WILL YOU FALL TOWARDS THE SOUTH?
WILL YOU FALL TOWARDS THE SOUTH?
Ecclesiastes 11:3; Luke 13:6-9; 1 Peter 2:24; Revelation 2:7
The reference to trees in each of these verses will not have escaped your notice and I would like to use them just by way of illustration. God teaches us many things in the creation. Every feature of creation is intended to teach us something and trees are no exception. An interesting thing about a tree is that it speaks of life, it speaks of growth, it speaks of beauty and productivity. If you go back to Eden when God planted the garden, the first reference to trees says that He planted trees and they were “pleasant to the sight”, Gen.2:9. Before it says anything about what they do, that they produce fruit or food, it says that they were “pleasant to the sight”; that means that they are to be observed. They are there for observation by man, and God would teach us that we learn from the trees, among other things.
Not that I want to speak too much about trees; I want to speak to you about Jesus. That is what I am here for, that is what our brother asked me to do – to come and preach the gospel and that gospel is not about trees, it is about Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is interesting to use things sometimes by way of illustration. The Lord Jesus, as is well known from the gospels, drew extensively from creation. He spoke very extensively about various features of creation. So did Solomon, probably the most prolific writer of the Old Testament; he spoke of many things. He wrote many proverbs, at least three thousand and one thousand and five songs. It says, “And he spoke of the trees, from the cedar-tree that is on Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall”, 1 Kings 4:33. He goes on to speak about beasts and cattle and fish and birds – all these things Solomon speaks about, and they are all there for our learning.
The tree spoken of here in Ecclesiastes, a tree that falls, is a type of a person like you and me, man in responsibility. It speaks of how we stand in relation to the grace of God. In Luke 13, there is a tree that is not bearing fruit; that also represents man in responsibility. These two trees refer to ourselves. When we come to Peter, he makes a very touching reference to the cross of Christ. He says “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”. Now Peter had a reason for using that word. He might have said ‘who bore our sins on the cross’, and so Jesus did, but Peter says He “bore our sins in his body on the tree”. Then John in Revelation speaks about the tree of life. Who is the tree of life but Jesus! And He is in the paradise of God; that is Christ where He is now in the presence of God. That is the gospel, friend, that there is a Man in heaven and the glory of God is shining and the gospel is towards all men. Thank God it includes us. Is that not wonderful? The gospel that is towards all men includes even us here! Is that not marvellous? I think that is wonderful.
The clouds, it says here, “be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth”. Now clouds generally in scripture and rain generally in scripture speaks of blessing, God’s blessing. I know He used clouds judicially in the flood but He did it once and once only, and He said to Noah, I will never do it again (Gen. 9:11); it had served its purpose. But characteristically in scripture, the clouds and the rain are there for blessing. Remember in Genesis chapter 1, on the second day of creation, when God began to bring in light and order after the earth had become waste and empty, it says that He made an expanse which He called Heavens. That is, there were waters, and this heaven was to be “a division between waters and waters” (Gen.1:6); there was that extra reservoir of blessing for man. What a God He is! The heavens and the earth – there they were. The earth had been affected by the emptiness that had come in and darkness covered the face of the deep, but the heavens were not affected. God had made the heavens and the earth and then it goes on to say, “And the earth was waste and empty” (Gen.1:2). But then in view of that, God said ‘I am going to bring in an extra resource of blessing for mankind’.
And so God did that and He says here, “If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth”. That is the testimony of the gospel. Dear friends, the clouds are full of rain today, there is a Man whose work is finished, and His work of redemption on Calvary’s cross has been completed to the glory of God. He is there at God’s right hand, raised from among the dead and exalted, and God’s clouds are full of rain, full of blessing. That is the glad tidings coming down to mankind, involving feeling and without reserve, without distinction, without respect of persons. Whoever it is, rich or poor, high or low, God’s glad tidings and His grace are full of wondrous blessing and God can do that; they are the glad tidings of the blessed God. You enjoy the gospel, I enjoy the gospel, but I say it reverently, God enjoys the gospel, the glad tidings of His Son, His own Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. What a Saviour Jesus is!
Now here is this tree, standing there. It says, “and if a tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be”. That brings up not only the wondrous grace of God but it brings up your responsibility and mine. What result is there from this wondrous downpour of divine grace? We had that this morning, “When from the sunshine, after rain, the green grass springeth from the earth”, 2 Sam.23:4. There is a response, the green grass springs up. I wonder if there is green grass springing up in your heart and mine, some fresh appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ, that blessed Man in resurrection? But here is this tree. It is not knocked down, it is not pulled down. Luke tells us that the axe is laid to the root of the tree (Luke 3:9), and Job tells us that a tree is cut down and he says “if it be cut down, it will sprout again”, Job 14:7. But there is nothing of that here, it just falls. That is, it is its own action. You determine your own destiny. Every man determines his own destiny. You either fall to the south, that is you fall in line with the favour of God and the acceptance of Jesus, or you fall to the north, which represents the judgment of God. And it says, “in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be”.
Do you remember these two men in Luke 23? They were guilty, bad and wicked men, and they were receiving the due reward of their deeds. They were put on crosses by the Roman authorities, one was on this side and one was on that side, guilty men, and there in the middle was a Man who had never sinned in His life, a blessed, sinless Saviour. One man, Luke says, “spoke insultingly” to Jesus saying, “Art not thou the Christ? Save thyself and us”, Luke 23:39. There was no answer to that man; the Lord Jesus did not answer him. The other man said, “but this man has done nothing amiss” and he appealed to Jesus, “Remember me, Lord”. He received an immediate answer. That man fell to the south, but alas, the other man, as far as we know, fell to the north: “there it shall be”.
Do you remember Pilate? What favour that man had, a favour beyond any living man ever. Pilate had in his presence the Son of God there before him, that lowly inoffensive Prisoner, brought to him by wicked hands and placed before this ungodly man. There Jesus was, and Pilate did not know that he was in the presence of One who could have been his Saviour. Despite what the Lord Jesus said to him and despite what his wife said to him, bearing testimony that Jesus was a righteous Man (Matt.27:19), Pilate dismissed Him, he scourged Him. Think of that! He scourged the holy Lamb of God, and then he washed his hands of Him! As far as we know, that man too fell to the north: “there it shall be”.
Do you remember another man going along the road to Damascus, full of bitterness, full of cursing, full of murder in his heart? Saul was determined to stamp out the name of Jesus and everyone who bore that Name; he was determined to do violence to them, but “suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven” and there was a voice and he fell. That is what it says, “and falling on the earth he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?”, Acts 9:4. Saul fell to the south. If you want to fall to the south, confess Jesus as Lord. There is wondrous blessing in just saying ‘Lord’ to Jesus. It is the way of salvation; it is the only way. I do not know any other way, there is no other way other than turning in repentance and bowing your knee to Jesus and saying Lord to Jesus. That is the way of salvation. Oh friend, fall to the south while these clouds are full, while the blessing is there, while it is available. Think of what that is, the wondrous, glorious grace of being able to fall to the south, to come into all the wondrous blessing and fulness of what belongs to the warmth of the love of Christ as shining from glory. That is the south, God’s favour – that is what it means.
Now we come to Luke, we come to a different kind of picture because here is a man with a fig tree and he has planted it in his vineyard and he says, ‘I would like some fruit from this tree’. I suppose it is not unreasonable to expect a fruit tree to bear fruit. God is not unreasonable; He has given us life and health and being. It is not unreasonable that God, the One in whose hand our breath is, should look for some result from you and me. That is not unreasonable, that is God’s right, His right as a Creator. It is also His right as a Saviour God that there should be an answer in your heart and mine to the blessed work of Christ. Here He is, represented by this man who has been coming three years to look for fruit. I suppose that has a dispensational setting; it refers to the Lord Jesus in His movements here amongst men and especially in relation to Israel. There had been these three years of the life of Jesus, and I suppose God was looking for a result from the nation of Israel, but then He is looking for a result from you and me. He might say to you, ‘Here I am, come here’ but there is no fruit. “And he said to the vinedresser, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree and find none: cut it down; why does it also render the ground useless?”. What a thing that is! The earth, the ground should be yielding for God, but because of the hardness of my heart and my lack of repentance, I am rendering the very ground I am on useless. That is what God is saying. It is severe, it is not light; God’s feelings enter into this. He says “why does it also render the ground useless?”.
But the vinedresser, who represents Jesus, says “Sir, let it alone for this year also”. Oh how wondrous this day of grace is! You know, the Lord Jesus enters personally into the preaching and He would plead with you and He would dig. That is what the preaching is about, to turn us over, dig and get in under the surface so that there might be something awakened in your conscience and in your heart and in my conscience and in my heart, so that the work of this blessed Saviour might find an access. The vinedresser said, “I shall dig about it and put dung”. How often has the Lord Jesus dug about you, friend? How many preachings have you sat under? How many diggings have there been, going round and round about you, God approaching you from every angle, presenting Jesus to you, presenting the terms of His gospel from every side? You cannot say you have missed it; it is there, it is all around you, like the light that shone round Saul of Tarsus. God encircled him in view of his blessing and that is the digging. The vinedresser says, I will dig, I will dig about it. There are no spare words in scripture, they all mean something. I will dig about you, go all around you and he said “I shall … put dung”, speaking to you of Jesus’ sufferings. The Lord Jesus was the One who suffered on Calvary’s cross. I think that if we let the Lord speak to us, He would speak to us about Himself as the sin-offering. You get the dung in relation to the sin-offering (Exod.29:14). Its carcass was burned, and its blood was carried in. The sin-offering was offered, the precious blood was carried in to the very presence of God where the fragrance was, where the cloud of incense was over the mercy-seat. The blood was carried in there and sprinkled on the mercy-seat in the presence of that wondrous cloud of fragrant incense (Lev.16:14), and then sprinkled seven times on the floor in front of it.
Oh how blessedly God has been met in regard of the whole question of sin. Jesus on the cross, Jesus abandoned on that cross at Calvary and bearing the wrath of God against sin – that is the sin-offering – Jesus having to say “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matt.27:46. That was Jesus meeting the whole question of sin in all its load, in all its weight and in all its distance. How far He went. Where did that cry come from? What a distance! Who could measure the distance from where that cry came? “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. The precious blood of Jesus met the claims of God. In the type, the blood was taken into His presence. The blood on the mercy-seat was for God, the blood before the mercy-seat is for you and me to enter through wondrous grace and approach that mercy-seat, and prove the value and the power of that blood to wash away our sins and cleanse us in the sight of God.
But it also speaks in Exodus about the carcass of the sin-offering. It says that it was taken, it was carried out of the camp and it was burned. Everything was burned. That speaks about the total judgment of sin before the eye of God through the death of Jesus. That cross – look at it, look at it, friend. Think of these three hours of darkness. Think of what was accomplished in these three hours, when our blessed Saviour had to say to God about our sins and about sin in all its principle, in all its power. Death reigned, it says, from Adam (Rom.5:14). Think of that! And Jesus had to say to that and He had to bear the whole weight of it. That is the sin-offering. The body of the bullock was carried out (Lev.16:27). It speaks of the total removal from the sight and presence of God of all that speaks of sin, and it was done in Jesus.
So the vinedresser, the Lord Jesus, was digging. Now I want to ask you, is there going to be fruit? He leaves it open here; he says “if it shall bear fruit”. That is the question, “if it shall bear fruit”. What is it going to be? You can provide the answer, I can provide the answer – Yes, there is going to be fruit. An answer to this blessed One, the Lord Jesus, who gave Himself, who endured all the wrath and suffering that entered into the meeting of the whole question of sin. Yes, there will be an answer. But then the vinedresser says “but if not”. Friend, “if not”; the day of grace will not go on for ever. The Lord Jesus will not close this day of grace, He will not close it; the time is in the Father’s hand, in the hand of God. Even here in this scripture, the vinedresser protects that. He says “Sir, let it alone for this year also, until I shall dig about it and put dung, and if it shall bear fruit – but if not, after that thou shalt cut it down”. It is a solemn thing to have to do with God. Noah did not shut the door of the ark; God shut that door. He will close this dispensation, but now there is opportunity to bear fruit.
Now, what does that mean? It means that you let your affections go out to this blessed Saviour. That is fruit! Let your affections go out to the Saviour. Say Lord to Him but let your affections come into it. Oh how blessed that is, and I think that is why Peter speaks about the tree. He would affect us by speaking of the tree. It says in Deuteronomy 21, “for he that is hanged is a curse of God” (v.23). Peter was appealing to the affections of those he wrote to, and to yours and mine, that the Lord Jesus in that precious body of His in which He came here to do the will of God, in which He displayed the love of God, in which He dispensed wondrous grace and mercy and goodness to mankind – that same body was the body in which He suffered on the tree. He became a curse; He was made a curse because He was crucified. That should touch our affections. This morning we remembered the Lord Jesus as we broke bread together. He said “This is my body which is given for you”, Luke 22:19. Now that same body which was here for the will of God was the body that the Lord Jesus gave for you and me; He said ‘I am giving it for you’. But the other side of that is that He gave it on the cross at Calvary. That is to affect us; we have to think about these things. The brother who gave thanks this morning referred to the Lord Jesus and what was in His body, the fulness of God was dwelling there, and dwells in Him where He is now. But then it was in Him when He was here: “for in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell”, Col.1:19. Think of that! A blessed Man here in which the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell. What a blessed Saviour He is, carrying the whole wealth and blessing and glory of God Himself and the whole scope of the Godhead and all its wonder – there it was in Jesus, in that precious body.
That is the body that Peter refers to here. He says “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”. Does it not raise something in your heart and mine in response to that blessed Saviour, that His body, that precious body, so precious to Him, was the body in which He bore our sins. He appreciated that body. He says to God prophetically “but thou hast prepared me a body”, Heb.10:5. That is, He understood the divine thought about what His body would be, and that was the body in which He bore our sins, yours and mine. Not only does the idea of ‘curse’ come into that, and a solemn, solemn thing that is, but also the side of feeling. Jesus felt what these sins of yours and mine were. It was not just an act of power. Being who He was, He could have removed sin, He could have removed it by a word, He could have removed it by His power. But no, He felt it in His body. A real blessed Man, He felt what sin was and what sins were. Not His own, there never, perish the thought, never was a sin of His own, not one. He was a blessed sinless Saviour but because He was a Man, God dealt with Him as a Man and laid on Him the sins of man, and that includes your sins and mine as believers. I am speaking now to you, I trust, as a believer, so that you can say that He bore my sins in His body on the tree. He gave His life for all men, He bore the judgment, but friend, it is only as you trust and respond in this fruit of your heart, yielding some fruit in obedience and submission to Christ and in love for Him, that you can say, ‘He was my Substitute, He bore my sins in His body on the tree’. Blessed Saviour! Let our hearts go out to this glorious One – how great He is!
Then Peter says “in order that, being dead to sins, we may live to righteousness”. That is, there is a change, a change in our lives, a change in a direction of our lives, a change in our objectives, a change in our behaviour, a change in our tastes, a change in everything. We may now live to righteousness. That is, we are not to live to ourselves, but to righteousness. We are to live according to what would please the Lord Jesus and that is a great matter. That is Peter’s whole intention in writing to these saints of the dispersion, that they should understand that wherever they were, they were to be pleasing to Christ. So Peter says “we may live to righteousness”; that is, you please the Lord Jesus. Are we set for Himself and for His things as an answer in fruit and an answer in righteousness to this blessed One? Is He not worthy of it? Is it not so that He and He alone is worthy of our allegiance and our love and our affection? Of course He is! That is what Peter says. You come into the most wondrous blessing. Read these epistles of Peter; the things that he brings you into are marvellous. You start coming to Jesus and it never stops. Peter goes on and on and on, describing the wonderful things that Christianity brings you into. Into the very presence of God Himself and into the testimony here, into the reality of what it is to be a representative of Christ here as living to righteousness in appreciation of the One who has met every claim of God and bore our sins in his body on the tree.
Now in Revelation, this is a word to the overcomer which we often speak of. An overcomer is simply someone who pleases the Lord; that is what an overcomer is. This address is to the assembly at Ephesus, the place where the greatest light of God had been. The greatest favour had been known by Ephesus, but what the Lord Jesus says to them is that “thou hast left thy first love”, Rev.2:4. Would not Peter help us to regain that first love? As we think about the way in which the Lord Jesus bore our sins in His body on the tree, would that not rekindle first love? Oh friend, there is nothing like love for Jesus. Your salvation does not lie in what you know, it does not lie in whether you know the scriptures back to front, it does not lie in whether you know the terms of the gospel in their exactitude. It lies in your living, blessed link with Jesus and that link is there in the power of the Spirit. Paul says “ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”, Eph.1:13. Think of that! That is part of the gospel, that there is this gift, the wondrous gift of the Holy Spirit of God. That is how our first love can be held in all its brightness and retained. The assembly in Ephesus had lost their first love because they did not make way for the Spirit. That is the public situation; we are all part of that outwardly, but for you and me, dear friend, there is this blessed opportunity to hear the words of Jesus, listen to His appeal. He would say to you that you are to overcome – that is, let your love flow out and be true to it, be true to that love for Jesus. Love will find its own expression; love is not a selfish thing, it loves to express itself. If I love the Lord Jesus, I will want to show that I love Him. That is the way that it works and that is what He is saying to these Ephesians. He says ‘You once showed Me that you loved Me, but you are not showing it now’.
Let me ask everyone here – are we all showing that we love the Lord Jesus? Are we doing the things that please Him? Are we responding to His own desire? Does that body of His mean anything to you when you think of what He said, “This is my body which is given for you”, Luke 22:19. Does that awaken something in our hearts that makes us want to respond to Him? That is what He is saying here. He says ‘If you overcome, let it have its own expression’. He says “I will give him to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God”. There is one thing about the tree of life that is always true of it: wherever you read of it, it is in its own environment. It is never in an alien environment. The tree of life is never presented in Scripture in an alien environment. It was there in the garden of Eden at the beginning, the tree of life in the midst of the garden was there in its own environment. Here it is in the paradise of God. That speaks of Christ where He is in the presence of God and when you come to the millennial day it is in the midst of the river in the city; it is in its own environment. That represents the Lord Jesus as available to you and me and the knowledge of Him, not only – and I say this carefully – as a blessed Saviour given up for us on Calvary, but as a glorified Man at God’s right hand. So He says “I will give to him to eat of the tree of life”. What wondrous satisfaction! That is eternal food; we will eat of that tree of life eternally, we will feed on Christ eternally. We will not be overcomers up there, for we will not need to be overcomers up there. But He is saying to the overcomer, that is to you and me in this present time scene, you need to be an overcomer down here. He is saying to us down here, ‘I will give you an eternal portion now, in Myself’; “the tree of life which is in the paradise of God”. Wonderful! Every claim is settled. The paradise of God suggests a supreme area of joy, and satisfaction, and peace, and rest – all these things enter into the paradise of God and Jesus is there. He is the Centre of it and He is food for us.
I trust the Lord will bless the word, for His name’s sake.
Preaching of the gospel, Bo’ness
10 June 1993
Alastair McBride
Edited and published monthly by John Brown and Paul Martin
Additional copies are available, free of charge, by emailing
notesofministry@virginmedia.com or paul@nofm.co.uk
36 Laverock Park Linlithgow EH49 6AT
Printed by Crystal Print, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ