The Barren Fig-Tree

A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. (Luke 13:6-9)

At the beginning of this chapter we read how some of the Jews came to Jesus Christ to tell him about the cruelty of Pontius Pilate in mingling the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices. It was a heathenish and ominous act. It was heathenish, because in it he showed his malice not only against the Jewish nation but also against their worship, and so against their God. It was an action, I say, not only heathenish but ominous too, for the Lord Jesus, commenting on this deed of Pilate’s, teaches the Jews that without repentance “they should all likewise perish.” “Likewise,” that is, by the hand and rage of the Roman empire. They would be no more able to escape the stroke than the eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them (Luke 13:1-5).

That prophecy was fulfilled, because of their hardness of heart and impenitence, in the days of Titus, the son of Vespasian, about forty years after the death of Christ. Then, I say, these Jews and their city were surrounded on every side, and there both they and it were miserably overthrown, to the amazement of all. God gave them sword and famine, pestilence and blood, for their outrage against the Son of his love. So wrath “came upon them to the uttermost” (1 Thess 2:16).

Now, to cut off the old and foolish excuse they always had ready against such prophecies and announcements of judgment, the Lord Jesus presents them with this parable. In it he shows them emphatically that their cry of being the temple of the Lord, the children of Abraham, and so on, and the church of God, would do them no good at all. It is as if he were saying:

“Perhaps you think you can protect yourselves against this prophecy of mine, of your utter and unavoidable overthrow, by the stake you have in your outward privileges. But all these will fail you. For what do you think? ‘A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.’ This is your case! The Jewish land is God’s vineyard; I know it. And I know also that you are the fig-trees. But look, the main thing is missing: fruit. It was for the sake of fruit, and in expectation of it, that he set this vineyard with trees. Now, since the fruit is not found among you (the fruit, I say, for the sake of which he first planted this vineyard), what remains but that in justice he should command you to be cut down, as those that cumber the ground, so that he may plant himself another vineyard?

“‘Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?’ This, therefore, must be your end, even though you are planted in the garden of God. For the barrenness and unfruitfulness of your hearts and lives you must be cut off, yes, rooted up and thrown out of the vineyard.”

In parables there are two things that those who read them should notice and look into. First, the metaphors that are used. Second, the doctrine or mysteries that lie hidden under those metaphors.

The metaphors in this parable are (1) a certain man; (2) a vineyard; (3) a fig-tree, barren or fruitless; (4) a dresser; (5) three years; (6) digging and dunging, and so on.

The doctrine or mystery hidden under these words is to show us what is likely to become of a fruitless or merely formal professor of religion. For:

1. By the man in the parable is meant God the Father (Luke 15:11).

2. By the vineyard, his church (Isa 5:7).

3. By the fig-tree, a professor.

4. By the dresser, the Lord Jesus.

5. By the fig-tree’s barrenness, the professor’s fruitlessness.

6. By the three years, the patience of God that he extends for a time to barren professors.

7. This calling to the dresser of the vineyard to cut it down is to show the outcries of justice against fruitless professors.

8. The dresser’s interceding is to show how the Lord Jesus steps in and takes hold of the head of his Father’s axe, to stop, or at least to put off, the immediate execution of a barren fig-tree.

9. The dresser’s desire to try to make the fig-tree fruitful is to show you how unwilling he is that even a barren fig-tree should go on being barren and perish.

10. His digging about it and dunging it is to show his willingness to apply gospel helps to this barren professor, if by any means he may become fruitful.

11. The supposition that the fig-tree may still remain fruitless is to show that when Christ Jesus has done all, there are some professors who will stay barren and fruitless.

12. The resolution upon this supposition, at last to cut it down, is a certain prediction of such a professor’s unavoidable and eternal damnation.

But now let me take this parable to pieces and speak more particularly, though as briefly as I can, about all its parts.

A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard (Luke 13:6).

The man, as I told you, represents God the Father, who is often pictured by this likeness in the New Testament.

Observe, then, that it is no new thing if you find barren fig-trees, fruitless professors, in God’s church; just as here you see a tree, a fruitless tree, a fruitless fig-tree in the vineyard. Fruit is not so easily brought forth as a profession is taken up. It is easy for a man to clothe himself with a fair show in the flesh, to put it into words as well as the best, and say, “Be warmed and filled.” These things, and others like them, are not hard to do. But to be fruitful, to bring forth fruit to God, this not every tree does; no, not every fig-tree that stands in the vineyard of God. Those words also assert the same thing: “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away” (John 15:2). There are branches in Christ, in Christ’s mystical body, which is his church, his vineyard, that bear no fruit; therefore the hand of God is to take them away. God looked for grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes; that is, no fruit at all that was acceptable to God (Isa 5:4). Again, “Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself” (Hos 10:1), none to God; he is without fruit to God. All these, with many more, show us the truth of this observation, and that God’s church may be burdened with fruitless fig-trees, with barren professors.

Had a Fig-Tree

Although there are some in God’s church who are barren and fruitless, yet, as I said, to look at they are like the rest of the trees, even a fig-tree. It was not an oak, or a willow, or a thorn, or a bramble, but a fig-tree. “They come unto thee as the people cometh” (Ezek 33:31). “They delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me the ordinances of justice, they take delight in approaching to God,” and yet they are only barren, fruitless and unprofitable professors (Isa 58:2-4).

Judas also was one of the twelve: a disciple, an apostle, a preacher, an officer. Yes, and he was such a one as none of the eleven suspected; rather, each of them esteemed him above himself, each one crying out, “Is it I? Is it I?” (Mark 14:19). None of them, as far as we read, suspected Judas; yet in Christ’s eye he was the barren fig-tree, a devil (John 6:70), a fruitless professor.

The foolish virgins also went out from the world with the others. They had lamps, and light, and were awakened with the others. Yes, they had the boldness to go out with the others when the midnight cry was made, and they thought they could have looked Christ in the face with the others when he sat on the throne of judgment. And yet they were only foolish, only barren fig-trees, only fruitless professors. “Many,” says Christ, “will say unto me in that day,” this and that, and will also talk of many wonderful works; yet, behold, he finds nothing in them but the fruits of unrighteousness (Matt 7:22-23). They were altogether barren and fruitless professors.

Had a Fig-Tree Planted

This word planted also reaches far. It supposes one taken out of its natural soil, or removed from the place where it once grew; one that seemed to be called and awakened. And not only so, but one carried by a strong hand from the world to the church, from nature to grace, from sin to godliness. “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it” (Ps 80:8). And some of the branches of this very vine were unfruitful professors.

It must be concluded, therefore, that this professor who still remains fruitless has, as far as the church can see and judge, been rightly brought in there: that is, by a confession of faith and of sin, and by a show of repentance and regeneration. This is how false brethren creep in unawares! All these things the word planted implies. Yes, further, it implies that the church is satisfied with them, consents that they should remain in the garden, and counts them as sound as the rest. But before God, in the sight of God, they are graceless professors, barren and fruitless fig-trees.

Therefore it is one thing to be in the church, or in a profession, and another thing to be of the church, and to belong to that kingdom which is prepared for the saint who is truly a saint. Otherwise: “Being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east-wind toucheth it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew” (Ezek 17:10).

Had a Fig-Tree Planted in His Vineyard

In his vineyard. Hypocrites with rotten hearts are not afraid to come before God in Zion. These words therefore suggest to us a monstrous kind of boldness and hardened fearlessness. For what presumption could be higher, and what attempt more desperate, than for a man who lacks grace and the true knowledge of God to crowd himself, in that condition, into the house or church of God, or to make a profession and desire that the name of God should be called upon him?

For the man who makes a profession of the religion of Jesus Christ has, as it were, put the name of God upon himself. However fruitless he may be before God or men, he is now called and reckoned the man who has to do with God, the man whom God owns and will stand up for. This man, I say, by his profession suggests this to all who know him to be such a professor. Men who are merely natural (I mean men who have not acquired the devilish art of hypocrisy) are afraid even to think of doing this. “And of the rest durst no man join himself to them; but the people magnified them” (Acts 5:13).

And indeed, it displeases God. “Ye have brought,” he says, “men uncircumcised into my sanctuary” (Ezek 44:7). And again, “When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?” says God (Isa 1:12). Therefore they have learned this boldness from no one in the visible world; they took it from the devil alone. For he, and he only, along with these disciples of his, attempts to present himself in the church before God. “The tares are the children of the wicked one” (Matt 13:38). The tares, that is, the hypocrites, who are Satan’s brood, the generation of vipers that cannot escape the damnation of hell.

Had a Fig-Tree Planted in His Vineyard

He does not say, “He planted a fig-tree,” but that there was a fig-tree there: he had, or found, a fig-tree planted in his vineyard.

The great God will not acknowledge the barren fig-tree, or barren professor, to be his workmanship, or a tree of his bringing in; the text only says that he had one there. This is much like that in Matthew 15:13: “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” Here again are plants in his vineyard which God will not acknowledge to be of his planting, and he seems to suggest that there are many such in his vineyard. Every plant, or all those plants or professors, that have got into the assembly of the saints, or into the profession of their religion, without God and his grace, “shall be rooted up.”

“And when the King came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on the wedding-garment. And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding-garment?” (Matt 22:11-12). Here is one so cunning and crafty that he fooled all the guests. He got into the church and stayed there even until the King himself came in to see the guests. But his cunning got him nothing. It did not blind the eyes of the King; it did not pervert the judgment of the righteous. “Friend, how camest thou in hither?” overtook him at last, and that was a public rejection: the King exposed him in the face of all present. “How camest thou in hither?” As if the King said: My Father did not bring you here; I did not bring you here; my Spirit did not bring you here; you are not of the heavenly Father’s planting. “How camest thou in hither?”

He who “entereth not by the door, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber” (John 10:1). This text also is full and plain to our purpose. For this man did not come in by the door, yet he got into the church. He got in by climbing; he broke in at the windows. He got something of the light and glory of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ into his head, and so, hardy wretch that he was, he presumed to crowd himself in among the children. But how is this taken? What does the King say of him? Why, this is his mark: “the same is a thief and a robber.” See here also whether all who get into his church, or into the profession of his name, are owned as God’s planting.

“Had a fig-tree.” He had one without a wedding garment; he had a thief in his garden, at his wedding, in his house. These climbed up some other way. There are many ways to get into the church of God, and into the profession of his name, besides and without entering by the door.

1. There is the way of lying and pretending, and at this gap the Gibeonites got in (Josh 9).

2. Sometimes there is falseness among some pastors, either for the sake of their natural kin or something like it; at this hole Tobiah, the enemy of God, got in (Neh 13:4-9).

3. Sometimes there is negligence and too much carelessness in the whole church; this is how the uncircumcised got in (Ezek 44:7-8).

4. Sometimes, again, let the church be ever so careful, yet these people have so much help from the devil that they fool them all, and so get in. These are of that sort of thieves that Paul complains of: “False brethren, that are brought in unawares” (Gal 2:4). Jude also cries out against these: “Certain men crept in unawares” (Jude 4). Crept in! What, were they so lowly? A voluntary humility, a neglecting of the body, not in any humor (Col 2:23). Oh, how seemingly self-denying some of these “creeping things” are, who yet are to be held (once we come to know them) an abomination to Israel (Lev 11:43-44)!

“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour” (2 Tim 2:20). By these words the apostle seems to take it for granted that, as there have been, so there still will be, these kinds of fig-trees, these barren professors in the house, when all men have done what they can; just as in a great house there are always vessels to dishonor as well as those to honor and glory, vessels of wood and of earth as well as of silver and gold. So, then, there must be wooden professors in the garden of God; there must be earthy, earthen professors in his vineyard.

But to my mind, this is the biting word: “and some to dishonour.” That passage in Romans is dreadful (Rom 9:21-22), but this one seems to go beyond it. That one speaks only of the reprobate in general, but this one of such and such in particular. That one speaks of their hardening only in the common way, but this one says that they must be allowed to creep into the church, there to fit themselves for their place, their own place, the place prepared for those of this sort only (Acts 1:25). As the Lord Jesus once said of the Pharisees, these “shall receive greater damnation” (Luke 20:47).

Barren fig-tree, fruitless professor, have you heard all these things? Have you considered that this fig-tree is not acknowledged by God to be his, but is denied to be of his planting, and of his bringing to his wedding? Do you not see that you are called a thief and a robber, you who have either climbed up to, or crept in at, some other place than the door? Do you not hear that there will be wooden and earthly professors in God’s house, and that no place will serve to fit them for hell but the house, the church, the vineyard of God? Barren fig-tree, fruitless Christian, do your ears not tingle?

And he came and sought fruit thereon (Luke 13:6).

When a man has taken up a profession and has crowded into the church and house of God, the question now is not, “Does he have life? Does he have right principles?” but, “Does he have fruit?” He came seeking fruit on it. It does not matter who brought you in here, whether God or the devil or your own vainglorious heart. The question is, do you have fruit? Do you bring forth fruit to God? And, “Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord Jesus Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim 2:19). He does not say, “And let every one that has grace,” or, “Let those that have the Spirit of God,” but, “Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord Jesus Christ depart from iniquity.”

What do men meddle with religion for? Why do they call themselves by the name of the Lord Jesus if they do not have the grace of God, if they do not have the Spirit of Christ? God, therefore, expects fruit. What are they doing in the vineyard? Let them work, or get out; the vineyard must have laborers in it. “Son, go work today in my vineyard” (Matt 21:28). So lack of grace and lack of the Spirit will not keep God from seeking fruit. “And he came and sought fruit thereon” (Luke 13:6; Luke 8:8). God requires what the man appears to have. Every man in the vineyard and house of God promises himself, professes to others, and would have everyone take it for granted, that a heavenly principle is in him. Why then should God not seek fruit?

As for those, then, who will keep the name of Christians and of people who fear God, and yet make no conscience of bringing forth fruit to him, he says to such people, “Away!” “As for you … Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me …” (Ezek 20:39). Barren fig-tree, do you hear? God expects fruit, God calls for fruit; yes, God will shortly come seeking fruit on this barren fig-tree. Barren fig-tree, either bear fruit or go out of the vineyard; and even then your case will be unspeakably damnable. Yes, let me add: if you will neither bear fruit nor depart, God will take his name out of your mouth (Jer 44:26). He will have fruit. And I say further, if you will do neither, God in justice and righteousness will still come for fruit. And it will be useless for you to call this harshness. He will reap where he has not sown, and gather where he has not scattered (Matt 25:24-26). Barren fig-tree, do you hear?

Question. What if a man has no grace?

Answer. Yes, even then God seeks fruit, seeing the man has a profession.

And he came and sought fruit thereon.

A church, then, and a profession, are not places where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves and their sins from God. Some in former times thought that because they could cry, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” (Jer 7:4) they were therefore delivered, or had a license, to do the abominations they committed. So do some in our days. “For who,” they say, “has a right to the good things God has made, if not Christians, if not professors, if not church members?” And from this conclusion they let go the reins of their unruly desires after pride, ambition and gluttony: pampering themselves without fear (Jude 12), and daubing themselves with the lust-provoking fashions of the times, walking with stretched-out necks, bare breasts, frizzled forelocks and wanton gestures, in gorgeous clothes mixed with gold and pearl and costly array. I will not here look into their lives, their behavior at home, in their corners and secret holes. But certainly, people of this spirit, these principles and these inclinations have only empty boughs, boughs that lack the fruit God expects and that God will come down to seek.

Barren fig-tree, you are not licensed by your profession, nor by the Lord of the vineyard, to bear these clusters of Gomorrah. Neither the vineyard nor your being crowded among the trees there will shelter you from the sight of the eye of God. Many make religion their cloak and Christ their stalking-horse, and by that means cover themselves and hide their own wickedness from men. But God sees their hearts, has set his mark on the heels of their feet, and weighs all their goings. And at last, when their iniquity is found to be hateful, he will either strike them with hardness of heart and so leave them, or awaken them to bring forth fruit. Fruit is what he looks for, seeks and expects, barren fig-tree!

But what! Come into the presence of God to sin! What! Come into the presence of God to hide your sin! Alas, man! The church is God’s garden, and Christ Jesus is the great Apostle and High Priest of our profession. What! says God. Come into the house that is called by my name! Into the place where my honor dwells (Ps 26:8)! Where my eyes and heart are continually (1 Kgs 9:3)! What! Come there to sin, to hide your sin, to cloak your sin! His plants are an orchard with pleasant fruits (Song 4:13). And every time he goes into his garden, it is to see the fruits of the valley, and to “see if the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded” (Song 6:11).

Yes, he says, he came seeking fruit on this fig-tree. The church is the place of God’s delight, where he always desires to be; he is there night and day. He is there to seek for fruit, to seek for fruit from each and every tree in the garden. So be assured, you fruitless one, that your ways must be open before the eyes of the Lord. One black sheep is soon spotted, even in company with many; the first glance of the eye picks it out; its different color always betrays it. I say, therefore, a church and a profession are not places where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves from God who seeks for fruit. “My vineyard,” says God, “which is mine, is before me” (Song 8:12).

And he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

Barren fig-tree, listen: the continual bearing of no fruit is a dreadful sign that you are to come to a dreadful end, as the winding up of this parable concludes.

“And found none.” None at all, or none to God’s liking. For when he says, “He came seeking fruit thereon,” he means fruit fit for God: pleasant fruit, fruit good and sweet (Heb 6). Alas! It is not just any fruit that will serve; bad fruit is counted as none. “Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Matt 3:10).

1. There is a fruit among professors that withers, and so never comes to be ripe; a fruit that is blighted while it grows and does not come to maturity; and this is reckoned no fruit. Those professors bear this fruit who have many fair beginnings, or blossoms; who make many fair offers of repentance and amendment; who begin to pray, to resolve, and to break off their sins by righteousness, but stop at those beginnings and bring no fruit to perfection. This man’s fruit is withered, wrinkled, blighted fruit, and is in effect no fruit at all.

2. There is a hasty fruit, like the “corn upon the housetop” (Ps 129:6), or what springs up on the dunghill, which shoots up suddenly and violently, with great stalks and a big show, and yet at last proves empty of kernel. This fruit is found in those professors who are suddenly so awakened, so convinced, and so affected with their condition that they shake the whole family, the neighborhood, the whole town. For a while they cry out hastily, vehemently, dolefully, mournfully; and yet it is all only a pang, an agony, a fit. They do not bring forth fruit with patience. These are called those hasty fruits that “shall be a fading flower” (Isa 28:4).

3. There is a fruit that is vile and ill-tasting, however long it is in growing. The root is dried and cannot convey enough sap to the branches to ripen the fruit (Jer 24). These are the fruits of those professors whose hearts are estranged from communion with the Holy Spirit, whose fruit grows from themselves: from their abilities, their gifts, their strength of wit, their natural or moral principles. Though they bring forth fruit, these are called empty vines, such as do not bring forth fruit to God. “Their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb” (Hos 9:16).

4. There is a fruit that is wild. “I looked for grapes and it brought forth wild grapes” (Isa 5:4). I observe that, as there are trees and plants that are wholly right and noble, fit indeed for the vineyard, so there are also their look-alikes, but wild: not right, but ignoble. There is the grape and the wild grape; the vine and the wild vine; the rose and the canker rose; flowers and wild flowers; the apple and the wild apple, which we call the crab apple. Now, however the fruit from these wild things may please children to play with, the sensible and serious count it of little or no value. There are also in the world a generation of professors who, despite their profession, are wild by nature. Yes, they are such as were never cut out of, or off from, the wild olive tree, nor ever yet planted into the good olive tree. Now, these can bring forth nothing but wild olive berries; they cannot bring forth fruit to God. Such are all those who have lightly taken up a profession and crept into the vineyard without a new birth and the blessing of regeneration.

5. There is also untimely fruit: “Even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs” (Rev 6:13). This is fruit out of season, and so no fruit to God’s liking. There are two sorts of professors liable to bring forth untimely fruit: first, those who bring forth fruit too soon; second, those who bring forth fruit too late.

(1) Those who bring forth too soon. They are those who receive the word with joy at once, and soon, before they have taken root downward, shoot up upward. But having no root, when the sun rises they are scorched, and miserably die without fruit. These professors are those light and thoughtless ones who think that nothing but peace will accompany the gospel; and so they rejoice at once at the news, without foreseeing the evil. So when the evil comes, being unarmed and therefore unable to stand any longer, they die and wither, and bring forth no fruit. “He that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended” (Matt 13:20-21). In Isaiah 28:4 mention is made of some “whose glorious beauty shall be a fading flower,” because it is “fruit before the summer.” Both of these are untimely fruit.

(2) Those also bring forth untimely fruit who wait until the season is over. God will have his fruit in its season. I say, he will receive his fruits from such people as will render them to him in their seasons (Matt 21:41). Missing the season is dangerous; waiting until the door is shut is dangerous (Matt 25:10-11). There are many who do not come until the flood of God’s anger has risen and is too deep for them to wade through. “Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him” (Ps 32:6). Esau’s afterward is a fearful thing: “For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears” (Heb 12:17).

So the children of Israel brought God the fruits of obedience too late. Their “Lo, we be here” came too late (Num 14:40-42); their “We will go up” came too late (Num 14:40-44). The Lord had sworn before that they should not possess the land. All these are such as bring forth untimely fruit (Matt 25:10; Matt 27:5; Heb 12:17; Luke 13:25-27). It is the hard lot of the reprobate to do everything too late: to feel his lack of grace too late, to be sorry for sin too late, to seek repentance too late, to ask for mercy and to desire to go to glory too late.

Thus you see, first, that fruit blighted in the growing, that withers and does not come to maturity, is no fruit. Second, that hasty fruit, like “the grass upon the housetop,” also withers before it grows up, and is no fruit (Ps 129:6). Third, that fruit that is vile and ill-tasting is no fruit. Fourth, that wild fruit, wild grapes, are no fruit. Fifth, that untimely fruit, whether it comes too soon or too late, not in its season, is no fruit (Rev 6).

And he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

Nothing will do but fruit; he looked for grapes. “When the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it” (Matt 21:34).

Question. But what fruit does God expect?

Answer. Good fruit. “Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down” (Matt 7:19). Now, before the fruit can be good, the tree must be good. For good fruit does not make a good tree, but a “good tree bringeth forth good fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Matt 7:16-17). A man must be good, or he can bring forth no good fruit. He must have righteousness imputed to him, so that he may stand good in God’s sight, free from the curse of his law. He must have a principle of righteousness in his soul; otherwise, how could he bring forth good fruits? And this is why a Christian’s fruits are called “the fruits of the Spirit, the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ” (Gal 5:22-23; Phil 1:11). The fruits of the Spirit: therefore the Spirit must be there. The fruits of righteousness: therefore righteousness must first be there. But to be specific about a few things, briefly:

1. God expects fruit that will answer to, and be worthy of, the repentance you claim to have. Everyone in a profession who has crowded into the vineyard lays claim to repentance. Now from every such soul God expects that the fruits of repentance be found to go with it. “Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance” (Matt 3:8), that is, fruits that answer to your profession of the doctrine of repentance. Barren fig-tree, since you are a professor and have got into the vineyard, you stand before the Lord of the vineyard as one of the trees of the garden. So he looks for fruit from you, as from the rest of the trees in the vineyard: fruits, I say, such as may show you, in heart and life, to be one who has made a sound profession of repentance. By your profession you have said, “I feel the evil of sin.” Well then, live a life that shows that you feel the evil of sin. By your profession you have said, “I am sorry for my sin.” Why, then, live a life that may show this sorrow. By your profession you have said, “I am ashamed of my sin.” Yes, but live such a life that people may see by it your shame for sin (Ps 38:18; Jer 31:19). By your profession you say, “I have turned from, left off, and have become an enemy to every appearance of evil” (1 Thess 5:22). Ah! But do your life and conduct show you to be such a person? Take heed, barren fig-tree, lest your life give the lie to your profession. I say again, take heed, for God himself will come for fruit: “And he sought fruit thereon.”

You have some professors who are saints only before men, when they are out in public, but are devils and vipers at home: saints by profession, but devils by practice; saints in word, but sinners in heart and life. These people may have the profession, but they lack the fruits that befit repentance.

Barren fig-tree, can it be imagined that those who paint themselves ever repented of their pride? Or that those who chase after this world ever repented of their covetousness? Or that those who walk with wanton eyes ever repented of their fleshly lusts? Where, barren fig-tree, is the fruit of these people’s repentance? No, do they not rather declare to the world that they have repented of their profession? Their fruits look as if they had. Their pride says they have repented of their humility. Their covetousness declares that they are weary of depending on God. And do not your wanton actions declare that you abhor chastity? Where is your fruit, barren fig-tree? Repentance is not only a sorrow and a shame for sin, but a turning from sin to God. It is called “repentance from dead works” (Heb 6:1). Do you have that “godly sorrow” that “worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of” (2 Cor 7:10-11)? How do you show your carefulness and the clearing of yourself; your indignation against sin; your fear of offending; your intense desire to walk with God; your zeal for his name and glory in the world? And what revenge do you have in your heart against every thought of disobedience?

But where is the fruit of this repentance? Where is your watching, your fasting, your praying against the remainders of corruption? Where is your self-loathing, your blushing before God for the sin that still remains? Where is your tenderness toward the name of God and his ways? Where is your self-denial and contentment? How do you show before men the truth of your turning to God? Have you “renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness”? Can you commend yourself “to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor 4:2)?

2. God expects fruits that will answer to the faith you profess. The professor who has got into the vineyard of God claims that he has the faith, the most holy faith, the faith of God’s elect. Ah! But where are your fruits, barren fig-tree? The faith of the Romans was “spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom 1:8). And the Thessalonians’ faith grew exceedingly (2 Thess 1:3).

You profess to believe that you have a share in another world: have you let go of this one, barren fig-tree? You profess that you believe in Christ: is he your joy and the life of your soul? Yes, what conformity to him, to his sorrows and sufferings, do you have? What likeness to himself have his crying and groaning and bleeding and dying worked in you? Do you “bear about in thy body the dying of the Lord Jesus”? And is the life of Jesus also “made manifest in thy mortal body” (2 Cor 4:10-11)? Barren fig-tree, “show me thy faith by thy works.” “Show out of a good conversation thy works with meekness of wisdom” (Jas 2:18; Jas 3:13). What fruit, barren fig-tree, what degree of heart-holiness? For faith purifies the heart (Acts 15:9). What love for the Lord Jesus? For “faith worketh by love” (Gal 5:6).

3. God expects fruits according to the seasons of grace you are under, according to the rain that falls on you. Perhaps you are planted in good soil, by great waters, so that you might bring forth branches and bear fruit, so that you might be a goodly vine or fig-tree. Shall he not, then, seek for fruit, for fruit that answers to the means? Barren fig-tree, God expects it, and will find it too, if he ever blesses you. “For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned” (Heb 6:7-8).

Barren soul, how many showers of grace, how many dews from heaven, how many times have the silver streams of the city of God run gliding by your roots, to cause you to bring forth fruit! These showers and streams, and the drops that hang on your boughs, will all be accounted for. And will they not testify against you that by rights you ought to be burned? Hear and tremble, you barren professor! The God of heaven expects fruits that befit your profession of the gospel. The gospel holds the forgiveness of sins, the kingdom of heaven and eternal life. But what fruit has your profession of believing these things put forth in your heart and life? Have you given yourself to the Lord? And is all that you have ready to be risked for his name in this world? Do you walk like one who is bought with a price, even with the price of precious blood?

4. The fruit God expects is such as is fit for himself, fruit that may glorify God. God’s trees are trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. He expects fruit that tastes of heaven, and an abundance of such fruit. For “herein,” says Christ, “is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit” (John 15:8). Fruits of all kinds, new and old; the fruits of the Spirit are in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Fruits before the world, fruits before the saints, fruits before God, fruits before angels.

O my brothers, “what manner of persons ought we to be” (2 Pet 3:11), we who have subscribed ourselves to the Lord and have called ourselves by the name of Israel? “One shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel” (Isa 44:5). Barren fig-tree, have you subscribed? Have you called yourself by the name of Jacob, and surnamed yourself by the name of Israel? All this you lay claim to, you who have got into the vineyard, who are placed among the trees of the garden of God. So God looks for such fruit as is worthy of his name, as is fit for him. As the apostle says, “we should walk worthy of God” (1 Thess 2:12); that is, in such a way that we may show in every place that the presence of God is with us, his fear in us, and his majesty and authority upon our actions. Fruits fit for him: such dependence on him, such trust in his word, such satisfaction in his presence, such trusting him with all my concerns, and such delight in the enjoyment of him, as may demonstrate that his fear is in my heart, that my soul is wrapped up in his things, and that my body and soul and estate and all are truly, through his grace, at his disposal. This is fruit fit for him. Hearty thanks and blessing God for Jesus Christ, for his good word, for his free grace, for the revealing of himself in Christ to the soul; secret longing after another world: this is fruit fit for him. Generosity to the poor saints and to the poor world; a life exemplary in word and deed; a patient and quiet enduring of all things until I have done and suffered the whole will of God that he has appointed for me. “That on the good ground are they which, in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). This is bringing forth fruit to God, having our “fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Rom 7:4; Rom 6:22; Rom 14:8).

5. The Lord expects fruit befitting the vineyard of God. “The vineyard,” he says, “in a very fruitful hill” (Isa 5:1): witness the fruit brought forth in all ages. The most barren trees that ever grew in the wood of this world, when planted in this vineyard by the God of heaven, what fruit toward God they have brought forth! “Abel offered the more excellent sacrifice” (Heb 11:4). Enoch walked with God three hundred years (Heb 11:5). Noah, by his life of faith, “condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (Heb 11:7). Abraham left his country and went out after God, not knowing where he was going (Heb 11:8). Moses left a kingdom and ran the risk of the king’s wrath, for the love he had for God and Christ. What shall I say of those who had trials, “not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection”? “They were stoned; they were sawn asunder; were tempted; were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented” (Heb 11:35-37). Peter left his father, ship and nets (Matt 4:18-20). Paul turned away from the feet of Gamaliel. People brought their goods and possessions (the price of them) and laid it down at the apostles’ feet. And others brought their books of curious arts together and burned them, though they were worth fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:18-20). I could add how many in all ages have willingly offered themselves, and their all, for the worthy name of the Lord Jesus, to be racked, starved, hanged, burned, drowned, pulled in pieces, and to suffer a thousand calamities. Barren fig-tree, the vineyard of God has been a fruitful place. What are you doing there? What do you bear? God expects fruit in keeping with, or befitting, the soil of the vineyard.

6. The fruit God expects is such as befits God’s husbandry and labor. The vineyard is God’s husbandry, or tillage. “I am the true vine,” says Christ, “and my Father is the husbandman” (John 15:1). And again, “Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building” (1 Cor 3:9). The vineyard: God fences it, God gathers out the stones, God builds the tower and the winepress in the middle of it. Here is labor, here is protection, here is the removing of hindrances, here is fitting purging, and all so that there might be fruit.

Barren fig-tree, what fruit do you have? Do you have fruit befitting the care of God, the protection of God, the wisdom of God, the patience and husbandry of God? It is the fruit of the vineyard that is either the shame or the praise of the husbandman. “I went by the field of the slothful,” says Solomon, “and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof” (Prov 24:30-32).

Barren fig-tree, if people were to judge the care and pains and labor of God in his church by the fruit you bring forth, what might they say? Is he not slothful? Is he not careless? Is he not without discretion? O! Your thorns, your nettles, your barren heart and barren life are a continual provocation to the eyes of his glory, and a dishonor to the glory of his grace as well.

Barren fig-tree, have you heard all these things? I will add one more.

And he came and sought fruit thereon.

The question now is not what you think of yourself, nor what all the people of God think of you, but what you will be found to be in that day when God searches your boughs for fruit. When Sodom was to be searched for righteous men, God would not trust even his faithful servant Abraham in that matter. Instead, as Abraham interceded, God kept answering, “If I find fifty … or forty and five there, I will not destroy the city” (Gen 18:20-28). Barren fig-tree, what do you say? God will come down to see; God will make search for fruit himself.

And he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of the vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground? (Luke 13:6-7)

These words are the result of God’s search into the boughs of a barren fig-tree. He sought fruit and found none: none to his liking, none pleasant and good. Therefore he first complains to the dresser that it is lacking, and calls him to come and see and take notice of the tree. Then he makes his pleasure known: he will have it removed, taken away, cut down, so that it no longer cumbers the ground.

Observation. The barren fig-tree is the object of God’s displeasure; God cannot bear with a fruitless professor.

Then said he…

Then: after this provocation; then, after he had sought and found no fruit; then. This word then shows us a kind of inward disquiet, as he also says in another place upon a similar provocation: “Then the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy, shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven” (Deut 29:18-20).

Then also implies that he had now come to a point, to a decision about what to do with this fig-tree. “Then said he to the dresser of this vineyard,” that is, to Jesus Christ, “Behold”; as much as to say, “Come here. Here is a fig-tree in my vineyard; here is a professor in my church who is barren, who bears no fruit.”

Observation. However the barren professor thinks of himself on earth, the Lord cries out against him in heaven. “And now go to, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down” (Isa 5:5).

Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit.

Observation. “These three years.” God cries out that his patience is abused, that his forbearance is abused. “Look,” he says, “these three years I have waited and held back; these three years I have put off my anger.” “Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting” (Jer 15:6).

“These three years.” Observe that God stores up all the time; I mean, he keeps a record of all the time that a barren fig-tree, or a fruitless professor, misspends in this world. So he also says of Israel of old, “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation” (Ps 95:10).

“These three years…” These three seasons. Observe that God remembers how many seasons you have misspent, for these three years signify so many seasons. These are the times when the time of fruit drew near, that is, around the season when the fruit begins to ripen, or when, by the season, it might have been ripe. Barren fig-tree, you have had time, seasons, sermons, ministers, afflictions, judgments, mercies, and what not; and yet you have not been fruitful. You have had awakenings, rebukes, threatenings, comforts; and yet you have not been fruitful. You have had patterns, examples, summonses, spurs; and yet you have not been fruitful. Well, God has laid up your three years with himself. He remembers every time, every season, every sermon, every minister, affliction, judgment, mercy, awakening, pattern, example, summons, spur; he remembers it all. As he said of Israel of old, “They have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice” (Num 14:22). And again, “I remember all their wickedness” (Hos 7:2).

“These three years…” He looks for the fruit of every season. He does not want any of his sermons, ministers, afflictions, judgments, or mercies to be lost, or to stand as insignificant things; he will have a return according to the benefit he has bestowed (2 Chr 32:24-25). He has not done without a cause all that he has done, and therefore he looks for fruit (Ezek 14:23). Look to it, barren fig-tree.

I came “seeking” fruit.

Observation. This word seeking signifies a close search. For when a man looks for fruit on a tree, he goes round it and round it, now looking into this bough and then into that; he peers into the innermost boughs and the lowest boughs, in case there may be fruit on them. Barren fig-tree, God will look into all your boughs. He will be with you in your bed-fruits, your midnight-fruits, your prayer-closet-fruits, your family-fruits, your everyday-conduct-fruits, to see if there are any among all these that are fit for, or worthy of, the name of the God of heaven. He sees “what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark” (Ezek 8:12). “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Heb 4:12-13).

Seeking fruit on “this” fig-tree.

I told you before that he keeps in remembrance the times and seasons that the barren professor has wickedly misspent. Now, since he also points out the fig-tree, this fig-tree, it shows that the barren professor, above all professors, is continually odious in the eyes of God. This fig-tree: “this man Coniah” (Jer 22:28). This people draw nigh me with their mouth, but have removed their hearts far from me. God knows who among all the thousands of Israel are the barren and fruitless professors. His lot will fall on the head of Achan, though he is hidden among six hundred thousand men. “And he brought his household, man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zera, of the tribe of Judah, was taken” (Josh 7:17-18). This is the Achan, this is the fig-tree, this is the barren professor!

Here is a man who has a hundred trees in his vineyard. At the time of the season he walks into his vineyard to see how the trees are flourishing. As he goes and views and pries and observes how they hang with fruit, look, he comes to one where he finds nothing but leaves. Now he stops. He looks at it again and again; he looks here and there, above and below. If after all this seeking he finds nothing but leaves on it, he begins to turn over in his mind how he may know this tree next year: what stands next to it, or how far is it from the hedge? But if there is nothing there that may serve as a mark to know it by, then he takes his hook and gives it a private mark, just as “the Lord set a mark upon Cain” (Gen 4). “Go your way, fruitless fig-tree,” he says; “you have spent this season in vain.”

Yet he does not cut it down. “I will try it another year,” he says; “maybe this was not a fruitful season.” So he comes again the next year to see if it has fruit now. But as he found it before, so he finds it now: barren, barren, every year barren. He looks again but finds no fruit. Now he begins to have second thoughts: “What! No crop last year, and none this year either? Surely the barrenness is not in the season; surely the fault is in the tree. However, I will spare it this year also, but I will give it a second mark.” And it may be that he touches it with a hot iron, because he is beginning to be angry.

Well, at the third season he comes again for fruit, but the third year is like the first and second: no fruit yet; it only cumbers the ground. What must be done with this fig-tree now? Why, the Lord will lop its boughs with terror; yes, and lop the thickets of those professors with iron. “I have waited,” says God, “these three years. I have missed fruit these three years. It has been a cumber-ground these three years. Cut it down. Precept has been upon precept, and line upon line, one year after another, for these three years, but no fruit can be seen. I find none. Fetch the axe! I am sure this is the fig-tree; I have known it from the first year. Barrenness was its sign then; barrenness is its sign now. Make it fit for the fire!” Look, “now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore, every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Matt 3:10).

Observe, my brothers: God’s heart cannot be inclined toward a barren fig-tree. You know it is the same with yourselves. If you have a tree in your orchard or vineyard that only cumbers the ground, you cannot look on that tree with pleasure, with satisfaction and delight. No; if you just walk past it, if you just cast your eye on it, yes, if you just think of that tree, you threaten it in your heart, saying, “I will chop you down soon; into the fire with you soon.” And it is useless for anyone to think of persuading you to show favor to the barren fig-tree. If they did try to persuade you, your answer is unanswerable: “It yields me no profit; it takes up room and does no good; a better one may grow in its place.”

Cut it down.

So, when the godly among the Jews prayed that rebellious Israel might not be cast out of the vineyard (Jer 14:17), what was God’s answer? “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people”; therefore, “cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth” (Jer 15:1).

What a resolution this is! Moses and Samuel could do almost anything with God in prayer. How many times did Moses by prayer turn away God’s judgments even from Pharaoh himself! Yes, how many times did he by prayer preserve Israel in the wilderness from the anger and wrath of God (Ps 106:23)! Samuel is counted excellent in this way too; indeed, so excellent that when Israel had done such a fearful thing as to reject the Lord and choose themselves another king, he prayed, and the Lord spared and forgave them (1 Sam 12). But even so, neither Moses nor Samuel can save a barren fig-tree. No; “though Moses and Samuel stood before me” (that is, pleading, arguing, interceding, entreating, and imploring), yet they could not incline my heart to this people.

Cut it down.

“Yes, but Lord, it is a fig-tree, a fig-tree! If it were a thorn, or a bramble, or a thistle, it would not matter much; but it is a fig-tree, or a vine.” Well, but notice God’s answer: “Son of man, What is the vine-tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?” (Ezek 15:2-3). If trees that are set or planted for fruit do not bring forth that fruit, there is no advantage at all in them over the trees of the forest, unless the advantage lies with the trees of the wood, for those are fit to build with. But a fig-tree or a vine, if it does not bring forth fruit, yes, good fruit, is fit for nothing at all but to be cut down and made ready for the fire. And so the prophet goes on: “Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel.” If it does not serve for fruit, it will serve for fuel; and so “the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burnt” (Ezek 15:4).

“Yes, but these fig-trees and vines are church members, inhabitants of Jerusalem.” So was the fig-tree mentioned in the text. But what answer has God prepared for these objections? Why, “Thus saith the Lord God, As the vine-tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel; so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will set my face against them, they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them” (Ezek 15:6-7).

Cut it down.

A woman who delights in her garden may have a slip growing there that, suppose it were fruitful, she would not sell for five pounds. Yet if it bears no fruit, if it withers and dwindles and dies and turns into nothing but cumber-ground, it may not stay in her garden. Gardens and vineyards are places for fruit, for fruit according to the nature of the plant or flower. Suppose such a slip as I have just described were in your garden and died there: would you let it stay in your garden? No; away with it, away with it!

The woman comes into her garden toward spring. First she gives it a quick glance; then she sets to gathering out the weeds and nettles and stones; she takes a broom and sweeps the paths. This done, she falls to prying into her herbs and slips, to see if they are alive, to see if they are likely to grow. Now, if she comes to one that is dead, that she is confident will not grow, up she pulls it and makes for the rubbish heap with it, where she throws it down with contempt and values it no more than a nettle, or a weed, or the dust she has swept out of her paths. Yes, if anyone who sees her should say, “Why do you do that?” the answer is ready: “It is dead, it is dead at the root; if I had let it stand, it would only have cumbered the ground.” The strange slips, and the dead ones too, must be “a heap in the day of grief, and of desperate sorrow” (Isa 17:10-11).

Cut it down.

There are two kinds of cutting down: first, when a man is cast out of the vineyard; second, when a man is cast out of the world.

First. When a man is cast out of the vineyard. And that is done in two ways: by the immediate hand of God, and by the church’s due execution of the laws and censures that Christ has left with his church for that purpose.

1. God cuts down the barren fig-tree by an immediate hand, striking his roots, blasting his branches, and so taking him away from among his people. “Every branch,” says Christ, “that beareth not fruit in me, he” (my Father) “taketh away” (John 15:2). He takes him out of the church; he takes him away from the godly. There are two things by which God takes the barren professor from among the children of God: strong delusions and open profaneness.

(1) By strong delusion: such delusions as beguile the soul with damnable doctrines that swerve from faith and godliness. “They have chosen their own ways,” says God, “and their soul delighteth in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them” (Isa 66:3-4). I will strike them with blindness, and hardness of heart, and failing of eyes; and I will also allow the tempter to tempt them and carry out his hellish designs upon them. “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess 2:10-12).

(2) Sometimes God takes away a barren professor by open profaneness. Here is someone who has taken up a profession of that worthy name, the Lord Jesus Christ; but this profession is only a cloak, and he secretly practices wickedness. He is a glutton, a drunkard, or covetous, or unclean. “Well,” says God, “I will loosen the reins on this professor. I will give him up to his vile passions. I will loosen the reins of his lusts before him. He shall be entangled in his beastly lusts; he shall be overcome by ungodly company.” So it is with those who turn aside to their own crooked ways: “the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity” (Ps 125:5). This is God’s immediate hand; God is now dealing with this man himself.

Barren fig-tree, listen! You have crowded your way into a profession, you have got in among the godly, and there you are a scandal to the holy and glorious gospel. But you are also so cunning that, like the sons of Zeruiah, you are too hard for the church; she does not know how to deal with you. “Well,” says God, “I will deal with that man myself: ‘I will answer that man by myself.’” As for him who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes and appears before me, “I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb: and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezek 14:7-8).

2. But God sometimes cuts down the barren fig-tree by the church, by the church’s due execution of the laws and censures that Christ has left with his church for that purpose. This is the meaning of Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, and 1 Timothy 1:20, on which I will not enlarge now. But whichever way God deals with you, O barren fig-tree, whether by himself immediately or by his church, it amounts to one and the same thing: if timely repentance does not prevent it, the end of that soul is damnation. They are blasted, and withered, and gathered up by men as God’s enemies; and at last, being cast into the fire, burning must be their end. “That which beareth thorns and briars is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned” (Heb 6:8).

Second. And again, sometimes by “Cut it down” God means cast it out of the world. So he cut down Nadab and Abihu when he burned them up with fire from heaven (Num 3:4). So he cut down Korah, Dathan, and Abiram when he made the earth swallow them up (Num 16:31-33). So he cut down Saul when he gave him up to fall on the edge of his own sword, and he died (1 Sam 31:4). So he cut down Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, when he struck them down dead in the midst of the congregation (Acts 5:5, 10). I might also speak here of Absalom, Ahithophel, and Judas, all three of whom were hanged: the first by God’s avenging hand, while the others were given up by God to be their own executioners. These were barren and unprofitable fig-trees, such as God took no pleasure in; therefore he commanded that they be cut down. The psalmist says, “He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath” (Ps 58:9).

Barren fig-tree, listen! God calls for the axe, his sword: “Bring it here; here is a barren professor. Cut him down; why does he cumber the ground?”

Why cumbereth it the ground?

By these words the Lord suggests reasons for his displeasure against the barren fig-tree: it cumbers the ground. The Holy Spirit does not argue only from its barrenness; he also argues that because it is a cumber-ground, therefore it must be cut down. So it must certainly be a provocation:

1. Because, as far as lies in it, it defeats God’s purpose in planting his vineyard; as God says, I looked that it should bring forth fruit.

2. It has also abused his patience, his long-suffering, his three years’ patience.

3. It has also abused his labor, his pains, his care, and his providence of protection and preservation: for he hedges his vineyard and walls it about. Cumber-ground, you abuse all these things! He waters his vineyard and looks after it night and day; but you have abused all these things.

Further, there are other reasons for God’s displeasure, such as these:

First. A cumber-ground is a real mockery and reproach of religion: a mockery and reproach to the ways of God, to the people of God, to the word of God, and to the name of religion. Everyone expects all the trees in the garden of God to be fruitful. God expects fruit; the church expects fruit; the world, even the world, concludes that professors should be fruitful in good works. I say, the world expects professors to be better than themselves. But, barren fig-tree, you disappoint everyone. Indeed, have you not taught the wicked your ways? Have you not taught them to be more wicked by your example? But that is by the way. Barren fig-tree, you have disappointed others, and you must be disappointed yourself! “Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?”

Second. The barren fig-tree takes up the room where a better tree might stand. I say, it takes up the room; so long as it stands where it does, it keeps a fruitful tree out of that place, and therefore it must be cut down. Barren fig-tree, do you hear? Because the Jews stood fruitless in the vineyard, therefore God says, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you,” and given to a nation that will render him its fruits in their season (Matt 21:41-43). The Jews were cut down for their barrenness, and a more fruitful people put in their place. As Samuel also said to barren Saul, “The Lord hath rent the kingdom from thee, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine that is better than thou” (1 Sam 15:28). The unprofitable servant must be cast out, must be cut down (Matt 25:30).

Cumber-ground, how many hopeful, well-inclined, eager people have you kept out of the vineyard of God by your fruitless and unprofitable life? For your sake people have stumbled at religion; by your life they have been kept from the love of their own salvation. You have also been a means of hardening others, and of quenching and killing weak beginnings. Well, barren fig-tree, look to yourself. You will not go to heaven yourself, and you hinder those who would. You must not always cumber the ground, nor always hinder the salvation of others. You shall be cut down, and another shall be planted in your place.

Third. The cumber-ground is a sucker: he draws away the strength and nourishment from the other trees. If the cumber-ground were cut down, the others would be more fruitful; he draws to himself the richness of the ground that would make the others more hearty and fruitful. “One sinner destroyeth much good” (Eccl 9:18).

The cumber-ground is a real drone in the hive, eating up the honey that should feed the working bee. He is a thief in the candle that wastes the tallow but gives no light. He is salt that has lost its savor, fit for nothing but the dunghill. Look to it, barren fig-tree!

And he answering, said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that, thou shalt cut it down (Luke 13:8-9).

These are the words of the dresser of the vineyard, who, as I told you, is Jesus Christ, for he made intercession for the transgressors. And they contain a petition presented to an offended justice, praying that a little more time and patience might be shown toward the barren, cumber-ground fig-tree.

In this petition there are six things to consider:

1. That justice might be delayed. O that justice might be delayed! “Lord, let it alone…” a while longer.

2. Here is a time set beforehand, as a space to try whether more means will cure a barren fig-tree: “Lord, let it alone this year also.”

3. The means to help it are proposed: “until I shall dig about it, and dung it.”

4. Here is also a hint of a supposition that, by doing this, God’s expectation may be answered: “and if it bear fruit, well.”

5. Here is a supposition that the barren fig-tree may still remain barren when Christ has done what he will to it: “and if it bear fruit…”

6. Here, at last, is a resolution that if you continue barren, days of hewing down will come upon you: “and if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”

But to proceed by my former method, by way of exposition.

Lord, let it alone this year also.

Here is astonishing grace indeed! Astonishing grace, I say, that the Lord Jesus should concern himself with a barren fig-tree; that he should step in to stop the blow from falling on a barren fig-tree! True, he stopped the blow only for a time; but why did he stop it at all? Why did he not fetch out the axe? Why did he not carry out the execution? Why did he not cut it down?

Barren fig-tree, it is well for you that there is a Jesus at God’s right hand, a Jesus with a heart so large that he has compassion for a barren fig-tree. Otherwise justice would never have let you alone to cumber the ground as you have done! When Israel sinned against God, down they would have gone, if Moses had not stood in the breach. “Let me alone,” said God to him, “that I may consume them” in a moment, “and I will make of thee a great nation” (Exod 32:10).

Barren fig-tree, do you hear? You do not know how often the hand of divine justice has been raised to strike, and how many years ago you would have been cut down, if Jesus had not caught hold of his Father’s axe. “Let me alone, let me strike my blow,” or, “Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” Will you not hear yet, barren fig-tree? Will you go on provoking? You have wearied men, and provoked the justice of God! And “will ye weary my God also?” (Isa 7:13).

Lord, let it alone this year.

Lord, a little longer! Let us not lose a soul for lack of means. I will try; I will see if I can make it fruitful. I do not beg a long life for it, nor that it may go on being barren and so provoke you. I beg for the sake of the soul, the immortal soul. Lord, spare it one year only, one year longer, this year also. If I do it any good, it will be in a short time. You will not be worn out with waiting: one year, and then.

Barren fig-tree, do you hear what a struggle there is between the dresser of the vineyard and the owner of the vineyard for your life? “Cut it down,” says one; “Lord, spare it,” says the other. “It is a cumber-ground,” says the Father; “one year longer,” prays the Son. “Let it alone this year also.”

Till I shall dig about it, and dung it.

By these words the Lord Jesus supposes two things as causes of the lack of fruit in a barren fig-tree, and he supposes two things as a remedy. The things that cause the lack of fruit are these. First, it is earth-bound: Lord, the fig-tree is earth-bound. Second, there is a lack of warmer means, of richer means. Accordingly, therefore, he proposed to loosen the earth, to dig about it, and then to supply it with dung.

“To dig about it, and dung it. Lord, let it alone this year also, until I shall dig about it.” I fear it is too ground-bound. The love of this world and the deceitfulness of riches lie too close to the roots of this professor’s heart (Luke 14). The love of riches, the love of honors, the love of pleasures, are the thorns that choke the word. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father” (1 John 2:15-16), but is enmity to God. How then, where these things bind up the heart, can there be fruit brought forth to God?

Barren fig-tree, see how the Lord Jesus, by these very words, points to the cause of your fruitlessness of soul! The things of this world lie too close to your heart; the earth and its things have bound up your roots. You are an earth-bound soul; you are wrapped up in thick clay. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15); how then can he be fruitful in the vineyard? This kept Judas from the fruit of caring for the poor (John 12:6). This kept Demas from the fruit of self-denial (2 Tim 4:10). And this kept Ananias and Sapphira his wife from the goodly fruit of sincerity and truth (Acts 5:5, 10). What shall I say? These are “foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition; for the love of money is the root of all evil.” How then can good fruit grow from such a root, the root of all evil? “Which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim 6:9-10). It is an evil root; no, it is the root of all evil. How then can the professor who has such a root, or a root wrapped up in such earthly things as the lusts and pleasures and vanities of this world, bring forth fruit to God?

Till I shall dig about it.

Lord, I will loosen his roots. I will dig up this earth; I will lay his roots bare. My hand shall be upon him by sickness, by disappointments, by providences that cross him. I will dig about him until he stands shaking and tottering, until he is ready to fall; then, if ever, he will seek to take a faster hold.

Thus, I say, the Lord Jesus often deals with the barren professor. He digs about him: he strikes one blow at his heart, another at his lusts, a third at his pleasures, a fourth at his comforts, another at his self-conceit. Thus he digs about him; this is the way to take bad earth from his roots and to loosen his roots from the earth. Barren fig-tree, see here the care, the love, the labor and the way that the Lord Jesus, the dresser of the vineyard, is willing to take with you, if perhaps you may be made fruitful.

Till I shall dig about it, and dung it.

As the earth, by binding the roots too closely, may hinder the tree from being fruitful, so the lack of better means may also be a cause of it. And this is more than hinted at by the dresser of the vineyard: “Till I shall dig about it and dung it.” I will supply it with a more fruitful ministry, with a warmer word. I will give them pastors after my own heart; I will dung them. You know that dung is warmer, richer, more hearty and more nourishing matter than the soil in which trees are commonly planted.

“I will dig about it, and dung it.” I will bring it under a heart-awakening ministry; the means of grace shall be rich and good. I will also visit it with heart-awakening, heart-warming, heart-encouraging considerations. I will apply warm dung to his roots. I will strive with him by my Spirit, and give him some tastes of the heavenly gift and the power of the world to come. I am unwilling to lose him for lack of digging. “Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it.”

And if it bear fruit, well.

And if the fruit of all my labor makes this fig-tree fruitful, I shall count my time, my labor and my means well spent on it. And you also, O my God, will be much delighted with it; for you are gracious and merciful, and you repent of the evil that you threaten to bring upon a people.

These words, therefore, tell us that if a barren fig-tree, a barren professor, shall now at last bring forth fruit to God, it shall go well with that professor; it shall go well with that poor soul. His former barrenness, his former tempting of God, his abuse of God’s patience and long-suffering, his misspending of year after year, shall now all be forgiven him. Yes, God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ will now pass by and forget it all, and say, “Well done,” at the last. “When I say to the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if he then do that which is lawful and right, if he walk in the statutes of life, without committing iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall not die” (Ezek 33).

Barren fig-tree, do you hear? The axe is laid to your roots; the Lord Jesus is praying God to spare you. Has he been digging about you? Has he been dunging you? O barren fig-tree, now you have come to the point. If you will now become good, if you will, in a gracious manner, suck in the gospel-dung, and if you will bring forth fruit to God, well; but if not, the fire comes last! Fruit, or the fire; fruit, or the fire, barren fig-tree! “If it bear fruit, well.”

And if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

By this if, the Lord Jesus gives us to understand that there is a generation of professors in the world who are incurable, who will not, who cannot repent, nor be profited by the means of grace. A generation, I say, that will keep a profession but will not bring forth fruit; a generation that will wear out the patience of God, time and tide, threatenings and intercessions, judgments and mercies, and after all will be unfruitful.

O the desperate wickedness that is in your heart! Barren professor, do you hear? The Lord Jesus still stands in doubt about you; there is an if still standing in the way. I say, the Lord Jesus still stands in doubt about you: whether or not you will at last be good; whether he may not labor in vain; whether his digging and dunging will come to anything more than lost labor. “I gave her space to repent … and she repented not” (Rev 2:21). I dug about it, I dunged it; I gained time and supplied it with means; but I labored at it in vain, and spent my strength for nothing, and in vain! Do you hear, barren fig-tree? There is still a question whether it may be well with your soul at last.

And if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

There is nothing more exasperating to a man’s mind than to find all his kindness and favor slighted; nor is the Lord Jesus provoked by anything so much as when sinners abuse his means of grace. “If it is barren and fruitless under my gospel; if it turns my grace into wantonness; if after digging and dunging and waiting it still remains unfruitful, I will let you cut it down.”

The means of the gospel, applied, are the last remedy for a barren professor. If the gospel, if the grace of the gospel, will not do it, nothing can be expected but “cut it down.” “Then after that thou shalt cut it down.” “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Therefore “your house is left unto you desolate” (Matt 23:37-38).

Yet this Lord Jesus at first put a stop to the execution of his Father’s justice, because he wanted to try more means with the fig-tree. And it cannot be, I say, but that a heart as full of compassion as his should be touched to see that this professor must now be cut down. “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luke 19:41-42).

After that thou shalt cut it down.

When Christ gives you over, there is no intercessor, no mediator, no more sacrifice for sin. All is gone but judgment, but the axe, but a “certain fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb 10:26-27).

Barren fig-tree, take heed that you do not come to these last words, for these words are a giving up, a casting off, the casting off of a castaway: “After that thou shalt cut it down.” They are as much as if Christ had said, “Father, I begged for more time for this barren professor; I begged for time until I could dig about it and dung it. But now, Father, the time is up, the year is ended, the summer is ended, and no good done! I have also tried with my means, with the gospel; I have dug about it; I have also laid the rich and hearty dung of the gospel to it, but it all comes to nothing. Father, I deliver this professor up to you again. I am done; I have done all; I am done with praying and striving. I will hold back the head of your axe no longer. Take him into the hands of justice; do justice; carry out the law. I will never beg for him again.” “After that thou shalt cut it down.” “Woe also to them when I depart from them!” (Hos 9:12).

Now this professor is left naked indeed: naked to God, naked to Satan, naked to sin, naked to the law, naked to death, naked to hell, naked to judgment, and naked to the grip of a guilty conscience, and to the torment of that worm that never dies, and to that fire that never shall be quenched. “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven” (Heb 12:25).

From this brief pass through this parable, you have these two general observations. First, even when the justice of God cries out, “I cannot bear to wait on this barren professor any longer,” even then Jesus Christ intercedes for a little more patience and a little more striving with this professor, if by any means he may make him a fruitful professor: “Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it; and if it bear fruit, well…” (Luke 13:8-9). Second, there are some professors whose day of grace will end with “Cut it down,” with judgment, when Christ, with his means, has been employed for their salvation.

The first of these observations I will pass over and not meddle with at all. I will speak briefly to the second, namely, that there are some professors whose day of grace will end with “Cut it down,” with judgment, when Christ, with his means, has been employed for their salvation.

The apostle shows this in the third chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrews. There he tells us that the people of the Jews, after forty years of patience and of endeavor to do them good by the means appointed for that purpose, came in the end to be cut down, or shut out of the land of promise, for their final unbelief. “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Heb 3:19). “Wherefore,” he says, “I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways; so I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest” (Heb 3:10-11). It is as if God should say, “I wanted them to enter in. For that purpose I brought them out of Egypt, led them through the sea, and taught them in the wilderness. But they did not answer my work or my designs in that matter. Therefore they shall not; I swear they shall not.” “I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest.” Here is cutting down with judgment.

So again he says, “As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world” (Heb 4:3). This word “if” means the same as “they shall not” in the chapter before. And where he says, “Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world,” he gives us to understand this: whatever preparations are made for the salvation of sinners, and however long they have stood ready, the God-tempting, God-provoking, fruitless professor is likely to go without a share in them, “although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

“I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels that kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 5-6). Here is an instance to the point, an instance of both men and angels. Men were saved out of the land of Egypt, and then, on their journey toward Canaan, the type of heaven, were cut down. Angels were created and placed in the heavens in great estate and principality. Yet both of these, because they were unfruitful to God in their places, were cut down: the men destroyed by God, for so the text says, and the angels “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.”

Now, in handling this point, I will speak of the cutting down, or the judgment here pronounced, as it is done by God’s own hand directly, and that too as it concerns his casting them out of the world, and not as it concerns an act of the church, and so on. As to this cutting down, or judgment, we must conclude that it cannot come before the day of grace is past with the fig-tree. Rather, according to the observation, there are some professors whose day of grace will end with “Cut it down.” And according to the words of the text, “Then,” after that, “thou shalt cut it down.” “After that”: that is, after all my attempts and endeavors to make it fruitful, after I have left it, given it over, finished with it, and resolved to bestow no more days of grace, opportunities of grace, or means of grace upon it, then, “after that,” you shall cut it down.

Besides, the giving up of the fig-tree comes before the execution. Execution does not always follow immediately on the sentence. After the sentence, a convenient time is settled on, and then comes the cutting down. And so it is here in the text. The decree that he shall perish is gathered from the tree’s continuing fruitless right through the last year, from its continuing fruitless at the end of all endeavors. But the cutting down is not yet, for that comes with an afterward: “Then, after that, thou shalt cut it down.”

So then, that I may proceed in order with the observation, I must lay down these two propositions. The first proposition: the day of grace ends with some men before God takes them out of this world. And the second proposition: the death, or cutting down, of such men will be dreadful. For this “Cut it down,” when it is understood in the largest sense, as indeed it ought to be here, shows not only the wrath of God against a man’s life in this world, but his wrath against him, body and soul. It is as much as to say, “Cut him off from all the privileges and benefits that come by grace, both in this world and in the world to come.” But to proceed.

Proposition 1. The day of grace ends with some men before God takes them out of the world. I will give you some instances of this, and so go on to the last proposition.

1. I will give Cain as an instance. Cain was a professor, a sacrificer, a worshiper of God; yes, the first worshiper we read of after the fall. But his grapes were wild ones. His works were evil. He did not do what he did from true gospel motives, and therefore God rejected his work (Gen 4:3-8). At this his face fell. So he envied his brother, argued with him, seized his opportunity, and killed him. Now, on the day he did this deed, the heavens were closed against him, and he himself felt it, painfully and fearfully, when God made inquiry for the blood of Abel. “And now art thou cursed,” said God, “from the earth; which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand…” “And Cain said, My punishment is greater than I can bear.” My iniquity is too great to be forgiven. “Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid” (Gen 4:9-14). “Now you are cursed,” says God. “You have driven me out this day,” says Cain, “and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall never again have hope in you, or a smile from you, or expect mercy at your hand.” So Cain’s day of grace ended, and the heavens, with God’s own heart, were shut against him. Yet after this he lived a long time. The cutting down had not come yet. After this he lived to marry a wife, to father a cursed brood, to build a city, and I do not know what else. None of this could be done quickly. So Cain may have lived several hundred years after the day of grace was past with him (Gen 4:10-17).

2. I will give Ishmael as an instance. Ishmael was a professor. He was brought up in Abraham’s family and was circumcised at thirteen years of age (Gen 17:25-26). But he was the son of the bondwoman. He did not bring forth good fruit; he was a wild professor (Gen 16:12). For all his religion, he would scoff at those who were better than himself. Well, one day his brother Isaac was weaned. At that time his father made a feast and rejoiced before the Lord, because the Lord had given him the promised son. At this Ishmael mocked them, their son, and their godly rejoicing. Then the Spirit of God came upon Sarah, and she cried, “Cast him out!” and, “cast out this bond-woman and her son; for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, with Isaac” (Gen 21:9-11). Now Paul, writing to the Galatians, makes this casting out to be not only a casting out of Abraham’s family, but also a casting out from a share with the saints in heaven (Gal 4:29-31). Moses also gives us a notable proof of this when he says that, when Ishmael died, he was gathered to his people. That means his people on his mother’s side, for he was reckoned from her, as the son of Hagar, the son of the bondwoman (Gen 25:17). Now, she came from the Egyptians. So when he died, in spite of his profession, he was gathered to the place where Pharaoh and his army were gathered, those who were drowned in the Red Sea. These were his people, and he was one of them, both by nature and by disposition, for he persecuted as they did (Gen 21:9).

But now, when did the day of grace end with this man? Observe, and I will show you. Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised, and Abraham was then ninety-nine years old (Gen 17:24-26). The next year Isaac was born, so that Ishmael was now fourteen years of age. Now, suppose Isaac nursed four years before he was weaned. By that account, the day of grace must have ended with Ishmael by the time he was eighteen years old. For on that day he mocked; on that day it was said, “Cast him out”; and of that casting out the apostle makes what I have said. Beware, you young barren professors! Now, Ishmael lived a hundred and nineteen years after this, in great tranquility and honor among men. After this he also fathered twelve princes, even after his day of grace was past (Gen 25:12 and following).

3. I will give Esau as an instance (Gen 25:27 and following). Esau also was a professor. He was born to Isaac and circumcised according to the custom. But Esau was a sporting professor, a huntsman, a man of the field. He was also wedded to his lusts, and he would risk keeping them rather than keep the birthright. Well, one day, when he came in from hunting and was faint, he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. Now in those days the birthright had the promise and the blessing attached to it. Yes, they were so bound up together in it that one could not go without the other. That is why the apostle’s warning here carries such weight. Take heed, he says, “lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears” (Heb 12:16-17). Now, the ending of Esau’s day of grace is to be reckoned from his selling of his birthright. For that is where the apostle fixes it: take heed lest there be any among you who, like Esau, sell their birthright, for then the blessing goes too.

But Esau sold his birthright long before his death. Twenty years after this, Jacob was with Laban, and when he returned home, his brother Esau met him (Gen 31:41; Gen 33:4). Further, after this, when Jacob had lived again for some time with his father, Jacob and Esau buried him. I suppose Esau may have lived more than forty years, yes, for all I know, more than eighty years, after he had sold his birthright and so, in consequence, had put himself out of the grace of God (Gen 35:28-29).

Three things I would further note about these three professors.

1. Cain was an angry professor; Ishmael, a mocking one; Esau, a lustful, sporting one. These are three symptoms of a barren professor. For the one who can be angry, who can mock, and who can indulge his lusts cannot bring forth fruit to God.

2. The day of grace ended with these professors at the time they committed some grievous sin: Cain’s, when he killed his brother; Ishmael’s, when he mocked Isaac; and Esau’s, when, out of love for his lusts, he despised and sold his birthright. Beware, barren professor! In half a quarter of an hour you may do something from whose evil you may never be delivered, for ever and ever.

3. Yet these three, after their day of grace was over, lived better lives, as to outward things, than they ever did before. After this, Cain was lord of a city (Gen 4:17). After this, Ishmael was the father of twelve princes (Gen 25:16). And after this, Esau told his brother, “I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself” (Gen 33:8-9). Ease and peace and a prosperous life in outward things are no sign of God’s favor to a barren and fruitless professor, but rather of his wrath. By these the professor may be in a position to treasure up more wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Let this much serve for the proof of the first proposition, namely, that the day of grace ends with some men before God takes them out of this world.

Now, then, I will show you by some signs how you may know that the day of grace is ended, or near to ending, with the barren professor, and that “after that thou shalt cut it down.” He who has stood it out against God, and who has withstood all the means for fruit that God has used to make him, if it might have been, a fruitful tree in his garden, is in this danger. And this indeed is the sum of the parable. The fig-tree mentioned here was blessed with the application of means, and had time allowed it to receive the nourishment; but it outlasted, withstood, and outstayed it all: all that the husbandman did, and all that the vinedresser did.

But let me set this out a little more distinctly in four or five particulars.

The First Sign

The day of grace is likely to be past when a professor has withstood, abused, and worn out God’s patience. Then he is in danger. This is a provocation; then God cries, “Cut it down.”

There are some men who steal into a profession, nobody knows how, just as this fig tree was brought into the vineyard by other hands than God’s. And there they remain, lifeless, graceless, careless, and without any good conscience toward God at all. Perhaps they came in for the loaves, for a trade, for credit, or for a cover. Or it may be they came in to stifle and choke the checks and grinding pangs of an awakened and disquieted conscience. Now, having obtained their purpose, they are at ease and complacent, like the sinners in Zion. They say with Agag, “Surely the bitterness of death is past” (1 Sam 15:32); “I am well; I shall be saved and go to heaven.” So they spend a year, two, or three in these vain conceits, not remembering that at every season of grace, and at every opportunity of the gospel, the Lord comes seeking fruit. Well, sinner, well, barren fig tree, this is only a poor beginning: God comes for fruit.

1. “What do I have here?” says God. “What a fig tree is this, that has stood this year in my vineyard and brought me forth no fruit? I will cry to him, ‘Professor, barren fig tree, be fruitful! I look for fruit, I expect fruit, I must have fruit; therefore stop and consider yourself!’” At these words the professor pauses. But these are words, not blows, and so this consideration slips off from his heart. When God comes the next year, he finds him still as he was, a barren, fruitless cumber-ground. And now again he complains: “Here are two years gone, and no fruit appears. Well, I will defer my anger. ‘For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off’ (Isa 48:9),” as yet. “I will wait; I will still wait to be gracious.”

But this does not help. It has not the least influence on the barren fig tree. “Tush,” he says, “there is no threatening here. God is merciful; he will defer his anger; he waits to be gracious (Isa 30:18). I am not afraid yet.” Oh, how ungodly men who have crept unawares into the vineyard turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness! Well, he comes the third year for fruit, as he did before, but still he finds only a barren fig tree: no fruit. Now he cries out again, “O dresser of my vineyard, come here! Here is a fig tree that has stood these three years in my vineyard, and has disappointed my expectation at every season; for I have looked for fruit in vain. ‘Cut it down.’ My patience is worn out; I will wait on this fig tree no longer.”

2. And now he begins to shake the fig tree with his threatenings: “Fetch out the axe!” Now the axe is death; therefore death is called for. “Death, come, strike down this fig tree!” And with that the Lord shakes this sinner and whirls him onto a sickbed, saying, “Take him, death. He has abused my patience and forbearance, not remembering that it should have led him to repentance and to its fruits. Death, fetch this fig tree away to the fire; fetch this barren professor to hell!”

At this, death comes into the room with grim looks. Yes, and hell follows him to the bedside, and both stare this professor in the face. Yes, they begin to lay hands on him. Death strikes him with pains in his body: headache, heartache, backache, shortness of breath, fainting, fits of nausea, trembling of the joints, tightness in the chest, and almost all the symptoms of a man past all recovery. Now, while death is tormenting the body in this way, hell is at work on the mind and conscience. It strikes them with its pains, casts sparks of fire into them, and wounds the spirit of this poor creature with sorrows and fears of everlasting damnation.

And now he begins to come to his senses and to cry to God for mercy: “Lord, spare me! Lord, spare me!”

“No,” says God, “you have been a provocation to me these three years. How many times have you disappointed me? How many seasons have you spent in vain? How many sermons and other mercies did I, in my patience, give you? But all to no purpose at all. Take him, death!”

“Oh, good Lord,” says the sinner, “spare me just this once; raise me up just this once. Indeed I have been a barren professor, and have stood to no purpose at all in your vineyard. But spare me! Oh, spare me this one time, I beg you, and I will be better!”

“Away, away! You will not. I have tried you these three years already; you are good for nothing. If I should restore you again, you would be as bad as you were before.”

And all this talk goes on while death stands by. The sinner cries again, “Good Lord, try me this once. Let me get up again this once, and see if I do not mend my ways.”

“But will you promise me to mend?”

“Yes, indeed, Lord, and I vow it too. I will never be so bad again; I will be better.”

“Well,” says God, “death, let this professor alone for this time. I will try him a while longer. He has promised, he has vowed, that he will amend his ways. It may be he will take care to keep his promises. Vows are solemn things; it may be he will be afraid to break his vows. Get up from your bed.” And now God lays down his axe.

At this the poor creature is very thankful. He praises God and fawns on him, makes a show as if he did it heartily, and calls on others to thank him too. So he gets up, as one would think, to be a new creature indeed. But by the time he has put on his clothes, come down from his bed, and ventured into the yard or the shop, he sees there how everything has gone to sixes and sevens. Then he begins to have second thoughts, and says to his household, “What have you all been doing? Why is everything out of order? I am behind, I cannot tell how far. Anyone can see that if a man is laid aside just a little, you have neither the wisdom nor the sense to keep things in order.” And now, instead of seeking to spend the rest of his time for God, he doubles his diligence after this world. “Alas! All must not be lost; we must take provident care.” And so he quite forgets the sorrows of death, the pains of hell, and the promises and vows he made to God to be better. Because judgment was not now speedily executed, the heart of this poor creature is fully set in him to do evil.

3. When these things prove ineffective, God takes hold of his axe again. He sends death to a wife, to a child, to his cattle: “Your young men have I slain … and taken away your horses” (Amos 4:9-10). “I will blast him, cross him, disappoint him, and cast him down, and I will set myself against him in all that he puts his hand to.” At this the poor barren professor cries out again, “Lord, I have sinned; spare me once more, I beg you. Oh, do not take away the desire of my eyes! Spare my children, bless me in my labors, and I will mend and be better.”

“No,” says God, “you lied to me last time. I will trust you in this no longer.” And with that he tumbles the wife, the child, the estate into a grave, and then returns to his place, till this professor acknowledges his offense more sincerely (Hos 5:14-15).

At this the poor creature is afflicted and distressed. He tears his clothes and begins to call to mind the breaking of his promise and vows. He mourns and prays, and like Ahab walks softly for a while, remembering how just God’s hand upon him is. And now he renews his promises: “Lord, try me this one time more. Take off your hand and see; they go far that never turn.”

Well, God spares him again and sets down his axe again. “Many times he did deliver them, but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity” (Ps 106:43). Now they seem to be thankful again, and act as if they were resolved to be godly indeed. Now they read, they pray, they go to meetings, and seem to be serious for quite a while; but at last they forget. Their lusts prick them, suitable temptations present themselves, and so they turn to their own crooked ways again. “When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and inquired early after God”; “nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongue” (Ps 78:34-36).

4. Yet again, the Lord will not leave this professor. He will take up his axe again and put him under a more heart-searching ministry: a ministry that will search him and turn him over and over, a ministry that will meet with him in all his acts of wickedness, as Elijah met with Ahab. And now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees. Besides, this ministry not only searches the heart but presents the sinner with the golden rays of the glorious gospel. Now Christ Jesus is set forth plainly; now grace is displayed sweetly; now, now the promises are broken open like boxes of ointment, perfuming the whole room!

But, alas, there is still no fruit on this fig tree. While his heart is being searched, he wrangles. While the glorious grace of the gospel is being unveiled, this professor jests and trifles. He gathers up some scraps of it; he “tastes the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come”; he “drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon him” (Heb 6:3-8; Jude 4). But he does not bring forth fruit fit for him whose gospel it is; he “takes no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart” (2 Kgs 10:31). Instead he reckons that the glory of the gospel consists in talk and show, and that our obedience to it is a matter of speculation, and that good works lie in good words. If they can talk finely, they think they please God splendidly. They think the kingdom of God consists only in word, not in power. And so this fourth means also proves ineffective.

5. Well, now the axe begins to be heaved higher, for now indeed God is ready to strike the sinner. Yet before he strikes the blow, he will try one way more at the last; and if that misses, down goes the fig tree! Now this last way is to tug and strive with this professor by his Spirit. So the Spirit of the Lord has now come to him, but not to strive with man always (Gen 6:3). Yet for a while he will strive with him. He will awaken, he will convince, he will call to remembrance former sins, former judgments, the breaking of former vows and promises, and the misspending of former days. He will also present persuasive arguments, encouraging promises, dreadful judgments, the shortness of the time to repent in, and the hope there is if he comes. Further, he will show him the certainty of death and of the judgment to come. Yes, he will pull and strive with this sinner.

But, look, here now lies the mischief: there is tugging and striving on both sides. The Spirit convinces; the man turns a deaf ear to God. The Spirit says, “Receive my instruction and live”; but the man pulls away his shoulder. The Spirit shows him where he is going; but the man closes his eyes against it. The Spirit offers violence; the man strives and resists. Such men have “done despite unto the Spirit of grace” (Heb 10:29). The Spirit parleys a second time and urges reasons of a new kind, but the sinner answers, “No, I have loved strangers, and after them I will go” (Jer 2:25).

At this God’s fury comes up into his face. Now he comes out of his holy place and is terrible; now he swears in his wrath that they shall never enter into his rest (Heb 3:11). “I exercised my patience toward you, yet you have not turned to me,” says the Lord. “I struck you in your person, in your relations, in your estate, yet you have not returned to me,” says the Lord (Amos 4:6-12). “In thy filthiness is lewdness, because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged; thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I cause my fury to rest upon thee” (Ezek 24:13). “Cut it down; why doth it cumber the ground?”

The Second Sign

Such a professor is almost, if not quite, past grace when God has given him over, or lets him alone, and allows him to do anything, and that without restraint, and does not help him either in works of holiness or in straits and difficulties. “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone” (Hos 4:17). Woe to them when I depart from them! I will laugh at their calamities, and will mock when their fear comes (Prov 1:24-29).

Barren fig tree, before now you have been dug around and dunged. Before now God’s mattock has been at your roots. Before now gospel dung has been applied to you. Before now you have been striven with, convinced, awakened, made to taste and see, and to cry, “Oh, the blessedness!” Before now you have been met with under the word: your heart has melted, your spirit has fallen, your soul has trembled, and you have felt something of the power of the gospel. But you have sinned; you have provoked the eyes of his glory; your iniquity is found to be hateful. And now perhaps God has left you, given you up, and lets you alone. Once you were tender. Your conscience started at the temptation to wickedness, for you had been taken off from “the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 2:20-22). But that very vomit you were once turned from, you now lap up again, like the dog in the proverb. And that very mire you once seemed to be washed from, in that very mire you are now tumbling afresh. But to be particular, there are three signs of a man’s being given over by God.

1. When he is let alone in sinning, when the reins of his lusts are loosed and he is given up to them. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient: being filled with all unrighteousness” (Rom 1:28-29). Do you see a man who once had the knowledge of God, and who had some awe of Majesty upon him? I say, do you see such a one sporting himself in his own deceivings, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and walking after his own ungodly lusts (Rom 1:30-31)? His “judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and his damnation slumbereth not” (2 Pet 2:3). Do you hear, barren professor?

It is astonishing to see how those who once seemed “sons of the morning,” and were making preparations for eternal life, are now at last, for the rottenness of their hearts, by the just judgment of God, permitted, being past feeling, to give “themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Eph 4:18-19). A great number of such men were in the first gospel days, and Peter and Jude and John pronounce the heavy judgment of God against them. Peter and Jude couple them with the fallen angels, and John forbids that prayer be made for them. For what happened to the angels that fell has happened to them. Those angels, for forsaking their first state and leaving “their own habitation,” are “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 5-6; 2 Pet 2:3-8).

Barren fig-tree, do you hear? (1) These are beyond all mercy! (2) These are beyond all promises! (3) These are beyond all hope of repentance! (4) These have no intercessor, nor any more share in a sacrifice for sin! (5) For these there remains nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment! (6) Therefore these are the true fugitives and vagabonds. Being left by God, by Christ, by grace, and by the promise, and being beyond all hope, they wander and straggle to and fro, even as the devil, their associate, does, until their time comes to die, or until they descend into battle and perish!

2. So they are let alone in hearing. If these men at any time come under the word, there is no God there for them, no savor of the means of grace, no stirrings of heart, no pity for themselves, no love for their own salvation. Let them look on this side or that, and they see the word working such effects in others as produce signs of repentance and of love to God and his Christ. These men alone have their backs bowed down always (Rom 11:10). These men alone have the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day. So as they go to the place of the Holy, so they come from the place of the Holy, and are soon forgotten in the places where they did so (Eccl 8:10). Only they reap this damage: “They treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom 2:5-6). Look to it, barren professor!

3. If he is visited in the common way of mankind, with sickness, distress, or any kind of calamity, still no God appears, no sanctifying hand of God; no special mercy is mixed with the affliction. He falls sick and gets well, like the beast. Or he is under distress, like Saul, who was forsaken and left by God when the Philistines engaged him: “And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem, and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa. And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets” (1 Sam 28:4-6). The Lord answered him no more. He had done with him, cast him off, and rejected him, and left him to stand and fall with his sins by himself. But I will say more of this in the conclusion, so I forbear here.

4. These men may go where they will and do what they will. They may range from opinion to opinion, from notion to notion, from sect to sect, but they are steadfast nowhere. They are left to their own uncertainties; they have no grace to establish their hearts. And though some of them have boasted of this liberty, yet Jude calls them “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 13). They are left, as I told you before, to be fugitives and vagabonds in the earth, to wander everywhere but to abide nowhere, until they descend to their own place with Cain and Judas, men of the same fate as themselves (Acts 1:25).

The Third Sign

It is a sign that such a professor is quite past grace when his heart has grown so hard, so stony, and so impenetrable that nothing will pierce it. Barren fig tree, do you consider this? A hard and impenitent heart is the curse of God! A heart that cannot repent stands in place of all plagues at once. That is why God said of Pharaoh, when he spoke of delivering him up in the greatness of his anger, “I will at this time,” says he, “send all my plagues upon thine heart” (Exod 9:14).

To some men who have grievously sinned under a profession of the gospel, God gives this token of his displeasure: they are denied the power of repentance. Their heart is bound; they cannot repent. It is impossible that they should ever repent, though they should live a thousand years. It is impossible for those who have fallen away to be renewed again to repentance, “seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Heb 6:4-6). Now, to have the heart so hardened, so judicially hardened, is like a bar put in by the Lord God against the salvation of this sinner. This was the burden of Spira’s complaint: “I cannot do it! Oh, now I cannot do it!”

This man sees what he has done, what should help him, and what will become of him; yet he cannot repent. He pulled away his shoulder before, he stopped his ears before, he shut his eyes before; and in that very posture God left him, and so he stands to this very day. I have imagined that Lot’s wife, when she was turned into a pillar of salt, stood still looking over her shoulder, or else with her face toward Sodom. As the judgment caught her, so it bound her, and left her a monument of God’s anger to later generations (Gen 19:26).

We read of some who are seared with a hot iron, and who are past feeling (Eph 4:19); for that is what seared persons are in their seared parts. Their conscience is seared (1 Tim 4:2). The conscience is the thing that must be touched with feeling, fear, and remorse, if any good is ever to be done with the sinner. How then can any good be done to those whose conscience is worse than that, that is, worse than being fast asleep in sin? For a conscience that is fast asleep may yet be effectually awakened and saved. But a conscience that is seared, dried as it were into a cinder, can never have sense, feeling, or the least regret in this world.

Barren fig tree, listen: judicial hardening is dreadful! There is a difference between the hardness of heart that is common to all men and the hardness that comes upon some as a signal or special judgment of God. And although all kinds of hardness of heart may in some sense be called a judgment, yet to be hardened with this second kind is a judgment peculiar only to those who perish. It is a hardness sent as a punishment for the abuse of light received, as a reward of apostasy. This judicial hardness is distinguished from the hardness common to all men in these particulars:

1. It is a hardness that comes after some great light received, because of some great sin committed against that light and the grace that gave it. Such hardness Pharaoh had, after the Lord had worked wonders before him. Such hardness the Gentiles had: a hardness that darkened the heart, a hardness that made their minds reprobate. This hardness is also the same as the one the Hebrews are cautioned to beware of: a hardness caused by unbelief and a departing from the living God, a hardness completed through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:7 and following). Such was the hardness of those in the provocation, of whom God swore that they should not enter into his rest. It was this kind of hardness, too, that Cain and Ishmael and Esau were hardened with after they had committed their great transgressions.

2. It is the greatest kind of hardness. That is why they are said to be harder than a rock, or than an adamant, that is, harder than flint: so hard that nothing can enter (Jer 5:3; Zech 7:12).

3. It is a hardness given in great anger, and given to bind the soul up in an impossibility of repentance.

4. It is a hardness, therefore, that is incurable, of which a man must die and be damned. Barren professor, listen to this.

The Fourth Sign

It is a sign that such a professor is quite past grace when he fortifies his hard heart against the tenor of God’s word. This is called hardening themselves against God (Job 9:4 and following), and turning the Spirit against them. For example, after a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus, and of the doctrine that is according to godliness, they embolden themselves in courses of sin by promising themselves that they shall have life and salvation notwithstanding. Barren professor, listen to this!

This man is called “a root that beareth gall and wormwood,” or a poisonous herb, such a one as God abominates; yes, the abhorred of his soul. For this man says, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination” or stubbornness “of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst” (Deut 29:18-19). That opinion is flat against the whole Word of God, yes, against the very nature of God himself. Therefore he adds, “Then the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy, shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in God’s book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven” (Deut 29:20).

Yes, that man shall not fail to be effectually destroyed, says the text: “The Lord shall separate that man unto evil, out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant” (Deut 29:21). He shall separate him to evil: he shall give him up; he shall leave him to his heart; he shall separate him to that, or to those, that will assuredly be too hard for him.

Now this judgment is largely carried out when God has given a man up to Satan, and has given Satan leave, without fail, to complete his destruction. I say, when God has given Satan leave effectually to complete his destruction; for not all who are delivered up to Satan have come, or do come, to this end. But that is the man whom God will separate to evil, and will leave in the hands of Satan to complete his destruction without fail. This is how he dealt with Ahab, a man who sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord (1 Kgs 21:25). “And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also; go forth, and do so” (1 Kgs 22:20-22). You shall persuade him, and prevail; do your will; I leave him in your hand; go forth, and do so.

Therefore in these judgments the Lord greatly concerns himself with how they are managed, because of the provocation with which they have provoked him. This is the man whose ruin he contrives, and brings to pass by his own contriving: “I also will choose their delusions” for them; “I will bring their fears upon them” (Isa 66:4). I will choose their devices, or the wickednesses that their hearts are contriving. I, even I, will make them acceptable and delightful to them.

But who are they that must be feared in this way? Why, those among professors who have chosen their own ways, those whose soul delights in their abominations. “Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved: for this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

“God shall send them.” It is a great word! Yes, God shall send them strong delusions, delusions that will do their work, that will make them believe a lie. Why so? “That they all might be damned,” every one of them, “who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess 2:10-12).

There is nothing more provoking to the Lord than for a man to make promises to himself when God threatens: for a man to fancy lightly that he will be safe, and yet to be more wicked than in former days. This man’s soul abhors the truth of God; no wonder, then, if God’s soul abhors him. He has invented a way contrary to God to bring about his own salvation; no wonder, then, if God invents a way to bring about this man’s damnation. And seeing that these rebels have taken their stand on this, “We shall have peace,” God will see whose word will stand, his or theirs.

The Fifth Sign

It is a sign that a man is past grace when he scoffs at this, and inwardly snarls and frets against the Lord, secretly purposing to continue his course and risk everything, despising the messengers of the Lord. “He that despised Moses’ law, died without mercy … of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God …” (Heb 10:28-29). Therefore God has set himself against these despisers, and has foretold that they shall not believe, but perish: “Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in nowise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (Acts 13:41).

After that thou shalt cut it down (Luke 13:9).

So far we have dealt with the barren fig-tree, or fruitless professor, with some signs to know him by. To these I have also added some signs of one who neither will nor can by any means be fruitful, but must miserably perish. Now that we have come to the time of execution, I will speak a word to that as well: “After that thou shalt cut it down.”

At last Christ turns the barren fig-tree over to the justice of God. He shakes his hands clear of him and gives him up to the fire for his unprofitableness. “After that thou shalt cut it down.”

Two things are to be considered here.

1. The executioner. This is the “thou” in the text: the great, the dreadful, the eternal God. Therefore, as I have already said, these words mean that Christ the Mediator, through whom alone salvation comes, and by whom alone execution has been put off until now, now gives up the soul. He refuses to speak one syllable more for him, or to do the least act of grace further to try for his recovery. Instead he delivers him up to that fearful dispensation, “to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31).

2. The second thing to be considered is the instrument by which this execution is done. That is death, which is compared here to an axe. And since the tree is not felled at one blow, the strokes are kept up here until every blow needed to fell it has been struck. For now cutting time and cutting work have come; cutting must be his portion until he is cut down. “After that thou shalt cut it down.”

Death, I say, is the axe that God often uses to take the barren fig-tree out of the vineyard, out of a profession, and out of the world, all at once. But this axe has been newly ground, and it comes well-edged to the roots of this barren fig-tree. It has been sharpened by sin, by the law, and by a formal profession. Therefore it must and will make deep gashes, not only in the natural life, but in the heart and conscience of this professor as well. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23); “the sting of death is sin” (1 Cor 15:56). So death does not come to this man as he comes to saints, muzzled, or without his sting. He comes with open mouth, in all his strength. Yes, he sends his firstborn, which is guilt, to devour the man’s strength and to bring him to the king of terrors (Job 18:13-14).

But let me give you, in a few particulars, the manner of this man’s dying.

1. Now his fruitless fruits besiege him all around his bed, together with all the bands and legions of his other wickedness. “His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins” (Prov 5:22).

2. Now some terrible revelation of God is made to him, perplexing and terrifying his guilty conscience. “God shall cast upon him, and not spare” (Job 27:22), and he shall be “afraid of that which is high” (Eccl 12:5).

3. The dark passage he must go through will fill him with sore dismay, for “fears shall be in the way” (Eccl 12:5). Yes, terrors will take hold of him when he sees the yawning jaws of death gaping at him, and the doors of the shadow of death opening to give him passage out of the world. Now he cries, “Who will meet me in this dark passage? How shall I pass through this dark passage into another world?”

4. For because of guilt and a shaking conscience, his life will hang in continual doubt before him. He will be afraid day and night, and will have no assurance of his life (Deut 28:66-67).

5. Now also his lack will come up against him; it will come up like an armed man. This is a terrible army to the one who is graceless in heart and fruitless in life. This lack will cry continually in your ears: “Here a new birth is wanting, a new heart and a new spirit wanting. Here faith is wanting. Here love and repentance are wanting. Here the fear of God is wanting, and a good life is wanting.” “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting” (Dan 5:27).

6. Along with these, the companions of death stand by: death and hell, death and devils, death and endless torment in the everlasting flames of devouring fire. “When God cometh up unto the people he will invade them with his troops” (Hab 3:16).

But how will this man die? Can his heart endure now, or can his hands be strong (Ezek 22:14)?

(1) God, and Christ, and pity have left him. Sin against light, against mercy, and against the long-suffering of God has come up against him. His hope and confidence now lie dying beside him, and his conscience totters and shakes continually within him!

(2) Death is at work, cutting him down, hewing apart both bark and heart, both body and soul. The man groans, but death does not hear him. He looks ghastly, careworn, and dejected. He sighs, he sweats, he trembles, but death does not care at all.

(3) Fearful thoughts haunt him; misgivings and dreadful apprehensions of God terrify him. Now he has time to think what the loss of heaven will be, and what the torments of hell will be. Now he cannot look any way without being frightened.

(4) Now he would gladly live, but he may not. He would live, even if it were only the life of a bedridden man, but he must not. The one who cuts him down rocks him the way a woodcutter rocks a tottering tree, now this way, then that. At last a root breaks; a heart-string, an eye-string, snaps apart.

(5) And now, if the soul could be annihilated, or brought to nothing, how happy it would count itself! But it sees that this cannot be. So it is put into a dreadful strait: stay in the body it may not; go out of the body it dares not. Life is going. The blood settles in the flesh, and the lungs can no longer draw breath through the nostrils. At last out goes the weary, trembling soul, and it is immediately seized by devils, who lay lurking in every hole in the room for that very purpose. His friends take care of the body and wrap it up in the sheet or coffin, but the soul is out of their thought and reach, going down to the chambers of death.

I had intended to say more, but I will hold back. May God, who teaches man to profit, bless this brief and plain discourse to your soul, you who still stand as a professor in the land of the living, among the trees of his garden. Amen.