Teachings – As the Garden Causeth the Things that are Sown in it to Spring Forth

AS THE GARDEN CAUSETH THE THINGS THAT ARE SOWN IN IT TO SPRING FORTH

UNFOLDING THIRTY-TWO

WHERE WE ARE

Pastor Spurgeon covered a lot of ground (fourteen discourses) which spanned God’s eternal garden, the fruit and spices, the Spring season planting, withering and fading of the grass and flowers, and spring watering. All of these discourses brought wonderful insight into the character of our Great God, and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. However, we have another discourse to entertain.

SCRIPTURE

  Isaiah 61:11

“For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”

Hebrews 12:1

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

AS THE GARDEN CAUSETH THE THINGS THAT ARE SOWN IN IT TO SPRING FORTH
UNFOLDING THIRTY-TWO

At the beginning, Pastor sets the stage –

“The earth – of which , through the long winter, we might have said, ‘she is not dead but sleepeth’ – has now awakened, and she beginneth already to put on her garments of glory and beauty.”

“Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, are God’s for Evangelists, bringing each one a different version of the self-same Gospel of Divine Love.”

The spring time heralds God’s work in the hearts of men. Yet, Pastor reminds –

“There may be in God’s work, and in our work for God, a period of unrequited labor.”

“Generation after generation of holy martyrs and confessors went to prison and to death to bear testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus.”

Let us remember not only the price that our Lord and Savior paid on the cross for our sins but those who went before us.

“Behold the Husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain.”

Trials and difficulties are to be expected. Nevertheless,

“So we must expect to see in the church of God: desperate obstacles will obstruct the spread of the Gospel, fearful disappointments will wither hope, solemn calamities will overthrow success, iniquity will abound, and the love of many will wax cold!”

 These difficulties exist in nature as well as the spread of the Gospel. 

“If it be so in Nature so may it also be in grace, and I sometimes think that we have fallen upon such times even now.”

THOUGHT GOING FORWARD

If Pastor Spurgeon felt this difficulty and trial in planting and harvesting during the 20th century, what of this planting and harvesting today? I would say our time is much darker; yet, perhaps that is for the better. Why? God’s creation in Nature reveals His character to bring great things to pass following the darkest times. Consider Israel’s independence after World War II and the holocaust. After the darkness of the medieval times and the deaths of martyrs, the body of Christ grew mightily as the Gospel and Protestantism spread throughout the European continent. During the 17th century English conflict, Pilgrims and Puritans migrated to the wilderness of America. At all levels of society and culture – nationally, regionally and locally – the Gospel sprang up following difficult periods of spiritual engagements and the Holy Spirit moved within God’s chosen people.  

IN TRIBUTE TO SPURGEON’S LOVE OF SHORT RYHMES

In times of darkness, black in sin –
depravity aside,
the Spirit’s breath blown deep within
a chosen seed of God, revived.