Expounds on three horticultural symbols—the vine, the fig tree, and the olive tree—as representations of God's relationship with His people and His prophetic plan. Beginning with the vine, Jesus identifies Himself as the true vine and believers as branches, emphasizing the necessity of abiding in Him to bear fruit, with God the Father as the vinedresser who prunes for greater fruitfulness. The fig tree is presented as a symbol of Israel's national life and its prophetic timeline, while the olive tree signifies God's future restoration of Israel after the Gentile church is complete. The core lesson is that believers are called to bear fruit as a public testimony for God, and that God's pruning and cleansing are essential for spiritual growth and increased fruitfulness, ultimately pointing to God's ongoing redemptive plan for both the church and Israel.
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Yesterday, my wife and I went to the nursing home in Stark. We went there to see a friend that I have known for sixty-five years. His name is William Barr. He lived here at the park for many years, and then he was taken to the nursing home. When I was sixteen years of age, I got to know him for the first time. I had just been a Christian for two weeks when I met him. And from that time on, he was a father to me. He took me under his wing, and he taught me an awful lot about Holy Scripture.
But when we went to see him yesterday, we found that his mind is completely gone. We sat beside him for a little while and we tried to get through, but there wasn't anything penetrated his brain. We asked him about the Lord, whether he knew the twenty-third Psalm, and he just nodded his head. But as far as any comprehension of what we were saying or what we were doing, he didn't even know us. And when we left there, we left there with a broken heart. We want you to pray for that dear brother. Very shortly he'll be taken into the presence of the Lord we know. And let us pray that at even time it may be light.
We're going to the nursing home again tomorrow. And we thank God for the opportunity of giving those dear people the message of the love of God to their hearts. You know, it does something to a person to go there and see the different people that are there. But we thank God for those that know and love the Lord Jesus. And there are some dear servants of God in the place. Please do pray for them. On Lord's Day, we were speaking about the Lord's coming, coming back again for his people. And we read three great classical passages, three doctrinal passages concerning the coming of the Lord for his people.
John chapter fourteen, first Corinthians chapter fifteen, and first Thessalonians chapter four. And then we give We mentioned three different passages in the synoptic Gospels concerning our Lord. Three lovely titles of him in relation to his coming. In the Gospel according to Matthew, the bridegroom. In the Gospel according to Mark, the master of the hearth. And on the Gospel according to Luke. We get him there as a noble man who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. Now what I have in mind tonight to do is to speak of three horticultural symbols that do have a relation to the Lord's coming.
First of all, the vine. And secondly, the fig. And thirdly, the olive tree. Now, I only want to read one passage of Scripture tonight for the sake of our time. But I want to refer especially to the vine and then later the fig and the olive tree. Reminding us of the hope of Israel for the return of the Lord Jesus. Now shall we read John chapter fifteen. The Gospel by John chapter fifteen. The Lord is speaking. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. On every branch that beareth fruit he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, on his wither, and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If he abide in me, and my words abide in you, he shall ask what he will, and it shall be done unto you. In this is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. you are my friends if you do whatever i command you henceforth i call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth but i have called you friends for all things that i have heard of my father i have made known unto you Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you.
that ye love one another. And may God again add to his blessing for the reading of his precious word. The two other portions that I want to read is, first of all, in the Gospel according to Matthew, where the Lord, in his great discourse, prophetic discourse on the last week of his ministry, speaks there about a fig tree. And he says, when you see the fig tree put on its green leaves, know that the time is nigh, even at the door. And then turning over to the epistle of the Romans, chapter eleven, we'll read there about an olive tree. And there's a tremendous body of teaching in three chapters in Romans, dispensational teaching concerning the hope of Israel in a coming day.
Some people get the idea that God is through with Israel forever. and they never will take them up again. That is not the teaching of Holy Scripture. In Romans chapters nine and ten and eleven, a tremendous section of the epistle of the Romans, we get there the hope of Israel. And the figure that used there is the olive tree, because of unbelief of Israel, because of their sin against God. That olive tree was led to the one side. And wild branches, representing the Gentile, was grafted into the olive tree.
But the Lord, one day, evil caused that olive tree to branch and to bud once again. And the natural branches, that is Israel, will be grafted back again into that olive tree and will bear fruit for God. So what I have in mind just for a few minutes tonight is to speak of these three horticultural symbols. First of all, the vine. Secondly, the fig. And thirdly, the olive tree. And the tremendous body of teaching that we get in connection with these three horticultural symbols. Now, first of all, the vine. If we were to turn over to the Old Testament, we would find many, many references to these three trees.
You get it in the prophet Isaiah. You get it in Hosea. On many other passages of the Old Testament scriptures, we get the vine and the fig and the olive brought together. There is a tremendous passage in the Book of Judges where we find it. And we find there some very important teaching connected with these three trees. These are horticultural symbols. And I have very important teaching for you and for me at the present time. Now just a word about Israel of the vine. We read in Isaiah chapter five that Israel was the vine brought out of Egypt and planted in the land.
That was a symbol that was used as Israel as God's testimony among the nations. They had been delivered by power and by blood from the land of Egypt and had brought through the wilderness and planted in the land. And God had it in mind that Israel be his testimony among the surrounding nations, worried that they were the vine planted in the land. Unfortunately, that was not a success. It was a complete failure. On Israel, instead of being God's testimony among the surrounding nations, they became super-segregationalists.
We find it again and again in the Old Testament that they miserably failed in that testimony that God had for them to give to the surrounding nation. You take for instance Jonah, when God sent him to Nineveh to preach the word of God to them, he ran away. He didn't want to go there. And he disobeyed God and God had to deal with them in discipline. And he is an example of what happened to the nation of Israel as far as their testimony, their public testimony, for God was concerned among the nations of this world. When we turn over to the eightieth psalm.
We got a passage there about that vine that came out of Egypt and was planted in the land. We read that it was devastated by the boar out of the wood. And by the way, that symbol, the boar out of the wood, It speaks of Assyria and Babylonia. They invaded the land. And the result was that the vine that was supposed to be God's testimony for him, we find that that testimony was completely ruined. And they had to be sent over to the land of Babylon. under God's governmental hand in discipline for seventy years. Now we get that in the Eta's Psalm.
It would be interesting to turn over that very important passage concerning Israel as God's testimony. But thank God. Whenever that happens, God always has a testimony. He has a godly remnant. We find that at the end of the Old Testament. And we find that Israel brought back again from the land of Babylon. Five books describe that wonderful revival it was among them. We get Ezra, Nehemiah, and we also get Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. These five books give us a remarkable outline of Israel as God's testimony.
It started in a wonderful way. And God blessed it. But always, as in practically every dispensation, it ended up in failure. And we get that failure in the book of Malachi. It has been called the backwash from a revival. So that Israel, as God's testimony, as divine, brought about of Egypt, unfortunately, we find that that testimony was lost. The Lord Jesus, when he was here on earth, again and again, he mentions the vineyard. We find it especially in the Gospel according to Matthew. In Matthew chapter twenty-one, we find it brought to a head.
We find a horseholder there that was the Lord of a vineyard. And he brought in certain service to take care of that vineyard. But instead of rendering the fruit thereof, we read that the servants that were placed in charge of the vineyard, those tenant farmers that was in charge of it, instead of reaping the fruit and giving it to the Lord of the vineyard, they used it themselves. And they beat the servants. And then the Lord of the vineyard, he said, I will send my own son. And when he sent his son to the vineyard, they said, This is the error, come let us kill him.
And that's exactly what happened. And the Lord said that the vineyard would be taken from them and given to a nation that would bear the fruit thereof. So that's a little outline of Israel as a vine in the Old Testament scriptures. And here's this lovely passage that I want to concentrate on here tonight. John chapter fifteen. Here's the Lord at the end of his public ministry. Here to those disciples that he had called... and that he had fitted to do his work, he stands up among them. After he had given his final message in the upper room, and after leaving the upper room on the way to Gethsemane, he says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.
My father is the husband man. Now, it's perfectly evident that what we get here is a change of dispensation. God has set the nation of Israel aside as his public testimony here below. But the Lord, he says, I am the true vine, the genuine vine, and my father is the husband man. Here we get a break between Israel and that testimony that had been committed to them in which they had failed, a complete failure. And the Lord said, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husband man. Now, when we look at this passage, we can see here that God is doing something different.
He's taking up another testimony. And I believe that that testimony is the church of God at the present time. And there's some tremendous teaching here in this passage that's so familiar to us connected with our testimony for God. You know, it's a remarkable thing that practically every nation has a horticultural symbol. With Israel, it was the vine and the fig and the olive tree. I know that practically every country in the world has some horticultural symbol. As far as we are concerned, it is just mere sentiment. the part of the world where I was born, over in Great Britain, if you ask an Englishman, what is the symbol of your country?
He would say, it's the rose. And if you ask the Scotchman, what is his symbol, he would say, it's the fissile. And if you asked a Welsh man what is the symbol of your country, he would say, it's the League. And if you asked an Irish man, and I happen to fall into that category, he would say, why, of course, it's the Shamra. And they tell the story about St. Patrick many, many centuries ago. The first time that the Gospel ever reached Ireland, that dear man, I believe a truly born-again man, a man who knew the Scriptures very intimately and who preached a real evangelical Gospel.
He was preaching to the King of Tara, just outside Dublin, and speaking about the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, equal in majesty and glory and dignity. And the King, he replied, he said, I don't understand that. He thought it was three gods. But Patrick, he stooped on. And others feet, he plucked a little plant from the ground. There were three leaves to it and one star. And he pointed to him, he said, three leaves and one star, one plant. And in that way, he explained to him the truth of the Holy Trinity.
And then he preached the Gospel to him. So, on the seventeenth of March, every year, every Irish man, at least the most of them anyway, they'll wear a shamrock in their buttonhole. And then, of course, in this country, it's practically the same. I think that practically every state in the Union has some horticultural symbol. Our friends in Georgia, they call it the peach tree stick. And if you went to New York, they talked there about the big apple. And then our good friends from Canada, and we thank God for every one of them that's here tonight, they have their national anthem, and they sing the maple leaf forever.
Well, these are beautiful symbols. And as far as we're concerned, it's just mere sentiment. But when the Word of God mentions horticultural symbols, there's a very, very important lesson connected with them. And with Israel, it was the vine, and the pig, and the olive. Unfortunately, Israel, as God's testimony, we have already mentioned, they lost that testimony. And when the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, appeared, This is the air. Come let us kill them. And they cast them out of the vineyard. And here just before our Lord goes to the cross, he stands up and he said, I am the true vine.
My father is the husband, man, and then ye are the branches. Now, the testimony has been delivered to the Church of God today. And I believe that we get the break here in this wonderful chapter. And the lesson that we find in it, I believe we should take it under our notice at the present time because God expects us at the present time to be a testimony for Him in this poor, poor, condemned world. Now notice he said he is the genuine vine. In contrast the vine that had been devastated by the bore out of the wood. And then he said my father is the husband man.
I thank God for that. The one who is in charge is my father. You know as far as Israel was concerned it was the leaders of the nation. The elders in Israel, they were the husband men in the vineyard. But thank God today, my Father, he is the fine dresser. He is in charge. He is the one who holds the pruning knife. And I thank God for that. Now, looking at the passage itself, you'll notice that there are three branches here. First of all, there's a fruitless branch. And secondly, there's a fruitful branch. And thirdly, there is a withered branch.
Now, there is some tremendous lessons in connection with these three branches. And I think it would well repay, looking at the passage and finding out just exactly what is represented by a fruitless branch, on a fruitful branch, and then a withered branch. Now we read first of all about the fruitless branch, the branch that's bearing no fruit at all. And in our version it says, Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. Now what does that mean? Do you think it's possible for anyone who is a true believer, truly born again, who is a branch united to the vine, and there's absolutely no fruit in their life?
Is that possible? I think it is. There's so many today. There's no burden or no exercise, whatever, to bear fruit for God. I believe they can be truly born again, regenerated. But at the same time, living eternal life and absolutely no fruit in their life for God. I would like to turn that into myself and ask myself the question, is there any fruit in your life, in my life, for God? And notice what it says. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he takes it away. What does that mean?
Is it possible for a person that's bearing no fruit for God that he would lay his hand upon them and discipline and prematurely take them away, take them home to heaven? my Bible tells me it is. As a matter of fact, in First Corinthians chapter eleven, we read there about certain ones in that church, members of the assembly there at Corinth, and he said, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. Now, the sleep there is the sleep of death. They hadn't recognized the solemnity of being a branch united to the vine.
And actually, in that church, There were empty sums sitting at the Lord's table intoxicated. Is it possible that that could happen, a person sitting intoxicated at the Lord's Supper? not recognizing the tremendous solemnity and the tremendous importance of sitting in the presence of the Lord and partaking of the bread and wine. Many are weak and sickly. God has laid his hand upon them in discipline, and even some of them have been taken away. We get it also in the first epistle of John, chapter five. and believed there too about people who had been prematurely taken away on account of something in their life.
By the way, beloved brother and sister, let me say this. If you ever hear... of anyone being suddenly taken away, taken home to heaven, sometimes in early life, sometimes in middle life. Never, never allow the thought to enter your mind that is because of some sin in their life. You leave that with God. God is sovereign and leave it with him. Never allow a thought of that kind to enter your mind, but it is possible. But many years ago, in translating this passage into an African language, I was looking at this word, he takes it away.
And I discovered something that I had never noticed before, and it says, the actual word that's used here, he takes it away, it's used one hundred and two times in the New Testament. That is the original word, a hundred and two times. I examined three different lexicons to find out what it meant. And I found that forty times in the New Testament, the word is translated elevate or lift up. He lifts it up. He elevates it. And I believe that a secondary meaning of the word, it would mean to elevate, elevate that branch. You know, this branch in the vine, it's united to the vine, but there's no fruit.
And why? It's trailing on the ground. It needs to be lifted up. It needs to be elevated. I don't tell you just like a tomato plant. It needs support. It needs to be lifted up. Out of the dirt and out of the mire, Now, it needs to be lifted up so that the air, on the sun, on the heat is able to surround it so that it may be able to bear fruit. I would suggest that possibly the second meaning of the word is maybe the primary meaning. I would be the last one to want to alter the beautiful translation we have here, but there's one thing I'm absolutely sure of, and that is that the word that's used here has a two-fold meaning.
First of all, it could mean take it away, and it also could mean to elevate or lift us. And I would suggest that possibly that is the primary meaning of the word. Before that branch can bear any fruit for God, it has to be lifted up out of the dirt. It has to be separated from the environment in which it is. The parasites and the crawling things on the earth and the mire. and the dirt. It needs to be elevated so that the light and heat is able to surround it so that it may bear fruit. So here is the fruitless branch. Secondly, the fruitful branch. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now that word purge there, it could mean pruning. I believe again it has a two-fold meaning, the pruning of the branch. And secondly, what we would call today spring or cleansing the branch. You know, I'm awfully thankful, as we have already mentioned, that that pruning operation and the one that holds the knife in his hand is my Father. He has never committed that to you or to me. Because some people are very fond of holding the knife. and sometimes plunging it into some heart. We must never, never be guilty of anything of the kind.
What has been committed to us is what was committed to Simon Peter in chapter thirteen. What was committed to him was the basin and the cleansing water and the towel. The Lord committed that to Simon Peter and he said, as I have done to you, then you do it to one another. He has committed. the cleansing water on the dish and on the towel, the servant's towel to us, but he holds the knife in his own hand. He purges it. He prunes it. I may be speaking to someone here tonight, and the Lord knows you have felt that pruning.
It's not a very nice process, not an easy process, but at one time or another, every one of us here, we have felt that knife. And the only object is that it will bring fruit. I have a friend who lives in Johannesburg, and he is an expert along two different lines. First of all, he's the head diamond cutter in the De Beers Corporation in Johannesburg. He's a dear friend of mine. And being there a number of times, he taught me quite a lot about diamonds. He's writing a book on diamonds at the present time, and I don't think that there's any man...
in the world knows more about diamonds than that dear man. He's a Christian in fellowship at an assembly in Johannesburg and he told me an awful lot about diamonds. But the second area in which he's an expert is in the cultivation of vines. And one day he took me out to the place where he was cultivating vines and he taught me a lot about the cultivation of vines and about pruning. You know, it's only an expert. that should prune a vine. It's an expert process and it's only a man that knows what he's doing that takes that knife in his hands and prunes the vine. And then he told me this.
He said, the very best fertilizer for a vine is blood. And he said, I go to the abattoir were to kill the animals there. And I said, I get blood. And I said, that is what I use for the fertilization of the vine. It's the best, the best fertilizer that is known the vine is blood. But when I was thinking about these things, I couldn't help but feel that many, many of God's dear people today know a little bit about the pruning. I have a dear friend in Africa, one of my fellow workers. I've known them for years.
I don't know of anybody in my life that I've been in intimate contact with, an intimate contact with them, has suffered more than that dear man. First of all, he lost a child. We were there at the time. The child had a temperature of a hundred and three fat malaria. And he took a tablet of quinine and put it on the child's tongue. Try to get him to swallow it. It's the prophylactic for malaria. It's wild tasting stuff. And the child spat it out. He knew how to get it into him. So again he took another tablet of quinine and put it on the child's tongue and tried to get him to swallow it.
But instead of going down the proper passage, it went down into the passage that led down into the lung, and it lodged deep in the child's chest, and immediately he knew he was in trouble. He turned the little fella, two years of age, just had a birthday, held him by the feet and slept him sharply between the shoulder blades to try to dislodge that tablet of quinine. Couldn't get it out. His wife was with him and he saw that he couldn't do a thing. No medical help of any kind, anyone that could help. And he took the child and laid him across his knees and watched him slowly choke to death.
And after that happened, he sent for us. And when my wife and I arrived there, they already buried him, a little raw grave on the edge of the African forest they had buried him. We took him to our home. both he and his wife. And while we were there, we had the privilege of having him there for a couple of weeks. And then he went off to his home and I went with him. And when he got there, he ran down the garden one day. to get some vegetables for the table. And there was a hole that an African had dug about ten feet deep, and he had put spears with the points up in the hole to catch an animal that had been eating the vegetables, and the hole was camouflaged with grass and with bamboo that he couldn't see it.
He jumped over the fence, and not knowing it was there, he fell into the hole, and he was impaled on those spears that were in the bottom of the hole. He was so shocked when that happened, those spears penetrating his abdomen, that it was not dark for the moment. He took off his belt and using it as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding in his two thighs. And after he did that, he was able to raise himself up. off the spears that he was impaled upon and collapsed on the edge of the hole, and then was able to get up and get up to the house. He was taken to the nearest hospital, and the doctor said it was a miracle that the veins and the arteries were not severed.
He recovered from that. Short time afterwards, they found that his wife had a terminal cancer. And after a long period of time, the Lord took her home. He's one of my dearest friends. And I don't mind at all mentioning his name. His name is Charlie Shorten. He's over there in Africa at the present time. But I tell you that has done something to Charlie. I have known him for years. And of this one mature, gracious, kindly Christian, it is Charlie. He knows something of the pruning knife. The branch that's bearing fruit, he prunes it, and he cleanses it that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now, the third branch is the wither branch. What do you think that represents? I used to think that it was a person who wasn't a Christian at all. I've changed my mind. I don't think it's not at the point at all. What we get here is a branch that was united to the vine, but here it's withered. And what does it say? Men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. What does it mean? I believe it is a Christian who has done something in his life. Something has happened. He has fallen into a trap. and something has happened that is no longer able to open his mouth and testimony.
I don't believe at all that it is a sinner. I believe it is a Christian, a person who has lost his testimony and is no longer able to witness for God. I could tell many a story here tonight in my little experience in the Lord's work. I have known many, many cases of men who once stood on the platform with a bagel in their hand, preached the gospel, and ministered the word, and then they fell into a trap. And at the present time, there are Martha's clothes, and they're not able to testify for God. Are you a man? Again, knew him intimately.
I helped him to get over to Africa. He formerly had been a nectar. Fine, big, handsome fellow. And I have no doubt at all that the man was truly born again. Say, he came to me and asked me about working for the Lord over in Africa, in South Africa. We helped him to get there. And later on when I met him, when I returned to that area after some little time, I heard some reports about him. I asked him for a meal. And the two of us sat down in a restaurant and looking in the eye, I said, Brother, I have heard some things and I want to know whether they're true or whether they're not.
He said, who told you? I said, that doesn't matter. But I said, I just want to ask you, these reports that I've heard are the true or are the not? Yes, he said they are true. Just to describe the facts, he left his wife and three children at home. He came over to Africa and while he was over there, he was carried shoulder high by the Christians. both on the ministry platform and on the preaching of the gospel. But he started to keep company with the girl eighteen years of age and his wife, three thousand miles away. And he started to behave himself in a way that no Christian should. I said, is it true or is it not true?
And then he burst out and he said, yes, it is true. And I said, I want to tell you, I'm going to divorce my wife and I'm going to marry this girl. I sat with a broken heart, and I said, Brother, I want to tell you something. I said, if you do what you say you're going to do, I said, first of all, your mouth will be closed. And secondly, you have to be disciplined in the assembly. I don't know of any church, any assembly anywhere that would tolerate that kind of conduct. And I said, another thing, you're going to break your wife's heart, and you're going to bring a stigma over the head of your children. I said, please, please, I said, don't do it.
Finally he put out his hand, he shook hands with them, and he said, I want to thank you for being faithful. But he said, I want to tell you, I'm determined to do what I've told you. And he did. And it all happened. A little while afterwards, in Johannesburg, I picked up a newspaper. And I read the account of a plane that had been wrecked in German South West Africa, now called Namibia. And when I read about what had happened, I found that all the passengers had been killed on their bodies cremated in the plane. And when I read down the passenger list, I found his name there. Men gather them, men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are born.
What is the withered ranch? Men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are born. You know, I want to turn this into my own heart. There's none of us here tonight have arrived home. And I do pray that the Lord will keep her feet right until that time when we see the Lord face to face and that her testimony for him may be contained up until that point. So here are the three branches and the lessons connected with it. Now, what we get here is not salvation. What we get here in the vine and the branches is testimony. Public testimony for God. As far as salvation is concerned, we get that in chapter ten, the eternal security of the believer.
We get that in chapter ten. But in chapter fifteen, it is our public testimony for God at the present time. Beloved brethren and sisters, let's walk softly, uncurfully, until that time that the Lord takes us home. So here we get the vine. And then the second is the fig tree. Now, my time is gone, and I don't want to abuse my privilege, but I want to say that Israel, as a fig, is her national life. When you see the fig tree put on its green leaves, know that the time is nigh, even at the door. You know, that's the national life of Israel.
In John, it is our devotional life. But in Matthew chapter twenty-four, the fig tree there is the national life of Israel. And I want to remind you of four dates. First of all, eighteen ninety five, Theodore Herschel, the man who founded the Zionist state, or at least the Zionist idea of Israel being back in their own land. Nineteen seventeen, General Allenby, at the head of a British force, occupied the land and occupied Jerusalem without firing a shot. Nineteen seventeen. And then on the fourteenth of May, of the year, David Ben-Gurion stood up and announced the independence of Israel, again a sovereign state.
And then in June, the six-day war for Moshe Dayan, he had a tremendous victory that the income that you couldn't find anywhere in military history comparable to what happened at that time. These are four outstanding dates with Israel as a nation, and we know it's still going on. Time wouldn't suffice to go into that. But the fig tree... has put on its green leaves. And the Lord said, When you see that, know that the time is nigh, even on the door, the fig tree. And then the olive tree. Is God through with Israel? He certainly is not. My Bible tells me, that in the coming day after the church is raptured, up into the presence of the Lord, we know that at that time, that olive tree, where we find the unnatural branches, that is the Gentile grafted into the olive tree, those branches will be taken away.
The fullness of the Gentiles be coming. That is, the church is complete and taken up to heaven. Then the natural branches will be grafted in again. And God will have a testimony in a coming day. Possibly we'll have an opportunity of speaking more about this later on. But the three horticultural symbols we find a tremendous body of teaching connected with them. First of all, the vine, public testimony. The fig tree, national life of Israel. And then the olive tree. Thank God one day. God will take them up again and use them as his testimony in tribulation days until he comes back again.
May God bless his word for his name's sake. And I shall be pleased. Our blessed God and Father, we do thank thee again for the opportunity of opening thy word and seeking to help thy dear people. Our Father, we thank thee for the warnings that we get on thy word. We thank thee for the encouragement we get in it. And we thank thee, our Father, for the revelation of thyself and thy wondrous grace and power. We do pray that thou wilt take up thy word and speak to each one of our hearts, both saved and unsaved. And, our Father, we pray that while we are left down here, that thou will keep our feet until finally we arrive in thy presence.
These are our sincere desires. We commend them to thee with thanksgiving for keeping us up until the present time. And, O Lord, we pray right to the end of life that thy good hand may be upon us until we reach the heavenly shore. These are our desires. We commend them to thee with thanksgiving. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.