CDC Home | Feedback  | updated on 28 May 2008

ChristianDisciplesChurch

A Christian Evangelism and Discipling Ministry

The Parable of the Growing Seed - Yielding Fruit is Our Response to God’s Grace

Mark 4:26-29, A Message by Pastor Eric Chang.

Today we continue our exposition in the Word of God in Mk 4:26-29. I’ll read this passage to you slowly and I hope you’ll look carefully at it, attending carefully to its meaning, because you are listening to the words of the Lord Jesus. Mk 4:26-29 reads:

And he (the Lord Jesus) said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Lord Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground. Then he goes to bed, he gets up the next morning, and he goes to bed again the following day, and he gets up another day and he goes to bed again, and he gets up and so on and so forth through the summer, until what happens? Until the seed comes up, there is a blade, there is a stalk, there is the ear, and finally there is fruit. And when the fruit comes, he cuts it down; he takes in the harvest. The seed grows by itself, he does not know how. His task is to sow it at the beginning and to reap it at the end. Well, that is the parable. Finished! What is there to expound on that? There does not seem much to say about a parable like this. Well, let me tell you, there are great riches in the words of the Lord Jesus. Now we are going to consider this together carefully.

Compare The Parable Of The Sower
What is the Lord Jesus saying? Well, we have been expounding the Parable of the Sower. And so, having expounded the Parable of the Sower, our minds should be well-prepared to understand what the Lord Jesus says to us here. There are many points where it is very similar to the Parable of the Sower and many points where it is quite different. We need to consider a number of things.

First then, who is the sower? You will say, “Ah, that’s the Lord Jesus.” You remember the Parable of the Sower. Now there you would be wrong. If you thought it was the Lord Jesus who is the sower, you would be wrong. Why would you be wrong? Well, consider this: he sows the seed and he does not know how it grows. Do you think those words would apply to the Lord Jesus? Do you see those words there in v27? He sleeps and rises night and day, “and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how.” Now every expositor who expounds this passage immediately sees that you can hardly apply this to the Lord Jesus. How can we say that the Lord Jesus does not know how the Word of God grows?

Also, you will have noticed that there is some difference between here and the Parable of the Sower in Lk 8:5, where it says: “his seed”. “He sows his seed”. But here, the seed that is being sown by the sower is not said to be his own seed. He is simply sowing seeds, not necessarily his own. When a preacher preaches the Word of God, he does not preach his own words; he preaches God’s Word. It is not my seed; it is his seed that I am sowing.

Who Is The Sower?

Well, if it is not the Lord Jesus, then who is the sower? Any person who is sowing God’s Word is a sower. This is very common in the NT. In the Bible, the sower is by no means always the Lord Jesus. He is the first one who sows. He is, in the first place, the Sower, you might say, with a capital ‘S’, but we are all sowers, you might say, with a small ‘s’. We are God’s servants. We are his workers. So, in 1 Cor 3:6&7, the Apostle Paul speaks of himself as planting or sowing; Apollos waters the seed; but God gives the increase. But who sowed the seed? The Apostle Paul sowed the seed. Who watered the seed? Apollos watered the seed. But who gives the growth? God gives the growth. Now that is exactly parallel to these words here in Mark. How the seed grows, the Apostle Paul does not know, Apollos does not know, we do not know, but God knows. He is the One who gives the increase.

The same thing we find in 2 Tim 2:6, where Timothy is spoken of as a good farmer. He is pictured as a good farmer – a hardworking farmer. What does a farmer do? A farmer sows the seed. Or again in 2 Tim 4:2, Paul says to Timothy, “Preach the word… in season and out of season”. Notice, “in season” and “out of season” is agricultural language. He has combined the two pictures: “preach the word” is sowing the seed. Now, you normally sow the seed at a certain time of year. You do not sow the seed in winter. But when it comes to the Word of God, you sow it any time – in season or out of season! So, we can see that Paul expects Timothy to understand that preaching the Word of God is to be pictured as sowing the seed. The same picture is seen again in James 5:7, where Christians are pictured as farmers waiting for the harvest to come. So, we can see that the notion of the sower being Christians, and especially those who minister, who preach the Word of God, is a very common picture in the Bible.

The Farmer’s Life
The next thing we notice that it says is, “He sleeps and rises night and day.” He sleeps at night; he rises during the day. The preacher can do nothing to cause, or to make the seed grow. He can make the circumstances as good as possible for the seed to grow, but he cannot make it grow. The life is in the seed. The farmer cannot do anything about life. He does not know how life works; he does not know how it functions. So, what can he do?

Now we must not get the notion that all he does as a farmer is sit back. I have looked at some commentators, and they really do surprise me because it seems to me that they obviously are not acquainted with farming life. Can you imagine a farmer who simply sows the seed and then goes to bed and sleeps? Then the next day he gets up, and he twiddles his thumbs? And is he going to twiddle his thumbs until the harvest comes? This is the notion that some scholars seem to have, and that is very surprising. I think that when you expound the Word of God, really, you should go and live with a farmer, and see whether he twiddles his thumbs and does nothing until the harvest comes.

What does he do? There are lots of things to do. The seed, indeed, is planted; he cannot make it grow, but he can see to it that no pest will come on the land. He has to see to it that the field is watered everyday, especially in the Middle East, where you have an early rain and a late rain, but often not much rain in between. The farmer has to water the seed all the time; he has to try to irrigate his land. Those who have been to Israel know that much of the land depends on irrigation. You cannot just wait for the rain; the rain will come, but lots of times there is an early rain, there is a late rain. Those are most important to the seed, but you cannot depend only on that. The farmer has to work. Apollos watered. He watered the field. That is a big job; it is the job of irrigation. Sowing the seed is a big job. Irrigation is a big job. Imagine! Therefore to say that the farmer does nothing in the field is not to understand farming life at all. He has to also see that the next door neighbor’s cows are not going to come and trample his field, or eat up the blades of the grain when they come up, or eat the stalks away. He has to keep the pests away from his land as much as he can. He has to drive the birds away if possible; he sets up these scarecrows. Whatever he can do, he is trying to protect the seed that has been sown.

Is that not what every preacher and every pastor does? There is no question of inactivity. But never is it more true here than anywhere else, that unless God builds the temple, those who labor to build it labor in vain. [Ps 127:1-2] Unless God causes the seed to grow, unless there is life in the seed, then all the effort of the farmer will be wasted. He cannot make it grow! He can only make the circumstances such that the seed will grow, but he cannot force the seed to grow. There is nothing he can do. When he sees the grain plant coming up, he cannot make it grow any faster – he cannot pull it up so that it grows faster. There is nothing he can do in that respect as far as growth is concerned. But he can do something about protecting it and making the circumstances as ideal as possible: adding fertilizer, for example, as well as water and so forth.

Here, we are going to see something very important. What does the Lord Jesus really want to say to us? Does he want to say? That once the Word of God is sown that that is the end of the matter? That it is finished? That there is nothing more to do? That when the Word of God is sown into your life, that you just sit back and relax? Is that what he is saying? That it is all grace and you have no responsibility?

Beware Of Hyper-Spiritual-Sounding Teaching
Last time I showed you something of the Scriptural teaching of grace and responsibility: God’s part and your part. Now today there is a tendency in the churches to preach grace in such a way that man is entirely passive. He does absolutely nothing. Now I want to tell you that that is not Biblical teaching. I would also like to tell you that there are many things that sound very spiritual and yet are simply unbiblical and untrue. Be most careful about hyper-spiritual-sounding things. More people have been misled by hyper-spiritual-sounding things than by falsehood in the church. You see, a Christian is not going to be taken away by falsehood. Not so easily! He should at least have some discernment as to what is false and what is true, but he has an in-built weakness for things that sound spiritual (but which are not true).

Satan tried to use that very trick on the Lord Jesus when he quoted the Scripture to him. He quoted Psalm 91, remember? He says, “Jump off from the wing of the Temple.” And then he quotes Psalm 91 and says, “God will give his angels charge over you that you do not dash your foot against the stone.” [vv11&12] Is there anything wrong with the quotation? There is nothing wrong with the quotation. I have checked the quotation in the original: it is word-for-word correct. Satan did not quote one word out of line when he quoted the Scripture. No, no! It is word-for-word in the Greek, following the Septuagint, down to the tenses, down to the last letter. Not one word is out of place. Satan is no fool. You do not misquote Scripture to the Lord Jesus. He knows that if you are going to quote Scripture, you quote it fully.

Well, what is wrong? What is wrong is the misplacement of that Scripture, the misuse of Scripture. Well, there in Psalm 91 it says that those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High, God watches over them as the apple of his eye. He watches over them, so that they do not dash their foot against the stone. He cares for them. Yes, that is absolutely true while you walk in the center of his will, walking in the shadow of the Most High. He will watch over you night and day. But that does not mean that therefore you can go out and do things outside of his will, and hope that he will protect you; that you can disobey his will and still hope that he will protect you. No! That is tempting God! And that is what the Lord Jesus says to Satan [paraphrased], “I walk in the center of my Father’s will, and what you are telling me to do is not of my Father’s will. What you quote of the Scripture is correct, but it does not apply because what you are telling me to do, if I were to do it, I would no longer be dwelling in the secret place of the Most High; I would not be in the center of his will anymore.”

But do you not see that the temptation itself is hyper-spiritual? It is appealing to the spiritual aspect of man: “Your God will look after you. Don’t you want to experience his care? Don’t you want to experience how he can protect you? Now take a step out. Take a jump and see how He’ll do it.” Watch out for spiritual-sounding phrases, quoting the Bible out of its context. Watch for those things.
Today, we have too much of this. How much of it sounds so spiritual! “Faith is a gift from God.” How often we have heard that. How spiritual it sounds, and not one grain of truth is in it. Does it shock you? There is no truth in it at all! “If faith is a gift of God,” as Sidlow Baxter in his very important recent book called The New Call to Holiness has said, “then salvation is a cruel farce, a cruel joke on mankind.” It is because [if faith were a gift] you cannot be saved unless God gives you the gift! Therefore, if he does not give you the gift, you have had it, my friend. You can be a nice guy, you can be a good guy, but God is not going to give you the gift, so you go to hell. And then, to go on to say that God does not desire “that any should perish” [2 Pet 3:9], that God loves the world, is to turn the whole thing into one ridiculous joke, as Sidlow Baxter so clearly sees.

We have analyzed this verse before. There is nowhere in Scripture that you can see it said that “faith is a gift of God.” We saw there was one verse misquoted, and some weeks ago I showed you that this verse did not have this sense at all. The moment you look into the Greek, you will see that. So, you see, it sounds very spiritual to say, “Faith is a gift from God”. It sounds so spiritual – hyper-spiritual – but what is the conclusion on the matter? Firstly, it is not Scriptural, and secondly, it turns salvation into a cruel joke of God. God one moment says he does not desire anybody to perish, and then he gives faith only to a handful of people; the majority cannot receive faith. Why? It is because God does not give it to them! So, what are we saying? On the one hand, God does not desire that any should perish, and on the other hand, he sends the majority of mankind to hell. Here is the kind of ‘hyper-spirituality’ that gets the Gospel into a mess and makes the Gospel ridiculous in the eyes of every serious-minded person who seeks after the truth. Thus, beware of spiritual-sounding phrases.

This is nowhere so important as understanding the relationship of grace and responsibility. If faith is of grace, surely then man has no part in it, then we might as well all sit back, and wait for God to give us the grace. We would be without hope and without any possibility of searching after the truth, seeking for the truth or anything like it, because unless God does something, there is no way for you; you cannot even desire the truth. Beware of spiritual-sounding things! I am terrified of these things which sound so spiritual, but which have no Scriptural foundation at all.

Our Responsibility As Farmers
I would like you to check this now in the Lord’s teaching. Look at this teaching of the Lord Jesus and you will see the beauty of it. The sower, we see now, is the preacher who sows the Word of God. He cannot cause it to grow, therefore what should he do? Does his responsibility end with the sowing of the seed? Is his work finished? If we were to take it such that the seed is going to grow by itself – there is nothing more that I can do – then my responsibility is finished the moment I sow the seed. Not so! Not so! In 2 Tim 2:6, we see “the hardworking farmer”. The hardworking farmer does not work hard only at the time of sowing; he works hard all around the year! Anyone who knows the life of a farmer knows how hard the life of a farmer is. Today in Canada, there are fewer and fewer farmers because the work of a farmer is really that hard. There are easier jobs to do; the work of a farmer can go round the clock. It is a hard work: “the hardworking farmer.”

The Apostle Paul worked very hard. I always think of the words of the Apostle Paul when he says, “I worked harder than they all, but I do this by the grace of God.” He says that in 1 Cor 15:10. He says, “I toil night and day.” [1 Thess 2:9 & 2 Thess. 3:8] The Apostle Paul is toiling! He is not like the bunch of lazy Christians that we have in churches today who say “Everything is by the grace of God. I have nothing to do.” This teaching would be more calculated to produce a bunch of slothful, indolent, lazy Christians. It is the wrong teaching of grace. Grace was never meant to be anything like this.

God’s Grace Enables Us To Work Hard
Consider Col 1:29 in this context. It is most important. This is a verse which is very dear to my own heart. I would like you often to think about these words. We start at v28. Paul plants the seed. What is the seed? It is the Word of God and it is about Christ. It is “him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ.” Now, I would like you to notice: he does not want to just save a person. Today’s emphasis of the church is simply to get salvation, to give decisions, to raise your hand. That is all you want; that seems to be the end of it – the moment you are baptized, I am finished with you. Paul is not that kind of a preacher who just wants to get a decision – write down your name on the decision card. What kind of Christianity have we got today? Paul says, “For this I toil that we proclaim him, teaching, that we may present every man…,” how? As a convert? No! As “mature in Christ”! Perfect – that is the word. Complete in Christ! Oh, God grant to us preachers like this today, who do not just look for salvation, who do not just look for decisions, but “present every man perfect in Christ”. [KJV] Now that is what Mark Chapter 4 is about.

Notice carefully the next verse, “For this I toil….” Toil! Labor! The word is a very strong word; it means hard work. “For this I toil, striving….” Notice the word “striving”. Do you notice any laziness? Any inaction? Anything that is saying, “Well, it’s all of grace, there’s nothing for me to do”? [He says:] “…striving with all the energy…” Where do I get all this energy? “…which he (God) mightily inspires in me.” Oh, God give to us people like this in this generation, who will stop saying, “It is simply all of grace; nothing to do with us.” Sure, it is grace! But remember what we studied last time? That grace is “grace upon grace.”

Some people only have a little grace. Others have grace upon grace – abundance of grace. We saw last time [in Mk 4:25] that: “to him that has shall more be given, and he shall have abundance.” So, how do you have this abundance of grace that Paul has? Does God only inspire the Apostle Paul? Is Paul the only person that God inspires mightily? This inspiration – what is it but grace? This grace, what does it do? It causes Paul to strive with all his might. Notice: Paul’s concept of grace is very different from the concept of grace today. Today’s grace means I sit back and do nothing. Paul’s concept of grace is grace that inspires me to do mighty things. Consider Phil 4:13 where Paul says: “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” [NASB] Where has this kind of Christianity gone to? The grace that inspires to mighty works! The grace that inspires to mighty things! Now that is Biblical grace.

I have already had enough of the kind of grace that we are forever hearing these days, that says, “Do not do anything; if you do anything, it is ‘salvation by works’.” Who teaches ‘salvation by works’? It is a salvation by grace that produces works! As Paul says, “good works, where unto you were ordained.” [Eph 2:10] You were appointed to good works. God saved you to produce those works. How? By His grace! A grace that is dynamic, that is active. Now that is the difference. The grace of the Bible is a dynamic grace. The grace that we hear preached today is a static grace; it does absolutely nothing.

The Soil Is To Work In Response To The Seed Sown
So, now, notice carefully as we turn back to Mark Chapter 4. Here the Lord Jesus brings this point out so superbly [though] you might have thought there was nothing in this parable. Let me tell you there are enormous riches in this parable. Look at it again. Look carefully at v27; look at the words: “the seed… sprout and grow”. The seed sprouts and grows. Then v28, “the earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.” Do you see something there? I hope you read the Word of God with eyes that are open. What do you see? The seed sprouts, right? The life is in the seed. But then the next sentence, to our surprise, does not go on to say, “The seed produces the blade, the ear and the full grain.” That is what we would have expected, is it not? But we do not see that there. It is the earth that produces. Now that is a surprise. Because if the consistency were to be pursued, we should have expected v28 going on to say, “and the seed produces of itself”. “Of itself” would correspond to “know not how” in v27, and then the seed produces the blade. But, no, we find “the earth produces”.

Now what does it say to us? Have we got ears to hear? What is the earth? What does it represent in the Lord’s teaching? Do you know? If you studied the Parable of the Sower, you should know. It refers to the heart – the heart of man. It refers to human beings into whom the seed is sown. That is the remarkable thing.

Let us think of it like this. The life is in the seed; the seed must grow; but can it grow without the earth? If you put a seed on the table here, will it grow? The most wonderful seed, packed with life in it – will it grow if you put it there? It will not grow. The best seed in the world will not grow. Where is it going to grow? It will only grow in the earth, in the soil, in the mud. That is where it is going to grow. So, before we get hyper-spiritual, and get lost in the process, think carefully. The Word of God – if you put it here, will it grow? If I leave it here in my Bible and close it, will it grow? Of course, it will not grow. But when I take this Word and I sow it into your heart, and when it is sown into my heart, it will grow in my heart, in your heart. It is the earth that is important to it. Do you see that?

Our Responsibility: Produce Fruit In Response To God’s Gift Of Grace
Now, the seed being sown into your heart – it is a gift of God. It is a gift of grace. We saw in the previous messages that we do not earn the seed. The life is in the seed. This life – the eternal life of God – is a gift to us. But this life must enter into my heart and must produce results. Now if it does not enter into my heart, this eternal life does not do anything. As seen in Jn. 12:24, a seed abides by itself, but when it is sown – when it dies – it brings forth much fruit. If it is not sown and it does not die, it produces no fruit. It has to be absorbed! When it dies, it is absorbed; the ground envelops it. And in that ground, it does a transforming work. It transforms the barren earth into a fruitful field. Isn’t that wonderful?

The earth by itself, without the seed – can it produce anything? Of course not! The earth can produce nothing; without the seed, it would be barren. And so, we need both the seed and the earth to have a harvest at the end. We need to have God’s grace and man’s response before we can have a harvest, don’t we? Or have we become so spiritually blinded that we cannot see even that anymore?

But when we speak of a human response, are we talking about a ‘salvation by works’? How ridiculous! How ludicrous! Does not the whole Bible call us to respond? Did we not just sing a hymn, “Come to Me”? Come! What are we saying? “Come unto Me” – is that not calling for a response? Or do people come automatically? Do they stumble along, being dragged by the neck? Does he not stand at the door and knock, and call for a response, that if you do not open the door, he does not come in? Well, if we can understand these things, then do we not see that grace must have on our part responsibility to respond?

Now if all this is plain to us, if all this is clear to us, do we not understand then that grace in the Bible is not something static? It is something active, growing, alive, dynamic, and transforming. When I open my heart to the Word, it begins to do amazing things to me. If I do not open my heart to the Word, the Word of God can do nothing to me, that powerful Word of God can do nothing to my heart. I have got to open my heart. The Lord Jesus, does not smash the door of your heart down; he stands at the door and knocks. If you do not open the door, he cannot do anything for you. Do we not see then our responsibility in this matter?

When Are We Saved?
But let us press on forward and consider further. Consider the seed again. The seed has transforming power. It takes the barren land and produces a fruitful field out of it. But what important thing has that got to say to us? Oh, it has most important things to say to us. What, for example?

Consider this carefully: When a farmer sows a field, what does he look for? What does he look for? Does he look for some blades coming out of the ground? Does he look for some stalks growing on the field? Why does a farmer sow a field at all? He sows a field because he wants – the key word in this passage at the end – the harvest! That is what he wants. He does not sow it because he wants some grass; he does not sow it because he wants some stalks; he wants the fruit! That is what he is looking for. But how do you get to the fruit? The fruit comes through the seed in its various stages of production – producing a harvest.

I would like you to ponder carefully again the question: At what stage then are you going to be saved? At what stage does salvation come into this picture? Think carefully. The Word of God is sown into somebody’s heart. Is that the stage at which he is saved? He was saved when he received the Word of God? You say, “Yeah, that’s it!” Is it? When was he saved? When the seed got into his life and he produced a blade of green growth. That is when he is saved, right? What is the Biblical answer? Or the seed was sown into his life and he produced a stalk: quite a tall stalk, green leaves, quite a growth there. That is when he is saved, right? Now I am sure that you are so accustomed to thinking of this, that you will say he was saved the moment he received the Word, right? I am sure that is your answer: he was saved the moment he received the Word of God.

Now look at this parable: “The kingdom of God is….” What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is paraphrased in John’s gospel as eternal life. Now, how do we have this eternal life? That is the question here. It is a question concerning the kingdom of God; it is concerning salvation; it is concerning eternal life. At what stage do you have it? Think back to the Parable of the Sower again, that we understand the Lord’s teaching. When was the person saved, according to your picture and understanding? When the seed was sown into the ground, that fell upon the shallow ground, and it received the Word of God with joy, and it produced the blade; when there was a growth coming up? According to most Christians today, according to most preachers, that is when he is saved. “He is saved! You see, he received the Word of God.” What does the Lord Jesus say? That person died! He fell away! Why? It is because when the sun came up, he withered. Withered means to die, to dry up. He received the Word of God with joy. He received the Lord Jesus into his heart, you might say, in present-day language. What happened? He withered! Well, was he saved or was he not saved? What is your answer? If he was saved when he received the Word of God, then what happened to him? He withered and died!

What about the other one that fell among the thorns? He also received the Word of God. He also grew! But as time went on, he was choked by the thorns. Let me ask you again the question: Was he saved when he received the Word of God, or was he not saved? Oh, we are good, as Christians, at making our little theories, aren’t we? And then we do not know how to fit it in with the Word of God. Then we are all confused. Do you know what the Lord Jesus tells us? That it is only those in which the seed fell into the good ground and produced fruit, maybe only thirty-fold; others double, sixty-fold; others more than double, a hundredfold…those are the ones, that when they produced fruit, these are harvested into the kingdom of God, are they not? Were the others harvested into the kingdom of God? No! So, are they saved, even though they received the Word of God? I leave you to think about it. You find the answer. Do I need to tell you the answer? Or is the Word of God not plain enough?

Harvest That Goes On At The Present Time
We have to ask one more question. We come now to v29, the last verse: “But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle…”. When does he put in the sickle? When the blade comes out? No! When the ear comes out? No! When then? When the grain is in the ear and it is ripe, then he puts in the sickle. What is a sickle? The sickle is for reaping, of course. Reaping, where to? The harvest! What for? Into the kingdom of God!
Now, what does this harvest refer to? If you say the harvest is the final judgment, you would be wrong again. In Mt. 13:30, we do see a harvest. The harvest at the end of the age is brought in by the angels, not by any human creature. That harvest at the end of the age is the harvest when the Lord Jesus comes again. But notice from the point of exposition how careful we have to be. “…at once he puts in the sickle…” – who puts in the sickle? The person who sowed! Who was the sower? Is it the Lord Jesus? No, we saw that it is not the Lord Jesus. The “he” is the one who does not know how the seed grows – people like me, who do not know how the seed grows. Only God knows how the seed grows. So, who put in the sickle? The person who sowed is the same person who reaps here. Do you see? He is the one who puts in the sickle. So, then, can this be at the end of the age? We see that at the end of the age it is the angels who reap; not any man at all. So, we find that this harvest is not the eschatological harvest (not the harvest at the end of the age) but the harvest that goes on at the present time.

Do you see a harvest like this in the Bible? Certainly! We see that in Jn 4:35-36, which I need to read to you now. What do we read here? The Lord Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he says this: “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest.” You do not have to wait to the end of the age; right now there is something to harvest. Notice these words: “He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for life eternal.” What is the harvest? The harvest is the fruit for eternal life, “so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.” Here, then, we see that the harvest is the fruit that is for eternal life. And what is the fruit? The fruit are these people that are being brought in to eternal life. The people who are already ripe, mature are brought in for eternal life.

Now I would like you to observe this point and bring it very carefully into mind. In this sense, we are all reaping right now. We both sow and reap in this present age. The preacher who preaches the Word of God, a pastor for example, sows the Word but he also reaps. I have the joy of sowing the Word; I also have the joy of reaping. When people come and are being baptized, as they receive the Word of God and whose lives are transformed, I reap. I see that when they are baptized, they are receiving the life of God into their soul. And then I see their lives being transformed. I see they are producing fruit. I see them growing into spiritual maturity. I can see that these are being brought into the kingdom of God, into eternal life.

Press On Towards The Mark Of The High Calling
We see here then something very important. Let us ask again the question: At what stage are they reaped for eternal life? At what stage are they brought into eternal life? At the moment that they received the Word of God? At the moment they produced the blade? At the moment they produced the stalk? Is it not at the moment that they produced the fruit? What is the fruit? To change the picture, it is when the plant has reached maturity. It may produce thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or a hundred-fold; it does not matter how much fruit there is in there, but that it does produce some sort of fruit, that is the point.

Now, when we return to Col 1:28-29, you can understand why Paul is so concerned to “present every man” – notice the word – “mature”. The word ‘mature’ means ripe: a fruit that is ripe, ready for harvest. To “present every man mature in Christ”! Little wonder, with the teaching that we have today, that salvation is simply at the stage in which you received the Word of God; there is no incentive, in fact, no need whatsoever, to see that each person goes on to maturity. Who concerns themselves about maturity? “I’m saved. If I am saved, it does not matter whether I behave Christ-like or not, whether I have the fruit of the Spirit or not, whether I live a life that is glorifying to God or not. What does it matter? It does not matter. I am saved. What else do I want?” Well, this shows the danger of a false teaching.

The Bible warns us that you are not saved yet; you are not yet harvested into the kingdom of God the moment that you received the Word of God. Not so fast! Nor are you saved when a transforming process does begin to take place, as you are beginning to produce a blade. Nor are you harvested into the kingdom of God yet when you are producing a stalk. Yes, thanks be to God for the blade and for the stalk, but you have got to press on towards the mark of the high calling.

Now in today’s teaching, pressing on to the mark of the high calling is a desirable, but a non-essential matter. “It is desirable, but it does not matter if you do not.” Is that not true? “What importance is there to press on to the mark? You are saved; if you do not run the race, it does not matter. You have enrolled and that is all that matters. If you never reach the other end, it does not matter.” Well, you have got the Scriptural teaching wrong, if that is what you think. Remember the Lord’s teaching very carefully, and then you will understand why Paul does what he does. He constantly aims, as his purpose, to present every man perfect in Christ. He says in 1 Thess 5:23: “May the God of peace sanctify you wholly in body, mind and spirit, to present you blameless in His presence.” “Why? What for? Why should we worry about that? If you are saved, you are saved. You may live a most ridiculous and disgusting so-called Christian life; you are a disgrace to the church, but you are saved because you received the Word.” Is that Bible teaching? Is that Scriptural teaching? Have you got ears to hear? Don’t take it from me. I ask you to judge; I do not ask you to accept my words. You have not yet been harvested until you go on, in the grace of God, and the fruit is seen in your life.

Maturity Comes From A Total Commitment To God
Notice, as soon as the fruit appears, at once he puts in the sickle. Why? Well, if you are a farmer you know why. Once the fruit is ripe and you leave it there, it is going to rot. If the rain comes upon it, it is going to rot. Or if you leave it there, the birds will eat it. They also know how to enjoy ripe grain. Or the animals will come and eat it. Of course, immediately, you put in the sickle, you harvest it into eternal life. And so we long for that – press on!

Now, this is maturity. This is not to say that any Christian becomes perfect in this life. Paul says in Phil 3:15: “Those who are mature will think the same way as I do.” He does not mean those who are sinlessly perfect. We do not become sinlessly perfect in this life. But maturity comes from a total consecration to God, a total commitment to God that produces the fruit of the Spirit. Again, I say, by total commitment in the Bible, it is not meant that you will become a full-time servant of God. I do not know how many times I have to say that. It does not mean that you become a preacher. It does not mean you become a Bible teacher necessarily. Every one of us is commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and strength. So was every person in Israel, but it did not mean that because they loved God with all their heart and mind and strength, that they all became preachers. It is the quality of the life that you live that matters. A total commitment is the quality of your life. That is how you are going to produce the fruit.

So, I beg of you to understand, for the sake of your salvation, for the sake of your eternal well-being, do not just receive the Word of God. Thanks be to God that you have received it! And do not just be content to see some transformation in your life. Thanks be to God for that little transformation, but press on towards the mark. Or as Paul says in 2 Cor 7:1: “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” [NASB] Do you have the fear of God? Yes, perfect holiness! Or again in Phil. 2:12-13: “Work out your salvation… which God works in you…”. Notice the dynamic grace – that grace that inspires you to work out your salvation.

No Fruit – No Salvation
So, we can see that although this parable seemed to be so simple, so small, almost insignificant, how important is the lesson the Lord teaches us in this parable. Let me say so as we close now, as we sum up; it is the lesson that:

God’s grace is the free gift of life to you; you do not earn it. But you have the responsibility to see that this free gift has a transforming effect and produces the fruit. Unless you produce the fruit, you will find no place in the kingdom of God for you. That is the Biblical teaching, not my teaching.

The Lord Jesus, for fear that you and I do not understand this point, has emphasized it by a whole series of parables. But today we are so ignorant because few people ever study the teaching of the Lord Jesus. Most preachers like to select their own favorite verse and they preach every Sunday on this handful of favorite verses, instead of preaching the whole counsel of God’s Word. Do you know the teaching of the Lord Jesus? Do you know Lk 13:6-9 for example? Read it when you go home. It is the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. Do you know what happened to the fig tree that was barren? Read the parable. It got cut down! Was it a fig tree? Yes! Was it planted? Sure, it was planted. Did it have life? Yes, but because it did not produce fruit, it got cut down.

Do you know Jn 15:1f? Does not the Lord Jesus say, “The branch that does not bring forth fruit…” – what happens to it? – “is cut off”? And as though that point is not understood well enough, it is “thrown into the fire”. These are the Lord’s words, not my words. What it means, I leave it to you to think: The branch that does not bear fruit is cut off and thrown in the fire.

Or also Mt 21:33-43: the Parable of the Wicked Tenants who did not produce fruit, who did not hand over their fruit. What is the concluding word of that parable, do you know? Therefore, the Lord Jesus says to the sons of God (the children of Israel are called sons of God in the OT, you remember)… he says to Israel, “Because you did not produce the fruit, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a nation that produces the fruit of it.” Notice: “will be taken away from you” – sons of God, children of Israel, the chosen people, the people of the Covenant – “and given to another people that produces the fruit.” That is why we have a New Covenant.

Press On To Maturity In Christ – Bring Forth Fruit
Are our ears deaf? Are our eyes closed to the Scripture? Draw your own conclusions. Do you understand what he is saying? That is why in speaking the Parable of the Sower, the Lord concluded with those remarkable words: “He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” He seemed to know that many people would hear and not understand. God help us to see then, to press on towards maturity, to press on to fullness in Christ!

Being a Christian means to be changed, do you know that? Nobody is saved who is not changed. That is what the Bible says in 2 Cor 3:18f: “…we… are being changed” – we are being changed! – “from one degree of glory to another” by the Spirit of the Lord. That is what Christianity is about. Changed! From glory to glory into the image of his dear son. That is why Paul says, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.” [Eph 4:24] “Put on the new man created in the image of him that created it.” Isn’t that wonderful? That is what Christian life is concerned about.

So, I would like nobody in this church to sit back and say, “I’m saved now. My seat is reserved for me; I can relax.” Listen to Mark Chapter 4, this parable of the Lord. He warns us that the harvest takes place only in relation to those who bring forth the fruit. These will be harvested into the kingdom of God. May God grant you ears to hear and to understand!

[Get it!]

Difficult in reading?
Change the font size here:

 Copyright 1998-2007. All Materials in this site are copyrighted unless otherwise stated. Best viewed with IE6.0 and 1024 by 768 resolution.