And He spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a Sower went forth to sow. Matthew 13:3
How many Gospel preachers do you know? Add all those who take their responsibility in speaking in the local Sunday night Gospel meeting of your Assembly, plus all of those you know in denominational places who also preach the Gospel, and you are aware of a goodly number of sowers of the Good Seed. Which one of these is described in the parable that Jesus begins to tell in today’s text? In one way, it could be describing them all. But more accurately, the Sower is none other than the Holy Spirit. He it is Who has motivated and directed all of those who have ever preached a Gospel message, given out a Gospel tract, spoken a word in witness to the unsaved, or in any other way have presented the Gospel message in this world. And His work of sowing the Good Seed continues, and will do so, until this age of grace is terminated.
It is only by the Spirit’s presenting of the Gospel message to the unsaved, and the striving of the Spirit in the hearts of the lost, that any in this world are ever saved. We hear powerful preachers as they stir audiences and know that they are as incapable of saving souls as they are of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand. We need such preachers, because the Holy Spirit can move through them and their words to sow and water the seed and to bring about repentance. The ultimate Sower is always the Holy Spirit.
If we can’t save anybody, and if we can’t speak or preach effectively by ourselves, and if we can’t make any impression other than emotional on an audience by ourselves, where is there room for pride in the heart of the Gospel preacher? How can the tract distributed, or Sunday school teacher, or the testimony teller pat themselves on the back for the effort? Oh, we can surely appreciate the Gospel being well preached. And we should thank those who are able to do so. But their efforts are but a tiny portion of the great effort that God puts into sowing the Good Seed.
How good of God to allow us a small part in sowing the Good Seed! But let us never lose sight of Who the Sower is, nor ever fail to acknowledge that He alone can save a soul. -Jim MacIntosh