The Trees of the Lord

“The trees of the Lord are full of sap.”Ps. 104:16

“Every plant that my Father has not planted will be uprooted.”Jesus, in Matthew 15:13

Throughout history, men have quarreled fiercely, even fought wars, over who is serving God and who is not. The entire history of man can be learned, in general, by following the records of wars and false religion. But Jesus let us know the simple fact of the matter; namely, if God doesn’t make a person His, that person just does not belong to God and will be damned in the Final Judgment. That is what the Lord meant when he said, “Every plant that my Father has not planted will be plucked up.” In the end, only those God has chosen will be saved.

As simple a truth as that is, it has been an extraordinarily difficult truth for men to believe. The nature of man rebels against the notion that God is in absolute control of His kingdom. There are no unguarded borders and no illegal aliens in the kingdom of God. Every person who now shares in God’s kingdom first received a personal invitation from God to leave their own country and kin and come to Him. In other words, to use Jesus’ imagery, there are no trees anywhere in God’s kingdom except the trees He has personally chosen and planted there.

Let’s humble ourselves before God and confess this unchanging truth. Only those whom God cleanses from sin are cleansed from sin. Only those “born of God” are “born again”. Only those called by God can come to Jesus. Only those baptized by God are baptized; only those circumcised by God are circumcised; and the only people on earth who know God are those who have been taught by God.

Until God makes a man worthy of eternal life, that man is unworthy of it, no matter what anyone thinks of him or what he thinks of himself. Earthly titles and reputations count for nothing with God. His precious Son Jesus had a reputation among certain religious leaders for being demon-possessed. That reputation didn’t count with God, either. Men not only can be wrong; men are wrong, all the time, unless God makes them right. And the sooner we confess that truth to ourselves, the sooner we will understand that God is always right and that only those He makes right are right with Him.