Sow To Yourselves

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 24, 1875,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy." Hosea 10:12.

FARMERS are now devoting their attention to putting seed into the
ground. They know right well that without sowing in the present they
cannot expect a reaping in the future. Seedtime has many lessons. That
which we shall learn this morning is very personal and practical. Our
hearts are like a field and if we let them alone the only crop we shall
get will be the natural weeds of the soil together with those tares
which the evil spirit is quite sure to scatter whether we sow good seed
or not. We are to sow beside all waters, but we must not neglect to sow
to ourselves. There is need that we sow good seed in our own gardens,
or else it will be of little use to us to have planted and watered
others.

It is concerning this sowing of the home farm, this seeding of our own
peculiar acre, that I shall now speak. May the Spirit of God bless the
word. Before I launch into the subject, it may be well to observe that
it does not apply to unre-newed hearts. It is in vain to sow unto
yourselves till the soil has been prepared by our Father, who is the
Farmer. Even Christ's own seed of the Word, pure from His own hands,
brings forth no fruit when it falls on unprepared hearts. His ministers
are bound to scatter the seed in all places–on the hard rocks, on the
highways and among thorns–but still no harvest ever comes till the
soil is broken up and made receptive of the Truth of God by the Spirit
of God.

Our text stands in the midst of a number of agricultural similes and it
is preceded by that of plowing. "I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah
shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods." Without plowing what is
the use of sowing? Some soils need plowing and cross plowing–they are
so heavy by nature that in them the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence,
and only by mighty ripping of the soil are they saved. Have you ever
had a broken heart, dear Hearer? Did the Spirit of God ever drive the
black horses of the Law across your heart with the sharp plow of
condemnation, killing your false hopes, wounding your spirit and
revealing your secret sins?

If you have not known something about this I cannot tell you to sow to
yourself in righteousness! You are not prepared for that step–you must
first be plowed. I pray the Divine Spirit to operate upon your heart to
the breaking up of your fallow ground that you sow not among thorns.
Let us, also, add another statement, lest we should be misunderstood.
Even when we speak to the people of God and bid them, "Sow to
yourselves in righteousness," we, by no means forget that all true
culture of the heart comes of the Spirit of God.

We exhort men as the Scriptures do, as active, intelligent beings. We
exhort them as much as if there were no Holy Spirit, but we also pray
to the Holy Spirit to make our exhortations, the efforts of His
servants, effectual for the designed end. Without His Divine
operations, neither the precept of our text, nor any other, will be
obeyed. In this, as well as in every matter connected with the Gospel,
Grace reigns! If the first sentence of the text might seem to breathe
legality, "Sow to yourselves in righteousness," yet the second clause
of it most effectually evangelizes it, for it says, "Reap in mercy."

Unless we reap eternal wrath we must reap in mercy. If anything comes
of what we do–if our prayerful anxiety and earnest faith as to the
condition of our heart shall be really productive of holiness–it will
be the result of infinite mercy and the effect of the Spirit's energy!
Even the desire to be right before God arises from the operation of the
Spirit of God! All the righteousness which is found in us comes by
Divine power and is not of ourselves, but, like the whole of salvation,
it is the gift of God! So, while I exhort, entreat and persuade, I am
not forgetful of the Divine One without whose gracious working we can
do nothing at all!

We will now draw near to the text. First, my Brothers and Sisters, we
must not neglect seedtime and, secondly, we must not neglect harvest
when it comes.

I. WE MUST NOT NEGLECT SEEDTIME. "While the earth remains, seedtime and
harvest shall not cease." Both are necessary and, therefore, God has
decreed that time for both shall be given to men. All life is, in some
respects, a sowing. All that we think, say, do, or leave undone is a
sowing for the harvest of the Last Great Day. And if we sow to the
flesh we shall of the flesh reap what always comes of the flesh,
namely, corruption. But if we sow to the spirit we shall of the Spirit
reap what is congruous to the spirit, namely, life everlasting! As a
man sows, so shall he reap. It is not, however, upon that form of
sowing and reaping that I am going to speak to you this morning.

As I have already told you, we shall deal with the inner life, for I
think the connection shows that this is what was meant, for the Prophet
is evidently dealing with the people, themselves, and their condition
of heart before God. The outward sowing of righteous actions in the
field of the world is, doubtless, very important, but none the less so
is the secret sowing of the enclosed garden of the heart. Our subject
will be just this–that after we have been plowed by conversion we need
to take great care that our spiritual culture commences and is carried
on.

The little spot enclosed by Grace out of the world's wide wilderness
now calls for our attention and claims the holy skill and industry
necessary to spiritual farming. It must be sown with the good seed of
the Word of God, even the precious Truths of Scripture, that from its
soil there may be produced a harvest which shall be garnered with
abounding joy and bring glory to God. The first thing after conversion
to Christ is confession of Christ. And the next is instruction in
Christ. I fear that too many professed converts leap over these hedges
and endeavor to become teachers at once! Without joining themselves to
the Church of Christ, or becoming disciples in His school, they rush to
the front, endeavoring to teach before they have been taught–and if
they are the least checked, they resent it as an interference and cast
suspicion upon the zeal of their advisers.

They call themselves disciples and repudiate all discipline. They say
they are soldiers of the Cross, but they can neither march in line nor
keep step and neither will they submit themselves to order. They appear
to think that the moment they are born, they are fathers! The instant
they are enlisted they are officers! Now, conversion is the beginning
of the spiritual life–not the climax of it! It makes a man a disciple
and the main thing a disciple has to do is to learn. After he has
learned, he will be able to teach others, also, but not till then. I
have often said to you that nothing can come out of you that is not in
you–and therefore if there is not something put into you to begin
with, you may go out to war, but, as you have neither shot nor powder
in your gun, the enemy will not be much injured by your valor.

We must be filled before we can run over! It is necessary for the
Christian man to be prepared for holy service–in fact, what he does
for God should be a harvest growing out of himself–because of a
previous seedtime during which much precious seed was put into him. Let
us take note upon this sowing and ask, first, what shall we sow? Here
is our heart, a plowed field, ready to receive the seed. What shall we
sow? I answer, see to it, my Brethren, that there is sown in you a real
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let it be of the simplest and most
childlike kind. Do not trouble yourselves with definitions which darken
counsel or by words without knowledge.

Hold on to Christ as a babe clings to its mother with its arms around
her neck. Trust Him, depend upon Him, rest in Him and in Him, alone.
Mind that your faith is real reliance on Jesus, for I meet with some
who think that faith is to believe that you are saved, but if, indeed,
you are not saved, such faith will be a lie and you will entangle
yourselves in the net of false confidence. Others think that faith is
to believe that Christ died for them, when at the same time they think
that He died for everybody, so, of course He died for them! Surely
there can be no particular virtue or power in believing what is a
self-evident inference!

Many believe that Christ died for them and yet they are not saved. To
believe savingly is to trust Christ–see that you have this trust sown
in you. You ought to know why you trust Him and what He did for you,
and in what relationship He stands towards you and God. You should be
able, not merely to sing about His blood, but to know the doctrine of
Atonement–to grasp the blessed fact of His Substitution–and know the
reconciliation thereby effected. To know whom you have believed should
be one of the chief objectives of your life! I am afraid that some who
profess to have been converted do not even know the A B C of the
Gospel, namely, what is the faith of God's elect and on what does it
rest? Take heed to yourselves that you are not ignorant here, but let
your heart be well sown with simple reliance upon the eternal Son of
God who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Sow to yourselves and see that in your soul there is repentance of sin.
Do not fall under the notion that the necessity for repentance is over.
I have heard it said that repentance is "merely a change of mind." I
wish that those who so speak

had undergone that change! It is a sad sign of a faulty ministry when
men can depreciate that precious Grace of God! Mark you, no sinner will
enter into Heaven who has not repented of his sins. No promise can be
found in the Inspired Pages of eternal life to men who live and die
without repentance! It is an old-fashioned virtue, I know, but it is in
fashion with the angels who rejoice over sinners who possess it!

Know, my dear young Friends, that sin is an evil and a bitter
thing–and the language to be used about it is such as David employed
in the 51st Psalm. Pray to God to convince you of your guilt and ask
Him to enable you to flee from every false way. Seek Grace to detect
sin and as soon as ever you discern its presence, to fly from it as you
would from a deadly serpent! May there be worked in you an inward
abhorrence of sin and a loathing of yourself because of your tendency
to transgress. "You that love the Lord hate evil." "Hating even the
garment spotted by the flesh." May you also have a full conviction that
in you, that is, in your flesh, there dwells no good thing–that your
nature is empty, void and waste, like the chaos of old–except as the
blessed Spirit shall brood over you and the everlasting God shall
create you new.

There needs to be in your soul a deep sense of its rein or you will not
prize redemption, or much of the godly sorrow of repentance, or you
will not know the ecstasy of forgiveness. O for a plentiful sowing in
tears, that we may reap in joy! Labor, also, to have sown in you a
clear knowledge of the Gospel. Do not be satisfied to see men as trees
walking, but ask for the eyes cleansed, even, of the smallest mote. Be
thankful if you have only a little sight, but let your gratitude lead
you to pray for the removal of every scale. If you are really to bring
forth a harvest of wheat without tares, you must distinguish between
things that defer, for a man's belief affects his life more than some
imagine.

You ought to know the plan of redemption, the system upon which God
grants salvation. It will be a great advantage for you to understand
the two Covenants and to see, plainly, the distinction between the
Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. He who is clear upon that
matter has grasped the marrow of theology and possesses the clue to the
precious Gospel of Jesus Christ. I would have you know the Doctrines of
Grace and understand them–and be able to defend them with Scriptural
arguments whenever they are assailed. Young people, I pray you, be
willing to learn! Learn before you teach!

Do not go blundering out to tell the tale of mercy before you have
considered it and in some measure understood its grand points. God
forbid that I should dampen your zeal, but I implore you to put a
little knowledge with it, or else the best of causes will suffer at
your hands. Become apt to teach by being first apt in learning. Grow in
Grace and in the knowledge of your Lord and Savior. Fill your basket
with bread from His hands or you will never feed the multitude. I would
have you well equipped for battle with the adversaries of the faith,
or, at any rate, able to give a reason for the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear.

Do not even be satisfied with clear knowledge. Ask for living
principles growing out of this knowledge. The religion of passion is
flimsy. The religion of principle will endure wear and tear. Heat and
excitement too often engender a mushroom life which dies as readily as
it is produced. We want you to know the Truth of God so as to feel its
power till it dominates your entire nature, sways the scepter of your
soul and becomes a resident monarch within you! Then will you be able
to stand alone and you will not need a crowd about you, or a flaming
orator to hold you in your place–you will know whom you have believed
and be persuaded that He is able to keep that which you have committed
to Him.

Oh, if our young friends and old friends, too, were well sown in this
fashion, so that the Truths they profess to believe had a living
foothold in their souls by the Holy Spirit, what Churches we should
have and what little injury would the Pope and the infidel be able to
do to us! A man may hold a religion–he may hold 50 religions and have
a new one every week and be none the better–it is the religion which
holds the man which will save him! Your Bibles printed on paper are a
blessing, but to have the Scriptures written on the heart is far
better! We need not so much the doctrine which has been driven into the
brain by argument, but the Truths of God worked into the soul by
experience through the teaching of the blessed Spirit! Would to God
that living principles were thus sown in all hearts!

The great point is that whatever is sown in us should be sown in
righteousness, that is to say, that it is really sown and that honest
seed is taken into our hearts. If you sow in error, however sincerely
you sow, it will produce bad results upon your intellect. "Sow to
yourselves in righteousness." Do not take handfuls of seed out of your
grandfather's basket simply because he put it there–study to see
whether it is God's Seed. Do not snatch haphazard at what is in the
creed, or the articles of your Church–go to the winnowed corn of
Scripture–sow that and that only. And though we, or an an-

gel from Heaven, should teach you anything contrary to the Infallible
Word of God, refuse such seed a place in your hearts.

Pray God to forgive the preacher his mistakes, but do not follow him.
Pray to "sow to yourselves in righteousness." Receive the Truth of God
and only the Truth of God and beseech the Lord to give you an honest
grip of that Truth–for there is such a thing as "holding the Truth in
unrighteousness." It is very easy to be untrue to the Truth of God.
Truth held by a bad man is as a jewel of gold in a swine's snout. The
fair lily of Truth should be held in a clean hand. Nor is this all. Let
us ask the Lord to rid us of the mere pretence and mimicry of faith.
Away, forever, with a sham faith! Never talk fictitious experience. Do
not borrow bits from this man and bits from that and retail them as
your own–this is unrighteous!

Pretence in religion is a sort of blasphemy. May all our religion be
such as will stand the test of the Day of Judgement. I charge you, make
sure work in this matter. If, indeed, the Lord has plowed your heart,
the field belongs to Him. Therefore obey His Word and remember how He
forbids His people to sow with mingled seed. Let all that which is sown
in you be true, honest, gracious, loving, Godlike and Divine, so when
the harvest comes you shall not lose what you have worked. God help you
thus to sow!

The second inquiry is, How shall we sow it? The answer is, Sow in the
Lord's appointed manner. The means of Grace are ordained of God to help
us in sowing, watering, weeding and fostering the good seed. Let us, in
dependence upon the Holy Spirit, sow the heart, first, by diligently
studying the Word of God. Every Believer ought to be a student in
Christ's College. We who preach the Gospel are to go into all the world
and make disciples of all nations. Now, a disciple is a learner. Are
all the people who professed to have been converted during the late
special services learners? I should like to know, for one, where they
are. I have anxiously asked several of my Brothers, the pastors of the
neighboring Churches, and they do not know.

I should like to discover the Churches which have received these new
converts, for wherever I inquire, I hear of one or two, but scarcely
any more–and up to this moment my earnest inquiries have brought me
nothing but bitter disappointment. If these thousands were made
disciples, how is it that they do not come under discipline? They
professed to be converted, how is it that they have not united
themselves with our Churches? Do they need no instruction, or are none
of us fit to edify them? Conversion should be the commencement of
discipleship, but where are the disciples? Some months have now passed
and with deepest sorrow I inquire with what Churches are they
associated. Where are they learning the way of God more perfectly? I
should rejoice to know.

My young Brothers and Sisters, lately brought to Jesus, search the
Scriptures through and through! Be not satisfied with simply knowing
the way of salvation–ask to know all that God has revealed–for there
is nothing unnecessary in the Bible! There is not a leaf that we could
afford to tear out and throw into the fire and say, "It is a
superfluity." It is all to be studied and we must give ourselves to the
study of it by reading it, by hearing it and by bowing ourselves to the
influence of the Holy Spirit, that He may lead us into all the Truth of
God! How shall we sow? Why, by an inward reception of the Truth into
the soul! I cannot tell you how the branch takes in the sap, but I know
it does take it in. And you must receive God's Truth into your hearts
as living sap to your souls–it is the living and incorruptible Seed
which lives and abides forever.

I want you not only to know the Truth of God in theory, but to receive
it in its inward power into your very souls as babes receive milk that
you may feed thereon and grow. Only by such feeding can you come to the
measure of the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus. You can, also,
thus, "sow to yourselves in righteousness" by much prayer, much praise,
and much of every form of communion with Jesus Christ. O Brothers and
Sisters, if you are to do exploits, you must be strong, and you cannot
be strong except in the Lord and in the power of His might. O Brethren,
if you are to be holy, you must commune with the Holy One and get a
glow upon your countenance reflected from the face of your Lord! In His
light, only, can you shine as lights in the world.

To say you are converted is nothing! We desire your sanctification,
your growing likeness to the Lord! I do not know whether I make my
meaning fully apparent, but I mean this, that we must by all means that
God has put into our power make our hearts to be a well-stored seed
plot in which there shall grow for God all manner of precious fruits,
which afterwards we shall reap and use to His Glory. You are trying to
sow others, some of you, have you sown yourselves with that Seed which
yields seed to the sower and bread to the eater? Look to yourselves,
for if you leave home

plowing unheeded you may have to complain with the spouse, "They made
me a keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard have I not kept."

I am certain that if we want to spread religion we must begin by
securing the improvement of those who are already Christians. Until the
army of the Lord shall be stronger and every man shall have more of the
force of Divine Life, we cannot expect to see the nations conquered by
the Church of God. Look well to this matter and see to it that you use
the means of God's ordaining, that by the power of the Spirit you may
sow to yourselves.

Thirdly, When shall we sow to ourselves? What is the proper sowing
time? I answer, specially at the time of conversion and immediately
after your new birth. Very much depends upon the soil being well sown
when it is newly plowed. Then the heart is tender. Then the soul is in
the formative stage–like clay on the potter's wheel, or like wax that
has just been melted–it is, then, ready to receive the right
impression and form. When Paul was converted he went into Arabia, for a
time, and these months were, I have no doubt, the most profitable that
Paul ever spent, for there he communed with God and his mind was
impregnated with the Truths of God.

Perhaps he had never been so great an Apostle during the rest of his
life if it had not been for that little tarrying in Arabia. The
disciples, after the Resurrection of our Lord, were to tarry at
Jerusalem till they were endowed with power from on high. O you
Christian people, see to it that you give your first thoughts, after
your conversion, to being edified and built up in your most holy faith!
It will be the most practically useful endeavor to others, in the long
run, if, like your Lord, you take time to do your Father's business in
the quiet of Nazareth's contemplation than in bearing unripe fruit.

But, Brethren, it is not immediately after conversion, alone, I take
it, that every Christian should sow unto himself in righteousness. We
must be always sowing and if we do not, we shall not be always reaping.
Ask the best instructed Christian and he will tell you that he knows
more of his own folly than he ever did and is more willing to be a
learner, now, than when he first entered into the school of Christ.
Lord, teach us! Teach us every day! Even to gray hairs, still instruct
us, that we may have the power to instruct others!

There should be a special sowing, it seems to me, whenever we desire a
special harvest. Notice our blessed Lord– whenever He was about to do
some special action, such as sending out the 12, we always read that He
retired to pray. Praying was His habit, but there were peculiar seasons
when He had more of it than usual–that more power might go out from
Him. Whenever you are about to be, as you hope, a great soul-winner,
wait on the Lord more abundantly concerning it. If you are about to
pass through an extreme trial and need great strength to yield a
greater harvest of patience, have a greater sowing of Grace by drawing
nearer to God. Our Grace should always be at the flood tide–but even
then some flood tides are higher than others and we may pray the Lord
to give us a spring tide flood when extraordinary Grace is required.

Again, I say, look well to yourselves, lest you lose that which you
have worked. Seeing there remains a rest for the people of God, let
none of us even seem to come short of it. With all your ability, get
understanding. With all your doings see to it that your inner man is
not neglected, that you walk before the Lord in secret and are not
negligent in soul communion with Him. See that you walk circumspectly,
that you grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We should be always sowing, for we have to be, in practical holiness,
ever reaping.

In the next place, why do so many omit to sow? It may be, first,
because they are lifted up with the notion that they do not require
sowing. How idle is their conceit! Here is a piece of land that has
just been enclosed from the devil's common, and it has, for years,
produced only briars and thorns. It needs sowing! Is there good seed in
it by nature hidden among the clods? Impossible! Do you believe that
because it has been plowed it may now be left alone and a harvest will
come spontaneously? You know better! The novice is not to be set up as
a teacher–he should sit down as a scholar. He may tell what he
knows–so far he has been sown and so far he may produce a harvest–but
how can he tell what he does not know, and how shall he communicate to
others what has never been communicated to himself?

We do not pick up religious knowledge and maturity by instinct. We are
bound to search out the meaning of the Word of God and yield ourselves
to the illumination of the Divine Spirit. We must prove our conversion
to be true by being teachable as little children. We are not to rush
naked to the fight, but to seek full equipment–and that we have not in
ourselves–helmet and shield and sword are to be sought for in the
armory of God. Some do not like the sowing because it is very quiet
work. A young man spends an hour searching into the Truth of God for a
certain doctrine. Well,

that will never be put into the newspapers, or written in the reports
of a society and nobody will extol him for it–hence he is apt to
despise such exercises.

He goes hour after hour to the Lord Jesus and begs to be instructed in
the deep things of God–nobody will sound a trumpet about that! No, nor
do they sound trumpets when they sow fields–the shouting is left till
they bring in the sheaves! But the sowing must be done though nobody
shouts over it and you must search the Word and get your souls well
sown, none the less, but all the more, because it does not bring you
applause. Sometimes it is even suggested that to cultivate the heart by
quiet study is a waste of time. The sower in sowing does not see any
immediate results! Rather, as he scatters his handfuls, he perceives a
void in his basket and there is so much less corn in the granary. There
are no results, except his weariness, as he toils over the furrows–yet
he is a wise man.

Yes, and you, dear Friend, must not be snatching at results too soon. I
and glad that you are wanting to win souls! May that passion be
increased in you, but more glad, still, shall I be if you combine with
that passion, the prudent thought that you must ask His blessed Spirit
to make you a vessel fit to be used! If you have been trying to produce
a harvest for God without any preparatory sowing, you have only to take
counsel of common sense and learn your error. You must be conscious
that in some points you will not succeed. You will be staggered by
infidel objections. You will often be completely nonplussed when
tallying with inquirers because you will not know how to meet the
questions put to you. Sometimes you will blunder over a text and will
not be able to make heads or tails of it.

Well, come to school a little while before you go out as a teacher!
Come and be plowed and sowed a little before thinking about the harvest
home! Sowing, besides, is often very sorrowful work. We read of some
who sow in tears. To learn costs humiliation, weariness, trouble and
crying because of the task. I have cried my way into many a Truth of
God. I believe there is many a portion in God's Word whose meaning will
never reach you except you will work your passage, as some poor men do
when they want to go to America. You cannot open these sealed treasure
houses without hard thought, long toil, much prayer, much conquering of
prejudice and yielding up of the soul to the Holy Spirit.

This is a kind of labor which always pays well and when it is over,
your other work for God will be much lightened. After the sowing is
over the farmer rests and the seed springs up both by night and by day.
He knows not how but by thorough seeding of the soul with the Truth of
God, studied and understood, there comes forth a future crop with
wonderful ease and spontaneous growth. Lazy people generally take the
most pains in the long run but it is a saving of time and effort to
store the mind and heart thoroughly at the very first.

The shoeing of the horse and the buckling on of the harness with care
will save time in the journey. Supplying a ship before it sails is a
part of the means by which a safe and speedy voyage is procured. Your
peace and strength in later years wild amply repay you for care and
effort now. Sow in the present that you may reap in the future! Last of
all, on this point, why should we sow? We should sow unto ourselves and
cultivate our hearts very carefully because our lives must, after all,
as to their results, depend upon this sowing. If a man sows
scantily–if he learns little, if he receives little of the Spirit of
Christ into him–his life must be feeble and barren. How can there be a
rich harvest from a scanty sowing?

Little cast into the soil ends in little coming out of it. If a man
sows in a patchy way, attending only to a few selected Truths and
Graces, as some do, there will be a patchy character as the result.
Some Brothers and Sisters have been thoroughly sown as to one furrow
and there is a first-rate crop in that place. But then they neglect
other portions–they do not strive before God to obtain all Grace or to
know all Truth–and as a consequence their life is faulty in many
points. Complete experience and watchfulness of every point are
necessary to the formation of a complete character. Beware of a half
obedience in the heart, or a semi-illumination of the mind, for these
will create an inconsistent character–a garden here and a desert
there.

Be cautious, also, not to sow with mingled seed, for this was forbidden
of old and if you do it there will be a bit of wheat in one place and a
bit of tares in another–and you will be trying to serve God and
mammon. Too many professors are as pleased with the tares as with the
wheat! They scarcely know one from the other! As the Eastern plant
called in our version, a tare, is very like the wheat, so there are
counterfeits of the virtues and these deceive many. If we sow only with
the good Seed of the Truth of God, we shall realize a holy,
influential, acceptable character–but mingled seed will produce
fickleness, inconsistency, poverty of character and we shall bring no
glory to the great Farmer. I am certain I am right in enforcing this
point upon all the children of God with great earnestness.

Brothers and Sisters, do you believe that people would be carried away
with Ritualism, which has now grown to be undisguised Popery, had they
been fully instructed in the doctrines of our Protestant faith? I do
not believe it would have been possible! At the present moment the
wolves leap into our Churches and they find easy prey where the people
are least instructed and established in the Gospel. The people that
know nothing for themselves–nothing by heart knowledge– are readily
deceived. But where there is a clear understanding and a fervent love
for the Gospel. Where there is a spiritual growth and an abundant
communion with God arising out of inward vital principles, men are not
carried away by every wind of doctrine. They are not deceived by the
sleight of man and his cunning craftiness–they stand fast, rooted and
grounded in Christ!

In conclusion, this steadfastness is a part of the harvest of which I
have now to speak.

II. WE MUST NOT NEGLECT THE HARVEST. If a man with constant
watchfulness, holy fear, devout prayer and simple faith in Jesus seeks
to cultivate his own heart, he may expect fruit to come of it, both
towards himself and his God. Towards himself one fruit will be
stability, as I have already said. The man will be able to say, "O God,
my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise." He is not to be
decoyed by the boasts of the finders of new truth, nor by the
contemptuous sneers of modern thinkers who deride the good old way, nor
by those mighty discoverers who have found out that there is no truth
at all! Experienced Believers know and are persuaded and have firm
moorings.

Oh, be well sown, for then you will be stable and out of that stability
will come solid comfort! Half the fears of Christian people rise like
mists from the marshes of their ignorance. If we knew the promises
better, knew the Gospel better, knew God better and knew Christ better,
we should not have a tenth as many fears. Remember that as the soul is
penetrated with the spirit of the Gospel, it will be filled with peace
and consolation–

"'Tis religion that can give

Sweetest pleasures while we live,

'Tis religion must supply

Solid comfort when we die."

Those sweet pleasures and solid comforts are the harvest which those
reap who look well to the good sowing of their souls. Those whose
hearts are sown by Grace possess joys utterly unknown to other
professors. What rapture and delight are frequently bestowed on those
who have drawn near to God and had their souls full of Him! "Blessed
are the people that know the joyful sound, they shall walk, O Lord, in
the light of Your countenance." When others starve they shall feed, and
when others faint they shall renew their strength because their souls
have learned to stay themselves on God, alone.

One blessed fruit of this sowing is boldness in the Lord's service. The
men that know their God shall be strong and do great exploits. He who
fears God much fears not men. He has been living near to God and cares
no more for the opinions of men than for the howling of the wind over
the moor. With this courage comes patience under suffering–the man who
is full of Grace is able to bear the Lord's will whatever it may be.
This is a blessed fruit of the Spirit! You who think resignation a
light thing may yet live to prize it. These are a few of the fruits
which grow in a soul well-seeded by Grace.

Now notice the text says that though we sow in righteousness we must
reap in mercy. If any fruit, Beloved, ever comes out of your earnest
prayerfulness and watchfulness, it will be God's Mercy that gives it to
you, for do what you will, anything that is God-like and holy must be
planted, nourished and supported by Divine power–and nothing short of
it! If you have shown any holy courage or gracious patience, or sacred
stability, or hallowed experience, or spiritual joy, or heavenly
rapture, or true holiness, it is God's Mercy that has enabled you to
reap this precious fruit!

God bids you sow–it is your duty to do so and to be jealous over your
own spirit–but to reap to the Glory of God is entirely the gift of His
Grace, from first to last and we must cheerfully admit that it is so.
The text most pointedly bids us reap. "Reap in mercy." There is fruit
upon you if you have sown aright in the power of the Spirit of
God–therefore reap it! That is to say, when the season comes, be ready
with the outward fruits of your inward Grace. Let patience be ready in
growth and perseverance in the day of labor. As you bring forth these
things, bless the Lord for them. Do not be exalted by them, for you are
to reap in mercy–if you were to reap in any other way, you might be
exalted–be humble, for it is God's Mercy that gives you the Graces
which flourish in your soul.

Take care to bless God for every good and perfect gift. And whatever
comes out of your inner life, reap it so as to lay it out for the good
of others in order that God may be glorified! If there is in you any
zeal, courage, patience and what not, as the result of the inner
culture, then come forward and spend it for your Redeemer's praise!
Remember you have

nothing which you have not received–and having received it, you are
bound in gratitude to expend it for Him who gave it to you.

But closing, let us see to it, I say, dear Brothers and Sisters, that
all of us are keeping our hearts with all diligence before the Lord. It
is the Spirit's work! We have admitted this, over and over again, but
the Spirit of God awakens us to activity and does not lull us into a
passive condition, for He would have us careful that these things be in
us and abound, that we are not barren nor unfruitful. He would have us
see that we come not short in any good thing, but that we abound in all
knowledge, all love and all patience to His Glory, that thus our life
may show that we have, indeed, come under the fostering husbandry of
our Lord Jesus Christ.

I would to God we were as a Church lifted up to a higher platform
altogether, the whole of us, by one blessed lift from the Divine
Spirit! And then I would to God that out of us there might be chosen
more ministers of Christ, more mighty soul-winners, more missionaries
among the heathen and more of every order of soldiers for Christ! When
our Master needs workmen, He does not take those who are sick. If you
had to lay a railway you would not go to Brompton Hospital and pick out
all the patients with consumption and give them a pickaxe or a spade to
try and throw up embankments or dig cuttings. No, but you would select
the strong men, the men of brawny arms, the men of muscle who know how
to wield crowbar and spade.

And so will God do in His Church. We must be strong in Grace, strong in
secret, strong in private prayer, strong in fellowship with God, strong
in vital principle within us and after that the Lord will let us loose
as a Church upon His foes, like a tornado sweeping everything before
us! We cannot bring out of ourselves what is not in us! We must go to
God to be filled or we cannot run! Lamps may shine, but they must be
trimmed with oil, or else they will smell amiss and cease to shine–we
must have food, or we cannot keep up our stamina–we must live upon
Christ! We must be nurtured with His very heart's blood, or else the
life in us will only be a life of pain and panting–not a life of
triumph and of realization! See to this and may God bless you therein.

As for you who are not plowed, I beseech you, remember that you can
bring forth no fruit to God. Be ashamed at your barrenness and cry
mightily unto Him that He would deal graciously with you and bring you
to Jesus! For now you are near unto cursing, and before long, unless
Divine Grace prevents, your end will be to be burned. May God save you
for Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Ephesians 4. HYMNS FROM "OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK"–719; 119 (VER. II), 4-6; 39.