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Matthew
21 v 17, 19. We have heard a little bit about this fig tree
yesterday. And I appreciated that, but what impressed me was
when Jesus was hungry, He went to it to get something and all he
found was leaves, only leaves. Made me feel I have to be careful
if that would be my condition when the Lord visits and wants
fruit. The leaves are all part of a tree or vine, and we cannot
have sweet fruit without the leaves. Jesus spoke about Himself
and said “I am the true vine, and My Father is the
husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh
away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that
it may bring forth more fruit.” There is something
mysterious about the vine and all of God’s planting, all His
creation, it is so hard to comprehend, to think about what God
has planned in the plant, and the leaves, the root system and
eventually we have fruit.
I was
studying a little bit about the vine and something strange
happened in a home where we staying. They had a nice grape vine
and it had nice dark purple grapes, very large and very sweet.
Once when we were there they went out to pick some fruit, and
when we tasted those grapes they were very bitter. Then they
noticed that the leaves were missing. They happened to have a
horse, and that horse had got loose and gone over and trimmed
the vine and ate the leaves. The grapes grew, but no sweetness
in them at all. That sweetness they get from the sun. They get
more from the air than from the ground. I asked a man how that
worked. If the leaves are there it gets oxygen and sun, I don’t
know too much about it. This man told me that vines have a
source of supply similar to our body. We have veins and arteries
and it all works from the body, so it is in the plant, and we
must have leaves in order to have sweet fruit.
This
tree had all leaves, and this was a disappointment to Jesus, and
so He said let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever and the
thing died. It is good to understand a little of what preceded
it. Jesus was making His last visit to Jerusalem. It was
written in the scripture “Behold,
your king cometh unto thee make and sitting upon an ass, and a
colt the foal of an ass.”
That scripture had to be fulfilled, and so a few days before His
crucifixion Jesus came near to the city and He sent two of His
disciples to get this ass, this colt. He said “If
anybody says anything to you about what you are doing, then you
shall say the Lord has need of them and they will send it.”
So the two disciples went and did as He said, and He rode
into Jerusalem. People put their clothes there, and they
cried saying “Blessed
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna is the
highest.”
In Luke it tells us that some of the religious people were there
and they wanted Jesus to hush them, and Jesus said “If
these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry
out.”
In Mark
11, Jesus went into the temple, He went three days in
succession, the first day He just looked around and saw all that
was going on. The next day He went in to cleanse the temple, and
overturned the tables of the money changers and drove out those
that sold doves. He said “that my house shall be called the
house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
When Jesus looked at the temple in all its magnificence, and all
that it was, and what was it? It was just the same as He saw in
the trees, all leaves and no fruit. What was He expecting? The
fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. When He
went to look for what God wanted, a little praise, love and
affection for one another and it was not there. All they were
doing it for was for their own gain. They would not open the
temple door for nothing, they had to get paid for it. The
sacrifices, so different to what God wanted. When I was thinking
of this it caused me to ask myself the question, what kind of
fruit do I have in my life?
If you
want to get more of an idea, let us look at Matthew 6, and this
is what Jesus saw. Versus 1 to 4. The only reward they are going
to have is what people think of them. They wanted the uppermost
parts, and to be seen of men, sounding the trumpet when they did
something for others, telling everybody what they are doing it.
That is the way of the hypocrites and Jesus saw it. When you
pray, don’t be like the hypocrites, they like to stand on the
street corners and in synagogues, that they may be seen of men,
but He told them what their reward would be. Leaves only, and
that is what Jesus saw, He saw it in this one fig tree, and here
He saw it in the religious world, and He doesn’t want to see
that in His people, He wants to see the fruit of the spirit.
In
Matthew 23 we have another picture of when Jesus was speaking,
after He cleansed the temple, and they wanted to know what
authority He had and He talked with them. V 23,25. Most people
don’t like the dishes just clean on the outside, and leave the
dirt on the inside. When we were children we had to clean the
inside, we couldn’t get away with anything like that. These
people were altogether thinking how they looked to other people,
and they forgot how they looked to God. When we get up in the
morning we clean ourselves and make the outside what it should
be. It’s so easy to fix up the outside and I have been guilty
of that. What about how we look before God, have we done
something about the inside as well as the outside? God wants us
a neat and clean people. So many times in the Old Testament and
the New Testament we read that the people were to cleanse
themselves, and change their garments and wash their garments,
so they could appear before God clean.
Isaiah 1
v 16 – 18. When we think what God can give me by searching my
heart, and when I think of this tree with just leaves and not
the other part and we must have the two. I
have appreciated speaking a little about this sower and the
seed, there is something nice about it. If you children want to
notice a little plant some time, you will find there are always
two parts. When it sprouts and germinates there is one part that
goes down for water, and the other part that comes up for the
sun. There are always two parts to every Christian, one that
others see, but it is no good if there is no root system, where
it can drink water, that is the secret part of our life that is
the hidden part. If we have a hidden part, a communication with
God, everybody will know that we worship God, because we are
alive.
The
nature of the seed is always reproduced, corn will always be
corn, and wheat will always be wheat, whatever you plant that is
what it is going to be and if you want a picture of
predestination it is given in the seed. You hold the little seed
in your hand and it is already predestined what kind of plant it
it’s going to be at the height of the plant, the kind of
leaves, the blossom and also the fruit, everything about it.
Whatever you sow that is what you’re going to reap. If people
want to sow wild oats, the poor souls have to reap that. I don’t
want to but they have to. If a person is sowing this gospel
seed, and it has life, it will reproduce Christians. It won’t
be denominations, no they will be just like Christ. When people
have the nature of Christ, they want to give to that, and if
they cannot find that they pray for it, it is marvellous how you
heard the gospel. You had a nature that you wanted to have
fellowship with God, how that comes about I don’t know, but
where there is a hungry seeking soul, there is a saviour and He
bring you into a family. May be different in our outward
aspects, but we are all one family. So we think about the seed,
and this is what it takes and then you comes fruit. I was also
reminded when we heard last night about the 10 virgins. The
foolish were those who had a lamp and no oil, leaves and no
fruit. That is not what God wants, He wants to have this fruit,
He wants to have leaves so people can tell that the tree is
there.
It
mentions about another fig tree and the man came three years
looking for fruit, and he said just cut it down don’t cumber
the ground with the thing and the vine dresser said give it one
more chance, I will dig about the roots and add fertiliser and
then if there is no fruit then we will cut it down. If it brings
forth, we will spare it, and if not cut it down. That was not
the way with Jerusalem when
they rejected Jesus that day. Jesus was the son of God and
worked among them. He came into the temple and cast out those
things and put it in order, and they wanted to know who gave Him
the authority to do it. He asked them a question, was the
baptism of John from heaven or of men? The wickedness of them
they said “if
we say is from heaven He will say unto us why did you then not
believe him: if we shall say of men, we fear the people for all
hold John as a prophet.”
They thought the people would stone them. That is the class of
people that had rejected the Christ, there was no fruit and that
was the end.
When
Jesus went outside the temple He said
“They
won’t see me until the time comes when ye shall say blessed it
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
Jesus told the disciples when they spoke to Him about the
marvellous stones in the temple, He said “There
shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down.”
It looked like it was impossible. When I was reading a little
about the history of the destruction of Jerusalem, the
thing I liked about it was how true everything Jesus said came
to pass. Some of those stones were 30 feet long
and 7 ˝ feet high and 15 feet wide.
There was no mortar used, and they said you could not see where
one stone left off and another started, it was quite marvellous.
When the Roman army broke through and they hammered on it for
three days and never made a dent on it, and it looked impossible
what Jesus said would come true, when Jesus said there would not
be one stone upon another. Then when that siege continued
someone threw a lighted torch into the temple and the result was
that all the gold in the temple melted and it went down on to
the stones. That is why the stones fell apart and not one was
left on another. When the Roman generals went inside when it was
burning, they said they have never seen anything like it. But
when Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of Lords was
rejected it went to nothing and was nothing.
I can
tell you something else that really struck into my heart. He was
talking to the 12 apostles when He told them that parable.
“Who then is that wise and faithful servant, who went his
Lord, he will find so doing?” He spoke that parable to the
12 apostles in Matthew 24 and the other in chapter 25, and that
is why it really sounded in my own heart about what kind of
fruit and my bearing or is that just leaves? We can talk, but do
we have this love of God.
Let us
turn to 1 Corinthians 13. When Paul was writing there were quite
a few things in that church that was not good, some things Paul
was trying to correct and then he talked about charity. It is
kind of hard to read this first verse. “Though I speak with
tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become
as down to brass, or as the tinkling cymbal.” Leaves only.
Don’t we think quite a little about what people talk.
Sometimes people can talk so nice, and we think they are
wonderful, and are getting along wonderfully, but that is not
always true. It’s how do we live. Just a sounding brass - just
an empty life. Just empty faith. There is something about me, I
always want to speak nice, but when I made my choice I could not
even take part in meetings for a little while. When I started to
take part I was 19 and there was only four people there. I still
find it difficult. There is something about it, we like to have
just nice leaves, but no, we have two have this life, it is the
life of God.
V 3 Paul
was speaking “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the
poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not
charity it profiteth nothing.” He gave away all this
stuff, everyone in the work gives away everything they have, it
is quite a struggle. I think about all the young workers
especially. It was a big struggle for me to have enough faith
that the Lord will meet my needs and help me, and we are just so
weak. We are able to have a job and take responsibility, and
here when you give yourself into the work it’s not hard to
give away the little I had financially, and that was not much,
and besides leaving home was leaving everything I wanted. A
normal person wants to get married, that is the way God created
us, we want a home and family and that is why God created us.
You are going to go and live for others and that is quite a
thing. I tell you my dear friends, when we were children my
mother and father heard the gospel in 1906. We had one great
uncle and he decided in 1905, he was so true, stood out alone,
his wife and six children turned against him, but he knew that
this was the truth. The sister workers were put out of the
building, when he heard they were to be put out he said. “I
will go out with them.” And he did.
Mother’s
best friend told her when she decided “don’t darken my
door again” and she never did. The time came when they
were both dying of cancer and my mother wanted to and she could
not go. They told us a little about the hardship the workers
had, and when you think of all the people who benefited from
their sacrifice. When you go you give everything away and then
you don’t know anything. Then your joy comes into your heart
that cannot be expressed when you find someone so distressed and
they find peace. The first year there was a woman who was ready
to commit suicide, and her disappointment had been so great, and
then the joy which came into her life. Her husband left and so
did her three children, then when she found the Lord that was
her joy and she was true until she died and she was eighty years
old. You never know the joy of living for other people, you
cannot build without losing all. Paul said in verse three that
without the love of God it profiteth me nothing.
Then he
started to tell a little about charity. I am not speaking about
it because I have it but it is one thing I am aiming at. Charity
is a quality that will help you to suffer a long time and be
kind. How good are you at suffering? Suffer a little while and
grit your teeth. Yes I can do that, but be kind also. When those
in the household are nice you, then you can be kind. I feel for
you mothers with your little ones, you have lots to irritate and
you can be kind. We workers have the same thing and we can be
kind with you people. Oh I want to do that so much. This fruit
of the spirit, love suffereth long and is kind. It is not
envious, or desires what others have, neither is it emulous.
This particularly means if we want to be equal or above other
people. We don’t like to follow anyone that is what they fed
me at school. The harder you study the more you learned and the
better chance to get on and get more money and you are above
other people. But what does Jesus want us to do? He wants us to
be humble and if we are humble He gives us grace. God resisteth
the proud. If I want the grace of God, I have to come down.
Charity
vauntieth not itself, is not overbearing, is not argumentative,
not puffed up or filled with pride, boastful or conceited, is
not itself unseemly. I think you children at home your father
and mother teach you what is becoming for you go to visit other
people, because they don’t want a reproach on the family name.
That is exactly what God wants. If you are unbecoming in the way
we talk or in the way we act it is not nice, and our Master was
otherwise. Charity is not that way, charity is not easily
provoked. That is a hard one for me, because I have a bad
temper. Anyone who has bad temper, I feel sorry for them because
that is where I was. The only one thing you can do about it and
that is to have God help us to help ourselves. When we start off
unkindly, to say I’m sorry. May be we should say “If they
had not done it, I would not have done it.” But no, that
is not it, I should not have got angry.
Once
my companion and I were living in a box car, we used to visit a
certain family and this lady was very kind to us. One day I went
there and the children got angry and this lady got angry also.
And she put on an awful scene. I was glad my companion was not
there, I felt so sorry for the lady, because it was like me and
I knew how she felt. I got some victory, but not as much
as I would like to. After the upset and the girl went to school,
it was kind of stiff and I just left. Next day we came for
the noon meal,
as was usual, but it was still stiff, and the next day was the
same. The third day after things cleared around, she came and
said to me, her husband was out with my companion. She said “you
know my grandfather had a terrible temper and I take after him
and I cannot do anything about it.”
I don’t know where I got mine. I said I think I understand
because I was like that also. One thing you can do, though, if
you didn’t have a living God you could say that, but you have
a living God and you put your trust in Him, and every time you
get a little angry, you acknowledge you did wrong, no matter
what you did, that is the only hope you have. God is the creator
and He is the recreator, and if you have this relationship with
Him and we grow in grace and knowledge of His word, and we feed
on it, the same as we grow naturally, we will make progress. If
we get sick, and that is the same thing spiritually, we must
treat that sickness and take rest, and God gives us our strength
again. That lady is still faithful. I hope that will be the way
with all of us.
Charity
doesn’t think any evil. Sometimes our thoughts are not too
good, but doesn’t brood over the injury. Charity loves
forgiveness. Some people have all the bad things you ever did
marked down, and they could tell you, but love doesn’t do
that. Love helps us to forget. It rejoices not in iniquity, but
rejoices in the truth. When we have charity that is the essence
of the fruit of the spirit, love, joy and peace. Whenever you
have love there is joy, and when you have joy there it peace,
and when you have love, joy and peace you have long-suffering,
and a person who has these things will be gentle. That is what
Paul was trying to get across to the Church of Ephesus when he
spoke to them about “be ye kind one to another, tender
hearted, for giving one another, even as God, for Christ’s
sake, has forgiven you.” You really cannot roar at people
who are tender hearted.
I just
love to read what Paul wrote to those Thessalonians, “we
were gentle among you, even as the nurse cherisheth her
children” That was a approach when I read that, and I was
not doing it. The tenderness of a mother with her little baby. I
have seen many fathers with them, but they are not tender like a
mother, and that was how Paul was to those Thessalonians. I
cannot say too much about that, because I have a long way to
go.
There
was another one in 1 Corinthians 11 and I felt sorry when I woke
up to that number of years ago. It speaks of the breaking of the
bread, and Paul mentions to those people that they were coming
together for the Sunday morning meeting, and it was for the
worse and not the better. Why? Because they would not forgive
one another and there was strife among them. When we break bread
and we have unforgiveness in our hearts towards anybody, it is
only going to go against us, instead of being a blessing to us.
There was a certain family with unforgiveness and it is in
Matthew 18. Peter was feeling a little bit may be like we are
sometimes and he asked Jesus “If a brother trespasses
against you seven times, should you forgive him?” Jesus
said “Not only seven times, but until seventy times seven.”
That is quite a thing you know, when you even seven times it. A
person says they are sorry and asked you to forgive them, well
don’t you do it anymore, but seventy times seven. That will
keep you busy in a day won’t it.
We have
this story about a king taking stock of his servants. One person
told me that amount was worth $10 million. It was then the
fellow could not pay, he could never have made it. The king said
he was to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he
had so that he could get what he could, and the poor fellow fell
down and begged for forgiveness. He forgave him because he was
moved by his plea. Then he went out and found the fellow
servant, and he only owed him a very small amount, and he took
me by the throat and said “pay what you owe me.” He
besought him and fell down, and said “have patience with me
and I will pay you all” but he would do it. He said you
pay me now. So he turned him over to the officer and they put
him in jail.
This
fellow servant went to the King and told him what had happened,
and that was so angry with his fellow servant. The king asked
him to come back and he said “you wicked servant.” I
forgave you all the debt because our desiredst me, and should
you have had compassion on your fellow servant?” He
was wrath and delivered him to the tormentors,” the last
verse says “So likewise shall My Heavenly Father do unto
you, if ye from your hearts the gift not everyone forgive his
brother their trespasses.” That is pretty hard isn’t it?
May it create a deeper desire in everyone of us, that no matter
what people do to us, just to forgive, and ask God to cleanse us
so we will not have ugly feelings and that is what Jesus
taught.
I would
like to talk with you in these few minutes? about our example
with Jesus. All the time He was with His disciples they were
wondering who was going to be the greatest, and they did not
always have the best spirit, and He never upbraided them, He
taught them and was patient with them and gave them an example.
Then the time came at the Last Supper. I just think about Jesus
at that time. He told His disciples to go and prepare the
dinner, where He could eat the Passover with them, so Peter and
John prepared it, and then they all came to the upper room. The
Master had arranged for this upper room, and He asked them to
the guest chamber, and that man must have been one who was
serving Jesus. Then they met there.
Normally
when a person went into a home the guests were usually given
water to wash their feet, or if they had a slave, the slave
would wash their feet, and then sometimes that person thought
enough of you they would do it themselves. But when they went to
the room that day there were the 12, and they didn’t have a
slave, so they went in and there was a table and they sat there.
The dinner was all over and nobody had done it and everybody had
a chance to do it. That is the way I have been many a time, I
had the chance to serve and I did not do it. I had two younger
brothers, and I thought they should do lots of things when I
wanted to get out of it. There are certain things we have a
chance to do. They did not see that opportunity, and after the
dinner was all over Jesus got up and removed His garment and
girded Himself, like the slave, and the basin of water and went
to wash their feet. Wouldn’t that be humiliating? Wouldn’t
they have been thinking I could have done it. When he came to
Peter, I can understand Peter saying “thou shalt never wash
my feet.” Some people don’t even want to brush their
shoes, and here to have Jesus wash his feet, he said “you
will never wash my feet.” Then Jesus said “if I wash
thee not thou hast no part with me” and Peter said “not
my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” He felt
terrible, and that is at the Last Supper, and that is how He
served His disciples and this is very humiliating, when you
should and you don’t. Then Jesus talked with them and it was
His last visit with them, it was a meeting that Judas was washed
out and others were cleansed.
Then
Jesus was arrested and oh when I see the Lamb nature, no wonder
it is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. They
came to arrest Him and Jesus said “Whom
seek thou?” “Jesus of Nazareth.” He
said “I
am he.”
When they wanted to make Him a King, He hid Himself, and when
they wanted to crucify Him, He said Here I am. Most people when
others would be wanting to make them a King, they would be
saying here am I. But crucifying, they would run the other way.
But this is our King, and He was ready. He was not dragged as a
lamb to the slaughter, He was led to the high priest and Peter
saw when they spat on Him, and smote Him and demeaned Him in
every way. Peter saw when He was reviled that He reviled not
again.
Then He
was taken to Pilate and then to Herod and then they mocked Him,
and treated Him shamefully, then he sent Him back to Pilate and
he could find no fault in Him, yet Pilate crucified Him. How did
He do? He was a lamb, a lamb and a sheep the only animals that
doesn’t cry when they know they’re going to die. It is hard
for me to die daily, to die to the things that I should not
have, and the way I speak and act, but this is the Lamb of God
that takes away the sin of the world. What had He seen that day?
Leaves only. What those people saw was divine love and because
He died that way God raised Him up again, and He had given Him a
name above every name “that at the name of Jesus every knee
shall bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, that every time shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” He is the Lord.
One more
thing that I love and that is after He was resurrected, and was
with His apostles 40 days, then we read about them during those
40 days. I don’t know just when it was but Peter said “I
go fishing” and the others said that they would go with
him. Why did he do that? I don’t know for sure, but I will
tell you the way I feel when I made a big blunder what we feel
we should do, and the enemy of our soul is reminding us of what
we did. We might as well just quit, but Peter said “I go
fishing” Back to his old trade. Then he fished all
night, he did not stop and he did not get anything. In the
morning they saw someone on the shore. That person said
“children, not rebels, not you backsliders, but children
have you any meat?” “No” “put your net on the other side
and you shall find.” And they did that and they were not
able to draw it in for the multitude of fishes.
Then
they brought them in, and what did they see when they came to
the land? They saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon
and bread. Jesus had that little fire, bread and fish to give
them, and after they had eaten, Jesus said “Peter do you
love me more than these?” And he said “thou knoweth I
love you.” Jesus said “feed my lambs and feed my
sheep.” I will tell you when that first came really home
to me and it was one time in early years, I was seven years in
the work when I read that and I was feeling the same as Peter, I
might as well quit and I can go no further. Maybe most of us
have felt that way sometimes, and maybe some of you felt that
way before you came to Convention and that was how Peter felt.
Jesus said “feed my lambs and feed my sheep.” We can
be so self-centred at times, we don’t think of others and we
cannot make it ourselves we feel.
As we
heard yesterday, the God of heaven who took the children out of
the land of Egypt with two servants; 600,000 men besides women
and children and he led them to the red Sea, and here the army
coming behind and the sea ahead of them. “Stand still and
see the salvation of God.” God made a promise to those
people, if they followed Him, He would rid them of the
Egyptians, and in one swoop the whole army was gone. The next
thing no feed, and they murmured and what did God do? He gave
them the angel feed; no water, speak to the rock and the water
gushed out. That is the God we serve and that is the one who can
help us. I hope there will be one thing in our hearts; think of
His family, feed His lambs and feed His sheep as we meet in the
little home. We cannot feed people if we are not there, and
neither can you unless you are in contact with God, and neither
can I, but we can be vessels in the hands of God to help pour
out water to those that are weak.
I hope
you will remember what Jesus saw when He visited the Temple,
leaves only. When it should have been the house of prayer, and
here it was full, just a den of thieves. If we have our love for
the Lord, we have one interest, and that is for our King and His
kingdom, and His people, and we will have an interest in those
who don’t know our King. We can tell about what we have
enjoyed, and that will bring a blessing to others and a blessing
to ourselves. Let us have this fruit of the spirit, because as
we abide in Him and He abides in us, there will be the fruit of
the spirit, joy, love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness and faith. Amen.
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- Convention -
Tasmania
Matthew
21 v 17, 19. We have heard a little bit about this fig tree
yesterday. And I appreciated that, but what impressed me was
when Jesus was hungry, He went to it to get something and all he
found was leaves, only leaves. Made me feel I have to be careful
if that would be my condition when the Lord visits and wants
fruit. The leaves are all part of a tree or vine, and we cannot
have sweet fruit without the leaves. Jesus spoke about Himself
and said “I am the true vine, and My Father is the
husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh
away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that
it may bring forth more fruit.” There is something
mysterious about the vine and all of God’s planting, all His
creation, it is so hard to comprehend, to think about what God
has planned in the plant, and the leaves, the root system and
eventually we have fruit.
I was
studying a little bit about the vine and something strange
happened in a home where we staying. They had a nice grape vine
and it had nice dark purple grapes, very large and very sweet.
Once when we were there they went out to pick some fruit, and
when we tasted those grapes they were very bitter. Then they
noticed that the leaves were missing. They happened to have a
horse, and that horse had got loose and gone over and trimmed
the vine and ate the leaves. The grapes grew, but no sweetness
in them at all. That sweetness they get from the sun. They get
more from the air than from the ground. I asked a man how that
worked. If the leaves are there it gets oxygen and sun, I don’t
know too much about it. This man told me that vines have a
source of supply similar to our body. We have veins and arteries
and it all works from the body, so it is in the plant, and we
must have leaves in order to have sweet fruit.
This
tree had all leaves, and this was a disappointment to Jesus, and
so He said let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever and the
thing died. It is good to understand a little of what preceded
it. Jesus was making His last visit to Jerusalem. It was
written in the scripture “Behold,
your king cometh unto thee make and sitting upon an ass, and a
colt the foal of an ass.”
That scripture had to be fulfilled, and so a few days before His
crucifixion Jesus came near to the city and He sent two of His
disciples to get this ass, this colt. He said “If
anybody says anything to you about what you are doing, then you
shall say the Lord has need of them and they will send it.”
So the two disciples went and did as He said, and He rode
into Jerusalem. People put their clothes there, and they
cried saying “Blessed
is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna is the
highest.”
In Luke it tells us that some of the religious people were there
and they wanted Jesus to hush them, and Jesus said “If
these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry
out.”
In Mark
11, Jesus went into the temple, He went three days in
succession, the first day He just looked around and saw all that
was going on. The next day He went in to cleanse the temple, and
overturned the tables of the money changers and drove out those
that sold doves. He said “that my house shall be called the
house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.”
When Jesus looked at the temple in all its magnificence, and all
that it was, and what was it? It was just the same as He saw in
the trees, all leaves and no fruit. What was He expecting? The
fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. When He
went to look for what God wanted, a little praise, love and
affection for one another and it was not there. All they were
doing it for was for their own gain. They would not open the
temple door for nothing, they had to get paid for it. The
sacrifices, so different to what God wanted. When I was thinking
of this it caused me to ask myself the question, what kind of
fruit do I have in my life?
If you
want to get more of an idea, let us look at Matthew 6, and this
is what Jesus saw. Versus 1 to 4. The only reward they are going
to have is what people think of them. They wanted the uppermost
parts, and to be seen of men, sounding the trumpet when they did
something for others, telling everybody what they are doing it.
That is the way of the hypocrites and Jesus saw it. When you
pray, don’t be like the hypocrites, they like to stand on the
street corners and in synagogues, that they may be seen of men,
but He told them what their reward would be. Leaves only, and
that is what Jesus saw, He saw it in this one fig tree, and here
He saw it in the religious world, and He doesn’t want to see
that in His people, He wants to see the fruit of the spirit.
In
Matthew 23 we have another picture of when Jesus was speaking,
after He cleansed the temple, and they wanted to know what
authority He had and He talked with them. V 23,25. Most people
don’t like the dishes just clean on the outside, and leave the
dirt on the inside. When we were children we had to clean the
inside, we couldn’t get away with anything like that. These
people were altogether thinking how they looked to other people,
and they forgot how they looked to God. When we get up in the
morning we clean ourselves and make the outside what it should
be. It’s so easy to fix up the outside and I have been guilty
of that. What about how we look before God, have we done
something about the inside as well as the outside? God wants us
a neat and clean people. So many times in the Old Testament and
the New Testament we read that the people were to cleanse
themselves, and change their garments and wash their garments,
so they could appear before God clean.
Isaiah 1
v 16 – 18. When we think what God can give me by searching my
heart, and when I think of this tree with just leaves and not
the other part and we must have the two. I
have appreciated speaking a little about this sower and the
seed, there is something nice about it. If you children want to
notice a little plant some time, you will find there are always
two parts. When it sprouts and germinates there is one part that
goes down for water, and the other part that comes up for the
sun. There are always two parts to every Christian, one that
others see, but it is no good if there is no root system, where
it can drink water, that is the secret part of our life that is
the hidden part. If we have a hidden part, a communication with
God, everybody will know that we worship God, because we are
alive.
The
nature of the seed is always reproduced, corn will always be
corn, and wheat will always be wheat, whatever you plant that is
what it is going to be and if you want a picture of
predestination it is given in the seed. You hold the little seed
in your hand and it is already predestined what kind of plant it
it’s going to be at the height of the plant, the kind of
leaves, the blossom and also the fruit, everything about it.
Whatever you sow that is what you’re going to reap. If people
want to sow wild oats, the poor souls have to reap that. I don’t
want to but they have to. If a person is sowing this gospel
seed, and it has life, it will reproduce Christians. It won’t
be denominations, no they will be just like Christ. When people
have the nature of Christ, they want to give to that, and if
they cannot find that they pray for it, it is marvellous how you
heard the gospel. You had a nature that you wanted to have
fellowship with God, how that comes about I don’t know, but
where there is a hungry seeking soul, there is a saviour and He
bring you into a family. May be different in our outward
aspects, but we are all one family. So we think about the seed,
and this is what it takes and then you comes fruit. I was also
reminded when we heard last night about the 10 virgins. The
foolish were those who had a lamp and no oil, leaves and no
fruit. That is not what God wants, He wants to have this fruit,
He wants to have leaves so people can tell that the tree is
there.
It
mentions about another fig tree and the man came three years
looking for fruit, and he said just cut it down don’t cumber
the ground with the thing and the vine dresser said give it one
more chance, I will dig about the roots and add fertiliser and
then if there is no fruit then we will cut it down. If it brings
forth, we will spare it, and if not cut it down. That was not
the way with Jerusalem when
they rejected Jesus that day. Jesus was the son of God and
worked among them. He came into the temple and cast out those
things and put it in order, and they wanted to know who gave Him
the authority to do it. He asked them a question, was the
baptism of John from heaven or of men? The wickedness of them
they said “if
we say is from heaven He will say unto us why did you then not
believe him: if we shall say of men, we fear the people for all
hold John as a prophet.”
They thought the people would stone them. That is the class of
people that had rejected the Christ, there was no fruit and that
was the end.
When
Jesus went outside the temple He said
“They
won’t see me until the time comes when ye shall say blessed it
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
Jesus told the disciples when they spoke to Him about the
marvellous stones in the temple, He said “There
shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down.”
It looked like it was impossible. When I was reading a little
about the history of the destruction of Jerusalem, the
thing I liked about it was how true everything Jesus said came
to pass. Some of those stones were 30 feet long
and 7 ˝ feet high and 15 feet wide.
There was no mortar used, and they said you could not see where
one stone left off and another started, it was quite marvellous.
When the Roman army broke through and they hammered on it for
three days and never made a dent on it, and it looked impossible
what Jesus said would come true, when Jesus said there would not
be one stone upon another. Then when that siege continued
someone threw a lighted torch into the temple and the result was
that all the gold in the temple melted and it went down on to
the stones. That is why the stones fell apart and not one was
left on another. When the Roman generals went inside when it was
burning, they said they have never seen anything like it. But
when Jesus Christ the King of kings and Lord of Lords was
rejected it went to nothing and was nothing.
I can
tell you something else that really struck into my heart. He was
talking to the 12 apostles when He told them that parable.
“Who then is that wise and faithful servant, who went his
Lord, he will find so doing?” He spoke that parable to the
12 apostles in Matthew 24 and the other in chapter 25, and that
is why it really sounded in my own heart about what kind of
fruit and my bearing or is that just leaves? We can talk, but do
we have this love of God.
Let us
turn to 1 Corinthians 13. When Paul was writing there were quite
a few things in that church that was not good, some things Paul
was trying to correct and then he talked about charity. It is
kind of hard to read this first verse. “Though I speak with
tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become
as down to brass, or as the tinkling cymbal.” Leaves only.
Don’t we think quite a little about what people talk.
Sometimes people can talk so nice, and we think they are
wonderful, and are getting along wonderfully, but that is not
always true. It’s how do we live. Just a sounding brass - just
an empty life. Just empty faith. There is something about me, I
always want to speak nice, but when I made my choice I could not
even take part in meetings for a little while. When I started to
take part I was 19 and there was only four people there. I still
find it difficult. There is something about it, we like to have
just nice leaves, but no, we have two have this life, it is the
life of God.
V 3 Paul
was speaking “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the
poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not
charity it profiteth nothing.” He gave away all this
stuff, everyone in the work gives away everything they have, it
is quite a struggle. I think about all the young workers
especially. It was a big struggle for me to have enough faith
that the Lord will meet my needs and help me, and we are just so
weak. We are able to have a job and take responsibility, and
here when you give yourself into the work it’s not hard to
give away the little I had financially, and that was not much,
and besides leaving home was leaving everything I wanted. A
normal person wants to get married, that is the way God created
us, we want a home and family and that is why God created us.
You are going to go and live for others and that is quite a
thing. I tell you my dear friends, when we were children my
mother and father heard the gospel in 1906. We had one great
uncle and he decided in 1905, he was so true, stood out alone,
his wife and six children turned against him, but he knew that
this was the truth. The sister workers were put out of the
building, when he heard they were to be put out he said. “I
will go out with them.” And he did.
Mother’s
best friend told her when she decided “don’t darken my
door again” and she never did. The time came when they
were both dying of cancer and my mother wanted to and she could
not go. They told us a little about the hardship the workers
had, and when you think of all the people who benefited from
their sacrifice. When you go you give everything away and then
you don’t know anything. Then your joy comes into your heart
that cannot be expressed when you find someone so distressed and
they find peace. The first year there was a woman who was ready
to commit suicide, and her disappointment had been so great, and
then the joy which came into her life. Her husband left and so
did her three children, then when she found the Lord that was
her joy and she was true until she died and she was eighty years
old. You never know the joy of living for other people, you
cannot build without losing all. Paul said in verse three that
without the love of God it profiteth me nothing.
Then he
started to tell a little about charity. I am not speaking about
it because I have it but it is one thing I am aiming at. Charity
is a quality that will help you to suffer a long time and be
kind. How good are you at suffering? Suffer a little while and
grit your teeth. Yes I can do that, but be kind also. When those
in the household are nice you, then you can be kind. I feel for
you mothers with your little ones, you have lots to irritate and
you can be kind. We workers have the same thing and we can be
kind with you people. Oh I want to do that so much. This fruit
of the spirit, love suffereth long and is kind. It is not
envious, or desires what others have, neither is it emulous.
This particularly means if we want to be equal or above other
people. We don’t like to follow anyone that is what they fed
me at school. The harder you study the more you learned and the
better chance to get on and get more money and you are above
other people. But what does Jesus want us to do? He wants us to
be humble and if we are humble He gives us grace. God resisteth
the proud. If I want the grace of God, I have to come down.
Charity
vauntieth not itself, is not overbearing, is not argumentative,
not puffed up or filled with pride, boastful or conceited, is
not itself unseemly. I think you children at home your father
and mother teach you what is becoming for you go to visit other
people, because they don’t want a reproach on the family name.
That is exactly what God wants. If you are unbecoming in the way
we talk or in the way we act it is not nice, and our Master was
otherwise. Charity is not that way, charity is not easily
provoked. That is a hard one for me, because I have a bad
temper. Anyone who has bad temper, I feel sorry for them because
that is where I was. The only one thing you can do about it and
that is to have God help us to help ourselves. When we start off
unkindly, to say I’m sorry. May be we should say “If they
had not done it, I would not have done it.” But no, that
is not it, I should not have got angry.
Once
my companion and I were living in a box car, we used to visit a
certain family and this lady was very kind to us. One day I went
there and the children got angry and this lady got angry also.
And she put on an awful scene. I was glad my companion was not
there, I felt so sorry for the lady, because it was like me and
I knew how she felt. I got some victory, but not as much
as I would like to. After the upset and the girl went to school,
it was kind of stiff and I just left. Next day we came for
the noon meal,
as was usual, but it was still stiff, and the next day was the
same. The third day after things cleared around, she came and
said to me, her husband was out with my companion. She said “you
know my grandfather had a terrible temper and I take after him
and I cannot do anything about it.”
I don’t know where I got mine. I said I think I understand
because I was like that also. One thing you can do, though, if
you didn’t have a living God you could say that, but you have
a living God and you put your trust in Him, and every time you
get a little angry, you acknowledge you did wrong, no matter
what you did, that is the only hope you have. God is the creator
and He is the recreator, and if you have this relationship with
Him and we grow in grace and knowledge of His word, and we feed
on it, the same as we grow naturally, we will make progress. If
we get sick, and that is the same thing spiritually, we must
treat that sickness and take rest, and God gives us our strength
again. That lady is still faithful. I hope that will be the way
with all of us.
Charity
doesn’t think any evil. Sometimes our thoughts are not too
good, but doesn’t brood over the injury. Charity loves
forgiveness. Some people have all the bad things you ever did
marked down, and they could tell you, but love doesn’t do
that. Love helps us to forget. It rejoices not in iniquity, but
rejoices in the truth. When we have charity that is the essence
of the fruit of the spirit, love, joy and peace. Whenever you
have love there is joy, and when you have joy there it peace,
and when you have love, joy and peace you have long-suffering,
and a person who has these things will be gentle. That is what
Paul was trying to get across to the Church of Ephesus when he
spoke to them about “be ye kind one to another, tender
hearted, for giving one another, even as God, for Christ’s
sake, has forgiven you.” You really cannot roar at people
who are tender hearted.
I just
love to read what Paul wrote to those Thessalonians, “we
were gentle among you, even as the nurse cherisheth her
children” That was a approach when I read that, and I was
not doing it. The tenderness of a mother with her little baby. I
have seen many fathers with them, but they are not tender like a
mother, and that was how Paul was to those Thessalonians. I
cannot say too much about that, because I have a long way to
go.
There
was another one in 1 Corinthians 11 and I felt sorry when I woke
up to that number of years ago. It speaks of the breaking of the
bread, and Paul mentions to those people that they were coming
together for the Sunday morning meeting, and it was for the
worse and not the better. Why? Because they would not forgive
one another and there was strife among them. When we break bread
and we have unforgiveness in our hearts towards anybody, it is
only going to go against us, instead of being a blessing to us.
There was a certain family with unforgiveness and it is in
Matthew 18. Peter was feeling a little bit may be like we are
sometimes and he asked Jesus “If a brother trespasses
against you seven times, should you forgive him?” Jesus
said “Not only seven times, but until seventy times seven.”
That is quite a thing you know, when you even seven times it. A
person says they are sorry and asked you to forgive them, well
don’t you do it anymore, but seventy times seven. That will
keep you busy in a day won’t it.
We have
this story about a king taking stock of his servants. One person
told me that amount was worth $10 million. It was then the
fellow could not pay, he could never have made it. The king said
he was to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he
had so that he could get what he could, and the poor fellow fell
down and begged for forgiveness. He forgave him because he was
moved by his plea. Then he went out and found the fellow
servant, and he only owed him a very small amount, and he took
me by the throat and said “pay what you owe me.” He
besought him and fell down, and said “have patience with me
and I will pay you all” but he would do it. He said you
pay me now. So he turned him over to the officer and they put
him in jail.
This
fellow servant went to the King and told him what had happened,
and that was so angry with his fellow servant. The king asked
him to come back and he said “you wicked servant.” I
forgave you all the debt because our desiredst me, and should
you have had compassion on your fellow servant?” He
was wrath and delivered him to the tormentors,” the last
verse says “So likewise shall My Heavenly Father do unto
you, if ye from your hearts the gift not everyone forgive his
brother their trespasses.” That is pretty hard isn’t it?
May it create a deeper desire in everyone of us, that no matter
what people do to us, just to forgive, and ask God to cleanse us
so we will not have ugly feelings and that is what Jesus
taught.
I would
like to talk with you in these few minutes? about our example
with Jesus. All the time He was with His disciples they were
wondering who was going to be the greatest, and they did not
always have the best spirit, and He never upbraided them, He
taught them and was patient with them and gave them an example.
Then the time came at the Last Supper. I just think about Jesus
at that time. He told His disciples to go and prepare the
dinner, where He could eat the Passover with them, so Peter and
John prepared it, and then they all came to the upper room. The
Master had arranged for this upper room, and He asked them to
the guest chamber, and that man must have been one who was
serving Jesus. Then they met there.
Normally
when a person went into a home the guests were usually given
water to wash their feet, or if they had a slave, the slave
would wash their feet, and then sometimes that person thought
enough of you they would do it themselves. But when they went to
the room that day there were the 12, and they didn’t have a
slave, so they went in and there was a table and they sat there.
The dinner was all over and nobody had done it and everybody had
a chance to do it. That is the way I have been many a time, I
had the chance to serve and I did not do it. I had two younger
brothers, and I thought they should do lots of things when I
wanted to get out of it. There are certain things we have a
chance to do. They did not see that opportunity, and after the
dinner was all over Jesus got up and removed His garment and
girded Himself, like the slave, and the basin of water and went
to wash their feet. Wouldn’t that be humiliating? Wouldn’t
they have been thinking I could have done it. When he came to
Peter, I can understand Peter saying “thou shalt never wash
my feet.” Some people don’t even want to brush their
shoes, and here to have Jesus wash his feet, he said “you
will never wash my feet.” Then Jesus said “if I wash
thee not thou hast no part with me” and Peter said “not
my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” He felt
terrible, and that is at the Last Supper, and that is how He
served His disciples and this is very humiliating, when you
should and you don’t. Then Jesus talked with them and it was
His last visit with them, it was a meeting that Judas was washed
out and others were cleansed.
Then
Jesus was arrested and oh when I see the Lamb nature, no wonder
it is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. They
came to arrest Him and Jesus said “Whom
seek thou?” “Jesus of Nazareth.” He
said “I
am he.”
When they wanted to make Him a King, He hid Himself, and when
they wanted to crucify Him, He said Here I am. Most people when
others would be wanting to make them a King, they would be
saying here am I. But crucifying, they would run the other way.
But this is our King, and He was ready. He was not dragged as a
lamb to the slaughter, He was led to the high priest and Peter
saw when they spat on Him, and smote Him and demeaned Him in
every way. Peter saw when He was reviled that He reviled not
again.
Then He
was taken to Pilate and then to Herod and then they mocked Him,
and treated Him shamefully, then he sent Him back to Pilate and
he could find no fault in Him, yet Pilate crucified Him. How did
He do? He was a lamb, a lamb and a sheep the only animals that
doesn’t cry when they know they’re going to die. It is hard
for me to die daily, to die to the things that I should not
have, and the way I speak and act, but this is the Lamb of God
that takes away the sin of the world. What had He seen that day?
Leaves only. What those people saw was divine love and because
He died that way God raised Him up again, and He had given Him a
name above every name “that at the name of Jesus every knee
shall bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, that every time shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” He is the Lord.
One more
thing that I love and that is after He was resurrected, and was
with His apostles 40 days, then we read about them during those
40 days. I don’t know just when it was but Peter said “I
go fishing” and the others said that they would go with
him. Why did he do that? I don’t know for sure, but I will
tell you the way I feel when I made a big blunder what we feel
we should do, and the enemy of our soul is reminding us of what
we did. We might as well just quit, but Peter said “I go
fishing” Back to his old trade. Then he fished all
night, he did not stop and he did not get anything. In the
morning they saw someone on the shore. That person said
“children, not rebels, not you backsliders, but children
have you any meat?” “No” “put your net on the other side
and you shall find.” And they did that and they were not
able to draw it in for the multitude of fishes.
Then
they brought them in, and what did they see when they came to
the land? They saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon
and bread. Jesus had that little fire, bread and fish to give
them, and after they had eaten, Jesus said “Peter do you
love me more than these?” And he said “thou knoweth I
love you.” Jesus said “feed my lambs and feed my
sheep.” I will tell you when that first came really home
to me and it was one time in early years, I was seven years in
the work when I read that and I was feeling the same as Peter, I
might as well quit and I can go no further. Maybe most of us
have felt that way sometimes, and maybe some of you felt that
way before you came to Convention and that was how Peter felt.
Jesus said “feed my lambs and feed my sheep.” We can
be so self-centred at times, we don’t think of others and we
cannot make it ourselves we feel.
As we
heard yesterday, the God of heaven who took the children out of
the land of Egypt with two servants; 600,000 men besides women
and children and he led them to the red Sea, and here the army
coming behind and the sea ahead of them. “Stand still and
see the salvation of God.” God made a promise to those
people, if they followed Him, He would rid them of the
Egyptians, and in one swoop the whole army was gone. The next
thing no feed, and they murmured and what did God do? He gave
them the angel feed; no water, speak to the rock and the water
gushed out. That is the God we serve and that is the one who can
help us. I hope there will be one thing in our hearts; think of
His family, feed His lambs and feed His sheep as we meet in the
little home. We cannot feed people if we are not there, and
neither can you unless you are in contact with God, and neither
can I, but we can be vessels in the hands of God to help pour
out water to those that are weak.
I hope
you will remember what Jesus saw when He visited the Temple,
leaves only. When it should have been the house of prayer, and
here it was full, just a den of thieves. If we have our love for
the Lord, we have one interest, and that is for our King and His
kingdom, and His people, and we will have an interest in those
who don’t know our King. We can tell about what we have
enjoyed, and that will bring a blessing to others and a blessing
to ourselves. Let us have this fruit of the spirit, because as
we abide in Him and He abides in us, there will be the fruit of
the spirit, joy, love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness and faith. Amen.
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