God the Author of an Effectual Ministry
1 Corinthians, iii. y.
So theniy neither is he that planteth dny thing, neither he that icatereth: hut God that giveth the increase.
THERE was a spirit of division in the church of Corinth. The people contended for the preference of the several ministers of the gospel, and ranged themselves into distinct parties, under the names of Paul and Apollos. Blessed be God that it is not so among you; and it has been matter of pleasure and support to me, under my long
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weakness and affliction, that there has been such a zeal for peace, and such an entire eoncord and unanimity in this church of Christ.
But there are many very valuable lessons to be learnt from the propositions which I have now read to you, besides those that relate to the reconciliation of controversies. The apostle, in a very humble and obliging manner, attempts to heal the divisions of the church of Corinth, by saying thus unto them; “Make not Paul nor Apollos matter of “your contention. Let not the names of ^’ your ministers be the occasion of strife “and quarrel among yon. We are not “worth so much striving for, for we are ‘^ nothing. He that planteth is nothings ‘^’ and he that watereth is nothings but God” that giveth the increase J^
To render these words useful, I shall foU low this method;
I. Explain the metaphors the apostle here uses.
II. Shew in what sense he that plants and he that waters are said to be nothing.
III. Make the truth of this proposition evident from some plain experiences; and,
IV. With a word of caution, make an ap» plication of the whole, as far as my strength and the present season will permit me.
I. I am to explain the metaphors that are here made use of. What is he that jJlanteth P what he that watereth P what is the meaning of giving the increase P
As the church of God is often compared in the holy Scriptures to a garden, and the word of God to seed, so the ministers of the gospel, who are employed to manage the seed of the word, in order that it may spring up and bring forth fruit, are said to plant and water it. He that planteth then, is he that gives the first knowledge of divine and saving truths to the carnal and ungodly; he that teaches the first principles of the ora
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cles of God to those that knew them not; he that preaches the law for the conviction of the sinner, the terrors of the law to bring men to despair in themselves, that they may seek salvation in another; he that cuts them off from the old stock of nature, that they may be grafted into the stock of grace; he that is so happy as to be the first messenger of Jesus Christ, the physician to dying souls; that reveals Jesus the Lord as an all-sufficient Saviour, to those that are perishing in sin; he that first discovers his personal excellency, his mediatorial glory, to those that are afar off from him, and yet stand in the utmost need of him; he that leads the convinced sinner first to trust in this Saviour, and to put his soul into the hands of this mediator, in order to obtain peace, and pardon, and eternal life; this is he who is said in my text to plant.
He that watereth is the minister by whose doctrine the edification and comfort of converted souls is promoted; he that carries on the work which the former had begun, by repeating the same truths in another way, to confirm and strengthen the young christian in his faith and hope, or by proceeding onwards to the more glorious discovery of Christ, to lead the believer to the joy of faith; he that reveals more of heaven, to awaken and enlarge their delightful expectations, and to raise them far above this world, even as the person that begun the first work, unrooted them from the earth; he that now teaches particular duties, and instructs them how to mortify particular sins, and thus fulfils that great work which was begun by the first builder. In a word, he that does any thing or every thing in the office of a minister towards the conversion of a sinner, is called a planter; and he that does any thing or every thing in the same ministerial office towards the growth of a believer, to his relief or comfort, is said to water.
The third metaphor in the text is, It is God that giveth the increase, 134 God the ^lutJior Serm. V.
The seed of a plant or a tree is but a small tiling in comparison with the tree itself. Whence comes that vast and amazing increase, then, that we commonly find? A little seed is cast into the ground, and becomes a tree, and swells and advances to ten thousand times its own bulk. It is from the influence of heaven that the seed is quickened in a natural garden of earth; it is the influence of the sun in the heavens that makes the seed take root and spring up into branches, bring forth leaves, and blossoms, and fruit to perfection. S^) in the garden of our souls. It is the seed of the word that must be thrown in, for that is the spring of all growth. AYhen it is thus planted and thus watered by the additional instructions of men, it is God alone that makes all their labour successful, by his almighty and secret influences; it is he that makes the seed take root in the heart. The seed of the word, when it is spread abroad over a whole congregation, would be as chafl blown over a field by a strong wind, that lights no where, or is presently scattered and blown off again unless the Lord makes it take root. And many of us have been too often sensible of those unhappy influences, that the wind of temptation and the vanities of this world have upon the seed of the word. When the preacher has laboured to his utmost capacity, sown the seed, as he thought, over all the congregation, and given to every one his due, the blast of temptation has carried it away, and very little has taken root. It is God that makes the soul see its own concern in the wordprer.ched; he makes it take deep root in the heart and conscience, though flesh and blood have strong and constant reluctancy. Every in -dwelling sin makes strong opposition; but he, when he resolves to have a plant in the garden of his grace, will make the seed fit and cause it to abide. It is he that works conviction of sin, strikes light and terror into the stupid and dark conscience. Whilst the preacher speaks of the law, God thunders from Sinai and makes the sinner hear; otherwise even the thunders of Sinai, from the mouth of the ablest preacher here on earth, would not startle,
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would not awaken, would not stir up a dead, drowsy sinner. It is God that reveals Jesus Christ to the awakened and distressed soul, in all the glories of his righteousness and grace, and persuades the soul to receive him* For such obstinate and rebellious creatures are we, that when we are perishing and dying, we would rather apply to a thousand remedies, than to the true physician of souls, unless God turn the heart back to him; JVb vian can come to me, says Christ, except the Father which hath sent Twe, draw him,^
Again; as it is the sun in the firmament that causes the seed to take root, so it also causes the young plants to grow up into branches, and spread abroad, as it were, a foundation for blossoms and fruit. The seed of grace, when it is sown in the heart, is made by the power of the Spirit of God to grow up into the particular branches of love, and faith, and hope, and patience, and holy joy, and meekness, and humility, and zeal. These are like so many members of the, new * John li. l*.
creature which God causes to grow. He awakens the latent power that is in the immortal seed of the word and it spreads abroad in the soul into all these principles and habits of holiness. The kingdom of God in the soul is like a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, which grows and becomes the biggest of all plants. Though the seed of grace in the heart is at first less than the habits of any sin there, and seems to be, as it were, lower and weaker than any thing, yet he makes it to grow and have dominion, to thrive and to flourish, till at last all the roots of bitterness are plucked up and de- ’ stroyed, and the plant is transplanted to heaven and paradise. The leaves, the blossoms, and the fruit that we see in a natural garden, are all brought forth through the influence of the sun; so through the influence of the Spirit of God on the heart of man, the fair leaves of profession are put forth; the blossoms and happy bloom, that promise a blessed harvest, appear. Grace appears in these several operations, and good works are the fruit whereby God is honoured amongst iBS God the Author Senn. V.
men; Herein is my Father glorified that ye hear much fruit,^ It is God that produces the fruity as that promise in the days of old will give us an account; I, says God, will he as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow aa the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon, His branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree and his smell a& Lebanon. They that dwell under his sha iow shall return they shall revive as tha eorn and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the vine of Lebanon; for from we is thy fruit found, ■[
Again; it is the sun in the heavens that scatters all hurtful vermin that might blast the tree or the fruit; so God prevents the seed from being spoiled and lost, by the influences of his preserving grace. It is liable to be eaten up by the fowls of the ak, by Satan the evil ane, that plucks the seed out of the heart; it is liable to be choked by tJiomis, by the cares of this world ;J it is lia*
‘* John XV, 8. t Hosea xiv. 5, ©, 7? S,
t Matthew xiii. 22^
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ble to die and wither. How many prejudices are there in the mind of a carnal man, that hinder the seed from taking root, and growing! and how many remaining corruptions that would destroy the young and ten der plant of grace, if Grod did not take care to secure the seed that he had made to take root! Oh, how many blasts does every plant of grace go through, in this ungodly world, this foreign land, this soil that seems improper for it! But God can make a plant grow in an improper soil, a foreign plant in any soil, a plant of heaven in a garden of earth when he will exert his own almightinese.
It is God, then, that giveth the increasey he makes the seed to become incorruptible; Being born again, not of corruptible seed hut of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever,^ The word of the Lord is an incorruptible seed, it shall grow up to immortality. He guards the tree with his hand from every violent storm 5 he guards the fruit of it from every * 1 Peter i, 23*
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blast till it comes to ripeness, and till the tree be fit to be removed hence to a garden above.
Thus I have endeavoured to explain the metaphors in the text, he that plants, and he that waters, and that it is God that giveth the increase. I come now,
II. To consider in what sense he that plants and he that waters are said to be nothing; and I shall manifest that to you under two plain heads only.
1. Their labour signifies nothing without the concurrence of God;
S. Their influence is nothing in comparison with the influence of God.
1. Their labour signifies nothing at all without the concurrence of God.
Let us take hold of the metaphor again. What power has the planter to make a tree grow and bring forth fruit; if there be no sun
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in the firmament? nay, if the sun be but withdrawn a little further from us, how incapable is the planter or waterer to make the seed to take root, or the plant to grow. Bo if we preach the gospel, and God stands afar off from us, what poor work do we make! We preach the law in all the ter* rors of it, and the soul remains secure and thoughtless under it. We preach the gospel in all the glory and sweetness of it; but the carnal sinner has no taste, has no desire for it. We talk of the Lord Jesus Christ in another w orld, who once dwelt here on earth, a man as we are, a man of sorrows and acquainted icith griefs, now God over all Messed for ever; and the sinner sits under his doctrine w ith a careless air, as though he heard something strange, but of no importance to him.
This is the temper of an una wakened, unconverted soul. The minister can do nothing more than speak, it is God alone that can make the sinner hear. When we talk of the comforts of the gospel, of th
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sweetness of peace of conscience of the joy of faith, of the divine pleasure of the hope of believers from religion; when we endeavour to attract down, according to our utmost capacities, heaven to earth, and to represent the scenes of glory above, so far as we are able by our best mortal understandings here below, the sinner tastes nothing, sees nothing, feels nothing; he has no spiritual sense; he is dead. And what can the preacher do? He spends his breath in the empty air, and there is none of Israel gathered: he stretches out his hands all the day, but the people are rebellious and disobedient.
I am well assured I speak to the conscience and experience of many a soul here. How many of you must and will say, “Thus it was with me, and thus it would ‘’ have been for ever with me, had not al- “mighty grace made the seed take root in ‘’ my heart; had not the almighty power of ‘^ God taken Jesus Christ, and shewn him” to me in a divine light, at the same time ‘’ that the preacher shewed him to me in
“the gospel, I should have still been re- “gardless and thoughtless of God, and “Christ, and eternity.” We are instruments in the hand of God to do his work. One minister is an axe, and another is a hammer; but what can the hammer do without the arm? What can the axe do to cleave a diamond asunder, a sinner, w hose heart is as hard as a diamond, anl whom nothing can make an impression upon but God that made the heart? Another minister is as a healing balsam, or as the oil of consolation, in his language of grace; but what can the balsam do, if not wisely and pow erfully applied to the w ound? Another is as he that brings a candle into a room; but can the candle give eyes, or he that brings it make the blind to see? It is God only can give sense and light, and make all his instruments in the office of the ministry serviceable to these ends; Paul is nothing, and Apollos is nothing, but God giveth the increase.
S. The influence of ministers is nothing in comparison with the iuiiuenee of God.
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How little is all that we can do! It is said indeed, by a mighty condescension of honour that Grod puts upon us, that we are ivorlcers together with God,^ but our work is only beseeching. God has put into our hands and into our lips the ministry of reconciU’ ation; we beseech you in the name of Christ, be ye reconciled unto God.’ And how little influence have the words of intreaty, or the language of persuasion, upon a blind man to see, upon a deaf man to hear! We may intreat the lame to walk long enough before we can give them strength for travelling; we may intreat the dead to rise long enough before the dead will awake and rise. Beseeching, intreating, and persuading, have little influence to raise the dead, and open the eyes of the blind. So ineffectual is the preaching of the gospel to dead and dark sinners, without the influence of superior gi*ace.
Our work is hard work. We are com6 to cure all the maladies of a dead spirit, with speaking a word; we are come to say *2Cor. vi. 1, t-2Cor. V. 30.
to the dead “Arise;” but it is in the name of the Lord and therefore the dead hear. We are come to say, ‘^ Ye blind open your ‘^ eyes; ye lame, walk.” We are come to say, “Ye deaf hear the voice of the word of Grod, “the language of grace and heaven.” And blessed be God, through almighty grace we perform these works of wonder; but it is the grace of Grod,it is power from above, and not we. For the effects are so vastly disproportionable to all the pains and labour that we take, that it is obvious enough that man is nothing, and Grod is all. When we come to perform these miracles of wonder to dead and lost sinners, were it not for these words of our Lord Jesus Christ, Go raise ^’ the dead, go heal the blind, go make the ‘’ lame to walk, and I will be with you to the “end of the world;” I say, were it not for these words, it would be with a poor heart that we should attempt such a work as this is. He that plants and he that waters, then, appear to be nothing at all, without the influence of God; and all that they do is nothing in comparison with the influence of God.
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The third thing I should speak to, is to give you various instances, such as you must all have felt, and experienced, and bear witness to, vrhereby it may be made evidently to appear, that he that plants and waters is nothing, but God is all. But I must shut up with a few words of present application.
1. Ministers are not necessary to God, nor useless to men. God can work without them; but as he is pleased to make use of them, and as it is his appointed w ay for raising his church in the world by calling souls to hear so they are very useful instruments in his hands, for glorious and everlasting purposes. God can maintain us without food, as he did Elijah, and Moses forty days together in the mount; but you will not say food is a useless thing. God can erect a building without a builder. In vain does the builder build, unless the Lord build too; except the Lord build the house f they labour in vain that build it:^ * F^alm cxxvii. i.
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but you will not say these employments on earth are useless, because God is almighty to eifect these things without them; since it is God’s appointed way to make use of instruments for these very purposes, which he by his own al mightiness could well perform without the instruments he uses. God needs not teachers of languages, in order to inform us how we should read his word in the original Hebrew and Greek, for we know that he taught the apostles to speak all languages in a day, even in the day of Penticost, when the Spirit was poured down upon them; but it does not then follow, that our schools, and our pains and labours, are useless in order to the attaining of those languages. Now God has appointed every thing for us, our use and service, and he of his almighty power will make use of them, though they are not necessary to him; yet by his almighty power they are made useful to men. This should teach us to maintain a due and moderate respect to the ministers of the gospel: not to make gods of them, as though they did
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all, nor to trample them under foot, as though they did nothing and were useless; but to esteem them in the place in which God has set them, as instruments and under-workers for the great design of grace*
S. The second remark I would make upon this verse of the apostle is this; that humility is one way to honour, and especially in the ministers of the gospel.
I make it plain thus; it was the design of the apostle Paul to vindicate his own honour from the censures and reproaches of crafty men, that were crept into this very church of Corinth. Sometimes he was under a necessity of declaring the matter of fact, and proving his own apostleship amongst them; but at other times he humbles himself and appears as nothing, and leaves all his services, and all his honours, to God and their own consciences. “Such” and such things lias God wrought by me, “but I am nothing. Ye have ten thousand” instructors, and teachers, and builders
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up,” says he, but tje have but one father “even God; for I have begotten youy but I” am nothing, This is a day in which the gospel is brought exceedingly low by the gay and politer part of the world; but ministers will always have a due respect from those that receive benefit by their ministry, while that divine temper is maintained in their hearts, which was wrought by them there. There is no need of magnifying ouv office to you, whilst the grace remains among you, which by our ministrations Grod has wrought in you. You cannot forget that you are epistles writ by the finger of the Spirit of God, through our ministration, for your eternal comfort.
3. If he that plants and waters is nothing, but God that giveth the increase, then prayer and faith are necessary parts of worship, both in preacher and hearers.
Preaching and hearing would be vain, without supplication and dependance upon
* 1 Cor. iv. 15.
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Mm from whom all benefit comes. In vain you come to liear and in vain we preach, without prayer. It is part of the minister’s work, and part of the people’s; it is our business, and it is yours; It is not reason <5ays the apostle, that we should leave the word of Gody and serve tahles; hut we tvill give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word,”^ Finally brethren, liray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course amongst us, and he glorified, Ministers must pray, and the people must pray, if they expect advantage on either side. And it has sometimes been a comfort and support to me, under my long confinement, to think that when a minister cannot preach, he is not utterly useless to the church; he may pray, lie may plead with God for the success of him that preaches. There is an eminent instance of this in the epistle to the CoUossians,- where St. Paul, speaking concerning Epaphras, who was a servant of Christ at Colosse, but at that time absent from them, says, He
* A.cts vi. 2, 4. t 2Thess. iii. 1^ is one of you, a servant of Christ, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, though now he is absent from you, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God; for I hear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you,^ so as to be constant in prayer upon your account. And how much was the holy soul of Paul himself engaged in this work! And I am ready to say, how joyful should I be had I half the portion of his spirit!
Now the poorest member in the church may help the etlidcation of every soul in the church forward by these means, by praying to that God that alone can give the increase. I would speak upon this head, if my spirits would suffice, to the poor and low, and meanest in the church, to those that account themselves very contemptible and insignificant in the congregation. There is not one of you but may help forward the work of Grod, as we do in the pulpit, and perhaps you may do more to it than we can do i for
*Col. iv. 12, 13.
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if by the influence of your prayers you can draw down influences from heaven, you do more than the best preacher upon earth can do, without those influences.
4. Lastly; I would say, whatsoever advancement in knowledge, in holiness, or in comfort, is attained by the ministry of the word, you may see to whom the glory is due. Ministers may take the comfort, and the people the profit of it; but pray let God have all the glory of it. The people must not say unto us,” By our diligence, our ^’ will, our meditation, our recollection of ‘’ the word preached, or our prayers, we ^’ make the seed to grow;’’ but to the almighty influences of divine power the work must be attributed; not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, hut God that sheweth mercy,^ Ministers must not say, ^’ Un- *’ to us, to our studies, to our learning, to our ^’ zeal, to our readiness in preaching, or to our rightly dividing the word of truth, to ^’ our names or our powers is the glory due.
* Rom, ix. 16.
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We can indeed beseech the blind to open their eyes, or the dead to rise to life again; but it is God that opens the blind eyes, and makes the dead to awake and ^’ arise.’’ Oh may he that plants and he that waters rejoice in seeing a large and a blessed increase, through the influence of the heavenly Spirit! Oh may we all meet at the last great day, at the right hand of our Redeemer! And, there let us that have planted and watered rejoice in this, that through almighty grace we have not laboured in vain. And oh that you may find us there too, and rejoice together with us, and say, Blessed be that almighty grace that has not suffered our ministers to la» hour in vain among us!’’