Latest / Reformed Thinking / Foliage Without Fruit: Christ’s Prophetic Judgment on National Apostasy and Religious Hypocrisy (Matthew 21:18-19)

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Foliage Without Fruit: Christ’s Prophetic Judgment on National Apostasy and Religious Hypocrisy (Matthew 21:18-19) · Reformed Thinking

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  You know how an X-ray gives you like absolute binary certainty?
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  It's either broken or not broken.
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  We love that. Yeah, we crave that kind of
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  clarity. Right.
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  We want spiritual reality to be that clean.
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  You see the jagged white line? The doctor points to it and you
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  have your answer. But today we were looking at a
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  moment where Jesus completely shatters that expectation.
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  He walks up to a tree that, by all outward appearances, is
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  perfectly healthy. It has all the right foliage, it
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  stands tall on the side of the road, and IT projects this
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  absolute vitality. And yet he curses it to death.
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  Welcome to reform thinking. Thanks for having me.
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  Always good to have you here. We are taking a deep dive into
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  Matthew chapter 21 verses 18 and 19 today, and we're asking a
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  pretty terrifying question, honestly.
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  What happens when you look alive, but you're actually dead?
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  Yeah, it's a sobering question. It really is.
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  So our mission today is to look at 2 extensive theological
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  sources and pull out the core doctrinal truths of this event.
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  And we are applying A strict Reformed theological lens to
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  this, specifically grounded in the Westminster Confession of
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  Faith. Which is so needed because this
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  is a shocking passage. I mean honestly, modern
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  audiences often hate this text. Yeah, they really do.
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  We are so comfortable with the Jesus who heals the sick, you
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  know, the one who feeds the 5000, who welcomes the little
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  children. But when we encounter Christ in
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  the final week of his earthly ministry, approaching a tree,
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  finding no fruit, and pronouncing this permanent,
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  devastating curse, well, it just feels jarring.
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  It totally disrupts our modern categories for him.
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  Spot on. It forces us to reckon with the
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  side of the Savior that contemporary Christianity goes
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  out of its way to ignore. And that is precisely why we
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  need to unpack it for you today. If we're going to understand
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  what happens on that dirt road and what it means for your life
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  and my life right now, we have to start by putting ourselves
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  back in the dust of 1st century Judea.
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  We need the context. Right, Let's anchor ourselves in
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  the concrete historical setting. When does this specific event
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  happen and why is the timing so critical here?
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  Well, to rightly divide the word of truth here, we have to grasp
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  the specific date, the place, and the occasion.
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  This event takes place during Passion Week.
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  Depending on how you harmonize the Gospel accounts of Matthew
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  and Mark, this is likely the morning of the second day, so
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  either Monday or Tuesday. OK, so right at the climax of
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  everything. Yeah, Jesus has already made his
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  triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The crys have thrown down their
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  palm branches. He is currently traveling the
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  road between Bethany, which was the home of Mary, Martha and
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  Lazarus, and the holy city of. Jerusalem.
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  And geographically, that path takes him across the Mount of
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  Olives, right? An area that is heavy with
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  agricultural reality and, well, prophetic expectation.
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  Yes, and the atmosphere in Jerusalem at this exact moment
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  is incredibly tense. Oh, I can only imagine.
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  You have a nation under brutal Roman occupation.
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  The Jewish people are suffocating under heavy taxation
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  and military oppression which has created this desperate,
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  almost entirely political craving for a military Messiah.
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  They want a conqueror to ride in and just smash the Romans.
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  That's what they were looking for.
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  Meanwhile, the religious leadership, the Pharisees, the
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  Sadducees, the Herodians have constructed this massive,
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  overbearing system of external religion.
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  They took the institutions that God designed to point the people
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  to the Messiah, and they turned them into monuments of self
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  righteousness. Which brings us to the
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  covenantal transition taking place at this very moment.
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  When we view this through the lens of the Westminster
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  Confession of Faith, specifically Chapter 7 regarding
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  God's covenant with man, we see the administration of the
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  covenant of grace moving through a massive earth shaking shift.
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  A huge transition, yeah. We are witnessing the final
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  hours of the Old Testament types and shadows.
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  The dispensation of the law is giving way to the dispensation
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  of grace. National theocratic Israel is
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  failing to recognize the time of her visitation.
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  So when Jesus approaches this specific fig tree on the side of
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  the road, he is standing at the absolute precipice of redemptive
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  history. He really is.
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  But wait, A skeptical reader looking at this story might
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  raise an objection here. I mean, why a tree and
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  specifically why a fig tree if it was not the main season for
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  gathering figs? Isn't Jesus setting an
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  impossible standard? That's the classic objection,
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  yeah. Right.
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  The sources we are analyzing get into the botanical reality of
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  this tree and that detail completely changes how we view
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  the entire interaction. The tree in question is the
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  Ficus Carika. Breakdown the biology for us.
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  The biology is the key that unlocks the entire passage.
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  In the ancient Near East, the ficus Carika possesses a highly
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  specific biological sequence. The early fruit buds, which the
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  locals call the Tash, appear at the exact same time as, or
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  sometimes even slightly before the leaves.
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  OK, so leaves and early buds go hand in hand, yes?
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  And these early buds are edible. They are not the main sweet
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  harvest that comes later in the summer, but they are absolutely
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  a source of food, especially for a weary traveler.
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  So the leaves equal an advertisement of fruit.
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  Precisely in Judean horticulture, when you see a fig
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  tree covered in leaves, it is broadcasting a biological
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  guarantee that the early fruit is present.
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  So when Jesus approached this tree, he was not walking up to a
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  dormant bear plant in the middle of winter.
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  You know, unreasonably demanding a harvest from a dead stick.
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  Right, He wasn't being unfair to the tree.
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  No, not at all. The tree was vigorously
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  advertising vitality. The absence of fruit on a leafy
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  tree in that region was not a natural disappointment.
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  It was a botanical deception. I like to think of it this way,
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  and hopefully this helps you picture it.
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  Imagine you are driving down the highway at midnight.
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  You are starving. You see a restaurant ahead and
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  there is a massive bright neon open sign blazing in the window.
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  Oh. That's a good analogy, Thanks.
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  So the lights in the parking lot are on.
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  You pull over, walk up to the door, and the doors are locked
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  tight. You look inside and the shells
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  are completely empty. That business isn't just closed,
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  it is actively deceiving the public.
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  Yeah, it's lying to you. Well, I mean spot on.
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  The neon sign creates an expectation that reality utterly
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  fails to meet. In this narrative, the green
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  leaves are the neon open sign. The tree was projecting an
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  outward appearance of productivity, but it was totally
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  bankrupt on the inside. That captures the dynamics so
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  well, and we have to recognize that the original Jubian
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  audience would have instantly grasped that imagery far better
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  than we do today. They were steeped in the
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  agricultural rhythms of the land.
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  They lived and breathed at this stuff.
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  They did, but more than that, they were steeped in the
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  prophetic language of the Old Testament.
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  The prophets frequently used agricultural imagery to describe
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  the spiritual health of national Israel.
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  So Jesus isn't just inventing a new metaphor in the spot, He is
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  pulling the pin on a prophetic grenade.
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  Our sources point out that when historical crises struck Israel,
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  like the Babylonian exile, the prophets reached for these
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  specific images. Yes, think of the prophet Hosea.
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  In Hosea Chapter 9, God says I found Israel like grapes in the
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  wilderness. I saw your father's as the first
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  stripe in the fig tree at her first time.
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  God is saying, you know when I constituted you as a nation, you
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  were a delight to me, like finding a fresh fig.
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  Or consider the prophet Joel describing the devastation of
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  God's judgement upon the land. He says the invading army has
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  laid waste to the vine and splintered the fig tree.
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  It's everywhere in the text. It really is or Jeremiah who had
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  a vision of two baskets of figs set before the Temple, one
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  basket of very good early figs and another of rotting inedible
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  figs representing the rebellious nation.
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  So Israel was the vineyard God had planted.
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  He cultivated it. He protected it.
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  They had the law, the covenants, the temple architecture, the
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  sacrifices, the promises. The expectation of a spiritual
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  harvest was massive. Enormous.
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  So when Jesus steps off the road and performs this action against
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  the tree, he is acting in direct, unbroken continuity with
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  that ancient prophetic tradition.
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  He is using a visible physical sign to embody a divine
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  judgment. Which is heavy.
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  Understanding that agricultural reality leads us directly into
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  understanding the geographical and literary placement of the
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  event. Jesus is heading straight to the
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  center of Jewish worship. We need to connect this physical
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  tree on the side of the road to the physical temple in the heart
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  of Jerusalem. Matthew's Gospel does not place
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  events randomly, right? No, Matthew's structure is
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  brilliant. He situates this narrative
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  strategically, right between the triumphal entry and the
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  cleansing of the temple. This placement is highly
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  theological. It's an acted parable.
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  Yes, it is a prophetic sign act that interprets the cleansing of
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  the temple. You cannot understand what Jesus
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  does in the temple courtyard without understanding what he
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  did to the tree on the road. Let's trace that flow of thought
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  in Matthew's Gospel. He moves from the King's public
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  claim to the Kingdom during the entry straight into his private
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  judicial evaluation of the kingdom's current state.
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  Right. The crowds offer this massive
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  display of public adulation. They throw down their garments.
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  They sing the Psalms of Ascent. And then Jesus goes to the
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  temple, which was the absolute epicenter of Israel's religion.
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  It was the beating heart of their national identity.
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  And what does he find when he walks into the temple precincts?
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  He finds a religious system that is functionally identical to the
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  deceptive fig tree. The neon sign was on.
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  The neon sign was blazing. The temple was bustling with
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  activity. It had a massive administrative
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  structure. It possessed sacred status.
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  The architectural beauty of Herod's temple was world
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  renowned. It was a spectacular display of
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  leaves. But.
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  Beneath the leaves, what was the reality?
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  Well, when Christ inspected the center of Israel's worship,
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  specifically the court of the Gentiles, which keep in mind was
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  supposed to be the place where the nations could come and pray
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  to the true God, he found commercial corruption.
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  Just absolute chaos. He found defilement.
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  The priests had turned the place of prayer into a marketplace,
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  selling sacrificial animals at exorbitant markups and
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  exchanging foreign currency at extortionate rates.
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  It had become a den of robbers. The temple advertised communion
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  with the living God, but it produced absolute barrenness.
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  This brings up a critical question.
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  I have read commentators who suggest Jesus was just
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  exhausted. They argue he was hungry,
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  frustrated and he lashed out at a tree because he was having a
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  bad morning. The temper tantrum theory.
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  Yeah, exactly how does the literary structure prove this
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  was a calculated judicial act rather than just an emotional
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  outburst? The literary structure itself
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  completely dismantles the temper tantrum theory.
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  First, the ACT is framed by two monumental messianic events, the
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  triumphal entry and the temple cleansing right.
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  An erratic emotional outburst would be entirely incongruous
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  with the sovereign authority Jesus displays in both the
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  preceding and subsequent chapters.
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  Second, the action is deliberate.
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  Jesus does not just lash out at the nearest rock or Bush.
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  He specifically targets a tree that is falsely advertising
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  fruit. That's a huge distinction.
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  It points to a calculated symbolic action meant to teach a
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  specific lesson about hypocrisy. The text shows a king
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  intentionally inspecting his domain.
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  Kings evaluate. Kings exercise authority over
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  their realm. This is a targeted judgment on a
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  system that has failed its covenantal obligations.
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  Our sources point out a striking literary contrast.
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  Here too, we have the lush green appearance of the tree, standing
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  in stark contrast to its internal emptiness, and this
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  functions as a literary bracket and inclusio with the events of
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  the previous day. It's a brilliant literary
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  device. The crowd shouting Hosanna to
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  the Son of David were high sounding but hollow.
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  The shouts were leaves. The smoke of the sacrifices
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  going up from the altar? Those were leaves.
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  The phalacteries worn by the Pharisees leaves.
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  But beneath the noise and the ritual, the nation was actively
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  rejecting their own Messiah. That is a staggering
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  realization, honestly. The covenant community had all
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  the marks of external privilege. They had the physical lineage of
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  Abraham. They had the prophetic scrolls
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  and their synagogues. They had the Levitical
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  priesthood. They had it all.
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  But when the Lord of the Covenant himself came near to
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  them, the reality of covenant fidelity was missing.
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  The tree represents privileged Baroness.
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  Privileged Baroness, that phrase is haunting.
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  It should be. This tree is not an image of the
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  Pagan nations in Rome or Greece who are entirely outside the
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  sphere of special divine revelation.
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  It symbolizes those who possess every spiritual advantage, who
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  sit under the teaching of the Word, who have every reason to
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  flourish but fail to yield the harvest.
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  Having established that this is a calculated judicial act
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  against religious hypocrisy, we need to zoom in.
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  We have looked at the broad literary context.
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  Now let's look at the microscopic view of the text
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  itself. Let's analyze the Greek and the
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  physical movement of the king in this scene.
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  Matthew's narration here is brief, but every single verb
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  carries immense theological weight.
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  Let's walk through it. The sequence unfolds with
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  absolute precision. Jesus hungers, Jesus sees, Jesus
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  approaches, Jesus finds, and Jesus speaks.
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  Let's look at the first action. In the original Greek, the word
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  for hunger is panish. Matthew uses the aorist active
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  indicative form of this verb. OK, let me stop you there.
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  Because when we throw out terms like aorist, active, indicative,
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  I know people's eyes tend to glaze over.
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  What does that grammatical detail actually mean for us
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  sitting here today? It is a great question in terms
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  of verbal aspect. The ARS tense here denotes a
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  specific historical occurrence. It tells us that on a real day,
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  on a real dirt Rd. the creator of the universe condescended to
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  experience ordinary human infirmities.
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  He was genuinely hungry. He felt the physical pain of
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  that. Yes, the one who spoke the
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  galaxies into existence, the one who is the bread of life,
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  experienced the gnawing pain of an empty stomach.
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  That detail keeps the scene grounded in the reality of the
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  Incarnation. The one who is about to
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  pronounce a supernatural judgement is experiencing A
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  genuine human need. But his hunger leads him to the
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  tree, and the tree becomes the object.
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  Lesson. Jesus sees the tree from afar,
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  and he approaches it. The movement is vital.
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  He sees the advertisement of leaves and he draws near.
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  Think about the theological implication of that movement for
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  you, the listener. When Jesus approaches the tree,
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  he goes to inspect it. He does not judge from a
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  distance based on the outward appearance of the foliage.
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  He searches for reality. Yes, he looks close.
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  This means Christ inspects your life and my life the exact same
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  way. He looks past the public resume.
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  He looks past what we post online, past our church
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  attendance, past our theological vocabulary.
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  He draws near to examine what we actually produce in the quiet,
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  hidden places of our hearts. And what he finds on that tree
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  is captured in the Greek phrase marianan, which translates to
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  leaves only. The text uses the word munnan to
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  highlight the absolute exclusivity of the tree's
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  failure. It possessed the outward
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  appearance, but absolutely nothing else.
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  It was completely hollow. The problem isn't just a lack of
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  fruit. The problem is the glaring,
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  defiant contradiction between what is advertised and what is
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  actually there. It is a localized physical
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  manifestation of hypocrisy. After inspecting the tree and
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  finding Marion on Jesus speaks the curse.
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  May no fruit ever come from you again.
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  He does not pull out an axe. He does not order his disciples
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  to uproot it. He simply speaks, and the result
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  is immediate. The text says the fig tree
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  withered at once. The Greek verb for withered is
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  exurante. The grammar of exurante is
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  critical here too. It is an aorist passive
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  indicative. Passive being the keyword.
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  Right. The passive voice indicates that
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  the tree was acted upon by an outside sovereign force.
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  It was subjected to the will of God.
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  This was not a slow natural decay caused by root disease or
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  a lack of water or bad soil. It was an instantaneous divine
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  strike. Christ's word is effectual when
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  he pronounces judgment. Creation obeys immediately.
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  It have no choice. The physical hunger of the man
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  Jesus, followed moments later by the divine curse that instantly
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  kills a tree, presents a stunning paradox.
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  The transition from human weakness to absolute divine
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  authority forces us to ask a massive question.
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  Who is this person? Who can hunger like a mortal
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  man, yet halt the natural order with a single sentence?
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  This brings us directly into the Christological significance of
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  the text. This passage is a brilliant,
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  undeniable revelation of the person and work of the Lord
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  Jesus Christ. We see Him in His state of
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  humiliation and during the frailties of human flesh, yet
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  bursting with the glorious authority of His deity.
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  It goes straight to the heart of Westminster or Confession of
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  Faith chapter 8, which deals with Christ the Mediator.
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  Yes it does. The confession teaches that the
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  mediator possesses 2 distinct natures, Godhead and manhood.
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  Breakdown the hypostatic union for us, because hypostatic union
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  sounds like a term from an advanced chemistry textbook, but
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  it is actually the bedrock of our faith.
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  It really is the bedrock. The hypostatic union simply
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  means that Jesus Christ is one person with two natures.
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  He is fully God and fully man. These two natures are
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  inseparably joined together in one person, without about
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  conversion, composition, or confusion.
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  So he doesn't become some third mixed thing.
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  Right. His divine nature did not absorb
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  his human nature, and His human nature did not dilute His divine
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  nature. We see that reality on full
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  display on the road to Jerusalem.
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  He walks at Dirt Rd. feeling hunger as a man, but he judges
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  the natural world as God. Our sources also point out how
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  this passage reveals Christ functioning in his threefold
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  office as prophet, priest, and king.
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  Yes. As prophet, he is enacting a
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  visible parable. He is pronouncing a divine
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  verdict upon a hypocritical nation, declaring the righteous
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  judgement of God in a tangible, physical way that the disciples
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  could see and touch. And his king?
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  As king, he is exercising royal authority, issuing A sovereign
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  decree that executes judgement and commands nature itself to
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  obey. He is Lord over the physical
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  creation, and as priest he is preparing the way for true
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  spiritual worship. By judging the barren rituals of
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  the temple system, the system that was about to be set aside
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  forever, He is clearing the ground for the new Covenant.
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  There is a sharp contrast drawn here between the unfaithful
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  nation of Israel and Christ as the obedient Son.
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  Israel is the barren tree, full of foliage, but offering nothing
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  of substance to God, but Christ is the true vine.
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  I am the true. Vine, Yeah, and John 15.
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  Jesus says I am the true vine and my father is the vine
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  dresser. Where Israel failed to produce
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  fruit despite all their covenant privileges, Jesus perfectly
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  fulfills the Father's will. He's the only one who brings
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  forth perfect righteousness. That contrast is essential for
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  understanding the gospel. Christ exposes the failure of
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  fruitless religion, but he also stands as the righteous one who
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  succeeds where we fail. He is qualified to be the judge
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  precisely because he himself is wholly pleasing to the Father.
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  He is not hypocritical. He embodies truth.
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  This text creates a severe tension for the modern reader
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  regarding the concept of the Holy Judge.
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  Modern audiences vastly prefer Christ as a healer, A gentle
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  teacher or a compassionate friend.
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  We really do. We like the Jesus who restores
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  sight to the blind and comforts the grieving, but this text
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  demands we reckon with his judicial holiness.
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  We have to face the terrifying reality that his gentleness is
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  never softness towards sin. That is a truth the contemporary
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  church tries very hard to avoid. We want a God who accepts our
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  good intentions, who looks at our leafy display and gives us a
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  participation trophy for trying. Yeah, a for effort.
• 19:27
  Right. But Christ's holiness is active.
• 19:29
  It is discerning. He stands in the place of divine
• 19:32
  scrutiny. He is not deceived by ceremonial
• 19:35
  correctness or institutional prestige.
• 19:37
  He is wholly intolerant of falsehood before God.
• 19:40
  When he encounters Spirit, spiritual pretense, he does not
• 19:43
  nurture it, he condemns it. To know Him truly is to know
• 19:46
  both His grace and His severity. Because Christ is the Holy
• 19:49
  Judge, his actions here set a strict theological boundary.
• 19:53
  His judgement on the tree functions as a standard that
• 19:56
  exposes false teachings. The sources we are working from
• 20:00
  explicitly state that this passage refutes for specific
• 20:03
  theological errors. Arminianism, Roman Catholicism,
• 20:08
  liberal theology, and the prosperity gospel.
• 20:11
  We really need to unpack each of these.
• 20:12
  Let's. Spend some significant time on
• 20:14
  them. Let's start with Arminianism.
• 20:16
  How does a withered fig tree refute the Armenian view of
• 20:20
  salvation? Well, the core of the Armenian
• 20:23
  framework is the concept of previant grace and human free
• 20:26
  will. Arminianism suggests that fallen
• 20:28
  man, though sinful, retains a certain moral ability to will
• 20:32
  himself toward God, to cooperate in his own fruit bearing.
• 20:35
  It views salvation as a cooperative effort between God's
• 20:38
  grace and man's autonomous choice.
• 20:40
  But the tree couldn't choose to bloom.
• 20:41
  That's the point. Our Reformed sources argue that
• 20:44
  the withered tree stands as a permanent rebuke to this idea.
• 20:47
  A dead tree cannot will itself to bear fruit.
• 20:49
  Once the curse is pronounced, the tree is utterly powerless to
• 20:52
  reverse its condition. It is the doctrine of total
• 20:54
  depravity. Spot on.
• 20:56
  Without the sovereign decree and the regenerating power of the
• 20:59
  King, there is only death. The text demonstrates that apart
• 21:03
  from Christ's effectual work, we are utterly barren.
• 21:06
  We cannot manufacture spiritual life from a dead root.
• 21:09
  Regeneration must precede faith. God must change the nature of
• 21:13
  the tree before it can ever hope to bear fruit.
• 21:16
  Let's look at the second error identified by our sources, the
• 21:19
  Roman Catholic system. The argument here is that
• 21:22
  Catholicism offers a Sacramento treadmill.
• 21:24
  The Roman Catholic view of sacraments conflict with the
• 21:27
  lesson of the fig tree. The Catholic system.
• 21:29
  Relies heavily on what is called ex Albert operato, the idea that
• 21:33
  the sacraments themselves confer grace by the very act of their
• 21:36
  performance. In this view, grace is mediated
• 21:39
  through the institutional church, through participating in
• 21:41
  the Mass, through penance, through external rights.
• 21:43
  And what do our sources say? About that the reformed sources.
• 21:46
  Argue that this functions like taping artificial leaves onto a
• 21:49
  dead branch. Wow, taping.
• 21:51
  Leaves to a dead branch. That is a vivid image.
• 21:54
  It really is the. Illusion of life.
• 21:56
  You can accumulate merit through outward forms and rituals all
• 21:59
  you want, but Christ demands an organic life that flows from a
• 22:03
  regenerate heart. You cannot manufacture the fruit
• 22:06
  of the Spirit through external ceremonies.
• 22:08
  The Pharisees had plenty. Of ceremonies the most rigorous.
• 22:10
  System of external ceremonies in human history and Christ cursed
• 22:14
  their system. Justification is by faith alone
• 22:18
  in Christ alone. When you rely on a Sacramento
• 22:21
  system to maintain your standing before God, you are essentially
• 22:24
  trusting in your own leaves rather than trusting in the root
• 22:27
  of Christ's imputed righteousness.
• 22:29
  This moves us into the. 3rd area liberal theology in frameworks
• 22:33
  like Critical Race Theory. Now it's fascinating how the
• 22:35
  authors of our sources apply this ancient text to modern
• 22:39
  social movements. They argue that these ideologies
• 22:42
  focus entirely on modifying external systems.
• 22:45
  Breakdown their argument for us, the authors contend.
• 22:47
  That liberal theology and sociological frameworks that are
• 22:50
  increasingly adopted by liberal churches attempt to solve the
• 22:53
  human condition by rearranging the outward structures of
• 22:56
  society. The focus because political
• 22:59
  activism, wealth redistribution, or dismantling systemic
• 23:03
  hierarchies. Now, from the perspective of our
• 23:06
  sources, the fatal flaw in these frameworks is that they ignore
• 23:09
  the root issue of human total depravity.
• 23:12
  The problem isn't trying to fix. Society the problem is
• 23:14
  diagnosing the illness incorrectly yeah, the authors
• 23:18
  make. The case that these ideologies
• 23:19
  assume humanity is basically good but corrupted by bad
• 23:23
  systems. Therefore, if you fix the
• 23:25
  system, you fix the person. But Christ exposes the exact
• 23:29
  opposite in this passage. How so?
• 23:31
  Well. The tree.
• 23:32
  Had the perfect environment. It had sunlight, soil, and
• 23:35
  water. The outward system was fine.
• 23:37
  The internal nature of the tree was corrupt.
• 23:39
  The sources argue that any theological system that ignores
• 23:42
  the fundamental corruption of the human heart and tries to
• 23:45
  save man through societal engineering is just rearranging
• 23:48
  the leaves on a dying tree. Finally we have the.
• 23:50
  Prosperity gospel. This is perhaps the most
• 23:53
  insidious twisting of this text. How does the prosperity movement
• 23:57
  handle this passage? It is, truly.
• 23:59
  A tragedy of exegesis. Right after Jesus curses the
• 24:03
  tree, the disciples are amazed. Jesus tells them if you have
• 24:07
  faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done
• 24:10
  to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain be taken up
• 24:13
  and thrown into the sea, it will happen.
• 24:15
  And the prosperity teachers? Run with that they RIP this
• 24:18
  verse. Completely out of its context,
• 24:19
  they turn it into a carnal formula for personal financial
• 24:22
  gain. They name it and.
• 24:24
  Claim it theology. Yes, they.
• 24:27
  Teach that faith is a force and words are the containers of that
• 24:31
  force. They argue that if you just
• 24:33
  speak positive words with enough faith, you can manifest wealth,
• 24:36
  health and a bigger house, completely ignoring the.
• 24:39
  Context of judgment entirely. They completely ignore the
• 24:42
  reality of divine judgment that just occurred.
• 24:45
  Jesus did not curse the tree to show the disciples how to get
• 24:48
  rich. He cursed the tree as a
• 24:50
  terrifying warning about the judgment of God upon empty
• 24:53
  religion. To twist a passage about divine
• 24:56
  wrath into a technique for worldly success is theological
• 24:59
  malpractice. All of this theological.
• 25:02
  Analysis brings us to how the law functions in the life of a
• 25:05
  person in reformed theology we speak of the different uses of
• 25:08
  the law the first use of the law is as a mirror standing before
• 25:13
  this cursed fig tree the law acts as that mirror it reflects
• 25:17
  our true. State it exposes our.
• 25:19
  Sin and our absolute inability to meet God's standard.
• 25:23
  It reveals that God demands a harvest of perfect
• 25:25
  righteousness, and fallen man simply cannot yield that
• 25:28
  harvest, The mirror shows us. Our barrenness, it removes every
• 25:31
  excuse. But if you're listening to this
• 25:33
  right. Now you might be thinking, wait,
• 25:34
  if Jesus is demanding fruit and cursing those who don't have it,
• 25:38
  doesn't that mean I need to work harder to produce fruits of God
• 25:40
  won't curse me, which is a very natural?
• 25:42
  Reaction, right? How do we?
• 25:44
  Avoid falling into a works based anxiety here.
• 25:47
  How do we maintain the Reformed distinction between
• 25:50
  justification and sanctification?
• 25:52
  We do not want to suggest that we earn our salvation by
• 25:55
  producing enough good deeds. That is a crucial.
• 25:57
  Pastoral distinction. We have to be very careful here.
• 26:01
  Fruit is the evidence of life. It is not the root of salvation.
• 26:04
  Think about an apple tree. OK, an apple tree.
• 26:07
  The tree does not. Produce apples in order to
• 26:09
  become an apple tree. It produces apples because it
• 26:11
  already is an apple tree. That is incredibly.
• 26:14
  Helpful justification is the. Once for all judicial act where
• 26:17
  God declares A Sinner righteous based solely on the imputed
• 26:21
  righteousness of Christ received by faith alone.
• 26:24
  Sanctification is the ongoing supernatural work of the Holy
• 26:28
  Spirit within the believer, slowly producing the very fruit
• 26:31
  that Christ seeks. Lovejoy Peace so works do not
• 26:35
  save. Us.
• 26:36
  No, but. Salvation absolutely works.
• 26:39
  A living tree bears fruit according to its nature.
• 26:43
  If a person claims to be justified, if they claim to have
• 26:46
  the root of faith, but they exhibit absolutely zero fruit of
• 26:49
  sanctification over the course of their life, this text warns
• 26:53
  that their profession is false. And for the true believer, we
• 26:57
  look to the third use of the law as outlined in Westminster
• 27:00
  Confession of Faith, Chapter 19. The law is no longer a covenant
• 27:04
  of works by which we are justified.
• 27:06
  We are free from the curse of the law because Christ took that
• 27:09
  curse for us. But the law remains a perfect
• 27:13
  rule of life. It guides our grateful
• 27:15
  obedience. We look at the law to see what
• 27:18
  pleases the Father, and by the strength of the spear we seek to
• 27:21
  bear that fruit as we abide in the true vine having
• 27:24
  established. These strict theological
• 27:25
  boundaries we have to ask how this ancient judgment lands on
• 27:28
  the modern church and the individual listener today we
• 27:31
  have to move from doctrine to practice, from the historical
• 27:34
  event on the Mount of Olives to our own lives where the rubber
• 27:36
  meets the. Road exactly I.
• 27:38
  Mean yes, spot on. The central danger this text
• 27:41
  highlights is what we identified earlier.
• 27:43
  Privileged barrenness. Privileged barrenness.
• 27:46
  Is the danger of modern nominalism?
• 27:49
  We have some sobering statistics from Barner Research included in
• 27:52
  our sources. The data indicates that while a
• 27:55
  significant majority of people in our culture still identify as
• 27:58
  Christian, only around 6% hold a consistently biblical worldview.
• 28:02
  We need to pause. And think about what that really
• 28:04
  means. It's a shocking drop.
• 28:06
  Off it is a. Biblical worldview, according to
• 28:08
  the research, means believing that absolute moral truth
• 28:11
  exists, that the Bible is totally accurate, that Satan is
• 28:15
  a real being, that a person cannot earn their way into
• 28:18
  heaven by trying to be good, that Jesus Christ live a sinless
• 28:21
  life on earth, and that God is the all knowing creator of the
• 28:24
  universe. Only 6%.
• 28:26
  Hold those beliefs yet? Millions upon millions check the
• 28:29
  Christian box on census forms. That gap between the label and
• 28:33
  the reality is the exact definition of leaves only.
• 28:36
  It is a modern illustration of the ancient deception that
• 28:39
  Christ cursed on the road to Jerusalem we need to define.
• 28:42
  What leaves look like in our specific context today?
• 28:45
  Leaves are the things that give the appearance of spiritual
• 28:48
  health without requiring actual spiritual life.
• 28:51
  What does it look like practically?
• 28:53
  It looks like regular. Church attendance.
• 28:55
  It looks like knowing the right theological vocabulary, being
• 28:59
  able to discuss Calvinism versus Arminianism.
• 29:02
  It looks like aligning with the correct political or cultural
• 29:04
  factions. It looks like maintaining an
• 29:06
  outward moral consistency so your neighbors think you are a
• 29:09
  good person. All surface.
• 29:11
  Level things, Yes, a church. Can have robust doctrinal
• 29:14
  statements, well organized youth programs, a massive building
• 29:17
  fund, and a respected reputation in the community.
• 29:21
  Those are all leaves and hypocrisy.
• 29:23
  In light of this, text is not mere inconsistency.
• 29:26
  We all fall short. We all say things we fail to
• 29:29
  live up to perfectly. I snap at my kids.
• 29:32
  I struggle with pride. That is human frailty.
• 29:35
  We are all in that boat. Right, but.
• 29:37
  The hypocrisy Christ curses here is the active cultivation of
• 29:41
  leaves without fruit. It is the conscious sinful
• 29:44
  attempt to maintain an appearance of godliness while
• 29:47
  remaining inwardly cold and barren.
• 29:50
  It is projecting an image to gain the applause of men while
• 29:53
  hiding your spiritual deadness from the eyes of God.
• 29:56
  This is a severe. Warning to churches and frankly,
• 29:58
  to ministers specifically, a minister can preach Orthodox
• 30:02
  sermons. He can administer the sacraments
• 30:04
  Florida State. He can be highly esteemed for
• 30:06
  his rhetorical gifts and in leadership abilities, all while
• 30:09
  his own soul is withering in secret.
• 30:12
  That's a terrific. It happens.
• 30:14
  He can be studying the Bible purely for sermon prep rather
• 30:17
  than for the nourishment of his own soul.
• 30:19
  The warning of the fig tree is that proximity to sacred things
• 30:22
  is not the same as the possession of saving grace.
• 30:25
  You can be surrounded by the things of God.
• 30:27
  You can handle the holy vessels and still be completely devoid
• 30:30
  of the life of God for the tender conscience.
• 30:32
  Listening right now, the true believer who struggles deeply
• 30:35
  with sin, who often feels barren, who grieves over their
• 30:38
  lack of progress and wonders if they are the cursed fig tree.
• 30:42
  We need to provide pastoral clarification.
• 30:44
  Yes, we definitely. Do the issue, Christ.
• 30:46
  Is condemning here isn't weakness, it is falseness.
• 30:50
  If you are battling sin, if you are mourning your failures and
• 30:53
  crying out to Christ for help, that battle itself is a sign of
• 30:57
  life that is so vital. To understand, dead trees do not
• 31:00
  fight for life. A dead branch feels no pain when
• 31:03
  the wind blows. The struggle against sin, the
• 31:07
  sorrow over your own barrenness, is not a sign of a dead tree.
• 31:10
  It is the evidence of a living branch undergoing pruning.
• 31:13
  The Law. Gospel Movement.
• 31:14
  In this text is beautiful when you see it.
• 31:16
  The warning is designed to strip away the false confidence of the
• 31:19
  hypocrite. It tears off the fig leaves of
• 31:21
  self righteousness the same way God stripped the fig leaves off
• 31:24
  Adam and Eve in the garden. It leaves you exposed.
• 31:26
  It leaves the Sinner. Completely empty handed before a
• 31:29
  holy God. And it is at that exact
• 31:31
  threshold, the point of realizing our own total
• 31:34
  inability to produce fruit, where the gospel enters when we
• 31:38
  realize. We have no fruit to offer.
• 31:40
  We are made desperate for a solution outside of ourselves.
• 31:43
  The text drives us away from our own performance and points us
• 31:46
  directly to the cross. Jesus, the holy judge who cursed
• 31:50
  the barren tree, is the same Jesus who went to Calvary a few
• 31:53
  days later. He hung on a tree.
• 31:55
  He became a curse. For us Galatians 3 tells us
• 31:59
  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
• 32:01
  curse for us. For it is written curses
• 32:04
  everyone who is hanged on a tree.
• 32:06
  He took the judgement we deserved for our Baroness so
• 32:08
  that we might be united to him and share in his resurrected
• 32:12
  life as we draw this. Deep dive to a close, We need to
• 32:15
  summarize the central weight of what we have covered.
• 32:18
  God's sovereign judgement will permanently wither any outward
• 32:21
  show of religion that lacks the genuine fruit of a regenerate
• 32:24
  heart. We must abandoned all self
• 32:27
  righteousness, all of it. We must stop relying on our
• 32:29
  outward leaves, our attendance, our giving, our correct
• 32:33
  theology, and abide entirely in Christ.
• 32:35
  His imputed righteousness is the only fruit that the Father will
• 32:38
  ever accept this message. Prepares the heart so
• 32:42
  beautifully for the Lord's Supper too.
• 32:44
  When we come to the communion table, we are receiving the
• 32:47
  visible word. The bread and the cup.
• 32:49
  Declare that we do not bring our own fruit to God.
• 32:52
  We feed upon the finished work of Christ.
• 32:55
  Our fruitfulness is entirely dependent on his broken body and
• 32:58
  shed blood. It forces us to.
• 33:00
  Look away from our own branches and look solely to the vine.
• 33:04
  I want to leave you the listener with a final thought to ponder
• 33:07
  on your own building on this agricultural imagery.
• 33:10
  If national Israel was judged as a barren branch and Christ is
• 33:14
  the true vine, consider the Apostle Paul's warning in Romans
• 33:17
  Chapter 11 about wild olive shoots being grafted in.
• 33:21
  A very sobering. Passage Paul warns the Gentile.
• 33:23
  Believers, if God did not spare the natural branches when they
• 33:26
  lacked faith, what does that say about the holy expectation
• 33:29
  placed on us, the grafted branches today?
• 33:32
  It is a question about our own covenant faithfulness that we
• 33:35
  all have to sit with. It calls for a serious.
• 33:37
  Honest examination of our own hearts before the Lord.
• 33:40
  We started today talking. About medical X-rays, about
• 33:42
  wanting the binary certainty of a broken or unbroken bone.
• 33:46
  We talked about the murky nature of spiritual diagnosis.
• 33:49
  The reality is our own self diagnosis is often flawed.
• 33:53
  We convince ourselves we are healthy because we have enough
• 33:55
  leaves. But Christ has perfect vision of
• 33:58
  the soul. He sees past the foliage.
• 34:01
  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive on Reformed thinking.
• 34:03
  We encourage you to seek reality over appearance in your walk
• 34:06
  with Christ.