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The ministry of the Word of God, and we want to look this morning in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter fifteen. We shall begin our reading at verse one. Matthew chapter fifteen and verse one. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But Jesus answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother, and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
But ye say, Whosoever shall, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift, why, whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your traditions, ye hypocrites. Well did Isaias or Isaiah the prophet prophesy of you, saying, this people draweth near unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
And he called the multitude and said unto them, Hear and understand. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Now we want to consider together those words of our Lord in answer to his own disciples. Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
Now let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you in Jesus' name for the privilege of coming, of asking, and receiving. You have told us, knock and it shall be opened unto you. Seek and ye shall find. Ask and it shall be given. And we are asking for thy power. We are asking for plainness in the proclamation of the gospel. We're asking for the blessing that flows from the throne of God for everyone who has gathered to hear the word this morning.
We ask thee, using the language of Samuel, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. And in speaking to my heart, speak to everyone in this room, and we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Our Lord spoke certain truths when he was here on earth, which were highly ob- objectionable to the scribes and the Pharisees. And the scribes and the Pharisees, they expressed their objections to what he said. Now, it's apparent that the disciples of our Lord were frightened because of what the scribes and the Pharisees said.
And our Lord's, uh, reply to them, they came to the Lord, you'll notice in verse twelve, and they said, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended? Well, who were the Pharisees? The Pharisees were the very religious people of the day. The Pharisees were that group who were very punctilious in the observance of religion. Their religion affected their pocketbook. Their religion affected their stomachs. Uh, the proud Pharisee of Luke eighteen, he said, I fast twice in the week.
That means his religion affected his stomach. He said, I pay tithes of all that I possess. His religion affected his pocketbook, and they were looked upon as the real religious people. If anybody has it, these people do. And of course, the disciples, realizing that these religious and, uh, these religious big shots, as it were, were offended by the statement of our Lord. They come to the Lord and say, don't you know that you offended them? Nobody goes around offending Pharisees. And our Lord answered them with a very interesting word of truth.
He said, every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Now, our Lord simply spoke more truth. When they were offended, he just gave them just a little more, for that's what they needed. Now, Matthew Henry states this concerning our Lord's answer. He said, a number of good and affectionate but weak hearers are always afraid that they're going to offend their hearers. Now, if we never offended, it would be proof positive that we didn't preach the gospel.
For the gospel offends. The gospel tells man he's a sinner. The gospel tells the religious man that his religion will take him to hell, but it will never take him to heaven. He needs to be planted by God, for every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted will be rooted up. And whether the rooting comes sooner, the rooting up comes sooner, or whether it comes later, it doesn't make much difference, for it will come. For every plant, he says, that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
Now, being offended, people will discover what they really are in the sight of God. Now, we don't run around trying to offend people, and our Lord never did. Our Lord was known as the one who is kind and gracious. They had to say what gracious words proceeded out of his mouth. The officers who went to take him prisoner came back without him, and he said, never man spake like this man. So our Lord didn't intentionally try to offend people, but what our Lord did, he spoke the truth, and if the truth offends, then the truth offends.
And the gospel always, if it's going to quicken us, it has to, first of all, disturb us in our sins and make us offended with ourselves. Then we're ready for the healing balm of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Spurgeon said this, the man who doesn't know how to pluck up the tares which God hasn't planted scarcely understands how to be a worker in the vineyard of God. Now, our ministry must be to kill all false hopes, to blight all wrong confidences, to weed out all foolish trusts, and to produce real hope.
And we must try to comfort at the same time we do that and encourage even the most weak and sincere follower of our blessed Lord. Our ministry must be a killing one, and it must be a healing one. And if I could kill any false hopes that you might have that everything is all right if it's all wrong, I've done you the biggest favor on earth. At the same time, we don't want to disturb anyone that is the Lord's or take any comfort from you, nor do we want to seek to discourage you from walking in a path of obedience unto him.
For to our own master we stand or fall, and we don't stand or fall in reality before anyone else. Now, our text, every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. This text applies to every doctrine of scripture, every false system of religion. Whatever God has not planted, friends, will be rooted up. Now it's of little consequence, friends, when you look at this text, what people are if they aren't saved. It doesn't matter if they're a proud religious Pharisee.
If they're not saved, they're lost. It doesn't matter if they're a Lutheran. That's what my dad was. He was a deacon, but he was lost. It doesn't matter if they're a lost Baptist, or a lost Roman Catholic, or a lost anybody else, no matter what position they occupy. It doesn't make any difference, you see. It's of little confidence or consequence. But you see, if they are not brought to know the Lord, it's not important what kind of religion they have.
You see, they incur the same wrath of God, and they inherit the same condemnation. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, our Lord said, shall be rooted up. Be sure in your heart of this one thing. If God hasn't planted it, it will be plucked up. Now, a preacher may plant it, and a preacher may plant it with well-intended ability. Martyrs may water it with their blood.
Confessor after confessor may defend it with his learning and courage, and time may endear it, and literature may protect it, and kings may keep guard of it, but if it hasn't been planted by God, it will be plucked up. Do you believe that? Now we want to ask ourselves three questions this morning. Question number one: am I a plant that God has planted? That's a good question. Question number two: what does it mean to be plucked up?
And question number sh- number three: how can I be sure that I have been planted by God? Question number one: am I a plant that God has planted? Now, when you plant something, you plant it with design. And when God plants a plant, he plants it with design, and he's going to take care of that which you pl- which he plants. To be planted by God means that care has been taken, a definite work has been done, and God is going to watch over that which he has planted.
Now, believers are comparable to plants, things that come under the gardener's care, planted in the soil, tended by his skill, and looked upon with interest as his own. In the first Psalm, the Psalm of the Blessed Man, we read, blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, and all those other things, and then we read, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers and waters, which bringeth forth his fruit in his season. Therefore, our Lord's analogy, every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, has its roots in the first Psalm, for those planted by God are like a tree who brings forth fruit in his season.
Now the ungodly do not bear fruit. Many professors of religion, many who profess to be saved are like wild plants, but they have never been planted by God because their fruit is bitter, their fruit is poisonous, their fruit is acrid and deadly to the taste of those who pass by. Of the tares in Matthew chapter thirteen that the enemy sowed, our Lord shall say in that day, gather out of my kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity.
Now, many are plants that have never been planted by God. For our Lord says, every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. It's possible to be planted by the minister, by the preacher. It's possible to be. It reminds me of the drunk who was going down the street of Chicago one day, and he met Mr. Moody, D. L. Moody, and he was looking for a handout to buy more liquor, and he said to Mr. Moody, Mr. Moody, I'm one of your converts. He said, you sure look like it. You're not the Lord's.
Oh, it's easy possible to be planted by a minister, you know, for a man's converts are always a disgrace to him. A man's converts are always a disgrace to him, because if the preacher is a person's captain, you take the captain away, and the soldier is going to run. But you see, if the Lord is his captain, he will stand. In the days of C. H. Spurgeon, there were four great preachers in London, and they're well known for their preaching ability. Richard Dale, one of them, Joseph Parker, another, Alexander McLaren, another, and of course, the great C.
H. Spurgeon. There's a man went to hear Joseph Parker in one Lord's Day morning, and he came away and he said, oh, what a preacher. Oh, what a preacher. He went to hear Mr. Spurgeon that night, and he came away and he said, oh, what a savior. Oh, what a savior, my friend. To meet the savior is far better than meeting the preacher. Oh, what a savior. He's a savior who is able to plant. My friend, a man's converts are always a disgrace to him.
If your conversion is only human, persuaded by some mere person, and you have never been operated upon by the Holy Spirit of God, you will be like Peter describes in second Peter two, like a dog that returns to his vomit, or as a pig that was washed that goes back to marring in the dirt. Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. It's easy to be planted by a minister, but it's possible to be planted by your parents.
It is possible for parents to plant somebody. I'm thinking of a friend of mine, his name is David Kwiatkowski. Got a hold of his dad when he was in Lehi- Lehigh University. When, uh, David was a young man in college, there's a woman in that area that was moving to California. So he said, I'll, I'll drive the truck, and he put his bicycle in the back of the truck. And he pedaled his bicycle from California to, uh, back to White Plains, New York. He rode his bicycle over the Rocky Mountains each way, from west to east, and then he rode it from east to west.
He said it took him almost eight hours to just climb one of the passes, and he said it only took him, uh, twenty-some some minutes to go down the other side. But David Kwiatkowski, he was pressed into a decision by his mother. And I'm not against, beloved, teaching our children. I can give you verses in the Bible that are so important for teaching children, but I think we need the wisdom, beloved, not to press them for decisions, because when the Spirit of God does a work in the heart, it'll be done right.
If you do it, they'll only be responding to you. Well, David Kwiatkowski went off to college, and in college the peer pressure is tough, and he got involved in a lot of the things that college students get involved in, drugs and every- and other things. And God, by his gracious spirit, called David to himself through conviction of sin, and he had a genuine conversion to God. He went to his mother and he told her that God saved him.
Oh, she said, you got saved back there. I remember. No, he said, mother, I didn't get saved. I just agreed with you, that's all. And David Kwiatkowski used that little phrase with me, Jesus loves me, this I know, for my mommy tells me so. But to know the love of Christ, because the Spirit of God has done a work in the heart, so you can say, I have been planted by God. And there are multitudes of people go around telling others, now you're saved.
They put them through one, two, three, four steps. Do you believe this? Yes, I believe that. Do you believe this? Yes, I believe that. Well, then God's word says you're saved. Well, beloved, every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let me give you an illustration. About two three years ago, I was in a home visiting with another brother one night, and a fellow was there, the son of this family. There were a number of children in the family, but the son moved in that night, that day or the night before, and I tell you, he had all his junk lying over the living room.
He lived like a hippie. And I tell you, she couldn't find a spot for us to sit down. And he was living in adultery. He was living in all kinds of sin and wickedness, but his mother announced to us that he was saved. He made a profession. She wormed a profession out of him when he was a little boy. She announced that he was saved. Well, I didn't want to embarrass her, but I met her a few days later, and I said, I have a question in my mind concerning what you told me.
You told me that your son was saved. May I ask you a question? I said, what was he saved from? She looked at me, and she said, oh, he was saved from hell, first of all. Oh no, I said. No one is ever saved from hell, first of all. They are saved from hell last of all. The first thing that God saves a person from is their sin. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
And my dear friend, I wouldn't give you two cents for a profession that didn't deliver me from sin and make me a lover of righteousness. For God's word declares that the Spirit of God who comes to indwell the child of God is the Holy Spirit. And to be planted by God means that God takes us, and he plants us, and he waters us, and he watches over us. It's possible to be planted by the preacher.
It's possible to be planted by parents, and it's possible to be self-planted, to plant yourself. We can be so full of good deeds. We can be so full of our own efforts, our own striving, our own praying. And we can have an experience that we borrowed from books. And the Spirit of God has not done a work in the life. You see, wild plants even bear fruit. Oh yes. And our Lord instructed his disciples, don't pull up the tares, lest you pull up some of the wheat.
So I ask you to answer the question to yourself. Have I been planted by God? But now, second question. What does it mean to be rooted up? For our Lord said, every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Alas, friends, for some, the uprooting comes in this life. The time comes when the winds of persecution blow, and the person turns back to the world.
And we stand in amazement. It happens. For many who made professions, the call of the world is more important than the call of God. Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Alas, friends, there are many souls that are deceived, and once death overtakes a person, it's too late. I won a man to the Lord a number of years ago.
Uh, he was dying of cancer. His sister was in fellowship in our meeting, and I went to the hospital. My, he had made two or three professions in the hospital by these fellows who go around and try to, uh, get them to say yes to this and yes to that, and then put up another stroke, got another convert. Now, there's nothing wrong, beloved, with going around and proclaiming the gospel. Let's do it, and we need to do it more, and I emphasize that. But I knew that if Bill was going to be saved, he needed to know he was lost.
For God saves lost people, friends. And every time I'd go to Bill's house after he was discharged from the hospital, someone would be with him, and I never could get right down to business with him. And oh, I wanted to, and I was leaving for Bermuda for three weeks of meetings, and I wanted to be sure that Bill heard the gospel before I left. And I prayed about it, and God, and I said, I'm going to go at a different time of the day, and I went, I was going in in the afternoon, and I went one morning, and he was all alone. And oh boy, I thought, what an opportunity. And I turned to Bill, and I said to him, Bill, I'm as sure of heaven as I am that I'm sitting here in this chair.
And he burst crying. He's a big fella, tough. He's a guy who went hunting continually for everything there is to hunt in the area. He was, he went for it. He burst out, oh, he said, I wish I could be sure. I wish I knew I was saved. That's one thing I wish I knew. And that morning, with an open Bible, I had him turn with me to John chapter five verse twenty four. I explained to him what it means to hear the word of God. He that heareth my word. I explained to him what it means to believe on Jesus Christ.
He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but he's passed from death into life. And that morning, Bill Pickett came to know Jesus Christ. Now, there's a reason I believe he was genuinely saved. It wasn't long until he was in Duke Hospital, and I went to visit him after I came back from Bermuda. And one evening, as I was with him and opening the scriptures, he said, you know, he said, I don't believe I'm saved. Oh, that's a good sign.
That's a good sign, friends. That means he wanted to be. He said to me, I'm not sure I'm saved. He said, last night the pain was so bad. He said, I said some words that I shouldn't have said, and it bothered me. And he said, I called on the, I cried out to God, and I said, oh, if you can forgive me, I'm so sorry. He, I said, Bill, let me ask you a question. Did you ever do that before you were lost, when you were lost, before you were certain? Never. So that's all right. Here's what the scripture says to the child of God, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The day came that Bill died. I was in the hospital with his wife. Veterans Hospital in Durham. She was sitting over in the corner crying. She couldn't look at Bill. I turned to her, and as I sat with her, said, Agnes, did you ever bake a cake? That's a strange question, isn't it? Ever bake a cake? She said, I sure did. Then tell me something. Are the cakes you bake now better than the ones you baked when you first got married? He said, yes, much better. I said, in other words, you've improved by doing.
He said, that's right. I said, you know, there's something in life you only get to do once, and that's die. I said, Agnes, take a look at Bill. He's doing it right. Take a good look. You never get a chance to come back and do it again because I didn't do it right the first time. The scripture says it is appointed unto man once to die, and after this the judgment. I said, look, there's only one right way to die. It's to die in Christ.
And to die in Christ means that you have been planted by the Heavenly Father, and you will never be plucked up. A hundred years from the day, what's going to be most important in your life? Well, for a lot of us, fifty years from the day, what's going to be most important? And for guys like me, twenty five. what's going to be most important in your life? The only thing that really counts is a relationship to Jesus Christ, and if it's all important then, why isn't it important now? I had a man who claims to be a hedonist and an agnostic say to me the other week, said, oh, I want you to go see Frank.
He's a friend of ours who's dying of cancer. In fact, he died. And he knew that I was going to Pennsylvania the next day, he said, and uh, we met at Frank's home, and we couldn't see him because he was asleep. And he said they g- we went and got a cup of coffee and the restaurant, and as he sat down, he said, Phil, when are you leaving tomorrow? I said, I'm leaving early in the morning. He said, do you think you'd have an opportunity to see Frank this afternoon? To go back today? And you know, and he hung his head.
Now this guy's a mason, he's a Shriner, he's an inventor. He has a lot of degrees behind his name, but this is what he said to me. He said, Phil, Frank's just like me. He's not ready to go. I turned to this fellow Charlie, and I said, Charles, I said, if you know you're not ready to go, the Bible says today is the day of salvation. Behold, now is the accepted time. You're a fool, man, to put this off.
The problem isn't Frank. The problem right now is you. And just then we were interrupted. You see, the only thing that matters a hundred years from today, have I really been planted by God? Have I planted myself? Has a preacher planted me? Or has my mother planted me? Has some worker planted me? Or has God done it? Has God done the work? Our Lord said to the Pharisees of his day, every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
Now, the third question, and we have to deal with this quickly, and I'd like to, uh, spend a lot more time. How can I tell if I've been planted by God? How can I tell if I've been planted by God? Well, let me say this. If I am a plant of the Lord's planting, then were there was a time when I was taken out of the place where I once grew. Can I remember that time when God dug me up? Dug me up as a plant until the roots of my heart began to bleed. Until he, as he pulled off the soil to which my those roots clung.
And as he pulled them off, my heart bled. It's what we call conviction of sin. Do I remember when he loosened the soil about those roots? I thought, oh, I can take that with me, but I learned that I couldn't. See, Colossians chapter one and verse thirteen says that he hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and he hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Do I remember this, when he took me out of the soil that I was growing in, and he translated me, and he planted me in the fertile soil of his wondrous grace.
There's a second thing to consider. If I have been planted by God, then within me I pant to be conformed to the image of his dear son. If sin is a pleasure to you, be careful. If you enjoy sin, be very careful. Examine your heart. What would you think if you saw a fish in a tree? Well, that fish in a tree is certainly out of its element. And beloved, when a Christian is living in sin, so-called a professor living in sin, they're out of their element.
And when I see a man who is living in sin and he professes to be saved, he is either out of his element or he has never been planted by God. It's one or the other. There's a third way I can know that I've been planted by God. If I've been planted of God, then I have learned that I am utterly helpless, and I am utterly empty apart from Jesus Christ. I have learned that he alone is my righteousness, for God hath made him righteousness. Of him are we in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, even righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
He's our righteousness. Furthermore, the Spirit of God alone is my strength. And if you've been planted by God, you've learned this, that without him I can do nothing. And you have nothing of your own that you can really boast of. For first Corinthians chapter four verse seven, a verse sometime I hope to preach on. What do you have that you didn't receive? And since you received it, why do you glory as though you received it not? You see, another way we can know that we've been planted of God is all of God's plants are in the same soil.
They're all in the same soil. They're in the body of Christ. He's, God has but one church, and that church is his body, and all those who are in Christ are there. They're all fed from the same source, the word of God. Furthermore, they are all on the same rock, our Lord Jesus Christ, and all planted by God put their trust alone in Christ Jesus and in him alone. On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Two things quickly in closing. Jonathan Edwards, uh, as he recalled the great revivals of New England in that first great awakening in America, he remarked that in the revival there were sinners of all sorts converted, except unconverted professors. And this is what Jonathan Edwards said. He said, these unconverted professors are in the most dangerous state possible for a man to ever be in.
I ask you this morning, have you been planted by God? Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. There's a second thing I'd like to leave with you, and that is this. Every tree must do its own growing, no matter how tall its parents are. You can't expect anybody else to do your growing if you're a child of God.
You can't depend on how tall your parents are. Are you doing your own growing? Have I been planted by God? If I'm planted, then he's gonna water me. He's gonna watch over me, and I grow in his presence. If you're here this morning, and you're not sure if you're really the Lord's or if you're not. Maybe you've been planted by parents, by some preacher, I don't know. But I'll tell you this, you're gonna be rooted up if you're not planted by God.
Not because I said it. It's because the Lord said it, and we invite you to come to Christ. If we can help you, remain behind. I'll be right here at the front. Come and let's have a chat together. Let's talk about it with an open Bible. Make sure that you're planted by God. Our Lord Jesus said, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. This is the most important question in life. Am I planted by God?
I think we should sing a hymn in closing. Three hundred seventy two, I think it is. Who is on the Lord's side? Are you on his side? Are you really his? Two hundred— three hundred seventy two. We'll sing the first and the third. Those who have been planted by God have to say, and I want you to lead it, brother, uh, the third stanza, notice what it says. Jesus, thou hast bought us, not with gold or gem, but with thine own lifeblood for thy diadem, with thy blessing filling each who comes to thee. Thou hast made us willing.
I tell you, when the Spirit of God loosens up the soil of the roots, we're being made willing. Thou hast made us willing. Thou hast made us free by thy grand redemption, by thy grace divine. We're on the Lord's side. Savior, we're thine. My friend, is it yours? Oh, this is a joy. Are you on his side? Let's stand together and sing these two stanzas, first and third. Let's stand as our brother leads us. Who is on the Lord's side?
Who will serve the king? Who will be his helper, other life to bring? Who will leave the world? Who will face the foe? Who will done the Lord's side? Who for him will go? By thy call of mercy, by thy grace divine, we are on the Lord's side, Señor, we are thine.
Jesus so has bought us, not with gold or gems, but with thine own life, God, formed I die again. With thy blessing filling, he too comes to be. Thou hast made us willing, thou hast made us free. By thy grant we dead. Our Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you this morning that we can be on your side.
You've invited us to come. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. And we thank you that when we came, thy redemption was indeed grand. It cleansed us from our sin. It placed us in Christ, and we are there for time and eternity. We thank you for it. Now we pray that if there are any in the meeting this morning who have not been planted by thee, and maybe they're plowed up a little by your word, we ask you to continue that work until they sweetly rest in thee.
Don't give them any rest nor peace. Go with them in conviction, but upon thine own that have truly believed in thee, may that sense of being planted by thee go with us and bring that joy in the grand redemption that is ours in Jesus Christ, and we'll praise you in his wondrous name. Amen.