Trinity Fellowship

October 31, 1517 is known as the day in which the Protestant Reformation was born. Today we surveyed the Reformation after the time of Luther, and trace the stream through Calvin into the English Reformation. In this survey, we see the significance of the Church of England, and the roots of both Presbyterianism and the Reformed Baptist churches.

The parables not only illustrate, but perform. They are a prophetic comment on the state of affairs, and this Parable of the Sower actively brings about the very things of which it speaks. Parables make the truth memorable for those with spiritual ears, and they harden and confuse and conceal for those who remain in their sin. Parables sort the wheat from the chaff; the sheep from the goats, and this is exactly what Christ says they are meant to do. The preaching of the gospel sorts people out as it is designed to do. Because God is sovereign in salvation, we can share the gospel with great joy and anticipation. The hardest soil you know today may be worked over and gladly receive the Word tomorrow. For those of us in whom the gospel has already taken root, we have the joy and the privilege of tending to that life, of taking our part in an abundant harvest. Worshipping with the Lord's people on the Lord's Day, spending time in the Word and in prayer, pushing out the weeds of sin and indifference with a healthy crop are all things that are not mere duties to be performed out of obligation, but are productive work that yield greater profit, greater peace, and greater joy.

We have been shown clearly that moral reform apart from Christ sets us up for a dangerous deception that makes us worse off than we started. External change leaves us empty and vulnerable to the enemy. The only way to achieve victory in the long war on sin is to expel it with the superior power of affection for Christ. Christian, if Christ has touched you, then you have eyes to see and a mouth to speak. The glory of the Lord has filled you to overflowing and you are able to see sin for the irrational corruption that it is. If this is not yet true of you, then if you pray that Christ would open your eyes, He most certainly will. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, so call out and find peace. This peace finds its most natural expression in the family of God, as we follow our older Brother in the worship of our Father.

Christ's ongoing conflict with the Pharisees keeps inching towards its climax. Christ refuses to turn His miracles into a circus act, and so rather than respond to the request for yet another sign, He turns and exposes their unbelief. These men are the guardians of the Scriptures and yet they refuse to see the Christ of those Scriptures. Jesus points to Himself in the account of Jonah and Solomon, and contrasts the high handed unbelief of these insider Pharisees with the repentant faith of those outsider converts. So today it is for us – Christless conservatism cannot save. Trying to be mainstream and middle of the road cannot save. Imitation forms of pursuing justice cannot save. Leftist and progressive schemes for utopia cannot save. Morality apart from the glorious gospel of grace cannot save. At the resurrection, do you want to be judged and condemned by those that you think are more wicked than you? If not, then you must hold fast to Christ. He has offered the terms of peace. He is happy to justify generational insiders and longtime outsiders; but regardless of which group you come from, He will only do it one way. He only has one people – and that one group of people, as varied as they are by age and ethnicity and background are those who lay down all forms of pride and presumption and self-righteousness and humbly reach out the empty hand of faith to receive all the promises of Christ.

Christ's words this morning present a strong challenge to those who would separate root and fruit, or head and heart. Christ is not the least bit interested in treating the wounds of His people lightly, or of pretending like there is peace when there is no peace. Jesus Christ is interested in the whole man, and this means that His gospel brings peace to the whole man. In contrast to the Pharisees who concern themselves with externals and empty words, Christ starts at the core. Christ conquers from inside out. By addressing the root, the fruit is able to come forth. This is a wisdom from on high that attacks both our doctrinal and our moral laziness. If head and heart are separated in our physical bodies, it brings death, and the same is true for spiritual realities. Charles Spurgeon once said of John Bunyan "Prick him anywhere, and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God." Let us likewise be a people who so internalize the grace and the Word of God that it comes out our fingertips no matter what we're doing. May our thoughts, words, and actions sing in harmony as they reflect glory back to our Saviour.

In today's text we have seen the intrusion of Christ's kingdom into history. Christ is working in the power of the Spirit and is confronting us with a very clear choice. There are only two ways of living. Either, we join Christ's mission of plundering Satan's goods and gathering the remnants of his kingdom into Christ's, or we actively oppose Christ by scattering and wasting. The way we relate to Christ echoes into eternity. Right now counts forever. We either enter into His everlasting rest or we are confined to an eternity of futility where we will toil in agony and never get the least step closer to finding a moment's rest. This is put into sharpest focus when Christ gives a very sober warning about speaking evil against Him even after the Spirit has given enough illumination to see Him as He truly is. Let's remind ourselves daily that we are either gathering goods in to Christ's kingdom, or we are putting these goods to waste by scattering. Let us be a people on joyful and intentional mission, gathering for Christ in all we do, knowing that He is bringing this kingdom to victory, now and into eternity.