Search
Scripture Reading: Song of Songs 4:12; Hosea 14:5-7; Mark 4:5-6, 16-17
Mark 4 has many important things to say concerning the Christian life. Concerning this passage, the first thing that brothers and sisters often ask is whether this passage refers to saved ones or unsaved ones. But we should not ask whether the seeds refer to saved ones or unsaved ones. The parable of the sower is not for the purpose of showing how these four kinds of soil relate to saved ones or unsaved ones. The purpose of this parable is to show us the four kinds of conditions under which man receives God’s word. Therefore, it does not refer only to the word of regeneration. If it is God’s word, there will be these four kinds of reactions. There will be four reactions in the case of Gentiles receiving eternal life, and there will be four reactions in the case of Christians being perfected before God. Please remember that the principle and teaching covered here have to do absolutely with the condition of the one who is receiving the word; they do not have anything to do with whether or not a person is saved. Therefore, we must not bring the issue of salvation into this passage. This passage only tells us the condition of man’s receiving or refusing God’s word. It is therefore applicable to the believers as well. In other words, this portion of the Scripture is not just for the Gentiles but for the Christians as well.
Now by God’s grace, I will show you the kind of living that is pleasing to God and that will remain. What is the kind of living that will last and stand the tests? By God’s grace, I will show you the deep degree to which God’s word has to work in us before we can have the real growth in the divine word.
I know that all of us are after spirituality before God. I know that all of us desire before the Lord that we become believers who please God. We all hope that our living and work will be acceptable to God. No doubt this is what we are after. But why are there so many people who have failed along the way? Why are there so many who have only gone halfway? How many today are fully obedient to the Lord? How many are following the Lord all the way? There are many who have a good start but not many who have a good continuation. It is not surprising for anyone to have a good start. What is precious is a good continuation. A good start does not guarantee a good ending. Those who are obedient at the beginning may not be obedient at the end. When we read Leviticus, we find that those who are twenty years old are evaluated more highly than those who are sixty years old. Why? The reason is that some who were fully for the Lord when they were twenty years old retired before they were sixty. How many will follow the Lord all the way? When you were young, you were obedient. Why then have you now slackened? Perhaps a few years ago, things were not as they are now. Perhaps the heart you now have is totally different from the heart you had when you first began to follow the Lord. Perhaps some time ago, you were willing to suffer for the Lord and endure tribulations for the sake of God’s will. But your condition today is different from the beginning. Is there anyone who will follow the Lord all the way and not stop halfway? Before you encounter tribulations, and before you find things contrary to your own will, it is easy to say, “Lord, I will obey You at all costs.” But when the Lord’s will is different from your will, when the Lord’s arrangement is different from your expectation, and when you see a great mountain blocking your way and consider it too high to climb over, you will not say before the Lord, “I will obey You at all costs.” This is the way many obey. In the beginning, when you see the importance of God’s eternal will and the seriousness of His will with respect to Christ, you make up your mind, saying, “God, I will obey at all costs.” But when God’s ordained way becomes different from your way, and your expectation different from God’s, you drop the necessary yoke, go around the cross that is set before you, and lose your heart to follow the Lord all the way.
Brothers and sisters, there is only one kind of life that will glorify the Lord; it is a life that bears the cross all the way to the end. Oh, we can never avoid the cross. If we are not truly dealt with by the Lord, and if we do not deny our self and take up the cross to follow Him, sooner or later we will not be able to get through. If we have not been thoroughly dealt with and have not fully consecrated ourselves once for all, there will be a day when we come face to face with something we will not be able to endure. False spiritual growth can deceive us and deceive others, but sooner or later, we will see that we cannot get through in a certain matter. A man can give up everything, but he cannot give up himself. If we are not thoroughly dealt with, we will not be able to get through in anything; we will find that the price is too great to follow the Lord and will give up.
Now we want to see the reason why some cannot follow the Lord all the way. May we find light from the Scripture, and may we receive help from God and revelation from the Holy Spirit to see this reason.
Mark 4:5 says, “And other seed fell on the rocky place, where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.” Immediately it sprang up. This is what happens today. To spring up is to have the hope of life. To spring up means that the seed has sprouted. To spring up means that the word is no longer just the word but has been changed to life. To spring up means that you have not only confessed the word but have received it into you; the word has begun to grow within you. To spring up means that the outer shell of the seed has been broken and the seed has sprouted. It means that you have accepted the word and made a start. Thank the Lord that we have all made a start. The word of the cross has already made a start in us. Its sprout has come forth. But the Lord said that even though some began this way, they did not have a good ending. He said, “And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered” (v. 6). What kind of persons are these? They are the ones who have a good beginning but do not have a good ending. They are the ones who have obeyed at the beginning but have turned back halfway. What kind of persons are these? They are the ones who are willing to give up everything for the Lord at the beginning but become reluctant to do so later. They are the ones who sprang forth but have eventually dried up. They are the ones who sprang forth but are now drying up. To spring forth means that life is present; to dry up means that the hope that was present is gone. Many who failed halfway had much hope at the beginning; they knew that this way was the right way, and they expected much from this right way. Yet after three to five months, or three to five years, they are finished and dried up. The life they initially had is gone, and all the signs of life have disappeared from them.
What is the reason for this? The Lord Himself gave an explanation: “And likewise, these are the ones being sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. Yet they have no root in themselves, but last only for a time; then when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they are stumbled” (vv. 16-17). According to the Lord, they have met with affliction and persecution and have fallen back. The persecution spoken of here comes because of the word; it is not the ordinary kind of persecution. The affliction spoken of here comes also because of the word; it is not an ordinary kind of affliction. They received the word but cannot receive the affliction and persecution that come with the word. As a result they fall.
With every word, there is its affliction and persecution. When a Gentile, that is, a sinner, receives the Lord, spontaneously he encounters affliction and persecution. However, I will not go into that now. What I am saying is that when a Christian receives the word, any kind of word, he will surely encounter affliction and persecution. Therefore, he cannot take the word as his ornament and presume that whatever he heard, he can preach. He may be able to do this with other kinds of knowledge, but he cannot be so quick with the word. He must pass through genuine dealings, truly be dead and crucified for the word’s sake, and truly broken by God for the testimony’s sake before he can be a proper testimony. It is not a question of putting together a few similar verses, categorizing them a little, and composing a little to come up with a message. That is not a message. He can find many things like this in a concordance. He must be genuinely dealt with before he can have a message. Therefore, no word can be free from its accompanying affliction and persecution.
Why is this the case? After we have heard a teaching and received it, God will surely create an environment that calls for the need of that word. For example, we may hear a word on patience today and receive it. God will then create for us an environment that requires patience. Or we may hear a word on brotherly love and receive it. God will create for us an environment that requires love. What the ears hear and the mouth says is not reliable. The only thing that is genuine is being able to practice the word when things occur. This is why all the words bring their affliction and persecution. They are there to test if you have really received the word. There is not one teaching in the Bible that can be acquired without paying a price for it. Coming behind all His teachings is God’s creation of an environment that calls for the need of such teachings. The purpose of this is to test if the things we have received are genuine or false.
Many times, when the brothers and sisters hear a word on the cross, a word on absolute consecration, or a word on absolute holiness, they become very excited and think that they have it, know it, and understand it. Brothers, do not rejoice so soon, for shortly thereafter affliction and persecution will come to you. They will come to test if you have indeed received this word. If you have, the affliction and persecution will prove that you have received it. If you have not received it or have only received it in a superficial or shallow way, the coming of the affliction and persecution will overwhelm you. Please remember that the affliction and persecution are there only to expose your true condition; they will never take away what is real. They only prove that you have indeed received the Lord’s word; they will not cause you to lose the Lord’s word. If something is gold, it will never be turned into brass through the testing of fire. No matter how hot the fire, it will not change the nature of gold. However, if something is only gilded with gold, if it is only covered with a coating of gold but does not have gold within, its nature will be exposed by the fire.
Please remember that you may hear a teaching, but the teaching is not necessarily yours. After you hear it, God will immediately give you a test to determine whether or not the word is yours. Although you have heard a word and have some scriptural knowledge about that particular word, you have not paid the price to join yourself to the word; you have not denied yourself and accepted the cross in your experience. You say with your mouth that you will obey. You may even pray happily saying, “Lord, I am willing to fully lay aside myself.” Brothers and sisters, I can tell you that the Lord’s sun will soon come. If you really have life, if you really have roots, and if you are genuine toward the Lord, the sun will help you to grow; it will help you with your development. But if you do not have roots, you will be dried up as soon as the sun comes out. All the trials are there to help you grow. If what you have is not genuine and not purely for the Lord, the trials will smash all that is not real and deceptive. They will show you what you really are within, exposing everything you have within and without to show you if both are the same.
Brothers and sisters, do you know what the sun is? Do you know what affliction and persecution are in reality? Let me tell you. They are the ultimate expression of the Lord’s love — the cross. There is nothing that cultivates our life more than the cross, and there is no better trial than the cross. The cross has separated the whole world into two classes. On the one side are the overcoming ones, and on the other side are the defeated ones. The difference between the two is the cross. The cross makes a separation between the two. I know of many people who were just like the people in the world in the beginning; they felt happy in the world. But once they were enlightened and received God’s revelation, they resolved to serve the Lord properly from that time forward. They resolved to be disciples, set aside everything else, and follow the Lord properly. They felt that they were quite good and that they could probably go on in this way. But they were deceived because they did not know their real condition. God would not allow them to be forever ignorant of their real condition. For this reason, He did something to expose their true self. They had a high evaluation of themselves, so God gave them special trials. He could not allow them to remain in darkness forever. This is why He had to give them the cross, to expose their true self. Then one day, they found that they had a problem with God and began to argue with Him. I am afraid that many Christians have already had an argument with God and developed a problem with God. One day you will find that God has not dealt with you according to your expectation. You will find that God has not done what you expected. You hope that God will do things one way, but He decides to do them another way. You hope that God will not do things that way, but He does them exactly that way. You feel unhappy and consider in your heart that God has done the wrong thing. When you see that God’s speaking is different from yours, that His work is different from yours, and that the places He wants to go are different from the places you want to go, you will be dissatisfied with His arrangements and begin to argue with Him, asking why He is doing these things. You will begin to be angry with God and misunderstand Him. It may never occur to you that a servant of the Lord will encounter these things. But to your surprise, they will take hold of you. These things will not be a part of your plan, but they will fill your environment, school, home, and office. As a result, you will begin to argue with God and blame Him. Brothers and sisters, please remember that this type of argument will keep you back and make you dry. Please remember that all of our spiritual dryness begins with arguing with God and being unwilling to yield to Him. Every argument is followed by failures. If God has failed, and you have won, you will surely become dry. Therefore, every time you go to God, the cross is your test; it will determine if your life is rich or dry.
I know that many of you have argued with God this way. I also know that many of you are still in the midst of arguments and have not settled them yet. You continue to complain about the way God has dealt with you. Brothers, let me tell you that the outcome of such arguments will determine how you live from this point forward. In other words, the richness or dryness of our life depends on the way you handle such arguments. If you win, God will fail, and there will be no other result but dryness. Never rejoice at your victory or your freedom. Never think that you have won forever just because you have gained what you desired. This is really a pronouncement that your life is drying up and that your living is falling fast. This is the experience of many people. All spiritual dryness comes when you begin to argue with God, when He has failed and you have won. Your life will never flourish when God fails. Actually, this will never happen. Brothers and sisters, if you are in the middle of a dispute with God and the matter is not yet settled, if there is an unresolved problem between you and God, and if you are still not clear concerning the will of God, I can frankly say that this is very dangerous. You have to be very careful. If you blame God or despise His arrangement, you will fail right then. There is no need to wait until the whole thing is exposed; your dryness will begin right then.
Therefore, God will not allow us to hear a message or offer a consecration and let the matter be concluded. Every time you say that you will not fail, that you will be an obedient Christian, and that you will follow the Lord to walk in the way, the Lord will test you immediately. The Lord will not allow you to bear the name of being obedient to Him, without first testing you. He can only use those vessels that have passed the test. Whether or not you are faithful is not determined at the time you hear a message, nor is it determined by your confession or acceptance. Since God cannot trust in you, He allows affliction and persecution pertaining to His word to come upon you and test you to see how you will react. Then you will prove if you really are for God or if you were merely making a superficial confession. At the time of your trial, you may not praise Him as much as before. During those times, you may not be as clear about God as before. But He still has to test you.
Friends, when I first began to work for the Lord, I went one day to visit an elderly sister, Miss Barber. We sat in the living room together. She began to ask me, “Is your intention in giving yourself to serve God something that God wants? What does the Lord want you to do?” I answered, “He wants me to serve Him.” She then asked, “What if the Lord does not want you to work for Him?” I answered, “He surely wants me to work for Him. I know that.” She then began to read with me the passage in Matthew 15 concerning the Lord feeding the four thousand with the seven loaves and the fish. She asked me what this passage meant. I answered that the disciples put the loaves and the fish in the Lord’s hand, and when the Lord had blessed them, they became manifold and the four thousand were fed. She then added one word, which I can never forget to this day. Of course, at that time I was quite bewildered. She said that all the loaves in the Lord’s hand were first broken before they were distributed. Any loaf that was not broken could not be changed and could not sustain another’s life. She also said, “Brother (actually she was older than my parents), please remember that many times we are like the loaves, who would say: ‘Lord, I will consecrate myself to you.’ But even though we have consecrated ourselves, we secretly hope in our heart that the Lord will not break us. We hope that the loaf can always be whole, beautiful, and always remain unchanged. But no loaf that is in His hand is ever unbroken. If you do not want to be broken, it is better that you do not put yourself in His hand.” It has been twelve years since the day she talked to me about this. During these twelve years, I have deeply learned this lesson. I realize deeply that this word is true. Every loaf that is in the Lord’s hand is broken by Him. Therefore, allow me to say the same thing to you now: “If you do not want to be broken by the Lord, please do not put yourself into His hand.” This is where the problem lies with many people. When they hear the teachings concerning overcoming, they are very happy and say, “God, I will consecrate everything I have to you.” But when God begins to break them, they cry, “Oh, I did not expect to encounter such things.” Brothers and sisters, this kind of living is painful and difficult to bear. On the one hand, God has laid hold of us, and we cannot be like other ordinary men anymore. On the other hand, we do not want to be broken that way. Therefore, if you have not counted the cost and are not ready to be broken by Him, you will find yourselves dissatisfied with God, and God will be dissatisfied with you.
If you do not want to follow the Lord, God can do nothing with you. But if you realize that it is right to obey the Lord and do not want your life to dry up, wanting instead to have a strong and vigorous life, you will have to allow God to test the reality of the word you received with affliction and persecution. I do not know how many people have experienced dryness as a result of failing the test of this word.
In another two days, we will consider God’s eternal purpose. It is questionable whether or not we can come up to that standard. Many times we hope and desire, but we have not passed through the dealings in a proper way. As a result, we cannot be as we wish. Therefore, the cross is our test. The cross will separate us, and we will see on which side we are. I will not go into this at this time. I will speak on the reason that the seed becomes dry. Why do seeds grow so fast, yet dry up so soon? Why do they dry up immediately after the sun comes out? The Lord gives us three reasons in Mark 4.
He said that the first reason is that there is not enough earth. This means that the earth is not deep; there is not much depth to the earth. A person in this condition has just a small amount; everything about him is shallow. There is not much within him; he is very superficial. He is easily satisfied and easily hungry. He takes in little and is satisfied with a little. It is easy for him to rejoice and easy for him to be sorrowful. It is easy for him to laugh and easy for him to cry. He is standing in a shallow place. He is a person living according to his environment, that is, he lives in his emotions. There is nothing in this world that is more shallow than his emotion and environment.
If a tree is large, its roots will surely be big, because it has to go deep into the earth to find water. Some roots go down as far as two or three miles because there is no water on the surface. When roots find no water on the surface, they will go to the depths. They will go down miles for water. One can find palm trees in the middle of the Arabian deserts. They wave with lush greenness under the scorching sun. The reason they can do this is that their roots have stretched themselves to the sweet water; they are no longer afraid of the hot sun. Therefore, even though they are most severely burned, they can absorb the cool water freely because they are not living on the surface of the earth but within the depths of the soil.
Oh, all those who live by their environment or by their feelings are living on shallow ground. Although I have not been working for the Lord for a long time, according to my experience, the most difficult kind of people are those who say “yes” to everything. No matter what you say, they respond with “yes,” superficially accepting what you say. They appear to be very attentive. Actually, within them, they have nothing. The people who laugh and cry easily, who are easily affected by the weather, who become happy or sad because of their feelings or environment, are difficult to handle. The people of shallow earth are controlled by their emotions or environment. The deep ones are not that way. What they see is not the environment, but the Lord behind the environment. What they know is not the emotion. They have locked up their emotion and know the Lord from within.
Brothers and sisters, what becomes of those with a little earth? The Lord shows us a profound lesson here. If we are not looking at the Lord behind the environment but are living by our emotion or the environment, we will not be able to hold fast to any doctrine or teaching. What is the Lord doing among us today? He is seeking for some among us to be the overcomers. We will never be able to be the overcomers if we live every day according to the environment without any assurance at all; this is to live by our feelings without the knowledge of the Lord. Many Christians are happy when they progress in a smooth way. But when they encounter any darkness, they feel that everything is depressing. They do not know anything about the work of the Holy Spirit. They are not living by the Lord, but by man’s word, their own thoughts, and the arrangement of the environment. If they live this way, they will immediately fail when the trials come. Once the cross comes to them, they will fall. Therefore, if we fall back at the trials and do not take up the cross to press on, we will not be of much use to the Lord. Rather, we will be shallow, without much of anything, sensitive in our feelings, and living according to our feelings.
The Lord tells us that the second reason for barrenness is the lack of roots. What is a root? In a tree, the part that can be seen is the trunk, while the part beneath the ground, which cannot be seen, is the root. The branches have life and are visible; the roots are invisible. The roots are buried in the earth. Therefore, the roots refer to the hidden life. Those who do not have any root before the Lord will be dried up in their life. Those who do not have a hidden life, who do everything before men and have nothing special before the Lord, cannot stand the test of the cross. Brothers and sisters, let me ask you honestly, is your living only what is seen by men? Do you have any secret life before the Lord, inside your own room? If your prayers can only be heard in the prayer meetings, if you only read your Bible to others, and if your works are all before men, you do not have any roots. Do you know what the roots are? The roots are the parts that cannot be seen, that are hidden, and that are in secret. The visible parts are not the roots. Therefore, before the Lord you must ask yourself how much of your living is actually before Him? Other than the part of your living, testimony, Bible reading, and prayer that have been done before men, how much has been done in secret? If you do not have a secret or hidden life before God and if you do not have any secret prayer, reading, or obedience, I can say very frankly that you do not have any roots. When the cross comes, it is no wonder that you cannot bear it. The only reason for this is that you lack a crucial, hidden life. Nothing can preserve you as much as a hidden life. If you see that a brother has fallen or failed, or has come into trouble, without asking anyone, you can surely say that prior to this trouble he lost his hidden life. He lost his hidden life during the previous weeks, months, or even years. Your spiritual life depends very much on your hidden life before God. If you cannot sustain a hidden life, you will be weak before the Lord. Therefore, you should realize the importance of the hidden life.
The shutting of the door in Matthew is a kind of root life. What did the Lord say in verse 6:6? He said that when we pray, we should enter into a private room, shut the door, and pray to the Father who is in secret, and the Father who sees in secret will repay us. The Lord is very particular; He said that the Father will see us in secret. Prayer is something that can be seen. We have always thought that prayer is something that is heard; however, the Lord did not say that prayers are heard, but that prayers are seen. Many times when we have no words before the Lord, our attitude alone is precious enough, because God is seeing and not just hearing us. Brothers and sisters, how much of what we are can be seen before God? How much of our living can be seen by God? How many times are we only seen by the Lord and no one else? Or are we doing everything in front of men? Now I have to say a few words particularly to the brothers who are co-workers. No one is as susceptible as the Lord’s workers. We suffer more temptations than others, because it is easier for us to put everything before men; we can even display what we have in secret. Brothers, let me ask again, how much of our lives are seen by God alone and not known by men? How much of our lives are spiritual before God and have never been told to men? How many of us have the experience of Paul, who hid his experience for fourteen years? How many of our things are kept exclusively for God’s enjoyment? If we do not have anything like this, I can honestly say that we do not have any roots. If we do not have a hidden spiritual life and have not been dealt with by God or smitten by Him in a hidden way, everything will be superficial and of no account.
Everything that man has must first be properly tested on the cross and able to stand the test before it can be considered reliable. If a man is deeply rooted in the death of Christ, he may go through trials, but he will still stand. Let me ask you this question: would you still say that you believe, if you are being persecuted for the Lord’s sake to the point of death, with someone saying, “I will kill you if you continue to believe in Jesus”? How do you know that you would not fall back in an attempt to spare your own life? The only protection you have when you go through trials, tribulations, and persecution is to have deep roots. If the roots are not deep, you will surely fail. If the roots are not deep, you will not be able to be an overcomer. If you want to remain standing in that day, you must have deep roots in ordinary times. This means that you must have a hidden life before the Lord and must continually have hidden experiences. Therefore, the only way that we can know that we will not fall in that day is by having an adequate amount of hidden life today.
Those with shallow earth may still have a desire for deep roots, but there are rocks that block the way. There are rocks where the roots are. They may outwardly look the same as other soil; just like others, they are filled with dust and mud. But within there are hidden sins and the self. Outwardly, they look the same as everyone else. They can listen as others listen and speak as others speak. But in hidden places, big rocks block the way. This is why they cannot be deep. What are the rocks? In the Bible, rocks have many meanings. I can only mention one today, the hardened heart. If you want to be spiritual, you must not have a hardened heart. Many people have never received a blow to their will; their self has never been broken before God. They can say a great deal about God’s will and provide many reasonings. They always have their own ideas about God’s will. They always say I think that something should be done this way or that way. God has not yet destroyed their wisdom, nor torn down their will. They are still scheming and planning, but there are rocks underneath, so they cannot go deep. Brothers and sisters, allow me to say an honest word: we cannot have real spiritual progress unless we allow ourselves to be broken by God. The cross is our only source of progress. If God does not break us, we will never become useful. He must break the rocks beneath us. Otherwise, we will never be deep. Only one kind of people will go all the way down to the depths; they are the ones who are as soft as a child. Only one kind of people can take firm roots; they are the ones who fear and tremble at God’s word. Unfortunately, a countless number of people have to think before they will make a decision concerning God’s command! They think that God’s command requires discernment and selection. Thank the Lord that there are also many here who have obeyed in a very simple way. Thank the Lord that there are many who only care “who” is giving the command and never question “why” before they obey. Brothers and sisters, a disobedient heart is a rock. May God shine His light on us, so that we may see the enormity of the rock within us.
The rocks are not only your self; they are your hidden sins. In your life there is always one sin which has not been removed because of the high price; it remains there, and you are reluctant to remove it. If you leave it there, you will never receive spiritual riches; you will never go deeper because of it. Therefore, you have to deal thoroughly with your sins. Even the hidden sins have to be dealt with thoroughly. If you have not dealt thoroughly with the hidden sins, and if the stubborn self is not thoroughly dealt with, your roots will never be deep.
Brothers and sisters, how many things has God pointed His finger at in you? Are you unwilling to look at Him? Are you fighting and refusing to surrender? Perhaps there is already a problem between you and God. Perhaps you have seen God’s will and are debating with Him. This is what the Lord wants to show you today. Brothers, if you really want to serve Him and acquire the truth before Him, the large rocks must be removed. Otherwise, the earth will always be shallow, and the roots will not be deep. If you cannot remove the hidden sins, the stubborn self, and the opinions that are expressed as “I don’t want to” and “I will not,” you will never acquire any spiritual power. If there is a problem between you and God, it will be impossible for the earth to have any depth or the roots to be deep. Thank the Lord that in spite of this, He can still do His work. Your heart is hardened, but the Lord can change you. I know that many people here have been smitten by God before. But I also know that there are many here who are quite stubborn. However, if the Lord can break others, He can also break you. If the Lord was able to sit on a donkey that had never been sat on when He entered Jerusalem, He can sit on you as well. Anyone who has ever sat on a donkey knows that a donkey that has never been sat on is the most difficult kind. But the Lord could do it. He could very safely sit on that donkey and enter Jerusalem. In the same way, He can sit on you. Although you are very stubborn before God, the Lord can break you, no matter how stubborn you are. You should sincerely pray today, “Lord, I am really hard within. Many times I have held onto my own will and have insisted on my own opinions. That is why so many times, I have been a shallow person. Please break me.” We do not know how shallow our life is before God. If we allow God to break our hardened heart, if we do not live by our feelings or the environment, and if we ask God to give us more of a hidden life, we will see forward progress. If we deal thoroughly with every cross that comes our way and take up the cross every time it comes, we will become deeper and deeper, moment by moment.
Although we have read two other passages of Scripture, I cannot cover them in detail today. I can only speak about them briefly because there is not much time left, and I have already covered much of what I wanted to speak. Let us cover these passages just a little to make up for what we have missed. In Hosea 14 Lebanon is mentioned three times. First, it is mentioned in contrast to the lily. Second, it is mentioned in contrast to the olive tree. Third, it is mentioned in contrast to the vine. Lebanon is repeatedly mentioned; there is Lebanon in contrast to the lily, Lebanon in contrast to the olive tree, and Lebanon in contrast to the vine. Lebanon is repeatedly mentioned because there is a kind of cedar tree in Lebanon. Cedar trees are tall trees with very deep roots. Very few trees have roots as deep as the cedar tree. The Bible considers the cedar trees of Lebanon to be the greatest trees in the world. They signify those who will take deep roots. Do not treasure what the world says to you, because the Bible shows that the Lord is only pleased with those who have roots that go downward.
In this passage the Lord shows us three things. First, He made a contrast between the lily and Lebanon. Second, He made a contrast between the olive tree and Lebanon. Third, He made a contrast between the vine and Lebanon. Why does the Lord make a contrast between the lily and Lebanon? He makes the contrast because the lily is very attractive. Christians should not have flowers that are grown in gardens, but in the valley. Lilies grow in the wilderness, not in homes. They grow in the valley and do not need gardeners to cultivate them. Rather, they are sustained by water from heaven; they are fully cultivated and sustained by God. The beauty of the lily lies in the wilderness; it lies before God. Hosea 14:6 says also that Israel’s splendor shall be as the olive tree. According to my consideration, there is absolutely no beauty in the olive tree. It would be more plausible and real to say that its beauty shall be as the peony. Saying that its beauty shall be as the olive tree does not seem too appropriate. However, God’s beauty is not in appearance but in fruit. We know that the olive tree is a tree bearing fruit for oil; it is a tree that bears the fruit of the Spirit. The beauty of the olive tree lies in its fruit, which typifies the Spirit. This is something inward; it is not something that appears before men. Further on, it says that Israel shall grow as the vine. I do not know how many of you have seen blossoms on a vine. We have grown a vine in our home every year since my youth. But I have never seen anyone putting vine blossoms in a vase, and I have never seen vine blossoms. Unless you look for them carefully, you cannot find the blossoms; the blossoms are as small as specks of dust. Before they have fully blossomed, they become grapes. Why does it not say peach blossoms or plum blossoms instead of vine blossoms? The one reason is that our flower is not for beauty, but for fruit-bearing. There are three kinds of flowers in this world. One is for display only, like the chrysanthemum flower. Another is both for display and for fruit, like the plum blossom. The third is for fruit-bearing alone, like the blossoms on the vine. God has no intention that we be like the plum blossom or chrysanthemum flower, which are for display. God has only one requirement: we have to have roots that go downward. Lebanon is mentioned three times, and each time we are told to take care of the hidden life. This is very crucial. Perhaps a life that bears spiritual fruit does not look that good. The prayer life is not something that looks good. However, we are living to God and as long as God considers it to be good, that is enough.
A similar passage is found in the Song of Solomon 4:12, which says, “A garden enclosed is my sister, my bride, / A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” [The word spring is translated “well” in the Chinese Union Version.] A garden enclosed means that it is not a public garden; it is not a garden into which everyone can go. Rather, it is a garden enclosed, reserved for special ones. The flower in our garden is set apart for Christ and is not for anyone else. Not everyone can see it. “A well shut up.” There is a difference between a well and fountain. A well is something man-made, while a fountain is something natural. Abraham always dug wells. Whenever his servants found a source, he dug a well. However, a fountain is natural and has not been worked on by man. The Lord says that we are a garden enclosed and that we are not open at any other time; the only time we are open is when we open to the Lord. We are also a well shut up. A well is for man’s use. However, even though it is for man’s use, it is still limited by the Lord and shut up for Him. The fountain signifies what we have received from God; it signifies the joy we have received from the Lord. The well is before man, while the fountain is before God. None of these can be shown to others purposely; they are all concealed. All of our experiences in prayer should be concealed and not made public. Even the part that is for man is concealed. In short, all the good things that we possess should be locked up for the Lord.
All of the speaking today concerns only one thing, that is, to go “down.” We have no goal other than allowing the cross to do a deeper work in us. Brothers and sisters, there are too many superficial and shallow things. There are too many things growing outside, exposed on the surface, and seen only by man. What is lacking is a hidden part before God. What God is seeking today and the one thing that grips our heart, is a hidden life before Him, something invisible to man. The life that God wants is like the life of a sister, a life that is hidden in the background. God has no intention that we put everything on the outside and have nothing hidden and secret. May God grant us the grace to accept His demands and not be as we were before. May we ask and allow God to grant us a real breaking so that we can go on in the way ahead.
