Alright brethren, let's go back
to Psalm 92. We were here Thursday a week ago. In this psalm, the psalmist is
giving thanks to the Lord and he's been describing the wicked
flourishing in the world. You know, throughout the week,
you're surrounded by worldly men, and it's a dog-eat-dog world,
and you see wicked men appear to flourish and prosper, boasting
in their power, boasting in their riches, spreading themselves
like a green bay tree, while God's people don't appear to
prosper in the world, afflicted, chastened of the Lord, lowly
in the world, often go through some some very difficult trouble. But then the psalmist comes into
the Lord's house and he sees things as they really are. The
wicked are but grass which spring up only to be cut down. But here's
the contrast. In the Lord's house, he beholds
God's people planted by the Lord, flourishing, but it's in an entirely
different way than the world. He says in verse 12, the righteous
shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar
in 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, that is green, to show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no
unrighteousness in Him. Our text speaks of a different
flourishing from that of the carnal man. This is spiritual
flourishing. This is in the house of the Lord
by the blessing of the Lord. It's not like this in the world.
The Lord said, I've spoken these things that in me you might have
peace, in the world you shall have tribulation. In Christ,
in his house, with his people, under his gospel, we have peace.
But in the world, you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world. So this is an entirely different
flourishing than what the world is enjoying. I want to show you
first the planting, then the flourishing, and then the reason.
Now here's the planting. He says those planted in the
Lord's house They're the planting of the Lord. Verse 13, those
that be planted in the house of the Lord, they're the planting
of the Lord. Every true believer is a tree
planted by God himself in God's garden, that is, in his house.
And God's the great husbandman. He's the one who did the planting.
In Isaiah 60, 21, he calls his people, the branch of my planting,
the work of my hands that I may be glorified. He said in Psalm
80 verse 15, The vineyard which thy right hand hath planted,
and the branch that thou made strong for thyself. Each of God's
children is a tree planted by God's free and sovereign electing
grace. A tree that's been planted by
God's free and sovereign electing grace. He said in Deuteronomy
7, 6, and this is what he says of his house, listen. Thou art
a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. This is what it is to be a holy
people, is to be chosen of God, separated out, distinguished
by God, to be His special people above all the people of this
world. And that's what you are, by God's divine electing grace. Free grace means it's not based
on any merit in us. Sovereign grace means it's God's
choice. God's choice. And each believer
is a tree planted by effectual redemption. A tree planted by
the effectual redemption of our Lord Jesus. Verse 12 calls His
people the righteous. How do we become the righteous?
All His trees, all His saints are righteous. You know what
it is to be righteous? It's to be as God. To be as righteous as God, to
be as perfect, as holy as God. That's what it is to be righteous.
How do we get that way? In and by Christ Jesus, by the
work of His hands, by His faithfulness, by the faith of Christ. Isaiah
54, 7, He said, Their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord. That's pretty plain, isn't it?
Their righteousness is of Me. Isaiah 60, 21 says, Thy people
also shall be all righteous. It's not just so of some of them,
and it's not just so of part of each of them. They're all
made righteous by Christ, and each one of them are all righteous
in Christ. The branch of my planting, the
work of my hands, that I may be glorified. How did he do this? Our Lord Jesus came. the sinless
substitute, the perfect spotless Lamb of God as a man, and He
hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. That's how He did it.
That's how He did it. If we've been planted together
in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness
of His resurrection. We've been planted. And so our
glorying is in the Lord only. We only glory in the Lord. Why
do these preachers just keep preaching on Christ? And that's
what they preach. They just keep preaching Christ,
Christ, Christ, Christ is all. All you ever hear them preach
is Christ. Because to them Christ is all. And to His people Christ
is all. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord Now, did you get that? Isaiah 61.10, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. Why? For He hath covered me with
the robe of righteousness. The psalmist said in Psalm 71.16,
I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention
of Thy righteousness, even Thine only. That's why we preach Him. We only have one righteousness,
and we're only talking about one righteousness, and it's Him. I'll make mention of Thy righteousness,
Thine only. Thine only. That's why Paul said,
I want to be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. The faithfulness of Christ. The
doing and dying of Christ. The obedience of Christ. the
righteousness which is of God by faith. He provided the righteousness
for his people. That's his son. So we're planted
by divine election in his house, we're planted by effectual redemption,
and every believer is planted of the Lord by the Spirit of
God giving us spiritual life and regeneration. planted by
Him giving us life and regeneration. Our Lord said, that which is
born of the flesh is flesh. That's so the rest of our days.
And if we're never born from above, that which is born of
the flesh is only flesh. We saw it this morning in the
Pharisees. That's why they couldn't hear
anything the Lord said. That's why they rejected Him.
That's why they resisted Him and His people and called Him
a Samaritan and a devil and everything else. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh. Water can't rise above its source. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. So in every believer, born of
God the Holy Spirit, there's a new spirit, and then there's
an old man of flesh. Those that are made to receive
Christ, Scripture says, were born not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, born
from above. And he plants each of his trees
in the Lord's house, in the Lord's courts. That's what he says here.
Planted in the Lord's house, planted in the Lord's courts.
Well, that means we're planted in Christ our tabernacle. He's
our house. We're planted in Him. were planted
in the Lord's universal church, the universal house. That is
His elect in heaven and His elect in earth, the church of the firstborn,
of which Christ is the head. But here, specifically, He's
speaking of His local assembly where God has sent His gospel
in truth. were manifestly planted in his
house when we publicly confess Christ in believer's baptism.
Having been chosen of God, redeemed by Christ, born of His Spirit,
the believer confesses Christ publicly in believer's baptism.
He's been planted in the house of the Lord. And he identifies
with the Lord's people in church membership. saying, I want to
be one with this people, I'm identified with this people,
their Lord is my Lord, they're my people and I identify with
them. And he's going to be faithfully
attending the preaching of his gospel, persevering in faith
together with his people. Now this is the planting of the
Lord. In the world, the wicked flourish like the grass, only
to be cut down by the Lord. with those that be planted in
the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. He
beautifies his house by his planting. Listen to this from Numbers 24.5. How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob,
and thy tabernacles, O Israel. As the valleys are, they spread
forth as gardens by the riverside, as trees of lean aloes, which
the Lord hath planted as cedar trees beside the waters." That's
how he describes his house, his church. Spreading forth like
cedars and like trees of aloes. Now that's the planting. It's
all of the Lord. Now here's the flourishing. Verse
12. The righteous shall flourish
like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar in
Lebanon. All of God's trees, all of His
children are fruit bearing trees. Every one of them are. Every
one of them are. Jeremiah 11, 16, the Lord called
thy name a green olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit. In
Psalm 52, 8, David sings, I'm like a green olive tree in the
house of God. and all our fruits produced by
our Lord. All of it. He said in Hosea 14.8,
from me is thy fruit found. Remember our Lord said, you're
the branch, I'm the vine. Abide in me and I in thee. Because
as a branch can't bring forth fruit of itself, neither can
you bring fruit without me. We have to abide in Him. We're
filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ under
the glory and praise of God. I preached a message one time
titled, Organically Grown Believers. When you see that in a supermarket,
organically grown means there's nothing man-made that was used
to accelerate the growth. Nothing man-made was used to
kill the pests. Well, believers are born and
they're grown with nothing man-made. to make them grow faster, nothing
man made to kill the pest, only the pure seed of the Word of
the Gospel, only the pure water of life, only the pure son of
righteousness, by God giving the increase. That's how. That's
how. Let's see some of this comparison
to the palm tree. I'm going to spend most of my
time here on the palm tree. We'll speak a little bit about
the cedar in Lebanon. He says, verse 12, the righteous
shall flourish like the palm tree. Now this is not a palm
tree like you see down in Florida. This is a date palm. This is a date tree. They flourish
and they produce much fruit. The righteous shall flourish
like the date palm. The date palm grows in the purest
soil. It will not grow in a dry, dirty
soil, only in good soil by a river. That's where a date palm grows.
God's child is planted and rooted in the pure soil of Christ Jesus
and His unchanging love. We're planted in that pure soil.
By His grace, we grow up into Him in the fruit of faith and
love. Colossians 2.6 says, As you have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him,
rooted and built up in Him. established in the faith. That's
how you received Him, in the faith. Rooted and built up in
Him, and as you've been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Ephesians 3.17 says, Paul prayed
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being
rooted and grounded in love. rooted and grounded in love,
that you may be able to comprehend something of that love of Christ
which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with the
fullness of God. As a date palm is planted in
pure soil by a river of water, Christ's people are planted in
the soil of Christ Jesus and His unchanging love. He's the
river of life to whom our roots grow and up into whom we grow
by Him. When a date palm is young, it's
a very, very weak plant. So they plant three or four of
them together. So they may lean on one another
as they get taller and strengthen one another. And sometimes as
they're growing, they so intertwine that they grow up as one. That's a good picture of God's
trees. God doesn't plant us in isolation. He plants us together in His
courts. He plants us in His gospel church,
making us one with one another. And by doing so, producing the
fruit of love in His people, Christ makes us strengthen one
another. He makes us one with one another.
He makes us support and strengthen with the sure promises of our
Redeemer. That's what He teaches us to
do. He says, strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble
knees. Support the weak, He said. Ask
your brother. Ask your brother who's fallen,
who's hurting. He says, support them. Strengthen
their weakness. What are you going to strengthen
them with? What's he strengthening you with? This gospel of Christ
and the redemption he's accomplished and the power of his sovereign
grace reigning in his people. That's what he's going to strengthen
his people with. That's what they're going to strengthen one
another with. The day palm thrives under heavy
weights. It thrives under heavy weights.
They'll take weights and they'll hang it on a date palm. That's
an odd thing. They'll take weight and hang
it on a date palm because it makes the date palm grow taller
and stronger and straighter by hanging weights on it. The Lord sends trials to His
people that are heavy. He permits the devil to press
us down. Our own sin weighs us down. Wicked
men press us down. But you remember, the more Pharaoh
sent his taskmasters to make the burden heavier on the children
of Israel, you remember what happened? The more they grew
and multiplied. And that's what happens with
God's people. Trials are God's way of pruning His trees, fertilizing
His trees, putting weights upon His trees, so that all our strength
is Christ Jesus only. He's the only strength we have.
The only strength we have. We trust Christ, our only strength,
more, and it makes us less confident in self. When younger in the faith, We
find too much confidence in self. We look too much to self. So when times are good and we
see ourselves as faithful and fruitful, we just have full of
shirts and we just plump cocky sometimes. But when our trials
come, when sins beset us, when we fall flat in the mud, our strength languishes, And
you know what happens? Because we put all our confidence
in our strong faith and our fruit, we don't have any assurance.
It's gone. And it gets, that gets troubling. That gets troubling. So God,
He wisely, graciously sends the blasts of winter. And He strips
away our leaves. And that long hard winter may
be due to personal sin. It might be due to the cares
of the world. It might be due to prosperity.
And it's all due to a neglect of Christ. But this book teaches us to flee
from sin. Flee from this world. Flee from
the cares of this life. Flee from it. But those that
God has grown and is growing in grace, you know this. You know this. Our great husband
knows how to prune his trees and make us keep bearing fruit.
He knows how. We want to use miracle grow.
We want to use some sort of pesticide. And by doing that, we just become
the pests. He knows how to do it. He knows
how to do it. The winter is needful, the same
as the spring and the summer. He'll prune us, but he'll never,
ever cut us down. Get that? You know, he talked
about a teal tree, and he talked about the teal tree casting all
its leaves, and he was describing Israel. He was describing what
he was going to do with the whole nation. He said, they are going
to be like a tree in the winter, a tilled tree that all its leaves
are gone and it looks like it is totally dead. And he said, but in it there
is going to be substance. The holy seed is in it. You know
what that holy seed is? That is Christ. All that time
that Israel looked dead and looked like it was a dead tree, Christ
was coming through. the lineage of David, and God
was preserving them for that reason, and Christ came forth
into the earth. He was the substance. He was
the holy seed that kept God preserving them. And for every individual
believer, when you've cast your leaves and to all you appear
dead, like a dead tree, Christ is the holy seed in you that
is the life. and he won't cut you down. He's
going to make you grow. He's going to make you grow.
Lot had a long barren winter, but the substance of life was
in him. Christ was in Lot. David had a long barren winter,
but the substance of life was in David. Peter had a horrible
time of barrenness, but the substance of life was in him. He said,
as a teal tree and as an oak whose substance is in them when
they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance
thereof as Christ. He's the holy seed. He's that
incorruptible seed, that living Word that liveth and abideth
forever that's in the new man by which the new man lives so
that in that new man he's righteous and holy in and by Christ and
he cannot fall away. Remember that. These winter blasts
are necessary. The trees of the Lord's planting
must endure their winters to bear fruit. And the child of
God is always better off for it. Always. Believers restored from a fall
grow, even by the fall. Believers, when they're restored
from a fall, he said believers fall seven times. They'll be
restored. And they grow every time, even
from the fall. Even from the fall. They're necessary.
You know what He does? He causes our roots to stretch
to Christ. We were growing up, we were like
a... Can you just imagine a fruit
tree growing up? And a fruit tree looking at all
its fruit. Ah, look at all my fruit. I'm such a fruitful tree. And what is he not doing? He's
not looking at the sun from where all his fruit came. That's what
we get like. But when he sends the blast of
winter, you know what happens? Makes you look to him from whom
all your fruit is found. He makes your roots run deeper
to him. He makes you look only to him. And he makes you stop
looking to yourself. And every single trial is for
that reason. It's to grow us. to bear the
fruit of faith, to walk only by faith, looking only to Him, to be patient. He's working it. To patiently
wait on Him and to grow in hope. He's really fulfilling everything
He promised to me. That's what the tribulation,
worketh patience, experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed
because the love of God shall be brought in our hearts by the
Holy Ghost that's given to us. That's it. He's making you every
day trust Him more and have less confidence in the flesh. That's
what He's doing. That's the fruit. That is the
fruit. That is the fruit. There's one
more thing about the date palm. In Scripture, and I found this
to be such a beautiful picture. In Scripture, the branches of
the date palm were used to rejoice in the Lord and to declare His
victory in saving His people. You remember when He came riding
into Jerusalem on the Asses coach? You know what they had in their
hands? You know what they were waving in their hands? They were waving
date palm branches. And you know what they did with
those date palm branches? They put them down at His feet.
And they cried, Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel
that cometh in the name of the Lord. Those in glory, those robed
in the white robe of Christ's righteousness, you know what
Revelation 7 and 9 says they have in their hands? They have
date palms branches in their hands. And they're crying salvation
to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb.
God's saints are date palms due to Christ obtaining the victory
for us over sin, Satan, death, and hell. He's done that. That's
our gospel. That's our song. That's our Gloring
in Him, He obtained the victory. And as date palms, you know what
we do? We lay everything at His feet
and we bow to Him and worship Him. Everything. What about this comparison to
a cedar? I'm not going to go in much on
this. I'll just say a few things about it. He shall grow like
a cedar in Lebanon. Well, Psalm 104.16 says, The
trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which
he hath planted. That means the cedar is full
of oil. You've cut a cedar down before. You know how oily they
are. Full of oil. This Psalm just declared, The
Lord shall anoint us with fresh oil. Now listen to what they
said. I think we should read this.
Go to Isaiah 63. Isaiah 63. Now He says He is
going to anoint you with fresh oil. That means He is not just
going to anoint you one time. He is going to keep renewing
you with the oil. He is going to keep giving you
the oil. Now what is He giving you the oil for? He is going
to tell us a lot about this walk through this life right here.
Isaiah 61, look at verse 3. He gives us, He appoints unto
us that mourn in Zion. Here we are mourning. Why are
we mourning? Our sin, our enemies, our troubles. Is that just one
time? You just mourn one time? To give unto them beauty for
ashes, ashes represents repentance, dust and ashes, just being down
in the dust. He said to give them beauty in
the place of that. The oil of joy for mourning. The oil of joy for mourning.
The garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness that they
might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that
He might be glorified. You know what that means? It
means everything I just said. You're going to mourn. And He
said, I'm going to anoint you with fresh oil and you're going
to rejoice in Him. A little while, you're going
to mourn. I'm going to anoint you with
fresh oil and you're going to rejoice in Him. A little while,
you're going to mourn. He's going to anoint you with
fresh oil and you're going to rejoice in Him. It's going to
go on like this until there's no more mourning. till we awake
with His likeness, and there's nothing but joy. But why the
mourning? Why the mourning? So we keep
knowing the life is Him giving us the fresh oil. Him pouring
the oil in our vessel. That's the life. We look to Him,
not to us. But the Lebanon, the cedars of
Lebanon, they're full of sap, just like that branch in the
vine gets all the sap from the vine. We're getting all the oil
from Christ. all the oil from Christ. Of His
fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. And it never
runs out. It never runs out. Here's another
thing about a cedar. A cedar is never eaten by wood-boring
pests. They don't eat a cedar. Thermites
don't eat cedar. I'll restore to you the years
that the locusts have eaten, the canker worm and the caterpillar
and the palmer worm, my great army which I sent among you.
And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise
the name of the Lord your God, that it dealt wondrously with
you, and my people shall never be ashamed." That's God's promise.
You notice he said the caterpillar and the pomegranate worm, And
there's all pictures of our enemies. He said, I sent them. That's
my great army. I sent them to eat you up. Eat
up your righteousnesses. Eat up what you thought was your
fruit. Eat all that up for you. But then I'm going to restore
true fruit to you. I'm going to make you prosperous.
He won't let the pests eat his people. He won't let the wood
boring insects eat his cedars. He's going to keep you walking
in the... And then both the date palm and
the cedar are always green. They're always green. So are
those who trust in the Lord. They're going to always be green
by Him. You know how I talk to you about
Him blowing your leaves off? Not the leaves that He's made.
They're always green. The inner man's always green.
Just some leaves that we thought, and the fruit we thought we was
producing. That's what He's going to blow off. But the new man,
the inner man, we're talking about spiritual here. We're talking
about inwardly here. It's always green. Listen to
this, Jeremiah 17, verse 7, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the
Lord, whose hope the Lord is. There it is. There it is. He that hath the Son hath life.
Run the race set before you, looking to Christ Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is, for he shall be as a tree
planted by the waters, that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and
shall not see when heat cometh. But her leaves shall be green,
shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease
from yielding fruit. Takes some time to get to that
point right there, don't it? A tree doesn't just grow up overnight.
A tree doesn't just grow up and it's done. It takes some time.
It takes some time. When the year of drought comes
and it seems like everything is hopeless, it says those that
are trusting in the Lord and hoping in the Lord, they're going
to be like a tree planted by the water. They're not going
to be anxious when the drought comes. They've seen the drought
before. And they know God's going to
provide. And they know He's not going to dry it up. He's going
to keep giving the water. And so they keep waiting on Him. And so that's where He's growing
us. He's growing us to trust Him. And so He says here, God's
child should bear fruit even to old age. Even to old age. He said, verse 14, Psalm 92,
14, they shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall
be fat and green. Last week, we were an hour behind
down there, and I was listening to Rob's message on the way to
service, and we in the car, we were listening to it on the way
to service, and he preached on something similar about the Lord's
people being plants growing up, And at the end of the message,
my mother made an observation I never thought about, but it's
true. She said, when a plant or a tree
bears fruit, that's when it's the most vulnerable. Think about
that. I've planted gardens and I've
had fruit trees. When they start bearing fruit,
that's when the raccoons come and the deer come and the foxes
come. That's when they're vulnerable. Here's the point. He says here
you're going to grow up into old age bearing fruit. We don't
ever grow beyond an entire dependence on Christ to grow us and keep
us. Not ever. That's what Rob meant
in that illustration when he said the more fruit you bear,
the more the tree bows down. The more you submit to Him. The
more fruit you bear, the more vulnerable you are. But He said, even to your old
age, I am He. And even to gray hairs will I
carry you. I have made, and I will bear
you. Even I will carry you, and I
will deliver you. That's the Lord's promise. So
our outward man is going to perish. He is growing weaker and weaker
every day. That's what we start out putting way too much confidence
in, is this outward man. And it's growing weaker and weaker
on purpose to show us it can't be trusted. But the inward man's
being renewed by that anointing oil and shall still bring forth
fruit in old age and will be fat and green. What's that mean?
It means it's still going to be purified and holy by the Lord
indwelling in us. People think the holiness is
outward. That's what they think. Your holiness is Christ who's
made you holy by taking up His residence within you. That's
your holiness. And He's going to still be abiding
in His people. They're going to still be believing
on Christ. They're going to be perfect in His righteousness,
separated under Him. They are going to still be loving
their brethren, they are going to still be encouraging one another,
even in old age being used even more to encourage those new little
saplings that are growing up, those new believers. They are going to still be trusting
all their enemies to our Most High God. Not anxious about them,
not anxious about the drought, trusting the enemies to God.
And they are still going to be Loving the Gospel and hearing
the Gospel with God's people, rejoicing in Christ, thanking
Christ and praising Him. That's where they're going to
be. That's where they're going to be. One time, years ago, they'd tell
you, Oh, I look like a dead tree. Christ preserved me. He kept
me. One time I went through, I remember
the drought of 2021. Oh, but the Lord brought me through
the drought. Kept watering me, kept me green.
Oh, I remember the time when all the pests came and the varmints
came and they tried to turn me away back in such and such a
year. The Lord hedged me about and
kept me. How did you get here? How did you get grown like this?
The Lord did it. The Lord did it. And it's going
to be this way until God calls them to cross over the Jordan.
That's going to be the ultimate trial. How are you going to get
across? Huh? The same way you're getting
through all these little trials right here. These light afflictions
right here, how are you getting through them? The same way you're
going to cross that chilly Jordan called death. How are you going
to get across that? Christ said, I'm going to carry you across.
These all died in faith. That's what's going to be said
of all His plantings. These all died in faith. Why
didn't it say, these all died with many wonderful works. These
all died with many glorious fruits. These all die trusting the Lord. That's the evidence of things
not seen as the substance. Trust in Christ. When I saw this, what's the reason
for all this? Why is God going to do it this
way? Here it is. He's going to fulfill all this
promise, verse 15, to show that the Lord is upright. He's my
rock and there's no unrighteousness in Him. It's all to show salvation
is of the Lord. That's why. Amen.