SUMMARY IDEA: A wealthy man overpays for a vineyard sight unseen. When he finally comes to visit and tour his new vineyard, the former owner learns a lot about vines and branches and about producing fruit.

Read John 15:1-8 to get the context.

“The man had overpaid for the vineyard.”

That’s what loomed immovably in Jed’s mind. The man had definitely overpaid for the vineyard. And not just a little. He had overpaid a lot for it. That was an undeniable fact. But the question was, “Why?” He didn’t need to pay that much for this patch of gnarly, barren vines and branches.

Jed and his partners had intentionally not given a list price for the property in the real estate booklet because they were hoping that someone who was a little naïve about vineyards and who was a little too loose with their money might come along and then they could unload the whole thing on them. The pictures on the advertisement were a little dark and slightly out of focus in order to disguise the true state of the rows of spindly vines. The place was not worthless, but a buyer would have to be able to see potential where there wasn’t much evidence of any. Yeah, when they put the vineyard up for sale, they really didn’t have much hope that they would even get a nibble. Everything would have to come together just right. All the stars would need to align, and each person would need to play their part well, and even then, there wasn’t much expectation of success.

And now suddenly it was all over. The offer had come in for almost twice what they hoped for with no special conditions or demands. And neither the owner nor the agent had even seen the vineyard. “The purchase price will be paid in full,” was all the offer letter said.  The closing had been on a Friday afternoon, with the buyer’s agent coming into town shortly before the closing. The papers were signed, the purchase price was paid in full, the transaction was finished, and the agent had left just as suddenly as he had come. And here was the kicker: the man had overpaid for the vineyard. A lot! Now the deed was recorded in the courthouse and could not be contested or reversed. The money was safely deposited in the bank. It was done; closed; finished. But there was still that nagging thought.

“The man had way overpaid for the vineyard.”

Several days after his purchase of the vineyard, the new owner came out to tour the property and to discuss the details of the vines and the branches with Jed, the former owner. Jed was uncomfortable with this part of the sales contract. The new owner had written into the sales agreement that, after the property was sold, he would have time to tour the vineyard with the former owner. Jed thought this was completely pointless. “The deal’s closed. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. Wouldn’t you tour the property before you bought it, not after?” But for the money that the new owner had given for the property, Jed allowed that he was probably entitled to a quick stroll around the vineyard. So, he decided he would do the quick tour and then he would be forever gone from here.

The new owner arrived and smiled broadly as he approached Jed.

“Good morning,” he said. “It is a great day to take a look at my new vineyard. Thank you for taking the time to give me this tour.”

“Yeah, no problem. Seemed a little unusual, but I figured it was probably the least I could do.” He paused as they were strolling toward the first vines of the vineyard. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Certainly, you can ask. What is your question?”

Jed hesitated again, not knowing exactly how to ask his question. “In other words,” he stuttered, “why did you pay so much for this vineyard? Honestly, we couldn’t get much fruit out of this place and a lot of the vines and the branches produced no fruit at all. Why would you pay such a price for this collection of worthless branches?”

Despite the bluntness of Jed’s question, the man continued to smile as he walked through the vines, occasionally pausing to examine a plant more carefully or to pluck off some dead branches. “Jed, I appreciate your question. Do you know the key to having a vineyard that produces much fruit?”

“I guess it’s pretty obvious that I don’t.”

“The key is not in the branches, for all branches are basically the same. If the branches are attached to a poor vine, the branches will produce no fruit. So, the key is not the branches, but the key is the quality of the vine and the skill of the vinedresser. In my vineyard the first thing I will do is introduce a new type of vine. This vine is no ordinary vine. This is my own special vine, one that I have personally brought to my vineyard, and this vine will have branches that produce much fruit. In fact, my experience is that every branch firmly attached to this rich vine will produce fruit year after year, even when the branches are very old. Jed, you had a worthless vine, and you can’t expect any fruit when you have a worthless vine. Truth be told, I may end up just burning a lot of these plants.

“But the other key is the skill of the vinedresser. How would you rate your skill as a vinedresser?”

Jed felt uncomfortable when he said, “I didn’t really think there was much to it. I thought that once you put the things in the ground, the vines and the branches just sort of did their thing and ‘voila!’ out comes the fruit. Now I’m thinking that maybe there’s more to it than that? What do you think?”

“The vineyard that bears much fruit is the vineyard with the richest vine and the most skilled vinedresser. And there are two skills that the master vinedresser possesses: he knows how to determine the health of the branches and he knows how to prune the branches. Once the right vine has been planted and the branches are attached to the vine, the work of the vinedresser begins in earnest. Not all branches bear fruit. So, even though a branch appears to be attached to the vine and appears healthy, it may still not produce fruit. Branches that do not produce fruit are useless and must be removed so that the other branches can produce their fruit. The master vinedresser has the skill to know which branches need to be removed and cast away from the vine.

“But there is a second essential skill of the master vinedresser, and that is the ability to effectively prune the branches. Jed, how often did you prune the branches in your vineyard?”

“Um. Not sure I know exactly what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about pruning the branches so that they bear more fruit. You see, because of the nature of my special vine, every branch that is firmly attached to the vine will certainly produce fruit. And that is good, but that is not my goal. My goal is that the branches in my vineyard bear so much fruit that everyone will know that this is my vineyard. My vineyard will take ordinary branches and turn them into fruit-bearers that amaze everyone who sees. My goal as a vinedresser is that everyone can recognize my vineyard by the amount of fruit produced by the formerly-worthless branches. And to do that, the branches need to be pruned. Now, any vinedresser can hack away at the branches and try to make them produce fruit, but my skill is such that I prune every branch exactly as that branch needs to be pruned so that each branch will produce more fruit.

“So, you see, when I introduce my special vine and then attach each chosen branch firmly to the vine; and when I clear away the dead branches and prune those branches that are producing fruit, my vineyard will be overflowing with rich fruit. This is what happens in my vineyard.

“As you can clearly see, Jed, although I paid a high price , I did not overpay for the vineyard. “

Read John 15:1-8  – “I am the true vine and My Father is the vinedresser.” – Jesus Christ

SDG      rmb      3/27/2019

In this article I am relating an idea that have occurred to me as I muse about evangelism and how we can be effective witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8). I will be basing my thoughts on implications of Matthew 4:19 (“Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”) and Matthew 13:3 (“The sower went out to sow.”), so I will be talking about the Sower and the Fisherman. The Sower is the believer who scatters the seed of the gospel broadly and relatively indiscriminately to raise awareness that there is a God and this God has given us the gospel of salvation. The Fisherman is the believer who engages life on life with an unbeliever and who employs the gospel to bring about repentance and faith.

MARKETING and SALES

In business terms, the Sower might be thought of as the Marketing function of the gospel enterprise, whereas the Fisherman represents the Sales function. In this sense, the Sower attempts to raise awareness that there is a gospel and to advertise its features, whereas the Fisherman engages the identified prospect with the objective of bringing them to salvation. The message of salvation is the same, but the methods and measurements are different.

THE SOWER – THE MARKETING FUNCTION

The Sower is the one who broadcasts the seeds of the gospel everywhere without paying a lot of attention to where the seed is going. Think about the parable of the Sower itself and it is apparent that the Sower is not careful about where the seed goes. Some of it carelessly falls on the road and is lost. Why does the Sower let that happen? Because aiming and targeting the seed is not essential to the task of the Sower. The task of the Sower is to get as much seed as possible out into the field so that some of it would find the good soil. The Sower is about quantity over quality. And this is essentially the ‘marketing’ function (with apologies to those who are very sophisticated in marketing). The gospel Sower is scattering many gospel words and pictures and ideas out into the culture* so that the culture becomes aware of the gospel and remains aware of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (* “Culture” could be the small sphere of one’s influence. While I will probably not change the American culture, perhaps I can change the culture in my group at work or the culture of my neighborhood or my tennis team. Think small as well as large when considering “culture.”) So, the Sower scatters tracts and leaves her Bible on a visible shelf in her office at work. The Sower posts Bible verses on his computer screen or on his bulletin board. Sowers broadcast the seeds of “Jesus words” and “gospel words” in their conversations. Maybe the Sower has a gospel bumper sticker or occasionally wears a t-shirt with a gospel message on it. The Sower talks to the person in the seat beside them on the plane, not just about the weather, but also about the Bible or the gospel or the Lord Jesus. Thus, the Sower is doing the marketing function for the gospel, intentionally scattering gospel seeds all over the place. (What other ways can you think of for scattering the seeds of the gospel?)

As the marketing function of the gospel enterprise, the Sower is not expected to make a huge impact but is accountable for making people aware that there is a gospel that will save them from the Judgment. The Sower is measured on faithfulness in sowing, on consistently emptying their sack of gospel seed into the field. Breadth is preferred over depth. Saturation of the entire area is more important than penetration.

Observe that, in the parable in Matthew 13, the Sower is not critiqued or coached to improve his skill. Even when the Sower wastes perhaps a quarter of his seed on the hard ground, there is no mention of rebuke or correction or need for coaching. Why is this? It is because you do not rebuke someone for doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. The Sower is supposed to be scattering the seed. It is a humbling fact that there are no “master sowers.” All Sowers are basically of equal skill, but this also means that virtually all sowing is successful. If the Sower is intentionally sowing, the Sower is successful.

THE FISHERMAN – THE SALES FUNCTION

In contrast to the Sower, for the Fisherman, the face has come out of the crowd and now there is a name and a journey and there is a person with a story. The fishing function, then, is similar to the Sales function of the gospel enterprise. The proclamation has gone from the nameless many to the familiar few. In the Sales analogy, we now have a prospect. Now instead of broadcasting the features of the gospel generally, the Fisherman is crafting the gospel message for this one person so that the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes their gospel.

The goal of the Fisherman is different from the Sower. When we as believers are “fishing for men,” we are seeking for the person to make a commitment to Christ, to pass from death to life (John 5:24). A conversation with an unbeliever would be considered a success for a Sower, because there resulted a greater awareness of Christ. That same conversation would not be a “success” for a Fisherman, because the goal for the Fisherman is repentance and faith. The Fisherman aims to get the fish in the boat.

The skill level is different between the Sower and the Fisherman. Observe that in real life there are no “sowing contests.” That is because sowing is an unskilled function. But there are fishing contests, because fishing is a skilled activity. Jesus said, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Implied in this is that Jesus will need to teach and instruct His fishermen, that we slowly become better fishermen over time. Fishing skill requires fishing practice.

So, the, the Fisherman has identified and engaged with a real, live person who has expressed some interest in something related to the gospel and the Fisherman is now seeking to explain the things of God and the gospel so that the unbeliever comes to faith in Jesus. The tools of the Fisherman are the Bible, the local church, prayer and his or her own powers of persuasion (2 Cor. 5:11). The Fisherman urges the unbeliever to come to faith, even skillfully begging the unbeliever (2 Cor. 5:20) to avoid the terror of the judgment of God (Ezekiel 33:11).

CONCLUSION

For the believer, there are two broad functions to the evangelism task: the “sowing” function and the “fishing” function. These are similar in some ways to the marketing and sales functions of a business enterprise. When all the members of the local church are broadcasting the seed of the gospel and are winsomely guiding unbelievers around us into the “boat” of salvation, then our joy will increase and the church will grow.

SDG        rmb        3/1/2019

There once was a kingdom that was ruled by a powerful and righteous king. Far and wide the king was renowned for his goodness and all the surrounding kingdoms respected and feared the king because they knew that he was powerful and just. In his kingdom, the king had decreed laws for the people of his kingdom to obey. While the king was known for his kindness and his fairness, he was also known for demanding obedience to his laws from his people. The people knew that he would not compromise on his laws, because he was just. The laws were clear and unambiguous, and each law had a specific punishment for anyone who violated the king’s commands. One of the king’s laws addressed the act of murder. The king’s law about murder stated that anyone who was convicted of murder in his kingdom would be executed by the state. Once convicted of the crime, punishment was certain. The king’s law demanded that all violations of the law be punished as the law prescribed. There were no exceptions. All crimes were punished. PERIOD.

THE VIOLATION OF THE LAW

Now it came about in the course of time that one of the citizens of this kingdom developed a deep affection for murder. Although he knew that the king was a righteous and a just king, and even though he knew about the king’s laws and knew that there was a law that forbade murder, the man continued to think about murder and to consider how satisfying it would be and how much fun it would be to murder people. Eventually what began as a thought became an obsession and then manifested itself in action, and the man gave himself over to the inevitable. He gave in to his desires and began to commit murders.

At first, he was a little shocked by his actions. After all, there was the king’s law to think about and the punishment that the law threatened. If the king was serious about this law and if he really meant to enforce the death penalty that accompanied this crime, then murder could end up having unpleasant consequences. But the man did not expect to get caught or convicted, and he certainly did not think that the king really meant to enforce his law. So probably he could violate the law with impunity. And so, he continued.

But there was another problem, and that was the small voice inside his head that told him that murder was wrong. At first, that voice (call it “conscience”) was rather annoying, but he found that if he ignored the voice and just kept on pursuing his passion, the voice grew fainter and fainter, and by the time he had murdered a dozen people or so, the voice was all but silenced.

The man went on to murder twenty, then twenty-five people, and now the thrill was almost entirely gone from the activity. Then it finally happened. Maybe it was being careless because he was bored or maybe it was something else, but on murder number twenty-seven the man was caught and arrested and charged with murder. As he awaited his trial, the police were hard at work finding more evidence and more bodies and, although they never found all twenty-seven victims, they did find over twenty people who had been murdered by this one man. And so there was reason to have a trial and to seek the death penalty for these violations of the righteous king’s laws.

THE TRIAL

The trial did not go well for the murderer, and this for several reasons, but the most significant reasons were the murderer’s refusal to understand the nature of an absolute law and his inability to understand a just law-giver. At the beginning of the trial, his line of defense was that, in his opinion, murder was not all that bad and certainly did not warrant such drastic measures as the death penalty. In response to this statement, the court pointed out to him that his opinion was without value in these proceedings and that the king of the kingdom, who had absolute and unquestioned authority, had both declared the law and had established its punishment.

For his next point, the murderer offered the idea that, while some of his actions could have been interpreted as violating the law, he deserved some more time to correct his behavior and, in all fairness, he should just get a warning. The court noted that the declaration of the law by the king and the stating of its severe punishment was the warning. The law and its punishment were there to scare a person away from violating the law. The threat of death was meant to prevent violation of the law. But if the warning was ignored and the law was violated, then at that point the warning had been voided and the only just action was punishment.

As the trial wore on, the accused man testified that there were many people that he had considered killing but had not done so. In other words, there were many times that he had actually obeyed the king’s law. Once again, the prosecutor explained to the defendant that the law did not give any reward for obedience. The law demanded absolute obedience, but it did not reward obedience. The purpose of the law was to punish violation. No amount of obedience would offset even the tiniest violation, and all violations would be punished.

The defense then offered the idea that, while the law did specify a certain punishment for the violation of murder, the king had the ability to excuse this little violation and let the man go free. So, what would be the harm if the king just let this man walk free? Once more the prosecution let the accused man know that justice was at stake and that justice would not be compromised. The law was clearly stated, and the punishment was clearly defined. The king had made his decree that his laws would be obeyed or there would be punishment for violation. If there was a violation of his law and then there was no punishment, then justice had been violated and the king was no longer just. Consequently, if there had been a violation, there would certainly be a just punishment.

By the time the defense rested its case, there was little doubt about the outcome. The jury deliberated about 45 minutes (25 minutes of which was spent electing a jury spokesman) and came down with the verdict of “guilty.” The judge passed the sentence of death by execution, exactly according to the law, and the convicted murderer was escorted away to await his demise on death row.

DEATH ROW

But the story does not end there. The man was now a prisoner on death row awaiting his execution, awaiting his punishment for his violation of the law, but his execution did not follow swiftly. Thus, the time between his commission of the crime and his receipt of his just punishment stretched out for three, then four, then five years and still the actual judgment was delayed. During this time of waiting on death row, the man did not commit one single murder, a fact that was not lost on the man or the man’s attorney. In fact, the man’s behavior and general attitude were much improved from the days when he was actively murdering. He was much nicer to the death row guards and was friendlier to his other death row inmates. He kept his cell on death row neat and clean and he said “please” and “thank you” at the dining table. In many outward ways, he appeared to be a changed man and it appeared that the threat of punishment had accomplished its intended result. His time on death row had rehabilitated him and he now really believed that it was not a good idea to murder people. He was pretty sure that, even when he got off death row, he would not murder anyone again. And since he was such a nicer and more respectable person, and since he genuinely felt rehabilitated from his previous self, and since he had already spent five years on death row as punishment for his violations, he decided to write a letter to the king asking him for a pardon and asking the king to let him off for good behavior.

THE APPEAL LETTER

The man’s letter was carefully and skillfully written (his attorney helped him with much of the language of the letter) cataloguing all the ways that the man had changed and become nicer. Not one new behavior was omitted. The man stressed that he used to be a murderer, but he had seen the error of his ways and would now “fly right.” He really felt bad about the murders and wouldn’t do that again. The clincher was that now, after five years of murder-free living, he deserved to be set free. So, he sent the letter to the king.

THE REPLY

The reply from the king came swiftly. “First, I apologize that your execution has been so slow in being carried out. Thank you for bringing our inefficiency to my attention. This will be corrected immediately. Second, the law is unambiguously clear and states that murder is a crime whose punishment is death. You violated the law and you will certainly receive the law’s prescribed punishment. Your execution will be carried out at dawn.”

SDG        rmb        2/4/2019

I am a fireman and I have been a fireman for a long time. It’s all I have ever really wanted to do. Ever since I was about 12 years old, I have wanted to be a fireman and I wanted to save lives and pull people out of burning buildings. Okay, I admit it; I wanted to be a hero, a rescuer, a guy who would risk his life to pull other people out of obvious danger. But is there anything wrong with that? And I was not entirely selfish in this desire to be a rescuer, because I assumed that people who had been rescued from almost certain death would be grateful. I had the impression that people who were trapped in a flaming inferno would be eager, would maybe even be desperate to be rescued, and I desired to be the guy who showed up when there appeared to be no hope and offered them the only way out. So, yes, I admit it; I wanted to be the one who rescued them.

And I know that you people who are not fireman think that everyone is happy to see a fireman when he shows up at the scene of a blazing fire. That’s what I thought, too, before I became a fireman. Everyone thinks that the fireman rides that giant “cherry-picker” up to the 6^th story window and smiles and tells the people inside that the building is on fire. “Yes,” you imagined the fireman saying, “the building is on fire and the fire alarms are clanging, the smoke is getting thick and the flames are getting hot, but there is still a way out. I know it seems hopeless and it seems that you will perish in the flames, but there is still hope. Trust me that I can get you out of this peril. Believe me, that there is no other way. The building is on fire, but I know the way out.” And you imagined that the people inside would smile at the fireman as if he were an angel and, while shouting their undying gratitude and praise, they would leap into the fireman’s saving, strong arms to be whisked away to safety. That’s what all the movies would lead you to believe. The fireman is the hero and the people are ever-grateful to be rescued, right? Well, no; not exactly.

Here is where I was in for a huge disappointment. The reality is that, of the people that I try to rescue, a high percentage do not accept my offer. Sounds kind of strange, doesn’t it? It is a very different scenario from what I had been led to believe. Especially in my early years as a fireman, I couldn’t imagine that people would rather die in the flames than be rescued. After all, I was there to pull them out. Why would they choose to die when the way out was right here in front of them? But over time I came to realize that, instead of being welcomed as a hero, the fireman is most often rejected as an irritation. Even though the peril of the fire is undeniable, it has been my experience as a fireman that a large percentage of people in fires do not welcome the fireman.

Now I am sure that this is very strange news to the ears of most of you. How can this be? Why would intelligent people reject and even ridicule the fireman as he tries to rescue them? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I have heard so many different reasons why people refuse to listen and refuse to act, and I have become so discouraged. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to be a plumber. There would be a lot less rejection and there are some heroics in repairing a toilet.

Here are some of the things that I have heard when I plead with people to escape the fire:

• “Let me think about it and get back to you in a couple of days. Do you have a card?”
• “I don’t believe in fires.”
• “I don’t believe that people die in fires.”
• “You say the building is on fire, but that’s just your opinion.”
• “I am really busy right now; could you come back later?”
• “I used to think like you, but I don’t believe in fireman anymore.”
• “I belong to a different group and we have another way out of burning buildings.”
• “I would let you rescue me, but what would my parents think?”

I still love being a fireman, but, now that I have more experience, I am much more sober and realistic in my expectations. Seems that many people are just bent on their own destruction and most do not really want firemen to invade their lives, even when they are perishing. So, the next time you ride past a fire station and you think about the guys inside, lift up a lament for them, because rescuing perishing people is just not as easy as you would think and it is rare that a fireman is a hero just because he pulls someone from the flames.

SDG        rmb        2/23/2019

In Exodus 6, the LORD finally chooses to act in the face of the defiance of Pharaoh and the groaning of His people. The background is that, when Moses and Aaron go to the Egyptian king, Pharaoh has dared to ask the question, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice?” (Exodus 5:2) For this question, Pharaoh will pay a heavy cost, but initially the LORD ignores his impudence and lets him rage and strut and exercise his authority over Israel. The people complain to Moses that their God appears to be doing nothing but causing them trouble. The LORD does not seem to be acting on their behalf or doing anything to rescue His people. (5:22-23)

But that all changes in chapter 6. “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh (6:1).” The LORD has been patient long enough and now it is time for Him to arise and to put into effect His plan to rescue His people and to ruin the entire kingdom of Pharaoh. NOW the time has come for the LORD to act.

BIBLE STUDY OF THREE VERSES

The LORD begins Exodus 6:6 with the declaration, “I am the LORD.” This is significant because this is an answer to Pharaoh’s fateful question in 5:2, “Who is the LORD?” The LORD will make it abundantly clear who He is as He destroys the nation of Egypt and delivers His people from bondage in Egypt. Pharaoh derisively asks, “Who is the LORD? -> “I am the LORD.” Pharaoh will not be confused ever again about who the LORD is.

But also notice that the declaration, “I am the LORD” forms two bookends to this passage-within-a-passage. Here in these three verse the LORD makes eight promises of what He will do personally or what He will cause to happen by His actions and the LORD precedes these promises with the statement “I am the LORD,” and He punctuates the end of His promises with the statement “I am the LORD.” It is the LORD who will do these things, and the LORD will not remain hidden. He is the great God of all the earth, the God who can fulfill any promise He makes, and He will bring His people out of Egypt and He will destroy the people of Egypt. The LORD is the one who can make promises of salvation and deliverance and victory, and the LORD is the one who will bring them to pass.

THE PROMISES THEMSELVES

• I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians AND
• I will deliver you from slavery to them AND
• I will redeem you with an outstretched hand and with great acts of judgment AND
• I will take you to be My people AND
• I will be your God AND
• You* shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians AND
• I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob AND
• I will give it to you for a possession.

BRIEF COMMENTS ON THE PROMISES

Each promise by itself is almost unbelievable, but to consider that the LORD makes these eight impossible promises in rapid succession is truly impressive. Also note that all of the promises are unconditional. That is, they do not depend on any other event taking place and they do not rely on another person or persons doing anything to allow them. Thus, if these promises do not come to pass and they are not fulfilled, the only one who has failed is the LORD. But the LORD has declared these promises and they will surely come to pass. The LORD needs no help to accomplish His will.

The LORD promises to bring the helpless and weak children of Israel out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, the most powerful nation on earth. In the face of overwhelming opposition, the LORD makes an unconditional promise of relief and deliverance.

The LORD promises to deliver the children of Israel from their slavery to the Egyptians. The only one that they will serve, and, indeed, must serve is YHWH. The LORD is setting them free from slavery to the Egyptians so that they can serve Him and Him only.

The LORD promises to redeem the children of Israel. This redemption is both a buying out of current slavery and a bringing into one’s own possession or into one’s own family. In this redemption, then, by His great power the LORD not only rescued Israel from their misery and slavery, but He also brought them into His own possession. By the way, this is the same “redeem” that is used by Boaz in the book of Ruth. It describes the redemption that comes from the kinsman-redeemer that involves the paying of a price to receive the one redeemed.

The LORD promises to take Israel to be His people. Out of all the nations on the earth the LORD chose Israel and from this point on they are going to be identified as the people of YHWH.

The LORD also promises to be their God. He will be their God not as an idol to be worshiped or as a demon to whom they will offer sacrifice, but He will be their God in the sense that He will be their Savior and their refuge and their hope and the one who will shower them with blessings and who will defend them from their enemies. He will give them His righteous laws and He will expect them to worship Him as the God who is holy and who is worthy of all praise. As their God, He will be the center of their lives.

The LORD promises that the children of Israel will know that it was the LORD who brought them out from the house of Egypt. The implication of this is that, because they have seen the wonders and the power of the LORD, they will be faithful to keep His commandments and they will be His witnesses to the rest of the world about the glory of the LORD.

The LORD promises not only to bring them out of the land of Egypt (see above), but He also promises to bring them into the land that He swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At the time of this promise, the children of Israel were an enslaved nation of almost two million people living hundreds of miles away from the Promised Land under the oppression of the most powerful nation on earth. That even a small number of them would manage just to escape from the land of Egypt seemed wildly optimistic, but the LORD promises that the entire nation will certainly enter the land sworn to the patriarchs.

Finally, the LORD promises that the land will be given to His people as a permanent possession. The LORD will see to it that His people do not merely live in the land for a short time, but they will abide in His land with the LORD as their God and they will enjoy His blessings and His presence.

THE GOSPEL IN THE LORD’S PROMISES

As we examine and review these promises, we begin to see that these promises foreshadow the gospel that will be fully revealed in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that all the promises of the Lord are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Jesus (2 Cor 1:20). In the gospel, as in these promises, the Lord brings those who are helpless and weak out from their slavery to sin and He brings them into His land of promise. The Lord has redeemed us at the price of the death of His Son to bring us into His family as His adopted children. The Lord paid a huge price to redeem us from our condemnation.

In the gospel, we who were not a people have become the very people of God. We were a scattered mongrel race with shameful fathers and with dead idols, and we had no hope and we were without God in this world. But God chose us to be His people and He cleaned us up and He gave us a robe and a ring and a new name, and He is leading us to an eternal home that will be our permanent possession. Virtually every promise made by the LORD in these three verses in Exodus 6 have a direct parallel in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

APPLICATION AND CONCLUSION

Once again, we can see that the Lord has concealed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in another Old Testament passage to give us a foretaste of the glory that will come in Christ. By studying these passages, we will begin to comprehend the power of God’s plan of redemption and to easily recognize that Jesus is the Christ and so have life in His name.

SDG        rmb        2/16/2019

One of the great delights of Scripture reading is finding the gospel hidden in a passage that you have read many times before. There suddenly in a familiar passage the LORD pulls back the curtain and reveals that here, yes, here is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Most recently I had this experience while reading through the prophet Jeremiah. Amidst the chapters which catalogue the sins of the nation of Judah and that warn of the LORD’s coming judgment, the prophet has numerous interchanges with priests and with kings, with court officials and with commoners that display the subtle spectrum of human sin and emotion and show man’s fear and fallenness. The king with whom Jeremiah talks the most is king Zedekiah, the final king to sit on the throne of David and the king who was ruling when Nebuchadnezzar besieged and eventually destroyed Jerusalem. It is the interchange between the prophet and the king in Jeremiah 38:17-23 that I want to explore.

BACKGROUND

The LORD has been speaking through Jeremiah and warning the nation of Judah and their wicked kings that the LORD’s patience has been exhausted and now the LORD is bringing judgment on the city and the nation through the Chaldeans. Judah’s litany of sins is both disgusting and overwhelming and God has passed sentence: judgment is certain. The Chaldeans will fight against the city and they will take it and burn it with fire and will make the nation of Judah a desolation (34:22). Again, the LORD speaks through Jeremiah and says, “The Chaldeans will return and will fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire (37:8).” The LORD goes on to say that even if there were only wounded men in their tents, “they would rise up and burn this city with fire (37:10).” Unrepentant and ongoing sin has brought its deserved recompense and the justice of God is bringing judgment.

But even now, at this late stage of the game, when the sins of the people are as high as Mount Hermon and when they have ignored the warnings of the prophets and have continued to run headlong after their sinful pursuits, even now the LORD extends an offer of mercy. In the face of unashamed rebellion, the LORD makes yet another overture of grace.

THE FIRST OFFER

“Thus, says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you will surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life will be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city shall be given into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand (Jeremiah 38:17-18).’”

The choice is clear as crystal: surrender to the LORD’s appointed king and you will live, and the city shall not be burned with fire or refuse to surrender, and you will perish and the city will be burned. The disaster awaiting Zedekiah was evident. Nebuchadnezzar and his army were besieging the city and there was no possibility of escape. Zedekiah’s doom is certain. There is no hope for reprieve. And when things are looking blackest, through His prophet the LORD declares a way of deliverance. It is pure grace.

A FOOLISH REFUSAL

What does the one doomed to destruction do in response to this amazing news? Does he thank the LORD for His mercy and run into the arms of his rescuers? No! On the contrary, Zedekiah offers a pathetic excuse for why he will not go. In the face of certain destruction, the king refuses the LORD’s mercy because of some imagined humiliation. “Why will you die?” Why do men refuse the LORD’s offer of salvation on the frailest of pretenses?

THE PERSISTENT PLEA

Undeterred, Jeremiah pleads with the king “to obey the LORD in what I am saying to you that it may go well with you and you may live (38:20).” (Note well that Jeremiah was now pleading with the king who had just days before thrown the prophet into the bottom a cistern to die. Surely Jeremiah is a model for us all of one who carries out the task of the evangelist despite all human reasons not to do so.)

Jeremiah has twice told the king the way of salvation and has urged him to receive the refuge and rescue the LORD is offering him. It is not a difficult path to salvation, but he must trust the LORD that when he goes out to Nebuchadnezzar, he will be safe. He knows the way of salvation and he knows that this is his only chance. But what if he just stays here?

THE CONSEQUENCES OF REFUSAL

“But if you keep refusing to go out . . . they will also bring out all your wives and your sons to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape from their hand . . . and this city will be burned with fire (38:21, 23).” The LORD had warned the king repeatedly that judgment was certainly and swiftly coming upon him and yet when a gracious rescue is offered, Zedekiah refuses the LORD’s salvation and thus perishes.

THE GOSPEL IS FORESHADOWED

Why do I call this the gospel to Zedekiah? Zedekiah is facing certain destruction and he has no plan and no reason to hope. His doom appears sealed. But Jeremiah comes to him with a message from the LORD about a way of escape and if Zedekiah will but trust the LORD and take the way of salvation, he will live. But if he refuses to take the only way of salvation, he will perish, and the land will be burned with fire. He has a choice to make between life and death, but he must choose life.

And the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ comes to those who are facing death and are facing the Lord’s eternal judgment and who have no plan of escape and who have no reason to hope for a rescue. They deserve the Lord’s wrath. Hell appears to be their certain destiny. But then an evangelist, a Christian comes to them with a message of salvation from the Lord about a way of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ has lived the perfect life they could not live and has died the atoning death that they deserved and has risen victorious from the grave to prove He is the Son of God so that all who believe in Him will have eternal life and will spend eternity in heaven. But if they do not believe in the Lord Jesus, they will surely perish, and they will spend eternity in the unquenchable fire. And so, the evangelist urges the perishing to save themselves from certain death (Acts 2:41) and to believe in the Lord Jesus (Acts 16:31).

Have you ever placed your faith in Jesus? Have you taken the way of salvation or will you, instead, perish with the wicked? Do not be like Zedekiah! Rather, run to the Savior and live!

SDG        rmb        2/12/2019

Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus the Pharisee in the third charter of John is among the most well-known passages in the Bible. Here in these verses we find out the one must be born again, that the Holy Spirit goes where He wishes, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son and that men love darkness rather than light. In addition to the immense theological truths that are taught by the Lord Jesus here, I believe there are also lessons to be learned from Jesus about how to share the gospel with those who do not yet believe. I think we can learn evangelism from Jesus from this passage. In this article I want to bring out what the Lord is teaching me about evangelism in this encounter.

First, Jesus makes a statement that is both unexpected and highly unusual, and it causes Nicodemus to ask a question that engages him in a gospel conversation with Jesus. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (3:3).” Nicodemus has never heard anything like this from any other rabbi and it takes him almost by surprise. It arrests his attention and causes him to almost spontaneously ask for more information. “What do you mean ‘born again’?” The statement by our Lord demands an explanation or provokes a response, and this is where the lesson begins for me and you. The Master demonstrates a skill for us that we can emulate and learn. APPLICATION (ACTION): The skilled evangelist has learned the art of asking questions or making statements that provoke engagement and that create curiosity which demands an explanation. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, so Nicodemus had to find out what “born again” meant. So, Jesus’ statements not only arrested his attention, but they also opened the door for a gospel conversation. I want to develop a battery of planned questions or statements that are provocative (in the right sense of the word) and that lead to the gospel. The skill, then, is to develop these planned questions and statements and then plan how to lead the conversation to the gospel. Jesus does it masterfully, but we can also do this kind of thing effectively.

Second, notice how Jesus takes the initiative and leads the conversation where He wants it to go. Yes, He is the Lord of glory and He knows what is in a man (John 2:24) and we cannot discern those kinds of things in ourselves, but what we can do is engage in evangelism with an ATTITUDE of confident BOLDNESS. We can be confident that the Lord has called us to this activity (Acts 1:8, etc.). We can be confident that the Lord has called us to this task (Isaiah 43:10, 12; etc.). We know that the Lord is drawing His people to Himself (John 6:44), so we can speak the gospel with boldness. And we know that we are not to be those who shrink back (Hebrews 10:39), so we present the gospel whether the other person is open or not. (2 Timothy 4:2; 1 Thess. 2:3; Acts 1:8; Acts 4:27) So, we must be committed to declare the gospel with boldness, but we also must be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Third, as we watch Jesus engage in this conversation with Nicodemus, we see that Jesus moves relentlessly toward the gospel. While it may appear that at times He is just passing the time of day, Jesus is always asking questions and making statements that directly or indirectly declare the gospel. He moves irresistibly and relentlessly toward the gospel. In every encounter, Jesus’ target is the gospel. He is intent on declaring the glory of God and bent on bringing men from darkness to light. His words are not randomly chosen to tickle the ears, but they are sharp arrows meant to pierce to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow. He is presenting a holy God to a sinful person with the goal of laying bare their unrighteousness so that they will bow the knee. In this, the Lord Jesus is the perfect example, and while we can never emulate His perfect presentation of the gospel, we can emulate His intentionality and sobriety. As Jesus is intentional and serious, so we are to be intentional and serious as we, with the empowering of the Holy Spirit, move conversations toward the cross and plead with men and women to be saved from this perverse generation.

SDG        rmb        1/25/2019

Back on June 22 of 2018 I had published the first of a series of articles on “Proclaiming Christ in a Deaf World,” and that first article was on the Sower from Matthew 13:3. As I have reflected on the theme of the Sower since then, it has occurred to me how many verses in the Bible relate to agricultural subjects and pictures. Many of these verses teach the disciples of Jesus how to communicate Christ to any culture. That is, there are embedded in these verses principles for how to present Christ to a culture like ours, that generally ignores Him. I wanted to cover some of those verses now with a few brief comments on each. I had started this list of verses a few days ago, but there are several more that I will add now.

(Again, these are in no particular order but appear as they occurred to me.)

Matthew 20 and the parable of the vineyard is a story in which the master of the vineyard calls laborers from the marketplace into his vineyard to work it. In just this manner, the Lord of glory has called you and me out of the vast, unsaved marketplace of the world and has sent us to labor in His vineyard, and He expects us to bring a return. We were standing idle in the marketplace and spending our lives in useless ventures (Titus 3:3), no matter how noble we thought those ventures were, and the Lord called us to be eternally useful for Him in His kingdom labor.

In Matthew 25, the Lord Jesus tells the parable of the talents, where the master of the field goes away on a long journey and then returns. The point of this parable is that we are to be faithful laborers in the Lord’s field, and we are to invest our time and our “talents” to bring a return for the Lord with whatever He has entrusted to us, whether big or small. The critical question thus becomes, “What does it look like in practical terms for me to be a ‘faithful’ sower?” To receive the commendation from the Master, I believe we need to sow intentionally and persistently and regularly. Then we will hear the Master say, “Well done.”

In Mark 4, our Lord tells another parable: “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the ground; and he goes to bed by night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts up and grows – how, he does not know (4:26-27).” The message of this parable is that, if we do our part, which is scattering the seed, then the Lord will do His part, which is causing the seed to grow. If we as sowers scatter the seed, the Lord can cause some of it to grow, but if there is no seed sown, then the Lord cannot cause the seed to grow. If there is no seed, then there is no harvest. The Lord knows the mysteries of seed growth, but He has entrusted the scattering of the seed to us. Will we be faithful to scatter the seed?

Paul says something similar in 1 Corinthians 3, when he writes, “I planted; Apollos watered, but it was God who was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth (3:6-7).” We are responsible to take the God-given gospel seed and plant it and water it, but we are not responsible to make it grow, because we are not able to make anything grow. We can plant and water, and therefore we are responsible for those activities, but growth requires divine power. But woe to us if we do not do the things the Lord has commanded us to do. We are commanded to scatter the seed and leave the growth to God. Are you scattering seed?

Ecclesiastes says much the same thing when Solomon writes about the life used by God using agricultural terms: “Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight (11:2).” Scatter a lot of seed in multiple fields, because you do not know which one will sprout. “He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap (11:4).” Concentrate on your task of sowing and do not become distracted or procrastinated. Life is short and the time to sow and reap is brief. So, get after it! “Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good (11:6).” Do not count on one strategy to succeed so that you ‘put all your eggs in one basket.’ If you assume your single strategy will certainly succeed and then nothing results of it instead, then the sum of your results is nothing. Rather, humbly expect that even your best plan may not succeed, so employ multiple channels and backup plans, so that you will have many potential avenues of success

In these passages, God is not giving us strategies to make money in the stock market or even advice about being a successful farmer. God is giving instruction and principles to His children about how to spread the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us take these ideas and put them to use in the greatest harvest of all.

SDG        rmb        1/21/2019

Back on June 22 of 2018 I had published the first of a series of articles on “Proclaiming Christ in a Deaf World,” and that first article was on the Sower from Matthew 13:3. As I have reflected on the theme of the Sower since then, it has occurred to me how many verses in the Bible relate to agricultural subjects and pictures. Many of these verses teach the disciples of Jesus how to communicate Christ to any culture. That is, there are embedded in these verses principles for how to present Christ to a culture like ours, that generally ignores Him. I wanted to cover some of those verses now with a few brief comments on each. This will serve as an addendum to the June 22 article of the Sower.

(These are in no particular order but appear as they occurred to me.)

Luke 16:10-11 – “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.” The act of sowing the gospel seed persistently and patiently over the long term is an act of faithfulness. It is not glamorous, but sowing the gospel is necessary if we are to gather in a harvest of souls. People cannot believe in what they do not know or understand (Romans 10:14-15), and sowing is the ministry that spreads knowledge of Christ and raises awareness of salvation. The disciple of Jesus, then, is to be faithful in scattering the seed of the gospel.

2 Corinthians 9:6 – “He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.” This is a principle that is both logical and observable. If you want a big harvest, you must scatter a lot of seed. If you want to reap a big harvest of souls, then you must talk about the gospel a lot. How are you sowing? Are you sowing infrequently and sparingly? If so, then why would you ever expect to reap bountifully? While there are many ways to effectively sow the gospel seed, the essence of sowing is to do it persistently and scatter a lot of seed all the time. No strategy of sowing and no theory of sowing will be more critical to the task of sowing than the simple idea that sowing more means you will reap more.

Galatians 6:7, 9 – “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” “. . . in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” This is not the primary application of this verse, but I would say that, if we are faithful to sow the gospel seed, then in due time (in the Lord’s time) we will reap a harvest of eternal life.

Genesis 2:15; 2 Samuel 23:12 – When the LORD God had made the man, He placed him in the garden “to cultivate it and to keep it.” Shammah “took his stand in the midst of the plot (field of lentils) and defended it (against the Philistines) and the LORD brought about a great victory.” The point here is that the LORD has given to each one of us a plot of ground to cultivate and to defend. This “plot” is the circumstances of our life, including the people and the places and the events of our lives. The LORD expects us to take our stand there and to proclaim His holy name in the midst of that plot.

There will be some more ideas in “The Sower – additional thoughts Part B,” Which I hope to have out in the next few days.

SDG         rmb         1/18/2019

Some men from my church have begun a study of the gospel of John and right now we are reading through and then meditating on the so-called Prologue of the gospel, John 1:1-18. This passage presents many of the themes that the evangelist will develop throughout the gospel account, themes that clearly display the Lord Jesus Christ as the unique Son of the living God and as the promised Messiah. The sad reality of our modern age, however, is that most people consider Jesus to be a “good man” or a wise teacher, but they certainly do not seriously entertain the notion that He is God in human flesh. So how would I respond to someone who told me that Jesus was merely a good man or a wise teacher?

“To accept your assessment of Jesus Christ as merely a good man or as a wise teacher, I would need to reject and disbelieve almost everything written in this prologue, and I would reject it all for no reason. To review some of the verses in the passage, verses 1-2 present Jesus as “the Word” and clearly claim that He is God. Verse 3 says He made the world and verse 4 declares Jesus to be the source of light and the source of life. Verse 14 says that He became flesh and lived on this earth and fully displayed God’s glory. Verse 18 declares that Jesus made the invisible God visible. All of these statements are written by an eyewitness to Jesus’ life. This eyewitness lived with Jesus day in and day out for three years and watched Him closely. John the eyewitness is relating fact, he is not inventing fiction. But if this is fiction, why would John write this fiction? Why would John now, 50 or 60 years after Jesus is dead and buried, invent a larger-than-life legend about a man who claimed to be God in human flesh? And if Jesus was just a mere man, where is the evidence that He was merely a good man or a wise teacher? That is, where is the eyewitness account that relates to us the life of a Jesus of Nazareth who performed no miracles, who was not virgin-born, who did not die on a Roman cross and who did not rise from the dead? Where is the account of Jesus’ life that tells us of His goodness, but stops short of declaring His sinlessness; that tells of His wisdom and power, but makes no claims of deity? In word and in fulfilled prophecy and in deed, Jesus is displayed as God in human flesh. Why would anyone believe otherwise?”

SDG          rmb          1/6/2019