Today we continue our exposition in the teaching of the Lord Jesus. And today I return to the parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13. Remember that way back at the end of May I began an exposition on this parable. And last week we spoke about the meaning of parables. And today we return to look at the parable of the sower again. But this time from a different angle and from a different approach. And I find that as I do this I am doing it exactly as we find it in the gospel. We find that Matthew first relates the parable of the sower, then he speaks about the meaning of parables, and then he returns to an exposition of what the parable of the sower means. So I shall follow the Lord's order, the order as it is here in Matthew, quite precisely.
Now the parable of the sower contains great riches, and one message or even two will not have exhausted it. But we shall have to be content with two messages on the parable of the sower before next week we move on in the Lord's teaching. Now the parable of the sower, as you know, being a foundation parable, sums up most effectively and most beautifully the Lord's whole teaching on salvation in a nutshell. And I shall seek to bring forth some of the riches in it. And this I shall do by dividing it into two parts. In the first section I shall expound to you about the fact that salvation is God's gift. And in the second part, how this gift becomes available to us through faith. And that is examining again what faith means. What is faith? We shall speak of faith in terms of commitment, and explain what commitment means to illuminate faith.
Now when we look at this parable, this beautiful parable of the Lord Jesus — and is it not remarkable that the Lord Jesus can say so much in the scope of one parable — that just to expound it is a task that really is a challenge to every preacher to try and bring out its riches. First let us notice again that this seed is being sown. And the seed that is sown, the Lord Jesus explains, is the word of God. And this seed, which is sown into the ground, the Lord Jesus explains as being the soil. The soil, the ground, is the heart. All this we have seen already in our previous message on this parable of the sower.
So we understand what each factor means. We know now that the seed is the word of God. The sower is the preacher, and in the first instance, the Lord Jesus himself. And that the ground on which the seed, or into which the seed is sown, is the heart of man. All this is clear. But what more can we learn? First we notice that the seed is given freely as a gift. The seed is descending from above, as it were, upon the soil. It falls upon the soil as a gift to that soil. The ground does not earn the seed, nor even is it deserving of the seed. And so God's salvation is given to us as a free, unmerited gift. Just as the soil receives the seed, not having labored or worked for it, it receives it as a gift.
Now, I would like you to notice about the seed. The seed is spoken of, as we have already seen, as the word of God. But what do we mean by word of God? In the first instance, the word of God — the word means the message. The message of God. It means the message. Message of what? It is the message of salvation. It is the message of the kingdom. And notice, too, that this word comes to us, this seed comes to us in the form of parables. The word is the light. In the Old Testament we read there that the word — your word — is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. And we saw last week that the word, because it is a light, is designed to reveal, not to hide. The light does not hide anything. It reveals things.
This point is made very clear in Mark chapter 4, verse 21 onwards, which immediately follows the parable of the sower. The light, the Lord Jesus says, is set on a table. It is not hidden. So that all who come into the house see the light. The same thing in Luke chapter 8. Again, immediately following the parable of the sower, the Lord Jesus speaks about the light. The parable is the light. It is designed to reveal, not to hide. And in Luke chapter 8 onwards, he goes on to say that whatsoever things are hidden are hidden in order to be revealed. The parables are not there to conceal salvation, but to reveal it.
Now, the parable, the word, the seed is also spoken of as a mystery, as a secret. You see this, again, right at the beginning of the parable of the sower. And then you remember that in verse 11 it says here, "And the Lord Jesus answered them, 'To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.'" Notice again — given. The secret is given. Now this word translated secret, or in the older translations translated as mystery — what does it mean? Well, the mystery in the Bible, many things are described as mystery. What, for example? Well, the word of God is described as a mystery in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 26. The word of God itself is a mystery. The gospel is a mystery — Ephesians chapter 6, verse 19 — the mystery of the gospel. Christ himself is spoken of as a mystery in Colossians chapter 2, verse 2 — the mystery of Christ, the mystery of God, which is Christ.
What does this mean? It means simply this. The mystery of God means that the word of God, or the gospel, or Christ, cannot be understood by your natural reasoning. A mystery — what is a mystery? A mystery is something you don't understand until the meaning of it is revealed to you. That's what is called a mystery. You do not know a secret until that secret is told to you, is revealed to you. And therefore, the gospel is called a mystery because you do not receive, you do not understand, and you do not perceive the gospel until the gospel is revealed to you. It is not something you discover by your own human wisdom. By your own human intelligence. The gospel is not something that man could understand by himself. It is something that God has to reveal. You do not discover God's salvation. It is revealed to you so that you may understand it, and receive it, and know it, and make it your own.
This is the reason why it's called a mystery. A mystery in the Bible is not something that is hard to understand. It is impossible to understand. A mystery is something that is impossible for the human mind to understand unless it is revealed by God to you. That's why they call it a mystery. Therefore, the gospel is called the mystery, the mystery of the gospel, because you cannot invent the gospel. You cannot even understand the gospel. The gospel is totally unintelligible to you until God reveals it to you.
Think back when you were not a Christian. How easy it is to understand why the gospel is called a mystery. When you listened to the gospel, did it make any sense to you? You couldn't understand it. It was mystery to you. It was concealed to you. Until as you searched, or as your hearts opened to God, God revealed the meaning of it to you. Christ is a mystery. Can you understand Jesus? Oh no, you cannot understand Jesus. You and I are utterly incapable of understanding him. Because unless God reveals him to you, no matter how clever you are, how intelligent you are, how good at solving problems you are, you cannot understand Jesus. That's why he's called the mystery of God. Unless God reveals Jesus to you, there is no way you can understand him.
The word of God is a mystery. Have you tried reading it? You know it's a mystery. You go to a Bible study, it's a mystery. What does this Bible study passage mean? I can understand the words in English, I can also understand the words in Chinese. I might even understand the words in Hebrew and Greek. But having read the words, I don't understand what they mean. It's a mystery. The word of God is a mystery. You find intelligent people coming to the Bible and they read it and they can't understand it. As I've said before, you take your Bible to your professor, whatever he is — professor of mathematics or medicine or astronomy or whatever — and ask him to read it. Say, "Professor, do you understand what it means? So intelligent, so many doctorates behind your name. Can you understand what this means?" And he reads it, and he reads it. You know what it means. Try a parable next time. We didn't read a parable. That is for the simple. The son understands. Why? Because he's stupid? No, because he cannot understand it until God reveals it. It's the mystery of the word of God.
Now this is very important for studying the Bible. It is very important for understanding salvation. When you study the Bible, I'm sure every time you read the Bible, the fact that it's a mystery must dawn upon your mind because you don't understand it, right? Try reading Colossians. Read Ephesians. And if you think you're really up to it, try reading the Revelation. And then I'm sure you're convinced that the word of God is a mystery — utterly convinced. There is no way you can understand it until God reveals the meaning to you.
I remember as a young Christian, how many times I read Revelation. I scratched my head. I couldn't make head or tail of it. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. At least I could understand — I had some comfort that I could understand part of the letters written to the churches. That much I could get. But once you pass chapter 4 of Revelation, then you are in deep waters, and then the whole thing is mystery. But God can open the mystery to you. I remember how once, while I was having a time of rest in Switzerland, I opened again the Revelation before the Lord. And I said, "Lord, teach me. I beg of you. Let your Spirit reveal what this means to me." And when I read it again, I was amazed. I was amazed that I could understand it. It's so incredible. I began to understand — I should say began. Anyone who says he understands it thoroughly must be much closer home than I am, and I am sure there are some of those who are, but they must be very close home. We begin to understand. The light begins to dawn upon us. The riches begin to come forth.
And this means that all the things in the word of God are mystery, and they can only be understood as a gift of God to you by the Spirit. It's a gift. Therefore, anyone who boasts in his exceeding good knowledge of the Bible is not fit to serve God. He has not yet understood that if he understands anything, it is because the Spirit of God has revealed it to him. If some people listen to my expositions, as many times they say to me, "We have never heard such expositions" — I tell you, I have nothing whatsoever to be proud about. Nothing. Because if there is anything I have seen, it is because God has revealed it to someone who really is so utterly unworthy. And this is not humility. I am not saying a word out of humility. It is nothing but the plain truth. For the moment I think that I am clever, the moment I think that I can give an exposition better than someone else, I tell you, God will take me and drop me aside and say, "I have finished with you. You are no use to me anymore. Because you think you are somebody." I understand that the word of God is mystery. It is a gift.
So here we read in verse 11, "To you it has been given to know the secret of the kingdom of God." You see, they didn't earn it. The disciples were not so excellent that they were entitled to know the secrets of God, that they could say, "Look at me, I am so good. Now it's time for you to tell me your secrets." No, no. None of us become good enough to be told the secrets of God. It is utterly of grace. And grace means that you did not earn it, you did not deserve it. It is God's gift to you. Now anyone who has walked with God knows grace. And I preach grace. All grace. Utterly of grace.
Now here I would like you to observe another thing. That this word of God conveys to us life. Now notice how beautifully the Lord Jesus speaks of the word of God as a seed. Why? Because seed has life in it, is it not? A stone has no life, but a seed has life. The distinctive thing, the only thing you can say about a seed, is that it has life in it. What else can you say about it? And that once that seed is implanted into the ground, it brings life into the ground, into that piece of ground. And that ground is going to become fruitful because the seed is in it. The ground has nothing of life. I have no life in my soul. I, without the grace of God, am dead.
And so beautiful that the ground should be compared to the heart. Our hearts are often so dirty, isn't it? The ground is mud. What is mud? Dirt. Filth as we regarded it. That's my heart. But God plants his seed into my heart. And this dirt, this unrighteousness, this filth, amazingly, by his power, is transformed into something productive. That is the transforming power of grace. Now this is all concerning salvation. For salvation is about life. And when the word of God comes into your life, it brings God's life into your soul so that you become a new person, a new creature. The unrighteousness of your heart is transformed into a fruitful ground for the production of God's word and to the blessing of others.
We read that in 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 23. We are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of the incorruptible seed, namely God's word. It is God's word that causes you to be born again because God's word contains life, the life of God. God's word is creative. God's word is powerful. He created heaven and earth by his word. It is not the word of man that is just vain and empty. God's word is not like the word of man. It produces, it has transforming power. This is so wonderful. So the seed is compared — the word of God is compared to seed because it has God's life in it and it brings salvation to your soul as God's free gift to you. That is, assuming you are willing and ready to accept it. And to that we shall turn in a moment.
So now let us summarize on this first point and observe a number of things. The seed is the word of God. The seed is mystery. The seed is a gift. The seed is life. The word of God — remember those terms again — the word of God, mystery, gift, life. Now when you ponder it for a moment, you suddenly realize that all these terms are used to describe the Lord Jesus himself. The Lord Jesus is called the word of God — John chapter 1, verse 1, also in Revelation chapter 19. The Lord Jesus himself is called the word of God. Secondly, he is himself called mystery, which we have seen already in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 2. Then he is also the life — "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Jesus is the life. John chapter 14, verse 6. Then we find that the Lord Jesus is God's gift to us. As Paul says in Corinthians, "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift." Or John chapter 3, verse 16 — God so loved the world that he gave the gift of God in Christ. Jesus is the gift.
So suddenly we realize that the seed is in fact summed up in Jesus himself. In fact, in Galatians chapter 3, verse 16, the Lord Jesus is called the seed. Amazing, isn't it? Of course, in your English Bible it's been translated as the word "descendants." The word there is "seed." As you have it in the authorized version has left the word "seed" there. Now, this word seed in Galatians 3:16 in the Greek is close to but not the same word as seed here, because of course there it is speaking of as human seed. That's why the revised standard version translates it as descendants. Whereas here the seed is spoken of as in the nature of the parable as the seed of a plant. But both are spoken of as seeds. And this reminds us of Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. What does it say there? A promise to the woman, to man in general, that the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent.
Now, what are we saying then? What we come to realize is that the Lord Jesus is the word of God for several reasons. For one thing, the message of salvation always is summed up and centers in the person of Christ. I do not truly preach the word of God at all if I do not preach Christ. That is why the apostles say we preach Christ and we preach Christ crucified. Very interesting. How does a seed bring forth life? By dying. How does Jesus bring forth life? By dying. By being crucified. Little wonder he is called the seed. Very easy to understand. In fact, the Lord Jesus speaks of himself as the seed in John chapter 12: "Except the seed fall to the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it die, it brings forth much fruit." Isn't that wonderful? The Lord Jesus is the seed. And the Lord Jesus is God's gift to us. The Lord Jesus is the mystery of God. The Lord Jesus is life.
Now here I would wish to be able to expound to you each one of these titles so that you may catch a glimpse of the glory of Christ. I say to you again, the only reason I am a Christian is because of Jesus. I am not interested in churches and church dogmas. In fact, if anything, the church tends to make one exhausted. The squabbles inside the church, the conduct of Christians is often — not only as someone said to me, they are not only extraordinary, they are not even ordinary. The life of Christians is nothing oftentimes. They are supposed to be the light of the world and what do we see? Most of the time we see only darkness, not light. What is there to keep me being a Christian, let alone to make me a Christian? Nothing, I tell you, my friend, except peace.
The only reason, despite the problems of the church, despite my own weakness, despite sometimes my disgust — I am sorry to say, disgust — with those who call themselves Christians, my shame at having to recognize these people who call themselves Christians, and my own disgust with myself oftentimes, of not being able to give more to Christ, of not being sufficiently devoted to him — what keeps me still to be a Christian? Nothing but the glory of Jesus, the beauty of Christ, that God loves me, that he has given to me — not from things, not from blessings — but he has given to me his Son. Have you ever thought about giving your son to somebody? Or what do you think of somebody who said, "I love you so much, here is my Son, I entrust my Son to you"? Wow, that person must really love you with unlimited love. God comes to someone as unworthy as I am, and says to me, "Here is my Son, I give him to you." And when I look at this Son — what? The glory of God shines in his face. Because the Spirit of God opens my eyes, and I see the beauty of Jesus. Remember, he is a mystery. You cannot understand him in your own wisdom. But has God opened your eyes to see something of his glory?
The apostle Paul speaks of the Lord Jesus as God's unspeakable gift, indescribable, ineffable. You cannot describe it. How am I to preach Christ? How am I to share his glory? Only the eye that has seen that glory understands it. How do you describe Jesus? I can speak of him as God's mystery, as the life of God given to me. I can speak of him as the word that reveals God. But I, having said that, I don't know how else to describe it. You see, you have to see. You have to let the Spirit of God reveal him to you. Then your heart begins to burn. Then the fire begins to burn in your heart. There is nothing that so kindles the fire in a person's heart as the vision of Jesus.
If there was something in my power to do, that I could, as it were, let the glory of Christ come before your eyes, I tell you, your heart would so burn within you that nothing will stop the flame of devotion. But that's beyond my power. I can only tell you how to come to that vision of glory. I cannot give you the vision. I can only tell you by what path you arrive at it. And when you have arrived, when you begin to see the glory of Christ, I tell you — nothing. You will not want to talk about cross. You will not want to talk about sacrifice. There is nothing you can offer to him that is even worth talking about.
But how do you bring people to a vision of that glory? That is the question that I have wrestled with constantly. I've shared with some of you, I've written a whole book on the titles of Christ. Hundreds of titles. And when I look at it, I'm not satisfied because when I look at it, I can speak of all these titles of Jesus. He is the morning star. He is the lily of the valley. You can use other terms. These terms you can picture, but when I say he is life, you can't picture life. You don't know what life looks like. You don't know what to do with it. What can you do with life? The only thing you can do with life is to experience it. I cannot say, "Here is life, look at it." You can't see life. You cannot smell it. You cannot hear it. You cannot touch it. You cannot taste it.
There are people who say they don't believe in anything that they can't see. Well, you can't see life. You can see manifestations of life, but you cannot see life itself. I give you a seed, and I tell you, inside here is life. What do you do? You take a knife and you cut it. "I'm going to look at life." What do you see? You see life? You see nothing. The life cannot be seen. You can do what you like with it, but you can't see it. What you can do is you can experience it. That's what you can do. And that's what I can do. I cannot experience life for you. I can only show you how to go and experience it. I cannot experience Jesus for you. I can only tell you how to go and experience it. If only one could light the flame of devotion in every heart. This is God's gift to us. "To you it has been given." Have you received this?
Now then this takes me to the second part. The second part is seeing that God has given his seed freely to everyone. That salvation in Christ is God's free gift. And remember it is only in Christ. There is no salvation outside of Christ. God does not give you something called life. He does not give you something called salvation. Have you got salvation? How do you know? Can you take out something called salvation? No. All God's gifts, every blessing of God is found only in Christ. Just as the life is only in the seed, so salvation is only in Christ. Nowhere else can you find it. And anybody who desires salvation without Christ, or to have Christ only as a means to getting to salvation, such a person cannot hope even to be saved. He doesn't even know what salvation is.
But now seeing that God has freely given of the salvation, that God so loved the world, the whole world, why then is the world not saved? Well, John chapter 3 tells us, because they love darkness rather than light. The problem here is that God's gift is free, but not every heart is ready to accept it, is willing to take it. We hear a lot about faith. We are saved by faith. Now, I deliberately avoid using this word because this word is so overworked that nobody actually knows what it means. We are justified by faith, certainly, but whatever does faith mean? And I have heard all kinds of definitions being given.
The most frequently quoted is Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. "Now faith is the assurance of things not seen, the confidence of things hoped for." Now, what does that tell you? I fear it has told you nothing. Faith is the assurance of things not seen. But faith itself is not something seen either. So, what is not seen is the assurance of what is not seen. What does that say? If you try to analyze this logically you have all kinds of problems. It is simply going to end up meaning that you believe very far. Faith is the assurance. Yeah, but faith — what then is it? Is it a feeling? Is faith assurance? Faith is the confidence of things hoped for. Now, you start defining faith like this and you are in all kinds of trouble. Why? Because that verse in Hebrews chapter 11 is actually simply telling you what is the effect of faith. It is not actually a definition of faith itself. It is the effect of faith upon your soul. When you have faith you have assurance of things not seen. You have confidence of the things hoped for when you have faith. It is the effect of faith upon you. It is not a definition of faith in its essence.
Now, having failed to see that, we end up with no definition at all. And if you do not have faith, and the way I spoke of it now — I speak, for example, the non-Christian would analyze it — he would end up with a meaningless statement because it would simply mean that you believe whatever you happen to believe in. But the person who has faith understands what it means because he already has faith. He knows that because he has this thing called faith, he has assurance of the things not seen. Because I have faith, I have confidence in the things that are hoped for. But that's because I already have faith. The person who has not got faith — that's not a definition. It tells him absolutely nothing.
What then is faith? Well, faith is often then illustrated by preachers. Spurgeon, for example, the English Baptist preacher, illustrates this, as many preachers do, that there's a child who is standing in the window. The house is on fire. So the only course left for the child is to jump from the window. But below the window there is a strong man with outstretched arms who says, "Jump and I will catch you." And so the child, seeing the flames coming behind, takes his life into his own hands, takes the courage to jump, and jumps into the arms of the strong man below who catches the child. This is an illustration of faith.
Well, where is faith coming into all this? What is the illustration? What does it tell me? It is telling me that faith is the attitude of this child who trusts the strong man and therefore jumps out of the window into the arms of the strong man. Well, what does it mean by trust here? Certainly there is trust, if you say, driven somewhat by fear — the fear of the flame behind, of course — but the trust is the trust in the strong man. And the strong man here is meant to represent the Lord Jesus. Now, the reason why I use the word commitment rather than trust is because the word trust is far too weak. The child is doing much more than trusting the strong man, even if it is going to be a genuine act of biblical faith. For if the strong man fails to catch him, the child will be dead or crippled. The word trust is far too weak. It does not express a total attitude of commitment. It means to say it is a trust that stakes one's life on it. You must stake your life on it before we are talking about biblical faith.
But to believe that Jesus died for you, you don't stake anything on it, not at least that far. That's why I'm concerned about the misuse of the word faith. What have you staked? I mentioned a friend called White Lace or White Lord who wrote a tract called "The Reason Why." To my mind, the argument is utterly distasteful that he uses there, but that tract is widely used. Because it is what Bonhoeffer has called, in his book "The Cost of Discipleship," an offer of cheap grace. His argument is like this: if you believe that Jesus died for you and you are wrong, you lose nothing. But if you are right, you gain eternal life. You see, you can't lose either way. You stake absolutely nothing. Right?
Supposing you have a ticket here, you make a bet. Somebody gives you a free ticket on Lotto Canada, or whatever it is called, Lotto Quebec or whatever. Somebody gives you the ticket. Now, if you get nothing, if the draw comes out and you won nothing, you didn't lose anything either because the ticket was given to you as a free present, right? So if you got nothing, never mind, you lost nothing anyway. You stake nothing. But if the ticket happens to come out, you have a chance to win a million dollars. So if you win, you got everything; if you lose, you lost nothing. My, what reasoning is this? You call that faith? That is faith?
Now, if I use that illustration, I give you a ticket for Lotto Canada, and you receive this ticket, that's called faith? Why is it called faith? Because you have absolutely nothing, you don't lose anything, you have something to gain, but you lose nothing. What faith do you exercise? When I give you a ticket in Lotto Canada, what faith do you exercise? I ask you, you exercise faith — where is the faith? Where is this picture about a child jumping out of a window coming into this? When I give you a ticket that either you gain everything or you lose nothing — so either way, you have nothing to lose. Where is faith coming into this? And yet, I hear evangelists preaching salvation: "Jesus is God's gift to you. Have faith. Now if you accept Jesus, and your faith is not justified, that is to say, he turns out to be false, you don't lose anything, do you? So it's a good bet. But if he turns out to be true, you've got eternal life. You hit the jackpot, my friend, you've got eternal life. That's better than a million dollars." I mean, you can't buy eternal life with a million dollars. That's better than Lotto Canada. You call that faith?
Now what's the option of faith in this? To receive the ticket of Lotto Canada is faith? To receive Jesus in that way is called faith? That's not faith. That's just taking a chance. That's not even taking a chance, because it costs you absolutely nothing, one way or the other. If you have to pay for the ticket, you at least stand to lose — I don't know how much Lotto Canada costs, I haven't bought the ticket yet. I don't ever intend to buy one, but whatever the ticket costs, at least you stake that much on it. But in this case you stake absolutely nothing.
Now think again of the picture of the child. The child who jumps stakes its life upon the person to catch it. If the person, as I say, fails to catch it, it's not the case that he can't catch it.
# The Parable of the Sower from the Salvation Viewpoint (Part 2)
I have staked my life on it. That is now faith on Spurgeon's illustration. That is faith, I accept so. But that faith is commitment. It is a total commitment because you have staked your life on it. Now what do you stake on accepting Jesus as your Savior and Lord? Do you stake something? If Jesus is not true, what do you lose? I think for the majority of you, you have lost nothing. Have you? What do you lose? I mean, going to church has been very edifying. Even if Jesus was not true, and you went to church every Sunday, well it was a very good experience. I mean, singing songs has a calming effect on you. You meet lots of nice people in church, even if they are all deluded people. They are all wrong, but they are nice people. What do you lose? Nothing. You still got your income. You still got your job. Your income is not reduced because you are a Christian. In fact, in many cases, because you are a Christian, you get better income. You get more promotion. People regard you more highly. They trust you more completely. They know you are honest, you are reliable, you are trustworthy. So being a Christian brings every advantage to you. What did you lose? What did you lose? Even if the gospel turns out not to be true, and you were a Christian all your life, what did you lose? Nothing. You still have your house. You still have your car. You still have your job. You still have your friends, and much better friends than worldly friends, who will stand by you when you are in trouble.
Well, I ask you, what have you staked on being a Christian? Nothing. Nothing. Then I ask you, what is faith? Can you define faith for me? What is faith? Where is this illustration of jumping from a high building into the arms of anyone? When did you jump into the arms of Jesus? What did you lose? That child, if that man fails to catch the child, remember again, stands to become a cripple, or even to lose its life. If Jesus is not true, what do you stand to lose? The answer is nothing. For most people, nothing. You have lost nothing. Therefore, where is the faith? I would like you to think carefully on this question. We are justified by faith, but I want you to ask this question: where is your faith? What have you staked on Jesus? To believe a thing to be true or not true does not stake anything at all. To believe whether or not this ticket that I give you of Lotto Canada is going to win or not, doesn't matter either way. Because you lose nothing if you don't win. So where does Spurgeon's illustration come in?
Let me use another illustration which is many times used by preachers. And I am sure that you have heard this illustration or something similar to it. A missionary preaching about faith describes his experience in India where he was going to a particular place. He had to cross over a plank. And this plank goes over a deep chasm, a deep gorge. Now, when he came to this plank — this plank was just tied with some ropes going across this — and he looked down and this far down below there is a little river down below there. He sees this plank swing with the wind. And he is going to cross this plank. So he looks at this plank and he says, "Oh no, no, no. Forget it. I am not going across." But the natives assure him that the plank is quite trustworthy. So they demonstrate. They go back and forth of the plank completely at ease.
But he argues. He says, "Look, I am a Westerner. I am six foot tall. And you guys are only five foot six or whatever. I am taller. And what is more, I am heavier than any of you. Now the fact that you can go across is not evidence that I can go across. Because the plank may take your weight, but it can't take my weight." And so he refuses to go across the plank. So the natives demonstrate to him: "Okay, you are taller than us, you are heavier than us. But we will cross two together on the plank. Because we two together will be heavier than you. That's for sure." So the two of them cross together on the bridge to demonstrate. Having lost all his arguments and now left without an excuse, this missionary has to pluck up his courage and go across the plank. And so he does with fear and trembling. He inches his way across the plank and gets to the other side. He finally has learned to trust this plank. He puts his faith in the plank. Illustration of faith.
That is to say, at first he did not believe in this plank, that this plank could hold his weight. He did not trust the plank. But after he had a multitude of witnesses — Hebrews 11, Hebrews 12: "Seeing that you have so great a cloud of witnesses about you, therefore we go forward." Now he has all these witnesses. He plucks up the courage, and he takes the step of faith. He goes across the plank. Yes. Now, does it not illustrate the same point as the child who jumps into the arms of the strong man? What is faith in this instance? If his faith is wrong, if the plank cannot hold his weight, does he lose something or does he not lose anything? Of course, he stands to lose his life. He loses everything. If his faith is wrong, he loses everything. Right? This means that faith is not faith in the biblical sense unless you stake everything upon it. You stake your life on it. If the plank does not hold his weight, he goes down. Down to hell for that matter. He is going to go right down to utter destruction.
Now that I can understand as a definition of trust, of faith. But our faith — and I want to remind you again — that is preached by an evangelist that does not speak about total commitment. Totally committing oneself to that plank. Staking one's life upon it. That is not faith in the biblical sense, is it? I would like you to get this very clear. But that is simply like receiving this Lotto Canada ticket as a present. You either win something, or if you don't win anything, you don't lose anything either. To dare to preach the gospel in the way that White Law presents it in the tract is a travesty of biblical teaching. To say "believe in Jesus, but if he is wrong, you don't lose anything anyway, do you?" That is a disgrace. I am ashamed of it. But worse than that, it's a lie. It's not true.
Because if you have not been totally committed to Christ, let me tell you, you seek in vain the gift of salvation. For the gift of salvation is given through faith. You are justified by faith. Faith properly so called. And faith properly so called, as we have seen, whether in the illustrations used by Spurgeon, or by the missionaries, or by whoever — understand it as a total commitment. And that is the biblical understanding. When you go to Hebrews chapter 11, look again at the definition of faith. And you see no faith of the Lotto Canada type that I just mentioned. Every example of faith is an example of total commitment. Abraham staked everything upon God's word. He went not knowing where God wanted him to go. He staked his life, his family, his career, everything upon it. When God said go, he went. That is total commitment. And you go down through the list of things there in Hebrews 11. And it ends up with these words: that through faith they conquered kingdoms, they silenced the mouths of enemies, they subdued lions. No. If the faith didn't work, the lion gets you, not you get the lion. If you did not have faith, it's not you subdued the kingdoms, the kingdom subdues you. Moses, for the joy of faith, counted the riches of Egypt as nothing. He lost everything. He turned his back upon Egypt, and he went out to be identified with the people of God. He lost everything. He staked his life.
Why do we read Hebrews 11 with eyes closed? And think that salvation is some kind of simply saying, "Okay, I take Jesus. I believe he died for me. It costs me nothing anyway. And if it's wrong, I lose nothing anyway." Let me tell you something. You've got it wrong.
Let's come back to the parable of the seed. Look at this parable again. The seed is God's free gift. But what happens? We noticed, as I expounded it the last time, there are two groups of three categories each. Three categories of the unsaved, and three categories of the saved. The three categories of the saved are those that brought forth thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold. The three categories of the unsaved was the seed that fell on the hard ground, on the path. The second category was that which fell upon the rocky ground — it believed, it accepted the word of God, but they had no root. And the third category was that which also received the word of God, but allowed the world, the thorns, to choke it.
Out of the three categories of the unsaved, two groups are believers, one group unbelievers. Amazing, isn't it? We are used to classifying the unsaved as unbelievers. The Lord Jesus classifies among the unsaved only one group of unbelievers, two groups of believers. Amazing. His thinking is not our thinking. Both of these two categories of believers are those who received the word of God with joy, but had no root and fell away. The other received the word of God, but was choked by the cares of the world. They both received the word of God.
Now let us examine commitment as it is understood in the Bible, as the Lord Jesus preached it, as a total commitment that saves. You see, there are three things we can say about this total commitment on the basis of this parable. The first is, most basically, that commitment implies openness. Now, the seed cannot be received into the soil unless it's open. At least it has to be open to receive the seed. The soil must be open to the seed. It has been plowed up. It is open. But that which fell upon the path is not open. It is closed. The seed cannot even penetrate it. It cannot even enter it. And the birds take the seed away. The other two groups were open. They opened, and so they received the word. Which shows that the first point we must say about commitment or faith is that it is an openness to the word of God. It is an openness to Christ. But that's only the first step. It's essential, but not enough.
What is the second step? The second step is that the seed, having entered into the soil, must have full possession of the soil. Now, that's very important. It must have total possession of the soil. The word of God must have total possession of your heart. Now, that's where the two categories of those that failed, who received the word of God but perished, failed to do. The one had rock underneath, so limiting the access of God's word.
Let me ask you this question. Is your heart open to God's word? I should think so. I have confidence that your hearts are open to God's word. Because if it was not open to God's word, you would not be here today. Because you know, coming here, you would be receiving God's word. If you were not open to God's word, I do not see you would be here. So I have confidence that you have at least the first stage. Your hearts are open to God's word. But now the second thing is, does the word of God, does the Lord Jesus have all your hearts, total possession of your heart? Or is there some rock underneath, a certain hardness of heart that says to the Lord Jesus, "You come so far in my life, but no further. Just that much and it's enough. I don't want to become a fanatic. I don't want to become a religious nut. I'm willing to be religiously respectable, I'm willing to go that far, but I don't want to be a religious fanatic."
You know, like these guys in training. Look at those nuts. These guys, they go there, they get a degree from some place or other, they study the mathematics or chemistry or computer science or whatever, and then they come along here and they sit down here, they throw everything away. These are nuts. They are fanatics. As for me, I draw the line here. Finish. I'm wise. Zhong yong, you know, the mean. Not too far to one side, not too far to the other. I got the right balance. I draw the line here. You draw the line there, my friend, and you end up with nothing. End up with nothing. If you tell the Lord Jesus, "You are Lord of my life, but only so far," then he is not Lord at all. He is either Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all. You cannot say to someone who is Lord, "Yeah, you come this far, don't come any further." Where is his Lordship? Now, this is the situation you got to understand. Have you drawn a line in your life?
Or like the other one, you have not drawn any line in your life, but you allow the cares of this world to dominate your life. You are so occupied with the world still. You say, "Lord, you are truly Lord, but I got so many things in this world that I'm occupied with, interests that I'm concerned with." And you end up being like the seed that fell in the soil among the thorns and got choked by it. So the second thing we need to notice is that in all these cases where they fail, it is because the commitment is there, but it is not total. How constantly I have emphasized to you the scriptural teaching that this is what the Lord Jesus is saying. Unless the seed has total possession of the soil, with no line being drawn, with no other concerns, no preoccupation with worldly interests, you will not survive. You can't survive.
So we need firstly openness, which you all have. But secondly, do you also — are you all able to say, "Lord, you have all of my life, all of my heart. There is nowhere in my life that you are not Lord." Now I wonder how many of you would honestly be able to say that. Honestly. I wonder how many preachers would honestly be able to say that.
F.B. Meyer shares the fact that once — F.B. Meyer, as you may know, is a great preacher of the beginning of this century, end of last century. Great preacher. He has written many, many books. Exceedingly good books. Great value. The books of F.B. Meyer are always well worth reading. F.B. Meyer confides how he was pastor of a church and he tried to preach and he tried to minister but all that happened was that the church just died on his hands. No life. And God spoke to him and he went before God and he said, "Lord, what's wrong with me?" The Lord said, "What's wrong with you is that you've got rock in there. You have drawn a line. I am not totally Lord of your life." And he suddenly realized this: "That's true. I belong to this category of people that have this topsoil which is good but rock underneath. I don't let God go any further than this in my life. I have stopped him at this point." And God said to F.B. Meyer, "I can't use you because you have closed part of your life to me." And F.B. Meyer knelt down before the Lord and said, "Lord, here is all my life. Here are the keys to every room in the house of my life. There is no room closed to you. In fact, I beg of you, take down the doors so that you don't even have to use the keys anymore. Just take down the whole door." And he said, that's what God did. God took down the door and put there a window through which his light shone into every room of his life. From that time on, God mightily used F.B. Meyer.
What's your life like? How many doors of your life are closed to the Lord?
Now, the third thing so essential to commitment is what is so essential to the seed — the sun. You all know that without light nothing can grow. And as you look at this parable, as I mentioned the last time I preached on this parable in May, the Lord Jesus deliberately shows that he deliberately compares the sun to tribulation, sufferings, trials. I pointed out to you that three different Greek words are used to speak about sufferings, trials, tribulations, and these are compared to the sun, the sunshine that promotes the growth of the seed. Many times I'm asked this question: how do I know that I am totally committed? Do I know I am totally committed because I go into full-time service? Is that the only way I know? My answer is: not in the least. I just mentioned to you that there are pastors who are not totally committed. As F.B. Meyer, this great preacher himself shared with us, here is a pastor who went through Bible college, seminary, everything else, and he was not totally committed. I would like to know how many people in a Bible college are totally committed to Christ. And last time when I was at Prairie Bible Institute and spoke to the students there, I challenged the students, every one of them. I wanted to know how much Christ is Lord in their lives. Don't think that by becoming a preacher you are totally committed to Christ. Not necessarily.
How do you know? The answer is this: it depends on how you react to the sun. That is the test. That's the test. You see, the sun can either destroy the plant or cause it to increase in growth. We notice in the case of this parable that the sun destroys the kind that has no root in it. But the others prosper exceedingly in the sunlight. Oh, they rise towards the sun. They grow. Have you noticed how the flowers — you've seen — the flower turns towards the sun. It opens up as the sun comes out. And when the sun disappears, it closes again. It shows forth its entire beauty as the sun rises. So is the true Christian.
But the seed that has no root, that commitment is weak, or not adequate, or non-existent, will be wiped out. So the same sunshine that brings life to one brings death to the other. Isn't that remarkable? It brings not only life to one, but prosperity and spiritual growth. To the other, it brings destruction. And so we read there in this beautiful parable of the Lord Jesus, when the sun rose, the seed — the plant — the seed that fell into the shallow ground withered and died. But when it fell into the rich ground, the good soil, oh, it grew abundantly — thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold. The sun brings forth the life.
Now this is so important to see. I can see what a Christian is made of when he runs into trouble. That's the time when I see whether we are talking about true Christians or false Christians. Whenever trial comes to you, you will know whether you are a committed Christian or not. When the difficulty arises, when you are being persecuted, that's the time you'll see what that person is, whether he's a true Christian or not. That is, whether he's a totally committed Christian or not. Whether he is going to survive or not going to survive.
See, I always think back, the time we were witnessing. There was a time I was evangelizing in Wales. Preaching the gospel at the place where in 1904 there was the great Welsh revival. Where the seed of God's word was scattered over the land and brought forth tremendous fruit. The great, the mighty Welsh revival. So great was the revival, the working of God's Spirit at that time, that you could go nowhere upon the streets where you wouldn't hear the singing of hymns. Whether in the buses or on the streets, everyone was singing hymns to God. Imagine that in Montreal, that you would be walking down St. Catherine's and everybody is singing praises to God. That's what happened at the Welsh revival. So mighty was the moving of God's Spirit that there was a transformation of the whole place. Today, it's as dead as anything you have ever seen. And in the 60s, I was preaching in Wales, and at one stage we went from door to door witnessing for the Lord.
And I remember very much how deeply it was impressed in my mind how one dear brother went and knocked on a certain door to speak of Christ to this person and had the door soundly slammed in his face. Bang! And when he came back to us, his face was beaming with joy. So I thought he had a great time of witnessing. I said, "What happened to you?" He said, "Hallelujah! I just had the door slammed in my face." That struck me. Because all the others only rejoiced when the person was listening with great attention and with great respect and great courtesy and even offered them a biscuit or a cup of tea. But here was somebody who rejoiced because the door was slammed in his face. He counted it such joy to suffer something for the Lord. I said to myself, here is somebody that God is going to use. Because when the sun shines upon him, he radiates. When persecution comes, he shines with joy.
And he said, "You know what I said to the lady when she slammed the door in my face? I said, 'Dear lady,' I shouted through the door, 'I love you so much, I'll be praying for you.'" I said, "Wow." I think that witness was more powerful than all the others who went around waving their Bibles. Can you think of that? Imagine slamming the door in somebody's face and he says, "I love you." That is witness. Now that's the kind of Christian — that is commitment.
Or when you read, for example, of Charles Wesley, that great servant of God who lived 200 years ago. He went around preaching and you have his journals in detail today. How many times he was beaten, his clothes torn, his hair pulled, his face slapped, his face punched. And all we read in the journals is a sense of love and warmth. There is not a note of bitterness that I can see there against those who persecuted and tormented him. Not a slight bitterness, but only love. I said, that is a man of God. You just notice the way he speaks, you know. He rejoiced in the suffering. In no bitterness, he thanked God for the privilege that he could suffer.
How many times in China, our brothers and sisters were taken away by the communists, and they stretched forth their hands to the communist police and said, "I am not worthy of such privilege. Thank you." The police don't know what is this. He's thanking me for putting handcuffs on your hands. What are you doing? Because they rejoiced. The sun is shining upon them. Thanks be to God.
And look at the apostle Paul. He actually says, "We rejoice in tribulation." There you know a man who is totally committed. You see why? He has staked everything on the Lord. He is ready to lose all. That was what he had come to do. That is faith.
How do you know whether you have total commitment? Next time everything goes wrong for you. Next time your parents turn against you. Next time your friends turn against you. Next time you are kicked out of your job for being a Christian because you didn't want to cheat at taxes or things of this kind. I would like to see. Then we will see whether you are totally committed. Whether you come forth radiant, rejoicing, "Hallelujah! What a privilege to live for Christ." Or you will say, "Look at this. You see, being a Christian, it cost me my job. You see, that is the trouble of being a Christian." The sun that shines will test your commitment. It will test my commitment.
How many times in serving the Lord, as I told you right at the beginning, I have been penniless. I thought to myself, "Hallelujah! I now know what it feels like to be a disciple of him who didn't have anywhere to lay his head." And when somebody asked him, "Should we pay taxes?" he didn't pull a coin out of his pocket but says, "If somebody has a coin here, will you show it to me?" If he had a coin in his own pocket he would just pull it out. He said no, he didn't have a coin. He had to ask someone else for a coin. And says, "Whose superscription is this on this coin?" Oh, it's good to walk with the Lord, to serve him, to live for him.
I stake my life on the Lord. And if I was wrong, I tell you, I would have starved. I didn't intend to break the law, and therefore I would just commit my cause to the Lord. And I tell you, if my God is not alive, I would literally have starved in the gutter. But my God proves himself. And that is what I mean by experiencing Christ. Because only the person who stakes his life on Christ will experience his power. No other person will experience his power. Therefore you say, we are justified by faith. And you are right. God's gift of justification is given to us freely. But in receiving that gift, receiving that seed into my life, I stake my whole life upon it. I stake my life upon this gift of God. And if I am wrong, if God is wrong — God forbid — it will cost me everything. But I have confidence. I know whom I have believed. That's why I stake my life on him. And because I stake my life on him, I know whom I have believed. The cycle goes on, you see. Because when you stake your life on him, you see his power manifest. And therefore you trust him even more. And because you trust him even more...
One last point and we have to close. In this rich parable that we have before us, we find that there are some who brought forth thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold. Now if all are totally committed, why the difference in the yield? If all of us are totally committed, why is there a difference in the yield? This question deserves an answer, not necessarily a quick one, but the time is gone and I must close. Every person can be totally committed, but the quality of that commitment is not the same. It is equally total, but not equal in quality.
Let's take the illustration again that we mentioned about faith. Here is a plank that we have to go across. Any person who walks upon this plank is totally committed, because if that plank breaks, he loses his life. But you see, the quality of that commitment was different. The missionary went across hesitant, with fear and trembling. He totally committed himself to the plank. But was there an exuberance? Was there a joy in that commitment? No, there was fear and trembling. There was hesitation. Although he did what he did, he was totally committed, but there was hesitation. The quality of that commitment was not the same as the others who walked across. They committed too, but notice the difference. They went across joyfully, with ease, with singing perhaps even. Both went across the plank. Both totally staked their life upon that plank holding them up. But the quality of that commitment was not the same, as you can easily see.
A child may fling itself from the top floor with great hesitation, crying, fear, and trembling, or may just jump down with utter confidence with no fear or trembling. Both have done the same thing, but the quality of what they did was different. The attitude is different. Now, you may see the difference between those who are totally committed. I have seen people who have given up everything to follow Christ and they never cease moaning about it. They keep saying, "I have given up everything for Christ and look at what I have to endure for Christ." They go through life groaning. Well, it's true, you cannot deny that they have committed everything to Christ, but what quality is left in their life? If forever they have to fear and tremble, forever they have to moan about it, if that's the way they do it, why bother at all? There are others who do it, but not so hesitant, with a small measure of joy. But think of the others who do this with radiance. Oh, the quality is different.
Now, think again of the illustration of the plank. If they see me shivering on the plank going across, they will say, "Wow, when I see this fellow shivering going across the plank, I am very hesitant to cross." But if you see somebody striding across with great confidence, say, "Oh well, that's okay, I'll cross over." Do you see that your witness to the plank is vastly different because of the quality of your commitment? Can you see that? Now, the quality of Paul's commitment as he staked everything — he rejoiced in tribulation. Can you not see others say, "Wow, Jesus is wonderful! Oh yes, you see, he goes forth, the cost is nothing to him." But there's another one who is ever muttering about the cost. He's trembling upon the plank. "Well, you see, I have done it, I have done it, but what a cost to me?" Well, no wonder the others think, "Well, if that's the case, I don't think I'm going to cross."
Do you see the difference? Quality of the witness is different, and therefore the fruit is bound to be different. The person who crosses the plank with confidence will cause many others to cross across the plank with confidence. So this illustrates the difference of fruit we can see. All these bring forth fruit, but the quality is different, and therefore the yield is different.
So may we not only have totally committed faith, but may we have a totally committed faith of such quality, of such radiance, of such power, that others can see the glory of Christ in us.
Let us pray.