JESUS PARABLE OF THE BARREN FIG TREE

JESUS WAS DEALING WITH THE FRUITLESS AND FRUITFUL VOL. 2
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
LUKE 13:6-9 6 Then he told this parable:“A man had
a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look
for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he saidto the
man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years
now I’ve been coming to lookfor fruit on this fig tree
and haven’tfound any. Cut it down! Why shouldit
use up the soil?’8 “‘Sir,’the man replied, ‘leaveit
alonefor one more year, and I’ll dig around it and
fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not,
then cut it down.’”
J. C. RYLE
The Barren Fig Tree, Luke 13:6-9
He spoke also this parable; A certainman had a fig tree planted in his
vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said
he unto the dresserof his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking
fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbers it the ground?

And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, until I shall
dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that
you shall cut it down.
The parable we have now read is particularly humbling and heart-searching.
The Christian who can hear it and not feel sorrow and shame as he looks at
the state of Christendom — must be in a very unhealthy state of soul.
We learn first from this passage — that where God gives spiritual privileges,
He expects proportionate returns.
Our Lord teaches this lesson, by comparing the JewishChurch of His day to a
"fig tree planted in a vineyard." This was exactlythe position of Israelin the
world. They were separatedfrom other nations by the Mosaic laws and
ordinances, no less than by the situation of their land. They were favored with
revelations of God, which were granted to no other people. Things were done
for them, which were never done for Egypt, or Nineveh, or Babylon, or
Greece, orRome. It was only just and right, that they should bear fruit to
God's praise. It might reasonablybe expected, that there would be more faith,
and penitence, and holiness, and godliness in Israel — than among the
heathen. This is what God lookedfor. The owner of the fig tree "came seeking
fruit."
But if we mean to getthe full benefit of the parable before us — then we must
look beyond the JewishChurch. We must look to the Christian churches.
They have light, and truth, and doctrines, and precepts — of which the
heathen never hear. How greatis their responsibility! Is it not just and right,
that God should expect fruit from them?

We must look to our ownhearts. We live in a land of Bibles, and liberty, and
Gospelpreaching. How vast are the advantages we enjoy — comparedto the
Chinese and Hindu! Neverlet us forgetthat God expects fruit from us!
These are solemn truths. Few things are so much forgotten by men — as the
close connectionbetweenprivilege and responsibility. We are all ready
enough to eat the fat and drink the sweet, and bask in the sunshine of our
position both as Christians and Englishmen — and even to spare a few pitying
thoughts for the half-naked savage who bows down to sticks and stones. But
we are very slow to remember that we are accountable to God for all we
enjoy; and that to whomever much is given — of them much will be required.
Let us awake to a sense ofthese things. Let us not forgetthat the greatMaster
looks for fruit.
We learn, secondly, from this passage— that it is a most dangerous thing to
be unfruitful under greatreligious privileges.
The manner in which our Lord conveys this lessonto us is deeply impressive.
He shows us the ownerof the barren fig tree complaining that it bore no fruit,
"These three years I have come seeking fruit — and find none." He describes
him as even ordering the destruction of the tree as a uselesscumberer of the
ground, "Cut it down; why does it cumber the ground?" He brings in the
dresserof the vineyard pleading for the fig tree, that it may be spared a little
longer, "Lord, let it alone this year also." And He concludes the parable by
putting these solemn words into the vine-dresser's mouth, "If it bears fruit
next year, fine! If not — then cut it down!"
There is a plain warning here to all professing churches of Christ. If their
ministers do not teach sound doctrine, and their members do not live holy
lives — then they are in imminent peril of destruction. God is every year

observing them, and taking accountof all their ways. They may abound in
ceremonialreligion. They may be coveredwith the leaves of forms, and
services, andordinances. But if they are destitute of the fruits of the Spirit —
then they are reckonedto be useless cumberers of the ground. Unless they
repent — they will be cut down.
It was so with the JewishChurch forty years after our Lord's ascension. It
will be so yet with many others, it may be feared, before the end comes. The
ax is lying near the root of many an unfruitful Church. The sentence will yet
go forth, "Cut it down!"
There is a plainer warning still in the passage, forall unconverted professing
Christians. There are many in every congregationwho hear the Gospel —
who are literally hanging over the brink of the bottomless pit! They have lived
for years in the bestpart of God's vineyard — and yet borne no fruit. They
have heard the Gospelpreachedfaithfully for hundreds of Sundays — yet
have never embraced it, and taken up the cross, andfollowedChrist. They do
not perhaps run into open sin. But they do nothing for God's glory. There is
nothing positive about their religion. Of eachof these the Lord of the vineyard
might say with truth, "I come for these many years seeking fruit on this tree
— and have found none. It only cumbers the ground. Cut it down!"
There are myriads of respectable professing Christians in this plight. They
have not the leastidea, how near they are to destruction. Neverlet us forget,
that to be content with sitting in the congregationand hearing sermons, while
we bear no fruit in our lives — is conduct which is most offensive to God. It
provokes Him to cut us off suddenly, and that without remedy!
We learn, lastly, from this parable — what an infinite debt we all owe to
God's mercy and Christ's intercession. Itseems impossible to draw any other

lessonfrom the earnestpleading of the vine-dresser, "Lord, let it alone this
year also." Surelywe see here, as in a looking-glass— the loving kindness of
God, and the mediation of Christ.
Mercy has been truly called the darling attribute of God. Power, justice,
purity, holiness, wisdom, unchangeableness — are all parts of God's
character, and have all been manifested to the world in a thousand ways, both
in His works and in His Word. But if there is one of His attributes which He is
pleasedto exhibit to man more clearly than others — beyond doubt, that
attribute is His mercy. He is a God who "delights in mercy." (Micah7:18.)
Divine mercy founded on the mediation of a coming Savior. Divine mercy was
the cause why Adam and Eve were not castdown to Hell, in the day that they
fell. Divine mercy has been the cause why Godhas borne so long with this sin-
laden world, and not come down to judgment. Divine mercy is even now the
cause why unconverted sinners are so long spared, and not cut off in their
sins.
We have probably not the leastconceptionhow much we all owe to God's
mercy. The last day will prove that all mankind were debtors to God's mercy,
and Christ's mediation. Even those who are finally lost, will discoverto their
shame — that it was "ofthe Lord's mercies, they were not consumed" long
before they died. As for those who are saved — covenant-mercywill be all
their plea!
Are we fruitful — or unfruitful? This, after all, is the question which concerns
us most. What does God see in us year after year? Let us take heed so to live
— that He may see fruit in us.

CHARLES SIMEON
Verses 7-9
DISCOURSE:1534
THE BARREN FIG-TREE
Luke 13:7-9. Then saidhe unto the dresserof 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 saidunto 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.
PERSONS, who canleastbear a scrutiny themselves, are apt to pass the
severestcensuresupon others. But we cannever form a just estimate of men’s
characters from the dispensations of Providence towards them; nor, though
our conclusions were more certain, would it become us to place ourselves on
the seatof judgment: we are far more concernedto prepare for the account
which we ourselves must render unto God. Such was the advice which our
Lord gave to his censorious hearers:he bade them repent of their own sins
instead of presuming to judge others [Note:ver. 1–5.], and enforced his
admonition with an apposite and instructive parable. We shall inquire,
I. In what respects we resemble a barren fig-tree?

Humiliating as the comparisonbefore us is, it is but too just. We have enjoyed
every advantage that could conduce to fruitfulness—
[The fig-tree is representedas planted in a vineyard where the soilwas good,
and every attention was paid to it. Thus we have not been left in the open field
of the heathen world: we have been planted in the enclosedvineyard of God’s
Church. His word and ordinances have been regularly administered to us: we
have participated both the statedand occasionallabours of his ministers; nor
has any thing been wanting which could render us fruitful. God may appeal
respecting us, as he did respecting his Church of old: “What could I have done
more for them than I have done [Note:Isaiah 5:4.]?”]
Yet notwithstanding all our advantages, we have hitherto been found
barren—
[For three successive years was the fig-tree destitute of fruit: and have not we
been barren a much longertime? The fruits which God expects are
repentance, faith, and obedience [Note:Matthew 3:8. Luke 18:8 and
Philippians 1:11.]: but have we mourned over our sins with deep contrition?
— — — Have we fled to Christ as the only refuge and hope of lost sinners? —
— — Have we presented ourselves to him a holy and living sacrifice? — — —
Has it been the labour and ambition of our souls to abound in these fruits?
Have we not even to this hour been “barren and unfruitful in the knowledge
of Christ?”Have we not rather, as cumberers of the ground, been prejudicial
to those around us? Have not those who have been planted near us, reasonto
complain that they have been retarded by us, rather than furthered, in the
spiritual life? Surely too many of us deserve the name once given to Israelof
old [Note:Hosea 10:1.]; “Israelis an empty vine, (a barren fig-tree,) that
bringeth forth fruit to itself alone, and none at all to God.”]

We may justly wonder therefore that we are suffered to occupy our respective
places, and inquire,
II. Whence it is that, notwithstanding our unfruitfulness, we have been spared
to this time?
We are not sparedbecause our state is inoffensive to God—
[The ownerof the vineyard noticed all the pains bestowedon the fig-tree, and
felt his disappointment greaterevery successive year:hence he spake ofits
unfruitfulness with astonishmentand indignation [Note:“Behold—Why,” &c.
convey these ideas very forcibly.]. And must not the heavenly vine-dresser
wonder, that in the midst of so many advantages we remain unfruitful? And
has he not declaredthat unprofitable servants are objects ofhis utter
abhorrence [Note:Matthew 25:26;Matthew 25:30.].]
Much less are we spared because we are better than others—
[Doubtless there are degrees ofsinfulness and guilt: as among men, so in the
sight of God, there are some worse than others. But what goodcan be in him
who answers no one end of his creation? The descriptiongiven of such persons
by the prophet is strictly just [Note: Ezekiel15:2-4.]. (There is scarcelyany
thing in the creationso worthless as the woodof a barren vine.) And to them
may be addressedthose humiliating words of Moses;“Notfor your sakeshave
these mercies been vouchsafedto you; for ye are a stiff-neckedpeople [Note:
Deuteronomy 9:4-6.].”]

The intercessionofChrist is the true reasonof God’s forbearance towards
us—
[The fig-tree was sparedonly at the request of “the vinedresser.” The order
given would certainly have been executed, if he had not obtained a respite:
and little do we think how often death has had a commissionto cut us down.
Surely our continued provocations must often have incensed our God against
us: but, as in former times, he often revokedhis word at the urgent request of
his servantMoses;[Note:Exodus 32:10-11;Exodus 32:14.] so beyond a doubt
has the Psalmist’s declarationbeen often verified in our greatAdvocate and
Intercessor, “He has stoodin the gap, to turn awayGod’s indignation, lest he
should destroyus [Note:Psalms 106:23.].”]
The respite howeverwhich is yet prolonged, will not last for ever. Know
therefore,
III. What doom we must expect if we still continue barren—
God will deal with every man according to his works. If now at last we begin
to bear fruit it will be well—
[The vine-dresserundertook to bestow still greaterculture on the fig-tree, and
intimated that, if his labours should succeed, it would be a source of much
satisfactionto him. But how much more is this true in reference to our souls!
At this moment we may consider the trench digging, and the manure applied
to us. And what a source of comfort will it be, if these means be blessedwith
success!The ownerof the vineyard, the dresserof it, yea, and the inferior
labourers too, will greatly rejoice [Note:Luke 15:5-7; Luke 15:10.]. And what
a blessing will it be to the tree itself! Instead of being cut down as useless, we

shall be an ornament to the vineyard; nor will God himself disdain to regale
himself with our fruit [Note: Song of Solomon4:10.]. In due season, too, we
shall be transplanted to that richer vineyard above, and bring forth fruit to
God’s glory for evermore. Yes, our past unfruitfulness should be no
obstruction to our bliss; but joy and honour shall be our everlasting portion.]
But if the culture be still in vain, we must be speedily cut down—
[The intercessorhimself approved of this in reference to the fig-tree: and can
any thing else be expectedby those whom the Gospeldoes not profit? Canany
think that they shall be left to cumber the ground for ever? Must not even the
patience of God himself be at lastexhausted? Shall He not ere long definitively
say, Cut them down? Must we not then be consignedover to everlasting
burnings? And must not our Intercessor, yea, ourown souls also, approve the
sentence? Letevery one then attend to the warning given to the antediluvian
world, “My Spirit shall not alwaystrive with man [Note: Genesis 6:3.]:” and
let not one amongstus defer till the morrow, what, if left undone, must involve
him in everlasting ruin.]
Infer—
1. How thankful should we be to our greatAdvocate and Intercessor!
[Many since the last year have been cut off by death. What a mercy should we
esteemit that we have been spared! How dreadful must our state have now
been if we had been taken unprepared! We should have been irrevocably
doomed to dwell with the fallen angels;nor should we ever have heard one
more offer of mercy from our offended God. Let us then bless and adore our

Lord for this distinguishing favour; and let his love constrain us to turn unto
him with our whole hearts [Note: 2 Peter1:5-8.].]
2. How earnestshould we be in improving the present moment!
[Many are dead who lately seemedas likely to live as ourselves:but, when
their time was come, they could not resist the stroke of death; nor can any
who are now alive, tell how long a respite shall be granted them. It is probable
that many of us will be gone before the expiration of this year [Note: Perhaps
one in thirty or forty.]; and whenever the fixed period shall arrive, all
intercessions willbe in vain. Let us then redeem the time with all earnestness
and zeal, and accomplishthe great work, before the night comethto terminate
our labours.]
ROB SALVATO
So what does God want from me ? A REPENTENTHEART – but also 2nd
thing FRUITFUL LIFE !!!!! v.6-9
6 He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his
vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
7 "Then he said to the keeperofhis vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have
come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use
up the ground?'

8 "But he answeredand saidto him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig
around it and fertilize it.
9 'And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.'"
Now the fig tree in scripture is usually a ref. To ISRAEL - seenin many O.T.
passages–
Now for 3 yrs during the Jesus earthly ministry of Jesus Godhad been
waiting for fruit from his fig tree
1) But there was none to be found - / Luke 3 John said to religious leaders the
AX IS LAID TO THE ROOT - BEAR FRUIT WORTHY OF REPENT.
True Repentance results in TRUE FRUIT !!!!
Now although this parable has a direct connotationto Israelit also has
GREAT APPLICATION TO YOUR LIFE & MINE.
See the Lord comes like the vineyard owner to inspect your life & mine He
comes looking for FRUIT
What is the FRUIT HE is looking FOR ? - THREE aspects
1st– there is the Fruit of our lives – Romans 6:22 – Paul mentions the fruit of
a HOLY LIFE .
When you are living – your life for the Lord seeking to walk in uprightness
before Him – bearing the Fruit of a Holy life.
James 3:18 – Fruit of Righteousness -18 Now the fruit of righteousnessis
sownin peace by those who make peace.

Then of course there is the Fruit of Love – Gal. 5:22 – the Fruit of the Spirit is
Love , Joy
So the Lord comes to inspectthe fruit of our Lives – looking for the fruit of
Righteousness& Holiness –
b) In Romans 7:4,5 Paul contrastthe fruit of our lives before savedby the
fruit
of our lives after saved – ( Before – death / Now it is LIFE
1) ROTTEN VS RIPE -
Are we producing life or death by our actions / by the waythat we treat
people / by our conduct around others
Is the Fruit of the Spirit / that AGAPE – unconditional love is it flowing out of
our lives .
So First there is the fruit of our lives
2ndly THERE IS THE FRUIT OF OUR LABORS ! – Paul mentions this in a
generalsense in Phil 1:22 – fruit of my labors / What is that?
Romans 1:13 / Phil. 4:6 mention fruit in the contextof winning souls

When we are involved in Evangelism/ sharing our faith we are bearing fruit –
that is pleasing to the Lord .
In 1 Corinthians 16 – Giving is seenas Bearing Fruit - Bringing our first fruits
16:1 Now concerning the collectionfor the saints, as I have given orders to the
churches of Galatia, so you must do also:2 On the first day of the week let
eachone of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper,
Romans 15:28 – Paul delivering the missionary offering – called it the Fruit of
those who gave it .
SO OUR GIVING TO THE WORK OF THE LORD – CAN BE FRUIT if it is
done in a right heart & out of right Motives
A) And when we are serving & sharing our faith/ fruit to the Lord / LABOR
3rdly there is the Fruit of our lips - Hebrews 13:15 Therefore by Him let us
continually offer the sacrifice ofpraise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips,
giving thanks to His name.
The time that we spend in Worship – bearing fruit - pleasing to God
John 4 God is spirit those who Worship ….. spirit & truth –
GOD IS SEEKIGN SUCH TO WORSHIP HIM

God comes Looking for Fruit – Hearts giving over to Praising His name –
Hearts given over to Exalting Him !!!!
Hearts that are bent on expressing their Love to Him – Worship is Proscuno =
TURN & KISS
ADDRESS PROBLEMOF LATENESS – Falling into a bad habit – for a
while only 3rd service – now – see it 2nd & Wed. nights
Not saying , if late Don’t not come –– but try harder to gethere early – take
advantage on Wed. Pre – Worship /
In Doing so YOU ARE BEARING FRUIT & BLESSING THE FATHER
Now in John 15 Jesus the key to bearing fruit
7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you
desire, and it shall be done for you. "By this My Father is glorified, that you
bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
If you abide in me -& my words abide in You – ABIDE = to Continue in
Listen if I am continuing in walking close to Jesus / if I am seeking to stay
close to Him / build my Relationshipw/ Him –
If I am continuing to study his word / Col.3:16 Letting the word of Christ
dwelling in me RICHLY – Dwell = be at Home
If I am doing that the natural result is going to be Fruit in my life –
If I am following after – Christ & constantlytaking in the WORD of Christ /
the result is going to be the FRUIT OF CHRIST
1) Will be coming forth from my life / Becoming more like Him

Now if I am not Bearing fruit it is just an indication in my life that I am not
ABIDING IN THE LORD OR HIS WORD.
What does He do - Here we see the Lord’s Patience in our lives –
H.S. comes and says – Let me Expose the Problem the Sin – What is meant by
the idea of digging around the root of our lives
BELOW THE SURFACE : Gets to the root issue / that area of Compromise /
that ATTITUDE of BITTERNESS – He Exposes it
See this? This needs to go – You need to repent - SO He seeks to Expose
Sin & He seeks to DISPOSE OF SELF .
That is the Fertilizer – Now follow me here – what is the Purpose of Fertilizer
- enhance growth & Fruitfulness
D) But what is Fertilizer ? -- Manure – Cow poop –
Now Fertilizer is a rather friendly word – FERTILIZER – But what is the
Biblical word? Dung – Manure
In Philippians Chapter 3 Paul uses this word in ref. To how he viewed all of
his accomplishments in his flesh /
Those things that would cause him to have CONFIDENCEin his flesh – Paul
declaredthat they were DUNG!!!!
See Paul’s desire was to not be SELF DEPENDENTbut GOD DEPENDENT
Paul desired not to be SELF SUFFICIENT but to experience the
SUFFIECINCYOF CHRIST – at work in his life .

Now Paul learned such DEPENDENCYthrough the trials that He went
through in his life
That was the FERTILIZER that brought forth the neededgrowth / that
produced the RadicalFruit in his life .
It came through being emptied of selfsufficiency & self Dependency
Resulting in a Confidence that was only in the Lord –a realization THAT
W/OUT HIM I CAN DO NOTHING
So the Lord comes desiring fruit – but He knows that self is in the wayso out
of his Patience & Love – surround you w/ Fertilizer / TRIALS
That is how He DISPOSES OF SELF / SELF SUFF. / DEPEND.
Now Picture this – a 9yr. Old boy living in Rural Neb. Comes home from
schoolone day & finds his day working in the Field .
RESPONDS – Dadwhat is that smell – Dad says - Fertilizer – I am spreading
Fertilizer – why don’t you give me a hand .
So he puts down his books & rolls up his sleeves & gets out there w/ Dad &
starts – working the field – working into soilw/ his hands
Well later that night at the dinner table – he proudly says to his mother Mom
I helped dad spread Fertilizer in the Field today after school
A) It is then that his 14 yr old brother replies Do you know what Fertilizer is ?
Answers Well No – what is it COW POOP
B)COW POOP – Dadyou mean I had my hands out there all day – in Cow

Poop? No sonFertilizer
C)Now some of you know where I am going w/ this / others of you have No
clue / grossedout right now -
Here is the point – Trials like Fertilizer Stinks / but how you view those
TRIALS is important for the GROWTH
Your Growth is going to be determined by your Perceptionof the trial that
you are in.
If you see them as FERTILIZER / Lord although this situation stinks right
now – I know that you are doing a work in growing me
Disposing of Self - & that this trial is going to be the instrument that brings
forth fruit in my life
But on the other hand if I see the trial as merely COW POOP - so that it is
just one big stinky MESS .
And all I do is grumble & complain then there is not going to be any fruit
Becauseinsteadof Disposing of Self – I am more focusedon myself & why life
stinks / why is this happening to me .
1) Results in No Growth & No Fruit !!!!!

What does the Lord see when He comes to inspectthe Fruit of your tree / your
life ? Is He digging in your life now
A) Expose sin - / TRIAL TO FERTILIZE ?
Out of His greatlove for us the Lord will allow us to go through trials so that
we come to realize – W/ out HIM- I cando nothing – no fruit
Now how I handle the trial – will determine if that trial is going to become
fertilizer that helps me grow / cow poop just stinks
Joseph– Pit is part of the process to bring about the promise
Here is something that we need to understand – our reactionto the pit
will DETERMINE whetherit stays a pit or becomes part of the PROCESS

Listen what we are calledto do as Believers is to RULE OVER THE TRIAL –
rather than have the TRIAL RULE OVER YOU!!!!.
D) Turn to James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various
trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfectwork, that you may be perfectand
complete, lacking nothing.
Word COUNT = RULE OVER / Rule over it w/ Joy
A) Rule over it How ? Understanding that the trial has come into your
life to make you strongerthan you alreadyare.
B) The TRIAL is meant to spiritually grow you up / meant to build up your
spiritual muscles / STRETCHyou make you more DEPENDENT
C) But How you view that trial is a Key -
Picture this : A 9 yr. Old boy in RURAL Nebraska comeshome school – What
are you doing dad / spreading fertilizer / give me a hand

Boy gets down there in field – working in this fertilizer – ( Helping Dad
Later at dinner – Mom I helped dad spreadfertilizer - help the crops grow – /
Older 14 yr. Old brother – You don’t know what Fertilizer is do you?
NO – COW POOP !!!!! -
But you see that is how it is w/ our lives – you might find yourself in the mist
of FERTILIZER – heavy trial – yes it stinks
A) But you realize the good. - growth -
I am going to seek to get this to sink down into the soil – of my life – learn this
lesson– once & for all – Rule overthis – rule over me
But if I just see it as stinky smelly cow Poop - Complain – grumble & I am not
going to grow .
Now in Phil 3 Paul is talking there about all of his achievements in the flesh –
all that would give him a reasonto have confidence in the flesh

And he says it is DUNG - MANURE -
It is stinky smelly & I don’t want to have anything to do w/ that –
I don’t want to be selfsufficient I want to be God sufficient
C) How do we come to that REALITY - it is in the TRIALS
JUDGMENT THREATENING BUT MERCYSPARING
NO. 650
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 17, 1865,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,NEWINGTON.
“Cut it down; why cumbers it the ground? And he answering saidunto him,
Lord, let it alone this year also.”
Luke 13:7-8.
THE comparisonof a man to a tree, and of human works to fruit is
exceedinglycommon in
Scripture, because it is most suggestive, natural, and appropriate. As fruit is
the production of the tree’s
life, and the end for which the tree exists, so obedience to the divine will, and
holiness unto the Lord
should be the product of man’s life, and for it he was at first created. When
men plant trees in a

vineyard, they very naturally expect to find fruit on them, and if at the age
and seasonof fruitbearing
they find no produce, their natural and justifiable expectationis disappointed.
Even thus, speaking after the manner of men, it is natural that the great
Makerof all should look for
the goodfruit of obedience and love from the men who are the objects ofHis
providential care, and be
grieved when He meets with no return. Man is very much more God’s
property than a tree can ever be
the property of the man who plants a vineyard. And as God has spent so much
more skill and wisdom in
the creationof a man than a husbandman can have spent in the mere planting
of trees, it becomes the
more natural that God should look for fruit from His creature man. And the
more reasonable that His
most righteous requirements should not be refused.
Trees that bear no fruit must be cut down. And sinners who bring not
repentance, faith, and holiness,
must die. It is only a matter of time as to whether or not the vineyard shall be
clearedof the incumbrance
of its barren trees. It is but a matter of time as to when the world shall be
delivered from the burdensome
presence ofbarren souls. It stands to reasonthat barren trees, which soon
become the haunts of all sorts
of mischief-doing creatures, should be a nuisance to the vineyard, neither can
sinners be permitted

forever to become the dwelling places of evil spirits, and the dens of iniquity—
a thorough riddance must
be made of impenitent sinners as wellas of rotten trees. There is a time for
felling fruitless trees, and
there is an appointed seasonforhewing down and casting into the fire the
useless sinner.
I. We shall not linger on the threshold of our solemnwork this morning, for
our burden is very
heavy, and we would be rid of it speedily. We shall address ourselves at once
to those persons who are
living without God and without Christ, among whom many of my hearers
must be numbered. We shall
speak to those who are not saved—there are such in the professing church
everywhere. O may the Holy
Spirit find them out by our word, and bring them in real earnestto consider
their ways. To all
unprofitable, unfruitful sinners, we utter this hard, but necessarysentence—
TO CUT YOU DOWN
WOULD BE MOST REASONABLE. It is right and reasonable to fell barren
trees, and it is just as right
and reasonable thatyou should be cut down.
1. This will appear in the first place, if we reflect, that this is the shortestand
the surestway to deal
with you. It will costthe leasttrouble, and be most certainly effectualin
removing you from the place to
which you are an injury rather than a benefit. When the owner of the
vineyard says to the gardener

concerning the tree, “Cut it down,” the remedy is very sharp, but it is very
simple. The felling is soon
done, the clearance is thorough, and when another tree is planted, the benefit
is evident.
To dig about the tree, to trench it, to feed it, to prune it, and waterit—all this
is a long affair—
requiring care, and labor, and attention, while after all that, the process may
fail and love’s labor may be
lost. To spare is difficult and involves trouble. To cut down is easyand
effectual. Unconverted hearer, to
preach the Gospelto you, to callyou to repentance, to entreat, exhort,
instruct, and warn you is a
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laborious process, and will probably be unsuccessfulafterall. The work will
require much thought.
Providential agencies mustbe directed with wisdom, saints must pray with
earnestness, ministers must
plead with tears, the Scriptures must be written, and those Scriptures must be
expounded and explained.
All this is more than you have any natural right to expectthat God should do
with you, when He has
in His hands a far simpler remedy by which He may at once ease Himself of
His adversary, and prevent

your being any further offense—He has but to take away your breath, and
permit your body to descend
into the grave, and your soul into hell, and the vineyard is clear, and there is
room for another tree. This
sharp, short, simple process is one which commends itself to men in the case of
trees, and it is one in
which it is a thousand wonders that the Lord has not used with you.
There will be no more blaspheming God, sinner, when the axe has laid you
low! There will be no
more rejecting the promise of His mercy, no more violating of Sabbath days,
no more despising
Scripture when the day of doom arrives! Death shall end all these
abominations forever. We shall no
more have to agonize for you in vain, no more shall we weepbitterly because
of your hardness of heart,
no longer study to meet your objections, and sigh at your constant
oppositions. The flames of hell will
end all this, to your sadand awful cost.
No longer will a long-suffering God be weariedwith your sins, and pressed
down under the load of
your iniquities. He will make short work in righteousness, anda cleanwork
too. He will sweepyou
awaywith the broom of destruction, and your rebellions will end, and your
iniquities a reward most sure
and terrible. Barren fig tree, you will draw the fatness from the ground no
longer, and overshadow with

evil influence your fellow trees no more. You have become a mere waste and
worse than a waste.
Sinner, I ask you, is not the readiestplan to be rid of you suggestedby the
text, “Cut it down”? You
yourself would do thus with a tree. What reasonis there why the Lord should
not dealthus with you?
Do you argue that you are of far greaterimportance than a tree? How do you
make this appear? A
tree is far more valuable to you than you can be supposed to be to the infinite
God. The gardener would
possibly lose something by cutting down his tree, but how can you suppose
that your ruin would be any
damage to the greatGod! The man who has many acres ofvineyard is not
much distressedif one barren
vine is cut down, for there are so many more. If God had but one man in His
dominions, it might seem
to be very important whether that man were savedor not, but there are so
many of our race that your loss
will be no more than the blowing of one atom of sand from the shore, or the
removal of one drop from
the sea.
You yourself could not well complain of being cut down, for you do not think
much of your own
soul—you are not concernedabout its salvation. You trifle with its best
interests. Why should you
expectanother to value you at a higher rate than you have setupon yourself?
You fling awayyour soul

for passing joys. You neglectthe greatsalvation. You live in daily
disobedience againstGod, who alone
can do you good. Even the preaching of the Gospel, that all-powerful engine,
seems to have no effect
upon you because you despise yourself. Well, Man, if God despises you, too,
and commands His angels
to cut you down, you cannot complain—it is but reasonable that God should
estimate you at your own
price, and weighyou in your own balances.
You have wantonly used the axe to yourself on many occasions,why should
not the proper
executioneruse it in earnest? Some men ruin their health by their sins. They
wildly dash the axe against
their own root, and wound themselves terribly. On your soul you are using
that axe continually, for you
damage it by sin, and seek out folly, and choose the way to damnation, and
labor to be lost. You cannot,
therefore, complain. The crushing of you will be of no more consequencein
this greatuniverse than the
killing of some one ant upon the hill. You will never be missed. You may think
greatly of yourself, but
you are no more than a mere worm compared with the greatuniverse of God.
Beware, O rebellious,
unrepentant sinner! My love yearns for your salvation, but my reason
approves of your ruin, foreseesit,
and expects it speedily unless you turn unto the Lord and live.

2. Another reasonmakes the argument for judgment very powerful, namely,
that sufficient time for
repentance has already been given. If there had been any hope of your
repentance, I think many of you
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would have repented long ago. I do not know what can be done for some of
you more than has been
done. You have been dug about—the digging, I suppose, is to loosenthe roots
of their hold upon the
earth. And you have had affliction, trial and trouble—like the gardener’s
greatspade—to weanyou from
earth, and loosenyour hold of carnal things. You have had sickness—you
have tossedto and fro upon
the bed of pain. You have been in the jaws of death, and the horrid teeth
seemedabove and beneath you,
as though they would enclose you forever—but all this has been of no avail.
Why should you be strickenany more? You will revolt more and more.
Already some of you have
been smitten until your whole head is sick and your whole heart faint, but you
will not hear the rod. By
the blueness of the wound, says Solomon, the heart is made better, but in your
case it has not been so.
Those blue wounds of yours—those greatand grievous afflictions—have not
been sanctifiedto you, but

rather you have gone on offending God, and provoking the MostHigh.
The gardener spoke ofdunging as wellas of digging, and some of you have
had plentiful helps
toward repentance. The Gospelhas been put close by your roots hundreds of
times. You have a Bible in
every house. You have had, some of you, the advantage of godly training from
your youth up. You have
been warned again, and again, and again, sometimes sternly, sometimes
affectionately. You have heard
the wooing voice of mercy, and the thundering notes of judgment, but yet,
though Jesus Christ’s own
Gospelhas been laid close to your roots, O barren tree, you are barren still.
What is the use, then, of sparing you? Sparing has been tried, and it has had
no effect—the other
remedy is certain, “Cut it down.” O God, cut not down the sinner! And yet we
dare not sayit would be
unreasonable, but on the contrary, the most natural result of slighted mercy.
O sinner, you may well
say—
“I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face.
Would not hearkento His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls.
Depths of mercy! Canthere be
Mercy still reservedfor me?

Can my God His wrath forbear?
Me, the chief of sinners spare?”
3. Sinner, I argue your case somewhatharshly, you think. Ah! man, would
God I could make you
think me harsh, if you would but have pity on your own soul, for my
harshness is only apparent, not real,
and your carelessnessforyour soul is real harshness, for you care not for your
own soul, but treat it as a
thing to be castaway, and its ruin to be laughed at, as though it were
contemptible.
All this while there has been no sign of improvement whateverin you. If there
had been some little
fruit, if some tears of repentance had been flowing from your eyes, if there
had been some seeking after
Christ, if your heart had been a little softened, if you had but a little faith in
Jesus, though it were but as
a grain of mustard seed, then there were indeed reasons forsparing you.
But sorrowful to add, your sparing has had an ill effectupon you. Because
God has not punished
you, therefore you have waxed wanton and bold. You have said, “DoesGod
know? Is there knowledge
in the MostHigh?” You think that He is altogethersuch a one as you are, and
that He will never bring
you into judgment. You fancy that His sword is rusted into the scabbard, and
His arm waxedshort.
Strange madness of evil that you should pervert the longsuffering which calls
you to repentance into a

reasonfor running to greaterlengths of sin!
What, when JEHOVAH spares you, that you may turn to Him, shall that
very sparing make you lift
up the foot of your rebellion and spurn Him? It has done so. Up to this time
you have grownhardened
instead of softened. You have grownolder, but you are no wiser, except it be
with Satan’s subtlety to be
more wise in sin.
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The Gospelhas not now the effectit once had on you. This voice could make
your soul shiver, and
your very blood chill in its veins, but it cannot do so now. These eyes have
sometimes lookedon you
and seemedas though they flashed with fire, but now they are dull as leadto
you. Once, when we spoke
to you of the wrath to come, the tears would flow—there were some tears of
gentle pity for your own
soul. But ah! it is not so with you now. You will go your way and our most
earnesttones will seembut
as the whistling wind, and our most persistent entreaties as a child’s playful
song.
O God, it is reasonable,indeed, that You should lift up that sharp axe of
Yours and say, “Cut it

down.” I think I could abundantly justify the severity of God, if now He were
to use it, when I thus
perceive that all His sparing has had no effectbut to make you worse, whenI
perceive that,
notwithstanding these years of waiting, there are no tokens ofimprovement in
you. If He says, “Cut it
down,” justice and reasonsay, “Ay, Lord, it is well it should be so.”
4. But there are other reasons why, “Cut it down,” is most reasonable, when
we consider the owner
and the other trees. Firstof all, here is a tree which brings forth no fruit
whatever, and therefore is of no
service. It is like money badly invested, bringing in no interest. It is a dead loss
to the owner. What is the
use of keeping it? The dead tree is neither useful nor ornamental—it can yield
no service, and afford no
pleasure. Cut it down, by all means.
And even so with you, sinner. What is the use of you? You are of use to your
children, to your
family. In business you may be of some service to the world. but then the
world did not make you. And
your children, and your family, they did not create you. God has made you,
God has planted you, God is
your proprietor—you have done nothing for God. Even in coming up to His
house today, you did not
come with any desire to honor Him. And tomorrow, if you should chance to
give something to the poor,
it will not be because they are God’s, nor out of love to Him.

You neither pray to God, nor praise God, nor live for God. You live for
anything, for everything, for
nothing, soonerthan live for the God that made you. Then what is the goodof
you to God? All His other
creatures praise Him. There is not a spider spinning its webfrom leaf to leaf
but does His bidding. “The
ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib,” but you do not know.
Would you keepa horse that
never did you service? Wouldyou have a dog in your house that never licked
your hand or fawned upon
you, or did your will? You would say, “What is the goodof this? A servant in
my house to feed upon my
bread, to be clothedwith my bounty, and yet never to obey me, but to live in
constantrecklessdisregard
of my most reasonable commands!” You would say to such a servant, “Get
out. You are no servant of
mine.”
Well might the Lord saythis to you. All these years preserving goodness has
winked at the past.
Long-suffering has borne with your follies and your faults, but it cannotbe so
forever, for reason
demands that a useless thing should not always stand, and “Cut it down,” is
the natural inference from
the uselessness ofyour life.
Noris this all. While you have been thus living without yielding anything, you
have been a very

costlytree. The tree in the vineyard does not costmuch exceptto dig about it,
and to dung it, and to
prune it. There is, of course, the expense of the gardenerwho has to watch
over it, but this is very little.
You may let the barren tree stand, for it is no greatexpense. but see whatit
costs to keepyou!
You have to be daily fed. The breath in your nostrils must come from God
every moment. There has
to be an emanation from omnipotence at every single tick of that clock, or else
you would not live. The
complicatedmachinery of the human body needs to be tended and kept in
order by the greatMaster
Craftsman, or else before long the cogs would ceaseto act upon one another,
and the wheels would be
broken, and the whole machine would be put out of gear. Your body is a mass
of thousands of strings,
and fails if one is gone. The goodharpist must watchwith sedulous care to
prevent the strings from
snapping. You costGod much, much patience, much bounty, much skill,
much power. Wherefore
should He spare you?
What is there in you that He should go on with you in this manner? You
would not spare the gnat
that was always stinging you, buzzing in your face, and every moment
insulting you. If it costyou much
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of your poor gold to spare that poor gnat’s life, you would not be long about
it—you would crush it. And
oh! it is a marvel that JEHOVAH does not deal thus with you, for you are
more impertinent than that
gnat could be. Sinner, if you were in God’s place, and were as ill-treated by
your creature as the Lord is
by you, would you lavish love and goodness uponhim, to receive hardness of
heart and rebellion in
return? Assuredly not. Judge, then, whether it is not right that the Lord
should say, “Cut it down.”
But there is a worse consideration, namely, that all this while you have been
filling up space which
somebody might have been filling to the glory of God. Where that barren tree
stands, there might have
been a tree loadedwith fruit. You are cumbering the ground, as the text says,
that is, doing nothing but
just being a cumbersome nuisance. If another mother had those children, she
would pray for them, and
weepover them, and teachthem of Christ, but you do no such thing. If
another man had that money, it
would be laid out for God’s glory, but you lay it out for your own pleasure,
and forgetthe God who gave
it to you. If another had satin that seatwhich you occupy, it may be that he
had long ago repented in

sackclothand ashes. but you, like the men of Capernaum, have been hardened
instead of being softened
under the Gospel. It may be, man of influence, if another had stood where you
have stoodin the world’s
judgment, he would have led hundreds in the path of right, but you, standing
there, have done no such
thing.
Oh! if another had your gifts, young man, he would not be making a company
laugh at the tavern,
but pleading with all his might for Jesus. If another had but your gifts of
utterance, he would be
spending time in prayer, and teaching what you now spend in fun and frolic to
make amusement for
fools. Oh! if anotherhad that time to live in, he would live in earnestfor his
Master. If that young saint,
just going through the flood, had your health and vigor, how would he spend
and be spent!
I recollecta minister of Christ who had but one talent, but much heart. I
remember hearing him pray
this prayer, “O God, I wish I had ten talents, that I might serve You better.”
When I think of some that
have them, and do not serve You with them, I am inclined to pray, “Lord,
take awaytheir ten talents,
and trust me with them if You will, for I do desire to have something more to
lay out for You.”
Take heed, O my dear but sinful hearer, lest the Lord remove you suddenly,
and fill up your place

with one who will be obedient to His will.
Moreoverand to make bad worse evento the worst degree, allthis while
ungodly men are spreading
an evil influence. Thinking over the two lines of the verse we have been
singing, I felt a horror of great
darkness as I realized fully their solemn truthfulness with regard to some of
you.
“I have shed His precious blood,
Trampled on the Sonof God.
Filled with pains unspeakable
I who yet am not in hell.”
Well may the question arise—
“Whence to me this waste oflove?”
It is so apparently a waste of long-suffering and mercy that some
transgressors shouldbe spared at
all, that they may well marvel. Look at it, and I think you will see it very
clearly so, the very fact that
God does not punish sin on the spot is mischievouslyinterpreted. Men in all
ages have drawn a wicked
inference from the patience of the greatJudge. The Preacher, in Ecclesiastes,
says, “Becausesentence
againstan evil work is not executedspeedily, therefore the heart of the sons of
men is fully setin them
to do evil.”
“Why,” you say, “So-and-So drinks and swears,and he has lived to be a hale,
hearty old man. Such a

one has plunged into all sorts of folly and wickedness.He was a thief and
everything bad besides, and
yet he prospers in the world, and grows rich. Insteadof God sinking him
down at once to hell, He has
favored him, and fattened him as a bullock in rich pasture.” “Oh,” the
worldling says, “there is no justice
in God. He does not punish sin.” The very fact that you are spared, O sinner,
is doing mischief in the
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world. Do you see that? Your mere existence in this world is to others an
inducement to continue in sin.
For while you are spared, others look at you and say, “Godhas not punished
him.” Therefore they infer
that He will not punish sin at all.
Moreover, how many there are of you whose example is fearfully
contagious—whose lips and lives
combine to lead your associatesastrayfrom God. In this dreadful disease
which has ravagedour fields
and destroyedthe cattle, farmers have been advised as soonas ever the cow is
attackedwith the disease,
to kill it on the spot, and bury it five feet deep out of the way.
Let us reflectthat the murrain of sin is much more pestilential and more
certain to kill than this

murrain among the cattle, and therefore stern justice cries, “Let the sinner be
at once sent where He
cannot increase the plague of iniquity—it is of no use sparing him—he grows
no better. All the means
used only make him worse, and meanwhile we must look to the welfare of
others, lest he perish not
alone in his iniquity. He teaches his children to swear. He makes others
worldly. The whole current of
his life is to incite men to rebel againstGod—lethis desperate course be
stopped at once. The leprosyis
upon him, and all that he touches he pollutes—for high sanitary reasons,
therefore he must be removed.”
It is better that one die than that many should be smitten, and therefore, the
highest considerationfor the
goodof mankind in general renders it necessarythat the mandate should go
forth, “Cut it down.”
II. Our secondmostsolemn work is to remind you, O impenitent sinner, that
FOR GOD TO HAVE
SPARED YOU SO LONG IS A VERY WONDERFULTHING. That the
infinitely just and holy God
should have sparedyou, unconverted man, unconverted woman, up till now, is
no small thing, but a
matter for adoring wonder.
Let me show you this. Consider, negatively, God is not sparing you because
He is insensible
towards your sins—He is angry with the wickedevery day. If the Lord could
be indifferent towards sin,

and could bring His holy mind to treat it as a mere trifle, then it would be no
wonder that He should let
the transgressorlive. But He cannot endure iniquity—all the day long His
angersmokes and burns
towards evil, and yet He holds back the thunderbolt, and does not smite the
guilty. If you had been angry
for half-an-hour, you would have come to hard words or blows, but here is the
Judge of all the earth
angry every day for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, or eighty years
with some of you, and yet
He has not destroyedyou.
It is not because the offense is at a distance, and therefore far from His
observant eye. No—yoursins
are like smoke in His nose—youriniquities provoke Him to His face. You
touch the apple of His eye,
and yet for all that, though this accursedthing calledsin intrudes into His
presence everyinstant, yet still
He has spared you until now. Mark, sinner, He has spared you not because He
was unable to have
destroyedyou. He might have bid the tiles fall from the roof, or the fever
might have smitten you in the
street. The air might have refusedto heave your lungs, or the blood might
have ceasedits circulation in
your veins. The gates to death are many. The quiver of judgment is full of
sharp arrows. The Lord has
but to will it, and your soul is required of you.

He said to the foolishrich man, “This night your soul shall be required of
you,” and he never saw the
morning. And He might as easilyhave sent the same sadmessage to you, and
what then? As I have said
before, this greatpatience is not manifested towards your sinful soul because
the Lord is at all dependent
upon you—your living will not increase, andyour dying will not diminish His
glory. You will be no
more missed than one dry leaf is missed in a forest, or one dewdrop in a
thousand leagues ofgrass.
Judgment needs but a word to work its utmost vengeance, andwithal you are
so provoking that the
marvel is that divine severity has sparedyou so long. Admire and wonder at
this longsuffering.
Rememberthat this wonder is increasedwhen you think of the fruit He
deservedto have had of you.
A God so goodand so gracious ought to have been loved by you. He has
treated you so well, and given
you such capacities forpleasure, that He ought to have had some service of
you. You are not to God
preciselywhat the ox is to its owner—yougive to the ox but his grass or his
straw, and you have done
with him. but God gives to you not only your daily food, but your very life—
you are wholly dependent
upon Him.
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Nothing canbe so much yours as you are God’s. You ought to have served
Him, to have delighted in
that service, to spend and to have been spent for your Lord. He asks no more
of you than He ought to
have had, and yet He asks you to love the Lord your God with all your heart,
your soul, your strength—
this was His first and greatcommandment—but this you have constantly,
persistently broken. Oh, think,
then, when you have given to God such a bad return, when He ought to have
receivedso much better—
think, I pray you, how you must have provokedHim.
And ah, my hearers!I have to touch upon a very solemn part of the business
now, when I notice
againthat some, perhaps here present, have been guilty of very God-
provoking sins. Some offenses
provoke God much more than others—I believe that cursing does, for it is
wanton insolence, by which
nothing can be gained. It is altogethera gratuitous piece of insult. To swear, to
imprecate the curse of
God upon one’s limbs and souls, is an unnecessary, superfluous sin. There
cannot be any pleasure in
pronouncing oaths, any more than in uttering any other form of words. It is
just because man will hate
his Maker, and will provoke Him, that he does this. O sinner, did you ever ask
God to damn you, and are

you not astonishedthat He has not done it? Did you everdesire that the blast
should come upon you, and
do you not marvel that He has not long ago sweptyou where His wrath would
wither you forever?
Swearing is a sin that provokes the MostHigh. O sinner, abhor this most
detestable of vices.
Infidelity, again, and how many are guilty of that? How provoking to God for
a man to deny His
very existence. Standing up and breathing God’s air, and living upon God’s
life, and yet saying that
there is no God? An insignificant worm dares challenge the Almighty to prove
His Godheadand
existence by a tremendous actof justice. This is a God-provoking sin.
So againis persecution. There may be some here present who have
persecutedwife and child
because oftheir following Christ. “He that touches you touches the apple of
my eye,” says God. Beware,
sinner, you will not touch the Lord’s eye long without feeling His heavy hand.
If any man injures your
children, the blood is in your cheek at once, if you are a father, and you feel
that you will show yourself
strong in their defense—evenso the heavenly Fatherwill avenge His own
elect. Therefore, take heed
lest you persevere in this heaven-provoking sin.
And slander, too, lying againstGod’s servants, inventing and spreading
wickedtales againstthose

who walk in God’s fear, this is another evil which awakensthe angerof God,
and stirs up righteous fury
againstthe man who is guilty of it. Beware!Beware!
Filthiness, filthiness of body and of life, will also provoke the MostHoly One.
This once brought
hell out of heavenupon Sodom. God sent down fire and brimstone because of
the lusts of the flesh that
made Sodom to stink in His nostrils. The harlot and the adulterer, and the
fornicator, shall know that
they sin not without provoking Godvery terribly.
And let me add here among these God-provoking sins, there is that
quenching of conscienceof
which some of you have been guilty. Ah, my dear hearers, there are not many
of you to whom I spoke
under these first heads, for I know that very few of you would indulge in these
grossersins, but there are
some of you quite as bad in anothersense, for you know the right and choose
the wrong. You hear of
Christ and do not give your hearts to Him. We had hoped of some of you that
long ere this we would
have seenyou walking in the Lord’s fear, but you are still strangers to Christ.
It must have had hard work to do this. You must have had a terrible tug with
conscience, some of
you. I know you have been stifling many a holy desire, and when the Spirit of
God has been striving
with you, you have been so desperatelyset on mischief, that still you have gone
on in the error of your

ways. Now these sins provoke God.
I do not believe that I stand in this pulpit and plead with you in God’s name,
and then go back and
tell my Masterthat you have rejectedHis warnings, without God’s being
angry with your hardness of
heart and stiffneckedness. I know if we send an Ambassadorto a foreign court
to try and make peace,
and he honestly and earnestlylays down proper stipulations for peace, if they
are rejected, you will soon
find the newspapers and public opinion ringing with indignation. “Why,” they
say, “will not the men
have peace whenthe terms are so reasonable? Getout the iron-dads, let them
have war—warto the
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knife. If they will not yield to what is reasonable,then let us dress ourselves in
thunder, and go forth
across the sea.”
And what do you think? Shall Godbe always provoked? Shallmercy be
preachedto you in vain
forever? Shall Christ be presented and always rejected, and will you continue
to be His enemies, and
shall He never proclaim war againstyour souls? It is a marvel. It is a wonder
that these God-provoking

sins have so long been borne with, and that you are not yet cut down.
III. And now, WHAT IS THE REASON FOR ALL THIS LONG-
SUFFERING?
Why is it that this cumber-ground tree has not been cut down? The answeris,
because there is One
who pleads for sinners. I have shown you, and some of you will think I have
shown you with very great
severity too, how reasonable it is that you should be cut down. I wish you felt
it, for if you felt how
reasonable it was that God should send you to hell, then you would begin to
tremble, and there would be
some hope for you. I can assure you I have trembled for you when I have
thought how rational, how
just—nay, it would seemto me, how necessaryit was that some of you should
be lost—it has made me
tremble for you, and I would to God you would tremble for yourselves.
But what has been the secretcause thatyou have been kept alive? The answer
is, Jesus Christ has
pleaded for you, the crucified Saviorhas interfered for you. And you ask me,
“Why?” I answer, because
Jesus Christ has an interest in you all. We do not believe in general
redemption, but we believe in every
word of this precious Bible, and there are many passagesin the Scripture
which seemto show that
Christ’s death had a universal bearing upon the sons of men. We are told that
He tasted death for every

man. What does that mean? Does it mean that Jesus Christ died to save every
man? I do not believe it
does, for it seems to me that everything which Christ intended to accomplish
by the actof His death, He
must accomplishor else He will be disappointed, which is not supposable.
Those whom Christ died to save I believe He will save effectually, through His
substitutionary
sacrifice. Butdid He in any other sense die for the rest of mankind? He did.
Nothing can be much more
plain in Scripture, it seems to me, than that all sinners are sparedas the result
of Jesus Christ’ death, and
this is the sense in which men are said to trample on the blood of Jesus Christ.
We read of some who
denied the Lord that bought them. No one who is bought with blood for
eternal salvationever tramples
on that blood, but Jesus Christ has shed His blood for the reprieve of men that
they may be spared, and
those who turn God’s sparing mercy into an occasionfor fresh sin, do trample
on the blood of Jesus
Christ. You can hold that doctrine without holding universal redemption, or
without at all contradicting
that undoubted truth that Jesus laid down His life for His sheep, and that
where He suffered He suffered
not in vain.
Now, sinner, whether you know it or not, you are indebted to Him that did
hang upon the tree for the

breath that is now in you. You had not been on praying ground and pleading
terms with God this
morning if it had not been for that dear Suffering One. Our text represents
the gardeneras only asking to
have it spared, but Jesus Christ did something more than ask—He pleaded,
not with His mouth only, but
with pierced hands, and piercedfeet, and piercedside. And those prevailing
pleas have moved the heart
of God, and you are yet spared.
May I speak to you, then? If your life had been spared, when you were
condemned to die, by my
intervention—suppose such a case—wouldyou despise me? If I had powerat
the Court, and when you
were condemned to die, I had gone in and pleaded for you, and you had been
reprieved, year after year
would you hate me? Would you speak againstme? Would you rail at my
character? Wouldyou find
fault with my friends? I know you better—you would love me. You would be
grateful for the sparing of
your life.
O sinner, I wish you would treat the Lord Jesus as you would treat man. I
would you would think of
the Lord Jesus Christ as you would think of your fellow-man who had
delivered you from death. You
are not in hell, where you would have been if He had not come in and pleaded
for you. I do beseechyou,

think of the misery of lost souls, and recollectthat you would have been in
such a woeful case yourself
this morning, if He had not lifted up that hand once pierced for human sin.
There, there, where the
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flames canno abatementknow, where a drop of wateris a gift too greatto be
received—there, where
hope is excluded, and despair sits upon a throne of iron, binding captive souls
in everlasting bands—
where “Forever!” is written on the fire, and “Forever!” is printed on the
chain, and “Forever!Forever!
Forever!” rings out as the awful death-knell of everything like hope and
rest—there you would have
been this morning—this morning—if sparing grace had not prevented.
Where are your companions, your old companions? You satin the tavern
with them. They are in
hell, but you are not. When you were younger, you sinned with them, and they
are lost, but you are not.
Why this difference made? Why are they castawayand you spared? I can
only ascribe it to the gracious
longsuffering of JEHOVAH. O, I pray you look at Him who spared you, and
weepand mourn for your
sins. May the Spirit of Godcome down on you this morning and draw you to
the footof His dear cross,

and as you see the blood which has spared your blood, and the death which
has made you live until now,
I do trust that the divine Spirit may make you fall down and say, “O Jesus,
how can I offend You? How
can I stand out againstYou? Accept me and save me for Your mercy’s sake.”
While I have thus spokenof the generalinterest which Christ has in you all, I
have goodhope that
Christ has a specialinterest in some of you. I hope that He has specially
redeemedyou from among
men, and bought you not with silver and gold, but with His own precious
blood, having loved you with
an everlasting love. I trust He intends with the bands of His kindness to draw
you this morning.
“Oh,” says one, “I cannot think that such can be the case.”Butsuppose you
were to find out ere long
that you were chosenofGod, and dear to Christ, and were to be a jewelin His
crownforever—what
would you say then of yourself? “I would mourn that I could ever have hated
Him that loved me so well.
Oh! that I could ever have stoodout againstHim that was determined to save
me! What a fool I was to
quarrel with Him who had paid my price, and chosenme by His grace, and
takenme to be married unto
Himself forever!”
I tell you that God will forgive you, but you will never forgive yourselves for
having stoodout and

resistedso long. Oh! may eternal mercy, which has not yet said, “Cut it
down,” now dig about you, and
dung you that you may bring forth fruit, and then it shall be all to the praise
of Him whose precious
blood has savedus from eternalwrath.
May God bless these feeble words of mine. He knows how I meant them. How
I meant to speak
them, how I meant to have wept over you, how I wantedthat my soul should
heave with passionate
desire for your conversion, but if there have been no such outward
manifestations, yet I pray God that
the truth itself may be irresistible, and may He getto Himself the victory, and
His shall be the praise,
evermore.
“THIS YEAR ALSO”
NO. 1451A
A SHORT SERMON
FOR THE NEW YEAR—1879
FROM THE SICK CHAMBER OF C. H. SPURGEON
“This year also.”
Luke 13:8.

AT the opening of another year and at the commencementof another volume
of sermons, we
earnestlydesire to utter the word of exhortation, but alas, at this present, the
preacheris a prisoner and
must speak from his pillow instead of his pulpit. Let not the few words which
we can put togethercome
with diminished powerfrom a sick man, for the musket fired by a wounded
soldier sends forth the bullet
with none the less force. Our desire is to speak with living words or not at all.
He who enables us to sit
up and compose these trembling sentences is entreatedto clothe them with His
Spirit that they may be
according to His own mind.
The interceding vinedresserpleaded for the fruitless fig tree, “Let it alone
this year also,” dating as it
were a year from the time whereinhe spoke. Treesand fruit-bearing plants
have a natural measurement
for their lives—evidently a year came to its close when it was time to seek fruit
on the fig tree and
another year commencedwhen the vinedresserbeganagainhis digging and
pruning work. Men are such
barren things that their fruitage marks no certainperiods and it becomes
necessaryto make artificial
divisions of time for them. There seems to be no set period for man’s spiritual
harvest or vintage, or if
there be, the sheaves andthe clusters come not in their seasonand hence we
have to say one to

another—“This shallbe the beginning of a new year.”
Be it so then. Let us congratulate eachotherupon seeing the dawn of “this
year also,” and let us
unitedly pray that we may enter upon it, continue in it, and come to its close
under the unfailing blessing
of the Lord to whom all years belong.
I. The beginning of a new year SUGGESTS ARETROSPECT.
Let us take it deliberately and honestly. “This year also”—thenthere had
been former years of grace.
The dresserof the vineyard was not for the first time aware ofthe fig tree’s
failure, neither had the
ownercome for the first time seeking figs in vain. God, who gives us “this year
also,” has given us
others before it—His sparing mercy is no novelty, His patience has already
been taxed by our
provocations. Firstcame our youthful years, when even a little fruit unto God
is peculiarly sweetto
Him. How did we spend them? Did our strength run all into wild woodand
wanton branch? If so, we
may well bewailthat wastedvigor, that life misspent, that sin exceedingly
multiplied. He who saw us
misuse those goldenmonths of youth, nevertheless affords us “this year also,”
and we should enter upon
it with a holy jealousy, lestwhat of strength and ardor may be left to us should
be allowedto run away
into the same wasteful courses as aforetime.

Upon the heels of our youthful years came those of early manhood, when we
beganto muster a
household and to become as a tree fixed in its place. Then also fruit would
have been precious. Did we
bear any? Did we present unto the Lord a basketof summer fruit? Did we
offer Him the firstling of our
strength? If we did so, we may well adore the grace whichso early savedus.
But if not, the past chides
us and lifting an admonitory finger, it warns us not to let “this year also”
follow the way of the restof
our lives. He who has wastedyouth and the morning of manhood has surely
had enough of fooling—the
time past may well suffice him to have wrought the will of the flesh—it will be
a superfluity of
naughtiness to suffer “this year also” to be trodden down in the service of sin.
Many of us are now in the prime of life and our years already spent are not
few. Have we still a need
to confess that our years are eatenup by the grasshopperand the canker-
worm? Have we reachedthe
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half-way house and still know not whither we are going? Are we fools at
forty? Are we half a century
old by the calendarand yet far off from years of discretion? Alas, greatGod,
that there should be men

past this age who are still without knowledge!Unsaved at sixty, unregenerate
at seventy, unawakenedat
eighty, unrenewed at ninety! These are eachand all startling. Yet
peradventure, they will fall upon ears
which they should make to tingle, but they will hear them as though they
heard them not. Continuance in
evil breeds callousnessofheart and when the soul has long been sleeping in
indifference, it is hard to
arouse it from the deadly slumber.
The sound of the words, “this year also,” makessome ofus remember years
of greatmercy,
sparkling and flashing with delight. Were those years laid at the Lord’s feet?
They were comparable to
the silver bells upon the horses—werethey “holiness unto the LORD”? If not,
how shall we answerfor
it if “this year also” should be musical with merry mercy and yet be spent in
the ways of carelessness?
The same words recallto some of us our years of sharp affliction when we
were, indeed, dug about
and dunged. How went those years? Godwas doing greatthings for us,
exercising carefuland expensive
husbandry, caring for us with exceedinglygreatand wise care—didwe render
according to the benefit
received? Did we rise from the bed more patient and gentle, weanedfrom the
world, and welded to
Christ? Did we bring forth clusters to reward the dresserof the vineyard? Let
us not refuse these

questions of self-examination, for it may be this is to be another of these years
of captivity, another
seasonofthe furnace and the fining pot. The Lord grant that the coming
tribulation may take more chaff
out of us than any of its predecessors, andleave the wheatcleanerand better.
The New Year also reminds us of opportunities for usefulness which have
come and gone, and of
unfulfilled resolutions which have blossomedonly to fade. Shall “this year
also” be as those which have
gone before? May we not hope for grace to advance upon grace already
gained and should we not seek
for powerto turn our poor sicklypromises into robust action?
Looking back on the past, we lament the follies by which we would not
willingly be held captive
“this year also,” and we adore the forgiving mercy, the preserving providence,
the boundless liberality,
the divine love of which we hope to be partakers “this year also.”
II. If the preachercould think freely, he could wherry the text at his pleasure
in many directions, but
he is feeble and so must let it drive with the current which bears it on to a
secondconsideration—the text
MENTIONS A MERCY.
It was in greatgoodness thatthe tree which cumbered the soil was allowedto
stand for another year,
and prolongedlife should always be regardedas a boon of mercy. We must
view “this year also” as a

grant from infinite grace. It is wrong to speak as if we carednothing for life
and lookedupon our being
here as an evil or a punishment. We are here “this yearalso” as the result of
love’s pleadings and in
pursuance of love’s designs.
The wickedman should count that the Lord’s longsuffering points to his
salvationand he should
permit the cords of love to draw him to it. O that the Holy Spirit would make
the blasphemer, the
Sabbath-breaker, and the openly vicious to feel what a wonder it is that their
lives are prolonged“this
year also”!Are they spared to curse, and riot, and defy their Maker? Shall
this be the only fruit of patient
mercy?
The procrastinatorwho has put off the messengerofheaven with his delays
and half promises—
ought he not wonder that he is allowedto see “this year also”? How is it that
the Lord has borne with
him and put up with his vacillations and hesitations? Is this year of grace to be
spent in the same
manner? Transient impressions, hasty resolves, andspeedy apostasies—are
these to be the weary story
over and over again? The startled conscience, the tyrant passion, the
smothered emotion! Are these to be
the tokens ofyet another year?
May God forbid that any one of us should hesitate and delay through “this
year also.” Infinite pity

holds back the axe of justice—shallit be insulted by the repetition of the sins
which causedthe uplifting
of the instrument of wrath? What can be more tantalizing to the heart of
goodness thanindecision? Well
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might the Lord’s prophet become impatient and cry, “How long halt you
betweentwo opinions?” Well
may God Himself push for a decisionand demand an immediate reply.
O undecided soul, will you swing much longer betweenheavenand hell, and
act as if it were hard to
choose betweenthe slavery of Satanand the liberty of the GreatFather’s
home of love? “This year also”
will you sport in defiance of justice and pervert the generosityof mercy into a
license for still further
rebellion? “This year also” must divine love be made an occasionfor
continued sin? O do not actso
basely, so contrary to every noble instinct, so injuriously to your own best
interests.
The believer is keptout of heaven “this year also” in love and not in anger.
There are some for
whose sake itis necessaryhe should abide in the flesh—some to be helped by
Him on their heavenward
way—and others to be led to the Redeemer’s feetby His instruction. The
heaven of many saints is not

yet prepared for them because their nearestcompanions have not yet arrived,
and their spiritual children
have not yet gatheredin glory in sufficient number to give them a thoroughly
heavenly welcome. They
must wait “this year also” that their rest may be the more glorious and that
the sheaves whichthey will
bring with them may afford them greaterjoy. Surely, for the sake ofsouls, for
the delight of glorifying
our Lord, and for the increase of the jewels of our crown, we may be glad to
wait below “this year also.”
This is a wide field, but we may not linger in it, for our space is little and our
strength is even less.
III. Our last feeble utterance shall remind you that the expression, “this year
also,” IMPLIES A
LIMIT.
The vine-dresser askedforno longera reprieve than one year. If his digging
and manuring should
not then prove successful, he would plead no more, but the tree should fall.
Even when Jesus is the
pleader, the request of mercy has its boundaries and times. It is not forever
that we shall be let alone and
allowedto cumber the ground. If we will not repent, we must perish, if we will
not be benefited by the
spade, we must fall by the axe.
There will come a last year to eachone of us. Therefore let eachone say to
himself—Is this my last?

If it should be the lastwith the preacher, he would gird up his loins to deliver
the Lord’s message with
all his soul and bid his fellow men be reconciledto God. Dearfriend, is “this
year also” to be your last?
Are you ready to see the curtain rise upon eternity? Are you prepared now to
hear the midnight cry and
to enter into the marriage supper? The judgment and all that will follow upon
it are most surely the
heritage of every living man—blessedare they who by faith in Jesus are able
to face the bar of God
without a thought of terror.
If we live to be countedamong the oldestinhabitants we must depart at last—
there must be an end
and the voice must be heard—“Thus says the Lord, this year you shall die.”
So many have gone before
us and are going every hour that no man should need any other memento
mori, and yet man is so eager
to forget his own mortality, and thereby to forfeit his hopes of bliss, that we
cannot too often bring it
before the mind’s eyes. O mortal man, think you! Prepare to meet your God,
for you must meet Him.
Seek the Savior, yea, seek Him ere another sun sinks to his rest.
Once more, “this year also,” andit may be for this year only, the cross is
uplifted as the pharos of the
world—the one light to which no eye can look in vain. Oh that millions would
look that way and live.

Soonthe Lord Jesus will come a secondtime and then the blaze of His throne
will supplant the mild
radiance of His cross. The Judge will be seenrather than the Redeemer. Now
He saves, but then He will
destroy. Let us hear His voice at this moment. He has limited a day, let us be
eagerto avail ourselves of
the gracious season. Let us believe in Jesus this day, seeing it may be our last.
These are the pleas of one
who now falls back on his pillow in very weakness. Hearthem for your souls’
sakes andlive. Amen.
13:6-9 Fruitfulness or Destruction
Previous Next
Luke 13:6-9 “Thenhe told this parable: ‘A man had a fig-tree, planted in his
vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to
the man who took care of the vineyard, “Forthree years now I’ve been
coming to look for fruit on this fig-tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down!
Why should it use up the soil?” “Sir,” the man replied, “leave it alone for one
more year, and I’ll dig round it and fertilise it. If it bears fruit next year, fine!
If not, then cut it down.”’”
You are most alert at the beginning of a sermon, and you are curious about
this simple, vivid parable of Jesus, and so let me stretch you a little by putting
this parable in the context of how God had been dealing with his chosen
people, Israel, in the previous 2,000 years – since the time of the call of
Abraham. It is in the words of the great prophet Isaiahin chapter 5 the people

of God are comparedto a vineyard on a fertile hill. Isaiahdescribes God’s
activities in planting this vineyard – Godploughed and tilled the soil; he
clearedit of stones, and he planted the very bestvariety of vines – a
guaranteedfruit-producer. That was not all. God erecteda watchtowerto
stop any thieves coming in at night when the grapes were ripe and stealing the
fruit. God also designedand built a wine vat. Then the Lord waitedfor the
crop of grapes to grow so that he could make wine. But when the vines that
God planted yielded their fruit they were wild grapes. They were like ball-
bearings. You could hit them with a hammer and when you crackedthem a
bitter single drop of juice came out. They were uselessto put into a wine vat.
What was God going to do to his wild grape-yielding vineyard? He would
simply destroyit. He would uproot the vines and remove its hedge; he would
tear down its protective wall and allow the vineyard to be trampled by sheep
goats and men. It would return to nature. God would no longertend it but let
the weeds, thorns and thistles grow in the vineyard. But he would show his
angereven more sternly; he would also sealthe sky and let that hillside and all
that grew on it wither under a drought; the sun would scorchit out of
existence. The prophet then makes it spectacularlyplain what he has been
talking about; “Forthe vineyard of the lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and
the men of Judah are his pleasantplanting; and he lookedfor justice, but
behold, bloodshed; for righteousness,but behold, an outcry!” (Isa. 5:7).
Within the world of Isaiah’s parable, Israel was the unfruitful vineyard. The
goodgrapes, or more generally, the fruit, that God desiredto see grow was
that of justice and righteousness. Weren’tthese the people of God the
Creator? But instead of those graces Israelproducedwild grapes – Israel
produced injustice and bloodshed. So God cut down his vineyard. It was good
for nothing else. Was this the end for Israel? Would God have Israel taken
into Babylonian captivity? Would he never rebuild his vineyard? Would that
favoured hillside become merely the haunt of wild beasts, a place of drought
and barrenness, the only fruit, thorns and thistles? No it will not be the end,

though that is what this people deserved. God would show mercy to these
people. They would indeed go into exile in the Babylonian captivity of the
church but he would bring them back after seventyyears and to these people
he would send his faithful and fruitful Servant who would rebuild his
vineyard and produce a fruitful people. So Israel, God’s servant, fails; she was
not fruitful in righteousness,but the promised Christ is coming.
Hear this description of the fruitfulness of the Messiahin the opening verses
of Isaiah 11. Notice how the Christ is compared to a wonderful fruit-bearing
tree; “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;from his roots a Branch
will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will reston him – the Spirit of wisdom
and of understanding, the Spirit of counseland of power, the Spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the LORD – and he will delight in the fear of the
LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he
hears with his ears;but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with
justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth
with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousnesswill be his belt and faithfulness the sashround his waist” (Isa.
11:1-5). This beloved Son of God “will bear fruit” (v.5). We all know that
Isaiahis referring to the Lord Jesus, andwhen you read of him in the gospels
you are confronting a rich life of fruitfulness. More than that, he creates
fruitfulness in the lives of others. Bitter, angry, bloodthirsty men like Saul of
Tarsus become loving, patient, godfearing men. The whole church of his
followers becomes the light of the world and the salt of the earth – by the fruit
he causes them to bear. Even more than doing that, this Messiahwillmake a
new heavens and a new earth, and they will be redolent with the righteousness
of Christ. Instead of a world of barrenness and sin there will be eternal
glorious fruitfulness. The future is not Bertrand Russell’s vision of a sterile
rock floating through space for billions of years, a vastasteroiddevoid of life,
but the earth will be filled with the knowledge ofGod’s glory. Christ will
achieve cosmic fruitfulness; Eden will be restoredbut never to be abandoned
again.

When we read this parable of our Lord in Luke 13 we have to bear this big
picture, this Old Testamentpicture and this eschatologicalfigure, in mind,
but this parable cannot be separatedfrom the personal and the individual
state of your life, and what it might be now, and what might be happening to
it unless it starts to produce fruit.
1. MEN AND WOMEN ARE TO LIVE FRUITFUL LIVES.
We all recognize that. What are our lives to be but rich in graces, productive
in wisdom and in beauty of character? Isn’t that the goalof family life and the
purpose of education? It is certainly the mighty theme of the Bible. Your goal
in life is to become the proper men and women you should be – as those made
in the image of God. The Christian gospelpleads with sinners to become real
human beings in the likeness ofGod, and it tells us how that canbe achieved.
Let me show you the fruit that should be in your life.
i] The fruit produced by the Holy Spirit. Let is look at the letter of Paul to the
Galatians and the fifth chapter and verses 22 and 23. Have you ever been fruit
picking? Blackberries,cherries, strawberries, gooseberriesorapples? You
know how you lift some leaves and pull braches aside to see the finest fruit.
Here are some mouth-watering, delicious fruit. The first is . . . love! Think of
it! Concentratedin one fruit that you can hold in your hand is human
affection, the love of your wife or your husband, your mother’s love for you,
and the warm smiles of delight in your children as they see you getting out of
the carand coming towardthem. Love! What a fruit you are holding in your
hand. Then you push the leaves aside and there is another magnificent fruit,
joy! The happiness of the best and most enduring of earthly pleasures. Then
the next fruit . . . look for it and there you see peace!In this world where
men’s consciences rage andremind them of the people they have hurt and the
foolish and evil things they have done; in this world family break-up, of
divorce and wife battering, and child abuse; in this world of the repressive,

tyrannical, Muslim regimes cutting down their own citizens with machine
guns, people who are merely seeking freedomof expressionand conscience.
Then in this world everywhere there is this fruit – peace. Then there is
another fruit and how rare it is but if you look carefully behind those leaves
and in the sunshine warm, tender and sweet. . . patience! And every man is
convicted. And every young personthinks of their trigger-sharp response to
words and actions, how cutting and sharp they can be, how they must have
their way and they can’t wait five minutes for their wives who have been
delayed; patience in affliction. Then keeplooking on this tree of the Holy
Spirit and you will find more gorgeous fruit, and the next is the most
tremendous virtue which all of us find so life affirming . . . kindness!We look
back through our lives and we stumble across actsofkindness of which we
have been the beneficiaries whenwe receivedsomething that touched us so
deeply, and all we could murmur through chokedemotions was “how kind . . .
how terribly kind.” There are more fruit still because these are the fruit of
God. The next is the most basic and foundational of all fruit: it is goodness.
The Lord Jesus wentabout doing goodwe are told, and the moment you start
to mock at that, and the moment young men considerASBOs – Anti Social
Behaviour Orders, made againstpeople for their vandalism and threatening
behaviour – to be some kind of status symbol of real manliness – then Ichabod
is written over this young generation. When men mock goodness andmagnify
wickednessthe skids are under our societyand the route to hell gets shorter
eachday. Here is this wonderful fruit, goodness, andit is seenin parents and
grandparents, members of the caring professions and kind strangers who
have stopped and helped at costto themselves – goodness!But there is another
fruit . . . keeplooking for it and you will find it . . . faithfulness! You see it in
friendships when one party has behaved as foolishly as you can imagine, and
yet their friend is there for them. You see it in marriages when a husband or a
wife become infatuated with a pretty smile and ‘come-on’eyes and one knows
that the door has been left open for them, but they don’t go in! They are
faithful; when a minister is under fire from dissident grumblers in the
congregationbut these people remain faithful to their pastor. What a grace,
faithfulness! Then again the penultimate fruit, and how precious it is,
gentleness!When you have been spokento curtly by your boss at work, when
your teachersnarls at you, when your own parents are unloving and rough –

then oh what a delight to be dealt with by men and women of gentleness!The
last of all . . . self-control. What a delicious fruit! There is the absence of
retaliation. Jesus was reviled and smashedin the face, and spit upon, and
crucified, but he showedsuch selfcontrol, loving his pain-inflicting
neighbours as his pain-receiving self. Self-control. Of course, our Lord
displayed all these nine fruit. This is how God is. You look at Jesus Christ and
you see God. And this is also our calling.
Imagine our town packedwith people living like that. How few policemen,
how few private security firms, how few lawyers and solicitors, how few
security cameras needed. Imagine our congregationand everyone seeking to
be fruitful in the graces the Spirit of Godcan produce, what a fragrant
orchard would be our church as people coming to it would discover, every
member full of love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness andself-control. No organization could compare to it. You’d want
to go to it for the benefits you’d derive from being in such a health-giving spa!
That would be a place you wouldn’t miss any week;you could miss the pub,
and the club, and the cinema, and the soccerteam but you could never miss
meeting in a beautiful place where people display such graces in such
abundance. You would want to be there and not rush away, but listen and
watchand enjoy the rearrangementof your priorities learning week by week
of these wonderful fruit. Can you see why God comes looking forsuch fruit?
However, there is another description of the fruit of grace . . .
ii] The blessedattitudes produced by Christ. I am talking now of the famous
Sermon on the Mount and the famous ‘beatitudes’ which begin that discourse.
There in Matthew’s gospelthe Lord Jesus is defining for us what true
blessednessconsistsof. What fruit these are! Hear him begin the Sermon;
“Blessedare the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt.
5:3). Here is a life in which there is no pomp and vanity and show. There is
nothing of the lifestyle of that Pharisee in the temple who stoodup and spoke
aloud for everyone to see and hear him thanking God that he wasn’tlike other

people, that he was a righteous man. No, there is none of that. The Christian
life consists ofa realistic self-awareness,that we are poor inconsistent
creatures, lurching and limping along needing grace to get by eachday:
“Blessedare the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt.
5:3). Here are people who also the fruit of sorrow for the hurt they have done
to others and the barrier they have built betweenthemselves and God;
“Blessedare those who mourn for they will be comforted” (Matt.5:4). What
tender fruit! It really matters to them how they have actedand they get deeply
troubled. Then he says, “Blessedare the meek for they will inherit the earth”
(Matt.5:5). They are not sensitive to any suggestedslighton their character,
any teasing, any suggestionthat they might be mistaken, or that they needed
to change in any way, or to repent for sinful acts. No, they nod their heads and
agree that they have not been the sort of husbands or sons or fathers they
should have been. They are meek!Then again, “Blessedare those who hunger
and thirst for righteousnessfor they will be filled” (Matt. 5:6). Here are
people not hungering for the best restaurants, and the oldestwines, and the
agedmalt whiskeys, and the latestfashionable clothes. They are vaguely
interestedin that stuff, but they are passionate for righteousness. Theywant
to be righteous men and women, in the imaginations, in their desires, in their
words, in the actions. Theywant to be people of integrity. They want to be
straight. They long for it. They might have some of it but they want more and
more of it, they hunger for it and thirst for it. They’ve gotto have it! They
must be righteous people. Then againthey are compassionateto those who
have hurt them and now regretit: “Blessedare the merciful for they will be
shown mercy” (Matt. 5:7). They don’t bear a grudge. They don’t ceasehaving
any contactwith those people. They don’t stop sending Christmas cards, and
never phoning. They are merciful. They turn the other cheek. Theyseek
reconciliation. What delicious fruit! Who cannot but long to have such fruit in
his life! Then again, they are genuinely pure people because they have an
inward purity. “Blessedare the pure in heart for they will see God” (Matt.
5:5). That is where we are tested. We canoutwardly live a proper life. We
don’t buy those magazines from the top shelf. But if you knew the sort of
imaginations and lusts that erupted in our lives you would spit in our faces.
But our hearts are being purified by the indwelling Spirit. God is not
interestedin cosmetic change but inward effectualtransformation. Then there

is another fruit, “Blessedare the peacemakers,for they will be calledthe sons
of God” (Matt. 5:9). Are you the members of your family who can reconcile
the generations, who canbring brothers togetheragain? Are you the personin
a church who keeps his counselinstead of running off to the elders and
minister with your complaints? Are you a divisive influence everywhere? Or
are you a peacemaker? You cango to a married couple whose relationship is
on the rocks, orinto a church where there is disharmony, and you canmake
peace by wisdom and love. What fruit! Then the beatitudes end with two long
descriptions of the sort of response that such a life produces. What is it, that
everyone stands and sings, “Forhe’s a jolly goodfellow,” and shakes his hand
and gives him a clock!Is that what we read in Matthew five and verses 10 and
11 and 12? Is the fruit that God creates in us greetedwith world-wide
popularity and we are voted “Citizen of the Year’” and we get cited in the
New Year Honours list and getan award from the Queen? Do we become the
most popular girl in the school? No, we do not. Nothing like that happens. We
live like that and then if we live in Iran we are put in prison, and shot dead in
Pakistan, and burnt at the stake in Wales in the 16th century. Men hate the
life of the beatitudes in their faces. Theygrumble about fanaticism, and being
extreme. They are theoretically open to tolerance in religion, but not in a
religion that lives like that and says that we should all live like this. “Blessed
are those who are persecutedfor righteousness . . . Blessedare you when
people insult you, persecute you” (Matt. 5:10&11). Yetthese are the fruit that
God makes in his people. Are you being a fruitful Christian? If you are a real
Christian you cannot but help live like this. If you are a true Christian this is
your present and this is your future. Then againthere is another description
of this fruit . . .
iii] The consequencesofheavenly love taking over your life. Everyone praises
love. The sentimental old Beatles sang a hymn to it, “All you need is love, love,
love; love is all you need.” What did they mean? They meant relationships;
loving sexual relationships. That was it. ‘Love’ justified everything. But what
is that love that comes from the God who is love, the same love that he sheds
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he gives us? What is this
fruitful love? If it is so important then we must have it. It is explained to us in

I Corinthians chapter 13 and in verses 4 through 8. This is the fruit that grace
produces in the lives of eachtrue Christian (maybe you want to put your own
name there instead of the word ‘love’ and examine yourself to see if this is
how you are living). “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not
boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres. Love never fails.” What wonderful fruit – in the mere Christian –
given and sustainedby God.
iv] The fruit we have to add diligently to our lives day by day and every
passing moment. They are mentioned by Peter in his secondletter and in the
opening chapter. He is addressing the whole church and exhorts them all to
become more and more fruitful: “Make everyeffort to add to your faith
goodness;and to goodness, knowledge;and to knowledge, self-control;and to
self-control, perseverance;and to perseverance, godliness;and to godliness,
brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. Forif you possessthese
qualities in increasing measure, they will keepyou from being ineffective and
unproductive in your knowledge ofour Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:5-8).
Petersays that there are two choices, two alternatives before us. One is that
by our seriousnessand effort we will makes sure that these fruit grow more
and more in us. That is one alternative. The other alternative is that we might
have some unspecific knowledge of Christ but it is not the knowledge that will
produce any lasting fruit and we become ineffective and unproductive. What
is it going to be? A fruitful life or an unproductive life?
That is enough of my explanation of what true spiritual fruitfulness consists
of, what are the marks of God working to will and to do of his goodpleasure
in a professing Christian. This person is changing. He is not going to be
barren. He is going to be fruitful.

2. THREE IMPORTANT AND POINTED CONCLUSIONS.
These three conclusions are the heart and climax of this parable. The people
listening to Jesus were largelyIsraelites according to the flesh, Jewishmen
and women who had had the covenants and promises of the Old Testament,
people who had had the Temple and the sacrificesfor forgiveness.Theyalso
had had the promised Messiahwith them for three years – isn’t it significant
that Jesus mentions the figure ‘three years’in this parable (v.7)? How was
Israelresponding to the presence ofits Messiah?Were they the same old,
unbelieving, apathetic rebels they’d always been, stoning the prophets, and
hating the messageGodspoke to them? Or were they a fruitful generation?
People sayto us today that if only they could see men rise from the dead, or
see 5000 menfed from five loaves and two fishes then they would become
Christians mighty quick. They plead lack of evidence as the rational for not
following Christ. But these people to whom Jesus told this parable, for three
years had seenlepers cleansedand men rise from the dead. They had heard
the sermonon the mount preachedto them. Had Jesus Christ impacted them
at all? Or did they love their sin and unbelief too much to turn in repentance
from it and follow him? What does the greatgardener of our souls sayto us in
this parable?
i] God examines eachlife to see if there is fruit. You matter to God. That is
why God brought you here today. He loves you so much that he has something
to say to you, and that is the very words that you have heard on this special
occasion. He gave you courage, andbrought you out of your comfort zone and
setyou down in this congregationand he did all that kindly and softly and
tenderly in order to help you. His purpose is to make you the sortof person
you ought to be, that your best self says you should be, a fruitful person. God
knows all about you. There is nothing you canhide from him. He knew you
even in your mother’s womb. He knows you exhaustively today. Our first
parents, Adam and Eve, tried to hide from God. They were singularly

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