The Farmer Plants the Seed
James 5:7
You don’t plant purple hull peas and expect to harvest green beans or plant potatoes and expect to harvest onions. And you can tell what a man has a taste for by looking at the garden he grows (Matthew 7:15; Hosea 8:7). If I liked the fruit grown in most church-gardens then I would sow the kind of seed which produces that kind of fruit. But I love the fruit produced by the gospel of Christ (James: 1:18). I like the seed of "his own will": God ordering all things, making sure the salvation of his people through electing and predestinating grace, working all things after the counsel of his own will. I like the seed of "begat he us”: the Spirit blowing where it will, regenerating dead, impotent sinners, irresistibly drawing his people unto himself in everlasting love. I like the seed of "the Word of Truth"--Christ Jesus the Way, the Truth and the Life in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3). I like the seed of "firstfruits of his creatures": God who is able to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6). But if the farmer unbridles his horse to run wild instead of keeping him tamed to work the ground, then he should not expect the harvest. The believer’s tongue is bridled by grace and is a means of grace only when it is used to set forth Christ (James 3:3, 7-10, 18; 4:11-12; 5:9, 12). Notice how much these works of faith have to do with the tongue and the words we speak. There is "doing" in what we say and how we say it. Note: the core offense in swearing is that it is excess of truth rather than yes when yes and no when no. Taking the Lord's name in vain has a great deal to do with speaking of the Lord in "maybe's" rather than yes, when the truth is yes and no, when the truth is no.
Come back tomorrow for Sunday's bulletin and Sunday for the next article in this series.