various members of our fellowship, I have been struck by the testimonies of how their faith has grown in a time of testing like this. Deep in the soil of your souls, the seed of God’s Word is growing: as Jesus says in verse 28: “first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.” In other words, it is gradual and


progressive. Even dramatic and seemingly sudden conversions to Christ are typically preceded by long seasons of gradually increasing con- viction of sin and apprehension of the reality of God. “First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.” The first self-doubts, the first signs of a troubled conscience, the first anxi- ety about death, and the first pang of homesickness for a transcendent glo- ry unknown in earthly experience— these are like mustard seeds that can grow in an unbeliever until it finally flowers into true faith in God. And that is how I want to exhort


us to pray. Pray that this troubling time of national and world-wide trauma will be used by God to undo the self-reliance and the imagined self-salvation of all unbelievers and cause them to turn to the true Sav- ior of mankind, our beautiful sav- ior Jesus. Pray that they turn to the crucified and risen Lord Christ, who died for sins to remove our condem- nation, not to a Jesus in a therapist’s white coat or a Jesus in the spangled, glittering suit of a prancing prosper- ity preacher. For truly, this almost impossibly small virus has undone the world, in a sense. It has brought the world’s great economies to their knees. Like the sinking of the proud Titanic in 1912, this pandemic is shat- tering the unquestioned confidence people have placed in science,


in


government, in humanity’s capacity to keep poverty and the death angel at bay. And such vulnerability can lead to a deeper sense of conviction of one’s personal sin and the need for saving grace. Like Lady Macbeth trying to wash away the virus of her own murderous guilt, may many be led to say, “Out, out, damned spot,” but then to discover, as she did, that no amount of human-centered hand- washing can ever remove the stain of


July/August 2020 23


sin in a fallen image of the living God. When God works in this quiet, pro-


found and hidden way in the hearts of men and women, they truly be- come ripe for the harvest. Christ says in verse 29, “But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, be- cause the harvest time has come.” It is fascinating that Jesus does not say the sower swings his sickle mightily from left to right in order to convert them; he doesn’t say the sower strains and labors and sweats to bring in the heavy harvest. No, he just “puts in the sickle.” It is as though he puts the sickle into the grain, and it almost harvests itself – the grain jumps into the harvest cart on its own, as it were, so ready was it for the grace and the peace that the gospel brings to trou- bled souls. That’s how it was for me, anyway, way back in 1979: a year of soul struggle and increasing spiritual depression. Then one night I attended a concert by a Christian singer just to be near a young lady named Nancy who had invited me – I had no spiri- tual motivations in it, trust me! But within hours, within minutes, even within moments it seemed, I was truly harvested by Jesus Christ and


brought to a faith in him that would change everything in my life forever. The sower had put the sickle in, and the harvest time, for me, had come. Pray, beloved, pray now, pray to-


night, pray earnestly, that the harvest time is coming for many people, in- deed for millions of people. We know for a fact that many more people than that which used to hear us preach on the Lord’s Day are now downloading our sermons each Sunday – at least double! Would it not be a most fit- ting and God-glorifying thing for this dreaded virus to end up being used for eternal good in the salvation of countless people. The Word is already having its effect now: its automatic, hidden, inevitable effect. And so let us pray earnestly for the harvest to come, that we will put in the sickle of the Word and have a bounty of souls like the world has never seen. And then, truly, we will praise God for a pandemic, and “we will come rejoic- ing, bringing in the sheaves.” May it be so, for Jesus sake, Amen.?


Reverend Dean Turbeville is a member of First Presbytery and is the Pastor in Residence at Sovereign Grace Church PCA.


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