The Sower
(No. 2842)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 2, 1903.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 6, 1888.
"Behold, a sower went forth to sow." Matthew 13:3.
THIS was a very important event. I do not say that it was important if
you took the individual case, alone–but if you took the multitudes of
cases in which it was also true, it was overwhelmingly important in the
aggregate–"A sower went forth to sow." Yes, Christ thinks it
worthwhile to mention that a single sower went forth to sow, that a
Christian man went out to address a meeting on a village green, or to
conduct a Bible class, or to speak anywhere for the Lord! But when you
think of the hundreds of preachers of the Gospel who go out to sow
every Lord's-Day and the myriads of teachers who go to instruct the
children in our Sunday schools, it is, surely, in the aggregate, the
most important event under Heaven! You may omit, O recording angel, the
fact that a warrior went forth to fight–it is far more important that
you should record that "a sower went forth to sow." You may even forget
that a man of science went into his laboratory and made a discovery,
for no discovery can equal in importance the usual processes of
farming. Do you hear the song of the harvest home? Do you see the
loaded wagons follow one another in a long line to the farmer's barn?
If so, remember that there would be no harvest home if the sower went
not forth to sow! As the flail is falling upon the wheat, or the
threshing machine is making the grain to leap from among the chaff and
the miller's wheels are grinding merrily, and the women are kneading
the dough, and the bread is set upon the table and parents and children
are fed to the full, do not forget that all this could never happen
unless "a sower went forth to sow." On this action hinges the very life
of man! Bread, which is the staff of his life, would be broken and
taken from him–and his life could not continue did not a sower still
go forth to sow! This seems to me to prove that the event recorded in
our text is of prime importance and deserves to be chronicled there.
And, dear Friends, the spiritual'sowing stands in the same relation to
the spiritual world that the natural sowing occupies in the natural
world! It is a most important thing that we should continually go forth
to preach the Gospel. It may seem to some people a small matter that I
should occupy this pulpit and I shall not lay any undue importance upon
that fact–yet eternity may not exhaust all that shall result from the
preaching of the Gospel here–there may be souls, plucked like brands
from the burning, saved with an everlasting salvation, lamps lit by the
Holy Spirit that shall shine like stars in the firmament of God forever
and ever! Who knows, O Teacher, when you labor even among the infants,
what the result of your teaching may be? Good corn may grow in very
small fields. God may bless your simple words to the babes that listen
to them. How know you, O my unlettered Brother, when you stand up in
the cottage meeting to talk to a few poor folk about Christ, what may
follow from that effort of yours? Life or death, Heaven or Hell, may
depend upon the sowing of the Good Seed of the Gospel! It is, it mustbe
the most important event that can ever happen, if the Lord goes forth
with you when you go forth as the sower went forth to sow!
Listen to the songs of the angels! See the overflowing brightness and
excessive glory of your Heavenly Father's face! He rejoices because
souls are born to Christ–but how could there be this joy, in the
ordinary course, and speaking after the manner of men–without the
preaching of the Word? For it still pleases God, by the foolishness of
preaching, to save them that believe! I shall not, therefore, make any
apology for again preaching upon an event which is so important, even
though it is recorded in such simple words! "A sower went forth to
sow."
I am going to try to answer three questions concerning this answer.
First, who was he? Secondly, what did he do? And, thirdly, what was his
objective? I. First, WHO WAS HE?
We do not know anything at all about him except that he was a sower.
His individuality seems to be swallowed up in his office. We do not
know who his father was, or his mother, or his sister, or his brother.
All we know is that he was a sower and I do like to see a man who is so
much a minister that he is nothing else but a minister! It does not
matter who he is, or what he has, or what else he can do if he does
this one thing. He has lost his identity in his service, though he has
also gained it over again in another way. He has lost his selfhood and
has become, once and for all, a sower and nothing but a sower!
Observe, dear Friends, that there are many personal matters which are
quite unimportant It is not mentioned here whether he was a refined
sower, or a rustic sower–and it does not matter which he was. So is it
with the workers for Christ–God blesses all sorts of men. William
Huntington, the coal-heaver, brought many souls to Christ. Some have
doubted this, but, in my early Christian days, I knew some of the
excellent of the earth who were the spiritual children of the
coal-heaver. Chalmers stood at the very opposite pole–a master of
cultured gracious speech, a learned, well-trained man–and what
multitude Chalmers brought to Christ! So, whether it was Huntington or
Chalmers, does not matter. "A sower went forth to sow." One preacher
talks like Rowland Hill, in very plain Saxon with a touch of humor.
Another, like Robert Hall, uses a grand style of speech, full of
brilliant rhetoric and scarcely ever condescending to men of low
degree, yet God blessed both of them! What did it matter whether the
speech was of the colloquial or of the oratorical order so long as God
blessed it? The man preached the Gospel–exactly how he preached it
need not be declared. He was a sower, he went forth to sow–and there
came a glorious harvest from his sowing!
Now, my dear Brother, you have begun earnestly to speak for Christ, but
you are troubled because you cannot speak like Mr. So-and-So. Do not
try to speak like Mr. So-and-So! You say, "I heard a man preach, the
other night, and when he had done, I thought I could never preach
again." Well, it was very naughty on your part to think that. You ought
rather to have said, "I will try to preach all the better, now that I
have heard one who preaches so much better than I can." Just feel that
you have to sow the Good Seed of the Kingdom and if you have not so big
a hand as some sowers have, and cannot sow quite so much at a time, go
and sow with your smaller hands, only mind that you sow the same Seed,
for so God will accept what you do! You are grieved that you do not
know so much as some do and that you have not the same amount of
learning that they have. You regret that you have not the poetical
faculty of some, or the holy ingenuity of others. Why do you speak
about all these things? Our Lord Jesus Christ does not do so–He simply
says, "A sower went forth to sow." He does not tell us how he was
dressed. He mentions nothing about whether he was a black man, or a
white man, or what kind of man he was. He tells us nothing about him
except that he was a sower. Will you, my dear Friend, try to be nothing
but a soul-winner? Never mind about "idiosyncrasies," or whatever
people call them! Go ahead and sow the Good Seed and God bless you in
doing so!
Next, notice that as the various personal matters relating to the man
are too unimportant to be recorded, his name and his fame are not
written in this Book. Do you want to have your name put to everything
that you do? Mind that God does not let you have your desire and then
say to you, "There, you have done that unto yourself, so you can reward
yourself for it." As far as ever you can, keep your own name out of all
the work you do for the Lord! I used to notice, in Paris, that there
was not a bridge, or a public building, without the letter, "N,"
somewhere on it. Now, go through all the city and find an, "N," if you
can. Napoleon hoped his fame would live in imperishable marble, but he
had written his name in sand, after all, and if any of us shall, in our
ministry, think it the all-important matter to make our own name
prominent, we are on the wrong tack altogether! When George Whitefield
was asked to start a new sect, he said, "I do not condemn my Brother
Wesley for what he has done, but I cannot do the same–let my name
perish, but let Christ's name endure forever and ever!" Do not be
anxious for your name to go down to posterity, but be more concerned to
be only remembered by what you have done, as this man is only
remembered by Christ's testimony that he was a sower.
What he did, in his sowing, is some of it recorded, but only that which
refers to his special work. Where his seed fell, how it grew or did not
grow and what came of it or did not come of it, that is all there–but
nothing else about his life, or history is there at all. I pray you, do
not be anxious for anything that shall embalm your reputation.
Embalming is for the dead–so the living may be content to let their
name and fame be blown away by the same wind that blows it to
them. What does our reputation matter, after all? It is nothing but the
opinion or the breath of men and that is of little or no value to the
child of God. Serve God faithfully and then leave your name and fame in
His keeping. There is a day coming when the righteous shall shine forth
as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father!
We have no record of the name and the fame of this man, yet we do know
something about him. We know that he must have been, first of all, an
eater, or he never would have been a sower. The Gospel is Seed for the
sower and Bread for the eater. And every man who really goes out to sow
for God, must first have been an eater. There is not a man on the face
of the earth who treads the furrows of the field and sows the seed, but
must first have been an eater of bread–and there is not a true servant
of God, beneath the cape of Heaven, but has first fed on the Gospel
before he has preached it! If there are any who pretend to sow, but who
have never, themselves, eaten, God have mercy upon them! What a
desecration of the pulpit it is for a man to attempt to preach what he
does not, himself, know! What a desecration it is of even a Sunday
school class–for an unconverted young man, or young woman to be a
teacher of others! I do not think such a thing ought to be allowed.
Wherever it has been permitted, I charge any who have been trying to
teach what they do not, themselves, know, to cry to God to teach them
that they may not go and pretend to speak in the name of the Lord, to
the children, till, first of all, Christ has spoken peace and pardon to
their own hearts and He has been formed in them the hope of Glory! May
every worker here put to himself the question, "Have I fed upon and
enjoyed that good Word which I am professing to teach to others?"
Next, having been an eater, he must also have been a receiver. A sower
cannot sow if he has not any seed. It is a mere mockery to go up and
down a field and to pretend to scatter seed out of an empty hand! Is
there not a great deal of so-called Christian work that is just like
that? Those who engage in it have not anything to give and, therefore,
they can give nothing. You cannot pump out of a man or a woman what is
not there–and you cannot preach or teach, in God's way, what is not
first in your own heart! We must receive the Gospel Seed from God
before we can sow it! The sower went to his master's granary and
received so many bushels of wheat. And then he went out and sowed it. I
am afraid that some would-be sowers fail in this matter of being
receivers. They are in a great hurry to take a class, or to preach
here, or there, or somewhere else, but there is nothing in it all. What
can there be in your speech but sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal,
unless you have received the Living Word from the Living God and are
sent forth by Him to proclaim it to men?
A true sower, also, is a disseminator of the Word of God. No man is a
sower unless he scatters the Truth of God. If he does not preach Truth,
he is not a sower in the true meaning of that term. A man may go
whistling up and down the furrows and people may mistake him for a
sower, but he is not really one–and if there is not, in what we
preach, the real, solid Truth of God's Word–however prettily we may
put our sweet nothings, we have not been serving the Lord. We must
really scatter the Living Seed or else we are not worthy of the title
of sower.
We seem to know a little about this sower, now, and we further know
that he was one of noble line. What our Lord really said was, "THE
SOWER went forth to sow," and I think I see Him coming forth out of the
ivory palaces from the lone Glory of His own eternal Nature, going down
to Bethlehem, becoming a Babe, waiting a while till the Seed was ready
and then standing by the Jordan, by the hillside, at Capernaum and
Nazareth, and everywhere scattering those great Seeds that have made
the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad, and the desert to
rejoice and blossom as the rose! See how all Christendom has sprung
from the sowing of that Man! And our glorious Lord has long been
reaping and is still reaping, today, the harvest of the Seed-sowing on
the hillsides of Galilee. "The Sower went forth to sow." Are you not
glad to be in that noble line? Do you not feel it to be a high honor,
even if you are the very least of the sowers, to be one of those who
have sowed the Gospel of God?
But who are the sowers who came next? Men "of whom the world was not
worthy." Men who suffered for their Lord and Master, His Apostles, and
those who received their word and who were faithful even unto death–a
goodly army of all sorts of people, old and young, rich and poor, wise
and unlettered. And there has always continued a band of sowers going
forth to sow, men who could not help doing it, like the tinker of
Bedford, to wit. They commanded him not to sow any more of the Seed and
they cast him into prison because he would still do it. But, through
the window of that prison he kept on sowing great handfuls of Seed
which are, even now, falling upon the broad acres of our own and other
lands! When they made him be quiet, he said, "If you let me out of
prison today, I will preach again tomorrow, by the Grace of God." "Oh,
then!" they answered, "go back to your cell, Sir." "Yes," he said, "and
I will lie there till the moss grows on
my eyelids before I will make you any promise that I will be silent."
He must sow–he could not help it! Well, now, today, it is imagined by
some that the new theology is to put an end to our sowing of the Good
Seed of the Kingdom–but will it? I believe that the sowers will still
go to every lane and alley of the city and to every hamlet and village
of our country, when God wills it, for the Gospel is as everlasting as
the God who gave it and, therefore, it cannot die out! And when they
think that they have killed the plant, it will spring up everywhere
more vigorous than before.
The sower is not only a man of an honorable line, but he is also a
worker, together with God. It is God's design that every plant should
propagate and reproduce its like and especially is it His design that
wheat, and other cereals so useful to men, should be continued and
multiplied on the face of the earth. Who is to do it? God will see that
it is done and, usually, He employs men to be His agents. There are
some seeds that never can be sown by men, but only by birds. I need not
go into the details, but it is a fact that no man could make the seed
grow if he did sow it–it must be done by a bird. But as to wheat, man
must sow that–you cannot go into any part of the world and find a
field of wheat unless a man has sown the seed to produce it. You may
find fields full of thistles, but wheat must be sown. It is not a wild
thing, it must have a man to care for it and God, therefore, links
Himself with man in the continuance of wheat on the face of the earth.
And he has so arranged that while He could spread the Gospel by His
Spirit, without human voices–while He could bring untold myriads to
Himself without any instrumentality–yet He does not do so and, as
means to the end He has in view, He intends you to speak, that He may
speak through you, and that, in the speaking, the Seed may be
scattered, which He shall make to bring forth an abundant harvest!
II. Now, secondly, WHAT DID THIS SOWER DO? He went forth. I am going to
dwell upon that fact for a few minutes.
I think this means, first, that he bestirred himself. He said, "It is
time that I went forth to sow. I have waited quite long enough for
favorable weather, but I remember that Solomon said, 'He that observes
the wind shall not sow.' I feel that the sowing time has come for me
and I must set about it." Can I look upon some here who have been
members of the Church for years, but who have never yet done anything
for the Lord? Brother or Sister, if you have been a servant of God for
many years and have never yet really worked for the salvation of souls,
I want you now to say to yourself, "Come now, I must really get at this
work." You will be going Home soon and when your Master says to you,
"Did you do any sowing for Me?" you will have to reply, "No, Lord, I
did plenty of eating. I went to the Tabernacle and I enjoyed the
services." "But did you do any sowing?" "No, Lord. I did a great deal
of hoarding. I laid up a large quantity of the Good Seed." "But did you
do any sowing?" He will still ask–and that will be a terrible question
for those who never went forth to sow!
You are very comfortable at home, are you not? In the long winter
evenings that are coming on, it will be so pleasant to enjoy yourselves
at home for an evening. There, stir the fire and draw the curtain
close, and let us sit down and spend a happy time. Yes, but is it not
time for you, Mr. Sower, to go forth? The millions of London are
perishing! Asylums for the insane are filling, jails are filling,
poverty is abounding and drunkenness is at every street corner!
Harlotry is making good men and women to blush! It is time to set about
work for the Lord if you are ever to do it! What are some of you doing
for God? Oh, that you would begin to take stock of your capacity, or
your incapacity and say, "I must get to work for the Master. I am not
to spend my whole life thinking about what I am going to do–I must do
the next thing and do it at once, or I may be called Home–and my day
over before I have sown a single handful of wheat."
Next, the sower gave up his privacy. He came out from his solitude and
began to sow. This is what I mean. At first, a Christian man very
wisely lives indoors. There is a lot of cleaning and scrubbing to be
done there. When the bees come out of their cells, they always spend
the first few days of their life in the hive cleaning and getting
everything tidy. They do not go out to gather honey till they have,
first of all, done the housework at home. I wish that all Christian
people would get their housework done as soon as they can. It needs to
be done. I mean acquaintance with experimental matters of indwelling
sin and overcoming Grace. But, after that, the sower went forth to sow.
He was not content with his own private experience, but he went forth
to sow. There are numbers of people who are miserable because they are
always at home. They have cleaned up everything there, even to the
bottoms of the saucepans outside, but now they do not know what to
do–so they begin blacking them over again and cleaning them once
more–always at work upon the little trifles of their own kitchen. Go
out, Brother! Go out, Sister! Important as your experience is, it is
only important as a platform for real usefulness. Get all right within
in order that you may get to work without!
The sower, when he went forth to sow, also gave up his occupation of a
learner and an enjoyer of the Truth. He was in the Bible class for a
year or two and he gained a deal of Scriptural knowledge there. He was
also a regular hearer of the Word. You could see him regularly sitting
in his pew and drinking in the Word. But, after a while, he said to
himself, "I have no right to remain in this Bible class–I ought to be
in the Sunday school and lead a class myself." Then he said to himself,
on a Sabbath evening, "I have been to one service, today, and have been
spiritually fed, so I think I ought to go to one of the lodging houses
in the Mint and speak to the people there, or find some other holy
occupation in which I can be doing some good to others." So he went
forth to sow and I want to stir you all up to do this! Perhaps I do not
need to say much upon this matter to my own people here, but there are
also many strangers with us. I would like to do with you what Samson
did with the foxes and firebrands. We have far too many professing
Christians who are doing next to nothing! If I could send you among the
standing corn of some of the churches, to set them on fire, it would
not be a bad Thursday evening's work!
"A sower went forth to sow." Where did he come from? I do not know what
house he came from, but I can tell you the place from which he last
came. He came out of the granary. He must have been to the granary to
get the seed. At least if he did not go there before he went to sow, he
did not have anything that was worth sowing! O my dear Brothers and
Sisters, especially my Brothers in the ministry, we must always go to
the granary, must we not? Without the diligent and constant study of
Scripture, of what use will our preaching be? "I went into the pulpit,"
said one, "and I preached straight off just what came into my mind and
thought nothing of it." "Yes," said another, "and your people thought
nothing of it, too." That is sure to be the case! You teachers who go
to your classes quite unprepared and open your Bible and say just what
comes first, should remember that God does not need your nonsense. "Oh,
but," says one, "it is not by human wisdom that souls are saved." No,
nor is it by human ignorance! But if you profess to teach, learn. He
can never be a teacher who is not first a learner. I am sure that when
the sower went forth to sow, the last place he came from was the
granary–and mind that you go to the granary, too, dear worker.
I wonder whether this sower did what I recommend every Christian sower
to do, namely, to come forth from the place where he had steeped his
seed. One farmer complained that his wheat did not grow and another
asked him, "Do you steep your seed?" "No," he replied, "I never heard
of such a thing." The first one said, "I steep mine in prayer and God
prospers me." If we always steep our heavenly Seed in prayer, God will
prosper us, also. For one solitary man to stand up and preach is poor
work, but for two of us to be here is grand work. You have heard the
story of the Welsh preacher who had not arrived when the service ought
to have begun, so his host sent a boy to the room to tell him that it
was time to go preach. The boy came hurrying back, and said, "Sir, he
is in his room, but I do not think he is coming. There is somebody in
there with him. I heard him speaking very loudly and very earnestly,
and I heard him say that if that other person did not come with him, he
would not come at all! And the other one never answered him, so I do
not think he will come." "Ah," said the host, who understood the case,
"he will come and the other One will come with him!" Oh, it is good
sowing when the sower goes forth to sow and the Other comes with him!
Then we go forth with steeped Seed, Seed that is sprouting in our hands
as we go forth! This does not happen naturally, but it does happen
spiritually. It seems to grow while we are handling it, for there is
Life in it–and when it is sown, there will be Life in it for our
hearers!
Further, this sower went forth into the open field. Wherever there was
a field ready for the sowing, there he went. Beloved Friends, we must
always try to do good where there is the greatest likelihood of doing
good. I do not think that I need to go anywhere else than here, for
here are the people to whom I can preach. But if this place were not
filled with people, I should feel that I had no right to stand here and
preach to empty pews. If it is so in your little Chapel–if the people
do not come–I do not desire that the Chapel should be burned down, but
it might be a very mitigated calamity if you had to turn out into the
street to preach, or if you had to go to some hall, or barn, for some
people might come and hear you, there, who will never hear you now. You
must go forth to sow! You cannot sit at your parlor window and sow
wheat–and you cannot stand on one little plot of ground and keep on
sowing there. If you have done your work in that place, go forth to sow
elsewhere! Oh, that the Church of Christ would go forth into heathen
lands! Oh, that there might be among Christians a general feeling that
they must go forth to sow! What a vast acreage there still is upon
which not a grain of God's Wheat has ever yet fallen! Oh, for a great
increase of the missionary spirit! May God send it upon the entire
Church until everywhere it shall be said, "Behold, a sower went forth
to sow."
There is a, "behold," in my text, which I have saved up till now.
"Behold, a sower went forth to sow." He went as far as ever he could to
sow the good seed, that his master might have a great harvest from
it–let us go and do likewise.
When did this man go forth to sow? Our farming friends begin to sow
very soon after harvest. That is the time to sow for Christ. As soon as
ever you have won one soul for Him, try and win another, by God's
Grace! Say to yourself what the general said to his troops when some of
them came riding up and said, "Sir, we have captured a gun from the
enemy." "Then," said he, "go and capture another!" After the reaping,
let the sowing follow as speedily as possible. In season, this sower
sowed. It is a great thing to observe the proper season for sowing, but
it is a greater thing to sow in improper seasons, also, for out of
season is sometimes the best season for God's sowers to sow. "Be
instant in season and out of season," was Paul's exhortation to
Timothy. Oh, for Grace to be always sowing! I have known good men to go
about and never to be without tracts to give away, and suitable tracts,
too. They seem to have picked them out and God has given them an
occasion suitable for the tracts, or if they have not given tracts,
they have been ready with a good word, a choice word, a loving word, a
tender word. There is a way of getting the Gospel in edgewise when you
cannot get it in at the front. Wise sowers sow their seed broadcast,
yet I have generally noticed that they never sow against the wind, for
that would blow the dust into their eyes–and there is nothing like
sowing with the wind. Whichever way the Holy Spirit seems to be moving
and Providence is also moving, scatter your Seed that the wind may
carry it as far as possible and that it may fall where God shall make
it grow.
Thus I have told you what the man did–"A sower went forth to sow."
III. I must answer briefly the last of the three questions I mentioned,
WHAT WAS THIS SOWER'S OBJECTIVE?
On this occasion, he did not go forth to keep the seed to himself He
went forth to throw it to the wind–he threw it away from himself,
scattered it far and wide. He did not go out to defend it, but he threw
it about, and left it to take its chance. He did not go, at this time,
to examine it–to see whether it was good seed, or not. No doubt he had
done that before, but he just scattered it. He did not go out to winnow
it, and blow away the chaff, or pick out any darner that might be in
it. That was all done at home. Now he has nothing to do but to sow
it–to sow it–TO SOW IT. And he sows it with all his might. He did not
even come to push others out of the field who might be sowing bad seed,
but he took occasion, at this particular time, to go forth to sow and
to do nothing else–
"One thing at a time, and that done well, Is a very good rule, as many
can tell" and it is especially so in the service of God. Do not try to
do 20 things at once–"A sower went forth to sow." His objective was a
limited one. He did not go forth to make the seed grow. No, that was
beyond his power–he went forth to sow. If we were responsible for the
effect of the Gospel upon the hearts of men, we should be in a sorry
plight, indeed, but we are only responsible for the sowing of the Good
Seed. If you hear the Gospel, dear Friends, and reject it, that is your
problem, and not ours. If you are saved by it, give God the Glory–but
if it proves to be a savor of death unto death to you, yours is the
sin, the shame and the sorrow. The preacher cannot save souls, so he
will not take the responsibility that does not belong to him.
And he did not, at that time, go forth to reap. There are many
instances in which the reaper has overtaken the sower and God has saved
souls on the spot while we have been preaching. Still, what this man
went forth to do was to sow. Whether there is any soul saved or not,
our business is to preach the Gospel, the whole Gospel and nothing but
the Gos-pel–and we must keep to this one point–preaching Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified. That is sowing the Seed. We cannot create
the harvest–that will come in God's own time.
This man's one objective was positively before him and we are to impart
the Truth, to make known to men the whole of the Gospel. You are lost,
God is gracious, Christ has come to seek and to save that which is
lost. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but shall have
everlasting life. On the Cross He offered the Sacrifice by which sin is
put away. Believe in Him and you live by His death. This sowing, you
see, is simply telling out the Truth of God and this is the main thing
that we have to do, dear Friends–to keep on telling the same Truth
over and over, and over and over again, till we get it into the minds
and hearts of men–and they receive it through God's blessing.
If the sower had sat down at the corner of the field and played the
harp all day, he would not have done his duty. And if, instead of
preaching the simple Gospel, we talk of the high or deep mysteries of
God, we shall not have done our duty.
The sower's one business is to sow, so, stick to your sowing, Brothers
and Sisters. When that is done and your Master calls you Home, He will
find you other work to do for Him in Heaven, but, for the present, this
is to be your occupation.
Now, to close, let me remind you that sowing is an act of faith. If a
man had not great faith in God, he would not take the little seed he
has and go and bury it. His good wife might say to him, "John, we shall
need that wheat for the children, so don't you go and throw it out
where the birds may eat it, or the worms destroy it." And you must
preach the Gospel and you must teach the Gospel as an act of faith. You
must believe that God will bless it. If not, you are not likely to get
a blessing upon it. If it is done merely as a natural act, or a hopeful
act, that will not be enough–it must be done as an act of confidence
in the living God. He bids you speak the Word and makes you His lips
for the time–and He says that His Word shall not return to Him void,
but that it shall prosper in the thing where He has sent it.
This sowing was also an act of energy. The word, sower, is meant to
describe an energetic man. He was, as we say, "all there." So, when we
teach Christ, we must teach Him with all our might, throwing our very
soul into our teaching. O Brothers, never let the Gospel hang on our
lips like icicles! Let it rather be like burning lava from the mouth of
a volcano! Let us be all on fire with the Divine Truth that is within
our hearts, sowing it with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.
This sowing was also an act of concentrated energy. The sower "went
forth TO SOW." He went forth, not with two aims or objectives, but with
this one–not dividing his life into a multitude of channels, but
making all run in one strong, deep current along this one riverbed.
Now I have done when I invite my Brothers and Sisters here to go forth
from this Tabernacle to sow. You will go down those front steps, or you
will go out at the back doors and scatter all over London. I know not
how far you may be going, but let it be written of you tonight, "The
sowers went forth to sow"–they went forth from the Tabernacle with one
resolve that, by the power of the living Spirit of God, they who are
redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus would make known His Gospel
to the sons of men, sowing that Good Seed in every place wherever they
have the opportunity, trusting in God to make the Seed increase and
multiply! Ah, but do not forget to do it even within these walls, for
there are some here whom you may never be able to get at again. So, if
you can speak to your neighbor in the pew, say a good word for Christ!
If you will begin to be sowers, nothing is better than to begin at
once. Throw a handful before you get outside the door–who knows
whether that first handful shall not be more successful than all you
have sown, or shall sow, in later days?
As for you dear Souls who have never received the Living Seed, oh, that
you would receive it at once! May God, the Holy Spirit, make you to be
like well-prepared ground that opens a thousand mouths to take in the
Seed and then encloses the Seed within itself and makes it fructify!
May God bless you. May He never leave you barren or unfruitful, but may
you grow a great harvest to His Glory, for Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM106.
This is one of the "Songs of Degrees." They are supposed to have been
sung as the pilgrim caravan was going up to the Temple at Jerusalem.
Every time they halted and pitched their tents, they sang a Psalm. If
carefully read, it will be found that these Psalms exhibit a real
advance in experience. For instance, the keynote of the 125th is
stability, while that of the 126th is joy, and especially joyful hope.
Each one appears to advance a stage higher than the one that precedes
it.
Verse 1. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like
they that dream. ' 'It seemed too good to be true. We were in a
delirium ofjoy. 'We were like they that dream.' Our slumber had been
profound–we thought that God had altogether forgotten us–but when we
found that He was coming to our rescue, 'we were like they that
dream.'"
2. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with
singing.' 'We wanted to express our joy, so laughter came, which is a
natural, genuine mode of expressing delight. Our mouth was filled with
laughter. We not only laughed, but we laughed again and again, even as
Abraham laughed when a son was promised to him and as Sarah laughed
when Isaac was born."
2. Then said theey among thee heathen, The LORD has done great things
for them. It is a fine time when even the heathen begin to see the joy
of Believers. They could not help hearing and seeing it and, with
astonishment they said, "Jehovah has done great things for them," to
which the godly replied that it was so. They were not at all ashamed to
acknowledge it. They had not any of that unhallowed modesty which is
afraid to speak to the glory of God, but they said–
3. The LORD has done great things for us; of which we are glad. I heard
a Brother at a Prayer Meeting some time ago, say, "Of which we desire
to be glad." That is not what these people said and if the Lord has
done great things for you, you are glad, not only do you desire to be
glad, but you are so! It is always a pity to try to improve on Holy
Scripture, for it does not go to be improved upon. When the Lord does
great things for His people, they are as glad as they can be, and they
cannot help saying so.
4. Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south. The
riverbeds, when the Southern torrents have been dried up, seem to be
nothing but a gathering of stones and dust. Then comes a copious rain,
bringing a sudden flush of water and the captivity of the stream is
gone. That is the meaning of the prayer, "Turn again our captivity, O
Lord, as the streams in the south."
5. 6. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goes forth and
weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Notice that word,
"doubtless." If you have any doubt about it in your own case, may the
Lord drive all your doubts away! When God says, "doubtless," we must
not be doubtful. "He shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him."