I tell you this right now, I am.
I'm tired. I'm exhausted.
It has nothing to do with last night of this week
and has everything to do with the first service.
And just so, in case you hear stories, I want to bring you up to speed.
During the announcements of the first service, a lady sitting right
over here toppled over,
had a heart episode.
Praise be to God for Thomas
and his sheepdog ministry that jumped into action
medically to assess her, take care of her.
Ambulance came.
And so during all of that,
as was going on, we kind of settled ourselves
and spent time during the entire episode just praying for her.
Her name is Sherry.
Praying for her, for God's intervention,
for his hand of mercy and grace and healing
during the the whole episode of it.
It was it was it was significant.
It was shocking.
It was wonderful to see God's people at work in practical ways.
And it was wonderful to be able to trust God's work in the unseen world.
The ambulance showed up.
She became coherent by the time they got here talking to her.
She's getting checked out at the hospital.
All things seemed to be okay.
But then moving from that into what we're going to talk
about today in Matthew 21, I'm just going to be honest with you.
I am emotionally and.
Spiritually exhausted right now.
But God is good.
It's the third time someone's toppled over in our church services.
Take better care of yourselves.
Chapter 21.
The rest that we'll look at today is
is both profound and frightening at the same time.
If you don't understand grace, it is terrifying.
If you do understand grace, it comes with a great deal of responsibility.
Matthew
21 is primarily about the nation of Israel.
It has great implications for us.
And so we're going to we're going to look at those.
There's some deep, deep, deep theology.
And and it's all resides in Old Testament
pronouncements and prophecy over Israel.
But again, without
it comes with great implications and application for us.
And so we're going to
we're going to we're going to live in both those streams today.
I'm going to do my best to unpack Old
Testament prophecy, proclamation
and draw analogies and conclusions for us in our day.
But I've struggled honestly
with this chapter.
I don't know how to do this chapter well, especially in the time
frame that we have.
You give me, you give me a week.
We we can we can get through it all.
But to do it in 30 minutes is.
And so,
so let me pray one more time.
God. I'm asking.
For the strength of your spirit
to understand your word
and to be able to teach it in a way that
is understandable and coherent.
And I pray for our church, that by the power of your spirit,
that you would give us the power to understand
and in understanding the power to choose righteousness
and a life of fruitfulness for your Kingdom.
And so do in us always
what you do, that which I am unable to do
by your word. In your name I pray. Amen.
We're going to look at verses 18 through 46 of Matthew chapter 21.
Here's the big idea overriding the whole thing.
We talked last week in the beginning of chapter 21
about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, where he was.
That was his earthly coronation, the first time humble on the on a baby donkey.
He's going to be coordinated again at the at the end
when he comes back on a white horse as the ruling conqueror.
This was his his humble inauguration and set himself up as the King.
The revelation of the King at the nation of Israel been looking for.
And so this follows up on that.
This big idea is because Jesus is King.
Genuine faith must
produce the fruit of obedience because he is King.
Genuine faith must produce the fruit of obedience.
In this first section, verses 18 through 22,
the point of this first section is
Jesus is going to deal with religion
without fruit,
and it's the context of a fig tree.
And so let me, let me read to you
this passage, and then, and then we'll unpack it and understand
why Jesus says what he says and why he does what he does.
Verse 18 in the morning, as he was returning to the city,
he became hungry and seen a fig tree by the wayside.
He went to it and found nothing on it, but only leaves.
And he said to it, May no fruit ever come from you again.
And the fig tree withered at once.
When the disciples saw it,
they marveled, saying, how did the fig tree wither at once?
And Jesus answered them, truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not
doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the tree, but even
if you say to this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen.
And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive if you have faith.
This is not the account of Jesus being hungry in the morning and a fig tree.
There's something much more profound going on and I want to unpack it for you.
This is this is Jesus is getting to the issue
of being visibly religious with no fruit of faith.
That's what he's that's what he's dealing with here
in the context of the nation of Israel in particular.
Now, the fig tree was a symbol of the nation of Israel
all through the Old Testament.
There's prophecy and pronouncement upon that God
will bless his people in his land.
And the proof of that blessing will every man sit under his own fig tree
like it was the.
It was the symbol of God's blessing and provision
and grace upon his people in his land.
So that's what the fig tree represents, the fig tree.
The interesting thing about the victory
these could be enormous trees 20ft high, 20ft wide, big trees.
And the interesting thing about the fig tree is that the fig tree,
I think, is the only tree that produces fruit before it produces leaves.
So usually in agriculture the leaf comes and then the fruit fig trees different.
It's the fruit first and then the leaf.
So anytime you would see a fig tree in leaf you knew that it had
what it had fruit.
And so these fig trees, they only bloom two times a year.
And so this was a very early bloom that shouldn't have bloomed at this time.
This was an early bloom.
And so Jesus seen the fig tree
picture of Israel in early bloom of the leaves.
The expectation is that you look good on the outside.
There ought to be fruit on the inside as well.
Okay.
And so that's, that's what he's
that's what he's looking at here, that Israel looks fruitful.
And Israel had experienced the blessing of God.
Israel had the covenant had covenant
privilege, had covenant promises.
Israel had the temple.
The temple system, the sacrifice, the sacrificial system.
Israel had the blessings of land.
Israel had all the leaves.
But Jesus is saying, you have no fruit.
You have all the leaves of religion.
But I don't perceive any fruit coming from you.
And because I see all the leaves, there ought to be fruit.
And so not as a result
of being angry that he's hungry,
but angry at the fact that though
they had been given such privilege.
They missed the kingdom,
they had no fruit.
Paul will mention this in Romans chapter ten, in this way
that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
No, there was not repentant, not kingdom there.
Zealous in their religion.
They look super religious.
There's a zeal there, but they missed it.
And so he curses the tree.
Now, let me give you the time frame of this, because in Matthew
it looks like the triumphal entry, the cleanses, the temple, curses a tree,
all one big event.
That's not the chronology of it.
We learn of the chronology in Mark chapter 11 and Mark chapter 11,
we learn that yes, indeed, the week before the resurrection.
So the Sunday before the crucifixion.
On Friday, Jesus enters Jerusalem on a baby donkey
and is coordinated as the king.
That happened on Sunday.
Once that happened, Jesus leaves Jerusalem
and goes to Bethany, where his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were,
and on Monday morning goes back into Jerusalem
to confront the religious establishment, and on the way into Jerusalem
sees a fig tree in leaf, but no fruit, and curses.
The fig tree on Monday morning goes into Jerusalem.
Later that day, on his way has the interaction with the people
at the temple, overturns the tables, basically pronounces judgment upon
their religious system, leaves Jerusalem and goes back to Bethany for the night.
Spends the night there Tuesday morning now is going back into Jerusalem
and sees the fig tree completely dead.
And that was the astonishment of the disciples.
How overnight did this happen?
Goes into Jerusalem after seeing the deadness of the tree,
and then deals with the confrontation of his own authority
between the Pharisees and the scribes and the temple system.
So that's the chronology.
We read it in Matthew as one sweeping moment.
It was multiple moments, multiple days.
So we've already seen Sunday, we've seen Monday, the temple cleansing.
Now we're on Tuesday morning
and he's going back into to Jerusalem and sees this dead fig tree.
When we look at the book of Matthew, chapters 21 through,
I don't know, 25 or somewhere around there, that all happens on Monday.
I'm sorry.
On Tuesday, it all happens on Tuesday.
It was a huge day for Jesus and this is the beginning of this huge day.
And he he curses the tree.
And then the next he sees that it is completely dead.
This was not a pronouncement on a tree.
This was a pronouncement on the nation of Israel.
They had all the leaves that would indicate
they were fruitful, kingdom fruitful.
They had no fruit of the kingdom.
And he exposes their fruitless
religion and pronounces the judgment and the curse on them
that had been prescribed generations earlier under Moses.
So I want to take you back to the Old Testament so you will understand
what Jesus is doing.
He's pronouncing the curse over
Israel that had been promised
for their disobedience and rejection of the Messiah.
Let me just read for you.
I'm just going to highlight because it is extensive.
Leviticus 26.
There's blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience
that God pronounces over his nation, the people of Israel.
This is what he says.
If you walk in my statutes, this is Leviticus 26 and observe
my commandments and do them, then I will give you the reins in their season.
The land will you'll it's increase.
And the trees, the fruit, the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Your threshing shall last at the time of the grape harvest.
The grape harvest last.
At the time of sowing,
you shall eat your bread and have the full and dwelling land securely. You.
I will give you peace in the land. You'll lie down.
None of you will be afraid of anything.
I'll remove harmful beasts from the land.
The sword will not go through your land.
If you chase your enemies, they will run from you in fear.
And they'll fall before your your sword.
Five of you will chase away. 100.
100 of you will chase away 10,000.
Your enemies will fall before you.
I'll try to make you fruitful. I'll multiply you.
I'll confirm my covenant with you. I mean, just on and on and on.
All these blessings like if you obey me.
There's a really good stuff waiting for you, right?
You follow this.
And then he says, that's if you obey me.
Now, if you disobey me and do not bear the fruit of the kingdom in you,
look what he says.
But if you'll not listen to me and will not do all these commandments,
if you spurn my statues, if your soul bores my rule, so that you do
so that you do not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,
then I'll visit you with panic wasting, disease,
fever that consumes the eyes and makes your heart ache.
You will so your seed in vain.
Your enemies will eat with you.
So I'll set my face against you.
You'll be struck down before your enemies.
Those who hate you will rule over you.
I will discipline you.
Seven fold for your sins.
I'll break your pride. I'll break your power.
I'll make the heavens like iron, the earth like bronze.
The earth will produce nothing for you.
Your strength will go away in vanity.
If you walk contrary to me.
And don't listen to me.
I will continue striking you sevenfold for your sins.
I'll let loose the wild beast.
Your children be bereaved because you'll die.
Your livestock will be destroyed.
Few will be your number.
If by this discipline you still don't turn.
But you continue to walk contrary to me, I will walk contrary to you.
I'll strike you seven fold for your sins.
I'll bring sword upon you.
I'll execute vengeance for the covenant.
I'll send pestilence among you.
You'll be delivered in the hand of your enemy.
I'll break your supply of bread.
You'll eat and never be satisfied.
If you don't listen to me, I will discipline you.
Sevenfold.
He goes on and on.
I'll destroy your high places.
I'll cast dead bodies upon the bodies of your I.
My soul will abor you.
I'll lay waste your cities.
I'll make your sanctuaries desolate.
I'll devastate your land.
The enemies who settle in your land will be appalled.
I'll scatter you among the nations.
I'll unsheathed the sword after you.
Your land will be desolate.
I mean, that's horrible, right?
And this is what God said he would do to his people way
back at the time of the most.
And then he reiterates it in Deuteronomy 28.
I just want you to get a feel for the pronouncement of the curse
that Jesus is just leveled against the nation of Israel.
Get a feel for this again.
Do an army 28 if you, faithful, will be the voice of the Lord,
being careful to do all this commands I command you.
The Lord will set you a high above the nations of all the earth.
All his blessings will come upon you.
His blessings will overtake you.
Bless. Will you be in the city?
Blessed will you be in the shield.
Blessed will you be the fruit of your womb.
What your ground produces, your cattle, your heard, your young flocks.
Bless where your basket, your kneading bowl.
You'll come in, you'll go out. You'll be blessed.
Wherever you go.
Your enemies will rise against you.
And they'll be defeated before you come at you in one direction.
To flee from you in seven different ways.
I command this blessing upon your barns and all that your hand undertakes.
I'll bless you if you keep my commandments and walk in my ways.
All the earth will see how blessed you are, and call the name of the Lord
your God blessed they'll be afraid of you.
You will abound to prosperity if you obey
the commandments of the Lord, you don't turn aside from them.
Great blessing.
Right?
And then he says, but if you don't,
just to reiterate,
if you don't obey the voice of the Lord your God, you're careful
to obey all the commandments I've given to you today.
Then all these curses will come upon you.
Cursed. You'll be in the city. Curse you will be in the field.
Curse will be your basket, your kneading bowl,
the fruit of your room womb, the fruit of the ground,
the fruit of your, your, your herds, your flocks.
You'll be cursed when you come in.
You'll be cursed when you go out.
I will throw into confusion.
I'll frustrate all that you do.
And all that your hand undertakes. I'll destroy you.
You'll perish quickly from the land.
Pestilence will stick to you and it'll consume you.
The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, fever, inflammation,
fire, heat, drought, blight, mildew.
The heavens will produce no rain for you.
You're land will being drought and famine.
You'll be defeated before your enemies.
You'll be the horror of all the earth,
the birds, Leith, your dead bodies.
You'll have the boils of Egypt.
Tumors, scabs, each of which you cannot be healed.
You'll be driven mad.
Blindness and confusion of mind.
You'll go grope around noonday like you're blind in the dark.
You will not prosper in any of your ways.
You'll be oppressed, robbed continually.
No one will be able to help you.
Your wife will be ravaged by another man. You'll build a house.
You won't live in it. You'll plant a vineyard.
You won't enjoy its fruit.
Your ox will be slaughtered, slaughtered, and you won't even get to eat it.
No one will help you.
Your sons will be given to another people.
Your eyes will look and they'll fail.
You'll be hopeless.
And nation you don't know will eat of your fruit continually.
You'll be driven mad by what you see.
The Lord will strike you on your knees and your legs, and give grievous boils,
of which you cannot be healed
from the soul of your foot to the crown of it over and over and over.
That that's
that's what was promised by God over his nation.
Blessings for obedience and fruitfulness,
curses for disobedience and not fruitfulness.
That's the power of the condemnation
of the fig tree that Jesus is calling into play.
This is much more than Jesus being hungry.
It's much more than not having to fig Newton sound.
It's much more than a tree.
Do you understand?
And Jesus made that curse
as he goes into Jerusalem on Monday morning.
And then he, the first thing he does is confront the temple white,
because they had the look of lees, but no spiritual fruit.
He knew what he was doing.
He goes back and then he's going to go back in
to confront the religious leader specifically, and the tree is withered
as a pronounced of the curse of God on God's people for their disobedience.
Powerful.
That's what's in play here.
We read this as Jesus got upset at the fig tree. No,
he expected something.
God expected something from his people that looked religious on the outside
but had no life and no fruit on the inside.
And when Jesus says this phrase,
if you just believe in that faith, you can move mountains.
That statement is not just about the power
of prayer and faith, though there is truth in that.
There's an old rabbinic idiom that says that the great rabbis
can explain deep and profound mysteries,
difficulties, and dilemmas in a way that people can understand.
And when they explain the deep mysteries and dilemmas and answer questions
that are unanswerable, they are movers of mountains for people.
And so he's saying, if you have faith in in who I am.
If you understand the kingdom, you will be able to discern
these great mysteries of this curse and the blessing.
He's he's a mover of mountains.
And he's going to now, as you go through chapters 21 and 22,
move the mountains of the scribes and Pharisees that are going to
this onslaught of attack, question after question
after question, that seemed too difficult and unanswerable by everybody else.
And Jesus is going to best them all, because he's a mover of mountains
and gives understanding to the simple about profoundly deeper things.
Paul will reference this very idiom in first Corinthians 13, verse two.
If I have prophetic powers and understand
all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have all faith
so as to move mountains, if I remove the difficulties,
and so I can explain everything.
But I don't do it from love, I'm nothing.
And Jesus says, listen, I love you.
I love my people.
I love the land.
I love my father, I love the covenant.
And I want to remove all these things that that you've tripped over for so long.
I'm gonna move mountains so you understand.
But understanding you're not without excuse.
You check with me.
So far, I know you are.
Look at verses 23 through 27.
Let me get back to Matthew.
And we entered the temple.
The chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him
as he was teaching and said, by what authority are you doing these things?
Who gave you this authority again for this these next two chapters?
The thing that's at stake here is the authority of Jesus.
And they're going to they're going to push him on this,
and he's going to keep removing mountains.
Jesus answered them, I'm going to ask you a question.
If you tell me the answer, then I'll tell you by
what authority I do these things. The baptism of John.
From where did it come from? Heaven or from man?
And they discuss it among themselves, saying,
if we say from heaven, he'll say to us, then why didn't you believe him?
But if we say from man, we're afraid of the crowd, for they hold
John as a prophet.
So they answer, Jesus, we do not know, he said. Why?
Because they weren't movers of mountains.
They can't explain it.
They don't know they're ignorant.
And so he said to them, neither.
I'll tell you by what authority I do these things.
The interesting thing to me in this is that the central issue in this whole,
this whole next two chapters is the authority of Jesus.
Jesus, who gives you the authority to speak into my life,
who gives you the authority to judge me, who gives you the authority to condemn?
Who gives you the authority?
See, their problem was not a lack of evidence.
It was the unwillingness to submit to Jesus's authority.
They didn't question if he had authority.
They acknowledged he had authority.
Who gives you this authority? They knew he had authority.
Where did this authority originate?
Their issue was that the lack of evidence to Jesus authority,
their issues, was the unwillingness to submit to that authority.
And we do the same thing.
Jesus, who gives you the right to tell
me, might like what I'm doing is right or wrong
by your word.
What gives your word the right
to say yes to this in my life and no to that in my life?
Why should I submit to that?
We do this all the time.
We look religious.
We got the leaves, we made the profession.
But then we make judgment over the authority of the Word of God
to as to what we will obey and not obey.
What gives you the right?
Do you see this?
Yes, yes.
And so Jesus presses
verse 28 and 32.
What do you think?
A man had two sons. And when?
And he went to the first and said, son, go and work in the vineyard today.
And he answered, I will not.
But afterward he changed his mind, and he went, and he went to the other son.
He said the same.
And he answered, I go, sir, but he did not go.
Which of the two did the will of his father?
Which one?
Which won?
The first did?
We're the smartest Pharisees.
And Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, that tax collectors
and prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you do. Wow.
So you all have just is saying to the religious people,
you got all these leaves and you got no fruit,
and you got all these tax collectors and hookers and whores
who who originally said no to me and then changed their mind.
They get in
all your leaves me nothing.
I mean, listen to what he's saying to these guys.
No wonder they wanted to kill him.
For John came to you
in a way of righteousness, and you did not believe him.
But the tax collectors and prostitutes believed him.
And even when you saw it, you did not after or change your mind
and believe in him.
He said, John offered you the baptism of repentance, and you would not repent.
But the tax collectors and the prostitutes, at least they repented.
They get in.
I don't care about your leaves
if you don't have the fruit.
What he's saying is this.
That my obedience, where am I?
Go backwards?
My obedience proves my profession.
That's what he's saying.
Profession means nothing without obedience.
One of these young men said yes and lived to know.
One of them said no originally and lived a yes.
Which one was right?
The one who lived a yes.
See? True repentance.
We have to understand that true repentance becomes fruit that we can see.
We read in chapter three,
bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
Fruit doesn't happen unless repentance precedes.
Repentance always comes first.
This parable that Jesus just told in verses
23 or 28 through 32 is, is it's the fig tree.
In human terms, that's what Jesus is saying.
He said he had son, one who had a bad profession but eventually obeyed.
You had son two that had a good profession and had no obedience and no fruit.
The religious leader said yes to God, but live to know.
But the prostitutes and and collectors
lived to know, but responded with repentance.
They get the kingdom, they said.
You've relied on all this religious leaves for too long,
and there's not been repentance and the fruit of repentance in your life.
So he's
driving home this point that God is not impressed by the
yes on your lips when your life keeps saying no.
He's pressing this.
And he said, this has been God's people's way
of operating from generation to generation.
And now you have called upon the curses of God on your life.
Look. What's that?
Look at what has happened in the nation of Israel since this time.
Been ravaged, thrown from their land.
In 1870, the temple was completely destroyed.
It had been rebuilt since.
It will one day, but not now
come almost completely annihilated.
Jesus keeps pressing verse 3333 through 46.
Here another parable.
There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard
and put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower,
and least it to the tennis, and went to another country.
When you read this passage right here about this, this vineyard,
you've got to go back to Old Testament, Isaiah chapter five.
The vineyard represents represents Israel, prophesied.
Nisa five affirmed here in this parable, this this is Isaiah five in parable form.
So just for you, Bible students, you'd know that the vineyard is Israel.
Is Israel.
When the season for fruit drew near, he's in the servants to the Tennessee
to get his fruit, and the tenants took his servants and beat one.
They killed another, stoned another.
Again he sent other servants more than the first,
and they did the same to them.
Finally he sent his son,
saying that at least respect my son.
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, this is the air.
Let's kill him and have his inheritance.
And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed them.
Jesus was crucified outside of the city.
When therefore
the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?
What do you think he's going to do?
Those tenants that killed his son.
We have so many opinions
about so many things, but we come to church and have no opinion.
What are you going to do?
You got smoke? Come.
Thank you.
Hurrah!
He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let the vineyard
to others tenants who will give him the fruits of their season.
Jesus said to them, have you never read the scriptures?
The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing, this marvelous in our eyes.
He said, you missed it. I'm the son.
The one that you rejected is the cornerstone of this whole thing.
And when you deny me,
vengeance of God has fallen upon you
as pronouncing the curses of Leviticus 26
and Deuteronomy 28.
Therefore I tell you,
the kingdom of God will be
taken away from you and given to people who producing its fruits,
and the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces.
And when it falls on anyone that will crush him.
When the chief priests and Pharisees heard these parables, they perceived
he was speaking about them
because they knew he was a prophet.
Listen, the blessings of God
on his people requires fruit.
God gave his people
the revelation of God Himself.
He gave him the prophets.
They he gave him the promises.
He gave him the his very presence.
And they rejected God's servants.
They rejected God's prophets.
They rejected God's Word, and they rejected his very son.
And the
key to this whole thing is verse 43, I tell you,
the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people
who actually produce its fruit.
I want to be that person.
I don't want to be a leafy guy.
Oh, I can't say I want to be a fruity guy either.
I didn't say I'm right, but.
This interprets the whole section.
Now let me draw back.
That's about the nation of Israel, okay.
And that's in place now.
They're not left abandoned forever.
We'll understand that in just a minute.
But let's draw it to us now.
So to understand the curse of the tree, the pronouncement of the curse
Leviticus 26.
Deuteronomy 28, drawing it into our lives.
Now we have to go to the apostle Paul, who was a part of the nation of Israel.
He's a Jew, but he's been radically, radically
transformed by the Holy Spirit, who would be one of those rabbis
that could move mountains to give us understanding.
And so Paul will say in Romans 11, I want you to I want you to read this.
This is a long passage, but understand, he says.
So I asked, did they
did did the Jews, the Israel, stumble in order that they might fall?
By no means rather, through their trespass,
their falling salvation has come to us
non-Jews, so as to make Israel jealous.
But if some of the branches
were broken off of the tree, and you,
although a wild olive shoe, you weren't part of the tree.
You're wild.
If you were grafted in among the others.
And now sharing the nourishing root of the olive tree,
don't be arrogant towards those branches.
If you are, remember it's not you that supports the root,
but the root that supports you.
So don't be arrogant thinking that they weren't good enough
so God chose you.
The root that we draw from isn't ours.
The root that we draw from is Christ the Messiah out of the nation of Israel.
Then you will say branches are broken off, that I might be grafted in.
That is true.
They were broken off because of their unbelief.
But you stand fast through faith, so don't become proud, but be fearful.
Lest you be wise in your own sight.
I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, my brothers.
I'm gonna move a mountain for you. Right now.
A partial hardening has has come upon Israel and tell the fullness
of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved.
As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion.
He will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them.
When I take away their sins as regards to the gospel, their enemies for your sake.
But as regards to election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Though Israel experienced a partial hardening for a time, God's
calling and gifts of them are irrevocable, and they will experience a revival.
The Bible is very clear about that.
Romans 11 or revelation seven.
For a time they experienced the curse of God
for their disbelief and unbelief and fruitfulness.
We're grafted in not because we're valuable, but because of the grace of God.
We're grafted into the tree.
As part of the tree, we gain the inheritance of the root
without the curse of no fruit,
so that curses on the nation of Israel, it's not upon us who have been grafted in.
Now, let me just say this.
The reason I know that.
Is because of Jesus.
We don't experience the national
mosaic curse of Leviticus 26 and 28.
Don't ever think that because you messed up
and something bad happens that God has cursed you.
That's not how God works.
Those curses were for the nation of Israel for a time,
not for all time before a time.
Those of us who are in Christ by faith who have been drafted in,
please understand that our curse has been leveled
against Jesus so God doesn't have to level it against us.
How do I know?
Because I read my Bible, Galatians 313 Christ has become the curse for us.
Do you understand?
So I don't live under the curse of Leviticus 26.
In Deuteronomy 28,
Jesus has become my curse.
So for me, for
you, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
We don't live under the curse.
I pray over me and my family every morning.
I pray Deuteronomy 28 over us every morning.
I pray that we will experience all these blessings
by the grace of God, not by how we live.
And I pray that God will spare us from the curse
because of the blood of Jesus on the cross.
Do you see that?
I want the blessings God promised, but it's not going to become
because I am so good.
It's going to become by God's grace, and I want him to spare from me
the curse and the combination that I deserve because of my sin,
not because of who I am, but because of what Jesus did on the cross.
So I want to live in the spiritual reality of Deuteronomy 28,
experiencing the blessing by God's grace
and the removal of the curse by Jesus's blood.
And I want to live in that grace.
But here's the thing about grace, and this is what we have to understand.
Grace does not eliminate the necessity for fruit.
We can't just say, well, I live in the grace of God, so
I don't have to do anything. No.
Grace does not eliminate
the necessity for fruit.
The King still expects his people to be fruitful,
just not leaf full.
What kind of fruit?
The fruit of repentance.
To repent from sin
in salvation and to live in the state of repentance.
God. I'm sorry.
Thank you for your forgiveness.
To live in a state of of repentance.
Father, I humble myself before you and I submit myself to your word.
Thank you for your forgiveness.
I'm going to chase out sin in my life.
The fruit that's visible.
Galatians 522 and 23.
For the fruit of the spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Are any of those invisible?
No. You see them all.
What fruit is invisible fruit?
None.
He, the king of specks.
Fruit because of his grace, the fruit of good works.
He to God has prepared you for good works
that he already prepared in advance for you to do so do the good works.
Fruit, the fruit of obedience,
an obedient holy life that repents of sin and renounces
sin, and chooses to live in obedience and holiness and righteousness.
That's the fruit, and that's what
the King expects.
And though
we don't live under the curse because of sin,
we live under the discipline and the pruning of a good, loving father,
not as judicial condemnation, but as pruning for righteousness.
Some of us are living in moments right now of discipline,
some severe discipline, and some pruning, and it is painful and difficult.
And you think God is pissed off because you messed up?
He's not.
He took all that anger and later on his son,
but he is pruning you and disciplining you
so that your life doesn't produce just leaves.
It produces fruit.
Do you understand?
You follow. Look at these.
Two bowls.
Which one?
Is full of fruit?
This one? Yes.
What about this one?
How do you know?
You're judging.
You don't know what's in here.
It made his profession.
It's in church all the time.
How dare you?
What gives you the right?
Who gave you the authority?
You don't judge what's in here.
This is a bowl of fruit.
You believe me?
Oh, why?
You can see it.
You and I are one of these.
The question is not
what you claim is inside.
The issue Jesus is dealing with
is what he wants.
What's a visible on the outside?
You're not saved by the fruit.
But if you're saved, the fruit is going to be visible.
And that was the judgment.
Listen here.
Wrap this up.
Jesus's authority exposes
fruitless religion, and it demands kingdom
fruit and.
Faith is not your fruit.
But saving faith never remains fruitless.
None of us can say, well, I have faith.
That's the fruit.
No it's not.
Jesus is not.
What religious leaves the king
expects King of fruit.
And so
this entire thing.
I want to wrap it up with this statement.
Let this sink in.
You and I, you cannot encounter the authority of Jesus
and legitimately claim to be a person of saving faith.
Well, insisting he has no right to expect fruit
and thinking he won't inspect your life
for it.
That's Matthew 21.
Applied to us personally.
There's a lot here.
And I think if
we're paying attention, there's a lot of work
and a lot of reliance that we have to allow the Holy Spirit to do in our lives.
And so truth time,
tell the truth.
Ask yourself the question.
Have I lived with more leaves than visible
fruit?
Have I thought, because I have faith
that that's the fruit Jesus is looking for, ultimately?
Ask yourself the question.
Have I relied on looking more religious
than living in repentance?
Kingdom fruit
from King to people.
I want you to pray with me.
Father, I thank you for your love.
That by your love
you sent your son to die on the cross
to make new life possible.
Thank you
for the power of your Holy Spirit that transforms and changes
dead, empty religious lives into
lives that bear fruit of the kingdom.
Thank you.
Thank you that it's not about us just working harder.
It's about us coming to you in repentance and allowing your transformative
work to take root in our lives.
And so do that in us.
Friends, I want to invite you in this moment.
If there's
something you know in your life you need to repent of.
You've courted sin.
You've dated it.
You got close to the edge.
Just see how close you can get.
And you know
that those things don't produce kingdom fruit.
Would you repent?
Would you in this moment say God?
I choose today to remain
intimately entwined with you, and I want you
to live intimately in my life.
Because I want to bear good fruit.
Father, there are some who are praying that prayer.
Praying a similar prayer, who are who are repenting.
Hear their prayer. Hear their heart.
I pray that we live
visibly in front of this world, unashamedly, boldly, with conviction
that the fruit of the kingdom is seen in our lives.
And father, I pray we
live lives of repentance for your name's sake,
that your kingdom would come and your will be done
in us and through us.
In your name I pray. Amen.
Friends, I love you.
Well done. It's a big chapter.
We're going to go through chapter 22 next week.
This is all happens in one day in Jesus life and Tuesday
before the crucifixion on Friday.
So read chapter 21 to read chapter 22.
Get ready.
As we've seen this next song, there will be people up front to pray with you.
Something of you need to repent.
Some of you need to commit yourselves to living a life of fruitfulness.
I'd encourage you to do that in prayer with other people.
They'll be around after service as well.
Don't walk out of here
without doing business with God.
Let's see.