THE FATHER'S PLANTING
THE FATHER’S PLANTING
Matthew 15: 13; Psalm 104: 16; Psalm 92: 12 - 14
It has come before me today that the Lord in His service was peculiarly constructive; whilst overthrowing what He found here prejudicial to God and to man, He was at the same time constructive; He was in this way in keeping with the prophetic word in the book of Zechariah, where it is said that the opposers of the people of God, of Israel, were frayed by four carpenters. Carpenters are not for destruction, but for construction, and so the Lord in overthrowing what was opposed to God and to man, spiritually constructed what should remain and supersede that which He overthrew. This is seen particularly in the way in which He brings in His Father and His planting; the enemy’s work has always in view the effacing of God and what He is.
Human traditions had nullified, as Matthew 15 teaches us, the commandments of God. The Lord in constructing what He had in mind brought in the Father, for without Him nothing that is set up will abide. The Lord had made plain to the multitude that that which cometh out of the mouth defileth a man, and in answer to the disciples, who said unto Him, “Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?” He said, “Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up”. He brings in His Father, and He brings Him in in this instance in regard of planting, a suggestion which directs the mind at once to the beginning of Scripture, for Genesis 2 introduces to us the thought of divine planting; the Lord God planted, it is said, a garden eastward in Eden. The earth had already shown its fruitfulness, according to the testimony of the third day of creation, and in regard to that I wanted to say that life is developed on the earth; it is not [p. 476] especially connected with heaven, but with the earth. I am speaking now of the facts presented to us in the book of Genesis. Heaven has its place, but the evidences of life according to the testimony of the first chapter, first appear on the earth, and that is not stated merely as a historical fact, for Scripture is not concerned with history, save in so far as history develops divine principles and ways. If life as seen first is introduced in its energy upon the earth, that has a typical significance, and I believe refers to Christ being here as Man.
Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared, and He is said to have grown up before Jehovah as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground; mark “a tender plant”. That word “tender” is not simply what we would apply to a babe after the flesh; it was what Christ was under the eye of God in all His growth. “He shall grow up before him”, before Jehovah, it is said, not necessarily yet for the public view, although it was there to be viewed. “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man”. This was said of Him in His boyhood, but life was there; life in all that it is according to God in Man. “The child grew”; that does not convey that certain things were not there, for He grew up in infinite perfection as a Man under God’s eye; life was there in all its varied perfections as evergreen in that tender Plant. The world “plant” is really “sapling”. One would love to dwell on the energy of life as thus seen; the Spirit of God dwells upon it; with peculiar energy and skill, He dwells on the growth of this precious Sapling, as He appears on the earth.
It has to be remembered that the Lord Jesus came outwardly in connection with the most insignificant circumstances, according to divine appointment. Heaven was quick to call attention to the magnitude of the event, for the angel of the Lord at once [p. 477] announces to the watchers, the shepherds, who were keeping watch over the flock by night, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour (notice, a Saviour, for He was nothing less), which is Christ the Lord”. “Which is”, not which shall be, but “which is Christ the Lord”. The Spirit of God in that way dwells on and guards the Person who was there. And then a multitude of the heavenly host suddenly appears; a multitude; heaven, as it were, drew near and surrounded the Son. If men were falling away in their thoughts, as they were, heaven was all aglow: but divine thoughts were in the minds of these angelic beings and so they praise God and say “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. Note, it is men, for other plants would appear, not only this tender Sapling, but others who would draw their sap in another way, whose roots should be set otherwise, but who nevertheless should be divinely planted, and should appear after this pattern under the eye of God. “Good pleasure in men”.
Simeon having come by the Spirit into the temple saw the Child Jesus. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he had seen (not “the babe” but) the Lord’s Christ. The Lord’s Christ! Literally he saw with his naked eye but a Babe, but with the eye of faith, with the eye, you might say, of the Spirit, for he was filled with the Spirit, he saw the Lord’s Christ, for all was there. Hence he says, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace ... ... for mine eyes have seen thy salvation”. “Mine eyes have seen” it, he says; it was all there for Simeon, but he held a Babe in his arms. He was filled; he was a consecrated priest, we may say, with that precious Babe in his arms. Thus Simeon was let in to see; there was that that be could see, and hence be says, “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation”.
[p. 478] Well, now, the Father would plant others; “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up”. It is really a negative statement, but a negative that implies a very great positive, that is, that the Father had planted. I wonder if each of us understand what it is to be divinely planted? You may take a place publicly in connection with the people of God, be numbered amongst them, even serve amongst them, and yet be rooted up if you have not been divinely planted. “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up”. This rooting up is a serious matter; being rooted up is very different from being rooted down; the latter means that the roots are fixed in divine love. We read of the remnant taking root downwards, and bearing fruit upwards. What a thing it is to be rooted and grounded in love! Where are your roots? From whence do you draw your sap, the sap that sustains your soul? On what are you living? These are personal questions. Do you seek it in the world, or in your family? The scripture speaks of “Being rooted and grounded in love”, such is divine planting; God will not plant you elsewhere. The Father is planting and He places each of us according to His own divine intent and wisdom, and He plants in a soil of love. As I said, the thing for us is to be rooted down, and God does that, but it is through the exercise of our hearts.
Well now, I want to show you from other scriptures how the planting of God develops, how the plant grows into a tree, and how the tree becomes a means of testimony. In Psalm 104: 16, we read,
“The trees of the Lord are full of sap”. Note the trees of the Lord; the plants have grown. That word full may be rendered satisfied. The trees of the Lord are satisfied. Are you acquainted with the people of God? Do you go in and out amongst those who have been on the way? What do you observe [p. 479] in the people of God generally? What I observe, and what I know is so is, that as one grows as having been divinely planted, one becomes increasingly satisfied. Do I hear a murmur? Do I hear a complaint? Is someone saying in his heart, I am not recognised: my abilities are not appreciated? If so, you could not be characterised as a tree of the Lord, for the trees of Jehovah are full, they are satisfied, they lack nothing. That is what I observe in those who have grown as divinely planted, being rooted and grounded in love; they have grown to be trees full of satisfaction. You do not hear them murmuring.
Look at Paul: he had been to Corinth, and he laboured in Corinth for eighteen months, and numbers of people were converted through his ministry. He left Corinth and after he left it he was despised. He did not find the love that was due him. Ah, but, he says, Be it so; “though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved”. He said in effect, I am not going to turn away from divinely inaugurated methods on account of your barrenness: I remain what I am, a tree of Jehovah’s planting. I am satisfied in the love of my heart. If you do not love me, I love you nevertheless, and I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. What a cedar of Lebanon he was! The passage here goes on to say, “The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted”. Paul was one of those. I need not apologise for bringing forward Paul, for the reason that he is set before us as an example. Of all the apostles, he it is who says, “Follow me”. “Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ”. (1 Corinthians 11: 1) He had grown up to be a cedar of Jehovah’s planting in Lebanon, full of sap, a satisfied Christian. A Christian who murmurs is without sap, without satisfaction in his heart, without the love of God richly dwelling in his heart in the power of the Spirit of God [p. 480] Now where are we in regard of this, beloved brethren? Are we on the line that morally ends in being rooted up? Let us be on our guard as to this on the one hand, and on the other hand, let us see to it that our roots are in divine love and that we are grounded there. I apprehend grounding is settling, establishment; and such an one is not felled by the first wind that blows; he is fixed as set up in love: he is rooted, he receives all his sap thence; the wind may blow from any quarter, he stands up firmly against it, yea, he grows against it for he is grounded in love. Then, as I said, he is satisfied. Satisfaction in a spiritual sense is a wonderful thing. The satisfied Christian has whereof to minister; in him is seen “good measure”, pressed down and shaken together and running over; there are no unfilled crevices. Such is one who grows up as divinely planted, and then he stands out as a cedar.
Now I understand that a cedar is a tree of dignity. It is a poor thing if a Christian has to rely on some little bit of ancestry, or wealth, or education, for his nobility. Such a one has not grown like a cedar in Lebanon. Look at Jacob! “thy name shall be called no more Jacob”. He had a remarkable ancestry. He could have traced his line back to Noah through Abraham and Shem. With what pride the flesh in Jacob could have pointed to such a line, for the line of Shem is given twice over in Genesis; first in its place in relation to the sons of Noah, and then as the line of the testimony of God, and that line ran directly through the veins of Jacob according to the flesh. How he might have prided himself, but God says, “thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed”. Show me a man who has power with God and with men and I will show you a prince, one of God’s nobility, one of the cedars of God; he had [p. 481] grown like a cedar in Lebanon which the Lord had planted.
I desire now to show a further point; how this principle of planting works out in the place of privilege in the house of God, for that is the objective that I have in view, and it is that which every exercised person has before him. As truly exercised of God you are not thinking of what you may be commercially or socially in this world; your ambitions, and it is right to have them, lie in relation to the house of God; that is where they lie if you are divinely exercised. In Psalm 92: 12, it is said “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon”. That is a righteous man; a righteous man in this world is a great rarity; he is one who admits the rights of God, the rights of men, and more than that, who reserves the right, according to God, to be merciful; in other words, a truly righteous man is like God. David is an instance, he says, “Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God unto him”. (2 Samuel 9: 3) That was righteousness. It shows how David had grown in the knowledge of God; he perceived that God acted on that principle and he would act on it too; he would be like God.
Well, now, it says of the righteous man that he shall flourish like a palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. See a righteous man grow! That flourishing is not the extension of his business; it does not mean that; he prospers spiritually, he provides shelter for others, so that his influence for God becomes extended. He grows up like a cedar, that is, he stands out towering morally above other men. I think that the cedar is a man in Christ. Oh, that the Lord would give us to think a little more about that; what it is to know a man in Christ! If you do not know him in anybody else, it is your privilege to know him in yourself.
[p. 482] The Spirit of God goes on immediately from that to the idea of planting in the house. “Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God”. There you have more detail as to the place of the fruition, but first of all you are planted in the house. I wonder if everybody here is in the fellowship of God’s Son? We are called to that. “God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”. (1 Corinthians 1: 9) Sometimes one raises the question with this and that one, Are you breaking bread? And they say, No. Well, why not? Are you the Lord’s? “Yes”. Well, the scripture I have quoted says of Christians that God has called us unto the fellowship of His Son. The Spirit of God places a dignity on the fellowship. You dignify yourself in taking your place there, for it is the fellowship of God’s Son to which you are called. As God’s Son He lends dignity to the fellowship; and so one would raise the question in the hearts of Christians, as to whether they have any exercise about this? Are you planted in the house of the Lord? “Those that be planted” it says, “in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God”. That is the place of flourishing; courts are public, but the planting is inside, in His house; it is there where the love of God flows; the house is the place of affection. God has that here upon earth, sheltered by the kingdom, in which His love flows unhinderedly, and He maintains that. He maintains it here upon earth and will maintain it, and I am assured that He will maintain it to the end. “There is a river the stream whereof shall make glad the city of God”. (Psalm 46: 4) The love of God flows there in the power of the Spirit, and it is for each young Christian to see to it that he is planted there, in the house of the Lord; and as planted there, to flourish, as it is said, in the courts of our God. Christians have a God, and they have a Lord, and [p. 483] they boast in them and delight in the holy courts. One knows of many here and there, for the house is universal, whom God has touched, and who are flourishing. One rejoices in such, and one would love to have them always in mind for prayer, for they lead on others as they flourish in the courts of our God.
And then another word is added in the Psalm for those who are growing old, for the Spirit of God takes account of the old as well as of the young, and so it says “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age”; that is those who have been planted in the house of the Lord. They never take the position of being superannuated, no true believer would take up such an attitude; he is always in his place, like an Anna, who departed not from the temple in her mature old age, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And see the reward she had! Had she accepted a pension, so to speak, she would have missed that great privilege in Jerusalem of seeing the Lord’s Christ. She saw Him there alongside of Simeon, who was filled with the Spirit. She having come in that instant saw the Lord. Hence the encouragement to the old to continue in the energy of the Spirit, for the Spirit can use an aged believer as He can use a young one and it may be in greater maturity of spiritual affections and worship; and that is how it should be. So it says “they shall still bring forth fruit in old age”, and further, “they shall be fat and flourishing”. Hence the importance, dear brethren, of seeing what divine planting is and of not being moved away and tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of teaching, but stedfastly remaining in your place under God’s eye and developing those traits of life, flourishing like a palm, and growing like a cedar, so that even in old age you are fat and flourishing. The fat is to be always for God. The fat would make you [p. 484] proud unless you are self judged; of Jeshurun, it is said, he waxed fat and kicked; that was his will, but in the Lord Jesus the fat was for God, and so all the result of spiritual nourishment in the believer is to be yielded up to God; it is for Him; all spiritual greatness and dignity in that way are for God. He has great delight in it, for it speaks to Him of what is of Christ, as one has grown up in Him.
Well, I have presented the subject as well as I have been able to, dear brethren, and I leave it with each one to take home to himself the thought of being divinely planted in the house of the Lord and of growing up and flourishing in the courts of our God. I verily believe that in the last days the features of the assembly are being brought into evidence. One would deprecate greatly any tendency to becloud these, for the Holy Spirit would bring them into the view of the saints so that they might be exercised thereby. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. The voice of a great multitude in that day will say, “Let us be glad and rejoice for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready”. (Revelation 19: 7) The present is a time in which the affections of the Lord’s people are being stirred up, in order that they should be prepared to meet the Lord Jesus Christ.