"SOWN AMONG THE THORNS"

“SOWN AMONG THE THORNS”

It is a trial to every earnest soul, the little effect an accepted truth has on him, the little fruit produced by it. And not only this, but every servant of God, really careful about souls, is often disappointed at the little progress of those who have received the word. The Lord in the parable of the sower presents to us the various things which hinder the full effects of the truth; and the one nearest to the right condition discloses and describes how a truth, though received, may become unfruitful. “And others are they who are sown among the thorns: these are they who have heard the word, and the cares of life, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, entering in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful”, Mark 4: 18, 19. Here plainly the word has been heard; it was neither on the way-side, nor on a rock; but other influences were allowed to act, and they choked the word, and it became unfruitful. The simple question raised is this: is the word to exert control and influence over us, or are other things, which are connected with our nature, to have the mastery? If these latter are allowed to rule, the word is choked, there is no fruit; that is, there is no effect produced by the word. The point must be settled, whether the word is to rule me, or whether I am to be ruled by the circumstances which affect and interest me as a man.

The moment I receive a word from the Lord, I am bound to let it govern me, because it is His word; but if, instead of this, I am carried away by cares, riches or pleasure, it is evident the word has no hold on me, and there can be no fruit. How often does one, either in reading or hearing, accept the word of the Lord, and yet find afterwards that it has not produced any effect! And why? Because other things were allowed to rule, or monopolise the place of the word, and hence there could not be fruit. Fruit is the effect produced ^[p. 125] by the distinct action and control of the word. The word has been accepted, but it has not been understood. It has not been received as the word of God, which effectually works in them that believe. There is too ready an acceptance of it, not that in one sense the acceptance can be too ready; but it is not received sufficiently with the sense that it is God’s word to one’s own soul. The mere receiving of the word as a statement of truth is never effectual, it must be mixed with faith; my soul must be under the conviction that it is addressed to me by the Lord Himself as His will and counsel, authoritatively declared to me, claiming to order and direct me, and to which I am required to yield unqualified submission. It is not informing me what I might do, but what God requires me to do, and which I am able to do the moment I accept the word as His. It is, alas! quite possible, without any intended opposition to the Lord, to accept truth as information, something to enlarge one’s mind, and not something which didactically claims implicit obedience, because coming from God.

The word must lead, or the thorns will choke it; that is, it must hold the first place. To God’s claim and direction all must bow. If other things are allowed to take the lead, then faith has waned; the sense of God’s paramount claim has been supplanted, and there is no true effect from the word. The information may remain, but there is not the accuracy, even in the information, which practice alone ensures. Practice leads one in a wonderful way into accuracy of idea and power of expression about the truth. If the truth be understood in its bearing and claim, it holds the first place. The heart is honest and true, and the fruit is brought to perfection. But when other things are allowed to take the lead, like thorns in a cornfield, the corn is spoiled. So long as the corn keeps ahead of the thorns, there is, at least, some fruit — grace — brought to perfection. We are called to be “doers of the word,

^[p. 126] and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straight-way forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed”, James 1: 22 - 25.

The point is that there must be action in keeping with the instruction conveyed by the word. If you abide in the word, there will be action, and therefore blessing; but if you go your way, after hearing, you have only seen your face in a glass; you have not altered anything in keeping with the word; the word has not exerted any influence over you. You go your way, and other things lead and govern you, and not the word of God. Alas! we have in ourselves, and around, evidence of this every day. For example, one accepts the coming of the Lord as revealed in Scripture, but the same man goes on as usual, toiling for the future, occupied with hopes and fears. Surely that truth, accepted though it be, does not govern him; it does not influence or control his conduct, it is distinctly unfruitful. If, on the other hand, the truth were received in faith, it would alter every natural taste and pursuit, and would support one in the power of itself as of God; but when it is not so the very blessedness of the truth itself is lost and unknown, because it is in the doing that the blessing is secured. It is not the extent in knowledge of the truth, but if the truth does not lead, something of nature comes in to set it aside; and in some way or other the truth is limited or qualified. If one is not transformed by the renewing of the mind (Romans 12: 2), there will be no power to “prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”.

It is sad and fearful how small a thing, when allowed to take the lead in one’s mind, will choke the accepted ^[p. 127] truth, and it is chiefly the cares of this life which are the thorns; indeed they head the list, for it is that for which every one makes a ready and plausible excuse that we most need to be on our guard against. Abraham’s father delays his entrance into Canaan, but it is the famine — the cares of this life — which, taking the lead in his mind, causes him to leave Canaan for Egypt. How easily might he plead his duty, and the needs of his family for this step The simple fact was that the cares — the thorns — ruled him, and choked for a season the word of the Lord in his soul. Lot might have pleaded the same excuse for his more aggravated course, when he chose the well-watered plain. His desire to do well for himself and his family choked the word, O how grievously! and it brought forth no fruit to perfection. After the same manner, Jacob settles at Shalem; Genesis 33. He does not deliberately intend to decline from the word of the Lord; but care for the present, care for his family, rules for the moment, and the power of the word is lost to him — he misses the blessing of the “doer”. Saints are ready enough to allow that riches and pleasures choke the word, but they too often forget that the cares which they so readily excuse are the worst and most prejudicial of thorns, and that occupation with them is one of the great evidences that we are not walking here with a single eye. In Luke 11: 34 we see that the effect of a single eye is that the whole body is full of light; and in chapter 12 there is no fear of those who kill the body, no thought for what we shall eat or what we shall drink; neither is there a doubtful mind.

When I begin to think of myself as Mark did at Perga (Acts 13: 13) then the word has lost its power, and I am disqualified and out of course, because another thing sways me, and not the word of the Lord; see Acts 15: 38. Satan’s object is to distract, and this he can do more effectually through things right in their place, such as care and provision for one’s family, than ^[p. 128] through things in any degree exceptionable. Hence the Scripture says, “Be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”, Hebrews 13: 5. Many true servants of the Lord, like the seven in John 21, have gone a fishing because they have lost the Lord’s presence; whereas if He had been present they would have been in subjection to His word, into which He subsequently leads them, having first made two things clear to them; one, that with all their toiling they had not bettered their circumstances; and the other, that He had made provision for them. The fire was on the shore, and the bread and fish laid thereon. I do not for a moment adduce this to give sanction for idleness, or the abandonment of one’s natural calling or business; I believe working with one’s hands is often the most blessed help to the servant in many ways. But I adduce it to show that even apostles may, through earthly considerations, lose the rule and guidance of God’s word, and forego the higher claims of Christ’s service, while cares pre-occupy them. I believe that if one, truly and from the Lord, accepted the end of the first man in judgment, in the cross of Him who is now glorified in heaven, that one could not but, as called of Him, be for Him here, as united to Him where He is, and hence glad to steer as clear as possible of the distractions of the scene, happy to take the lowest place in poverty, if need be, so that His interests might fully and entirely occupy one.

I can make no excuse for cares taking the place of the word of Christ in the soul. If a man have a family, he is bound to provide for them food and raiment; and if he has not means he must work for it, if not called of the Lord to give himself exclusively to His service. If he be, the Lord will surely take good care of him and of his family. But if it be to better his small means or to advance his family, then, according to the grace given and the trust reposed in him, so will there ^[p. 129] be with him, like David in Ziklag, bitter sorrow and disappointment, and no success in the thing desired. All turns on the word and light conferred; and if it be not effectual, it is because of thorns; but when the word rules, the heart will rejoice in the Lord, and the “doer” of it be consciously blessed in his deed.