Introduction:
If you plant for a year, plant grain.
If you plant for ten years, plant trees.
If you plant for one hundred years, plant men.
If you plant for Eternity, plant The Word.
An old professor of biology used to hold a little brown seed between his fingers. "I know just exactly the composition of this seed, it has nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon. I know the exact proportions of this seed and I can make one just like it, yet if I plant my seed it will come to naught; its elements will simply be absorbed in the soil. But let me plant the seed God made, it will become a plant. Why Because it contains what we call the mysterious life principle. The Bible looks like other books, and we cannot understand altogether its amazing power but planted in good ground it displays the life principle and produces spiritual life". End Quote.
On Sep 21, 1862, Lincoln summoned his Cabinet to the White House for a special session. "The President was reading a book and hardly noticed me as I came in", Secretary of War Stanton wrote later. "Finally he turned to us and said: "Gentlemen, did you ever read anything of Artemus Ward Let me read a chapter that is very funny". Lincoln then read aloud something by humorist Ward entitled "A High Handed Outrage at Utica".
Furious at what he regarded as "buffoonery" on Lincoln's part, Stanton almost got up and left. But Lincoln read on until the end of the piece and then laughed heartily. Everyone else was silent. "Gentlemen", said Lincoln disappointedly, "why don't you laugh With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die, and you need this medicine as much as I do". Then he reached into his tall hat on the table, took out a paper, and said: "I have called you here upon very important business. I have prepared a little paper of much significance. I have said nothing to anyone, but I have made a promise to myself -- and to my Maker. I am now going to fulfil that promise". He read in a clear voice: "On the first of January in the year of our Lord, 1863, all persons then held as slaves in any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, and thenceforth and forever free". Stanton was overwhelmed. He got up, took Lincoln's hand, and said, "Mr. President, if reading a chapter of Artemus Ward is a prelude to such a deed as this, the book should be filed among the archives of the nation and the author canonised!"
At noon on Jan 1, 1863, the final Proclamation was taken to Lincoln. As it lay before him, he twice picked up his pen and then put it down. Turning to Secretary of State Steward, he said, "I have been shaking hands since nine o'clock this morning, and my right arm is almost paralysed. If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the Proclamation, all who examine the document hereafter will say, 'He hesitated.'" He then took up the pen again and slowly and firmly wrote, "Abraham Lincoln".
Some time later Lincoln told Francis B. Carpenter, the artist who painted a picture commemorating the event, that he regarded the Emancipation Proclamation as "the central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century". When Colonel McKaye of New York reported that he had found enormous affection for Lincoln among freedmen on the coast of North Carolina, the President was deeply moved. "It is a momentous thing", he told McKaye, "to be the instrument, under Providence, of the liberation of a race". End quote!
May I say that it is a momentous thing to be God's instrument. We are all, in a sense, God's instrument of liberation. We are and have been appointed by God to take the good news to those who are in bondage to sin and Satan. Understanding the great assignment that has been given to each of us, it would do us well to do some stocktaking of our Sacred Christian Service.
In the passage before us Paul speaks of doing some stocktaking of his life and service for God. Let's examine these two verses and take stock of our own work for God.
This word "account" used by Paul here is a bookkeeping term that means taking stock or taking inventory. It's as though he throws out a challenge to us, "Let a man so account of us". v 1. He indicates, he would be happy for anyone to examine his work for God, to do some spiritual stocktaking. It's good for both heart and soul to have your labour of love for the Lord on open display in order that it may be examined not only in private by yourself but also in public that it may be examined by others. There, of necessity, must be accountability to other people for what I say I am doing for God.
"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith."
The word "examine" means to put something to the test, to scrutinise thoroughly. We should, at least from time to time, take stock of our profession of faith in Christ Jesus and be assured in our own minds and heart that we are what we say we are. Is my salvation based on what the Bible says Does my life display the marks of Biblical belief and repentance
"But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup".
The examination, for which the Apostle calls, is with respect to the Lord's Table. He implores people to examine their hearts and lives to discover anything that would exclude them from the service of remembrance around the Lord's table. That word "examine" speaks of putting to the test for approval. The idea being, when we come to participate in the communion service we are to do so only on the grounds of clean hands and pure hearts. As much as lies within us we are to determine wholeness or cleanness on the outside and on the inside. In other words, only those who are living a consecrated life should engage in the practice of the breaking of bread, such is its importance.
The idea behind such an examination is to keep our consecration up to date.
Paul is speaking of having our dedication examined. If we were to take stock of our dedication how would we score ourselves on a ratio from one to ten, or more to the point, how would others score us out of ten
Someone has correctly said, the church is full of willing people. Those who are willing to work, and those who are willing to let them. If a stock take was made of your life, which category would you fall into
How do you "so account of yourself" How do others "so account of you"
How does God "so account of you"
Having thrown out the challenge for others to stock take his life, he speaks of two areas in which he would welcome the stock take.
a. As a minister of Christ: b. As a steward of the mysteries of God.
These are two words that describe every believer's privilege in the church of Jesus Christ. The words "minister" and "stewards" and both words speak of a slave. During Roman times the Roman Empire was awash with slaves. Almost every household had slaves of one kind or another who were not Romans. They were bound to their masters and must obey him in all things or face some kind of severe punishment or deprivation, loss of reward even.
The word "minister" actually means "under-rower". These slaves were galley slaves who manned the oars on a ship. Their task was to pull on those great hulking oars to propel the ship forward.
Each of us has been assigned the role of under-rower (Huperetes) Hupo, "under", eretes, "a rower", slaves to propel the Ship of Grace forward. To do that effectively it means subordination. We take our commands from the Captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. It involves co-operation, each one pulling together to reach the Master's destination. It also involves participation of all.
The work of God requires under-rowers. Individuals who are willing to put their hands to pulling oar. God's method for the forward movement of His work is to use His own people. Many a church is full of dry rot and it's not because of defective wood, it's because of ineffective people.
Paul reminds us also; he has been appointed steward. A slave like the under-rower but on this occasion he is placed in control of the house or the estate. He is controller and manager of his master's affairs. He has been put in a position of trust; he must therefore show himself a man who can be trusted to be what his master requires of him. He is trusted with the stewardship of the "Mysteries of God" and he is to be a good steward. We read in 1 Peter 4 v 10,
"As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."
God has entrusted us with some spiritual gifts and we are therefore accountable to God for the trust he has placed in us.
While in Canada, I visited one believer who operated a large grain farm. His spread included some twenty-five hundred acres. I asked him how he planted the seed. He reached in a bin and pulled out an ear of corn. Then he proceeded to pop out the kernels one by one as he walked along, demonstrating the planting process. Do you believe that
No, sir! That's not what he said nor is it what he did. He showed me a distributor that was some thirty feet wide. "We take that double tandem truck, fill it with certified seed, back it up to the distributor, open the slots, and pour in the seed". He went on to say, "If you're ever going to be cheap, don't be cheap with the seed".
One bushel of seed invested yields thirty bushels of grain harvested in a good year. Thirty, to one not a bad return if you are ready to believe and willing to invest. God says, "Believe Me, trust Me, try My plan, prove My ways, and see the kind of harvest I will give". So Paul guarantees this principle of truth in the Scripture with the promise, "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8). All grace, all ways, all sufficiency, all things! There are four promises in one breath. Knowing it is one thing, believing it is quite another.
James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 463.
We are tasked to do and trusted to be as ministers and stewards for God and it is only when we do and be what he requires of us he blesses the gifts he has given. Therefore…
"Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful."
There is to be an Excellency about our work that radiates faithfulness.
Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable; however, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. Lord Chesterfield.
We have nothing to do with how much ability we've got, or how little, but with what we do with what we have. The man with great talent is apt to be puffed up, and the man with little [talent] to belittle the little. Poor fools! God gives it, much or little. "Our part is to be faithful", doing the level best with every bit and scrap. And we will be if Jesus' spirit controls. S.D. Gordon in The Bent-Knee Time. Christianity Today, Vol. 32, no. 6.
A. There Must Be Faithfulness To, Work:
"Many Christians are spiritual sprinters--they get involved, serve for a while with all their energy, but then go into spiritual retirement. God is looking for marathon runners--people who will run a long distance."
Dr. John MacArthur: Shepherdology p41.
If God has saved you then he has called you to be faithful to work for Him in the church of Jesus Christ whatever that work may be. And remember your work will be different from mine but we are both called to be faithful in that work.
I do not have the great gift, ability and understanding Dr. MacArthur has. Nevertheless, in my work as a preacher of the gospel there must be, from me, faithfulness to work for God with the equipment He has given me.
God desires all of us be faithful to work while it is yet day for the night cometh when no man can work. To be faithful and use what we have and do what He enables us to do.
B. There Must Be Faithfulness In, Work:
We often hear the phrase; there is great apostasy in the professing church and great apathy in the possessing church. And I am sure that is true! It is so sad to see the many believers who treat God's work like something they can or cannot fit into their diary depending on what else is on in the community. Dear Christian friends, the work of God should be with every one of us, a priority.
If you have a work for the Lord in the church, everything else should take a back seat. Your job in the church should not be something you turn up for only when you feel like it and are not busy doing something else. The work of the Lord should be something you are faithful too and faithful in!
Is your place a small place Tend it with care!-He set you there.
Is your place a large place Guard it with care!-He set you there.
What're your place, it is not yours alone, but his who set you there.
John Oxenham.
Watch, where Jesus went. The one dominant note in his life was to do his Father's will. His is not the way of wisdom or of success, but the way of faithfulness. Oswald Chambers.
Sometimes people will come to our church and attend irregularly. After a period they ask to speak with me, "Pastor, we love the church here and would love to become members". they say. "You do not attend very regularly". I say.
"Well, no, but we do have a great love for your ministry and the church". And when I tell those dear folks that we would need to see some more commitment in attendance of services before embarking on a commitment to membership, they just simply disappear and are never seen again. What they really meant was we would like all the privileges of the church without the responsibilities that go with membership.
Paul, in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12 v 27 says, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular". And continues to highlight for us that God has set each one of us in the church with certain gifts to which we should be faithful. He is reminding us, it is no small thing to be a part of the Church of Jesus Christ and His work and that we should be faithful to work and faithful in work. Beloved, do not take it lightly but attend earnestly to the call of God!
When the Spartans marched into battle they advanced with cheerful songs, willing to fight. But when the Persians entered the conflict, you could hear, as the regiments came on, the crack of the whips by which the officers drove the cowards to the fray. You need not wonder that a few Spartans were more than a match for thousands of Persians, that in fact they were like lions in the midst of sheep. So let it be with the church. Never should she need to be forced to reluctant action, but full of irrepressible life, she should long for conflict against everything which is contrary to God. If we were enthusiastic soldiers of the cross we would be like lions in the midst of herds of enemies, and through God's help nothing would be able to stand against us. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Quotable Spurgeon, (Wheaton: Harold Shaw Publishers, Inc, 1990)
Email Pastor Kenneth Humphries here.