the season for figs. But that's not the point, you see. In the analogy, the point is this, that looks can be deceiving. so that as Jesus comes and investigates carefully, what he finds is no fruitfulness. Now grab hold of what I just said and apply it to the text we're gonna come to next in the temple, because exactly the same thing happens. The temple seems to be brimming with life. As I said, a beehive of activity off in the distance from the top of the Mount of Olives, let's say. And when he comes close and there's a careful investigation, what will he find there as well? It will resemble the fig tree. Spiritual death, not spiritual life. His hunger is seen from a distance, a tree that looked like it would be fruitful, and the utter disappointment of the up-close investigation is the Lord's teaching of what has come to happen to the covenant people. Very whitewashed, as I just said, on the outside, but death reigning inwardly. Beloved, what do we do? How do we begin to apply this? And I say that in terms of the church living in the midst of a culture that is hurtling toward the precipice to hell, sort of like a car on a freeway That ends up being a road that has a dead end sign as they exit it off. And they're barreling 140 miles an hour down this road, rushing past the dead end sign, not knowing that at the end of the road is just a little guardrail and a thousand foot cliff drop off. That's our culture today. You have to ask the question then, how does the church apply these things? What does the church do? We need to ask this question in terms not only of our particular congregation, but in terms of denominations and congregations everywhere, and even more intimately, about our own hearts. Are we hurtling along with the culture? Are we racing to keep up? Now, beloved, you may think that to be a harsh thing to say, but I say that because if you look around and broadly consider denominations and congregations in America today, that is actually exactly what they are doing. They're actually trying to wave the vehicle down and say, stop, stop, I want to get on with you. Hurtling toward the precipice. What we ought to be considering and pleading for with the Lord is that we would be those that when the investigation comes, the result will be there is fruit there. There is life there. Now, what do we mean by that? Fruit there. We mean biblical fidelity. We mean spiritual earnestness. You can think of the list in Galatians, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Yes, of course, those things growing in us, being evidenced out of us as a people, as a congregation. There are other lists of fruitfulness in the scripture. Whatever list you are considering, they are the opposite of worldliness. They are the opposite of wickedness. They are the opposite of what the enemy, Satan, wants the church to be enamored with. And so our prayer, if we're honest about ourselves, individually, congregationally, and as our federation, our prayer ought to be what the Lord says by a different analogy in Luke chapter 13, verses eight and nine. Oh Lord, dig, dig around the base of our tree. Put some fertilizer in there. Because if we're not yet producing enough fruit, Lord, we want to produce more fruit. We want to be fruitful. Let me ask you one question before we move on. It's a simple question, but it needs to be asked. Are there today churches that are all leaf and no fruit? Do you answer yes or no to that question? It's an extremely significant question to ask. Fourthly, then, words of judgment fall from the prophet upon the tree. Then he said, verse 14, to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard him say it. That's a connection, a linking to verse 20. Because you see, beloved, a gnarled fruitless tree comes to be only a hindrance and a drain on resources. And so the Lord acts. Israel as a people has abused the goodness of God. They have assumed his favor. They have taken and taken and taken from the Lord. without any interest or commitment to bearing the fruit of true, righteous, godly living. And the Lord acts. May you die. You'll remember from last week, when we saw the connection between Jesus and Jehu, We said that this idea that Jesus is meek and mild is a Hollywood invention. It is not the biblical Jesus. So that if we're concerned, if we're left a little bit uncomfortable by verse 14, the Lord Almighty, this God of love saying to this tree, die. We need to think that maybe we have the wrong Jesus in our mind. If we think him harsh by what he says here, I want you to think about another connection to the text that we're going to deal with next time. I want us to leap ahead less than 40 years in Jerusalem. Because what is going to be the reality of God's temple in A.D. 70 is that it is going to look like this tree that Jesus commands to die. Rome is going to come in that wicked tool of God's hand and is going to destroy all of Jerusalem, leaving not one stone upon another, including the temple, which will be utterly devastated. Just like this tree, a fruitless church, which fails to bring glory to the Lord. is a church doomed to destruction and evidencing already God's judgment. Now, beloved, we have to understand that what the Lord Jesus Christ does here in this text It swings down the divine gavel and renders an unalterable sentence the death sentence. Why? Because the Lord will have glory either through fruitfulness or through the application of justice. Oh, congregation, Take note. Oh, Christians. Take note. Are we bearing fruit? Have we lived for a certain number of months or years with the conviction in our minds that God is not interested in evaluating whether I am bearing fruit or not? Have we lived thinking that God is not terribly concerned about my Christian life? And then we could expand that to a congregation, any congregation. We could expand that to a denomination, any denomination. And we could ask the right question. Have individuals or congregations or denominations lived thinking that God is not terribly interested whether I am bearing fruit or not? And if at any level we have convinced ourselves that is the case, that God's not very interested in me and the fruitfulness of my spiritual life, my Christian testimony, then we are on the path racing to the precipice of hell. This is what we must take from the text. Oh, Israel was plenty healthy, they were very wealthy, and all was good with them, so they thought. And then the Lord Jesus arrives. And God zooms in close. And pulls out the microscope. And peers into the heart. He sees. He knows. What fruit are we bearing? Oh dear church, Christians. What fruit are we bearing? Do you see? If I don't press us with these questions, I am failing you in terms of the text. I am failing what God called me here to accomplish. And so I must press us. But to what end? So that we feel bad? So that we say, well, I'm a terrible person, thanks, pastor? No. So that we say, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, I want to bear fruit in my life. I want to show forth a love for the Lord Jesus Christ, which transcends every other love. I want to show forth a glory that the glory of Jesus Christ is the most important thing in my life. Whether I live or die, I care not. But whether I glorify him, that I am enamored with. You see, this is what Israel of old should have been thinking. how they should have been living. And so, beloved, does the Lord call us to. And he enables us to that very life of fruitfulness. Ask him. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the work of our great prophet, the perfect prophet, the one whose work in the office of the prophet, all the other Old Testament prophets reflected though imperfectly, of the Lord Jesus Christ calling to his church, saying, this is what God has for us. And oh Lord, might we love to hear him, even when it is hard. Bless us, then, to follow after by grace, by grace, and in all things, to show forth the obedience of faith. Help us this day, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Congregation, we're going to respond this morning, first at 267. All who with heart confiding, then will remain standing. And after the benediction, the doxology will be the stanzas of 476, something we don't always sing, but very good for us nonetheless.