we looked at a lesson, a message,
as it was entitled, The Gardens of God, out of Psalms of Solomon. And we saw that the gardens of
God are, especially in Solomon, it's speaking of the people of
God, it's church. And these gardens, we looked
at the significance of them in the Bible, these gardens were
special areas selected, set aside for care and for maintenance.
And we see how the Lord has set us aside in electing love and
electing grace. And He's constantly maintaining,
He's trimming and doing these different things. Well, I don't
know if it was Spurgeon or who it was, but this morning we're
going to look at the Cedars of Lebanon. The Cedars of Lebanon. And my intent is again is to
show that the cedars of Lebanon are likened to the people of
God, the church of God. My intent is not to glorify us
by any means, but it's to go behind and see what's going on,
what the Lord has done for these trees in their natural state,
what he's done for these trees. And so that's what we're going
to look at. So if I get a little bit carried away, the first part
of this is going to be a botanical lesson, perhaps, and a scriptural
lesson. But I'm just fascinated by trees
and stuff like that. So my intent is to glorify Christ
every time I stand up here. But bear with me just a little
bit. The cedars of Lebanon were used
by David to build his house. That's in 2 Samuel 5. The cedars
of Lebanon were also used to construct the first temple and
then the reconstruction of the temple. Ezra chapter 3, 1 Kings
chapter 5. I'm just going to mention these
verses. It was also used in Solomon's palace, 1 Kings chapter 7. Now these cedars of Lebanon were
not natural to Jerusalem. So David and Solomon acquired
them from Haram, king of Tyre. And if you would look, if you've
got time, turn back to your Bible maps and the time of the kings
and you'll see Tyre and Sidon is up here. And then they were
floated down the Mediterranean and then they were carried over
by land to Jerusalem. It was over a 200-mile trek.
So King Haram, the King of Tyre, he had them floated to Joppa
and then over land to Jerusalem, and that's found in 1 Chronicles
14, 2 Chronicles 2. Now the wood itself was noted
for its aromatic qualities, like our red cedar is, resistant,
it was resistant to decay, and resistant to insects. And it
is said that the sap was also used in Egyptian mummification. So these are some of the things
that the cedar of Lebanon was used for scripturally. It was
very important, very important wood. And if you get time, look
them up on Google or wherever you want to look them up. They
are magnificent. What's left? What's left? They are magnificent
specimens. They're like, and I like them
too, are giant sequoias. They're that amazing. Some are over 1,000 years old.
They grow to 100 to 130 to 40 feet tall, 80 feet wide. The trunks on some of these monsters
are I think 35, 40 foot in DBH, that's diameter at breast height. They're just absolutely magnificent.
Now, we're talking about the cedars of Lebanon. For those
who care, the Latin is Cedrus Libani, L-I-B-A-N-I. It's not the Blue Atlas Cedar.
There are several other cedars spoken of in the scripture. We're
talking about a very specific tree. So let me turn, if you
would, or if you want to turn here, I'm going to read you a
description in Ezekiel 31. description of these stately
trees in Ezekiel 31 verses 3 through 9. Behold, the
Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches, with a shadowing
shroud, and of a high stature, And his top was among the thick
boughs. The waters made him great. The
deep set him up on high, with her rivers running round about
her plants, and set her little rivers unto all the trees of
the field. Therefore his height was exalted
above all the trees of the field. And his boughs were multiplied,
and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters.
When he set forth, all the fowls of heaven made their nests bows and under his branches did
all the beasts of the field bring forth their young and under his
shadow dwelt all great nations. Thus was he fair in his greatness
and in the length of his branches for his root was by great waters. The cedars in the garden of God
could not hide him. The fir trees were not like his
boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches, nor
any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty."
Now this just describes, he's speaking of particular Assyrians,
but this is describing the cedar of Lebanon. So, this is what
we're going to look at. I want us to note this morning,
if you're already there, Psalms 104, and verses 16 and 17, but
mainly verses 16. The trees of the Lord are full
of sap. The cedars of Lebanon, which
He hath planted, where the birds make their nests, as for the
stork, the fir tree, are her house. The trees of the LORD
are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which the LORD hath planted."
Isaiah 61 Verses one through three, the
spirit of the Lord God is upon me, speaking of Christ, because
the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
meek. He has set me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and
the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. This is the This is the precedence. This is the go before. Then you
have to appoint. Who's appointing? God the Father
through the Lord Jesus Christ. To appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness. the planting,
the planting of the Lord, that God might be glorified. This is what I'm trying to say.
We are like these cedars of Lebanon. We are planted by God. We are planted by grace and grace
alone. Now in your mind's eye, You think
of these majestic trees. We've seen pictures of the giant
sequoias, the General Sherman. They've got them named. Think of a similar type of tree,
but this is a tree of leaven. It's a little different characteristics.
But think of that in your mind. We, his church, then are likened
unto these cedars of leaven. The first thought, the first
point, these cedars are totally under the care and cultivation
of God. Now, this has changed in this
day and age because these cedars of Lebanon are, they're in danger. They're in danger. So men are
taking the seeds and they're planting them and you can buy
them. There's one in Arkansas, there's one out at the University
of Princeton. They're in the United States,
but they're under man's cultivation. But I'm talking about this natural
grove. It's like a 25 acre site that's left of virgin timber.
That's untouched by man. And so too, those who call upon
the name of the Lord in truth and in righteousness, the grace
of God has done everything. It's untouched. See what I'm
saying? It's untouched. These cedars, these cedars of
Lebanon are totally under the care and cultivation of God.
Because it says, which he hath planted, were called trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord. This is pure, unadulterated,
free, sovereign grace. You go to this place in Lebanon,
which I would recommend, because I don't know how many miles north
of Beirut. We looked, oh, I'm going to go
there. I don't think so. There's this, I think it's a
21 or 25 acre site, and they're virgin timber. Now man didn't,
I don't even care if it's a thousand years, there's 1,500 years. He
didn't plant those things. This is natural. This is natural. As I said, unadulterated, free
sovereign grade. There was no grafting of this
site or this tree as it is in the scripture. There's no grafting
by man. There's no hybridization from
man. And there's certainly no aftercare required through maintenance. You just go, like I think there's,
out towards Piedmont, there's a Virgin's section of timber.
I think it's a church camp. But it's, you go and there's
a sign there that says, uncut timber. That just happened by
God's grace. That happened by God's grace.
Man has nothing to input. are as these cedars are free
born through the grace of God secured by the bleeding and dying
sacrifice of our Redeemer for our sins. He by himself has plowed
the earth, he set the good seed, water from heaven, and nourished
us just like these cedars, untouched by man. We had nothing to do
with our salvation, our justification, our righteousness, sanctification,
etc. We received what God has placed within the fleshly heart
unto newness of life. If we put the least scent of
human culture upon this pure work of grace, we pollute it. Two examples. Remember in Kings,
we talked about months ago, preached a message on the stones that
were prepared. They prepared the stones and
then they brought them for the temple. Those stones on no hammer,
it says no hammer, no chisel. No work of man. When it got to
the temple, they were, they were, it was ordained, preordained
how those should sit. And then there's this guy named
Uzza, or Uzza, however you want to pronounce it, and the ark,
when they were bringing the ark back, and David was dancing and
getting, you know, his wife Micah said, you know, you're making
a fool of yourself. In 2 Samuel chapter 6, they're
bringing that ark back, on a cart driven by oxen. And the oxen
stumbles and he puts his hand up to steady the ark. And what happened to him? Dead. Killed. If we add or take away
from the work of God in salvation, and we really can't do it, I
mean we can't do it, we say we do it, we do it to our own peril. Just like these cedars of leaven,
they were planted by God himself. No free will here, no self-centered
religion, no man planting, but God planting. And that's my desire,
is to preach as I'm able, in this clumsy English language,
by these clumsy preachers, to preach as clear as possible to
get myself out of the way. So you have a clean, clear look
of Christ, and your children have a clean, clear look at Christ. And they see themselves, and
they ask for mercy. No man in here, yes God, yes
He uses the preaching of truth, He uses His means, but even these
means without the Spirit of grace will come to naught. The wind
blows where it wills. God spoke and said, let there
be light, and there was light. And basically, we preach the
gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. Christ doing and dying,
not trying, but doing and dying. We preach His sufficiency. We
preach His excellency. We preach His righteousness.
And it basically hems the center of the corner. What must I do
to be saved? What must I do to be saved? made
a comment, as far as people thinking they're too sinful, I haven't
heard, I've never heard that. I mean, really, I've never heard
anybody, and I read the Puritans and people like that, I've never
heard, to me, say, I'm too sinful to be saved. Now, I take that
back. The person was already a believer
and didn't know it. But as far as, like my older
brother, he says, When I think I need God, I'll come. And I
said, you'll never come. You'll never come. So God in
love and discriminant, distinguishing mercy said, plant that withered,
worthless, sinful, unholy branch or seed. And it grew. You remember in Romans 11, I
love this passage, we are grafted contrary to nature. That's us. We're grafted contrary to nature.
And then in John, that's 15.5, he says, without me, you can
do nothing. I mean, really, without him,
we can do nothing. We think we've got the world
by the tail. We think we've got this and we've
got that. Well, a few trials and a few sicknesses and a few
things knock us down. And then we don't get up as quick.
And then we don't get quite as cocky. But even these things
will not show a sinner his need of salvation. He must need to
hear the truth, the truth of the gospel, Christ being crucified. Secondly, we, like these cedars,
are not dependent upon man for our maintenance. Now, this place,
if you look at it, it's UNESCO. It's UNESCO. It's a world site
sanctuary. I don't see any water pipes running
out there. Okay, this is a little seedling.
We're going to water this. We'll throw a little fertilizer. Like
I said, they do different things now. But it's been standing there
like the giant sequoias or redwoods. They've been there unaided, unassisted,
unmaintained by man. These trees in nature are totally
maintained by God's sustaining grace. Just like us. Totally
sustained. No man initiated pruning, no
watering, no fertilization, no lightning rods set up to try
to, and they do that with real heritage trees. God brings the
rain in his own time. God prunes and grows these precious
trees in his sight, and he'll do this by wind or by lightning
or by any other trial or manner that please him. One thing about
trees, is you see the upper portion, but the bottom underneath the
ground is just as important, the root. And you say, well,
these trees, the wind is blowing. Well, that's strengthening. There's
a reason there. We don't want to stop the wind.
It's going to blow the roof off, or we'll lose some shingles.
But these things are vitally important for tree health. So
this is what God, and he says in our text that these trees
are full of sap, full of life. of life. Truly, Songs of Solomon. Turn to Songs of Solomon chapter
4. Songs of Solomon chapter 4 and
verse 7. Now this is speaking of Thou
art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee. There's no spot in thee. There's no spot, nothing worth
of our works are shaping or shifting a man upon the work of grace.
Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, therefore I will not want. We
don't want, he says the righteous want, they don't need any, they
lack anything, any good thing. We love one another and we help
one another and we iron sharpening iron, but we rely totally and
solely upon Jehovah God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not
put our trust in man. We're not, we do these things,
we partake of the means of grace, we come in fellowship. I'm not
saying you don't come You know, you're going to be by yourself
and without the church's help, we help one another, we encourage
one another. But even in this, we realize growth comes from
Him. We say as Paul in Colossians
2, rooted and built up in Him, rooted and built up in Him, by
Him and because of Him. And in these trees, these cedars
of Lebanon, in this site, there's no protective barriers on these
natural trees of Lebanon. There's no shelter from the storm
or from snowy winds. As I said, no lightning rods.
Therefore, we owe nothing, they owe nothing to their protection
from man. It's the same can be said. We
encourage one another, we help one another. If we can, you know,
we have a spare bedroom or open house or we encourage one another
to help one another. But when it comes down to it,
we know our hope only comes from Him. And that's how our Lord
will design it. God is our strong tower, the
Scripture says, our rock of defense. He's the city of refuge. And when we're old and gray-headed,
we shall look back over our entire life and acknowledge with adoring
and lovely praise and thanksgiving that God has kept us and watered
us and fed us all along. All along. What God has begun,
He will perform. He says in another place, now
unto Him that is able to keep us from falling. I remember my
good friend Tommy Robbins, pastor down in Sylacauga, where Larry
Chris is now, And we went several times with
he and his wife to Gulf Shores. And I remember we used to say,
there's nobody that can appreciate the creation like the believer.
And that's what I'm trying to say. You look at these magnificent
trees, and I'm wanting us to look behind those magnificent
trees. Because man, they just come with
a chainsaw and they're gone. Now, these cedars, just look
them up if you would. Like I said, that Onesco World
Heritage Site when you get home. There's several things about
these and there's several things I want to bring in relation to
us. These trees, even if you don't like trees,
you can't help but to look at these magnificent, majestic trees. They are grown all to the praise
and glory of God. They are simply majestic. And
we, if there's anything good in us, we owe everything to the
grace of God in Christ. How can an insignificant twig
or sapling turn out to be so regal, so lovely, so honorable? David says, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. I want us to turn
to Ezekiel 16. I love this passage. This is
what I'm trying to say, Ezekiel 16. The word is coming to the prophet,
chapter, verse one, Ezekiel 16. He says, cause Jerusalem to know
her abominations. And that's what the preaching
of the gospel does. It causes us to know our abominations.
Our birth and our nativity is of the land of Canaan, that's
not good. Thy father was an Amorite, thy mother a Hittite. Mixed marriage,
these two, it's like can anything good come out of Nazareth? It's
spoken with jeer, with contempt. As for our nativity and the day
that we were born, born in sin as we heard this morning from
Nathan, the navel was not cut, not washed in water. to supple
thee, thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. No,
I pitied thee to do any of these things to you, to have compassion,
but we were cast out in the open field to the loathing of our
person in the day that we were born." That is every one of us
here this morning. But, but, God in Christ, enabled
by the Holy Spirit, when I passed by thee I saw thee polluted in
thine own blood. I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thine own blood, live, live." Verse 7, He caused us to multiply
as the butter of the field, increased and waxed great. Verse 8, when
He passed by thee, He looked upon us, behold, our time was
a time of love, John 3.16, there you go right there. It's not
what everybody says, but we understand this. It's a time of love, His
love, His sovereign, predestinating, ordaining, discriminatory,
distinguishing love. He spread His skirt over us.
He covered our nakedness. Verse 9, He washed us with water.
Then verse 10, He clothed us. Verse 11, he decked us with ornaments.
Verse 12, he put a jewel on our forehead. Verse 13, we were decked
with gold and silver, and raiment of fine linen and silk, embroidered
work. Thou didst eat fine flour and honey and oil, and thou wast
exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
Here's this scrawny sap, this scrawny seedling. And I know enough about gardening
that there's times that Melinda's gotta be with me because, especially
in our butterfly garden, I'm like, well that's a weasel, no,
that's a flower. But when they're little, I get
to round up to them or I'll just yank them out. So she has to
make sure I don't do that. You look at these, the southern pine, when it's
in its post-germination stage, It's called a grass, because
it looks like a tough a grass. And if you don't know, you're
just going to pull it. It looks like nothing. We're nothing.
So how are those who endure to the end, the same shall be saved.
How are we going to endure to the end? Oh, by coming to church more,
by praying more, By thinking positive thoughts, by little
Norman Vincent Peale, all this kind of stuff, no. By the grace
of God. Grace has sought me this far, grace
will lead me home. Verse 14 is what I'm trying to
say. And thy renown, speaking of the church, went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my, God's
grace, my comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord
God." We don't deserve this. If we
deserved it, it wouldn't be called mercy. It wouldn't be called
grace. My, oh my. Secondly about these
cedars, they are always growing until death. You can get what
they call an increment bore, bore those things, pull them
out, use iodine substitute or iodine type of substance and
you can see the growth rings and sometimes you got to look
with a microscope but you can see and I remember going to different
heritage places, world site places, where they had like a huge cross
section. And they got like the Civil War,
and they got Lincoln's Inauguration, and they got these different
things. They got them there. Always growing, year after year,
decade after decade. Isn't that like the believer?
We shall always be growing in grace until he calls us home. Perhaps we'll be more settled
then, or more steadfast, or more immovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, says Paul. Psalms 92. Psalms 92, verses
12 through 15. The righteous shall flourish
like a palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar of
Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat
and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He is my
rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. You see, we are what
we are, as Paul says, by the grace of God. We don't owe anything
to self or to man. Thirdly, these cedars of Lebanon
do not grow everywhere. And especially now, the sites
are really getting small. There's a mountain range in this
Onesco site. They do not grow everywhere.
Select specific geographical locations. If we're believers,
I believe we are found where his gospel is. where the truth is, where other
believers are. Like it says in Acts, they sold
everything they had and they continued steadfast, continued
steadfast in the apostles, doctrine, breaking bread, singing hymns. Don't look in churches where
the gospel is not preached. Once they've heard the truth,
We can't abide. He says, my sheep hear my voice
and they follow me. And another, they will not follow. Lastly, these cedars of Lebanon
are evergreen. They are evergreen. The believer,
he may be as a bruised reed or as a smoking flask. God's graces
may be at a low ebb within the soul. You know, that's why we've
got to withhold judgment. You look at somebody and it's
like, what? I remember Marvin Stoniker saying this, and I agree,
he said, don't ever say, I would never do that, because as soon
as you say that, you're going to do it. So we withhold, you
know, maybe it's just a brother who's explained to me a lot. I'm not even going to, you explain
to me, because I can't explain it. Righteous lot. These cedars of Lebanon, they
don't grow everywhere. But they are evergreen. And the
grace in the soul may be at a low ebb. But we are in Him and have
life, eternal life, and life evermore. I like this story. I think it
came from Spurgeon or somebody and I'll tell it. I like it. There was a father and son who
were walking home from church. The father was the father and
the son was, he was little. He was in Bible class. And then
he asked, he said, what did you talk about in Bible class, daddy?
And he said, we talked about the Holy Spirit. You got to think
like a kid. And the son said, looking up
to his dad, you know, holding his hand, said, well, what was,
what is, tell me about the Holy Spirit. And he was explaining
to him the scripture of the Holy Spirit. And all the boy heard
is he said, so the Holy Spirit is in you. He says, yeah, the
Holy Spirit is in me. So he's taking measure of his dad. And
he looks at himself, he says, well, if the Holy Spirit was
in me, he'd stick out all over. That's right. That's right. He has made us to differ. Now,
there's any given time you walk down and look at two people You
can't tell her a believer, but out there, you walk over and
you start having a conversation like in Pilgrim's Progress. They
had a lot of people jumping over and doubting and, you know, the
deceiver, the hypocrite, and all these people coming in and
they start talking. And they said, you know, he's just fainting. He's fainting. These Cedars,
they're evergreen. And we may have, we may struggle.
We don't know what we're going through. But we, we have life. And He says to all who have called
upon Him in truth, in Psalms 138 verse 8, the believer says,
He will perfect that which concerns me. So as this is going on, as
we're like that old guy in Silver Dollar City sitting in that corner
whittling, what are you doing? It looks like a stick. But come
back in a month, that's starting to take shape. So in the process,
we gather together, support one another, encourage one another
to grow in the grace of God, support missionaries or whatever
we need to do. But let us be sure that He will perfect that
which concerns us. And the believer, you ask any
person who understands the gospel, They desire to be more like Christ. So when you look at a cedar of
Lebanon, just smile and think. That's the Lord's handiwork.
To God be the glory. Matt, would you close us please?