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Precious Seed - part 2 of 3 (KJV, NAS & Amplified) All that God instructed Noah to do was for one purpose: “…to keep seed alive upon the face of the earth” {Gen 7:4}. “And Jehovah said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me…”{Gen 7:1}. How like today is the description of Noah’s time: “And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased, and vicious it was; for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction” {Gen 6:12}. In the midst of a decadent and perverse generation God sought for and found a righteous seed whom He chose to preserve and protect. “Noah was a just and righteous man, blameless in his [evil] generation; Noah walked [in habitual fellowship] with God” {Gen 6:9}. Noah’s name holds prophetic significance with the mission of Jesus who came from his lineage and who became the Noah of our salvation: “ Lamech, his father, “named him Noah, saying, This one shall bring us relief and comfort from our work and the (grievous) toil of our hands…” {Gen 5:29}. With the saving of Noah and his righteous descendents, the Lord manifests His promise that “…the seed of the righteous shall be delivered” {Pro 11:21}. Beginning with Cain, man has always sought to reach God through the fruit of his own works, deeds of self-defined righteousness. But righteous (godly) fruit comes only from righteous (godly) seed. “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life…” {Pro 11:30}. Of false prophets, Jesus warned, “You will fully recognize them by their fruits. Do people pick grapes from thrones, or figs from thistles? Even so every healthy (sound) tree bears good fruit…but the sickly (decaying, worthless) tree bears bad and worthless fruit. A good (healthy) tree cannot bear bad (worthless) fruit; nor can a bad (diseased) tree bear excellent fruit…” {Matt 7:16-18}. Just as carnal seed can produce only carnally-righteous fruit, only godly seed can produce godly fruit. And still He seeks “a godly seed” {Mal 2:15}, a seed of God, a Divine seed. Without God’s seed, we produce only alien fruit. Divine seed is precious, pure, unmixed and unmingled. “You shall not plant your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest the whole crop be forfeited [under this ban], the seed which you have sown and the yield of the vineyard be forfeited to the sanctuary” {Deut 22:9}. King James renders this verse as, “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard be defiled.” Loss of wholeness, fullness, and further increase result from mixed seed. Divine seed is undefiled, incorruptible and incorruptible. We are born of incorruptible seed “through the word of God” {I Peter 1:23}. Seed sowing served to illustrate much of Jesus’ teaching. “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold a sower went forth to sow” {Matt l3:3}. Good seed sown in good soil, well-tended, nurtured and watered, produces good fruit. “…as for that in the good soil, these are [the people] who hearing the Word, hold it fast in a just -- noble, virtuous-- and worthy heart, and steadily bring forth fruit with patience” {Luke 8:15}. The enemy deliberately sows tares or darnel among the wheat. These are false gospels or noxious weeds which harm and corrupt. “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; But while he was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed also darnel [black, wild wheat] among the wheat, and went his way…He Who sows the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world, and the good seed means the children of the kingdom; the darnel is the children of the evil one” {Matt 13: 24-25; 37-38}. When the wheat “…sprouted and formed grains, the darnel [weeds resembling wheat] appeared also” {v. 26}. Relying on their natural wisdom, the servants of the owner asked, “Then do you want us to go and weed them out? But he said, No, lest in gathering the wild wheat you root up the [true] wheat along with it. Let them grow together until the harvest; and at the harvest time I will say to the reapers, Gather the darnel first and bind it in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my granary” {vs. 26-30}. Just as Jesus designated Himself as “the True Vine,” {John 15:1}, so is He the True Seed. Yes, there are imitations, and seeds bearing His Name but not producing His fruit. Even the Apostle Paul referred to the existence of “another gospel,” “different, even an opposition gospel,” {Gal 1:6}. He warned against accepting an outside, added, or altered Gospel seed {I Cor 9:16}. The phrase he most frequently used to refer to the good news of Jesus Christ. There is but one Seed “I, Jesus…am [both] the Root (the Source) and the Offspring of David…” {Rev 22:16}. “And there shall come forth a Shoot out of the stock of Jesse [David’s father], and a Branch out of his roots and shall grow and bear fruit” {Isaiah 11:1} Jesus is the promised Seed, and His Word is sown in the soil of receptive hearts. As those who have received Christ and His Word, we have the Indwelling Seed within us. Like Him, we become both sower and seed. Christ in us is our hope of Glory because He is the pure, incorruptible, and eternal Seed, the precious Seed of God. PRECIOUS Seed: Pure, Redemptive, Eternal, Chosen, Incorruptible, Original, Undefiled & Sanctified. -Ruth French February Newsletter 2003 | Face Like Flint | From Bride to Mother Pastor's Journal February 2002 | Lawless Theology | Precious Seed part 2 of 3 |
Biblical Counseling for Leaders
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