When I was a young man, my dad bought a small farm in Eastland County, Texas, not far from where we lived. The soil in that part of the state was very good for growing peanuts.
On this farm there was an old homesite where a hand-dug well once existed. With the passing of years and by the time Dad bought the place, the only signs left of the house that had once been there were a large pear tree and a sinkhole, a green, grassy, low spot where the well had been. Dad farmed the entire area around the old homesite except around the pear tree and the sinkhole.
The farm was small, so large equipment like the big tractors and field machinery we see in many fields today were not needed. Dad bought only a small two-row tractor for his needs.
My brother Dee and I helped on the farm when we could. One day when Dee should have been plowing in the area near the sinkhole, he came up to the house—walking! We knew at once something must be wrong. Maybe the tractor had broken down. We were right. Dee reported that he had gotten the tractor stuck in the sinkhole.
There was nothing to do but go to work to get the tractor “unstuck.” Getting the tractor out of the sinkhole proved to be a big job. After two days of digging, jacking and working timbers under the wheels, we were finally able to remove the tractor from the sinkhole.
The very fact that the sinkhole was there gives us an example of what we are taught in the Bible of the “sin which doth so easily beset us” (Hebrews 12:11Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1)) always waiting to trap us. Every one of us is a sinner by birth, plus we have all “sinned [willingly], and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:2323For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)). So each of us is a sinner two ways. Sin to us is very much like the sinkhole was to our farm -always a danger. Sometimes we sin when Satan tempts us, but sometimes we sin because we want to. But the Lord Jesus loved us and died on the cross to save us, so we do not have to die in our sins. We can have all our sins washed away in His precious blood. “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39)).
Just as the tractor could not get out of the sinkhole under its own power, we cannot get rid of our sins by our own power. The Bible says, “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:1414And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. (1 John 4:14)). The Lord Jesus was obedient to His Father and finished the work on Calvary’s cross that was necessary for you and me to have our sins forgiven and make us ready for heaven. He said to His Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (John 17:44I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. (John 17:4)), and He said from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:3030When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30)). For the Lord Jesus to say “It is finished” means there is not one stroke of judgment left for Him to bear in punishment for sin. All that remains for you to do to be forgiven is to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins.
There is another important lesson we can learn from the tractor being stuck in the sinkhole. After we had worked so hard to get the tractor unstuck, Dad said to Dee, “Son, how did you get the tractor in that hole?” Dee answered, “I just drove into it to see whether or not it could pull itself out.” Sometimes we are like that. We get ourselves into real trouble by playing around with sin.
Boys and girls, let each one of us first make sure of heaven by believing on the Lord Jesus as our Saviour, and then let us be very careful what we allow in our lives. Surely we do not want to be so foolish as to willingly commit sin just to see what it is like. The Bible tells us, “Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof ” (Romans 13:1414But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Romans 13:14)). By hiding the Word of God in our hearts and letting the Holy Spirit lead us in our daily lives, we will not only please the One who loved us and died to save us, but also the words of the Lord Jesus will be true of us: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:1616Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)).
ML-02/25/1996