"So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knows not how." (Mark 4:26-27)
The Sower Sows the Word
We are workers together with God, and He is the great Sower. The field is the hearts of men, and the fruit is the fruit of righteousness. A willing heart is good soil.
We cannot understand "how" the seed grows. It is the mystery of life and of God. But we understand the fact that it does grow. Nicodemus was unable to understand with his head how a man could be born again, but later he understood the fact with his heart. "With the heart man believes unto righteousness." (Romans 10:10)
By Automatic Power
In describing the process the Lord uses a word which makes the subject very plain. "For the earth brings forth fruits of herself," (Mark 4:28)
Literally automatically, or spontaneously, by a controlling power within. Good soil in which the seed is sown cannot help bringing forth the fruit, because the life in the seed causes it to spring up automatically.
And remember that the earth, the soil, is the heart, and the seed is the Word. Just as the seed of corn causes the earth to bear the bread of our physical life, so the "incorruptible seed" of the Word must cause every heart that receives and holds it to bear fruit unto everlasting life. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides for ever." (1 Peter 1:23)
Man an Instrument
The Lord used that word, from which comes our word automatic, to describe the action of His Word in the heart. An automatic figure at a waxworks, for instance, to use a common illustration, moves its head or hand as though alive. It works automatically, by some spring or power within which controls the figure.
Just so man is but helpless clay. The power of Satan has worked within, moving hands and feet and all the members as "instruments of unrighteousness." (Romans 6:13)
Now the great Sower sows the Word in the darkened hearts, and as it is received every word has power within itself to cause the members to move and act "as instruments of righteousness unto God." (Romans 6:13)
Man Not a Machine
While the automaton, or wax figure, is a perfect representation of the way in which the Word works in man, in actual life the instrument is not an unconscious form. The fruits of righteousness can only be rooted in a willing heart. Man is a living free moral agent, and even God will not work in him contrary to his will.
God pleads with men to share His Word, to choose life, to be willing to do His will: "He that wills to do His will shall know the doctrine," (John 7:17) God will teach it to him by living it in him. Every word believed with the heart is a power to put the thing described in that word into life. All the time man is free; he must choose, he must will to do God's will continually, and as he does thus place his will on the side of righteousness, God's powerful word of grace comes in. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13)
Every man holds the decision of his salvation in his own hands, but, thanks be to God, when the choice is on the side of life, the working out of that life is by the power of God.
The Word Works
The meaning of all the Bible criticism of which we hear so much is that Satan wants men to believe that there is no power in the Word to work in these days, when he has himself come down to work as never before, "knowing that he has but a short time." (Revelation 12:12)
Men see what the Bible says, but do not believe they can do what God tells them to do. When men study the Word with their hearts they readily learn what God requires, but the general impression is that what He says cannot be done. The whole point of Christian living and salvation, then, comes to just this: "Has the Word that brings salvation, power to work the works of God in the one who believes it?"
The Lord says it has. To the Thessalonians Paul said, "When you received the Word of God...you received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually works also in you that believe." (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
It worked so effectually that it turned those who received it from the way of sin and from the traditions and customs of the world, to the truth of God. And it kept them, too, in the persecutions and afflictions that were brought upon them.
It is still the living, working Word, calling men away from the untruths and traditions that have covered the earth with gross darkness. As you hear it, believe it, open the heart to it, and let it work. It will work nothing that is against you, but only for you.--Present Truth, February 11, 1897--Timeline: IV-24 (Sermon by the Sea)--Mark 4:26-27.