Footsteps in the Hallway — Carter Conlon

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Christ’s Hunger for Fellowship and the Fig Tree

Today I want to speak to you about footsteps in the hallway. Matthew chapter 21, and we're going to begin at verse 18. And while you're opening that, let's pray together. Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

It's only you, Holy Spirit, that can give life to the Word. And you cause the Word to take life within our hearts and bring us to something that you desired for each of us from the beginning of time and eternity.

I thank you, Lord, that you'll take me out of the limitations of my own frailty in thinking and expression, and you'll bring me into something of your life that your heart may be heard and the thoughts of your mind might be known.

I yield myself before you, Lord, as a vessel. I only ask that I may speak as an oracle of God. Oh, Jesus, let your heart be glad when this day is done. Let heaven record this is a good day. I thank you for the anointing.

Help us to speak and help us to hear in Jesus' mighty name. Footsteps in the hallway. Matthew chapter 21, beginning at verse 18. This is about Jesus. 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 henceforth 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? Jesus answered and said to them, Verily I say unto you, If you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if you shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done.

And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. This is one story which begins at the fig tree. Verse 18 tells us that in the morning he hungered. He returned to the city and he hungered.

Now, Jesus Christ has always hungered for fellowship with his own creation. The approaching of the fig tree is much bigger than just the scene that the Scripture describes before us. If you look at it just in the way it's written, you'd anticipate it's just simply a matter of hunger, and he just approaches the tree.

Now, if you want to stay at that level in your understanding, then everyone is free to do that, but it represents a lot more than this. Christ has always hungered for fellowship with his own creation.

There's a longing in God's heart for communion with those he's created in his own image. This has been at the very center of God's thinking and of God's heart. From before time, before the foundation of the world, he had a plan to send his son, that his son might redeem unto himself the people.

That would be his own for all of eternity. Also, you see the very same scenario in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 8. Let me just share it with you. It tells us that he came to the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day to seek fellowship with man, and this fellowship with man satisfied the hunger of his heart.

Now, it's incredible when you begin to see it, because when you parallel Genesis to Matthew, in Matthew 21, 19, all he found when he came there, he said he found nothing on it but only leaves. He only found a deceptive in a fruitless tree, covered in leaves that identified it, of course, as a fig tree.

That's all he came looking for fruit, and all he found is this deceptive covering. Actually, Unger's Bible dictionary tells us that the Jewish people called a fig tree, you see, a fig tree hides its fruit under the leaves, so you really don't know if there's any fruit there until you get close to it.

And when a fig tree can be in full bloom, it can have this royal regalia, as it is, of apparel on it, but when you get close to it, you find no fruit, and they called it a hypocrite tree. That was the name that the Jews gave to it.

You hypocrite tree, you have the exterior appearance of bearing fruit, but when you get close and inspect, you find there's nothing there that satisfies the hungry soul. And he found it to be a deceptive tree, a fruitless tree, covered in leaves that I said earlier identified it as a particular tree.

Adam’s Fig-Leaf Covering and Human Self-Righteousness

Now, in Genesis 3, 7, we're given a picture of what he found in Eden after Adam sinned against God. Now, sin against God was the thinking that I can live outside of what God has spoken, and somehow be in right relationship with Him, and actually even gain favor, gain understanding.

And when Adam did this, when he moved outside of the revealed will of God for his life and the Word of God, the nature of Satan himself came into Adam, and he had a fallen, deceptive nature now. And he tried to cover this nature.

Think about it. Jesus comes into the garden, says in the cool of the day, He loved fellowship. He created man for fellowship. He created you for fellowship. He created me for fellowship. The longing of His heart is to have you and me with Him for all of eternity.

You have to understand that. Even in the context of what you're about to hear, no matter how a message is spoken, if it seems hard, if it seems simple or soft, the issue really is God says, I want you back.

I want you back with me for all of eternity. But there are certain ways that you cannot come back. You see, men's hearts are very, very deceptive. And men and women begin to think we can do things a certain way.

We can somehow redefine this relationship, and heaven can still be our destiny. And we're living in that kind of a time right now. Think about God coming down into the garden, and Adam and Eve, of course, have lost the fruit of righteousness.

They've lost it. They were in right relationship with God. They were moving with God in His creation. They were given dominion over so many things and given the care and charge of looking after things, but not satisfied to dwell within the parameters of what God says is life.

They moved outside of that parameter. They listened to the suggestive thoughts of the devil and moving outside of that parameter. Now they lost the fruit of righteousness. They lost the fruit, in a sense, of being able to come into fellowship with God, and perhaps longing for that fellowship is in measure as much as God longed for fellowship with them.

He comes down into the garden, and where does He find them? Hiding among the leaves, hiding among the trees. And Adam and Eve, losing this fruit of righteousness or right standing with God, hiding from His presence, covered in fig leaves.

This is God's creation. These are garments of their own making, as it is. Trying to prove to themselves and God that everything is still okay. Can you imagine the foolishness of it? Coming down, and here are Adam and Eve that were once clothed with the glory of God.

The very righteousness of God, in a sense, was upon them. But having sinned, they lost that clothing. They realized they were naked. The covering was gone, as it is. And they knew they were bankrupt. They knew there was a flaw and a fault.

Their covering was gone. And so what did they do? The best thing that humans can bring out of their own understanding, is they took these broad leaves, as it is, and sewed them together. They must have looked utterly ridiculous.

There's no other way to describe it. When we get to heaven, and if the video section has something on this, you get to see perhaps how utterly ridiculous it must have looked. Here they are, covered in leaves, with their Lord coming down to meet them.

And in Matthew 21, 19, it says, Jesus cursed the fig tree and said, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth forever. In other words, let no hungry stranger ever find that which fully satisfies his hunger among your barren leaves.

And presently, the scripture says, the fig tree withered away. Now folks, it's much more than just a tree. You see, Christ has come. And humanity has now progressed from the time of Adam to the historical time when he's walking on the face of the earth.

And here now is the culmination of man's efforts, in a sense, to be in right relationship with God. The fig leaves are no longer there, but the garments are just the same. The fig leaves have become very, very fancy now.

They're long borders and long phylacteries and great flowing robes and things that elevate one over another. And mankind is now clothed in all of this ridiculousness that comes out of his own mind. And Jesus is standing there before...

It's a type, folks, it's similar to when he came into the garden and he sees Adam clothed in fig leaves. He's standing before this tree and there's still no fruit. He's looking at Jerusalem. This is the very center of where he's longed to dwell.

It's where his heavenly kingdom is one day coming to this world. And now behind the walls of this city are thousands and thousands of people covered now in man-made garments. Man-made efforts, as it is, to prove to God and themselves that everything is okay.

And he looks and there's no fruit. No stranger can find life there. There's nothing in religion. There's nothing in man's attempts to get back to God in his own strength. Absolutely nothing. It's fruitless.

It looks holy until you get close to it. Folks, you can approach all kinds of religion in the world today, even in Christ's name, and it looks holy until you get close to it. And there's no fruit on it.

There's nothing of God's life in it. There's nothing that satisfies the hungry soul. There's nothing that provides comfort for the stranger or provides nourishment for the fatherless or the widow or the orphan.

There's nothing in it. And Jesus stands there and says, Let no fruit grow on you forever. It's a pronouncement on religion, folks. It's not just about a fig tree. You see, Jesus had come, and He was now going to put an end to all man-made attempts to get back into right relationship with God.

He was going to open up anew in a living way. He was going to do something that man could not do for himself. He was speaking through time. From the time He came into the Garden of Eden, I'm sure Jesus had Adam in His mind.

No fruit grow on you anymore forever. No more covering. No more phoniness. No more hypocrisy. No more appearance of godliness without genuine fruit in your life. No more of this phony religion that professes to be my representative on the earth and that has deceived itself into thinking that it's coming back into heaven with me for all of eternity.

No more. No more of this fruit of deception. Genesis chapter 3, if you'll go there with me, please. The Lord speaks something to Adam, which goes down through the corridors of time and touches all of religion that has attempted to portray itself as living in right relationship.

Of course, the only way we know that that can be is that our sin has to be covered. We have to have a newness of life. In Genesis 3, 17, here's what the Lord said to Adam. And unto Adam He said, Because you hearken to the voice of your wife, and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake.

In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground, for out of it was thou taken.

For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. Now, here's what the Lord is saying now. You see, this is Adam. This is Adam who covered himself in fig leaves. And the Lord says, You'll find no fulfillment from all that the world produces to cover you.

You try all you want, but you'll find nothing that covers you. A sense of sorrowful emptiness will become part of your daily life. What you produce in your own efforts will never satisfy you. You'll produce it.

You'll color it. You'll dye it. You'll sew great borders on it. You'll make it appear to be holy, but it will never satisfy you. And then He says, You will sweat and live with a sense of finality that you will not be able to escape.

There'll be no hope for the future. There'll be no true, genuine peace that comes when you and I are living in right relationship with God. Now, the worst of it all, in verse 23, it says, Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken.

In other words, you think in this world that you can find what you're looking for? Go try to find it. Work the ground real hard. Work everything that this world has got to offer. Work it as deeply as you can.

Sweat in working it and see if you can find what you lost. So he drove the man, and he drove out the man, verse 24, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.

This is amazing. When you look at the picture, you think for a moment of Adam. By this time now, of course, he's covered in animal skins. He's heading out from the garden, looking back, and there's the tree of life.

There is God's provision for eternity. And Adam looks back upon it, and there's a sword now. And that sword represents to me the word of God. And God says, You cannot come back here. You cannot return to this through any effort or covering of your own.

You cannot come back here. Human effort will not bring you back here because I've placed a sword here. I've placed my word here. You can't come back here. This tree is shut off to you. All of humanity.

This tree is shut off to every man or woman who tries to come back to their own strength. Who tries to produce a covering and say, God, how does this look? Will you accept this? How does this look? I'm not swearing anymore.

I'm carrying a big Bible and I'm wearing a $500 Amani suit. Is that okay? Can I come back in now? Can I get in? And God says, No, you cannot come back. You cannot come to this place through any human effort or any covering of your own.

The Judgment on Man-Made Religion

Now, back in Matthew 21, 43, Jesus is now speaking to a society that is almost a culmination of what men become in a flurry of self-righteous religious effort without the life of God at its core. Think about it for a moment.

God is in their midst and they don't recognize Him and they don't even hear His voice. They don't know Him. Much of religion, even in our generation, they don't recognize Him anymore. They don't know His voice.

If God speaks, they can't hear Him because they've created another covering and they've come into His place through another manner than what He's prescribed. They're filled with man-made coverings. They're hiding an unchallenged and unchanged deep inner corruption.

Jesus Himself said, you Pharisees, He said, you look righteous on the outside, but inside you're full of dead men's bones. He describes it. He says, you clean the outside of the cup and inside you're full of extortion and excess.

You're like graves, He said, that appear like to be beautifully decorated, but men are not aware that when they join affinity with you, they're going down into the same death that you're going into. They have a deep hatred for God.

Think about now, He's standing outside of Jerusalem. This is His own people. This is a religious society as it is, probably one of the most religious on the earth. And they have a hatred for Him and His work among men.

And His work, of course, is to seek out, to recover, and regain those that He has lost. That's His work. That's why He came. Because He wanted to make a way again for men to go back in to the tree of life.

The tree of life that was barred. And I think perhaps there was a hope, at least in the prophets anyway, that somehow this religion could have brought people to such a sense of despair and emptiness. There could at least be an admission.

Like eventually was in Peter and Paul when they said it was a yoke. And it was grievous. We couldn't do it. It was hypocritical. It was impossible to achieve. There could be at least this sense of is this God?

And what is God saying? And is somehow the covering that we put upon ourselves has it fallen short of the glory of God? And Jesus says, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation that will bring forth its fruit.

And that's what this story of the fig tree is all about. It's not about a tree. It's about a religious people who have covered themselves with a covering. And they're attempting to declare themselves to be the people of God.

And God says, no, I'm taking this from you. You're not going to bear any fruit in this anymore. And I'm going to give it to a nation that will bring forth the fruit. I'm going to give it to a people who are going to come my way back in to the tree of life.

Hallelujah. Now folks, no man can steal his way into God's kingdom. Nobody. No one with his own covering can find the tree of life again. No one. God has barred the way. There is no way back in. Now I was speaking with a member of a doctor's organization in Africa a few months ago.

And I was talking to him over lunch about the death of the righteous. Because I was greatly impacted by the death of especially Teresa's mother when she died. Folks, I will never forget it. I could never escape it.

The Death of the Righteous and the Window into Eternity

The glory of God that came into that hospital room was as strong as, if not stronger than anything we've ever experienced in this sanctuary. The glory of God came into that hospital room. My daughter Katie, we were all gathered.

She was singing a song to her. She was conscious. She had been singing up to a point. She'd lost the ability to join us in song. But her eyes were still very bright, still very much there. And all of a sudden, Katie said to us, she's leaving.

Now, no exterior thing is happening that, at least to me, would indicate that she's in any other state than she's been for the last while. But we all jumped up. There was an immediate witness that she was leaving.

Amazing. And we gathered around the bed. She didn't look any different than she had to me, at least for the past while. And we began to pray. And Teresa, the Spirit of God, came upon her. She began to prophesy.

She said, Mama, the Jesus that you've trusted all these years, since you got saved at 60, I think at 60 years of age, has just come into the room. And he's come to get you. And as she was speaking to her, folks, I couldn't look up.

And I didn't see this, but my wife did. She said her eyes became like two balls of fire, like two lighthouses. She saw something. It was reflected in her eyes. And at that very moment, left her body. And there was such a sense of holiness in the room.

I don't think I'll ever be the same. Teresa's father, being in the room, we went home. We sat in one of the rooms at home. And the Spirit of God came on him. And he said, Oh, God, let me die like this.

He said, Oh, God, let me die like Mama just died. Let my last day be like hers. And God granted him his request. And he went the same way. The day he died, he told everybody, I'm going to die today. It was incredible.

Ate breakfast, bacon and eggs that morning. Led in a prayer meeting. Four o 'clock in the afternoon, put his feet up in the bed. Lost his speech, I guess, about nine o 'clock in the evening. And about 11 or so p .m., he intently stared at each one of his children in turn.

And then he left. He was gone. Oh, God. No wonder there's this cry in Scripture, Oh, God, let me die the death of the righteous. I think of my own mother who died of Lou Gehrig's disease, a very, very debilitating, very scary disease where you literally suffocate to death.

And the incredible peace that came on her life. She could only, the last few days, write on a tablet. And I said, Mom, how does it feel to know that you're going to heaven? And she wrote down awesome on this tablet.

Amazing. Just to see the very same thing. God coming down. And I asked this doctor, I said, Now you've seen a lot of death. Or this board member of this doctor's organization. I said, You've seen a lot of death, no doubt.

He said, Yes, I have. Because, of course, of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. And I said, Is it true? I said, I've heard so many times that there seems to be a window into eternity in the last moments of our life.

Just a window. It seems just in the last few seconds for many people who are conscious still, who still have their faculties, they can actually see from time and into eternity. And he said, That is true.

He said, I've seen enough death. I've heard enough about death now to know that, in many cases, there is a window. It appears it opens before those who are going into eternity. Brother Crandall tells you about this young lady that died at 18 years of age of a disease.

And in the room, she started describing in the last moments what she saw. She said, There's elders so-and-so. And she started describing people. She said, Oh, dad, mom, they look so young. And she saw into heaven and just left at that very moment.

He spoke to me of a wicked man. He said, One time, in a hospital, there was a wicked man. And he scoffed at everybody who believed in God and thought everybody was simple-minded who believed in the Lord.

And he was dying. And in the last moments, hours, and days of his life, he was so debilitated physically that he could no longer lift or raise a limb. He had no strength left in his physical body. He said, In the last few moments of his life, he saw something come in the door of his hospital room.

And what he saw so terrified him. He said that he jumped. It was a bed with sides like a crib, like an adult crib. He jumped over. He got up and jumped over the side of the bed, ran into the corner, and cowered in the fetal position trying to shield himself.

And died in that position in the corner trying to shield himself from what he saw walking in the door of his hospital room. He told me also about another man who was a professing Christian. He was a deacon in a Christian church and professed to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

And he was in his last moments in his hospital room laying in his bed. And in the last seconds of his life, perhaps the last minute or two of his life, he was conscious. He was lucid. And he said, Oh, the angels.

I hear them. Can you hear them? There were people in the room. Can you hear the angels coming down the hallway? He said, There seems to be two. I can hear their footsteps coming down the hallway. And nobody, of course, in the room could hear anything because he had been given now a window for that moment into eternity.

And then he was looking towards the door with this incredible expectancy. And in the door came figures that he saw. And a terror came upon him. And he said, Oh, no. Oh, no. Not you. And then he grabbed somebody close to him and he grabbed them by the lapel of their uniform.

And he said, Don't let them take me. Don't let them take me. And those were his last words. He died with his hands still gripping the lapel of one of the personnel that were in the room with him. Now, where did this man get a false covering in the Christian church?

This is my question. Where did he get a covering of his own making? Was it something that he made for himself? I believe that God gave that man a window. He expected angels to be coming into the room.

And what he saw were not angels. The last moments of his life were terror. Was it a covering of his own making? Was he a man who harbored secret sin? Was there a practice in his life that he was unwilling to lay down?

Was there something he was doing and thought that he could continue to do it? Now, I'm not talking about people who struggle. We all struggle. But for those who know Christ, the Scripture says in 2 Timothy 2 .19,.

The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal. The Lord knows them that are His. And let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. We all struggle. But for those who truly know God and truly walk with God, John, the Beloved, in one of his epistles, says the man or woman who knows God cannot continue to live in sin.

The seed of God is in him. There's a seed of new life in him or in her. And there's this departing from iniquity. This constant throughout life turning away from things that offend the very nature and the very character of God.

There's this turning in the true Christian. It doesn't mean I don't want anybody getting condemned by this this morning because it doesn't mean you don't struggle. But in your heart, you must know if you're a true believer that there is a turning away.

There's a desire to walk away. But many, many people who profess to know Jesus Christ even in our time, they create a garment of their own making that allows them to commit adultery. It allows them to steal in the workplace.

It allows them to lie and gossip and slander unrestrainedly. And this garment that they put on themselves convinces them that there's no justice for this. There's no judgment day coming for them. Even though Jesus said by every word you speak you'll be justified and by every word you'll be condemned.

Jesus said if you do not forgive those who have wronged you, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses. But in spite of what God has spoken, they create a garment of fig leaves and they cover themselves and say, all is well!

All is well! And they seek out a church that won't challenge their sin. That won't expose this hypocrisy for what it is. I'd rather you get mad at me and go to heaven. Did someone else convince this man that somehow just being better than the general level of society and standing in his self-made righteousness was good enough?

What a tragedy, folks, to live in Adam's fig tree religion in our generation. Only to find in the last moments that the feet coming down the hallway to get you are not taking you to heaven. Whether you like it or not, folks, within 50 years or so, most of us are going to hear those feet coming down the hallway.

There's no way around it. It's going to be your portion. It's going to be mine. God will either come or other emissaries will be sent. But what a tragedy to have been covered in an unrighteous covering, to have been covered in human effort, to have been covered in something deceptive, to find in the last moments of your life that the feet coming down the hallway are not taking you to heaven.

I guess the question would be whose feet are coming to get you? Who's been assigned to take you into eternity? And if you're not sure they're God's, can it be changed? Can I get back? I want you to go to Zechariah with me, please.

God’s Provided Covering in Zechariah

Chapter 3. Just go back from Matthew to Malachi to Zechariah chapter 3. How can I know? There's only one question, folks, in life that really needs to be answered rightly. You can afford to be wrong in a quiz game, but you can't afford to be wrong with this one.

How do I know? How can I know that the covering I have is going to get me into heaven? How can I know that I'm going to go back and dwell with God for all of eternity? Now, Zechariah, the prophet, is coming to a people who are discouraged in the rebuilding as it is in the temple.

He's giving them a view into the future of what the work of God is all about. Where is all of this labor leading to? All of the things that God is asking people to do. And what is God's part in all of this?

What is He going to do? In Zechariah chapter 3 and verse 8, He says, Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee for their men wondered at. For behold, I'll bring forth My servant the branch.

That's very symbolic because in the Hebrew text it means that which produces new growth, that which causes there to be productivity or fruit starting to grow again. It's the source from which a new covering for man would come.

It's a graft as it is of the tree of life. God says, You can't come back to the tree of life. Human effort can't bring you back. False covering can't bring you in. Because you can't come back in, I'm going to come out to you.

I'm going to take a branch as it is from the tree of life. The tree of life is ultimately Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God says, I'm going to take a branch and I'm going to bring that branch to you. And that branch is going to be the way that you come back again into fellowship with God.

And in chapter 3, verse 4, He said, and He answered to those that stood before Him, He said, Take away the filthy garments from him. And He said to him, Behold, I've caused your iniquity to pass from you and I will clothe thee with a change of raiment.

The Lord says, I'm going to do something. I'm going to take away your filthiness. I'm going to take away all of the human struggles and trials to get back into My presence. I'm going to take it all away and I'm going to give you a change of clothing.

I'm going to hand it to you. You don't have to make it. You don't have to sew it. You don't have to put it on. You don't have to clean it. You don't have to keep it on. I'm going to give it to you. If you will reach out by faith, I'm going to stretch My hand out to you and I'm going to give you a covering that only can come from the hand of God.

And again in verse 9, He says, For behold the stone I've laid before Joshua. On one stone shall be seven eyes. I will engrave the engravings thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

Iniquity means the depraved actions of man which he does in his separation from God. And God says, No, you've sinned. You've fallen short of the glory. No one can come back into My presence in his own effort.

But I'm going to come. The branch is going to come. Someone from the Tree of Life is going to come to you. And I'm going to give you a change of clothing. I'm going to do something that is going to take away the power of sin in one day.

And I'm going to open again the way to the Tree of Life. All the mercy of God! The incredible, unspeakable mercy of God! Hallelujah to the Lamb of God! Glory to God! But God came to me! Thanks be to God!

Thanks be to God! That He came to me! Hallelujah! The branch came! Gave me a covering and took away my sin! Allowed Himself to be nailed on a cross and paid the price for all the wrong things that I've done and for all the foolish ways I've tried to reason my way back into the presence of God.

God Almighty did it all Himself in a day! What I could never accomplish in a lifetime, He did in a day! He made the way back into His presence for eternity. Verse 10, He says, In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall you call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.

It's amazing. He says, You're going to call everyone out of every place where they've sought some kind of covering to get back into My presence again. You're going to call them and say, No, you don't need those things.

You don't need fig leaves anymore. I've found the branch! I've found the covering! I've found the redemption! I've found the Redeemer! I've found the Messiah! Hallelujah! In John 1, verse 47, there was a man called Nathanael.

And it says, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him. And He said to him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. That means deceit. In Nathanael 48, John 1 says, Whence knowest thou Me? How do you know Me?