I would like to turn with you this
morning to a passage that I have found
very challenging at the end of another year
of grace, and I've no doubt that you
will find it very challenging likewise.
The passage has already been read for us,
but I would like to turn to it
and read it once again from Luke chapter
13, the parable that begins with verse 6
and concludes with verse 9.
Our Lord is the speaker, as you will
remember.
He 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, For three 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 around it
and fertilize it.
If it bears fruit next year, fine.
If not, then, then cut it down.
A last opportunity.
The owner of this vineyard was evidently a
very generous man, albeit business-like and efficient
in his management of affairs.
He was, however, prepared to put much time
and considerable energy and, more than that, money
into the cultivation of his vineyard, provided, of
course, that the returns justified the outlay.
He wasn't prepared to waste his money on
it, but he was prepared to pay for
a full-time vine dresser and everything else
that was necessary to give every opportunity to
the trees in his vineyard.
Ancient vineyards generally contained more than vines.
Fig trees, as in this case.
And he was prepared to put everything into
the business of having reasonable returns from the
entire vineyard, whatever the nature of the trees
within it.
And, of course, he had every right to
expect such returns as would justify his expenditure.
The very point, the very meaning of a
vineyard is that it should produce fruit.
You do not plant a vine for its
beauty.
Now, I don't want to enter into an
argument with anybody as to what constitutes beauty.
But I don't think anybody that I have
met would say that they had planted a
vine because of its beauty.
And probably not a fig tree either, but
because of the fruit that both would yield.
There's no meaning for a vine apart from
the fruit it yields.
Now, as far as this particular tree of
our text was concerned, however, its owner was
destined to be utterly and completely disappointed with
it.
Despite the lavish care given to its culture,
it produced nothing in return.
According to all reasonable calculations, he should have
had at least a kind of first fruit
of the fruit it would ultimately bear, even
the first season after it had been sown,
after it had been planted.
So, I'm given to understand.
And I've no doubt that as he went
around at that season of the year when
it was time for fruit, he must have
had a little receptacle in his hand, waiting
to gather just the first fruit, just two
or three figs, that he had particularly expected
from this tree that he had purchased and
brought into his vineyard, just to have a
fortest of things to come.
I've no doubt that when he got up
to it, he must have lifted up the
branches and looked underneath and glanced here and
there and said to himself, My, I expected
at least something.
But there was nothing.
And then, generous man that he was, I
guess, I'm only thinking, but I guess, he
may well have said to himself, Well, perhaps
I was expecting too much.
It hasn't had time to settle in the
soil.
It isn't at home in the vineyard yet.
Oh, it's receiving the sunshine and the moisture,
but perhaps I was expecting too much.
Next year we'll have fruit.
When the second season for fruit is around,
I can almost see him now making for
this one tree in his vineyard.
Sure, of course, that there must be fruit
this year.
It couldn't be otherwise.
The soil was perfect.
Look at the other trees.
There's fruit on them.
So there must be, there must be nutrition
in the soil.
And the conditions, the climatic conditions are excellent.
And he remembered the pedigree of the tree,
where he got it from.
There can be no doubt about it, this
second year, he's just sure there's going to
be a crop.
But if he did thus anticipate, he was
destined to sheer disappointment.
Generous man that he was, he was destined
to be disappointed.
For on that second year he received no
more than he did on the first.
There was absolutely nothing on it.
As the third harvest season approached, this good
man had his mind made up, I believe.
This is my reading into the story, let
me assure you of that.
But I believe that by the time the
third harvest came around, he knew exactly what
he was going to do.
He knew what he was expecting, and he
had determined what he was going to do
if the tree did not live up to
his expectations.
So he comes to the tree, he makes
sure, is there or is there not?
When he'd looked from all directions and from
under the branches and made quite sure there
wasn't a single solitary specimen of fruit.
He turned to his vine dresser and he
said, My dear man, the moment you have
time I want you to cut this tree
down.
Why should we allow it to cumber the
ground anymore?
We're not getting anything from it.
You see, by this time he had counted
up the cost.
Of maintaining in his vineyard, a tree that
took in everything gave out nothing.
It took the space which another tree would
have utilized to advantage and profit.
It imbibed such sustenance as the soil gave
it, took it all in, as well as
the moisture and the warmth from the atmosphere.
It devoured the time of the vine dresser
as much as the money of the owner
of the vineyard.
It was taking everything in and it gave
nothing in return.
Cut it down, he says.
We can't continue to have trees like this
in our vineyard.
A strange thing happened.
Did you notice it?
The vine dresser listened to his master commanding
him to cut it down and I guess
in his heart of hearts he agreed.
There's nothing else to do.
But man in touch with the soil and
with the trees as he was, he somehow
felt sorry for the old tree.
And he said, Give it one more chance,
master.
Of course you're right in telling me to
cut it down.
I don't quarrel with the justice of it,
the propriety of it.
Looking at it from a business point of
view, I can understand that.
I'm not arguing with you, sir.
But listen.
Give it one more year.
And in the meantime, I'll dig around the
roots, he says.
I'll give it all the attention I have.
I'll bring all my knowledge, all my ability,
all my expertise.
I'll bring everything to bear upon it.
And then, he says, I'll manure it.
I'll fertilize it.
And if it brings forth fruit after that,
well, we'll all be happy, he says.
But if not, and the parable ends abruptly,
if not, then cut it down.
With a sense of loss, the vine dresser
says, I'll raise no further objection if after
one year's consideration of this kind there is
no fruit.
Then, down it must come.
Now, I told you I had been terribly
challenged by this parable.
I'm not so sure that you're not challenged
either.
This is a very sad parable.
However you understand it, and it is laden
with peculiar challenge for all of us.
Whether you're a Christian this morning as you
come to worship in the Lord's house, or
indeed whether you're uncommitted to Christ, this word
of God has something to say to you
and to me, to all of us, men
and women, wherever we come from.
Will you pick up courage with me and
try and look this teaching in the eye?
Will you come with me and honestly try
to square and consider what the Son of
God is saying here by means of this
parable?
Well, let's try it.
What's the message?
What's the point?
What's the thrust?
What was Jesus really saying in uttering it?
Let's try to grasp and apply what I
believe is a primary message and a secondary
message.
Not in terms of importance, but in terms
of sequence.
We're going to look first of all at
its past message to those immediately addressed in
the context.
And then its ongoing message, its message to
you and to me today and to men
and women in every age.
And we're going to do these in turn.
First of all, we're going to look at
the first and original application of this parable
to the men and women who heard it
from the lips of our Lord in His
own day as He walked on this very
soil of planet Earth.
Pardon me.
Now, the context here leaves us in no
doubt that the parable had its immediate and
its primary reference.
You can see that.
But we must look at this and take
it seriously.
The danger is when we understand that it
applies to something in past history that we
are content with leaving it there.
Now, that we dare not do.
Nevertheless, we look first at its past application.
The Jewish nation is evidently being here described
under the image of a fig tree.
A fig tree planted in the vineyard of
the Lord of Hosts.
Now, the reason I am saying that without
taking time to enlarge is that it is
so evident in the Old Testament that Israel
is described as the vineyard of the Lord
of Hosts.
Sometimes a vineyard where the vine is cultivated
and other times where fig trees are cultivated.
Both are applied to Israel.
And I am not going to take time
to prove that.
Those of you who are Christians will have
read your Old Testaments, I trust.
And you know that what I am saying
is true.
If not, spend Sunday afternoon looking it up.
But it is true.
We do not need to justify such a
statement.
Therefore, when God called Abraham, He actually chose
the nation that would spring out of him
and God foresaw everything and everyone that would
emerge from the stock of Abraham.
It was as if God was planting Abraham
like a twig in the soil of his
grace, in his vineyard as it were.
God personally undertook the oversight of the emerging
root showing his singular concern not only for
Abraham himself that is a study all its
own but with the children of Abraham, with
the seed of Abraham.
He chastised them as every father chastises children
that he loves.
Oh yes, he chastised them because he cared
for them and he was concerned for the
future.
You see, because God was meaning to produce
something special he was careful and he couldn't
allow everything to come into the lives of
the people of Israel.
If something came in that was wrong, he
dealt with it.
He chastised them.
And hence you have their later 400 years
in Egypt and later on their 70 years
in another captivity and you have many other
such things.
God chastised them but the chastisement was only
an incident by the way because God was
bringing forth fruit.
He was preparing for fruit.
He would chastise but the chastisement was a
means to an end.
It was the pruning that would lead to
the flowering and the fruit bearing of the
twig and of the branches in due course.
In order to exercise his care of the
emerging nation and to fulfill his purposes God
not only sent Moses and Aaron and Joshua
his special servants but he also sent others,
judges, kings, prophets and many others perhaps not
exactly fitting into any of these categories but
they were endowed by him with grace and
with wisdom and with courage and much else
to fulfill his mission of caring for the
trees in his vineyard particularly Israel.
Then in due course and this brings Christmas
again into focus in due course the Lord
of the vineyard appeared on the scene to
collect fruit.
My friends that's what happened you know when
God became incarnate in Jesus Christ.
It was the Lord of the universe come
down and come into his vineyard very specially
to collect fruit.
He was looking for fruit.
For hundreds of years he's been attending to
his vine, to his fig tree.
He sent the best of his prophets and
the best of his servants to give the
best of their ability to bring forth the
best that these people could produce and he
at last comes.
It's the season for harvest you see.
It's the season for figs.
And he comes to collect the fruit and
for three seasons, three years God in Jesus
of Nazareth moved in and out among the
nation looking for national fruit.
I say national fruit.
They were individuals that provided some fruit but
the nation as such apparently appeared as it
is described in this very very challenging word.
The first year he moved in and out
found nothing national in no acceptance no faith,
no repentance no obedience to his commands.
There was no fruit.
Second year went by and the third year
went by.
Now I'm not going to attempt to find
a counterpart to the vine dresser.
I believe that the main thrust of a
parable is a single entity and perhaps they
don't correspond absolutely but somehow or other I
believe if I rightly understand the meaning of
this parable that at that stage in the
history of Israel the axe was raised to
cut down the tree that had been thus
cared for by the very God of Israel
and God of creation over these many years
and it brought forth no fruit nationally but
somehow or other someone intervened someone interceded, someone
cried, someone pleaded that she'd be given another
year of opportunity and it is my understanding
that at the day of Pentecost that extra
year of opportunity began not a year of
twelve months of course but a period, an
era during which God would see that special
attention was given to the nation the kind
of which she's never had even with the
prophets and the law giver and the great
Moses and Joshua and you say what was
this?
It was the apostles of the Lamb clothed
with the mighty power of the Holy Spirit
something that human eyes have never seen the
like of it before save in Jesus Christ
and he sent them out and he said
go first to the house of Israel and
witness to them and preach the gospel to
them and call for repentance and bid them
turn and obey and out they went have
you noticed the emphasis in the book of
Acts?
have you noticed how the apostle Paul wherever
he went went to the Jews first?
and it was only when the Jews closed
the door or sometimes slapped him in the
face he turned to go elsewhere but you
see they took this seriously they were to
give special attention to the tree they were
to look for fruit from national Israel at
home in the land, outside the land wherever
Paul went he went to the Jews first
and in writing to the Romans he tells
us that this was a fixed principle the
Jews first but also to the Gentiles but
what happened?
oh my friends it's a sad story God's
last year ran out God's last year of
opportunity to Israel as it was then constituted
ran out many individuals showed some sign but
not the leaders of the nation not the
people who represented national Israel per se and
the last year of opportunity passed with no
fruit forthcoming despite the imponderably precious privileges heaped
upon the nation so what?
God moved into action then came the inevitable
the axe of divine judgment fell God employed
as his agent a very harsh razor-like
axe of a man the Roman power led
by Titus with almost bestial savagery that pagan
leader directed his army first into the land
then into the city then into the temple
now I'm not going to attempt to describe
to you the kind of savagery that went
on as the nation was severed I shall
simply remind you that towards the end of
that desolating period Titus' soldiers were fighting in
blood knee deep in the city of Jerusalem
you say what's all this about?
is this history?
this is history now this is history now
this is fact this is not the dream
of the preacher this is fact you can
read this in your history books what had
happened?
well the parable tells us that the last
year had run out and God is not
mocked God is not mocked and
even though out of sheer grace he had
chosen Israel for a purpose he came down
in judgment now meaning to incorporate Israel the
Israel who would be the true children of
faith in due course in the body of
the church the community of Gentile and Jew
one new people one new man as Paul
speaks of the person who believes in Christ
Jesus history thus underscores and highlights the integrity
and the validity of the biblical warnings and
this is what makes it so serious you
see some of us don't really believe that
God's warnings hold oh I know that and
we run absolutely in the face of them
and in the teeth of them brothers and
sisters God's word does not return to him
void if that word is a word of
grace it will fulfill his intention if it
is a word of warning it will fulfill
his purpose long long ago Isaiah said that
my word shall not return unto me empty
or void it will accomplish and here you
and I are living in the light of
the historical the immediate the first fulfillment of
this utterance of our Lord in the presence
of some of the Jewish people probably and
we have this as the back cloth to
our consideration of its application to ourselves and
that brings me to that the secondary and
abiding relevance of the same parable to you
and to me right here in Knox Toronto
on Spadina here the last Sunday the last
Lord's Day in this year of grace 1984
that fruitless fig tree may be a picture
of you and of me I believe that
it represents any man or any woman or
any people or nation that ultimately refuses to
respond to the care of God and to
his grace in Christ that person or that
people who will allow God's last year of
opportunity to pass by without bringing for fruit
meat for repentance indicative of obedience now let's
look at it you say how does this
apply to me how would you apply this
to me what reason have we for believing
that this applies to us here this morning
well now let me just bring out some
of the salient features here and I bid
you ask the question you ask it yourself
does this not fit me first of all
the excellence of the soil in which it
was planted the first and unmistakable feature of
the tree envisaged in the parable I think
is that it was planted in such soil
as gave it the best possible opportunity to
bear fruit now how about the soil in
which you are living this may not apply
to all of us but I'm sure it
will apply to the majority of us look
at it nationally now perhaps you were privileged
to be planted early in the soil of
a God-fearing nation a nation where the
word of God was known and where the
grace of God was experienced and the gospel
of God was proclaimed and the church of
God was alive what a wonderful privilege and
you were brought up you were born into
that kind of atmosphere how conducive to faith
what a privilege was yours or it may
be that you were later transplanted into a
nation such as that or you spent some
of the formative years of your life amongst
a people whose heritage was such that the
living God was known and the righteousness of
God and the will of God was embossed
upon their laws and their legislature and their
traditions and so forth and you were brought
up in an atmosphere like that you have
to answer for that what a rich soil
in which to be planted and in which
to grow up but think of it more
locally than that even when our national background
may be otherwise many of us have, like
this fig tree in the parable been reared
in a domestic soil in a home environment
that has been conducive to moral and spiritual
development others reared in your local setting, whatever
it is in your city in your church
in your home others brought through the same
atmosphere and through the same experiences as you
others have grown others have heard the call
of God and are living in obedience to
Him others have had dealings with the Most
High God and they're touching reality from day
to day and you haven't but others have
they have imbibed the essential ingredients of the
soil just as you have, the same ingredients
and their fruit is so vast and so
prolific we praise God upon every remembrance of
them why not you, why not me?
this parable is a pointed reference to those
who are divinely planted in such a rich
environment and yet, and yet remain fruitless you
know, I often wonder whether there can be
someone here in Knox who's been here for
many a long year and you've profited from
the influence of one and another over many
years and yet your heart remains close to
the gospel of Jesus Christ you may be
a good Presbyterian and you may even be
kind to this congregation I don't know of
anyone who is unkind nevertheless what about personal
faith as God comes to seek it and
repentance and obedience is He collecting, is He
gathering the fruit?
what is there in your heart this morning?
what have you brought for Him?
the offerings on the plate, all right they're
expressive of something, if they're acceptable to God
of a spiritual condition despite the excellence
of the soil this tree yielded no fruit
over three successive seasons and God justly concluded
that three successive seasons was adequate oh let
me repeat it appears to be essential to
the thrust of the parable that we should
understand that this fig tree was an exception
to the rule this is implicit in everything
we're saying but I must add it again
whatever the nature of the other trees in
the vineyard they appear to have been fruitful
according to their opportunity whether they were fig
trees or whether it was the vine they
seem to have been bearing fruit but this
tree, no, none how long have you lived
in your present conducive circumstances without bringing forth
fruit to God's glory?
five years?
ten years?
twenty?
thirty?
how long?
brothers and sisters we cannot go on like
this if this parable is the word of
the incarnate Son of God and has meaning
and has relevance today we have to take
this seriously there comes a shattering moment in
this parable of our Lord when the owner
of the vineyard is described as posing the
question to his vinedresser why cumbers it the
ground?
that's the King James Version all right, just
let's pray quietly for this good man who's
gone out he's reacting may the Lord be
with him just pray in your hearts we'll
go on there comes this shattering moment when
the owner of the vineyard says why should
it be allowed to cumber the ground?
and that's not a God who does not
love that's a God of grace who will
not allow his grace to be trampled upon
in the end the word translated cumbereth could
equally be translated rob or waste or exhaust
the soil in fact it makes the soil
ineffective and there could very well be a
notion here not that this fruit, this tree
did not simply bear fruit negatively but that
it was contributing something deadly, poisonous to the
soil I don't dogmatize there but it could
well be there apparently are you prepared to
address the question to yourself?
it is a serious and a searching one
has this been true of us?
have we had a degenerating and negative influence
upon our homes upon our spheres, even upon
our church?
what influence have we had?
have we simply not brought forth fruit or
has our influence upon the place where we
stand and the place where we say we
worship has our influence been negative?
the excellence of the soil, the absence of
fruit and the third factor is the expenditure
that was waste the owner of this vineyard
spent time, energy and substance upon the tree
in vain it was all ineffective and it
was all fruitless now this brings me to
the last question which I address to myself
and I invite you to address it to
yourself I would put it as bluntly as
this is God's expenditure on me justified?
I think of the health he's given me
I think of the home I think of
the wife he's given me she's the best
wife on earth and the children and the
food and the protection and the privileges and
of all privileges the immense privilege of proclaiming
his word to you good people he's cared
for me he's heard my prayers when I've
had pains and aches and problems sometimes an
ache in the heart sometimes an ache in
the body and in his infinite mercies brought
us through them all and here we are
this morning now my question is this is
God's expenditure upon me justified?
and over and above everything that I have
said and indicated there is the massive expenditure
of the blood of his son to redeem
me and the sending forth of his spirit
to give me to the son to bring
me out of the world and hand me
over to the son of his love as
one of his people oh God of grace
are you justified?
am I not making nonsense of it all?
what would you do with somebody like yourself
if you were in God's place this morning?
would you feel it's worth keeping this person
in good health it's worth keeping this person
where he is and what he is into
1985 because he's a fruitful branch she's a
fruitful branch she brings forth fruit to my
glory what would you do?
my very last word is this awesome point
here that there comes a last year when
the owner of the vineyard says well yes
alright we'll give it one other year and
when that year's gone there is no other
year of opportunity now that's the thing that
challenges you say how do I know when
I'm passing through God's last year well I
really don't know I don't know anybody who
knows absolutely and who can tell you in
so many words but I'll tell you some
of the evidences of men and women who
are passing through God's last opportunity listen to
the parable says the vine dresser give it
one more year and what will happen during
that last year I'll dig around the roots
of it and I'll fertilize it and I'll
give it special care tell me has the
Lord through any of his agents been digging
around the roots of your life spiritually has
the word of God been cutting you in
a way it never has up until 1984
has it reached deeper I don't mean simply
whether you know more what I mean is
this has it got deeper has the knife
of the word has the penetrating edge of
the word has the sword of the word
got so deep into you you knew that
God was doing something now man has he
been digging around the roots and then alongside
of that and this is precious just like
the good vine dresser has he been fertilizing
in other words has he been blessing you
at the same time as he's been dealing
drastically with you has he been mixing his
ingredients has he been pouring some blessing upon
you and from the word he has been
speaking and from the saints he has been
speaking and from providence he has been speaking
and everything encouraging you to have more faith
in him to be more penitent for your
sins to be more obedient to him tell
me have you felt encouraged during this last
year now I would suggest to you that
if the application of this parable stands that
something like that may well characterize our last
opportunities and we stand before the God of
the earth this morning and we remember the
words of the Lord Jesus when he said
unto whomsoever much is given of him shall
be much required and to whom men have
committed much of him they will ask for
more is your faith up to date with
God's goodness is your repentance up to date
is your dedication up to date then he
comes to you and I'm sure he has
a word for you as well as for
me this morning as we've come almost to
the end of 1984 I bid you in
the name of the Lord God almighty the
God of grace see to it that you
redeem the time by the time whatever price
you have to pay to produce in your
soul and in your life those things that
God expects of us and for which he
has kept us in life and blessed us
in life and brought us to this very
day let us pray Lord God
our father in heaven enable us to receive
your word as your word and not as
the words of men in general or of
any man in particular we stand beneath the
judgment of your word and we ask for
special grace to apply this to ourselves we
thank you that you are a God who
has loved us with an everlasting love we
thank you for your favors for your manifold
mercies oh how good is the God we
adore blessed heavenly father it is into your
arms that we come in the consciousness of
our need and of our sin and of
our waywardness receive us again cleanse us from
those things in us which are impure and
evil purge in us those things that relate
to yourself our faith and our hope and
our obedience our wills, our consciences, our emotions
purge them and cleanse them that we may
serve you with the whole of the inner
man and with the whole of the life
in the body that you give us from
day to day Lord hear our prayers in
Jesus' name Amen