Figs and Olive Berries 2
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O my dear friends, let it never be so with you, if God is God, serve him and follow him; or if the devil is God, serve him; but to try to serve God andthe devil at the same time, is to attempt a compromise that God abhors, and which even Satan is not loathsome enough to approve. Even his disciples laugh to scorn those inconsistent professors who seek to serve God and mammon, and to walk at the same time in the narrow way that leads unto life and in the broad road that leads to destruction. The other day, I saw a man trying to walk on both sides of the street at once; of course, he was drunk; and whenever I see a man trying, spiritually, to do the same sort of thing — attempting to serve God and to serve the devil too — I know that he is intoxicated, or infatuated, under a fatal delusion, or he would never imagine that such a combination could be possible. Oil and water will not mix, nor light and darkness, nor saintliness and worldliness; you must have one or the other, you cannot have both at once.
So "choose this day whom you will serve," Christ or Belial, you cannot serve both, for "no servant can serve two masters." The true Church of Christ is "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners;" but an inconsistent church, a double-dealing church, a wordily church, (what an anomaly!) a church that holds with the have and runs with the hounds, a church that makes a great profession but has little or nothing worth having in possession, such a church is the scorn of the world, a mere blown-up football for men and devils to kick wherever they will. An unholy man or woman who pretends to be a Christian, is a stench in the nostrils of the thrice-holy God, and a by-word and reproach among those who make no pretense of being the Lord’s. How can you rebuke sin in others while you are living in it yourself? How can you preach the Christ whom you dishonor in your daily life? How can you reprove worldliness when you are yourself worldly? We speak with contempt of Satan rebuking sin, and of thepot calling the kettle black, so, if in any degree any of us have been guilty of this great crime against God, may we now sincerely repent of our sin, and may the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit preserve us from such evil walking for all time to come!
III. Now, thirdly — and this is the point upon which I want most strongly to insist — IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR A FIG TREE TO BEAR OLIVE BERRIES, and it is impossible for an unconverted man to produce the fruits ofrighteousness, that is a task which is altogether beyond his power. The real text of this last division of my sermon is this, "YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN."
Unless you are regenerated, born from above by a new and heavenly birth, you are not Christians, whatever you may be called, and you cannot produce the fruit which is acceptable to God any more than a fig tree can produce olive berries.
Let us suppose that we are in the South of France, and that we are standing by a fine fig tree. We want to make it bring forth olives and we will, for the sake of my argument, imagine that it is quite willing to do so, how shall we go to work?
Well, first, let us label the fig tree "OLIVE." Get a label, write the word "olive" on it, and hang it on the fig tree. We have done that, entered its name on the list of olive trees, and when the next olive season comes round, we will bring our basket, and gather the olives. At the appointed time we do come, but what do we find? I cannot see an olive on the tree; there are fig leaves, and figs, but nothing else. Ah! but we called it an olive; yes, but calling it an olive did not change its nature, for it is a fig tree still; and calling a person a child of God will never make that person really to be a child of God.
I remember reading of someone being taught to speak of "my baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of Heaven;" and if I recollect, rightly, that expression is often used by those who do not show any sign of having been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and adopted into the family of God. It is just a case of hanging a label on them; their nature remains the same as it was when they were born, and by nature they are children of wrath.
People are said to be Christians because "they were born in a Christian country." I have often heard and read that England is a Christian country, but I have never seen any evidence of the truth of that abatement, though there are some Christians in England, as there are some in India, China, Africa, and other countries which no one regards as Christian. Yet according to some people, all Englishman are Christians, though some of them never enter a place of worship, and others are drunk every night in the week, and many do not even believe in the existence of God. To call a horse an angel will not make him an angel, and to call a man a Christian will not make him a Christian. You may label, and enroll, and number the unsaved as much as you like, but you will not make even one of them a Christian by that process any more than putting the name "olive" on a fig tree will change its nature, and make it produce olive berries!
As re-naming the fig tree is no use,let us try to trim it to the shape of an olive tree. That will not be an easy task, for the two trees bear very slight resemblance to one another; still, we will see what we can do with axe, and knife, and shears, to make the fig tree look like an olive tree. When we come again, at the proper season, to gather the olive berries, how many shall we find? Not one, though we search diligently from the trunk to the topmost bough. If we have not ruined the tree by our cutting and shaping, we may find figs on it, but we shall gather no olives there. So we may be very careful in trying to shape our children’s lives and characters, we may teach them to be truthful, honest, upright, amiable, heroic, and so on, and we may succeed so far that some of them may even look like young Christians; but if the grace of God has not made them to be new creatures in Christ Jesus, all our training, and trimming, and shaping, and directing will leave them unsaved, and we shall search then in vain to find in them "the fruit of the Spirit." There is far more needed than anything we can do; there must, be a deeper, more enduring work than making them look and act like Christians, there must be a divine work in the heart, a complete change of nature which can only be wrought by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.
In our next attempt to get olives from the fig tree, we will treat the fig tree as if it were an olive tree. When at Mentone, I have often noticed the men in the olive gardens digging a trench all round the trees, and filling it with old rags; and, somehow, the trees seem to draw suitable nutriment out of that strange sort of fertilizer. Very well then, let us treat our fig tree in the same fashion, and dig about it, and fertilize it with all the old rags we can find. We do so, and wait patiently for the result, and then we discover that we have wasted all those precious bales of rags which might have made the olive trees bring forth an abundant crop, for there is not a berry on the fig tree, and probably even fewer figs than it would have produced if we had given it the nourishment suited to its nature. So you may take your young people, and treat them as if they were Christians, and do all that you can to nourish the divine life that has not yet entered their souls; but all your efforts will be in vain, for you cannot give them new natures, you cannot make the children of Adam into the children of God. You will do far more lasting good by entreating the Lord to accomplish the great work of gracewhich is altogether beyond your power, and by teaching each unsaved one, old or young, to pray David’s prayer, "Create in, me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."
Here is our fig tree without a single olive berry on it; now let us surround it with olive trees, and see what a change that will make in it. The tree is very lonely where it is, so we will see what helpful associations will do for it. It will be another difficult task for us, but we will not shirk it, for we are determined to transplant it right into the middle of an olive garden; and we will tie it up to a fruitful olive tree, and then, when it has no other trees near it, surely it must bear olives. But will it? Oh, no when the time of figs arrives, it will bear figs unless we have destroyed its fruit-bearing power by disturbing it; but there will be no olives on it except those that fall among its branches when the tree by its side is beaten to yield up its thousands of purple, oily berries.
So, here, is an unconverted man right in the midst of Christian people. He is not very comfortable, for he feels that he is out of his element; he would be much more at home in the ale house or at a music hall, or at home reading a novel or the newspaper; yet here he is surrounded by Christians. Possibly, like the fig tree tied to an olive tree, the man is united to a godly wife, yet it is not enough to make him a Christian. He has a gracious, loving daughter; she has persuaded him to come with her tonight in the hope that he may get a blessing here, as I most sincerely hope he may.
But, my dear friend, let me tell you that it is not sufficient for you to have a Christian wife, or Christian children, or Christian parents, unless there is a work of grace within your own heart. Unless your very nature is changed by the Holy Spirit, so that you are made a new creature in Christ Jesus, all these hallowed relationships and associations will only increase your condemnation. I must repeat to you Paul’s message to the Philippian jailor, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved;" and very likely then it will be possible to add in your case as in his, "and your house." God grant that it may be so!
Now suppose we take that fig tree to the top of a hill, like the Mount of Olives, and plant it there; it is a fig tree still, and it brings forth nothing but figs. Ay, and if the Lord were to take an unconverted man up to Heaven, just as he is, he would remain unconverted even there. Unless and until he was born again, the mere change of place, even from earth to Heaven, would not make him acceptable to God. He would be like that man without the wedding garment; and the King would say to his servants, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Perhaps someone asks, "But, sir, what is it to be born again?" Well, it is not a mere outward change of life, it is not simply a giving up of certain sins, and a desire to possess certain virtues. It is as great a work as if you were to be annihilated — to pass absolutely out of existence — and God were to make a new man in your place. Everyone who is in Christ Jesus is a new creation; old things have passed away, and all things have become new.
"But Can such a change as that be wrought?" asks an anxious enquirer; "it would be a glorious thing for me if it could be wrought in me." Yes, my friend, it can be done by the almighty Spirit; and if you are ever to be found in the presence of God in glory, this change must be wrought in you. I am speaking to some of you who have been very moral and admirable from your youth up, yet you have never experienced a saving change of heart, so to you I must repeat those solemn words of the Lord Jesus, "Except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven."
"Well," says some self-satisfied person, "I feel quite good enough already." Ah! that is the very strongest possible proof that you are not good enough. Do you remember the people, in our Lord’s lifetime on earth, who thought they were good enough, and do you recollect what Jesus said concerning their righteousness? If I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven," and that is what he says to you who think you are good enough. The man who has been born again confesses with sorrow and shame that he has no goodness of his own, and he ascribes all that is good in, him to the almighty grace of God alone. With Toplady, he sings–
"Because your sovereign love
Was sent the worst to save;
Jesus who reigns enthroned above,
The free salvation gave."
"Ah!" says another friend, "but if that is true, it makes my case so hopeless." That is just what I want you to feel, so that you may look right away from yourself, and look alone unto Jesus. You cannot regenerate yourself any more than that which is not in existence can create itself. It must be a work that is accomplished by omnipotence, and therefore no power less than that which is divine can accomplish it. So you are obliged to own your absolute dependence upon the grace of God. If he leaves you to yourself, you will be most certainly lost; and he is not bound by anything but the love of his own heart to interpose to rescue you. Therefore if, in his infinite sovereignty, as King of mercy and of grace, he deigns to smile upon you, and to create you anew in Christ Jesus, you will have reason to praise and bless him forever and ever, will you not? That, is the point to which I want to bring you, so that you will admit that, if you are ever saved, it will be all of God’s grace and all God’s work from first to last.
"Oh, that I had this new birth!" cries one. That very wish, if it be the sincere desire and prayer of your heart may be the first evidence that you have already been born again, even as the Lord’s testimony concerning Saul of Tarsus, "Behold, he prays," proved that he had already uttered the first cry of a newborn child of God. Remember that text, which the Lord blessed to my conversion so many years ago, "Look unto me, and be saved all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else," and do as I did then, look and live. Look this very instant, by faith, to Jesus hanging on the cross of Calvary, for — "There is life for a look at the Crucified One; There is life at this moment for you: Then look, sinner, look unto him, and be saved, Unto him who was nailed to the tree."
If you will, do this, that faith-look of your will be the evidence that this new life is already pulsating within you; and as this life is everlasting life, you have received that life which neither devils nor men can ever take away from you. "He who believes on the Son has everlasting life," and no man ever truly believed on Jesus, and yet remained unregenerate. Faith in Christ is one of the first signs and tokens of the new life within the soul.
If I find on you even one olive berry, I know that it has the oil of grace within it; and that is proof positive that you are one of the good olive trees in the garden of the Lord. If I found figs on you, I should know that you were a fig tree; but if I find only one little olive berry, I know that the hidden life that can produce one berry can produce bushels of the same sort, and even larger and richer ones, to the praise and glory of the great Owner of the olive garden in which you have been planted by his own righthand.
The little feeble faith that you have already exercised is the gift of God; and under the gracious nurture of his ever-blessed Spirit, it will grow until than are, like Abraham, "strong in faith, giving glory to God." May the Lord enable you to be done with yourself, and to have begun with himself! The end of the creature is the beginning of the Creator. When you own that you cannot save yourself, and trust him to save you, he will do it. Cast yourself upon him this very moment, and then, by an act of almighty grace, the fig tree shall be changed into a fruitful olive tree, and your fruit shall be unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
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