There is a physical harvest. There is a spiritual harvest.
Can we expect a spiritual harvest in this generation? Or Must we give up
hope and turn our backs to the wall? Ours is a time when nothing can be
taken for granted. Many people are entirely dismissive of the whole idea
that there is a God to whom we ought to offer our praise and
thanksgiving. If ever there was a time for Christians to stand up and be
counted as those who belong to Christ, this is it. If Christians remain
silent, if Christians are ashamed of their Lord and Saviour, there will
be a harvest, but it won’t be a godly harvest. It will be a harvest of
unrighteousness.
What is happening in our time? –
It’s the same thing that’s happened so many times before. It’s the same
old story, a story which can be read in the pages of both the Old
Testament and the New Testament. There is a great turning away from the
truth. People only listen to what they want to hear. Everyone does what
is right in his own eyes. Can this situation be turned around? It will
not be easy, but we must not be discouraged. Our God is the living God.
He is unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable in His love for us. He is
mindful of us. We matter to Him. He is the God who forgives sin. He is
the God who delights to show mercy. He is the God who longs to reveal
His compassion to a generation that needs Him so much, but doesn’t know
it.
To understand the character of God, we need
to go back to Genesis 1. God is our Creator. He created us because He
loves us. To understand the state of the world today, we need to go back
to Genesis 3. There, the choice is made – my will rather than God’s
will, “I did it my way” rather than “Let go and let God have His
wonderful way.” This what produces a harvest of unrighteousness.
Reversing this trend will not be easy, but we must not lose hope. We
must learn to say, with the Psalmist, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is
Thy Name in all the earth” (Psalm 8:1, 9). Unless God’s people are
deeply committed to praising Him, we cannot even begin to hope for a
real spiritual harvest in this generation.
Our attitude towards God should be a combination of two qualities which are often set against each other. They are fear and joy.
There is to be the fear of the Lord. There is to be the joy of the
Lord. We must never forget that God is our Creator, and we are His
creatures. We must never forget that He is holy, and we have fallen far
short of His holiness. We are “less than God” (Psalm 8:5). We must never
forget this. We dare not take things into our own hands and try to
“play God.” There needs to be the fear of the Lord. Without this, there
will never be a harvest of righteousness.We must never forget that God
loves us. He is the God of love, grace and mercy. The Psalmist tells us
that this God, the God of love, grace and mercy, “crowns us with glory
and honour” (Psalm 8:5). We must learn to rejoice in the Lord our God,
the God of our salvation. There will only be a harvest of salvation
where God’s peole are learning to rejoice in Him and give thanks for His
salvation.
The Psalmist speaks about nature – the “heavens … the moon and the stars” (Psalm 8:3). He speaks also about dominion
– “God has put all things under our feet.” In our generation,
understanding of nature has increased enormously. Read scientific books.
They are so much more sophisticated than books which were written even
one generation ago. Our power to control our world has never been
greater. We can do so much more than was even thought possible a
generation ago. What has been going on in recent years? Some would say,
“Progress, progress, progress, almost unlimited progress.” We must,
however, be awkward and ask, “Is this the whole story? Has it been
nothing but progress?” The honest answer must be, “Yes. There has been
progress, but all is not well.” The world has become a very man-centred
place. Many people have forgotten God. He has been left behind. So many
have no time for Him. What must we do to stop our society going down the
drain? What must we do to stop our society going to the dogs? We must
give to God the place of highest honour.
The
world has its idea of what it means to be wise. The Bible says, “The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). If we are
to use the fruits of our physical harvest, the results of our scientific
and technological progress, in a way that leads to a truly spiritual
harvest, we must not forget God. We forget God at our peril. We lose
sight of God, and we lose sight of all that is really important in life.
We lose sight of God, and we lose sight of all that is truly wholesome.
Putting God at the centre of our life – personal life, life in the
family, life in the Church, life in society – , this is the way to a
spiritual harvest which brings glory and praise to God. If, in today’s
world, we are to enjoy a spiritual harvest which will be both satisfying
to ourselves and glorifying to God, there are two things we must do. We
must confess our sins. We must trust Christ for salvation. We look at
our human situation – personally, locally, nationally and
internationally – , and we say, “Apart from God, our situation is
hopeless. Without Him, it will be nothing else but the downward slope.”
We look then to the Cross of Christ, and we see that there is hope. If
the Cross of Christ teaches us anything, it teaches us this, “No
situation is too hopeless for the grace of God. However hopeless our
situation may seem, it can be changed by the power and love of God.”
There can still be a spiritual harvest, even in our difficult and
distressing times, but it will not come unless we put Christ at the
centre of our lives.
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