ROOTS
[p. 195] ROOTS
Mark 4:16,17; Isaiah 37:30 - 32; Daniel 4:15,16; Colossians 2:6,7
These scriptures speak about roots. It is thought to speak about them; first to call attention to persons who, although they have received the gospel, have not gone on in the truth of it, not having root in themselves. The initial idea in the proclamation of the gospel is the sowing of seed, as the parable teaches in the chapter in Mark from which I read. The idea is that in the reception of the word of God there is not a drawing back, but a going forward; that is, “faith, to the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39)”. Matthew and Mark point out that there are four kinds of ground into which the seed of the word of God through the gospel falls. What is said of this kind, called rocky ground, contemplates that the individual who received the word proceeds for a time. Many would regard them as genuine, hopeful, possible, or probable material for further development of features of the work of God; but there is something amiss. There is no root. Job speaks of the root of a matter being in one. That is the first phase of my subject.
The second is in Isaiah, where we have a remnant, having peculiar application to the present time. It takes root downwards. The right principle is already in them, and, becoming active, it takes root downwards, that is, to the point whence sap is drawn.
Thirdly, we have in Daniel 4 a person under severe discipline. He is genuine, and the figure used is of a tree cut down, not that it falls, but is cut down, and “the stump of its roots” remains in the earth, with a band of iron and brass upon them, implying limitations.
Then, fourthly, the saints viewed in the Colossian state are enjoined to be “rooted and built up in him”
— [p. 196] in Christ. These are the four features of what was in mind.
The first, as already intimated, contemplates shallow, unfruitful, uncertain, nominal believers; a bane to the spiritual who carry things for God, who build up the saints. They find such material, I may say, impossible It is not that I would eliminate anyone here from the realm of divine operations, that is, where the Spirit is actually operating. It is a wonderful thing to be in that realm. There is a mighty current always present, particularly in occasions of this kind, of which the Lord says, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water (Numbers 21:16)”. The saints gathered together thus, or moving in this direction, are pleasing to the eye of God. Some of those of whom I have spoken may be here, carried along by others in the right current. As here, you are where God is working, but up till now there has been no evidence of root. You are in acquiescence with certain forms, adopting certain language that is in itself right, and yet discrediting those who are concerned about your souls.
There are those who watch for our souls, and we should thank God for them. But in the cases I referred to souls are looked after, and those who do so find no clear evidence of genuineness; there is always an elusiveness so that your motives cannot be fathomed, and whilst you are outwardly among the saints, yet there is a constant uncertainty. You may not have been tested yet. The persecution may not have arisen in your case, but when it does, if you proceed as you are now, you will fall away. Something will offend you. You will be no more with the brethren, no more to be seen. The secret is, no root in yourself. It may be that it never occurred to you that if you analyse your moral being you could find a root if it were there. There are roots, you may be sure. Roots of bitterness are in such people. The love of money is apt to be there, and that [p. 197] is a most extensive, extraordinary root — a root of all evil. It is a remarkable statement. Any of the class I have spoken of that may be present is sure to have that root, and if you look in you will find it is there. All your calculations are on that line. You would like to have more and still more, disregarding, perhaps, the accumulated evil that goes with that. You may not meet it for the moment, but presently it will appear. “The love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10)”. It is sure to be where the divine root is absent.
Nothing can be more serious and solemn than as one investigates he finds the absence of the divine root. It exists in others, but not in you. It is a time therefore for looking into matters and seeing how the root is in others. They are not like you. Why should you be different from the people of God? Why should you not find the divine way and take it? If you have discovered a lack of this kind, there are others who have what you have not. Why not inquire from them? They are ready to tell you. If you consult the Lord (and He is ready to be consulted at any time), as Paul said “the Lord will give thee understanding in all things”, (2 Timothy 2:7), He has means of communicating His mind to you. He will make His mind known through your parents, your brothers and sisters, and others. The Lord is ready at any moment to communicate His mind, to give you understanding, to give it to you. Why not seek it? “The Lord will give thee understanding (2 Timothy 2:7)”. In earlier days He could say to a needy soul. Consult My servant John — he will tell you; Paul will tell you. Today there are those whom He likewise can use to help you, your parents, if Christians, as I said, can instruct you in the way of God, as also your brother or your sister. There is no excuse at all if you remain in ignorance of the gospel. The Lord has set around you the means of light and understanding.
Why, then, I say to you young people, should you [p. 198] be uncertain? Why should you be indefinite? Why not look into matters and see what is in the way? Why are other roots with you and not this one; the root in yourself, in virtue of which the word of God becomes operative; the root by which you are constituted honest, having an honest and good heart; a root which constitutes you good ground on which the word falls and bears fruit thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold? This is within your reach. As you face these things it is certain that the Lord will come in for you. You must see that the divine root is in yourself, as Mark makes plain in the passage read. That is what he is saying to you through me tonight. It is a question of what is in yourself, constituting you good ground, as I said. It is not in nature. God affects you by His Spirit, so that you receive His word and yield the fruit of it in “an honest and good heart (Luke 8:15)”. He has been endeavouring to work in you in this sense, but you have stood in the way. You have allowed the other roots to bear fruit, disregarding what is of God. The gospel may have been received, but, persecution on account of it arising, you became offended and bore no fruit. Such being the case you soon find excuses; you are no more at the meetings; no more Bible reading; no more prayers; Satan has secured you. The secret of this is the want of uprightness of heart, and not allowing the Lord to have His way in your soul. He is speaking to you now. The Spirit of God is saying that henceforth it must not be said of you. No root in himself, and hence no fruit for God — because you have submitted to His work.
Coming to Isaiah, it is a time of crisis, of great pressure, such as the world is enduring now. Sennacherib had attacked Judah with overwhelming numbers. It is a time of pressure and I am persuaded, dear brethren — one finds oneself constantly alluding to it — that the pressure is for us. It is also for mankind generally, of course, for it has the gospel in mind, the work of God.
[p. 199] It is in view of soil, that in which God can work more freely and resultfully than He has been working in modern times. He is going to get something out of it. The responsible man here is Hezekiah. It was now a question of those responsible amongst the people of God, those who understood the time; who knew what Israel ought to do. The king was deeply concerned, but he knew what to do — and he sends to the prophet. We have been speaking today of the prophetic word. There are those who, like Hezekiah, are sincere in their responsibility and know where to turn. It is a most important thing to know where to turn in a crisis.
The prophetic word, I believe, is a prime thought at the moment. God is affording it and, as we had it today. He would have us to make way for it. The preparatory way for it is the way of surpassing excellence, that is, the way of love; not the way of complaint; not the way of depression, but the way of love. It includes the whole assembly in a given place; that is, all who are walking in the light of the assembly, and God would stress that — all. “If therefore the whole assembly come together (1 Corinthians 14:23)”. God loves the thought of the assembly. He loves to see it functioning, and it functions in many ways, but in this particular way, the way of surpassing excellence which is preparatory to the incoming of the divine mind through the prophetic word. Why should we be without it, dear brethren? God said of old that He makes known His mind to the prophets. He will do nothing without bringing them into it. He said of Abraham, “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? (Genesis 18:17)” He did not. Abraham was a prophet. Why should we be without the divine mind? We cannot get along without it. So those who were responsible, like Hezekiah, had recourse to the divine mind. They had recourse to the prophet. So did Josiah. He knew where to turn. It was a woman, a prophetess, but nevertheless one who conveyed the mind of God.
She dwelt in the “second quarter” of the city, but he had access to her, and he did not despise her dwelling. He sought her and he found her, and she conveyed the divine mind to him, and there was a great result in the increase in quality of the service of God. That is the point. You may be assured of it, that today the point is increase in the quality and extent of the service of God. It was so in Hezekiah’s day and also in Josiah’s day. Hezekiah is adding here. The result of all this pressure is a positive contribution to the hymns, to the means of divine praises. That is what you get in Hezekiah, so too in Josiah. This book does not give us all the facts of Hezekiah. What contributions there were when he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and how he brought in Nathan and David, the great leaders in song, but it is all in connection with this, that the sincere man in responsibility knew where to turn. He turned to the prophet Isaiah.
I do not want to enlarge on the chapter, but the message of Isaiah was, “Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof”. This is agricultural work, skilled farming. That is the thought, that we come to this through pressure. It is a question of a remnant, but God is going to improve what there is of Himself. He appreciates what there is, but He would improve what there is, and He would improve it through prophetic means; but He would remind us of what the first year is in order to reach the third year, and the idea of a remnant taking root downwards and bearing fruit upwards. What grows of itself is not the result of skilled work, but still it is the work of God. The soil that is of God produces something. Spiritually, where would any of us be if it were not for that? Before the revival of the truth in these latter days there was but little skilled labour in the [p. 201] scriptural sense, but nevertheless there was growth and many of us got blessing. There was that which grew of itself, without skilled cultivation. But God intends that there should be skilled cultivation of the land. Adam was to dress and keep the garden of Eden; but as you go afield in Christendom, there is no skilled cultivation, and yet it is in a sense the divine soil. There are saints there and we include them in our thoughts and prayers. The process leads to “the third year”, when the saints, divinely instructed, are to sow and reap.
What is the idea of sowing? The idea is that there is a soil which will produce a harvest, and that soil implies that as the seed goes into it there is a root whence sap is drawn. So we sow and we reap; that is in truth what has come about through the sovereign mercy of our God in bringing about remnant conditions. They are features of the early part of the dispensation. We are told, for instance, to sow to the Spirit. That is one idea of sowing. There are many so-called denominations of men which do not do that. They may sow in a human way, and being more or less sincere, they get some fruit, but it is what grows of itself. There is no skilled agricultural work, whereas the thought of God is that there should be skilled and careful workmanship, that of those who know what they are doing. We sow and we reap. Sow to the Spirit, says the apostle Paul. Let us look into that word, as to whether we have been doing it. Many have been sowing to the flesh. I know well enough in myself how much of that there is. But what do we reap from that sowing? Corruption. In Genesis 6 we read that corruption and violence filled the earth. Why? There was sowing to the flesh. But as we sow to the Spirit, we shall reap life everlasting. We reap it on such occasions amongst the brethren as the present one; the Holy Spirit Himself in us causes the water of life in us to spring up into [p. 202] everlasting life. That is the idea, that we sow in the third year. People that are instructed in the light of God, in the teaching of the truth, understand how to sow in order to reap, to sow for a desired crop. “...the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof”. It is an intelligent process for: “...the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward”. God is looking for that. It is fruit borne upward, not affected by thorns or weeds, not affected by the want of skill in attending to it. The fruit grows upward. That is what marks the remnant.
I now come to Nebuchadnezzar, the head of the Gentile monarchies, the “head of gold”. God made him so. God has set out His mind as to these four monarchies, having made in them provision for the public government of the world until Christ sets up His kingdom. They are in this sense part of His service and He gives a remarkable lead in Nebuchadnezzar. He would make him a representative of Himself, not only in rule, but in spirit, for indeed he became a preacher, but it was through discipline. If there are any here under specific discipline, the book of Daniel, in Nebuchadnezzar, furnishes instruction as to this matter of roots, that, in spite of the discipline, being a subject of the work of God by His Spirit, the real root is in you. Those of us who know you may say. The root of God is there. You have been inflated, given way to pride and ambition, to lust it may be, and the discipline surely came. The truth as to his discipline came directly to Nebuchadnezzar, first in his dream, then by Daniel in interpretation, and then by a voice from heaven, so that the discipline is put into execution — the tree is cut down, but the stump is left. It does not fall down. We read of trees falling down and they are found there, but a tree cut down is a different matter, because the sap is in the tree. It is not dead. Job says, “there is [p. 203] hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that It will sprout again ... through the scent of water it will bud”,(Job 14:7,9). When it falls there is a suggestion of its being dead, ... Jude speaks of certain being “... twice dead, plucked up by the roots (Jude 12)”. Apostasy is setting in now; that is what is happening.
In the case before us the root is in the ground, whence the sap is drawn, where the life-spring is. Discipline proceeds, but the stump of the roots of this tree is to be held in the earth by a band of iron and brass. You may say. That brother ought to be back in fellowship. Ought he? If the band of iron and brass is there surely according to God, then the suggestion is that there is no growth in a true sense while discipline is being exercised. I refer to formal discipline as seen here. The object of discipline is the destruction of the flesh; that is, it is a negative thought, but a necessary negative thought in order that there should be a positive; that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. In the meantime there is the band of iron and brass. The discipline is not lifted. The Lord said, “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven (Matthew 18:18)”. It is a question now of showing unmistakably that the flesh is dealt with definitely. We are bound by the hands of the brethren, but also released by the hands of the brethren, for the Lord further says, “whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”, Matthew 18:18. We know that the Corinthians failed in this, but they were amenable to the apostle’s injunction that they should confirm their love to the offender; that implies that the bands are removed.
We read in Daniel how Nebuchadnezzar came to this. It is a most instructive chapter in that way. We see how he came to it and how manifestly he judged himself, but there was a definite period of seven times to pass over him. God fixed the period, and that period [p. 204] had to run its course. He was to eat grass like an ox, a beast’s heart was given to him. In the tender grass he was wet with the dew of heaven. Think of such discipline! Nebuchadnezzar was just in the circumstances of a beast. It was all discipline. The facts were to wear down the flesh, to destroy it. He had to experience them for seven years — spiritually a complete period; and then God released him. The period appointed by God synchronised exactly with the result of the discipline of the man, so that he now praises the God of heaven. He says, “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of the heavens, all whose works are truth, and his paths judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase (Daniel 4:37)”. He preaches the gospel, too, we may say, as the early verses of the chapter show.
Finally there are these roots which belong to us in the Colossian state. Some of you may be asking in your minds. What does he mean by that? The truth is that local assemblies have states generally differing from each other. It is remarkable that what characterises a town or city affects the brethren. The Lord says to the apostle Paul, “I have much people in this city (Acts 18:10)”. Corinth was in His mind and all the influences of Corinth over the Christian were, no doubt, in His mind, too. Local companies are affected by the characteristics of the city in which they are, and that affection causes a state which has to be corrected. In fact, it has to be understood what the influence is, so that we may provide against it; set our faces against it, so as to overcome it. What marked Colosse was that it had got on well. The apostle Paul had not been there. It was not a Pauline assembly for some reason, although it was in the province of Asia. They had not seen his face in the flesh, but they had gone on in the truth and he could say that he rejoiced as in spirit present with them. “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit,
[p. 205] joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ (Colossians 2:5)”. All that was pleasing to the apostle, but then there was the need of being rooted in love and built up in Christ. The wording is somewhat different from that in Ephesians, but this is in keeping with the state of the Colossians, for they were in danger of philosophy (that is, human learning) and vain deceit. These two things go together. Where there is the love of human learning or wisdom (which the word philosophy signifies) there is vanity and deceitfulness.
In truth learning enables us to deceive. Refined people are often extremely deceptive. They seek to convey the best kind of feelings outwardly, while in truth they are not there at all. They can put on skilfully a veneer that conceals the real state below. So philosophy and vain deceit go together. Learning too helps people to sin. Thus some become skilful in it. The world is marked by this at the present time. There is careful education as to how to be lawless, how to gratify the lawless desires of the flesh in the most skilful way to get the greatest results. Hence the Colossians needed this word from the apostle: “...Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving”. The point is “in him”, that is, in Christ, takes us out of the realm of the world altogether. As in Christ, you do not need philosophy. To say nothing of the evil of it, you do not need it. What the apostle means is the realm to which you have been brought as in Christ — rooted in Him, built up in Him. Your soul is maintained in the sense of your status in Christ You are built up in that relation. You are not allowing spiritual instruction to add to you as a man in this world. Many add them together — the spiritual intelligence with the status in this world, the money, the human education a man may have — all to make a certain show. That is very objectionable to God,
[p. 206] also damaging to the testimony. What saves us from it is, “... Rooted and built up in him ...” That is, it is exclusive; “in him” excludes all that is unsuited to Him, that is unnecessary in Him. In Him we have everything that is necessary, so that we deliberately refuse philosophy and vain deceit. Thus the further necessity of being “... stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving”. The status, dear brethren, “in Christ” is exclusive, in which you need nothing of this world. Anything of Egypt is a reproach there. Hence the instruction in Joshua 5 as to circumcision: through it the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. The full bearing of that type is set out in our chapter: “in whom also ye have been circumcised ... in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,(Colossians 2:11)”. Christ has judicially terminated the flesh in its totality in His vicarious sufferings, and now it is under reproach, it is abominated in the realm of Christ. Thus we are to be “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving”. This is a passage that is most essential to us in view of all that we have had before us as to the kind of pressure we are enduring, so that we may be outside the world and the mind of man, the world of learning and philosophy and vain deceit. We are outside of it all as “in Christ” and then established there and built up there. “Assured in the faith, even as ye have been taught”.