Some businesses can be carried on at home, but others cannot. A man may make shoes in his back shop, but he can’t catch fish there, and he can’t sow seed there, either. It is in the nature of the case that the fisherman and the sower should go abroad. Now our great Exemplar, the Lord Jesus Christ, could not sit in heaven and see sinners die. That is how He came to Bethlehem and afterwards to Calvary.
I want to point out that in Psalm 126:6 there is (1) the sower himself, (2) his action in going forth, (3) his purpose, to sow seed, (4) his condition, going a weeping man, (5) and the wonderful results of his going.
Perhaps also, there are three contrasts: there is the going forth and the coming again; there is the weeping and the rejoicing; and there is the seed that is brought back as sheaves.
First of all, about the sower himself, the man behind the seed bag. It is all-important that the seed should be right, but it is all-important as well that the man who sows the seed, should be right–sound doctrine and a sound man to publish it. It is true that a missionary or evangelist is a messenger, yet not such a messenger as the telegraph boy who hands you a telegram; you take the telegram, and forget all about the boy. He does not in any way affect the message. But it is not so with the message of the gospel. A man’s character transcends his performance. That means that what a man is is always more than what he does.
I was speaking to a young man the other day, and his testimony was this: “I was converted through the consistent character of a man with whom I was for 18 months in the Navy.” We can’t lay too much stress on preaching, but remember, God has other ways of bringing people in besides preaching. It was not preaching that brought the prodigal son home, and many are reached through the rugged disciplines of life, or through the consistent conduct of others.
Next, the man’s purpose in going out was to sow, and he gave himself wholly to the work. I remember Mr. Spurgeon telling an incident of a drive he took to Bath. We often ask the driver for information as to this or that place, but Mr. Spurgeon couldn’t get anything out of him.
At last, Spurgeon said in frustration, “Do you know anything?”
“Sir,” he said, “I know the way to drive you to Bath.” And if a man is going out to the missionfield, he does not need to have various interests in the field–it is very possible for a man who is a true evangelist or missionary to be turned aside from his own prepared work, to do other things that are not required of him. If you look at a man sowing a field, you will see that he is wholly devoted to the work he has to do. There is the seed bag on his shoulder and he is scattering the seed with both hands, right and left. He has no room for anything else, only to sow that field.
The condition of the man gives us much to consider–“He that goeth forth and weepeth.” I do not suppose that this is weeping over our manifold transgressions and continuous shortcomings, though there is room for this. I think it is to be interpreted by such a passage as this: “He beheld the city and wept over it.” Tears came to the eyes of the Son of God, and oh! that it were so with us when we go to speak to men about Him (e.g. the apostle Paul, Acts 20:31). Depend on this, a weeping preacher will make a weeping people. We have a saying in Scotland, that, “A house-going minister makes a kirk-going people.” Often we go out in a somewhat different spirit.
“He . . . shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” If there is anything certain, this is: no man ever yet went with the Word of God, rightly affected toward God and toward sinners, but his reward was certain. It is true, of course, of the Lord Jesus in the first instance. He will come again bringing His sheaves with Him. But all forms of service to Him will share that reward.
And when it comes to the end of the day, as it must come to the Christian, he will have many regrets and see how much time he has wasted on things of no account, but one thing no man ever will be sorry for, and that is the time and strength he gave to preaching the gospel to dying sinners.
Look up to heaven and see the Lord Jesus there. He is the same today as He was yesterday. He came into the world to save sinners, and now He has entrusted the gospel to all who believe that they might pass it on.
In 1 Corinthians 11, where the Apostle Paul speaks about the Supper, he says, “I have received of the Lord, that which also I delivered unto you.” Now all the elements of Christian ministry are there. I is just receiving and delivering. We have two great concerns, we who have anything to do with that work. First, it is to see to it that we receive the word from God, and then, that we do not fail to deliver that which we have received. If we attempted to deliver without receiving, it would be a failure. If we received without delivering, it would be a betrayal of the trust with which God has given us.
Paul uses this very figure: “I am put in trust with the gospel.” What is a trustee? A man who has funds, not a penny of which belongs to him, but they are put into his hands by the disposition of another, and he has to (1) defend and protect them from all those to whom they do not belong, and (2) see that those to whom they are due, get them. Now each of us has been set in this position, and are to contend for the faith “delivered” to the “saints” (not “servants” or “brethren”), because it is only a holy hand that can touch the Ark of God. And it is “delivered,” first to be defended, and next, to be propagated, and that to the very ends of the earth.
I recall our Lord’s words, “I have a baptism,” etc. (Lk. 12:50). That baptism is behind Him, He is not “straitened” anymore. He has not only given the gospel, but given the Holy Ghost to make the gospel effectual. All that is lacking is a believing enterprise on the part of God’s children to carry that gospel to the very ends of the earth.
There are many who can tell us that there is one invincible thing, and that is faith. We think of the difficulties and temptations at home and abroad, but there is one thing that cannot be conquered, and that is, faith in God. “This is the victory that overcometh the world,” and all enemies. There is no possibility of defeat as long as faith is maintained.
So let missionaries at home and abroad be encouraged, and go on in the name of the Lord. And remember that the reward is sure, that the seed (what a little thing it is and how men despise it) has immeasurable potential. Remember too that the authority of the Master is in that little seed, and by the end of the day, the seed will be turned into sheaves.