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Hello, this is Pastor Steven Anderson from Faith Forward Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona. Today I want to talk about Matthew chapter 21 verses 18 through 20 where the Bible reads, Now in the morning as he returned into the city he hungered, and when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away? Now a very common theme amongst Zionists is that they like to talk about Israel as being the fig tree. And they say that in 1948 we witnessed the re-blossoming of the fig tree. They'll try to import that concept into Matthew 24 as being some kind of an end times fulfillment of prophecy, the re-blossoming of the fig tree. And they say the fig tree is Israel. Of course, Matthew 24 teaches no such thing. But if you want to talk about Israel being the fig tree, here we have a great illustration of Israel. When Jesus comes to a fig tree in the springtime and he seeks figs, he seeks fruit on that tree, he finds no fruit. And he curses the fig tree and he says, Let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward forever, forever. And the tree withers away. And it's never going to produce fruit again. That fig tree represents Israel. Jesus Christ came to Israel seeking for fruit. He found none. And now it's going to wither away. It's going to be cursed. It's never coming back. The Bible is clear. A lot of people say, Well, Israel is just on the shelf right now. God's going to go back to dealing with them. They're going to come back to the Lord and so forth. Well, according to this parable, and I'm going to back it up with just some teaching a little bit later in the chapter, according to this parable of the fig tree or incident with the fig tree, it's clear that henceforward forever they're not going to bear fruit. They're done. But look just a few verses down in verse 33. Jesus gives another parable. Here another parable. There was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged a winepress in it and built a tower and let it out to husbandmen and went into a far country. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another. Again he sent other servants more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all, he sent unto them his son saying, they will reverence my son. Can you figure out where this parable is going? God has this vineyard that he's working in and he keeps sending his servants the prophets. He keeps sending husbandmen and they killed one, they beat one, they stoned another. Then finally he sends unto these people his son saying, they will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir, come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Listen to what Jesus says, Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. So right there we see this parable where the nation of Israel is likened unto a vineyard and God wants to get some fruit from that vineyard. He keeps sending his servants the prophets, those are the husbandmen, to try to get fruit from the vineyard. Finally he sends his son and what do they do? They kill his son. And what's he going to do? He's going to miserably destroy those murderers. He's going to destroy their city and it says he's going to let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their season. Jesus then interprets it for them. He says, Therefore the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. Today Zionists say, Oh, but they're coming back. Pastor Anderson, the re-blossoming of the fig tree in 1948. No, the fig tree withered away. He said it would never bring forth fruit forever. Here with this parable, do we see these husbandmen being later brought back to handle the vineyard again? No, he says he's going to miserably destroy those murderers and he's going to give the vineyard to somebody else. It doesn't talk about them coming back. And then a few verses later it says, When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. They understood that Jesus was referring to the Jews, the Pharisees, and the people who rejected him. He's actually prophesying his own death here because he talks about the son being sent and being killed. That hadn't happened yet. But he's making it real clear that the kingdom of God is going to be taken from them and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof, not that they themselves will later change their mind and produce fruit. That's not found in any of these scriptures. That's not a New Testament teaching. It comes from a perversion and misunderstanding of Romans 11. The whole rest of the New Testament makes it clear that God was done with the physical nation of Israel and that he's turned unto the Gentiles in the New Testament. The only time the Israelites are coming back is when they're resurrected for the millennium. That's what Romans 11 actually teaches. He talks about the fact that in the millennium when all the dead in Christ, all those who are saved from old and New Testament are all resurrected, then the physical nation of Israel will again enjoy the land because they'll be all saved Christians who are enjoying it. So again, this is just another clear scripture that teaches that the kingdom of God has been taken from the nation of Israel and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. Why? Because they are that fig tree that didn't produce the fruit when God wanted it. And so they've been cursed and they will not bring fruit from henceforth forever.