Sermon Central
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The Holy Seed.
Contributed by Christopher Holdsworth on Jan 11, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: The holy seed is Jesus, and those united to Him.
THE HOLY SEED.
The mission of Isaiah was to go to a people who were proudly short-sighted, stubbornly deaf, and wilfully ignorant of the word of God (Isaiah 6:9; cf. Matthew 13:13-15). The prophet’s message was to be one which confirmed them in their preferred blindness, deafness, and ignorance; their pride, their carnality, and their prejudice (Isaiah 6:10; cf. John 12:40). This was the real reason Jesus spoke in parables: not to give nice homey illustrations in order to convert the unwilling, but to sift out those who were genuinely interested and responsive to His message (cf. Matthew 13:10-12).
In the face of such a commission, the plaintive cry of many a Psalmist, prophet and preacher has often been, “How long, LORD?” (Isaiah 6:11). The answer of the LORD to Isaiah was, effectively, “Until” (Isaiah 6:11). Until when? Until the job is done (Isaiah 6:11-12).
Jesus healed a man born blind (John 9:11), and also brought him to faith (John 9:35-38). And Jesus said, ‘For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and they which see might be made blind’ (John 9:39). Some of the Pharisees asked, ‘Are we blind also?’ To whom Jesus replied, ‘If you were blind, you should have no sin: but now you say, We see; therefore your sin remains’ (John 9:40-41).
This is a hard message to preach, but sometimes we must bring people to the brink in order to have any hope of healing them of the malady of sin and indifference. And even then, we might fail. We must preach the gospel as it is, faithfully and without compromise, regardless of our fear of failure. Words sown now may yet yield fruit.
Which brings us to the final verse of the chapter. Isaiah prophesied exile, but also that “a tenth” (a tithe) might return. But even then, the sifting and pruning would not be finished (Isaiah 6:13). Israel is left as just a stump - but out of that stump comes Messiah Jesus (Isaiah 11:1-2; Romans 11:26).
After the exile, and even into the Christian era, there remained a hardening of the heart of Israel (Romans 11:25) - just as there is a hardening of the heart of all mankind against the gospel to this very day. But still we are encouraged to look to Jesus, the holy seed, even yet producing new branches (Romans 11:12), showing life from the dead (Romans 11:15).