Harvest Laws for Holy Living - 11 - The Law of the Past

When I first preached this series of messages back in 1986, I began one of the messages with the following statement: "I have found that this series on Harvest Laws for Holy Living has had a profound, practical affect on my own life personally. It has helped me to evaluate my attitudes, actions more Scripturally and clearly and has given me a greater incentive to please God. I hope you can say the same?"

Well, my impressions have only grown deeper as we have been going through this series here in 2006.

Let me reiterate the theme that flows throughout the seven laws of the harvest: Life is full of choices, consequences, both good and bad. Life is full of important choices because every choice has a consequence of some kind and to some degree. Actually, the most important choices are often the ones that seem small by comparison, but these are the ones which may either protect us from evil or expose us to choices that have tremendous repercussions.

With this in mind, today, we come to the seventh, final law...a law that in one sense gathers together, embodies the basic truth pictured, presented in the previous six laws. Today, let’s fix our attention on

  1. The Law of the Past

First of all,

  1. We need to understand this law

Let’s begin by noting a couple of broad principles.

  1. Note the introduction to this law

The Law of the Past is Scripturally stated for us in Heb. 6:7-8. Here, we are presented with two types of people for analysis. Both are the same in the sense that they have "ground" that will grow, produce a crop; they both receive abundant rainfall from the Lord, and all the other necessary ingredients, nutri- ents needed to produce the harvest.

But there are also some differences, distinctions to be noted. The one person will take his own potential plus what he receives from God daily and use them to produce a harvest of fruits, grains, vegetables that will be a blessing, benefit to others.

But the second person will use the very same growing conditions, but will produce instead thorns, thistles; briars, brambles...things of no value, but are rather the byproducts of the curse of sin.

The one produces consecrated fruit; the other, corrupt fruit. The only recourse, as far as the cursed fruit is concerned, is to burn it, thus putting an end to the further multiplication of it, to the hurt, harm of many. The Lord Jesus used this very illustration in John 15 (explain briefly).

The seventh law of the harvest is simple, succinct: You, I can’t do anything about last year’s harvest... it’s in the past...but we can do something about this year’s harvest.

This translates into at least three overarching principles:

  1. We cannot do anything about last year’s harvest.
  2. We must learn to live with the consequences of our failures.
  3. We must commit ourselves to this year’s harvest.

What we did last, last month, last week, or even yesterday, is over. It’s in the past, and nothing we do today can undo what we’ve already done. It’s already planted, and we either have, or will harvest it as a result of our past actions.

Those harvest seasons will either be worthy of blessing or burning, or a combination of both. But regardless, the record of our past stands fixed, firm. But yet, how many of us have fallen victim to our past and let our former sins, though confessed, repented of, forgiven, hinder our present lives through bearing the guilt of forgiven sins? Have we forgotten Paul’s pointed exhortation in Phil. 3:13-14?

Granted, we may have fallen, or failed in the past, produced an unworthy crop...who among us hasn’t? But all the brooding, wallowing in self-pity about those worthless, wasted efforts will cause us to keep on failing to produce anything glorifying to God in the future.

By the same token, if we’ve recently produced a worthwhile harvest by using the opportunities God has given us to live spiritually pleasing to Him, we can’t rest, relax on past accomplishments. This is a new day...a new year, and just because we were obedient, submissive to God before doesn’t mean we will be this year. We must continue to abide in Christ, for without Him we can do nothing of eternal value!

To fail to abide is to produce nothing but wood, hay, stubble...none of which will survive the refining fire of Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat. Oh, how the heart of God must grieve when He sees one of His children who has a testimony of what God did for him in the past, but who has no testimony of what He’s doing in his life right now!

That’s why we all need to take seriously the admonition in Heb. 6:1--"Let us go on to maturity." Since 6:1 and 6:7-8 are in the same context, we need to more closely scrutinize these verses as an aid to better understanding the seventh law of the harvest. Therefore, secondly,

  1. Note the implications to this law

The theme of the book of Hebrews is the superiority of Jesus Christ over angels, over the Mosaic Law, over the High Priest, over the OT animal sacrifices. He’s greater than Moses, greater than Joshua, greater than Abraham, greater than Aaron!

The writer of Hebrews desired to teach his readers about the significance of Christ’s superiority, but he soon realized that he had a problem. His readers weren’t spiritually able to comprehend these truths. He concluded that they didn’t need to hear the facts about Christ only; they needed to apply the truth of Christ’s superiority to their personal, daily lives. Heb. 5:11-12 gives us the spiritual condition of these believers.

Their problem was that they had been saved long enough to have been teaching others Biblical truth. Yet, here they were, not even knowing the most basic, foundational doctrinal truths, to say nothing of their implications, applications for daily living.

We could say it this way: they sat, they soaked it in, and then stagnated. They had become dull of hearing...they had contracted the disease of callousness of the ears. The result was that they needed to be spiritually bottle-fed lest they choke on the meat of God’s Word.

Why were they in this sad spiritual state? Verses 13-14 answer the question. They hadn’t used what they had learned. One of the great principles of Biblical Christianity is this: use what you understand or lose what you’ve learned!

Here were people for whom the Lord had provided everything they needed for life, godliness to mature in their faith, but they failed to apply it to their lives. They didn’t get the right kind of "exercise." They had no discernment about right and wrong because the Word of God was not operating effectually in their lives.

Beloved, a Christian doesn’t mature spiritually because he or she knows lots of Bible facts...he’s mature because he relates those facts to his daily experiences so he can solve his spiritual problems, with God’s help.

In 6:1-3, we are exhorted to go on to completeness...to grow up spiritually...to get off the baby bottle! But we can’t do that if we stay in the spiritual nursery. Certainly, there’s security in the nursery...you’ll be well-taken care of and bottle-fed. But there’s no spirituality for mature living in the nursery. And as long as we’re bottle-fed, we’ll be worthless on the battle-field of life.

Now, the doctrines mentioned in v. 1-3 are wonderful truths, but they’re foundational only. If all you’re doing is stacking spiritual foundations on top of more spiritual foundations, you’ll soon become a spiritual monstrosity.

Lay the foundation and then go on from there to build a building, with God’s help, for the glory of God. That’s God’s will for each of us. If you’re here today and these verses describe you, it’s time to decide, determine that starting today, you’re going to go on to maturity. Amen? Let’s do it!

Now, in our next message, we’re going to dig into one of the most controversial passages in all of God’s Word--Heb. 6:4-6 (read). What is this passage teaching, and how does it apply to our individual lives?