AUSTRALIAN BIBLE CHURCH ... Sermon April 5, 2009

A CONTINUATION OF THE THRUST AND BASE
OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
ON BIBLICAL LINES …  

Matthew 13, Luke 15, John 15

Parables, Principles, Standing and Understanding

The Site of the Soil

This morning it seems fitting to consider two parables from the Lord and a perspective from Paul as the Spirit of  God inspired his utterance.

First, consider the parable of the sower and the seed. The seed is the word of God, the field is mankind, the differences in the soil represent the current state of different persons, and the events indicate what the final control of God permits. Some seed falls on rocky ground, thinly covered with soil. When the sun comes up, the superficial shoots die. The heart was not broken up, did not repent, still had a good sense of its own importance, relied on itself: its heart loved itself. Some fell on a path, and birds picked it up: Satan removed the word of God from the heart with other affairs, tests, temptations, appeals, attractions. Some fell among thorns – desires for money, power, self-importance, getting what one deserved and so on, so that God did not really figure, except as a convenience.

Some fell on good ground, took root, endured all things and… grew! Here the word of God was received in depth, took hold and the plant succeeded, God met man by His word, which is His own way. He did not stay silent in order that man might suffer in vain; but for many, He almost might as well have done so since they ignore His testimony and act as if they alone were wise, and their Creator was a witless, clueless brigand who could control nothing, while they in their wonderful skill, could do far better, but did not for lack of power. Such pride is mere irrationality. WHERE does this foolish man GET his wisdom – if not from God. And WHAT wisdom is it which makes his little, pathetic self so knowing! He is born, dies and breathes pride. But the man of God lives by a new creation which is in the seed which burying itself in his heart, brings a life which is abundant.

Which are you ? Which would you like to be ? If the good soil, then realise this, that you must first be broken up underneath, so that the rockiness at the base of your heart becomes soft, receptive soil. This means repentance from sin (Luke 13:1-3) and receiving the Lord by His Spirit in the name of Jesus who gave Himself, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God (II Peter 3:18), and from the power of His resurrection to find the spiritual sight from His raised body, for prayer that prevails (Ephesians 1:19). “Because I live, you will live also” – John 14:19.

The Flight of the Son

In Luke 15, we have an equally famous parable. Here we find a young man filled with ambition to the point he does not want to stay on his parent’s farm any more, but asks his father for his share of the inheritance, gets it and goes. A fine parade of self-will! Then  he enjoys himself in various sins, which last as long as the money, till destitute and without money, he takes a job feeding swine, pig of heart with pigs of body. Realising his destitution and folly, he wishes he could be back with his father, and his heart changes.

Back he goes, conviction from the Spirit of God resting in his heart, truth becoming a friend. His father had been waiting for him, and went out to meet him with a parent’s joy that a son was back from folly. In a sense, this represents a return to faith, the land of faith if you will. The son is penitent: could his father take him back as a hired servant ? he asked,  for he had been unworthy and sinned.

Not only did the father do so, but made a great feast for the reception back, for this his son who was dead (Ephesians 2:1-12), was now in the land of the living, his heart restored and his mind aware of grace at last! The elder brother was envious: had HE NOT WORKED all the time? His miserable spirit, as much without grace as the son who went astray, is rebuked by the father, but tenderly. Should not this son, alive from the dead, be a matter of rejoicing ? Was not the whole farm there for the other son all the time! (Luke 15:7).

This teaches us that pride is not the way to heaven, nor is self-importance the path to glory. It is quite possible to work both hard and diligently, and still in self-will have one’s own little universe in the head, one’s own little self-will in the heart, with no sense of faith and gratitude to God, nothing of love, no awareness of all the good one has oneself received in life, with just a narrow, foolish, short-sighted, indeed superficial concept: superior in pride, inferior in spirit, base.

It teaches us no less that God does not force, but loves to show mercy (cf. Micah 7:19), and that it is NECESSARY, as in the sower and seed parable, to repent and have the heart freed from pride and self-will, casting one’s sins on Jesus Christ (I Peter 2:22-25), putting one’s trust in Him, and receiving the blessed fellowship with God by His Spirit in that name above all names, that of the Saviour (Acts 4:11-12). THERE IS NO OTHER NAME by which man MUST be saved. It is beyond option: necessity. Bypass it ? It is like bypassing the only road through high Alpine mountains, and scrambling through the ravines, pride awaiting rebuke, and life, created by God, conducted by its own sinful self. Heaven help such! But alas, only when they come to the freeway in Christ, is that crucial help to arrive!

The Active Quiet of the Heart

After telling the parable of the sower and the seed, Jesus did some straight talking. WHY, His disciples asked, do you speak in parables ? YOU, said Christ to these disciples, are allowed to understand things in the kingdom of heaven, but these have blinded eyes, deafened ears, do not receive truth, need imagery. They needed parables in order for light to penetrate their dark deadness with its brilliant force.

“Hearing you will hear and will not understand,” He quoted from the prophet Isaiah, “and seeing you will see and not perceive, for the heart of this people has grown dull.”

They WILL not heed, listen, see

“lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
so that I should heal them.”

This is spiritual death, like a profound heart attack, weakening the will, closing the eyes, making oneself a parcel for hell, postmarked, “Don’t give me God, except as a servant to my will!” If God will help their selfishness and sinful ambitions, their wills, sure, He can have a go at it; but in each such case, it is always to get more for myself, never for Him that I work! Such is the way of them. It is like a car, if it could think, which is never interested in being used to transport people, but only to run about and have people help by putting in petrol while it goes its own way.

It is not that there is no life available for man,  in God; for Christ came to bring life and life more abundantly, not less (John 10:10). It is that there is no life in one’s own will, way and thoughts (John 1:12), and only in the Word of God is there the find of all finds, the truth, the way and the life in God; and this ? God has by no means left man’s life to die in ignorance, but has both spoken and prophesied it, and come in Person in Jesus Christ to take on Him the sin which kills it, for as many as in heart receive Him as Lord and Saviour. Thus is sin to be paid out and overcome, so that man should live in Him. Death,  though it struck Him amid loathing and hatred as foretold (Isaiah 53:4ff., 49:7), was still the only way to life for man: He gave His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). No ransom desired, nor this Lord as God ? Then there is no freedom from sin, no future but folly and judgment, to which death becomes the unwelcome entrance hall.

On the other hand, when the life of God IS truly and duly planted in someone, in Christ, then the Spirit of God moves deeply in the heart and one is helped in prayer (Romans 8:26-27), as the Spirit searches out the depths of one’s heart and brings the thoughts to God, who knowing all, acts in wisdom (Isaiah 64:5), who indeed “meets with him who does righteousness, who remembers Him in His ways.” Moreover,  “He acts for the one who waits for Him” – 64:4, and great is His store of spiritual treasures for those who love Him and delight in His word (John 15:7).

Christian life is not quiescence, simply being quiet; nor is it action, simply doing things. It  allows neither this nor that extreme, but requires that one SEEK the Lord with faith and prayer and LIVES in Him. Then, repentant, believing Him, accepting what He offers, one accepts moreover, HOW He freely offers it (Romans 5:15, Galatians 1, 3), and for the REASON both of the Cross where HE bore the burden of guilt and sin, and of the resurrection, where HE dismissing death as a penalty for sin, brings eternity and immortality to light (Romans 3:23ff., 4:25). For whom ? it is for those who take Him on HIS OWN TERMS, by faith through grace (Ephesians 2:1-12). It is utterly amazing what sin can produce; but more so, what God can perform. Fees paid, free gift, this of eternal life and not possibility (Ephesians 1:11)!

Yet many who would not dream of dictating to someone selling a car, the price, but would negotiate at least, imagine that they can just dictate to God and have Him squirm in order to ‘get’ them on His side. Far from truth is this; for God dwells in light unapproachable, and the light comes only where the heart being made ready, receives it (John 8:24). HIS TERMS ARE JESUS CHRIST, stricken for sin, only Saviour for man, Eternal Word of God, breaker of death, bodily resurrected, giver of eternal life (I John 1:1-4), coming to rule (Psalm 72, Isaiah 11, Revelation 20), directing history to its stricken end, knowing all things, giving all things, BUT this last, ONLY through the gateway that is Himself, according to His word.

Thus when one is received, having received Him in this way, then prayer becomes an action account, and quiet of heart is related to the power of His Spirit, the reliability of His name, to His faithfulness in all things, and so as in Romans 8, we find the life in prayer by faith as one of the experiences of His life, for each pardoned believer. In a sense, it is like a vine with the SAP standing for the Spirit; for ONCE the vine is well planted, the right seed (the word of God in the imagery), then the sap goes throughout bringing life, and the roots in the earth of truth, reach down and have base and basis where the ground is firm and adequate!

What is merely attached, as when some old stock shoots up a wrong kind of branch, is cut off; what is from the vine according to its own seed, this is fruitful and is pruned so that it will bear more. There is NO PLACE for mere words or form; if there are words, they need to be those of the heart that God might hear (Psalm 145:18, cf. Hosea 7:13-14).

“Woe to them”, God cries in Hosea, “for they have fled from Me!” … “They did not cry out to Me with their heart, when they wailed upon their beds.”

State and Strength

When however, a person, born of God, repentant and redeemed, trusting in the death of Christ for cover, freely confessing the truth (Romans 10:9) DOES abide in the Lord (as a vine branch is in the stock, the sap circulating), and He abides in it, then there is abundant treasure, for in that STATE, one can ask what one will and find it (John 15:7). WHEN the heart is reformed, then the mind is illuminated, the soul is given wisdom and as one watches constantly to WHAT HE HAS SAID, the divine principles, promises and power accorded (cf. Ephesians 1:19), then there is a wonder. Suffering ? Of course, for to change the image, what soldier does not suffer! (I Timothy  6:11-16, II Tim. 2:3ff.). Spiritual strength ? Naturally, for it is promised AS one waits on the Lord (Isaiah 40:26ff.), but spiritual fruit in the joy of the Lord who loves, this is one of the crucial outcomes.

Look at II Timothy 2:3ff..

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life,
that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

^“The hard-working farmer must be first to partake of the crops.
Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

^“Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer,
even to the point of chains; but the word of God is not chained.
Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect,
that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

 

^“This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him,

We shall also live with Him.

             If we endure,

We shall also reign with Him.

      If we deny Him,

He also will deny us.

             If we are faithless,

He remains faithful;

            He cannot deny Himself.”

Therefore let us all be strong in the Lord, our faces enlightened with HIS light, our paths under the control of His friendly directions, His wisdom our delight, His will our treasure, to do it and to finish what He sets before us with faithfulness (cf. John 4:34). Deny HIM ? That is for the birds. Deny one’s life ? cut off one’s hand! That, it is for Judas, not the disciples of Christ, kept by the power of God through faith to an inheritance, guaranteed (Ephesians 1:11) because given (Romans 6:23, John 5:24).

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.”

Remember this, He is not only our Saviour, for those of us who are Christians, but our EXAMPLE!