I please the Lord to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
book of the Ecclesiastes chapter 11 and the last clause in the
third verse. I want to connect this also to
the verses in Job. So first of all this chapter
11 in Ecclesiastes and the third verse and the last clause which
reads and if the tree fall toward the south or toward the north
in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be and then in
Job 14 chapter we read together again we have a statement with
regards to a tree again in a different sense And from verse 7 we read,
For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will
sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stalk thereof
die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud
and bring forth boughs like a plant. We have two pictures really,
in these two accounts. First of all, in this chapter
in Ecclesiastes, we have a statement that if a tree falls, either
toward the south or toward the north, there it shall be. That means that it will not be
able to move. If a tree falls, if a tree is
blown over, then usually it brings up with its roots and there's
only one result and that is the tree dies. It doesn't matter
how healthy it may have appeared to be, how vigorous or on the
other hand how weakly or how rotten it may appear, yet when
it falls down on the earth then there it shall be. But on the
other hand, We have this picture in Job, where Job speaks about not a tree falling
down, but a tree being cut down. Cut down. And if it's cut down,
the truth is that the root is still there. The root still remains
in the ground. And so, what does the Word of
God tell us? There's hope. There's no hope. once a tree has fallen down,
but there is hope, if a tree is cut down, that it will sprout
again, and the tender branch will not cease. So we have really
this comparison of the two situations which speak about trees, and
of course we can draw the direct analogy with ourselves, with
people in the day and age in which we live. And so therefore,
first of all, taking this picture we have in Ecclesiastes, this
tree falling toward the south or toward the north, in the place
where the tree falleth there it shall be. Well, the picture
is, a tree either falling to the north, there it shall be,
or to the south. There it shall be. Two opposite
positions, aren't they? North and South are diametrically
opposite. And if we then think of that
with regard to a spiritual situation, and of course we always need
and want to direct our attention to the spiritual position, and
thinking of a tree as a person. A person dies. They either fall
one way or the other. And by that I mean this, they
either fall as a believer or they fall as an unbeliever. And however that is, whichever
way they fall, that is the position that they remain in. Now naturally
the tree of course gradually rots, but with regard to a person,
our soul lives forever. And that is an eternal situation
which will exist. And there it shall be. And again, a tree could be a
very healthy tree. I'm sure we've seen sometimes
when there have been very high winds which have come and they've
blown over substantial trees. Some of them have been very healthy
trees. But the wind has been so powerful that it's uprooted
them and they've fallen to the ground. And sometimes, of course,
there have been very weak trees, diseased trees, and trees which
are really coming to the end of their natural life, and they're
blown over, and they fall down. Again, so it is the analogy with
regard to people. A person can appear to be very
healthy and full of life, as it were. And yet the Lord can come and
blow upon that person and take away their breath and they fall
down. They fall down in that position,
in that dead situation which they will not be able to change.
Once our breath has been taken away, there will be no more life. and that will be then our eternal
state. And we should either be then
falling towards the north or falling towards the south. We
should either be as a true believer, having died as a believer and
gone to be with Christ, which is far better, or we should have
fallen as an unbeliever and have gone down into that place, the
devil, forever in hell. And those are the positions that
you and I will remain in. Now, we could be very healthy.
On the other hand, of course, we could be old and we could
be withered. We know that the time will come
when every one of us will fall either to the north or to the
south. And we know not. what a day nor
an hour may bring forth. And we are told, the Lord Jesus
tells us very clearly, be ye also ready. Well, we are reminded,
aren't we, of these accounts and I dare say that this subject
rested on my mind really because of that man that I mentioned
on Friday in our prayer meeting who died And just for those who
weren't here, some friends down at Hastings, who I know well,
they have two sons, one's married with two children, and one was
a single man, living by himself, and every Wednesday the parents
used to go and pick him up and bring him home, and he would
do the gardening for them on a Thursday. And this last Wednesday
he went to his house in the normal way, and there was no answer. And eventually they managed to
get access into the house and they found him sitting dead over
his computer. He'd been dead several hours.
A young man of 40 years of age. I say young man, perhaps middle-aged,
but nonetheless he wasn't very old. And no doubt he got up in
the morning and no doubt had his breakfast or whatever and
sat down to work at his computer And then the Lord came and took
his breath. And there he was, as it were,
fallen down. Either to the north or to the
south. Either as a believer or as an
unbeliever. Now we know not the actual true
position of that man with regard to his Christian standing. But
what we do know is that he is no longer a living soul on this
earth. And sometimes these accounts
and these situations which occur are a reminder to us, and they
should be a reminder to us, of the shortness of our life and
the importance to be ready to stand before our God, the maker
of all the earth, to have the evidence of life within, and
not be satisfied with anything less. We have no idea what he
was doing on his computer. It would be interesting to know
what he was actually doing when the Lord called him from this
earth. And so as we Think along those
lines. I wonder if the Lord was to come
and to take our lives suddenly, whether we would be found doing
something which we would not be ashamed of or to be found
doing something which we would have been ashamed of. There are
many things in our lives perhaps we do in secret and of course
there are many things that you young people can do today on
your computers that your parents don't know about. But would you
be happy perhaps in doing some wrong thing on your computer
at that very moment the Lord came and took your life? Would
you have been ready to go and stand before your Maker? Or would
you have caused to blush and be ashamed of the things that
you were doing? Well you see, we can't do anything
in secret in reality. We can perhaps secret things
from our parents, from our friends, but you can't secret anything
from Almighty God. And how important that is for
you and me to realise. We can't have secrets from God.
God looks into our minds, He sees our thoughts, and He knows
our actions, and He knows what we're doing, and what we're thinking. and how wonderful it will be
if the Lord has given us that fear of the Lord, to do that
which is right. Now I know even when the Lord
does bless us with the fear of the Lord, sometimes we still
do wrong things, we still do evil things, we still do things
which we wouldn't want other people to see. And if we didn't
want other people to see, surely we wouldn't want God to see.
But we know that God does see, and God does know. And we cannot
hide anything from Almighty God. And so how needful it is that
you and I possess the life of God in our soul and are blessed
with that tender conscience. Tender conscience. A tender conscience
with desire to do that which is right. You know, the Bible
speaks to us of a seared conscience. If you think of that, a seared
conscience. That means something has been
burnt, as it were. If you've taken an iron and you
might put it on something and burn it, there's not much feeling
left, is there? there's not much sense left and
the Lord speaks about that as people have a conscience and
it's been seared, that means it's been dealt with by the devil
so that really it's not very feeling, it doesn't really, it's
not touched, it's not sensitive to the things of God, it's unmoved,
it's a seared conscience. My friends, you and I We do not
want to have a seared conscience, we want to have a tender conscience. That means that the smallest
prick as it were, if a pen was to prick us, oh immediately we
realise, oh that was sharp. And so something like that with
regard to our spiritual concern. The slightest evidence of something
which is wrong, our conscience is pricked. We realise we're
not doing something which is right. We're doing something
which is wrong. Well, may we be concerned that
it will always desire us to do things which are right, and therefore
not do things which are wrong, and to be found doing wrong things
when God will call us from this life. And so remember those words,
be ye also ready. For in an hour you think not,
the Son of Man cometh." So often you see, we get up in the morning
and perhaps we are full of life and our plans for the day are
set before us and we are anticipating doing this and doing that. But
you know, we may never come to the end of that day. We may never
reach the end of that day. A young man got up in the morning,
got dressed sat down by his computer, never saw the end of that day. So we have this statement, and
if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place
where the tree falleth, there it shall be. And of course, once
we cease to breathe, once our life has been taken, We have
entered into that eternal state where there is absolutely no
way back. No way back. We have passed out
of time. We are outside of the day of
grace. We are outside of the day of
God's mercy toward us. You might think of the account
the Lord Jesus gave of the rich man and Lazarus. Too extreme. The rich man, everything he had,
everything he wanted he had, and we're told he fed sumptuously
every day, he had wonderful food, and the poor man Lazarus was
a poor man, just had a few crumbs and the dogs came and licked
his sores. So in the As we view that picture
in the world, one was very prosperous and the other was just the opposite.
And that is so true today in this world. But, what happened
was, they both died. They both died. We're told that
Nazareth was carried to Abraham's bosom, that means he was carried
to heaven. And the rich man woke up in hell,
being in torment. And the picture we have is this,
that the rich man looked and he saw a far-off Lazarus in that
very happy situation. He looked at himself in that
terrible scene and he desired that someone might go and tell
his brothers what it's really like to warn them. Let someone
go for the dead. Let him come and tell my brothers
the real situation. Was it allowed? No it wasn't.
Why was it not allowed? It wasn't necessary. Why wasn't
it necessary? Because there is the Word of
God. Because we today have the Bible. to read which tells us about
these things. And the Lord said this, if someone
even rose in the day, people wouldn't believe. And that's
the same, you see, today. We have the Bible. So many people
today do not believe the truth of God's Word. And there will
be those, those many who will wake up in hell. outside of the day of grace. They would have been concerned,
only concerned, about time things. Not concerned about eternal things. Not concerned about the condition
of their soul. not concerned as to whether they
are ready to meet God. Now, my friends, you and I today
are wonderfully blessed. You say, why? Well, for many,
many reasons. But for one particular reason
we are wonderfully blessed and that's that we have the Bible
that we are able to read that sets before us the whole truth,
the whole counsel of God and there is everything contained
in the Word of God that you and I need for our natural life and
for our spiritual life. So let us not therefore turn
away from the Word of God and think in some way it is irrelevant
to our life, or at least it doesn't demand the attention that it
should. And the result is that we spend a lot of effort in worldly
things, in natural attainments, rather than studying the Word
of God. Well may we remember then these
great and important things and consider how necessary they are. So Solomon wrote these Ecclesiastes,
he said these words, And if the tree fall toward the south or
toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there
it shall be. Solomon was blessed with wonderful wisdom. You may
remember that God asked him what he would want, what he would
like. He was made king in the place of David, his father, and
God came in a dream and asked him what he should be given. And he asked for wisdom. He asked for wisdom. Well, what
a blessing if you and I ask the Lord for wisdom. And James tells
us in his short epistle, if any of you lack wisdom, that means
if you don't have it, let him ask of God, who gives to all
men liberally. Now that's the word of God We
need wisdom. When we do lack wisdom, we lack
wisdom in so many ways, in natural things and also often in spiritual
things. So let us remember to come to
God and ask Him, and He will give us a right understanding.
Now, Solomon was therefore blessed with wisdom, and he decided to
try and find out how he could procure happiness in the things
of this life. He was the most wealthy person
in the world. He had the most wisdom and therefore
he went about trying to find out happiness in this world. Well, what did he do? Did he
succeed? You know, he had every ability to try and make himself
happy in this world. And what was the conclusion?
Having spent time and money and effort What was his conclusion? His conclusion was very simply
this. All is vanity. Vanity of vanity and vexation
of spirit. That means that nothing in this
world was really satisfying. It was really not sufficient
to make him truly happy. And that's his conclusion. And
my friends, that conclusion is as true today as it was when
Solomon wrote it. And how you and I today need
to be reminded of such a truth as that. Because we're so apt
to get so involved in the things of this life that we somehow,
somehow think, well we're going to be happy doing this. And if the truth is, we anticipate,
or at least we think, we're going to be happy doing something,
happy finding something. And when it happens, if you're
honest with yourself, you will find you are in fact not as happy
as you thought you would be. There just seems to be something
lacking. There's not quite the fullness
you anticipate. It might be a pleasant occasion,
but there won't be that true happiness. So let's ask ourselves
the question then, where is happiness to be found? Where is happiness
to be found? True happiness. Now if it's to
be true happiness, it's to be something which is not just fading
away. Because if it was something that
we could just take for a moment and then it fades away, it wouldn't
bring us true happiness. So what do we want? We want something
which is going to last. What is that? True happiness
is found in that gift of eternal life, which the Lord Jesus Christ
gives to his people. Now that is a happiness which
doesn't fade. In actual fact, it perhaps becomes
more real as we get nearer to the time when we shall leave
this earth. Happiness is to know the Lord
Jesus Christ as our Saviour. Happiness is to know that the
Lord Jesus Christ has died upon Calvary's cross to atone for
our sins. Happiness is to know that the
blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins. That, my friends,
is true happiness. Now then, if then we come to
that time where, where the tree falls to the ground, then it
will be to go and to be with Christ, which is far better. So we see this picture here before
us, and if the tree falls toward the south or toward the north,
in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be." You may have
noticed that the first verse in this chapter we read together
says, cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt find it
after many days. I believe this has a picture
to us again with a spiritual position. We may as it were cast
our bread. It may be that we We cry to God
in prayer, and we may expect to receive the blessing immediately.
Well, it may be after many days. We may be impatient. One of the
great blessings the Lord gives is the grace of patience, to
wait for His time, wait for His appearing, what a blessing it
is. So we have this picture here
in these verses. of this tree falling. And then
just for a little while, let's refer to the account in Job,
which again speaks of a tree. But this time it's very different. Because he says, there is hope
of a tree. Now once the tree's fallen, there's
no more hope. You see, life has ended. It's
finished. While we are alive on this earth,
there is hope. Once we have died, there is no
more hope. There is, of course, a blessing for those who are
in Christ, but there's no more hope for those who are lost. They are eternally lost. But
here we have the God-servant Job saying, for there is hope
of a tree, if it be cut down. That means it may be cut down
quite close to the ground. And all that we had, all that
appeared to be very beautiful, may have been destroyed and taken
down, cut down. Now when something is cut off,
cut down, that dies, doesn't it? You know what it's like,
you must have seen a branch from a tree with leaves and perhaps
fruit on, cut off or broken off and lying on the ground, and
the leaves, they gradually fade and they gradually shrink and
then disappear. If it's cut down, that which
is cut off, disappears eventually. But, the fact is here, if it be cut down, where's the
hope? Here's the hope that it may,
it will sprout again. Sprout again. I wonder if you
young people have seen a tree sometimes cut down, you know,
they bring a chainsaw and they cut it down, don't they, quite
close to the ground and sometimes they poison the roots so they
can't grow. Sometimes they don't poison them,
sometimes they just leave it. And after a time, well there's
some shoots growing up. There's something coming up from
that stump of the tree. There's life. In fact, the root
didn't die. The root was alive. For there
is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. And again, those
branches, they grow, you know, and they're very tender, they're
very small, and they're very frail when they first sprout
out again. Though the root thereof wax old
in the earth, and the stalk thereof die in
the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring
forth boughs like a plant. So, cut down may appear to be
dead. That may be so in our spiritual
life. You know, we may have felt we
were quite a prosperous tree. We may have thought we had quite
a good profession of faith. It may have been that we were
relatively satisfied with our religion. And on the outside it looked
quite good and it looked healthy. But then there was that time
when it was cut down and everything seemed to be lost. Cut down. What was to be seen? There wasn't
anything left. It had all been cut down. Or
perhaps that we were relying upon, in our own estimation,
we had to lose. Twice it occurs in the Proverbs,
there is a way that seemeth right to a man, but at the end they
are off for the way of death. And it is so sometimes in our
spiritual life. There are those things that We
may have claimed, laid hold of, a thought emanated from God,
and we were relatively proud and satisfied with our religion. We were going on quite happily
in it, and then the time came when it was cut down. It went, there was nothing left.
We were apparently destitute. There was no sign of life. No sign of life. It appeared
to be dead. But was it dead? Now, if it fell
down, it is dead. But if it's cut down, it may
die. But if it's cut down, there's
hope. There's hope of this tree. Once more, sprouting forth. And it's interesting to note
that it's spelled out like this. It's a tender branch. A tender branch. If we think
of that in regards to spiritual life, it may have been cut down,
it may have appeared to be dead, but it wasn't. And then there
was a tender branch growing up. Tender. Come back to the illustration
I made earlier. A tender conscience. Yet it wasn't something which
was robust and strong in and of itself. It was a tender branch. And that tender branch will not
cease. It will grow. Now, why does it
grow? Why does it grow? It grows because
the root was still there, and that root stretched forth and
received nourishment. The illustration is very good
here, yet through the scent of water, scent of water, and in
a tree, it's very interesting in a tree, The roots, you know,
that they spread out. And in the roots, you come to
the end of a root, they're very small, fibrous roots. They're just so thin. They're
so small. And those thin, fibrous roots,
it's as if they sense water. And they move towards the source
of water. And as they move towards that
sort of water, they absorb that water and that then comes and
goes up into the tree. Here we have this picture here.
Yet through the scent of water, those very small, fibrous roots,
they stretch out. I believe the picture there is
for our spiritual life. The illustration is that we cut
down We've lost, as it were, all our natural religion, that
which we were resting upon, that which we were holding on to.
We'll come back to that in a moment. But, as it was cut down then,
there was that root, and there was some life in that root, and
that root then was stretching out towards water, towards the
life. What does the Lord Jesus say? He is the water of life. What does that mean? I believe
it's like this, you and I stretch out because we hear about Jesus
and our soul goes out after Him, just as this little fibrous root
We're stretching out after Jesus. Yes, because in Him is life,
in Him is sustenance for our soul. And you see, as we reach,
as it were, that water, and like this, it needs to be just the
scent of water. We don't actually know the blessing
of that water. There's the scent, there's a
smell, There's something inside us which recognises that Lord
Jesus is what I need. I've lost all my own religion
and now I need Jesus. And there's a scent. Oh, it's
a beautiful scent, isn't it, that Lord Jesus gives forth. You can read about it in the
Song of Solomon. the scent of the Lord Jesus,
and how it draws us, draws us to Him, drawn out to the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Why are we drawn to Jesus? I
believe we are drawn to Jesus for this reason, that we behold
in Him that which our soul needs, that which our soul desires. because we've been looking at
ourselves and we've been resting perhaps in our own religion and
we found that it's been unsatisfactory we found that it hasn't really
done us any good and what's happened it's been cut down and we come back as it was at
the beginning as if we had to start again in our religion Well, what a blessing it is,
you know, if God deals with us like that, that we are able to
start again. Yes, it's not that we accept
something which is false. The Lord comes and cuts it down. We lose that which is of the
flesh, that which is of ourselves, that which we thought was right. Now, you may say, well, I wish
I knew that which was really right and that which was really
wrong. Well, I believe you and I can analyse that which is really
right and that which is really wrong by carefully examining
ourselves before God to see whether if that which we had desired
came to pass, whether we would receive any glory ourselves. Or is our glory to glory in the
work of Christ? Would you have said, oh well,
I did that, and I prayed for that, and I was blessed for that?
Or do you acknowledge that it was the Lord that came to you,
and he saw you where you were, lost and ruined, and you were
lying as it were in your blood? Lovely words, aren't they, in
Leviticus, where the Lord passed by and said, live. Yeah, that was the life of God. That
was the Word of God. That wasn't your doing. It was God's work. When the Lord
says, live, then the life is there. And there is then, that
true growth and that true knowledge and that true desire to know
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here we have this picture,
though the root thereof wets old in the earth, and the stalk
thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it
will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant. There will be a
growth. That little tender sprout will grow like a bough, will
grow up. Yes, and once again there will
be, this time, a healthy tree. And the blessing will be, if
it's that which God has done, there will be fruit. There will
be fruit. You'll rejoice in the fruit,
because it's the evidence of God's work in your heart. It's
the evidence of God's work in your soul. You'll rejoice in
the fruit. because it's God's work, because
it's God's goodness, because it's God's favour, because it's
God's gift. And so, there's been this scent,
this scent of water, this scent of this water of life, which
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see, previously, you may have possessed an outward
religion, but that had to be cut down.
And now you come to that situation where you believe in this prayer,
give me Christ or else I die. Christ is the one thing needful. I without him perish must. Reality has come into your heart. What do you see in the Lord Jesus?
You see there all that is satisfactory. Your efforts have failed. All that you have done is indeed
of no avail. Indeed, all your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. And now, as you've scented, had
the scent of Christ, you see what He is. That He is that which
you need because he has done for you what you could not do
for yourself. What has he done? He's given
his life. He's died upon Calvary's cross
to atone for your sins. Your sins which now are real. Those before which you didn't
feel very much. You didn't think very much about. Perhaps you
treated them a bit Casually, when the work of the Spirit comes,
then you fall down, and you realise, against Thee, Thee only have
I sinned. You have offended Almighty God,
and therefore you need a Saviour, and you cannot save yourself. Flee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I came to Jesus as I was. weary and worn and sad. Yes,
you came to him as you were. You didn't come all dressed up
in your own self-righteousness. You came to him as you were,
casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you, and his
care for you was so great that he came into this world and shed
his precious blood upon the cross at Calvary. Previously, You didn't
value the blood very much. You didn't think much of Calvary
or the crucifixion. But now, all that blessed God
has drawn you, that center water, that knowledge of Christ, you
realize that in Him is all your hope. And you're able to say,
my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now you see, that is so. When
that time comes, when your tree then will fall, when we cut down,
your tree will fall, it will fall in that right way, and you
will be in Christ. Once in Him, in Him forever. Your life on this earth will
have finished, but your eternal life will be forever with the
Lord. Oh, what a blessing it is then
to have a real religion, a God-given religion, which we have received
from Christ, as our soul has been drawn to Him by that scent
of water. We've been cut down, but there's
been that springing up, and we can bless God for it, so that
when that time comes, when we shall fall down, when our life
will be taken, It will be to be with Christ, which is far
better. Amen.