Farm Laborers

The church is God’s field, tenderly cultivated by His hand. We are called to labor faithfully, sowing and watering His Word, yet only He gives growth. Let us commit ourselves wholly to His work, bearing fruit for His glory.

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field.” 1 Corinthians 3:6–9 I will begin at the end of my text, because I find it to be the easiest way of mapping out what I want to say. We shall first notice that the church is God’s farm: “You are God’s field.” In the margin of the Revised Version we read, “You are God’s tilled ground,” and that is the expression I want to use. “You are God’s tilled ground,” or farm. After speaking about the farm, we will then say a little about the fact that the Lord employs laborers on His estate. And when we have looked at the laborers—poor fellows as they are—we will remember that God Himself is the great worker: “We are God’s fellow workers.”

I. We begin by considering that the church is God’s farm. The Lord has made the church His own by His sovereign choice. He has also secured it for Himself by purchase, having paid an immense price for it. “But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.” Every acre of God’s farm cost the Savior a bloody sweat—yes, the blood of His own heart. He loved us and gave Himself for us; that is the price He paid. From now on, the church is God’s rightful possession, and He holds the title to it. It is our joy to know that we are not our own; we were bought with a price. The church is God’s farm by choice and by purchase.

And now He has made it His by enclosure. It once lay open like common land, bare and barren, covered with thorns and thistles, and the home of every wild beast; for we were “by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Divine foreknowledge looked over the wasteland, and electing love marked out its portion with a full measure of grace, setting us apart to be the Lord’s own estate forever. In due time, effectual grace came with power and separated us from the rest of mankind, just as fields are hedged and ditched to separate them from open land. Has not the Lord declared that He has chosen His vineyard and fenced it?

“We are a garden walled around, Chosen and made peculiar ground; A little spot, enclosed by grace Out of the world’s wide wilderness.” The Lord has also made this farm clearly His own by cultivating it. What more could He have done for His farm? He has completely changed the nature of the soil. From being barren, He has made it fruitful. He has plowed it, dug it, enriched it, watered it, and planted it with all kinds of flowers and fruits. It has already brought forth many pleasant clusters for Him, and brighter times are coming, when angels will shout at the harvest, and Christ “shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.”

This farm is preserved by the Lord’s continual protection. Not only did He enclose it and cultivate it by His miraculous power to make it His own farm, but He continually keeps it in His possession.

“I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day.” If it were not for God’s constant power, its hedges would soon be broken down and wild beasts would devour its fields. Wicked hands are always trying to tear down its walls and lay it waste again so that there would be no true church in the world. But the Lord is jealous for His land and will not allow it to be destroyed. A church would not remain a church for long if God did not preserve it for Himself.

What if God were to say, “And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down”? What a wilderness it would become. What does He say?

“Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.” Go to Jerusalem, where once stood the city of His glory and the place of His dwelling—what is left there today? Go to Rome, where Paul once preached the gospel with power—what is it now but the center of idolatry? The Lord can remove the lampstand and leave a place that was bright as day to become dark as night. So God’s farm remains a farm because He is always present in it, preventing it from returning to its former wild state. Almighty power is just as necessary to keep the church under cultivation as it was to reclaim it in the beginning.

Since the church is God’s own farm, He expects to receive a harvest from it. The world is wasteland, and He looks for nothing from it; but we are tilled land, and therefore a harvest is expected from us. Barrenness may suit open moorland, but on a farm it would be a disgrace. Love looks for a return of love; grace given calls for gracious fruit. Watered with the drops of the Savior’s bloody sweat, shall we not bring forth a hundredfold for His praise? Kept by the eternal Spirit of God, shall there not be fruit produced in us for His glory? The Lord’s care for us has involved great cost, labor, and thought. Should there not be a matching return? Should not the Lord have a harvest of obedience, a harvest of holiness, a harvest of usefulness, a harvest of praise?

Should it not be so?

I think some churches forget that increase is expected from every field of the Lord’s farm, because they never have a harvest or even look for one. Farmers do not plow their land or sow their fields for amusement; they mean business. They plow and sow because they want a harvest. If this truth could enter the minds of some believers, surely they would see things differently. But lately it seems as if we think God’s church is not expected to produce anything and exists only for its own comfort and personal benefit. Brothers and sisters, it must not be so. The great Farmer must have some reward for His work. Every field must yield its increase, and the whole estate must bring forth praise to Him.

We join with the bride in the Song in saying, “My vineyard, my very own, is before me; you, O Solomon, may have the thousand, and the keepers of the fruit two hundred.”

But I return to where I started. This farm is, by choice, by purchase, by enclosure, by cultivation, and by preservation, completely the Lord’s. See then how wrong it would be for any of the laborers to call even part of the estate their own.

If a wealthy man owns a large farm, what would he think if the plowman said, “I plow this farm, so it is mine. I will call this field my own”? Or if another said, “I harvested that land last year, so it belongs to me”? What if all the other workers divided the farm among themselves and named the fields after themselves? The owner would quickly remove them all. The farm belongs to its owner, and it should be called by his name. It makes no sense to call it by the names of the workers.

Should insignificant people rob God of His glory? Remember how Paul put it: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.” “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”

The whole church belongs to the One who chose it in His sovereignty, bought it with His blood, fenced it by His grace, cultivated it by His wisdom, and preserved it by His power. There is only one church on earth, and those who love the Lord should remember this. Paul is a worker, Apollos is a worker, Cephas is a worker—but the farm is not Paul’s, not even a small portion of it. No part belongs to Apollos or Cephas, for “you are Christ’s.”

The truth is that in this case the workers belong to the field, not the field to the workers: “For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas.” “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

II. We now move to our second point: the great Farmer employs laborers. By human agency God ordinarily carries out His plans. He can, if He chooses, by His Holy Spirit work directly in the hearts of men, but that is His work and not ours. We are given instructions like this: “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” The Master’s command is not, “Sit still and watch the Spirit of God convert the nations,” but, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”

Look at God’s method in providing food for the world. In answer to the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” He could command the clouds to drop manna every morning at each person’s door. But He knows it is good for us to work, so He uses the hands of the plowman and the sower to supply our needs. God could cultivate His chosen farm, the church, by miracles or by angels, but in great kindness He blesses her through her own sons and daughters. He uses us for our own good, because we who labor in His fields receive far more benefit ourselves than we give. Labor strengthens our spiritual muscles and keeps us spiritually healthy. “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

Our great Master intends that every laborer on His farm should receive some benefit from it, for it is written, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” The laborer’s daily bread comes from the soil. Though he works not for himself but for his Master, he still receives his share of food. In the Lord’s storehouse there is seed for the sower and bread for the eater. However selflessly we may serve God in the care of His church, we ourselves share in the fruit. It is great kindness on God’s part that He uses us at all, for we are poor tools at best, and often more of a hindrance than a help.

The laborers employed by God are all engaged in necessary work. Notice: “I planted, Apollos watered.” Who beat a big drum or blew his own trumpet? No one. On God’s farm, no one is kept just for decoration. I have read sermons that seemed meant only for display, because there was not a single grain of the gospel in them. They were like plows without blades, seed drills with no wheat in them, or tools made of butter. I do not believe that God pays wages to people who only walk around His fields to show themselves off. Speakers who display their eloquence in the pulpit are more like wanderers picking up chickens than faithful laborers producing a crop for their Master.

Many church members live as if their only job on the farm were to pick blackberries or gather wildflowers. They are quick to criticize how others plow and mow, but they will not lift a hand to work themselves. Come now, my friends. Why do you stand idle all day? “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” Those who think themselves more refined than others, if you are truly Christians, must not walk around proudly and look down on those who are working hard. If you do, I will say that you have mistaken your master. Perhaps you think you serve someone who values appearance over results, but our great Lord is practical, and on His estate His laborers do necessary work.

When you and I preach or teach, we should ask ourselves, “What good will this do? I am about to teach a difficult subject—will it truly help anyone? I have chosen a complex theological point— will it serve a useful purpose?” A laborer may work very hard on his own idea and yet accomplish nothing useful. Some sermons only show minor differences in arguments, and what good does that do? Suppose we sow fields with sawdust or sprinkle them with perfume—what would that accomplish? Will God bless our moral essays, polished speeches, and elegant phrases? We must aim at usefulness. As workers together with God, we must focus on work that truly matters. “I planted,” says one—and that is good, for planting must be done. “I watered,” says another—and that also is good and necessary. Let each of you be able to give a solid report, but let no one be satisfied with mere performance, public speaking, or organizing entertainments.

On the Lord’s farm there is a division of labor. Even Paul did not say, “I planted and watered.”

No—Paul planted. And Apollos did not say, “I planted as well as watered.” It was enough for him to water. No one has every gift. How foolish it is when people say, “I enjoy this preacher because he builds up believers in doctrine, but when he was away I could not benefit from the other preacher because he focused on converting sinners.” Yes, he was planting. You have already been planted; you do not need to be planted again. You should be thankful that others are receiving the benefit. “For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’” Instead of complaining that the plowman did not bring a sickle, you should pray that he has strength to plow deeply and break up hard hearts.

On God’s farm there is unity of purpose among the workers. “He who plants and he who waters are one.” One Master employs them. Though He sends them at different times and to different parts of the field, they are united in one purpose—to work toward one harvest.

In England we do not fully understand watering, because farmers there cannot water all their land.

But in the East, farmers water almost every part of their fields. Without irrigation there would be no crop. In places like Italy, Egypt, or Palestine, there are wells, pumps, wheels, buckets, channels, small streams, and pipes that carry water to every plant. Without this, the intense heat would dry everything up. Planting requires wisdom; watering requires just as much. To bring these two together, workers must be united in mind. It is harmful when workers are at cross purposes and work against each other. This is especially harmful in the church. How can I plant successfully if my helper will not water what I have planted? Or what good is watering if nothing has been planted? Farming fails when foolish people argue over it, because from sowing to reaping it is one continuous work. Let us work together all our days, for division leads to barrenness.

We are told in our text that all the laborers together are nothing. “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything.” Workers are nothing without their Master. All the laborers on a farm could not manage it without someone in charge, and all the preachers and Christian workers in the world can accomplish nothing unless God is with them.

Every laborer on God’s farm has received his abilities from God. No one knows how to plant or water souls unless the Lord teaches him daily. These holy gifts are acts of free grace. All laborers must work under God’s direction, or they work in vain. Without the Spirit’s guidance, they would not know when or how to work, and without His help they cannot even think a good thought. All workers must receive their seed from God, or they will sow weeds instead of wheat. All good seed comes from God’s storehouse. If we preach, it must be the true Word of God, or nothing lasting will result.

Even the strength to sow comes from the Master. We cannot preach unless God is with us. A sermon is empty talk unless the Holy Spirit gives it life. “The preparation of the heart belongs to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” When the good seed is sown, the entire outcome depends on God. If He withholds dew and rain, the seed will not grow. If He does not shine upon it, the green ear will not ripen. The human heart will remain barren—even if Paul himself were preaching—unless the Holy Spirit works with him and blesses the Word. Since the growth comes from God alone, keep the workers in their proper place. Do not think too highly of us, for after we have done everything, we are unworthy servants.

Yet, though Scripture says the workers are nothing, it also says they will be rewarded. God works our good works in us and then rewards us for them. “Each will receive his wages according to his labor.” The reward is based not on success, but on effort. Many discouraged workers can find comfort in this. You are not paid by results but by faithful labor. You may have hard soil to plow or difficult ground to sow, with stones, birds, thorns, travelers, and scorching sun working against you—but you are not responsible for those things. Your reward is according to your work.

“One sows and another reaps,” but the one who reaps does not receive all the reward; the one who sowed will share in the joy. Workers may be considered nothing, but they will enter into the joy of their Lord.

Together, according to the text, the workers have been successful, and that is part of their reward.

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Often in prayer we say, “A Paul may plant, an Apollos may water, but it is all in vain unless God gives the growth.” That is true. But another truth is often overlooked: when Paul plants and Apollos waters, God does give the growth. We do not labor in vain. There would be no growth without God, but we are not without God. When faithful workers labor in the right spirit, God blesses them. That blessing is a great part of the reward.

III. Now we return to the main point: God Himself is the great Worker. He may use whatever laborers He chooses, but the growth comes from Him alone. You know this is true in natural farming. The most skilled farmer cannot make wheat germinate, grow, and ripen.

He cannot even protect a field until harvest, because many dangers threaten it. Just when a farmer expects a harvest, blight or disease may destroy it. God must give the growth. If anyone depends on God, it is the farmer. Through him, we all depend on God year by year for our food. “Even the king himself is served by the field.” God gives the increase in the barn and the haystack, and it is even more so in the spiritual field.

If you think it is easy to win a soul, try it. Without divine help, you might as well try to create a world. You cannot create a fly—how can you create a new heart and a right spirit? Regeneration is a great mystery beyond your power. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” What can you or I do in this matter? It is beyond us. We can declare the truth of God, but applying that truth to the heart and conscience is another matter entirely.

I have preached Jesus Christ with all my heart, yet I know I have never produced saving results in an unregenerate person unless the Spirit of God opened the heart and planted the living seed of truth within it. Experience teaches us this. It is also the Lord’s work to keep the seed alive once it grows. We think we have converts, but often we are disappointed. Many are like blossoms on apple trees—beautiful but fruitless. Others are like small apples that fall before they mature.

Anyone who leads a large church and cares deeply for souls will soon be convinced that unless God works, nothing will be accomplished—no conversion, no sanctification, no perseverance, no glory to God, no satisfaction for the suffering of the Savior—unless the Lord is with us. “Apart from me you can do nothing.”

From this truth, I draw several practical lessons. First, if the entire farm of the church belongs to the great Master and workers are nothing without Him, this should promote unity among all He employs. If we serve one Master, let us not quarrel.

It is sad when we cannot rejoice at good being done by those from other denominations who work differently from us. If a new worker arrives and uses different tools, should I become his enemy?

If he does his work better than I do mine, should I be jealous?

Do you remember that on one occasion the disciples could not cast out a demon? That should have humbled them. Yet soon after, they saw someone casting out demons in Christ’s name, and they tried to stop him because he was not part of their group. They could not cast out the demon themselves, yet they tried to stop someone who could. Some groups are winning souls, but because they do not do it in our style, we disapprove. They may have unusual methods, but they truly bring souls to Christ—and that is what matters most. Instead of criticizing, let us encourage everyone who stands with Christ. “Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” Workers should be satisfied with a new plowman if their Master approves of him. If the great Lord has employed you, it is not my place to question His choice. Can I help you? Can I show you how to improve? Or can you help me improve? That is how workers should treat each other.

This truth should also make all workers deeply dependent on God. Are you about to preach, young man? “Yes, I am going to accomplish great things.” Are you? Have you forgotten that you are nothing? “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything.” A teacher may come filled with gospel truth to comfort believers, but if he does not come in full dependence on God, he too is nothing. Power belongs to God. Man is empty and his words are wind; power and wisdom belong to God alone. If we remain humble, our Lord will use us. But if we exalt ourselves, He will leave us to our nothingness. This truth also gives dignity to everyone who works in God’s field. My heart is lifted up with joy at these words: “For we are God’s fellow workers.” We are simple workers on His farm, yet we work with Him. Does the Lord truly work with us?

We know He does by the results that follow. “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

That is true for all God’s children. When you serve Him with all your heart, God is with you. When you speak to your class about Jesus, God speaks through you. When you stop a stranger and tell him about salvation by faith, Christ speaks through you just as He spoke to the woman at the well.

When you preach forgiveness through the atoning blood in the open air, it is the God of Peter testifying about His Son, just as He did on the day of Pentecost.

Finally, this truth should drive us to our knees. Since we are nothing without God, let us cry out to Him for help in this holy work. Let both sower and reaper pray together, or they will never rejoice together. If blessing is withheld, it is because we have not asked and expected it. Fellow workers, let us come to the throne of grace, and we shall see the reapers return with their sheaves, though they may have gone out weeping when they sowed.

To our Father, who is the Farmer, be all glory, forever and ever. Amen.