Let's turn to Jeremiah 17. I
want to read verses 5-8. Jeremiah 17 verse 5, Thus saith
the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, his
power, his strength, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not
see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in
the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabit it. Blessed is
the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord
is. For he shall be as a tree planted
by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and
shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green,
and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall
cease from yielding fruit. Now there's a great contrast
here in verses 5 and verse 7. Read verse 5 again, Thus saith
the Lord. Now this is the Lord God speaking. And He says in verse 5, Cursed
be the man that trusteth in man, and makes flesh his arm, and
whose heart departs from the Lord. And then in verse 7, He
said, Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose
hope the Lord is. Now, we try to find assurance
and confidence in a lot of places other than Christ. But we're
going to have to lay down all our confidence, vain confidence. And any confidence that's not
in Christ only is vain confidence. We've got to lay down all our
vain confidence. We've got to lay down all vain
hindrances, those things that are keeping us from trusting
the Lord. That means we've got to lay down all our best accomplishments
as well as all our very worst failings. We've got to lay down
all our doubtful fears as well as all of our good feelings.
We've got to lay down our very best deeds as well as our very
worst deeds. We've got to lay them all down
before the Word of the Lord and hear what He says. This is not
a moral issue. It's not morality that determines
this. That's not the issue. This is
a heart issue. This is an issue with the heart.
Read it again. Who does God say is cursed and
who does God say is blessed? No word could be plainer than
our text right here. Verse 5, Thus saith the Lord,
Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his
arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. In verse 7 he
says, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope
the Lord is. Now that's where the difference
lies, right there. One is trusting man, one is trusting
the Lord. One is trusting man, one is trusting
the Lord. A man cannot trust God, trust
Christ, and trust man. It can't be done. A man cannot
do both and be saved by grace alone. It's absolutely impossible
for salvation to be partly by man's free will and partly by
free grace. It's an absolute impossibility
for salvation to be partly by man's works and partly by Christ's
works. Utter impossibility for that
to be the case. If a man's going to be saved
by his works, a man's got to do all the work. And if a man's
going to be saved by grace, he's going to have to be saved all
together by grace. Let me show you that in Romans
chapter 11. Look at Romans chapter 11. I'm
going to show you two scriptures here. Romans 11. Look at verse 6. In verse 5, Paul said, at this
present time, there's a remnant according to the election of
grace, according to God choosing whom He would by His grace. There's
a remnant. And if it's by grace, Paul said,
then it's no more of works. Do you see that? If it's by grace,
then it's not by works. Otherwise, grace is not grace.
But if it's of works, then it's no more grace, otherwise work
is not work. So it's either all works or all
grace. Look now over at Romans chapter
4. Go back to Romans chapter 4. And look down at verse 4. Romans
4 and verse 4. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If you work, you've
earned something. And what's paid you is your wage
you earned. That's works. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Or through faith, righteousness
is imputed to him, charged to him, given to him. All the righteousness
of the law that you men are trying to work out by their hand, all
that righteousness that men are trying to work work, work, work,
work to accomplish all the righteousness of the law, all the righteousness
that Christ Jesus is, is given. to those who stop working and
trust Christ. It's given to them. It's given
to them. You see, salvation is not by
works and grace. It's either by works or by grace. And we know it's not by works.
A man can't come to God that way. It's got to be by grace.
Now let's read these two verses again. Verse 5, Jeremiah 17,
5, Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man. and makes flesh his arm, and
whose heart departs from the Lord. Look at verse 7. Blessed
is the man that trusts in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is.
All right, salvation is entirely of the Lord Jesus Christ by His
work, by His finished work, what He's accomplished, not by the
works of the one who saved. We believe on Him who have accomplished
the works for us. I've titled this, The Cursed
Man and the Blessed Man. Now this is going to be our divisions.
We're going to look at just these contrasts borne out right here
in this text. The first thing we see is the
difference in the plants that these two are compared to. Alright,
the cursed man in verse 6, he says he shall be like the heath
in the desert. And then verse 8 says of the
blessed man, he shall be as a tree planted by the waters that spreadeth
out her roots by the river. You see there's a difference
here in these two. All right, now we're going to talk about,
we're going to look at the contrast in sight and their experience,
what they see and experience. Look at verse 6. It says of the
cursed man, he shall not see when good cometh. But then of
the blessed man, in verse 8, it says, He shall not see when
heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green. Alright, then we're
going to look at the contrast of where they end up and their
fruitfulness. Look at verse 6. It says of the
cursed man, He shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
in a salt land not inhabited. But verse 8 says of the blessed
man, he shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither
shall cease from yielding fruit. There's a big difference between
these two. Big difference between these two. One man's trust in
works, one man's trust in God. All right, let's see the difference.
Now, first of all, the contrast in the kind of plants that they're
called, they're compared to. Verse 6 says, that cursed man
is like a heath in the desert. Verse 8 says, the righteous man,
the blessed man, he'll be as a tree planted by the waters,
his roots spread out by the river. Well, this cursed man, he's gonna
be like a heath in the desert. A heath is an interesting plant. I looked this up and spent some
time on this. Nobody really knows exactly what
kind of plant they're talking about, this word's talking about
here. But we know what it's talking about by what the word means.
The word heath means naked. It means destitute. It means
it's a plant that doesn't replenish itself. It doesn't replenish
itself. A heath, the heath that we're
talking about here, doesn't make seed. It doesn't make any fruit
at all. So it doesn't make any seed at
all. In order for it to be planted, for it to grow again, it's got
to be cut and grow from a cutting. In other words, it's not growing
from a seed. It doesn't grow from a seed.
It was a plant that was fruitless. It was a plant that was condemned
and forbidden for any kind of religious use whatsoever. Now
that's a pretty good description of a natural man and a real good
description of a naturally religious man. He doesn't have any seed
in himself, born of the incorruptible seed. And he's not able to produce
fruit, seed. He can't produce. The only way
the natural religious man can be can be multiplied by false
prophets and so on is through cutting. Everything about natural
religion is about cutting, about cutting you away from your sin,
and cutting out this, and cutting out that, and cutting you, and
cutting you, and cutting you, and trying to make you to grow
by being constantly cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. That's why Paul
stood up and he said, beware of dogs. They bite, they cut. Beware of the circumcision. He
said, we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit,
rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
But here's something else about this heath in the desert. It's
beautiful. It's very pretty. It's got a
lot of beautiful colors, different colors to it. It appears very
beautiful. But it's a fruitless, worthless
plant. That's what it is. The man who's
trusted in man, the man who's making flesh his strength, his
will, his works, his way, his wisdom, whose heart is departed
from the Lord, that man is trusting in a curse, and he is a curse. He's under the curse of God.
He's under the curse of the law. He's under the curse of sin.
He's cursed in his body, soul, and spirit. He's cursed in everything
he touches. He's cursed in every way that
there is to be cursed. He's a faithless, fruitless,
scrubby little heath plant. That's what he is, the man that's
trusting in man. But he may appear very beautiful.
Very beautiful. Looked like he's really just
flowered out and is just extremely beautiful in all his works and
everything he's done. Verse 7, now let's look at the
blessed man. Blessed is the man that trusts
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. Now
the Lord told us plainly, He said, I'm the vine and my father's
the husbandman. Now, the blessed man is one who's
been planted by God in Christ. That's who the blessed man is.
He's been planted by God in divine election. God chose him and put
him in Christ, planted him in Christ before the world began.
He's been planted in the likeness of Christ's death. When Christ
went to the cross, he went to the cross. When Christ bore the
wrath of God, he bore the wrath of God. When Christ died, he
died. And He's been planted in the
house of the Lord by His regenerating calling grace. He's been made
alive and He's been planted in the house where He can hear the
gospel preached and can be fed and watered and grown of the
Spirit of the Lord. And all of this blessing is by
the Lord. All of this planting is done by the Lord. Look at
Isaiah 60 and look at verse 21. He says, Thy people also shall
be all righteous. Now that's so with everybody
the Lord has called by His grace. They're all righteous. How come? We saw in Romans 4, 4, 4, 5,
through faith, the righteousness of God, the righteousness of
Christ has been made their righteousness. They've been made the righteousness
of God in Him. They're all righteous. They shall
inherit the land forever. The branch of my planting, the
Lord said. The work of my hands that I may
be glorified, God said. You see that? The work of my
hands that I may be glorified. Look over the page there at Isaiah
61 and look at verse 3 or down the page. This is speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said the Spirit of the Lord
is on me. He sent me forth to do this work. He says to appoint
unto them that mourn in Zion. to give them beauty for ashes,
to the oil of joy for mourning. the garment of praise for the
Spirit of heaviness. You see, He's taken away the
one and given the other. And He says that they might be
called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that
He might be glorified. This is all about the glory of
God. It's about God getting all the
glory, Him getting all the glory. Now the first thing the Lord's
going to do is He's going to make His child see that there's
absolutely nothing good in us to trust. Every child he's going
to save, he has to make us see first of all, there's nothing
good in us to trust. Nothing good in an individual
chosen child of God for him to put his trust in. Absolutely
nothing. We saw a couple weeks ago how
that holy commandment comes. By the Spirit of God, the Holy
Commandment comes, and Christ begins to actually teach us in
our hearts what the law says about us. And he begins to teach
us, as Paul learned, that in our flesh dwells nothing good. There's nothing good in us. The
reason a man don't come to Christ is he thinks there is something
good in him. So he goes on trusting himself. Trusting he makes his goodness
to be his arm, his power, his strength. And his heart is departed
from the Lord. His heart is gone away from the
Lord. And he's a cursed man. He's completely cursed. We've
got to be seeing the evil of our sin before we're going to
see Christ's pure and perfect holiness. We've got to be made
to see this. We've got to first see that we're
cursed before the Lord's going to show us that we've been blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
There's no way getting to this second part without first experiencing
this first part. The reason is before we're going
to become a tree, planted by the Lord, we have to have all
of our branches broken off. All of the branches that we would
hope in and trust in and all of the arms that we would lean
to and trust in, they got to all be broken off. broken down,
broken off like the branches on a tree broken off when a big
storm comes through. But this is the storm of God's
grace. He's breaking those off so we
don't put any trust in ourselves anymore. And when He does it,
it's not pleasant. Everything we thought was good
about ourselves becomes as filthy rags. You know what filthy rags
means in scripture? It means menstrual cloth. That's
what it means. Everything we thought was good
becomes that to us. And we see that nothing I've
ever done has committed me to God. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And then once that happens, or
unless that happens, Christ will never become righteousness to
us. We'll never see Him as the full, complete, total righteousness
that we need if we don't ever see we don't have any righteousness. Do you understand that? Do you
understand that? We have to have this to happen.
Alright? Now look, that's the dangerous
thing about somebody getting this and feel like they're being
persuaded to commit themselves to the Lord. in the power and
wisdom of a man, in the craftiness of a man. Because until a person
has experienced this, even when they're making a decision for
Christ, as men call it, even when they're making their profession
of faith and doing whatever it is that the preacher tells them
to do, what they're really doing is leaning on the arm of the
flesh. They're thinking that what they're
doing is how they're going to be made righteous, by that act
they're performing that they're doing. We've got to be made to
look out of ourselves and look to Him alone. Or we'll just eventually,
it may be borne out in time, it may not, but a lot of times,
if that refuge starts getting torn down, a man will prove he's
leaning on the arm of the flesh. He won't hear Christ, he just
won't hear Him. So then the Lord, though, when He's broken us like
that, and He brought us to see what we are. You see, He didn't
come to heal those that are well. A person that doesn't need a
physician, he don't go to the doctor. Christ has to make us
see our sickness first, and then we'll see we need Him, the great
physician. And then we'll go to the great physician. And that's
when He brought us to see that in ourselves. Then He starts
turning us to Him. And He starts drawing us to the
mercy seat. He starts to show us that there's mercy with God.
Just when we think there's no hope for us, no mercy for us,
we're just not worthy of any of the least of God's mercies
at all. Then He begins to show us, no,
I have reserved mercy. If He starts His work in us,
He'll teach us, I've reserved mercy for you. I've been reserving
mercy just for you since before the world ever began. And He'll
keep on teaching us then everything about Him and making us look
to Christ and making us look out of ourselves to Him. And
for the first time, we'll begin to realize the Lord Jesus Christ,
this man Christ Jesus is God. That man who walked the earth
over 2,000 years ago, that was hung up on a tree. That man is
God. He's God in human flesh. He's
Emmanuel, God with us. We began to see that His name
is Jesus because that name wasn't given to Him in vain. It means
Savior. For He shall save His people
from their sins. And we began to see that what
the Scriptures just said He would do, what it was purposed that
He would do, He's done it. He's come forth and He's finished
the transgression. You know when John runs in track,
when you get to the end of the race, it's finished. It's done. You finished it. The race is
run. It's finished. He's finished
the transgression Christ has. Christ has made an end of sins. When you get to the end, that's
it, you're at the end. Christ has made reconciliation
for iniquity. Christ has brought in everlasting
righteousness for His people. He has sealed up the vision and
the prophecy. Everything this book has been
saying about Him, He said, I came to fulfill it, and He fulfilled
it. And there He is, anointed, seated at the right hand of the
Father, the Most Holy. in the throne of God. That's
where He's seated. And when He makes us to see Him,
and there we are, and we're completely and we're totally empty now,
we're completely, totally destitute of any fullness in ourselves
whatsoever. And when we're brought to that
point, and we're made to see Him, then He whispers into our
hearts and says, you're full. You're complete. You're absolutely
complete. We gotta be broken into a billion
little pieces before we're gonna ever find out that in Christ
we're totally, thoroughly complete. That's gotta happen. And then
Christ becomes Himself. He becomes the blessed man. We
see Him as the blessed man. He's the man who is the faithfulness
that I gotta be. He's the man who is the fidelity
I gotta be. He's the man who's the righteousness
I gotta be. He's the holiness I gotta be.
He is that as a man. He fulfilled all the covenant
that I couldn't fulfill as a man. He did it as a man. He fulfilled
my side of the covenant for me with God so that now God and
Christ are in everlasting covenant agreement and I'm in everlasting
covenant agreement in Christ because of what Christ has done
for me. That's what he shows us. And we see he's the truly
blessed man. And then we see too, he's the
river of life. He's the waters, the waters.
He's the waters of life, a full abundance of grace. And we see
in Him that He's the tree of righteousness in whom we've been
grafted into and made one with Him. So all of this comes about
as Psalm 1-3 says, He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers
of water that bringeth forth His fruit in His season. His
leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever He does shall prosper." That's
Christ, brethren. Christ is bringing forth His
fruit in His season. He's calling out His sheep, right? His children just in His season,
just like a tree brings forth fruit in its season. Christ will
never wither. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And Christ, whatever He does is prospering. The Scripture
says, He shall not fail. And then when we see Him, He
becomes all this to us. Look at Revelation 22. Revelation 22. He showed me a pure river of
water of life. Where was it coming from? It's
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb." That's where the river of waters is coming from.
Out of the throne of God and the Lamb. It's from Him. It's
life. It's life. In the midst of the
street of this city, on either side of the river, was there
the tree of life. He's that tree of life. And it
bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations." He's going to say here in a minute
that you and I, who've been called by His grace, have green leaves. are green leaves coming forth
on this tree, for the healing of the nations, for medicine
to the nations. There shall be no more curse.
You see, this is how we're brought out from under that curse. So
we're the blessed man, not the cursed man anymore. There'll
be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be
in the midst, and His servants shall serve Him, and they'll
see His face, and His name will be in their foreheads. And that's
going to be the case in a full reality, like we can't imagine
it one of these days, but right now it's a reality for the Lord's
people. And we start growing now in the, as I think Brother
Bruce said, in the rich soil of His love. That's where we
start growing. We start growing there with water of the Holy
Spirit, with the water of the gospel, and we're made evergreen,
we're made fragrant in Christ by His grace through faith. And
He keeps us there. Christ is formed in us by faith,
and we're rooted and we're grounded in love. And now our roots stretch
out for Him, and they stretch out to Him, and they receive
water from this river of life, from these waters from Him. You
get the picture of that? That's how we become fruitful.
Blessed redemption, that's what we have, from the curse of the
law. Blessed promise of no more condemnation. Blessed life, eternal
life. Blessed in all providence. Blessed
to all eternity. And that's a huge, huge contrast
from being a cursed little scrubby, fruitless heath plant in a dry
desert and being the planting of the Lord as a tree planted
by the river of life with our roots spreading out into His
fullness. How do I get there? How do I have that? I want to
be that tree of life. That tree planted by the Lord. How do I have that? Blessed is
the man that trusts the Lord. Whose hope the Lord is. You see,
that's it. That's what repentance is. Turning
from trusting ourselves and trusting the Lord. That's what true repentance
is. Alright, let's see the contrast
in the sight now. Look here at verse 6. It says
of the cursed man, he shall not see when good cometh. But verse
8 says of the blessed man, he shall not see when heat cometh,
but her leaf shall be green. This tree that we are. The cursed
man, the man who is trusting in man, the man who is trusting
in the power of his flesh, He won't see when good cometh. The
heath plant, when it rains, and the good that's talking about
coming is when rain comes, when a flood comes, and rain comes
in the desert, it doesn't benefit a heath plant whatsoever when
the rain comes, because the heath plant's not going to produce
any fruit. It's not going to produce any. It's just going
to be what it is after the rain falls. It's going to be the same
thing after the rain falls. It ain't going to grow. It ain't
going to do anything. It's just this scrubby little plant. That's all it's going to be.
And the rain don't do it any good. So it's like when Christ
walked this earth, men who were righteous, thought they were
righteous by their works and what they had done, They didn't
see when good came. When Christ the goodness and
righteousness of God came face to face with them, they didn't
see Him. They couldn't see Him. And so it is with a man who's
trusting in his own works. He can't see when good has come
to him. He can't see when God's pouring
out the rain of grace all around him and watering the trees of
his planting all around him. This man who's a heath plant
can't see it. You know why? He ain't looking
for it. He don't want to see it. He's
looking at himself. He's looking for assurance in
himself. He's looking for confidence in himself. He's looking for
salvation in himself. And he don't want to see. He's
got his eyes as blind as they can be and he don't want to see.
One of the saddest things in the world to me is to have folks
sit and hear the gospel and just be completely indifferent to
it. I've heard this a thousand times. I've heard this over and
over and over. It's no big deal. If I don't
listen tonight, I'll get to come back here another night. If there's something that we
really deem valuable and somebody told us, if you'll listen tonight,
you'll get it, I bet we wouldn't say, well, I can come back another
night and listen for it. I bet we'd be all ears if it
was something that was really valuable to them. Or you see
a man sit and listen and appear to be rejoicing and appear to
be enjoying the message and being blessed by it. And then after
a little while, it's like all of a sudden, he hears what is
being said and becomes contentious and walks away from the Gospel.
Walks away from it. There's nothing more sad. in
all the world than to have a place where Christ and Him alone is
receiving all the glory in the gospel. And all the work that
the church is doing is to give Him all the glory, not to bring
any honor and praise to men, but to Him. And for a man to
walk away from that place and walk away from where that rain
of God's grace is coming down? Paul said, don't receive the
grace of God in Maine. He means, if the Gospel's in
a place, we're not only responsible to hear it, and not only responsible
for what we have heard, but we're responsible for what we could
have heard. God says, I've come to this place, now you be there.
That's what He said. That's what He said. Look over
at Hebrews 10. We saw, and Peter said the other
day, it would have been better not to have heard than to turn
away. Look at Hebrews 10 and verse
25. It says, instead of forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, he
says, let us exhort one another so much more as you see the day
approaching. For, look at this next word,
for if we sin willfully, you know what this willful sin is?
If we turn away from the gospel and we shut our ears up to the
gospel that's being rained down upon us, that God's given, we
receive the grace of God in vain and sin willfully and go on and
say, well, I'm going to still trust in me and trust in something
I've done, past, present, or future. Look at the word there. There remains no more sacrifice
for sin. We reject Christ. There's no
more sacrifice for sin. but a certain fearful looking
for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. The cursed man shall not see
when good comes. But now look back and let's see
about the blessed man. Look at the blessed man now. Verse 8 says of the blessed man,
he shall not see when heat comes, but his leaf shall be green.
You see that? One of them, both of them don't
see something. One of them don't see good come. One of them don't
see the heat come. What kinds of heat are there?
There's heat from persecution for the truth. It comes in different
forms. When you think of persecution,
do you think of John's head being put on a charger? Or do you think
of Peter standing around a fire with a little girl who said,
you're his, and Peter said, no I'm not. He was persecuted into denying
the Lord. Heat. What about the heat of
trials? What about the heat which requires
commitment and faith in the Lord? It's heat. It's heat. It withers
and dries up the man whose root is in himself rather than in
Christ. It'll wither him up. The man whose root is in the
love of money, it'll wither him away. and in his riches of his
self-righteousness, he'll wither right away. When you start preaching
this gospel, it'll wither him right away. But the man whose
root's in Christ, that man who's rooted in Christ, he's given
a continual supply of the water of life. into his heart so that
this river of life is strengthening him constantly. Christ is strengthening
him constantly so that he's a tree planted by the Lord. So the heat,
instead of it drying him up, you know what the heat does for
the blessed man? It makes him more fruitful. It
makes his leaves green, more green. The heat does. Look over
at Mark chapter 4. Heat comes for two different
reasons from the Lord. The heat, the heat. The Lord
sends the heat to the man that's trusting in his flesh for the
very purpose of burning and drying him up. Look at Mark 4 in verse
16. Let's look at Mark 4, 5. He's talking here about the stony
ground, hearer, and he says he didn't have much earth in him.
And immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth.
But when the sun was up, it got hot, and it was scorched. Because it had no root, it withered
away. It withered away. What's he talking
about? Look at verse 16. These are they likewise which
are sown on stony ground, who when they have heard the word,
immediately receive it with gladness, and have no root in themselves. and so endure before time, but
afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's
sake, when the heat is on, immediately they are offended and they wither
away." Look at John 15. God sends the heat to the blessed
man and it does something different. Look at John 15. The trial that comes to a blessed
man has a fruitful purpose. It makes his roots run deeper
to Christ, the river of life. It grows his roots deeper. It
makes his branches cling more firmly to Christ, the tree of
righteousness. Look at John 15, 2. Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, he takes it away. and every branch
that bears fruit, He purges it that it may bring forth more
fruit. That's what's going to happen
for the man who's been planted of the Lord. Why is it good for
us to be a... He says there back in Jeremiah
17, He said, but his leaf shall be green. Her leaf shall be green.
Why is it that the Lord's going to have our leaf to be green?
Why is He going to keep us evergreen and ever watered so that we're
evergreen? Well, the leaves give a shade
from the heat. They're very helpful. They're
very helpful. The leaves shade from the heat.
He said over there in Revelation, we just read it, he said the
leaves are going to be for the healing of the nations. The leaves
are going to be for medicine, for medicine. That's what he
makes his people. He makes his people medicine
to the nations of the earth, to his elect scattered throughout
the nation. We shade one another from the
heat, but an old brown autumn leaf, when the wind blows or
the heat comes out or whatever, the elements change, the seasons
change, it just falls right off the tree and right to the ground
and makes a big old mess and it's just got to be cleaned up.
So it's better to be a green tree, a green leaf. And there's
been a lot of people, let me read this to you. We only remain
a green leaf by continually drinking deep of Christ the river of life. That's the only way. Whatever
makes us to slumber, whatever turns us from him, is good for
nothing but to be let go of. Many a professing believer has
thought that the way to personal happiness, the way to benefit
the church, the way to benefit their own family was to sink
their roots deeper into the dry desert earth. But this is what
the Lord said concerning the seed among the thorns. He said,
These are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the
word, but the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and
it becomes unfruitful. But that won't happen to the
man the Lord has planted. We try to run our roots in another
direction sometimes and try to run our roots towards the desert.
The Lord's going to keep our roots rooted in Him. He's going
to keep us rooted in Him. He might have to break off a
branch here and there. to get us from looking to ourselves
to Him. But He'll do that and keep us in Him because He's going
to keep us bearing fruit. That's the third thing we see
here. The contrast in the fruit bearing. Look here at verse 6. It says there in verse 6 that
the cursed man shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness
and in a salt land not inhabited. But verse 8 says of the blessed
man, he shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither
shall cease from yielding fruit. Now this cursed man, this is
where he inhabits, this is where he abides. He abides in a parched
places, dry places. Now they don't appear to the
heath The desert is the place he wants to be. The heath wants
to be in desert places. It's a desert plant. And the
man who's looking to himself wants to be in a place where
he can be told to look to himself. That's what he considers to be
a fruitful place. But it's a dry place. Because
there's no fruitfulness in me and you except it be from the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a dry place to be.
He'll inhabit places in the wilderness, in the wild. That's where he'll
be. And it says, in a salt land where it's not inhabited, that
means, the sum and substance of it means the man that's trusting
in himself, man that's looking to his work, to his will, to
his way, he's not gonna produce any fruit whatsoever. He's going
to live in a dry, barren place, a fruitless place. Now, don't
misunderstand me. According to this world, it may
look like it's fruitful. It may look like it's bearing
much fruit. But the fruit of this world is not the fruit God
produces. The fruit God produces is a godly
fruit. It's a fruit that stays on Christ.
It's a fruit that's born of Christ and it has to have this water
of life, has to have this river of life, has to be by the rivers
of waters where He is. But look at verse 8. This is
the thing about the blessed man. He shall not be careful in the
year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Now
we had a big drought this year, huge drought this year, you know,
and it killed all the corn plants. And when there's a drought that
goes on, people have to be real, real careful how they used water. They got to be very sparing of
the water because there's a drought. And this is the way of religion.
This is the way of physical, natural man. This is the way
of religion. Whenever the drought comes in health, or the drought
comes in financial difficulties, or maybe the drought comes in
a religious setting with people falling away, or this and that,
what the natural man does is he starts being real careful
with the water. He don't give it out very much.
I'm talking about the truth, the truth. He mixes a little
something with it, because he thinks, now that's how we're
going to keep this thing thriving, is to spare the water. The water is offensive to a natural
man. And when he sees a drought coming
on, the natural man thinks, well, I got to use some other kind
of method. I got to use some other kind
of means to try to produce some fruit, because I can't use this
water to do it. But the believer's not affected.
He's not careful in the drought. The believer's not careful in
the drought. He's rooted in Christ. He doesn't have to be careful.
He's got plenty of spiritual water still being given to him
even though the world around him may be in a drought. Even
though his own flesh may be in a drought. Even though his own
household may be in a drought. Our life's not merely in the
reign of temporal blessings, but our life is from the deep,
ever-flowing spiritual river of life. It's from Christ. And
it says there in verse 8, "...and neither shall he cease from yielding
fruit." Those that are leaning on the arm of the flesh, they're
continually in a state of change based on the state of the world
around them. They fluctuate. They change like
the seasons change. Isaiah called it changeable suits
of apparel. Whatever's fashionable today,
that's what they're wearing today in religion. If it's Calvinism,
they're preaching Calvinism today. If it's Arminianism, they're
preaching Arminianism tomorrow. If it's a blending of the two
the next day, they'll blend the two the next day. Whatever earrings
are attracting, whatever the hot new shoes are to wear, that's
what they're wearing. God's Word's not contemporary.
God's Word don't change. It's as unchanging as God is.
The believer, he's not looking to the world and the changes
of the world and the changes of the seasons and whether there's
natural water or not natural water. He's not looking at that
at all. Let the world change. Let men
around us change. Let men run after this a while
and run after that a while. Let there be great physical natural
plenty in the earth or let it be a drought in the earth. The
believer just keeps right on yielding. It's just steady, like a big
old oak tree. Why? How can that be? Because
our fruit bearing is due to the goodness of Christ and our being
grafted into Him. Our continual fruit bearing is
due to the continual provision of God our Husband, who planted
us as the trees of His planting, that He might be glorified. Our
continual fruit bearing is from the blessedness of the river
that waters our roots. That's why. And that one's Christ. So we don't A believer is not
changing with the Word. A believer, he's not careful
in the drought. He just goes on yielding fruit.
Because our God doesn't change. The One from Whom we're getting
all our rain and all our blessings doesn't change. He doesn't change.
I want you to look at Psalm 92. And I'll close with this. I'll read a Scripture to you
while you turn it over there. This is what his church is called,
a vineyard of red wine. He said, I, the Lord, do keep
it. I will water it every moment. Lest any hurt it, I'll keep it
night and day. That's who our Lord is. He controls
the rain. He controls the natural rain.
He controls the natural economy. He controls the All the things in this earth
are at His disposal. He's doing it. Can He not control
the spiritual? Can He not flood our souls with
the spiritual and keep us evergreen in His grace? Look at Psalm 92. Let me get over there with you.
Psalm 92, look down at 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. And they shall still bring
forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing."
Why? To show that the Lord's upright,
that He's my rock and there's no unrighteousness in Him. When
I was down in Rocky Mount the other day, I thought about this. Paul, you know, he said, where
there's prophecies, they're going to fail. You might have a gift
to preach, but someday you're not going to be able to. He said,
you know, these things are childish things right now. And one day
we're going to put away these childish things. We're going
to come into His presence in glory. And he said, faith won't
be anymore. We won't need faith. We're going
to see Him as He is. Faith's a childish thing. We're
not going to need hope. We're going to be there with
Him. Hope's a childish thing. But love, Love will be there,
always be there. I thought about Brother Henry
sitting there and he can't preach now. He just don't preach anymore. Boy, he just was so encouraging
over this message I preached about love abounding. He said,
that's the best subject, love, love. How is it that they're
going to still be in old age and still be flourishing when
they can't speak? Maybe they can't walk. Maybe
they can't do anything they can do anymore. Maybe they can't
say a word anymore. How are they still going to be
fat and flourishing and bringing forth all this fruitfulness he's
talking about? They're still going to be in love with their
Savior. That's the fruit we're talking about. It's an inseparable,
unchangeable love that God puts in the heart. They can't be separated. What God's joined together will
never be separated. That's what we're talking about.
And when all these other childish things are gone and we're grown
up, we're going to put away these childish things. And it's just
going to be love between us and our Redeemer. Why? That he might be shown to be
the one who's done it all. That we might glory in him. So
you see, there's a big difference. There's a striking contrast between
the cursed man and the blessed man. One's trusting in his flesh,
one's trusting in the Lord. One is cursed beyond measure,
and one's blessed beyond measure. Get this, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the unceasing source of eternal life, of strength, and of confidence. He is all the blessedness to
those who trust in him. Trust him, cast all your care
on him, and abide in him. Surely there's something else,
surely not. Surely there's something else, surely not. Trust Him. Believe Him. Cast all your care
into His hands and abide there. Stay there. If we could just
do that, we could just do that. That's what we're learning to
do. That's what we're learning to do. That's the work of the
Lord. Amen.