Matthew 13:3&9, “3Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. … But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
I am spending more time on the groundwork because it is most necessary and easily neglected in the gospel. If we met already humbled convicted people, there may be little or no need for ground preparation because it is already prepared, under conviction, a repentant heart. All we would do is plant the seeds (give the good news) and expect God to grow them. I have shared my faith many times, rarely did I meet a humble person. Most were very self-righteous like the rich young ruler.
The bible says in Psalm 19:7, “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple”, (NASB). This verse alone primarily tells us that the function of the law is to restore the soul (soil) to it’s validity where it is tender to the things of God and not rebellious. It’s work is not to save but to prepare the ground.
Let’s find out what some men God has used mightily down through the ages had to say about the perfect law as a means of ground preparation, restoring the soul. Paul in Romans 3:19, “Now we know that whatsoever the law says, it says to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God,”. Right now most have God on the stand as the bad one who want to punish them, this verse reverses everything Galatians 3:24, “24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith “.
A. W. Pink, “Just as the world was not ready for the New Testament before it received the Old, just as the Jews were not prepared for the ministry of Christ until John the Baptist had gone before Him with his claimant call to repentance, so the unsaved are in no condition today for the Gospel till the Law be applied to their hearts, for ‘by the Law is the knowledge of sin.’ It is a waste of time to sow seed on ground which has never been ploughed or spaded! To present the vicarious sacrifice of Christ to those whose dominant passion is to take fill of sin, is to give that which is holy to the dogs.“
DL Moody, “It is a great mistake to give a man who has not been convicted of sin certain passages that were never meant for him. The Law is what he needs … Do not offer the consolation of the gospel until he sees and knows he is guilty before God. We must give enough of the Law to take away all self-righteousness. I pity the man who preaches only one side of the truth, always the gospel and never the Law”
Charles Spurgeon, “The law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man’s heart unless you first send the needle of the law to make a way for it”, …They will never accept grace until they tremble before a just and holy law. Therefore the law serves most necessary and blessed purpose and must not be moved from its place”.
George Whitefield, “First, then, before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail, your actual transgressions against the Law of God.“
John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace“, “Ignorance of the nature and design of the Law is at the bottom of most religious mistakes.“
John Wesley, In writing to a young evangelist instructed, “Preach 90 percent law and 10 percent grace.”
John R. Stott, “We cannot come to Christ to be justified until we have first been to Moses, to be condemned. But once we have gone to Moses, and acknowledged our sin, guilt and condemnation, we must not stay there. We must let Moses send us to Christ“
John MacArthur, “God’s grace cannot be faithfully preached to unbelievers until the Law is preached and man’s corrupt nature is exposed. It is impossible for a person to fully realize his need for God’s grace until he sees how terribly he has failed the standards of God’s Law“
Martin Luther, “Satan, the god of all dissension stirs up daily new sects. And last of all which of all others I should never have foreseen or once suspected, he has raised up a sect such as teach that men should not be terrified by the law, but gently exhorted by the preaching of the grace of Christ“
Charles Finney, “Evermore the law must prepare the way for the gospel to overlook this in instructing souls is almost certain to result in false hope, the introduction of a false standard of Christian experience, and to fill the church with false converts” .”The essence of the Law should be unsparingly applied to the conscience until the sinners self-righteousness is annihilated and he stands speechless and self-condemned before a holy God.”
Keith Green,” He must see how the Law of God totally condemns him as a sinner, and then the beauty of the Gospel, the glory of the cross, the marvelous power of Christ’s blood will be able to penetrate his anxious, waiting mind and heart….”
Billy Graham, “The Holy Spirit convicts us…He shows us the ten Commandments; the law is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ. We look at the mirror of the Ten Commandments, and we see ourselves in that mirror”
The law of the Lord magnifies God and prepares man for grace. The right use of the law brings about conviction. It’s the scalpel a surgeon’s assistant (believers) put in the hands of the surgeon (Holy Spirit) to perform a heart surgery in order to take away the heart of stone (rebellion) and give him a heart of flesh (obedience) and then the gospel (God’s pill), good news comes to heal him. That’s why Jesus used it on the rich young ruler and the Samaritan at the well. “…Only by the preaching of the Law can a man fully desire to be saved from his sin” Keith Green. To finish, blessings Ev
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