THE LIVING HOPE AND THE TREE OF LIFE
1 Peter 1: 3-9
Genesis 2: 8,9; 3: 22-24
Revelation 22: 1-5, 14, 15
AM We have been considering the living One, our Lord Jesus Christ. We have spoken of Him as having that outstanding glory. We have spoken of Him as the One who imparts the living water, and we have spoken of Him as the One who gives Himself as living Bread. I had the impression that to consider Him as the Tree of life will take us away from the whole scene in which we are, because it is never seen in any other context than in paradise.
But first I think it may be profitable to consider the living hope that we have. He is the Hope of the believer. We have a living hope now. Peter here addresses the saints and immediately his heart goes up to God. These saints whom he was writing to were undergoing trials; they were actually being persecuted. He said, ‘These things are necessary for the proving of your faith’. God allows things; it is not that things come upon us that are not necessary; he said they are needed for the proving of our faith. They are part of our education, but he says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance, reserved in the heavens for you”. There are precious thoughts in these words. There is something that is reserved in the heavens, and it is as if it has your name on it; that inheritance is reserved for you.
We are kept guarded now by the power of God. That is the power of the Holy Spirit in the believer guarding him in view of entering into this living hope. Hope in the scriptures is not wishful thinking; that is what men have. Hope for the believer is present assurance as to the future. You do not hope for something that has been fulfilled. There is what is in the future and we have assurance as to it; absolute assurance. And it is a living hope because it is centred in the living One, our Lord Jesus, and soon we are going to see Him. Soon He will come. God has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. How blessed this is.
WSC We think that Adam had it really good because he had the garden and he had all the trees and everything, but his hope was in the earth.
AM Yes. And really he did not know God. He had a very limited understanding of God, but he did not know God. Our hope is One we know. He has been to this scene, and we have just expressed in our hymn and prayer, that we are His. He has put in His claim, we know Him, and He is our living hope. I thought this would lead on to where we read of the tree of life.
GMC I was just wondering if the living hope means we can enjoy it now. It is not only a future thing.
AM Yes. That is right. When we enter into our eternal portion it will no longer be hope. So a living hope is for now; it sustains us. What will it be to be with Jesus! That has sustained many, has it not? A sister told me five years ago that every morning she asks the Lord to take her. And He has not done so. But she has that living hope. She is not asking Him to take her exactly because she is tired of the conditions in which she is living; she is asking Him to take her because she has a living hope burning in her soul, and she is really just waiting to be with Him.
RNH So hope deferred is not hope. I am thinking of the power of God, and also of the Spirit who is the earnest of our inheritance. We have the enjoyment and the entering into it now by the Spirit, do we not?
AM Yes, and faith also makes things real, does it not? We have faith and we have the Holy Spirit. “Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for”, Heb 11: 1. So what we are hoping for is future, but by faith we can enter into it now. Everyone of us here must have come to the Lord initially; we have been in His presence. We long just to see Him, to gaze upon Him as He is.
RNH Adam knew of God. He knew there was a God, but he did not know God as Father. Peter is speaking as one who has been introduced to the Father as a result of the work done by Christ.
AM This title, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, what a title it is. Think of the Lord Jesus here in manhood, a perfect Man before God, but then think of Him in relationship. He who knew the Father so perfectly. “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The expression is used five times, I think, in the epistles and each time it is in a different context, Rom 15: 6; 2 Cor 1: 3; Col 1: 3; 1 Pet 1: 3. The Lord Jesus referred to “my Father and your Father … my God and your God”, John 20: 17. So we are able to be brought into something of that relationship and we know Him. We know the One who is the source of all. The hope that we have is centred in Christ, but the Father is the source.
KNP Does the fact that He “has begotten us again” involve the end of one side of things to bring us into another side of things? That is the living hope, where it comes from.
AM Yes, everything down here decays. There is an old hymn that contains the line,
Change and decay in all around I see
but the next line says,
Oh Thou who changest not, abide with me.
DMW The unfading inheritance is made with the tree of life, is it not?
AM Well, I thought there may be a connection. Can you help with that?
DMW It is wonderful really to have Someone who is out of death; and because He is out of death, He is in another place, and that place is held for us in that Person. And the earnest of it is by the Spirit who was sent from heaven, the promise of the Father.
AM That is right; so the tree of life really is Christ in resurrection.
WSC Is it significant that Adam was not forbidden to eat of the tree of life?
AM It is significant. Go on.
WSC I am thinking about what you read in Revelation, that the tree of life goes through. God guarded it then because of man’s choice.
AM Yes. And you have just used the word of scripture: He guarded it, Gen 3: 24. He did not remove the way to it. The way to the tree of life has never been removed. God always had in mind that man would have access to the tree of life, but it was guarded, that anything tainted by sin would not have access.
WSC It was guarded by the Cherubim which speak of holiness.
AM Yes, that is right: the holiness of God and His rights. The flame of the flashing sword was there. The flame of God’s flashing sword was seen at Sinai. God came down in relation to His people, and they were terrified. The mountain quaked and smoked; there were thunder and lightnings, Exod 19: 16. The flame of the flashing sword was seen and the people said they could not go near, and God said they were not to break through and come near. That would have been the end of the people. And where the people were in terror, there was one man who went up that mountain and he drew near to the obscurity, chap 20: 21. He was able for it.
DMW Is it right to say then that we are kept guarded?
AM We are. We are kept guarded by the presence of the Holy Spirit here, are we not? We have spoken several times of His service in formation, and uniting us to Christ, but another part of His service is guarding us. So I suppose the little children in John, who had the unction, were guarded, were they not? “Ye know all things”, 1 John 2: 20. And that is an important thing that we need to lay hold of. If the Lord leaves us here, as we go through life, there will be suggestions: What about this? What about that? And a young person may not be able to explain it, but just have a sense that something is not right - then leave whatever it is alone. It is a voice speaking and you do not ignore it. And whatever you do, never base a judgment on the question, ‘What is wrong with it?’. Never base any judgment on that question, because that is what the devil did. The devil said, ’Can you not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?’. What is wrong with it? That is not a question for a believer.
WSC You spoke about the mountain. When He was transfigured on the mountain the word was, “hear him”, Matt 17: 5.
AM Yes, that was the Lord, “hear him”. He is to be the source for all direction, all guidance. He has trodden the path before; He has shown us the way.
Well, in Genesis 2 the tree of life comes first, does it not? “And out of the ground Jehovah Elohim made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food”. That is, trees for the sustaining of life on earth. “And the tree of life, in the midst of the garden”; that is the central point; and then the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is there in the midst of the garden. It was the focus for God even before sin came in. What was established before sin came in is what is according to the purpose of God. We had a touch yesterday about the purpose of God. This is something that was in the purpose of God. Sin had not appeared in the garden but there was the tree of life.
AML We have the thought that Eden was eastward. Would it relate to the incoming of Christ seen in the sunrise?
AM That is a fine outlook to have, is it not? There were those in the camp around the tabernacle, Moses, Aaron and their families, looking eastward, Num 3: 38. Their attitude was the sun rising. He is coming again; that is the living hope that we have, to look to the Man of God’s choice.
AML Eden was a great area. The thought of the garden would be a domain that is covered by Christ, would you say?
AM The garden is a place of pleasure, is it not? It is a place of delight. “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice”, Song of Songs 5: 1. It is a place where the Lord can find rest, and Jehovah was looking in the garden to find rest, in the company of man. It was a place of delights, but man did not fully appreciate it.
PBK You said never to say ‘What is wrong with it?’. Can you expound on that, and how we would approach the things in life?
AM Well, I would rather ask, ‘Would the Lord do this? What would the Lord think about that?’. I think when any question arises, we do well to take it to the Lord. If I start asking what is wrong with something, I might be rationalising with my own conscience. My conscience might say, ‘Warning’, and I will say, ‘Why?’, and reason about it. If you do that, you fail. What do you think?
PBK Well, the devil “transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Cor 11: 14), does he not, so he can outperform us in any argument? Is it really the Lord that would bring us to something?
AM Yes. Always seek directions from the Lord.
DB I was just going back to what was being said about hope. You said we hope to be taken to be with the Lord. I was wondering what you meant by that, because I remember in one of the preachings that I was at the preacher said that the gospel was a gift from the Father, so why would we have to hope? If we just accept the Lord Jesus as our Saviour, we know we are going to get it because it is a gift from the Father.
AM That is exactly the meaning of hope in the Bible. Hope in Scripture means that there is something that we are going to get, and it is definite. What I meant by people hoping for things is maybe they hope that they are going to get good results at school, for example. But that is not definite. Now that is the natural kind of man’s hope, but in the Scriptures, hope is definiteness. It is an assured thing. To be with Jesus is an assured thing for the Christian. If I am a believer, if I receive the Lord Jesus in my heart, there is nothing that is going to stop me being with Him. Does that help at all?
It has been said that probably the tree of life had no relevance to Adam. Adam would have seen no relevance to the tree of life because he was in innocence. There was no death at that time. If it had been possible for Adam to continue in innocence, he would have expected to live forever; and thus he would have seen no relevance to the tree of life to sustain life. But this is God’s thought in purpose and God knew that sin would come in. God already had His answer.
TRC I wondered about that. The Lord had no beauty that we should desire Him (Isa 53: 2), but I was thinking of God’s delight in the tree of life. The Lord grew up as a tender sapling: what it meant to the heart of God! The trees were planted, they were good for fruit; but I wondered as to the feelings of God. So that the tree of life is something that goes right through to the eternal day, does it not?
AM Oh it does, yes. What you quote from Isaiah 53 is very suggestive because it begins with what God saw. “He shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground”. God took account of that “tender sapling”; He was drawing all from Him. He was like a root out of dry ground. And then the verse continues, “when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him”. But as Mr Darby says,
To its own rich soil transplanted,
(Spiritual Songs p43)
the tree of life is seen today in paradise.
DMW Someone said that “begotten again” is not begotten to innocence.
AM No. God will never set up anything again that has once failed. God set up an order of things and committed it to man’s hands in responsibility, and it failed; and then in the fulness of time, God brought in what was really in His mind. It is centred in Christ, the living One, and that can never fail. It is for His glory that He does it. He proves that anything that is not centred in Christ is doomed to failure. He proves that first, and He proves it so that ultimately the whole universe will accept that in the wisdom of God’s ways He has done everything to His own glory.
DMW It is for His own heart it has to be effectuated, by His own movements sovereignly to secure His counsels and His purpose.
AM And His purpose goes through; nothing can change that. On a Lord’s day morning, do we not touch that? How often the thought is expressed on a Lord’s day morning that God has secured everything according to His mind before time was. Even Job came to it: “thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”, chap 42: 2. The whole of the ages of time are used to prove that God in His supremacy will secure what He had in His heart.
JKK Is that “the proving of your faith”?
AM Yes, go on about the proving of your faith.
JKK Well, it is something for us. God already knows. It is not something that is necessarily for Him, but it is being brought to the fulness of that hope that you are speaking of. When we come to the realisation of it we would say that: “thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine”.
AM Exactly, and very often we do not understand it until some time has passed and then you look back. The hymn writer says,
With Him look back on all the way;
To learn the meaning, at His hand,
Of every deed in every day!
Clearer than ever shall we see
The grace that God our Saviour showed,
The love that lead so faithfully
Along the pathless desert way.
(Hymn 299)
JKK It is very affecting that proven faith is spoken of as more precious than gold.
AM It is - “gold which perishes”. Now man regards gold as imperishable. Peter says, ‘No, it will perish’. Peter tells us later that all the elements will perish, 2 Pet 3: 10. Everything will be done away, but there is something that will not, the work of God in the believer, and it is more precious than gold which perishes.
DHM I would like you to help me in these scriptures where it says in verse four, “incorruptible and undefiled and unfading”. Is that a heavenly thought?
AM It is. It is in contrast with everything on earth. Everything on earth begins to fade, does it not? Things grow old and they begin to fade; and then they become defiled; ultimately, they become corrupt: that is the way things are in nature. It is a process of decline, but with heavenly things not only is our inheritance incorruptible: it cannot be corrupted. Not only is it undefiled, but it will not even fade. It will be maintained in its pristine glory through eternity. It is blessed, do you not think?
DHM It is Christ Himself.
AM Yes, that is right.
WSC Aaron made a calf of gold. He told Israel that this was their god that brought them up out of Egypt. Moses ground it up; but it was gold.
AM Moses would not use that gold in the tabernacle. That which represented an Egyptian idol has no place in the tabernacle. He ground it up and he scattered it on the brook that flowed down from the mountain. That is the Deuteronomy account, and that account is a very precious one because he says, “I took your sin”, Deut 9: 21. You think of Moses, who had no part in the creation of the golden calf, saying, “I took your sin”. Oh, beloved, there is One who has done that for us all: He has taken our sin. And then it says, “And I cast the dust thereof into the brook that flowed down from the mountain”. Divine resources were available to wash away every trace of the sin. What a wonderful thing that is.
GMC Is the root out of dry ground connected with the tree of life?
AM Mr. Darby connected it; yes -
As a tender sucker, rising
From a dry and stony land,
Object of man’s proud despising
Grew the Plant of God’s right hand.
And then he speaks about when it is transplanted to its own rich soil. We can only take account of the tree life in the place where Christ belongs, in paradise.
GMC I was just wondering because these trees, the four different kinds that are presented, are not a progressive idea ‘ “pleasant for the eyes, and good for food, and the tree of life … and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. The first two are described, but the third one, which is really eternal comes to light. Then there is the reference afterwards to the one they were not supposed to eat.
AM What it says about the tree of life is that it was in the midst of the garden. Think of Christ as taking that place in divine purpose, the focus of all. Then we see the tree in Revelation. From verse 9 of chapter 21 through into chapter 22 of Revelation is a description of the holy city in the millennium. There will be a thousand years of the blessed reign of Christ when the earth will be fruitful and it will have seasons that it has never had before. The earth will enjoy a wonderful time of blessedness. If you want to read about that you will find it in the prophet Isaiah. But this passage is not referring to the earth; it is about the holy city. This is what will be in heaven during the millennium. We are not going to be on the earth no matter how beautiful that will be during the millennium. Our place is with the Lord in heaven and we will be forever with the Him. And there we will enjoy the great resources that are there, the preciousness of all that marks the holy city from verse 9 onwards. There is holiness and there is life. The whole city is flowing with life. “He shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” And then this wonderful description of the tree of life “In the midst of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the tree of life.” It is not possible to represent this scene according to nature; this is spiritual. But we have this wonderful description, and the suggestion is that wherever you are in the holy city, the tree of life is available. And that is what God had in mind, that you would always be able to reach out and take of the fruit of the tree of life. It is different every month.
TRC Can you help us as to the promise to the overcomer in Ephesus?
AM I was wondering about that. Have you got a thought?
TRC No, it is a genuine question. It is quite a striking promise. “I will give to him to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God”, Rev 2: 7. Not only does the writer draw attention to the tree of life but the position that it had for eating of it.
AM I think that that promise to the overcomer in Ephesus would have spoken to his conscience. We know the assembly of Ephesus in Revelation represents the early days of the church. There were the apostles and then there were the church fathers. It was not long before decline came in. You had men who were set up officially as bishops in different places. All that happened soon after the apostles’ time. And the Lord appeals to the overcomer in Ephesus; in a sense He would say, ‘What about me? You have left your first love. I am still here. The tree of life has not been taken away. You are the one that is turning away. Come and take of the tree of life and get your spirit revived and your affections quickened’. What would you think?
DMW . This may refer to the millennial time but the holy city is in heaven. Would this mark the reign of Christ?
AM Yes, maybe you could help us, because there is a certain mystery about how the assembly will communicate with Israel on earth and the rest of the earth. But there will be an influence, will there not, and an influence of healing? Just think of when the Lord comes to take up His rights. We know already the powers of destruction there are on the earth. The Sun of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, Mal 4: 2. How much healing will be needed in that day, after Satan has had his way for a short time. Healing is available throughout the millennium.
DMW I think that is very helpful to contemplate the importance of the assembly to Christ. He was the One who was full of grace and truth; and would it be the operations of the same perfection seen in that Blessed Person, the true Vine, coming out through the influence, from the assembly in heaven to the earth?
AM I think that is very instructive and helpful. I appreciate that reference, “full of grace and truth”, in relation to the leaves. The leaves of the tree are what you see. What you see in a living tree in the full light of summer are the leaves, “full of grace and truth”. Those features have not been lost; they are still there, still active; and they operate in the assembly today. Those who have been formed after Him are marked by grace and truth. It would have an effect upon men today would it not? Just that healing word maybe to somebody who is going through trouble.
NJP The thought of unity is in the tree. In Ezekiel 47 you get many trees, do you not, by the river, but here you get one tree? It is notable, is it not? In this scene that we get here, and in what we had in Genesis 2, the thought of unity was involved, was there not?
AM That is very good. Ezekiel had to go into the river, and when he came back he saw that there were many trees upon the banks. There was something that is produced in the saints which all takes character from Christ, from the one Tree. In that sense He is the uniting power. The Spirit is the uniting power, but He is the uniting focus of all His own. There will certainly be unity in this city.
SWS Chapter 22 brings in the millennial period. I was wondering why there is a need for healing of the nations at that time. Do you have some thoughts on that that would help us?
AM The earth will be under the reign of Christ, but man’s heart will be unchanged. That will come to light at the end of the millennium when there will be a rebellion against God, against Christ. And the Lord will come in and summarily deal with it all. I think during the millennium there is the suggestion too of decline. We were speaking of the feast of the tabernacles and the sacrifices reduced daily, Num 29. Every day there was decline. And that is because man in flesh and blood condition will always decline. Do you have any impression yourself?
SWS That is very helpful and interesting too. We were talking earlier today as to the millennium, and righteousness will reign during the time, and you just wonder if things will be dealt with as needed. And as things are dealt with there may be the need for healing as a result.
AM Yes, that could well be. Sin will not exactly be abolished, but it will be judged immediately it appears.
TWL Would the leaves for the healing of the nations facilitate the kings of the earth bringing their glory to God for the heavenly city? It facilitates life. It removes what breakdown has done, heals it so that there is a bringing to the city of glory.
AM Well, that is good, yes. There will be a time when the blessing of the Lord will spread across the world and - I do not think it will be immediate - but it will spread from Israel across the world, and the nations will be affected by that. They will find all that they will need in the supply that comes down from above and they will bring their glory to the city. Israel’s view of the coming kingdom was that Israel will be blessed. The divine view is that man will be blessed.
TWL The scope of this, the influence of Christ, will change the heart of Israel. It will change the focus of men on to a glory. Persons in the millennial day will be filled with glory too and the healing that comes from the leaves will facilitate that. Do you think that is right?
AM I think that is good. The tree of life is unique; it stands in all its dignity and glory, totally different from the other trees that Jehovah created. Their leaves were to be food for the cattle but there is nothing common about the tree of life! It stands there in all its glory in the paradise of God, the place where it belongs. Christ belongs to heaven. When He was here, He was a stranger. As we have our part with Him, we are strangers here; we do not belong here. We are on a journey and soon we will be with Him and we will see and we will have our part with that tree of life. But do we not taste it now? We have had some of those fruits, have we not?
TRC The tree of life is not just set before us to be admired, is it?
AM Certainly not. In Genesis 3 Jehovah says, “now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat”. Well, that was God’s thought for man, although sin rendered it impossible for a time. That is what God desired for man and that is what we have.
TRC And that must surely bring in correspondence to Himself. I just wondered whether the features of Psalm 1 are a man that is taking his resource from the tree of life, do you think?
AM Say some more about Psalm 1.
TRC It is the Lord Jesus in His distinctiveness, but I just wondered as feeding on that character of man that we become like a tree planted by the brooks of water. There is a certain correspondence to Himself and the features that belong to Him, do you think?
AM I think so. I think in the three passages that have been referred to; Psalm 1, Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 22, there is one thought going though. Psalm 1 brings in the thought “whose leaf fadeth not” (v 3); that is unfading like the inheritance. “Whose leaf fadeth not”; how often our leaves fade, do they not?
DMW We often say that we are in the learning time. I was just thinking of what our brother was bringing out. We sometimes might link that to administrative actions, but is not the assembly formed in correspondence with Christ, and we draw our supply and influence from heaven now? So that experimentally we are formed in correspondence with the tree of life. So this scripture seems to take a deeper meaning as to the influence and the supply coming from the tree of life, but through the assembly in the way it was formed here, even in the day of decline in which we are, so that there is real healing, based upon experience.
AM Yes. That is good. So the correspondence of the saints with Christ is really the crux of the exercise of these meetings. We can speak of the Lord Jesus as the living One but that is to have an effect. We can speak of the living water. What is the effect in me? We can speak of the living bread. What effect has that had in me? Now we have the tree of life. Is there a correspondence? Does somebody see that I am planted by brooks of water and drawing on the supply that is available?
LEO That is helpful. I wondered if you could help me understand what it means to wash our robes? It seems to be the only way to have the right to the tree of life. I would like help in understanding that.
AM We get different references to washing the robes in Revelation. There is a family who have their part, identified with the Lord Jesus, they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. We have done that, every one of us who have come to the Lord. We are washed in the blood of the Lamb and that is once and once only. But when the Lord Jesus died there was the blood and there was the water. And the water is really for cleansing and the word here is, “Blessed are they that wash their robes”; not that had washed them, but wash their robes. “Pure and undefiled religion … is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, to keep oneself unspotted from the world”, James 1: 27. Now as we go through the world we pick up defilement, constantly. There is what is in our own heart that answers to it; you cannot help it; you are picking up defilement. We speak of the water which flowed from the side of Christ. We speak of the application of the water through the word, “the washing of water by the word”, Eph 5: 26. So we need to constantly apply the word of God, and keep ourselves unspotted from the world, so that we are not tainted by it, because any taint of the world prevents us from accessing the tree of life. Purity of affections and purity of conduct are most important as we go through this scene so that we are not tainted by it. Someone said how easy it is to loosen our girdles and let our robes drag in the mud. But we must wash our robes, that nothing impure may attach to us.
WSC Can you explain the girdles?
AM Well, it is that our affections are under control, are they not? We must keep our affections under control.
WSC I was thinking that John demonstrates an answer to this whole city. He says, “And I, John” saw this and so on; and he goes to worship the angel, Rev 22: 8. The angel says, “Do homage to God”, v 9. And that should be the result of this whole thing in this chapter: “come, Lord Jesus”, v 20.
AM “Do homage to God”. And as you say it ends, “come Lord Jesus”. Well, that is what we are looking for, is it not? There are those who are in His presence already. Soon He will come for us all, and then we will see Him: “his servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face.” We love to think of that, to see the face of Jesus.
The traits of that face, Lord,
Once marred through Thy grace,
With joy we shall trace, At thy coming again;
(Hymn 19).
Wheaton three-day meetings (4th reading)
26th November 2022
List of Initials:
C J Brien Aberdeen ID
Darcy Brien Aberdeen ID
R Brown Linlithgow
T R Campbell Glasgow
G M Chellberg Wheaton
W S Chellberg Wheaton
L P Chin Wheaton
W K Clark Kirkcaldy
L J Gray Calgary
R N Hesterman Beachville ONT
R B Hill Toronto
Daryl J Klassen Aberdeen ID
Doug J Klassen Aberdeen ID
M J Klassen Aberdeen ID
P B Klassen Aberdeen ID
J K Knauss Indianapolis
K A Knauss Indianapolis
A M Lidbeck Aberdeen ID
T W Lock Edinburgh
A Martin Buckhurst Hill
D H McFarlane New York
P M MacFarlane New York
P H Morris Sunbury
K R Oliver Denton
L E Oliver Denton
N J Plant Toronto
K N Pye New York
S W Selman Denton
D M Welch Denton