The Grace of Reconciliation

As you know, for those of you
who have been with us for some months, we have been considering
this great passage on the ministry. It’s a great section in Second
Corinthians that began back in chapter two, verse 17, where
we considered the bedrock of Christian ministry. But then
Paul went on from there to detail in such great account, perhaps
the greatest section on the Christian ministry in all of Scripture. And in this latter part, these
closing verses, Paul has turned his attention to the ministry
of reconciliation, which is really at the heart, the core of ministry
itself. That’s what ministry really is
all about. It’s a sad thing, sad feature
in our church in America in these days that so many things are
labeled ministry that are not. That if Christ is not the core
of Christ and salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ is not the
focus of a ministry, I would challenge whether that’s ministry
at all. For Paul, ministry was the ministry
of reconciliation. Ministry was the finished work
of Christ and taking that to the lost and proclaiming that
with faithfulness. We have seen that throughout
this great section. But as I indicated, Paul has
turned to his focus, that is, has turned to specifically the
ministry of reconciliation. We picked that up in chapter
five, verse 11, where Paul pointed to the soundness of the source
for those who would ministry, for those who would pursue ministry.
for those who are engaged in ministry. And what he called
us to there in verses 11-15 was to cultivate, as it were, integrity
in ministry. He moved on from there and looked
at the glorious condition of those who are in Christ Jesus. The great standing that we have
before God. That we are seen as Christ is
seen. We are seen with the righteousness
of Christ there in verses 16-17. From there, Paul naturally mobilizes
these peacemakers, those whom God has reached down, who brought
salvation. Now he turns them around and
mobilizes them as a great army of grace to take the Gospel of
Jesus Christ to their friends and loved ones. Verses 18-19,
Paul dispatches those And then in verse 20, drawing
to somewhat of a conclusion here in this initial section, Paul
points to the nature. What is the kind of work that
we do as heavenly peacemakers? And it’s there that I want to
pick up this morning in verse 20. Where Paul says, therefore,
we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an
appeal through us. Paul says we bear a king’s message. We don’t come with our own. We
don’t come with our own agenda. We don’t find homespun earthly
ways to minister to people’s problems. We go with the king’s
message and that alone. Therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us.
We are God’s mouthpieces. And what do we say? We beg you,
on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. We plead as God’s representatives
on earth on behalf of Him who made such a great sacrifice.
And as we saw last week, that is entirely what’s encompassed
in verse 21. The great message of the gospel.
He that is God the Father made Him, that is Jesus Christ, who
knew no sin. to be sin on our behalf, that
we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” And it is with
that that Paul turns the corner to wrap up this final great section
on the ministry and on the ministry of reconciliation. Look at chapter
6, beginning in verse 1. where Paul says, and working
together with him, we also urge you not to receive the grace
of God in vain. For he says, at the acceptable
time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped
you. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day
of salvation. giving no cause for offense in
anything so that the ministry will not be discredited, but
in everything, commending ourselves as servants of God in much endurance,
in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in
imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in
hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in
the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the
power of God, by the weapons of righteousness for the right
hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and
good report, regarded as deceivers and yet true, as unknown yet
well known, as dying, yet behold, we live as punished, yet not
put to death, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet
making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing all things.” You
can see by the outline in the bulletin that at least on paper,
I have purposed to get through these verses. But even as I read
those, I’m seeing about six months worth of material we’ll worry about today. If you
would go back to verse one, where Paul is beginning to discuss
the proper use of grace, the proper implementation or employment
of grace itself. It comes to an unbeliever. It comes as an offer of the Gospel. And I haven’t forgotten my Calvinism.
But grace comes as it were and must be employed, put to use,
appropriated. The grace of reconciliation comes
to sinners. Look back, as I said, at verse
1. And in weeks to come, I propose
to lay out to you four undergirding pillars of that appeal that we
go and make for reconciliation and reconciliation with God Himself. It is a call to the sure employment
of God’s grace, and we will get to those four undergirding pillars,
as I said, in days or weeks to come. But for today, it was enough,
for me at least, to read verse 1 and to be absolutely stopped
in my tracks, as you are and as you must be. Consider for a moment the simple
sentence of this great passage. And we also urge you not to receive
the grace of God in vain. That is Paul’s main thought that
runs throughout this great long passage all the way down through
verse 10. This is the main thought and
everything else is subordinate or supportive of that statement. And it’s a stunning thought,
isn’t it? It absolutely must stop us in our tracks. Even if
we have walked with Christ for 20 years or more, It is pointless,
utterly pointless to consider anything else in this passage
until we understand what Paul is saying right here. But that
appears immediately to be a bit of a problem, doesn’t it? This
is an exceedingly difficult saying, because if you take the words
literally, take them at face value, We seem to have a major
theological contradiction, something that goes against what we’ve
always learned and always believed. A major shift in our understanding
of the outworking of salvation. Consider this little syllogism
for a moment. If this passage is addressed
to believers, Corinthians, for instance, at Corinth, as it appears
likely, And if grace here is saving grace, as is reasonable
to assume, and if received means that this divine gift of grace
is appropriated by faith, as is the plain understanding of
that word, and if vain means ultimately empty and worthless,
as it does, then people who at one time are believers in the
Lord Jesus, who have received by faith the gift of salvation
by divine grace, they can and at least some do, it seems here,
lose their salvation. This cannot be the meaning. It
simply can’t. And I’ll go on to show you how
and why in at least the day or weeks to come, But there’s a problem that must
be resolved because either grace here refers to something other
than saving grace, or received has a lesser sense than welcomed
and appropriated by faith, or vain means something less than
what it normally does, or something else must be considered. So a
number of questions must be answered. For instance, to whom is the
apostle speaking? To whom is the command this warning
given? Not to receive the grace of God
in vain. Is it to the church in Corinth?
Is it to nominal professing believers in the church in Corinth? Is
it to unbelievers in Corinth? Is it to unbelievers generally?
Another question. What is the grace to which the
apostle refers here? Is it the divine, unmerited favor
of God that produces salvation or something far less? And anything
less than that would be far less. What does it mean to receive
the grace of God? Is it the humble and repentant
reception of the good news in a heart of faith by a child of
God? What is it to receive the grace
of God in vain? Is it utterly emptiness as that
word has the tendency to reflect in the New Testament? Or is it
just a relative term that indicates a simple loss of an earthly blessing? Now, as you can imagine, there
are a number of different explanations for the difficulties on this
verse. One commentator suggested a number of different options. I’ll use him as a framework and
introduce a number of other thoughts along the way. The first thing
that he suggested is that Paul has in mind a receiving of God’s
grace, which is not genuine, so to speak. It’s merely external,
kind of a casual acceptance of the things of God. And that’s
a good that’s a good answer. That’s a good attempt to explain
this. The receiving really isn’t literal receiving. It’s not the
reception of faith. It’s a hearing of the word, but
not an appropriation of the word. Under this category, there were
several options. First of all, I called the first
one the wishful thinking option. It goes like this. One person
suggested that it was an expression of a kind of after the fact wishful
thinking on the part of the apostle. As if to say, I sure hope that
you receive the grace of God properly so that you can truly
be saved, which would be one of the most crass and heartless. And I mean, it’s after the fact. He said it this way. The reference
is to the time of their conversion. He exhorts them not to have accepted
the grace of God in vain, not to show by their behavior now
that they accepted it, then to no profit. It’s almost like a
hopeless statement that says, boy, I sure wish you would have
accepted Christ fully. He’s of no use to you now. It’s kind of a ridiculous thought,
really. We have a tendency to pray this
way. You know, we see the We see the way that things work
out in life and we pray that they are not so when we have
the facts before us. The facts were established. Either
they were in Christ. Either they had already savingly
received the good news of Christ or they hadn’t. There was no
wishful thinking to be done on their behalf. The second view
is the sanctification view. We’re still under the umbrella,
if you will, of that point number one of what does it mean to receive? And is this a lesser receiving?
One said it this way. He said that the warning was
effectively this. Do not make his kindness in being reconciled
useless by neglecting to walk according to the new life he
has given you in him. And that’s a good answer as well.
I mean, we all know that we’re called to work out our salvation. We don’t just sit idly by. We
know that sanctification is a work of God that is done in us, but
obedience is something that we do by faith, by the grace that
God gives us. It’s not all up to us, as this
seems to indicate, that’s an impossible thought. Some people
have the idea that God had laid hold of them, but it’s up to
us to maintain our grip. God reached down and took your
hand, but you’ve got to maintain your grip throughout life. It’s
an impossible thought. And the reality is this is what
God has begun in us. If we are in Christ, He will
finish. As I have said many times, the
same God who initiates the work of salvation is the same God
who effectively carries out the work of sanctification. It’s
God. Either God is at work in an individual’s
life or He is not. Neither have I forgotten the
fact that grace is irresistible. It is God’s grace that comes
down and lays hold of a wayward sinner and moves upon him and
begins the work of grace. What Paul is talking about here,
though, is our response. It doesn’t nullify the irresistible
grace of God. It doesn’t nullify the fact that
in the final analysis, it was all God moving in and through
us, choosing us from before the foundation of the world in time,
selecting us and drawing us out by His irresistible grace, placing
us on a firm footing of righteousness in Christ. I haven’t forgotten
that. But Paul is talking about our response. Paul is talking
about our life and our faith and our walk. Another said very
likewise, very similar point. He said to receive the grace
of God in vain is to receive it without bringing forth its
proper fruits as if that’s all up to us. And so without obtaining the
salvation that is its object here, let me unload this for
you. It’s as if he says, God, in His sovereignty and eternity
past, set His electing love on you for nothing in you and moved
upon you in time and opened your blinded eyes and drew you to
Christ, showed you your sin-sick soul and your desperate need
for a Savior, brought you to Christ. But He put on you the
absolute mandate that you Sanctify yourself. As I said, it’s an
utterly ridiculous thought. If that’s the case, it could
not be possibly directed towards the Corinthian church exclusively,
those who had already savingly believed that somehow possibly
in the final analysis could be leave in vain. What Paul is addressing
here is those nominal Christians, those kind of on the fringe.
half in, half out, lukewarm, uncommitted, passive. It could be directed to those
in Corinth who still had not appropriated grace by faith. Those who were still, as it were,
sitting on the fence. Going through the motions of
Christianity. Learning all the verbiage. Doing all the things
that Christians do. Ultimately, Paul didn’t know
who they were. just as ultimately we don’t know, even among us,
who truly is saved or not. And it’s a frightening thought. We see indicators. We see what
we believe are positive marks of the grace of God in people’s
lives. But as I’ve said many times, there will be surprises
in heaven. Big surprises. There will be
those there that we did not expect to see. And there will be a few
vacancies, folks that we expected to see, folks that we walked
with and served with and knew for a long time to be professing
Christians. So here it’s a faulty manner
of receiving that’s in view. They received it poorly. They
received it inappropriately. They did not properly put to
use the grace of God. There’s an even more severe form
of that view. One said it this way. The meaning
is to accept the reconciliation with God and yet live in sin. This, of course, was the big
issue that came up in the 80s, the lordship salvation issue
that suggested that people could take Christ as their savior and
defer accepting him as their Lord until later on. Well, you
and I know that that’s a ridiculous argument. You don’t take Christ
as your Savior at one point and take Him as your Lord later,
deferring so that you can finish out your life of partying or
what have you. When you come to Christ, you fall on your knees
and plead for life itself. You repent of your sin, you turn
your back on the life of death and the life of sin, and you
turn to Christ, who is life itself. Perhaps here, as one said, Paul
is addressing the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God
faultily. And so some take this verse as
a severe warning to the Corinthians, a warning so severe that their
very salvation hung in the balance. One said it this way. Paul was
urging the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God in vain,
not to turn away from the gracious opportunity to hear the gospel
of forgiveness that he had so faithfully preached to them.
But events at Corinth had caused the apostle the fear that his
intense labor had been for nothing. Another said it this way, this
is not so much a direct exhortation to the Corinthians as a declaration
of the method in which the apostle preached. We’ll come back to
that thought later. But the question is, and it’s
a hard question. If the low manner in the way
the Corinthians received Paul’s gospel was to him vain, In other
words, he had spent all this time and gone back repeatedly
to the area, preached and labored. And now all of his work he was
perceiving was for naught, in vain, for nothing. If it was
in vain for him, what was it to the Corinthians? Were they
saved? Did they merely lose blessings? If this is the grace of salvation,
and if it’s been appropriated by faith, It can never be in
vain. But that’s precisely the question.
Had all the Corinthian believers properly received the grace of
God for salvation? Some of the Corinthians were
truly regenerated, but many were not. There’s another view. Another suggested that a similar
position worth note suggested what I would call the dull unbeliever
view. It goes like this. That Paul
was talking specifically to unbelieving, unregenerate attenders in the
Corinthian church. As one said, he put it this way,
as in any church, not everyone in the Corinthian assembly was
redeemed. Some had intellectual knowledge
of the gospel, but did not have saving faith. That’s why Paul
challenged them. Another expanded it to include
a warning addressed to all unbelievers everywhere in Corinth and beyond. Others said similarly that this
refers to the rejection of the gospel by the unsaved who, in
rejecting the gospel, render it ineffective in their lives.
In a sense, their reception, quote unquote, is no reception
at all. To quote one, He said, the reception
given to the grace of God by the world, the world that rejects
it, the hearing of the gospel without being affected by it.
So in a sense, rejection is no rejection at all. The second
major heading and we’re just working our way through. The
second major heading was that perhaps Paul, without any question
at all, lays out the truth that the grace received by an individual
can be lost. One said it this way. The apostle
here exhorts his readers to guard against falling from grace, that
having been graciously pardoned, they should not, by a relapse
into sin, forfeit the grace or favor that they have received.
Now, as I told you already, that’s a ridiculous view that I reject
out of hand. There’s no reason. That we have
to assume, contrary to the entire rest of Scripture, that the Apostle
teaches that those who have once made their peace with God and
closed with Christ and repented and come to faith in Christ have
been renewed and regenerated, then suddenly, someday can fall
away and ultimately into hell. One characterized it in these
words. He said, if reconciled by the death of his son, much
more shall they be saved by his life. To quote Paul, nothing
can ever separate them from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus. Those he calls, he glorifies. They are kept by the mighty power
of God through faith to salvation. According to this view, the grace
of salvation can be lost if not properly appropriated. And that’s
wrong. It just is wrong. It’s not that anyone, it’s pardon
me, it’s not that any who have truly received the grace of God
for salvation can one day lose it. It’s the third option. The third option is simply this. And they quote, this verse is
not directed toward the Corinthians in particular, but as a part
of his proclamation of the message of reconciliation to mankind
in general. So that his entreaty not to receive
the grace of God in vain is equivalent to an exhortation to all men
not to reject this great salvation. And it’s not a bad answer. It’s
not a bad approach. It’s possible. And we’ll come
back to that. But the statement basically that
Paul makes is directed generally to all. And here, grace is saving
grace. Reception is appropriated by
faith and vain refers to utter loss and ruin or damnation. And so it fits. We’ll come back. But there’s another view that
weakens another part of that word. The fourth view weakens
the word vain. It reads like this. Rather than
the idea of complete emptiness, which is what the word means,
the believer through Though he retains salvation, forfeits countless
blessings. It’s as if Paul says it is to
no profit. It doesn’t avail you much. But the word vain itself is an
exceedingly strong indication of the incorrectness of that
view. The consequences of misappropriated
faith are infinitely more severe than just a few mixed blessings.
It is eternity itself that is in view. That’s what’s laid out
with the grace of God, even as we just sung. There’s a stronger
version of that particular view. This particular view blunts the
word receive. Look back at the passage if you
would. We urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. This
view goes like this. Paul is here thinking in terms
of the judgment seat of Christ. Paul had brought the Corinthians
to the full and glorious gospel of reconciliation for them to
receive the grace of God in vain meant that their practice did
not measure up to their profession as Christians, that their lives
were so inconsistent, so as to constitute a denial of the logical
implications of the gospel. That Christ had died for them
so that they might no longer live to themselves, but to his
glory. In other words, their walk didn’t
match their talk. They were professors of Christ,
but not livers of Christ. Corinthians here, if that’s the
case, are in danger of receiving God’s grace in vain with regards
to their sanctification. So it isn’t that they lost their
salvation. God’s grace hasn’t changed. That
is the message of the gospel. It isn’t that they lost a salvation
that they once possessed. They never truly had it to begin
with. All of that preaching, all of
that labor on their behalf was vain for Paul and vain for them
for salvation. They didn’t receive it. Not truly. They did not truly receive the
grace of God so as to be saved. Otherwise, it surely would have
resulted in their eventual sanctification. One described it in these terms
and listen carefully. For them to receive the grace
of God in vain meant that their practice did not measure up to
their profession as Christians. That their lives were so inconsistent,
so as to constitute a denial of the logical implications of
the gospel. Now, let’s pause for a moment.
Those are that’s a lot of data. A lot of variety there of viewpoints. And if we were like so many in
the church today, we could go around probably in this very
town and find people that would entertain us and tickle our ears
with each of these various viewpoints. We want to know what’s right.
We want to know what God’s word means when it says this. To whom
is the apostle speaking? First of all, to whom is the
command this warning given? Is the warning issued to the
church of Corinth seemingly? Is it to unbelievers in the midst
of the church in Corinth? Absolutely. If it’s to Corinth,
it’s at least to them. Is it to nominal professing believers
in the church of Corinth? Another absolute possibility.
If it’s to Corinth at all, it must include unbelievers or false
professors. Is it a general statement made
to all unregenerate hearers of the gospel? Along the lines of
what we learned of Paul in the previous chapter, we beg you
on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. We saw that as a general
call, an overarching principle for ministry. Is that what this
is? Yes, it is that as well. But I want to pause now and I
want to go back to those four questions. First of all, what
is the grace to which the apostle refers here? Is it the divine
unmerited favor of God that produces salvation? There was one decent
argument against this, and it goes like this. The grace of
God spoken here does not mean the actual forgiveness of sin.
Nor the renewing of sanctifying influence of the spirit. But
the favor of which the apostles spoke in the preceding chapter,
the gospel, it is the infinite grace or favor of having made
his son sin for us so that we may become the righteousness
of God in him. This is the grace of God of which
the apostle speaks. He exhorted men not to let it
be in vain as it regarded them, that a satisfaction for sin sufficient
for all and appropriate to all had been made and offered to
all who hear the gospel. And so he speaks of the grace
of God in a much more general sense. But listen. That’s an
interesting argument, but to receive the grace of God in the
gospel message is to receive the grace of God for salvation.
The grace of God is the divine favor that brings salvation. That’s what’s in view. Secondly,
what does it mean to receive the grace of God? What does it
mean to appropriate this gospel message? Is it the humble and
repentant reception of the good news of Christ by faith? It is at least as that above argument went,
the grace of hearing the Gospel message. But again, to receive
the grace of God in the Gospel message is to receive the grace
of God for salvation. And so in the ultimate sense,
to receive the grace of God is to savingly believe the Gospel. The salvation offered because
of the finished work of Christ on the cross. It means what it
means. And so we have the grace of God
and the reception of the grace of God, meaning exactly what
we thought it meant to begin with. Then what must it mean to receive
the grace of God in vain? What does vain mean? In the Scriptures, it means utter
emptiness. Essentially, damnation due to
a poor reception of the gospel, is that what Paul’s pointing
to? Vain means vain. Utterly worthless. How did Paul
use the word? He used it repeatedly in his
epistles. First Thessalonians 3.5 said it this way. For this
reason, when I could endure it no longer, I sent to find out
about your faith for fear that the tempter might have tempted
you and our labor would be in vain. Here I had spent all this
time there. I rolled up my sleeves. I preached
the gospel. And now I see that it was all
wasted time. To the Galatians, he wrote. It
was because of a revelation that I went up and I submitted to
them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did
so in private to those who are of reputation for fear that I
might be running or had run in vain. I came and I laid out my
argument. And in the final analysis, I
knew that ultimately it could all be for naught. to the Philippians,
he wrote, that they are to be holding fast the Word of Life
so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because
I did not run in vain or toil in vain. My labors, my efforts
were not all wasted. To receive the grace of God in
vain, then, is to receive it in such a way as to not literally
receive it at all. to treat it out of hand, to casually
receive it, to toy with it, to dabble in it, to taste it, but
not embrace it, to sample it, but not to imbibe, to intellectualize,
but not to humbly receive in faith. And you know there are
many. There are many who treat the
Gospel in this fashion. There are many even perhaps in
our midst. that dabble with the gospel,
that taste the gospel, that have not truly received it and taken
it down in full? Paul pleads with the Corinthians. He starts with the Corinthians.
Those who were Christians. Paul doesn’t know who’s who.
He doesn’t know who is truly in Christ. Paul isn’t saying
that you Christians there in Corinth, boy, you better get
your act together because you may one day lose your salvation. His argument would be that simply
if you ever were saved, you are saved. If you are truly saved,
you are in Christ and you are there forever. What Paul is questioning is There
were many false professors. There were absolutely many believers. To receive the grace of God is
to fully appropriate the good news of the gospel by repentance
from sin and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. And that
places the true child of God on the path of godliness, a path
of progressive sanctification for which God grants divine enablement,
which process He will complete unto perfection. It’s God’s work.
For such a reception, a true work of God, it can never be
said to be vain, empty, worthless, because it’s the process of reconciliation
working itself out through the life of the child of God. But for a professing Christian,
such as those believers in Corinth, such as even sit in the pews
among us this morning, a misappropriation of the grace of God is an infinitely
dangerous thing. To sit and to listen and to be
right there. And to dismiss it out of hand,
to defer it until a later date. is an infinitely dangerous thing.
It is to see and to understand the grace of God in Christ and
to fail to repent, to fail to believe, to hold out and defer
to later. And in the final analysis, it
isn’t that such lose their salvation. Instead, it is a salvation that
they never really possess to begin with. They misappropriated
the glorious grace of the gospel of God. Scriptures speak very
solemnly about such a possibility. Most notably, probably the most
solemn passage in all the New Testament, Matthew chapter seven,
every good tree that bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears
bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce good
fruit, nor a bad tree produce good fruit. Every good tree that
does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So
then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says
to me, Lord, Lord. Will enter into the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven
will enter. Many. Will say to me on that day. Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast
out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will declare
to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice
lawlessness.” And then, if you take a step back and look at
the words of the Apostle Paul, you see what a merciful servant
of God he is. to pause and to look to unbelievers
and to believers alike and to say, we urge you not to receive
the grace of God in vain. Don’t toy with the Gospel. Don’t
dabble in it. Don’t treat it as a hobby. You know what this reminds me of?
It reminds me of the parable of
the sower. Turn, if you would, to Matthew 13 just for a moment. In Matthew chapter 13, I want
to find verse 3, where Jesus begins to tell one of the most
well-known parables of all the parables, the parable of the
soils. He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, Behold,
the sower went out to sow. And it pictures a farmer, perhaps
a gardener, going out with a bag of seed and what they would do
instead of, you know, the very neat rows that some of us do,
he would just cast the seed. And as he sowed, some seeds fell
beside the road. Luke records that they were literally
trampled underfoot and the birds came and immediately ate them
up. Others fell on the rocky places where they did not have
much soil and immediately they sprang up because they had no
depth of soil. And some of the man’s pardon
me, look at verse six. But when the sun had risen, they
were scorched and because they had no root, they withered away. Matthew records Jesus saying
there in verse five is that some of this man’s seed landed on
what looked like good soil. It was brown, earthy, but beneath
that very thin layer of topsoil was a slate rock common to the
area. And so when the seeds began to
grow, the root had nowhere to go and without enough soil to
produce more root, Because of the rocks below, that little
newly germinated seed was unable to get enough moisture to even
survive. And then when the hot Mideast sun came up, it didn’t
take long to wither and ultimately die. Look at verse 7. Others, that is other seeds,
fell among the thorns and the thorns came up and choked them
out. Mark records that they literally yielded no crop, no fruit. Some
of the rest of the man seeds landed on these briar patches
that were so common, weeds and thorns by the edge of the field.
The soil was pretty good. There was always plenty of moisture. But ultimately, as they began
to grow, they grew up into the thorn bushes and literally were
choked out, never produced anything. Verse 8, others fell in the good
soil and yielded a good crop, some 100, some 60, some 30 fold. The good news is that the rest
of the farmer seeds landed in good dirt, good soil. It slowly
began to take root. They used the nutrients in the
water and they began to grow steadily stronger. Ultimately,
they ended up producing a great crop. Some plants did better
than others, but they all produced. That’s the point of the whole
parable. And you know well that the apostles came to Jesus and
wanted an explanation. Jesus first rebukes them for
their dullness of hearing, but then he goes on in verse 18.
Turn there if you would. Here, then, the parable of the
sower. The parable is this. The seed is the word of God. It is the gospel. It is the good
news of Jesus Christ. There’s no problem with the seed. The parable is a parable describing
four different hearts, each in a different condition. There’s
no problem with the seed. The problem is with the soil. Soil number one, the seed that
fell beside the road is the unresponsive heart. Verse 19 says, When anyone
hears the word of the kingdom, the word of God, and does not
understand it, he does not take it in. He does not appropriate
it because he’s dull and unresponsive and callous. He’s hardened. By
indifference, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been
sown in his heart. And Luke, in his gospel, adds
here, so that they could not and would not believe and be
saved. That first heart is the one that’s compared to
seed that fell beside the road. That’s the hard hearted individual
that hears the gospel. And perhaps there are hearts
even among us like that. The second soil is the rocky
place, the impetuous heart, and there are plenty of these as
well, aren’t there? You’ve known many that you have introduced
to the gospel that you have directed to Christ who immediately receive
it enthusiastically like they receive everything else. They’re
just giddy. They just go around. They lap up everything that comes
their way. And you learn that in time. The one whose seed is sown in
the rocky places, the man who hears the word and immediately
receives it with joy.” Verse 20, Yet he has no firm root in
himself. He’s only temporary. He’s superficial. He’s impetuous. He’ll just as
soon open the door to the cultists and receive what they have to
say. Jesus says, ultimately, when affliction or persecution
arises because of the word, he falls away. There’s a third soil. Look at verse 22. The one on
whom seed was sown among the thorns is the man who hears the
word and the worry of the world, deceitfulness of riches choke
the word and it becomes unfruitful. The desire for the world, the
desire, the preoccupation with all the things, too many priorities,
a heart that is focused on all the wrong things. They start
off OK. They have all the resources to
do well. They’re in the church, probably. And yet, their attention is directed
elsewhere, and it’s there that they set their affections. There’s
a fourth soil. Look at it. Verse 23, And on
the one on whom good seed was sown, the good soil, this is
the man who hears the word and understands it. That word is
a deep word that means to comprehend, to fully take in. He understands
it. And indeed bears fruit and brings
forth some 160 and 30. It bears fruit. Thanks to God, there
are those who hear. There are ones compared to the
seed that lands on the good soil, even in our midst, eager and
sensitive heart, eager to accept the things of God, eager to learn
the things of God’s word. Luke says that they hold on to
the truth. They lay hold of the truth. And all three gospel writers,
Matthew, Mark and Luke, quote, The Lord is pointing out that
the seed falls on good soil, grows up and bears fruit. It
produces. God’s work of sanctification
takes place in the life of these people. And that’s the point. It’s exactly
the point that Paul’s making in 2nd Corinthians. Where he
says, examine essentially your heart. Examine your heart. He closes out this epistle by
saying this in 2nd Corinthians 13. Test yourselves to see if
you are in the faith. Examine yourselves or do you
not recognize this about yourself? that Jesus Christ is in you unless
indeed you fail the test. What is the test? The test is
sanctification. You say, well, I became a Christian
a long time ago, but sanctification is elusive. In fact, it’s almost
absent in my life. And I would say then again, repent.
Don’t cling to a false hope, don’t cling to an imaginary repentance,
an imaginary sanctification, as Paul said, make your calling
and election sure. Don’t just hope. Thomas Watson
said it this way, the great Puritan. Said, secure your interest in
Christ, make it your great business, your work, your heaven to secure
your interest in Christ. This is not an age or an hour
to be between fears and hopes, between doubting and believing.
Take not up in a name to live when you are dead Godward and
Christward. Take not up an outward form and
an outward privilege. Follow God. Leave no means unattempted,
whereby your blessed interest may be cleared up. Or, as Paul
said, we urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. Let’s pray. Oh, merciful God. What a merciful
God you are. To send messengers with the gospel
of salvation and to send them with such pleading hearts as
the apostle here had. And to come and to cry out to
those, some of whom have already made a profession. And to plead
with them not to be as rocky soil not to be as thorny bush,
so-called temporary Christians, but to cultivate the soil of
the heart in repentance and faith and to come to you and cry out
to you and plead with you for grace to grow in salvation. Father, there are many we know,
even in our midst, who wonder and worry, who have not laid
hold fully on what salvation even is. or that the fact that
they own it by your grace. And I pray for each of them that
you would bring them to humility, bring them to the point of being
able to cry out and reach out to others and reach out ultimately
to you. That they too may be saved. That their reception of the gospel
would in the final analysis not be in vain. Lord God, we pray
these things In the name of the Savior that died for sinners,
in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.