Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1603
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, June 12, 1881
“And He said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground and should sleep and rise night and day and the seed should spring and grow up, he kno ws not how. For the earth brings forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” Mark 4:26-29.
LAST Lord’s-Day morning our subject was the laborers upon God’s farm and their great Master. And then we tried to show how far human agency was necessary in the work of the Gospel. We also saw how thoroughly all holy results depend upon God, for neither he that sows nor he that waters is anything, but God who gives the increase. We have much the same subject this morning, only it goes a little deeper and yet more fully shows how far the laborer can go and how far he cannot go—where man may enter with holy industry—and where no human work can possibly intrude. Our subject on this occasion will mainly be the measure and limit of human instrumentality in the Kingdom of Grace. If we shall be taught of the Spirit of God, we shall find this Scripture to be full of instruction upon the matter.
It is remarkable that the parable before us is peculiar to Mark. No other Evangelist has recorded it, but we do not think any the less of it on that account. If it had been told to us four times, we should have been glad to hear the repetition and would have given it fourfold attention. As it is told us but once, we will give the more earnest heed to a voice which speaks once and for all. We are glad that the Holy Spirit led Mark to reserve this pearl out of the many excellent things which our Lord said which have been lost. John tells us that if a record of all the works which Jesus did could have been preserved, they would have made a library so large that scarcely the world, itself, could have contained all the books.
Many of the things that Jesus said floated about, no doubt, for a time and were gradually forgotten. We have to be thankful to the Spirit of God for perpetuating this choice similitude by the hand of His servant Mark. Preserved in the amber of Inspiration, this choice instruction is of priceless value. Here is a lesson for sowers—for the laborers upon the farm of God. It is a parable for all who are concerned in the Kingdom of God. It will be of little value to those who are in the Kingdom of Darkness, for they are not bid to sow the good Seed. “Unto the wicked God says, what have you to do to declare My statutes?” But all who are loyal subjects to King Jesus—all who are commissioned to scatter Seed for the Royal Husbandman—will be glad to know how the Kingdom advances—glad to know how the harvest is preparing for Him whom they serve.
Listen, then, you that sow beside all waters—you that with holy diligence seek to fill the garners of your God— listen and may the Spirit of God speak into your ears as you are able to hear it!
I. We shall, first, learn from our text WHAT WE CAN DO AND WHAT WE CANNOT DO. Let this stand as our first head. “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground.” This, the gracious worker can do. “And the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how.” This is what he cannot do—it belongs to a higher power. Man can neither make the Seed of God spring nor grow—he is out of the field in that respect and may go home—“to sleep, and rise night and day.” Seed once sown is beyond human jurisdiction and is under Divine care.
Yet before long the worker comes in again—“When the fruit is brought forth, immediately he puts in the sickle.” We can reap in due season and it is both our duty and privilege to do so. You see, then, that there is a place for the worker at the beginning and although there is no room for him in the middle passage, yet another opportunity is given him farther on when that which he sowed has actually yielded fruit. Notice, then, that we can sow. Any man who has re-
ceived the knowledge of the Grace of God in his heart can teach others. I include under the term, “man,” all who know the Lord, be they male or female.
We cannot all teach alike, for all have not the same gifts—to one is given one talent, and to another ten. Neither have we all the same opportunities, for one lives in obscurity and another has far-reaching influence. Yet there is not within the family of God an infant hand which may not drop its own tiny Seed into the ground! There is not a man among us who needs to stand idle in the marketplace, for work suitable to his strength is waiting for him. There is not a saved woman who is not left a holy task. Let her do it and win the approving word. “She has done what she could.” Something of sacred service is within the reach of everyone’s capacity, whether it be the mother in the family, the nurse-girl with the infant, the boy in the school, the workman at the bench, or the nurse at the bedside.