FRUITFULNESS
[p. 15] FRUITFULNESS
Luke 8: 15; Luke 13: 6, 9; 1 Thessalonians 1: 1 - 8
These scriptures, as you will observe, speak of the simple thought of fruitfulness. God had this in His mind from the outset of His operations. On the third day, spoken of in the book of Genesis, we have the first reference to it. It is presented there as a result of certain latent qualities in the earth. That is, the earth had long lain in water and by the word of God emerged from the water; the allusion, doubtless, is to the judgment of God which precedes and enters into fruitfulness. As applied spiritually it signifies that the believer is planted in the likeness of Christ’s death, planted in baptism. God indicating in this that there can be nothing in us for Him aside from the definite acceptance of His judgment on ourselves, but borne vicariously by the Lord Jesus. So that the apostle says, “We, as many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death”, Romans 6: 3. We are become identified with Him in the likeness of His death, or planted, we are told, so that there should be a crop according to the mind of God, the believer taking root downwards. There is no suggestion of a limit to the depth of the roots. The deeper the roots go, the more fruitful and valuable and extensive will be the crop. There are grades in the roots. Baptism is the nominal acceptance of the death of Christ as being the penalty due to us, and involves that one is planted. The use of baptism abroad today, therefore, by millions of people on the earth who have no thoughts whatever of the reality of it, is a most solemn consideration, and every believer having been baptised, is under serious obligation as to what it means, and whether the acceptance of what it means marks him. True there is the planting, but then the planting is one [p. 16] thing, and the taking root downwards is another thing. The Lord, in these parables about the sower, speaks of persons having no root in themselves. The figure in Isaiah is taking root downward, and bearing fruit upward (Isaiah 37: 31). The planting is one thing, but the taking root in the energy of life is another thing, and then the depth to which the root goes is still another thing. There are grades. The Lord Jesus is said to have gone down to the lower parts of the earth. Who can fathom that? Certainly no geologist can fathom that. Though they do not go down very far they have a great deal to say of what they have found, but you find no reference to the great descent of Christ into the lower parts of the earth. The depth is beyond us, really, and the deeper we go the richer and more extensive should be the fruit. For instance, a man who accepts baptism generally as planted in the likeness of Christ’s death is sure to take root. Aside from taking root there could be no crop. But then, the root may be little and short, so there is in that same scripture in Romans 6 the idea of our old man being crucified with Christ. That is a further thought which requires a deepening of the roots. Crucifixion is a man’s death. It involves that I have judged the old man in which I had part. There is only one old man; it is the thought that involves us all — each of us comes to a judgment of what it is — but it involves us all; “our old man”, it is said. That is a further extension of the root downwards; and then finally we have one who says, “I am crucified with Christ”. When one says, “I am crucified with Christ”, he is dealing with himself — he is not dealing with others. His thoughts are occupied with himself, and he means to convey that he has reviewed his whole history and discovered how mean he has been, unrighteous of course, and sinful — but also the meanness of the things he has been guilty of, the utter despicableness [p. 17] of his thoughts and attitude towards others. Many of us have reviewed our history in that way and have come to the necessity of crucifixion. The history of oneself has been viewed as so utterly bad, so mean, that nothing less than crucifixion will meet the case, and he sees that the Lord Jesus knew all that, and accepted all that, in hanging on the cross. His heart is drawn after Christ; it becomes entwined around Him as he thinks of the depth of suffering that He endured, that He became a curse, that He was “made sin” on the cross. He was made a curse — a remarkable statement — made sin and made a curse for us. One thus judged, beloved brethren, is taking root downward, and correspondingly he bears fruit upward, that is, God-ward. So that Romans 7 is really a sort of answer, that we have become “dead to the law by the body of Christ, to be to another”. And all that we are is acceptable. We are not going to link on with Him the meanness, the earthliness, the despicableness of our conduct. We are holding ourselves according to Him. The believer, as his root goes down, corresponds with Christ, and he would abhor the idea of linking on with Christ anything of that which took Him so low, which cost Him so much sorrow and suffering.
Well, now, having said all that, you can see the force of this scripture in Luke 13. I want to speak of it first. It alludes to Israel, but it illustrates what is current around us. The fig tree alludes to that which God set up on earth through the gospel, as Israel had been set up. The Old Testament speaks much of the plant of Israel, the care expended on it, and this parable is intended to teach us that after all that, there is nothing. The vineyard owner came seeking fruit. That He does so is sure. If we take up the profession in relation to God, He comes seeking results, as you will observe here, “These three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree”. That is,
[p. 18] you may expect a divine visitation, as you take up a place in this world in relation to God, as a baptised person. It may be that you have not thought of this. It may be that you have never felt or realised those comings of the Possessor of the vineyard — for He holds rights over you. He says, “These three years”, meaning that He has given full time; if not the first year, then the second year, and if not the second year, then the third year. Now this is a very serious matter, and each believer, or nominal believer, has to consider whether there has been this visitation, or these visitations year after year, since you have accepted and taken up this attitude God-ward, and whether there has been any fruit available to God. He is looking for it. The Lord, in John 15, speaks of His Father as being the Husbandman, and shows that even if one bears fruit, He will purge the branch that it might bring forth more. God never intimates that He is satisfied; He is always seeking more. Each year should yield more because of His gracious, careful husbandry. So here He says, I have come these three years seeking fruit, and found none. And the vinedresser says, Lord, let it remain for another year. The Planter of the vineyard had no thought that His comings should terminate. It is a very solemn consideration, that we do not know when God may come in and terminate the time of fruit bearing, when there will be no more hope of answering to His mind. The vinedresser here alludes to the Lord’s own position as come into manhood, as come in to Israel. One could say much as to the wonderful feelings of affection and sympathy that marked Christ as moving about in Israel. We know much of what His thoughts and affections were with regard to His earthly people. You know, on the Lord’s visit to Jerusalem, how moved He was. One loves to stand with Him there as He approached from Jericho, “already at the descent of the mount of Olives” to the east. He looked on the city, and it says, “He wept over it”. The Lord would lay it upon us that we should think a little with Him as to this. “He came to his own, and his own received him not”. What did He feel about that? He would fain continue on with them, for the Scriptures bring out the perfect humanity of Christ. The Spirit of God loves to dwell upon it, always maintaining the balance as to His deity in a full way. The Spirit of God loves to dwell on the perfect, real, and genuine humanity of our Lord Jesus, that He was capable of such feelings, that He loved Jerusalem, and would do anything for it; indeed, He has done all for it! He died for that nation. He was about to die for it and the feelings proper to Him in view of such a sacrifice were all there. “He came to his own, and his own received him not”. He felt the coldness, the indifference that marked them. “How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen her brood under her wings, and ye would not”. Has this not an echo amongst us? The Lord’s tender solicitations for us — “And ye would not”. So here, the Possessor of the vineyard would remove the fig-tree after three years of testing. The vinedresser had another thought — yet not another mind — it was delightful to see the sacrifice of Christ, the true Messiah of Israel, continuing on with them, to do His utmost for them for another year. He was reasonable in his request, but it speaks of the sacrifice of Christ, the intercession of Christ, and shows what Israel was to Him, and how He was loath to let the judgment of God take effect. The figure means that God had respect to His intercessions, and the fig-tree is allowed for another year. Think of the gracious ministry of Christ as He continues on! I suppose we may include the early chapters of the Acts in this. It says, in Luke, that He led His own out “as far as Bethany”, not beyond that; meaning [p. 20] that He was still lingering over the city. He was blessing them within easy reach of the city, so that they might be a testimony in it, as they were. He digged about the fig-tree, He did everything a vinedresser could do in digging about the fig-tree and in dunging it. The figure is well known to those who have to do with farming, the adding of the fertiliser after the digging. Think of the Lord Jesus being so concerned for His own that He comes digging about the fig-tree, and then applying the fertiliser! The vinedresser only asked for another year, and we know from other scriptures how Israel was set aside, and with what terribleness; for the Lord Himself says, “Thine enemies shall make a palisaded mound about thee ... and shall lay thee even with the ground”. Jerusalem was razed to the ground; Zion was, it is said, as a ploughed field, for such was the judgment of God. I speak thus, on these verses, as a very solemn reminder of the judgment of God where no fruit is found. Everyone has to take it to heart, for certainly the same thing will happen to christendom.
Now I want to show you in the parable in Luke 8, how Luke speaks of this subject which is spoken of by all three synoptical evangelists. Luke quotes the Lord, in verse 15, as saying, “But that in the good ground, these are they who in an honest and good heart, having heard the word keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience”. Instead of saying, “bore fruit a hundredfold”, as He does in verse 8, or “one a hundred, one sixty, and one thirty”, as in Matthew 13: 8, He says, “bring forth fruit with patience”. Now this is the important side to the subject, because we are apt to be impatient. First, it may be with the Lord, or with the brethren, and sometimes with ourselves. If one is impatient with himself it means that he has not learnt himself, that he has been expecting something from himself; and I well know [p. 21] from my own experience that many suffer from impatience with themselves. The first thing is to have done with yourself; there is nothing to be expected from yourself. Impatience is a serious state, for the enemy acts on it, and the most spiritual among us is apt to come under the enemy’s influence by impatience. In Numbers 11, you will remember, as Israel began to move out into the wilderness, they immediately complained, they murmured, and it says that “the fire of Jehovah burned among them, and consumed some in the extremity of the camp”, showing that those of us who hold ourselves at a distance from the divine centre — from the tabernacle — who are infrequent in our attendance at the opportunities of privilege, who are neglectful, who are world-borderers, in other words, those who are on the outskirts of the camp, are sure to be complainers. Unless we frequently attend the meetings, and have part in that which satisfies — for there is in the assembly that which satisfies, for God is there — it is as sure as possible that we shall become murmurers; we shall complain against the brethren; we shall complain, it may be, against Christ and against the Spirit, and perhaps against God. Let us never forget that it is the dwelling-place of God; Christ is there, the Spirit of God is there, and, not to be neglected, the saints are there; indeed all the elements of heaven are there. Many do complain. They question why God should have allowed this and that. It is a sure evidence as to one’s living associations, and that one is far away from this centre, which answers to the tabernacle of witness, which was beautifully set up in the centre as Israel was encamped. The cloud was over them by day, and the pillar of fire by night, the evidence of the divine Presence. Those who stayed in the utmost limits of the camp enjoyed but the utmost limits, and they complained, and the fire of Jehovah burned among them.
[p. 22] But then, the chapter tells us that Israel also wept, and the mixed multitude joined in, and they complained about the manna; and then, alas! one hesitates to speak about it, even Moses complained, showing that the most spiritual among us is exposed to this dangerous feature of complaint. Hence the Lord’s word here, “bring forth fruit with patience”. There will be much, may be, to hinder the crop. There is the chilling north wind of times, and other things which tend to hinder the growth, and we must be patient. But let us see to it that the fruit is there, that the growth has not stopped entirely, that there is genuine growth of something for God; that we are patient in it, day in and day out, week in and week out; that there is a patient steady evidence of good works, in the attendance at the meetings, in attention to the things of God and in the participation in the manna; that nothing that would tend to promote growth is excluded, so that there is something for God. He comes regularly; He comes looking for fruit. How often He has to turn away! But if we are to be patient, He is patient. Nothing affects one more than the patience of God. How long He has continued waiting on christendom, for instance, notwithstanding the conditions that are so revolting. God is patiently continuing, He has His eye on the few that love Him and keep His commandments, and He comes looking for fruit. How dreadful we should feel if we knew how often He comes and finds nothing! So that the Lord has in mind here, according to Luke, that there should be patience — bearing fruit with patience — not giving up, but continuing. As is said elsewhere, “In due time, if we do not faint, we, shall reap”, Galatians 6: 9. And I may add, that it is not only that God has His fruit, but we have ours. We have our “fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life”, Romans 6: 22. Hence the need of patience. We are to be patient in well-doing for in [p. 23] due season we shall reap, if we faint not. There is much tendency to give up, but the word here is “with patience”.
In speaking of patience in regard of fruit-bearing, it is perhaps worth while to remark that we also have in the Scriptures the suggestion of quick results. The farmer knows what I mean. Certain seed is sown with a view to an early crop, other for a later, but certain things are needed early and are forced. Every attention is given so that there should be a quick result. Now this is not at all out of keeping with what I have been saying as to patience. To illustrate the quickness of divine results, take the rod of Aaron laid up before the Testimony. It budded over night and blossomed and yielded ripened almonds! There is nothing like that in nature — but that gives the idea of quick results. The staff of Aaron was laid up just for a night, with the eleven other staves of the tribes of Israel, and it yielded ripened almonds, in perfect order. There was the bud, and the blossom and the fully ripened fruit. You may say, Can you illustrate that in a spiritual way? Yes; Scripture abounds with quick results. Take the man in John 9. He developed from a blind man, in a very brief time, into a fully developed worshipper. Just look at the passage and you will see him growing! I am speaking practically — and so we get the Thessalonians. The apostle having been shamefully treated at Philippi, went to Thessalonica, and went in among the Jews and for three sabbaths he reasoned with them out of the Scriptures opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead. How one loves to think of the apostle in those three sabbaths! What a time they must have had! He was amongst them as one of them. He went in among them. He alludes here to his being a model and they valued him as such. That is, he stresses that the idea in the [p. 24] gospel was not only presented in words, but presented in himself, and that is where so many of our dear brethren suffer. They have not had the model. As the gospel has been preached and the truth presented, the model has not been there; that is, the end to be reached has not been presented in their teachers. But it was otherwise in Thessalonica. The apostle was there. He went in among them as it says, “opening and laying down that the Christ must have suffered and risen up from among the dead”, Acts 17: 3. And a great number were converted in that town. He had to leave them immediately, and he wrote his letter very shortly after, for he was concerned about them. It is only a question of reading this chapter to be convinced of quick results in a meeting. He speaks of them as “the assembly of Thessalonians”. Not the assembly at Thessalonica, but persons who belong to the town, who were characteristically persons of that town; that is, they had not come from the east, nor had they been christians for years before. They were verily Thessalonians. They had just heard the word and had received it, and this quick result is there. That is why I read this chapter, dear brethren, and the Lord would perhaps use it in our little gatherings; for one has great sympathy with gatherings who are perhaps minus what others in large cities have, such as much ministry and much teaching and much practical fellowship as compared with brethren who reside in smaller towns and country places. The Lord has great sympathy for us in these circumstances, and He would encourage us in this way. The Thessalonians had nothing, as far as the Scripture says, save what they got from the apostle in that three weeks’ visit; but the soil was there, the young bud was there too, so that he says, “Remembering unceasingly your work of faith, and labour of love, and enduring constancy of hope, of our Lord Jesus Christ, before [p. 25] our God and Father; knowing, brethren beloved by God, your election. For our glad tidings were not with you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance; even as ye know what we were among you for your sakes, and ye became our imitators, and of the Lord, having accepted the word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Spirit”. Now this last verse is most important as to what I am saying, “Having accepted the word in much tribulation”. Normally, affliction will come with the sowing. It is a sort of digging around at the roots. Affliction makes us real, so that the fruit is forthcoming. So they were ensamples “to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia: for the word of the Lord sounded out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith which is towards God has gone abroad, so that we have no need to say anything”. I read these verses twice because they are so simple and direct as to the subject I am presenting to you — how quick results will come, results marked by patience too, as the soil is right. They received the word in much tribulation with joy of the Holy Spirit. So that the Spirit of God was there as the apostle ministered, and the soil was developed, and the seed sown sprang up in the ordering of God and matured in a few weeks. There was a ‘sound’ as he says: “The word of the Lord sounded out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith which is towards God has gone abroad”. One would question as to the ‘sounding’ — as to what kind of sound is heard in our town, where we are — in this town. The christian’s position is here. Christ went into heaven as the high priest of old went in to the holiest. On the skirts of his garments there was a bell and a pomegranate, and bell and a pomegranate, all round. As he went in, the sound was heard without. That is the presence of Christ in heaven now is to have [p. 26] a corresponding sound here in the saints; in the towns and villages and cities in which we are, there is to be a sound. And so, when the Holy Spirit came, there was a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. True christianity is marked by a definite sound reflecting what is of God, and it is to be heard wherever the saints of God are gathered; wherever they are set, there is to be a sound, not only in their own towns, but in the district or country, and indeed, as the apostle says, “in every place”. How pleasing it is for those who have to do with the things of God, in visiting the brethren, to be able to speak of them in this way; that there is a sound of testimony — the word of God sounding in the brethren — “The word of the Lord sounded out from you”.
One hopes that this matter may be taken to heart, because after all, lifeless meetings are not what God intends; not that I am saying these exist, but we are in danger of it. I am not imputing anything to any gathering or any person more than to myself — but God is looking for fruit and He comes, and searches for it, and if it is not there something happens, for God is God. So that we should serve Him with reverence and godly fear.