If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9, our text
will be verse 37 and verse 38. Matthew chapter 9, verse 37 and
38. The title of the message this
morning, the Lord of the Harvest. The Lord of the Harvest. The Lord Jesus Christ, let's
read these two verses, verse 37. Scripture says, And he saith
unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers
are few. Pray ye, therefore, the Lord
of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his
harvest. Now, Lord Jesus Christ, after
preaching through the cities and villages and healing all
manner of sicknesses, He sees this great multitude following
Him. And He sees them that they're fainted under the weight of the
law. He sees them as sheep scattered
abroad without a shepherd or anyone to preach to them and
lead them to the gospel. And He is overwhelmed at this
time with compassion. I'll tell you, the Lord Jesus
Christ was just as much a man as any one of us, and He was
at this point overwhelmed with compassion. He had compassion
on the multitudes. He had compassion. And Lord Jesus
Christ, because of this compassion, He turns to His disciples and
He says, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are
few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of
the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest. This is what His compassion led
Him to say. This is what His love and mercy
led Him to say. And I want us to examine this
today in these four ways. I want us to see three ways.
First of all, I want us to see the harvest. What is this harvest
that He's talking about? Second of all, I want us to see
who is the Lord of the harvest He speaks of. And third, I want
us to see these laborers. Who are these laborers we are
to pray for? He said, pray you that the Lord send laborers.
Well, I want to know who those laborers are and how I need to
pray for them. So first of all, the harvest.
Truly, the harvest is plenteous." Now, this is not a physical harvest. Jesus has no reference to any
physical harvest. He is talking first and foremost
about a spiritual harvest. A harvest of the souls of men. Jesus is talking in a mood with
compassion about the souls of men. Flip over to Matthew chapter
13. Flip over to Matthew chapter
13. And you know this very well,
Matthew 13 and verse 24. He said, another parable put
forth, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man which sowed
good seed into his field. But while the man slept, his
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
But when the blade was sprung up, they brought forth fruit,
and appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed
in the field? From whence then is the tares?
And he said unto them, The enemy hath done this. The servant said
unto him, What wilt thou then, we go and gather them up? And
he said, No, lest while you gather them up the tares, you root up
the wheat with them. Let them grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of the harvest,
I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together. first the tares,
and bind them in bundles, and burn them, and then gather the
wheat into my barn." This parable we know is a spiritual parable. He's not talking about true wheat. He's talking about something
we can understand. He's talking about a man who
has a harvest. A man who sows good seed. And
friend, the good seed are the elect of God. That's who the
good seed are. And notice, those were sown first. They were sown before the tares.
They were sown before the world began. God had them as His special
seed. They were made precious and white. Do you know a corn of wheat is
good if it is white? A good corn of wheat is white,
and that's what God has made us. He has made us white by the
blood of His Son, by the redemption of Christ. And His seed is good
seed. It's good. Why? Because He made
it good. He made it good. It's His seed.
He chose it for His harvest. And because of Christ's righteousness,
He has imputed God's righteousness unto us through the Holy Spirit,
through faith in Christ. Friends, had there been no election,
there would be no harvest. There would be no harvest. Do
you know that men would be as the same as angels? When the
angels fell, they had no hope. If God had not chosen a people,
there would have been no hope for humanity. We would have all
been lost. But praise God, there is a harvest.
Behold, the harvest is plenteous. That's what the Master says.
2 Timothy 2 verse 13 says, We are bound to give thanks all
the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Friends, there is a harvest,
and it is a harvest of souls. That's what the Lord's talking
about. Second of all, this harvest of souls is plenteous. I like
that. I like that. That's good. That's
good news. You know, during the life and
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, there was only a few who believed. Can you imagine this? That the
Lord Jesus Christ appeared only to that small little nation in
Palestine. To Israel only. And at that time
in His ministry, He only preached to them. There were very few
Gentiles who would hear the message of Christ. As a matter of fact,
we'll see later on that He sent His disciples, He said, don't
go to the Gentiles. The Lord Jesus Christ in His
ministry had very few who followed Him. But in John 6, we realize
that even the few that followed Him weren't His. Even the few
that followed Him weren't His. You remember He said unto them
in John 6, 64, He says, But there are some of you that believe
not. Jesus knew who would believe and who would betray Him. He
said, Therefore I say unto you, no man can come unto Me except
the Father, except it were given to him of My Father. And from
that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him
no more. So even the few that followed Christ as disciples
during His generation, His time here on earth, were very few.
Very few. And notice it was because of
the gospel message of the inability of man and the singleness of
Christ. He said, I am the bread of life. He that believeth on
me shall never thirst. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. And he said, yes, but you can't
come unto me unless the Father which has sent me draw you. And that message offended men. That message of sovereignty,
that message of the singleness of Christ offends the natural
man. He's got to do something. He's
got to do something. And sometimes people follow Christ,
and when they hear that message, they then say, well, we can't
follow that anymore, and they go off. That's what happened
to Christ. You remember in Elijah's time,
he said, I'm the only one. He said, I'm all that's left,
God. And God said, no, I have 7,000
that have not bowed the knee to Baal. Now, 7,000, at that
time, there were over 2 million people in Israel, and only 7,000
of them were gods. That's a very small number, isn't
it? But you think of after the time that Christ had risen. Think
of the thousands that came to Christ during those first few
years of the gospel. Think of that. That time, He
saw the harvest was plenteous and after His death and after
the Spirit had come, God would draw in thousands of people. Yay, millions of people since
that time. Friends, God's harvest is plenteous. In every generation, God has
always had a remnant, some few, some many, but I know this, in
the end, when it's all said and done, there'll be more than we
ever thought. There'll be more than we ever thought. We're not
it. Friends, we're not all there are. God has a harvest. And it's plenteous, God says.
It's enormous. It's magnitude is beyond... He
said that the seed shall be more than the sand of the sea. I don't
count sand grains at the beach, do you? I just know that's a
lot. I don't count the stars in heaven
because I know that's a lot. And so it is with God's people.
Friend, God has a people and it's innumerable, innumerable. It's plenteous. So take courage
in this. The harvest, God has a harvest
and this harvest is plenteous. There are plenty that will come
to Christ. Number two, who is the Lord of the harvest? He said,
pray ye therefore, in verse 38, the Lord of the harvest. Well, of all of the elect souls
that were chosen of God, they were given to the Lord of the
harvest, who is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lord of the harvest. In John 6, verse 37, he says,
all that the Father hath given Me." You see, He is the Lord
of the harvest and all of the seed is given to Him. Christ has in His possession
all of the seed, the elect of God, and He has by His death
accomplished all they need to stand before God. He has become
their surety. Their surety. so that he might
be confident to say, All that the Father giveth me shall..."
What? "...they shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out." Friend, the harvest is given
to Christ our Lord and Savior because our sins and our nature
are so corrupt that we cannot save ourselves. You see, we cannot
have yield any fruit unto God. By nature, none of us could yield
any fruit unto God. What will you yield to God? What
will you give to God that He would accept of your own? We
have nothing. We have nothing. But God, knowing
our state and condition in grace, has given us to the hands of
Christ, the only hope and Savior for men. Go to John 12. I want
you to notice what the Lord Jesus Christ says about Himself. John
chapter 12 and verse 24. Jesus here pictures His work
of redemption. His work of redemption. How is
it that the Lord of the harvest will bring forth this harvest
of souls? He says, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. You take a corn of wheat and
you put it on that piano right there and you leave it alone,
that corn of wheat is not going to do anything. It's going to
stay right there. That's pretty simple to see.
Everybody can understand that. Unless you take that corn of
wheat and plant it into the soil and it decay and die, it will
not bring forth any fruit. It won't bring forth any more
wheat. Friends, the Lord of the Harvest, let us understand this.
The Lord of the Harvest hath Himself been made a seed. Isn't
that amazing? The Lord of the Harvest has likened
Himself to the seed of God's elect people. He has become one
of us and taken our nature. He has become a man that we might
have a representative. And if He were to come and abide
and not die, it would have done us no good. There would have
been no harvest. But when the seed of corn was
put into the ground and died, guess what? When Christ died,
He brought forth much fruit, which is us. That's us. We're the fruit of Christ's labor
and death. We are His harvest because He
was made a man. It was man that brought sin into
the world. It must be man that restores
righteousness. It was man that made the offense
to God and the debt of sin. It must be a man that pays the
debt. And that's why Christ had come.
He had come to pay the debt of our sin. He had come to make
the righteousness of God for us that we could not make for
ourselves. He was the corn of wheat, and He did fall into the
ground, didn't He? I love this. Gil said this. He said, you know, if corn of
wheat is put into the right ground at the right time with the right
moisture, it takes three days before it'll sprout. And it's
three days the Lord was in the ground, and He sprouted forth
on the third day. And man, He has not stopped bringing
in seed for His harvest. Is that not wonderful? Christ
is the elect seed that brings forth much fruit unto God. Had
Jesus our Savior not come and died, there would be no salvation.
John 16, 7 says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient
that I go away. It was expedient, it was necessary
for Him to die. Remember when Peter rebuked Him
for telling of His death? What did He say? Get behind Me,
Satan, for thou savest not the things that be of God. This is
of God that I die, so that I might bring forth much fruit. Scripture says, but we see Jesus,
who was made a little lower than the angels. For the suffering of death crowned
with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God should taste
death for every man, for it became Him of whom all things, are all
things, and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory. to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering. And now that Christ has died
for our sins, and God has raised Him for our justification, friends,
we who believe in Christ, our salvation is made perfect. Perfect. And it was made perfect even
before the world began. And it was effectually made perfect
when Christ died for us. And it was realized when we came
to faith in Him by the Spirit of God. I want you to go to Jeremiah
31. And I hope to preach from this
sometime. I really enjoy just reading this
passage of Scripture over and over again. Jeremiah 31, verse
7. So Jesus is the Lord of the harvest,
and now He's seated in heaven, doing all things after the counsel
of His own will. Well, what is His will? What
is the will of the Lord of the harvest? Look at this in Jeremiah
31, you'll see the will of Jesus Christ. He says, "...sing with
gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations,
publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save Thy people, the
remnant of Israel." There's the harvest, isn't it? The remnant
of Israel. Behold, here's the plan of the
Lord of the harvest. Behold, I will bring them from
the north country and gather them from the coasts of the earth
And with them the blind, and the lame, and the woman with
child, and her that travaileth with child together, a great
company shall return thither." There's the plenteous of the
harvest, isn't it? A great company. And guess what's
going to happen? They shall come. This is the
will of the Lord of the harvest. He says, I will bring them, I
will gather them, and they will be a great company, and they
will come weeping, and with their supplications I will lead them,
and I will cause them to walk by the rivers of water in the
straight way, wherein they shall not stumble, for I am a father
to them, and Ephraim is my firstborn. He who chose the harvest, redeemed
the harvest, will also gather the harvest from all the corners
of the earth." No matter where they've been, no matter what
they've done, no matter who they are, God, if He has chosen them,
if He has redeemed them, He said, I will gather them. Is there
anything that will stop Him from gathering His harvest? Is there
anything that will stop Christ from bringing them in? No. No, nothing will stop Him. All
men and creation and principalities and powers are as the air is
to the sickle." You take a sickle and you start cutting down the
wheat and see how much the air interferes with that. It's not
going to stop Christ from bringing in His sheep, bringing in His
harvest. Isaiah 17, verse 13 says, "...the
nation shall rush like the rushing mighty waters, But God shall
rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased
as chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling
thing before the whirlwind." That's what God says about all
the principalities and powers and wickedness of men. They will
not stop me from gathering my people. He will gather them. He will get them. Jesus will
gather them to Zion, His church, and they will believe His gospel,
and they will flow together in the assemblies for the goodness
of God, and they shall be fed, and there shall be no more sorrow
for them." No more sorrow for them. Only gladness. Friends, God has a harvest. Jesus
Christ is the Lord of that harvest, and He has procured the salvation
for every one of His seed. He will gather them from the
four corners of the earth, He will save them, He will deliver
them, and there is nothing to stop the Lord of the harvest.
Well, how will He gather them? How is God purposed to gather
His wheat unto Himself? Look back at Jeremiah there at
the end. He says, at verse 14, he says,
I will saturate the soul of the priest with fatness, and my people
shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. How will he do
it? He will send laborers into his
harvest. This is what he does. This is
the means by which every person is saved. Never apart from these
means. Laborers. Laborers. Now, there
are five things about true laborers. True laborers. First of all, a true laborer
is sent of Christ. Look at that in our text. Pray
the Lord of the harvest that He will thrust. That word sent,
send, is thrust out. laborers into His harvest. They must be called and sent
of Christ. And the Lord in our text, He
doesn't wait to give us an illustration of this. I think chapter divisions
sometimes are barriers to us. We stop at the
end of the chapter and we say, oh, that's the end. Actually,
He gives us the example of Him sending forth laborers in the
next chapter. In chapter 1, look at verse 1.
He says, and when He called unto Him His twelve disciples. Friends,
seminary does not make a pastor. Men do not send other men to
pastor or to labor in the fields of Christ. If a man is not called
and sent of Christ himself, he is not to go forth and labor
in the fields of Christ's ministry. I'll tell you, there'll be evidences
of every man who is called to preach. When I was called to
preach, I felt the calling of the Lord, but I wasn't really
sure at that time. I didn't know if the Lord had
called me or if I was just having a feeling of emotion or something. I don't know what it was at that
time. But I went to my pastor and I asked him, what do I do
about this? And he said, nothing. Nothing. The Lord will open opportunities
for you to preach if that is His will for you. And sure enough,
He opened the doors of opportunity. I didn't open these things. I
didn't send me to you. My church didn't send me to you.
You didn't even send me. You called me to be your pastor. But ultimately, the call came
from Christ. Christ sent me to labor here.
Christ sent me to labor. And if a man is not called by
Christ, he is not to go. He's not to go, no matter how
talented he is. There are some talented men,
far more talented in oratory skills than I am, but I know
this, they're not called. They're not called. I am. I am called of Christ. I am called
of Christ to labor here in the ministry. And everyone who is
called may and should be taught by a faithful pastor. They should
mature in the gospel under the sound of the gospel in a church.
They must be blameless before men. They must be faithful. And
they must have a desire for the ministry. And they must possess
gifts to preach. Every man that's called possesses
gifts. Scripture says He gave some apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. No man is ever
to take the work upon himself, no matter if he has all of these
things, no matter if he feels all of these things. If he's
not called Christ, he shouldn't go. Christ's laborers are sent. And all who are not sent of God,
they are not His laborers and they're not to be heard. Jeremiah
23, verse 32, God says, Behold, I am against them that prophesy
false dream. I'm against him. If a man is
not speaking the Word of God, he is not called of God. And
God says, I'm against that man. I'm not for him. I didn't call
him. I didn't send him. The Scripture says here, the
Lord sayeth to the Lord, and do tell them, and cause My people
to err by their lies and by their lightness. Yet I sent them not,
nor commanded them, therefore I shall not profit this people
at all." Friends, I don't care how many
people a man has sitting in his ministry, if he is not preaching
the gospel, God says, I'm not profiting him. I'm not profiting
him because I didn't send him. And if he didn't send him into
his harvest, he'll reap nothing. He'll reap nothing of God. Second
of all, these men are given gifts that may vary. I know this, that
every gospel preacher is capable to convey the message, but not
every gospel preacher has the same amount of gifts as other
gospel preachers. Some preachers have more notoriety
than other preachers. Some preachers go through life
preaching the gospel to one small flock and are never heard by
anybody else. Look at this. Look at Matthew
chapter 10 again in your text and look at verse 2. Look at
the names of the apostles he sent. He's Simon who is called
Peter. Now everybody knows that one.
He was great, wasn't he? He had a great following. He
was a man that was very boisterous and he was heard. And Andrew
his brother. And James the son of Zebedee
and John his brother. James we know, John we know.
After Pentecost, who heard of Andrew? Where did he go? Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas,
Matthew. We know Matthew because of his
gospel. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Lattius, whose surname is
Thaddeus. Who is that? We don't know who
that is. That does not mean that they
weren't faithful in the ministry that God gave them. They were
faithful with the gifts that God had given them, even though
they had not the notoriety as some of the other apostles. They
were still apostles of Christ. They were still His called and
chosen, and He still gave them gifts of the ministry. A man who is called to the ministry
is a man who has spent all for Christ. I give everything for the gospel
of Christ. I should be spent and spend everything
for this gospel. A man is to be faithful in the
Word of God, faithful in his study, faithful in prayer, faithful
in taking care of God's flock by feeding them the Word of God. You'll know a man who is called
of God if he's faithful. if he's faithful. Number three,
a laborer has only one purpose and mission, and that is to preach
the gospel to the lost sheep of Israel. Look at that in verse
5. He said, Go not to the way of the Gentiles or into the city
of the Samaritans, enter ye not. But rather go to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, and as you go, preach. Preach. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The mission and purpose of every
gospel preacher is to preach the gospel. Very simple, isn't
it? A preacher of the gospel is to simply preach the gospel.
This is our purpose. This is our mainstay. This is
all we are spent to do, is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. We're not to stick our finger
in the air and get the opinions of men as to what to preach.
What we do is we go to God in prayer and we say, what would
you have us to preach? How many times have I preached
something to you that you needed and I don't know what you needed? And there it was. There it was. You had what you
needed. Why? Because the Spirit of God had
moved me to preach this for you. For you. We preach the gospel that all
who believe on Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins are made
acceptable by God and are translated, delivered from the darkness of
the kingdom of Satan into the marvelous light of Jesus Christ. Friends, this gospel message
that I preach raises the dead. It heals the sick and the lame. It gives sight to the blind and
hope for the hopeless. That's what this gospel message
does when the Spirit of God takes it and He applies it to your
heart. That's exactly what it does every time it's preached. And this is our mission, this
is our purpose, to preach the gospel. This is what God has
called us to labor in the gospel. And this is how God brings in
His harvest. This is how He brings them in,
to Himself, by this gospel that we preach. Friends, we preach the gospel
of God's grace and we compel all men to come. I don't know how many times I've
preached to people and they've come and they've had conviction
of sin, they've felt their guilt, they've felt the weight of their
sin, they felt like that they needed Christ, and yet they will
not believe. Conviction is not faith. Don't
mistake the two. Conviction of sin is not faith
in Christ. You must believe on Christ. You must. And it's only through
faith in Christ that salvation comes to the souls of men. It's
only by Him. And when we come to Christ, we
never stop coming to Christ. We didn't believe once. We always
believe. We always believe on Christ. And I know this. Even though
I preach this message and throw this message at a venture." That's
what, when he said, the sower went forth to sow, he cast the
seed at a venture. I throw the seed of the gospel
into the air and I have no idea where it will land. The Holy
Spirit will take the seed and plant it exactly into the ground
that He has prepared. I have no idea where it goes
and what it does. I know this, that God will do
with it as He pleases. And I know this, I am not sent
to the world, but I am sent to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. I know that everyone that God
has chosen, everyone that Christ has redeemed, will hear this
gospel and they will come and they will believe. I know that. And therefore, it makes me faithful. That moves me. Even though I
don't see the results, I know this, I believe God's Word that
there are results. I do. I trust the Lord to do
with His Word as He pleases. And I know the elect will hear,
and they will believe. And you know what? They'll always
believe. They'll always hold to Christ and never let go. Number
four, these men live by the Gospel. Look at that in verse 9 and 10.
Jesus said to these men He sent, provide neither gold nor silver
nor brass in your purses, nor script for your journey, neither
two coats, neither shoes nor staves, for the workman is worthy
of his meat." Every gospel preacher is not greedy for filthy lucre. We are not here for money. We are not here to be rich. We are not here for fame or the
applause of men. We are in the field of God's
harvest only because Christ sent us. And we know this, that we
will live by the gospel. We will live by the means of
the gospel. God will send His people to support
His pastors. And we're content with whatever
God gives. Content with what God gives. Paul said this, he said, I have
sown to you spiritual things. Is it a great thing that we shall
reap your carnal things? Is that not small? Is that not a small thing? I
know many people who claim to want a church, but they don't
want to support a pastor. Friends, they don't want a church.
They don't want a church. You know what? It is a shame.
It is a shame. when churches fail to support
their pastors. That is a shame. They labor in the gospel and
they strive in the gospel to give you things that are worth
more than any amount of money you could possibly give them.
And it's a shame if they don't support them. But I'll tell you this, you won't
hear us complaining. You won't hear a gospel preacher
complaining about that. Why? Because we live by it. This
is all we're here for. I'm here to preach the gospel
and for nothing else. Nothing else. Verse 5, laborers
that are sin of Christ pronounce peace to those who receive the
message of God's grace. Look at this in verse 12 of chapter
10. He says, And when you come to a house, salute it. And if
the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it
be not worthy, let your peace return to you." Friends, if you
receive our message of peace through Christ, then our peace
is upon you. The peace of Christ rests on
your souls if you believe on Christ. If you do not believe, If you do not believe, then this
peace of God that I preach to you, that is offered in Christ,
that is in Christ alone, when I preach that to you, it goes
out. But if you will not believe,
it comes back to me. It doesn't rest on you who believe
not the gospel. It does not rest. But to us who believe, Jesus
said this, My peace I give unto you. Not like the world gives.
How does the world give? They give only for a little while
and they take it back. Christ, He says, My peace I give
unto you, and not as the world giveth, give I unto you. In other
words, our peace with God is made by His blood on the cross
and it will never be taken away from us. And so when I preach
peace to you, it rests on your soul like the dew on the grass
in the morning. It rests on you. It refreshes
you. It gives you peace in your heart. It is a joy to you who believe. In closing, go back to Jeremiah
31. I want you to see this. I want us to read this together.
It is so wonderful. Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse
18. This is God speaking. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself thus. Thou hast chastened me, and I
was chased. As a bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke, turn thou me, and I shall be turned. For Thou art the Lord
my God. Is that not a man convicted of
sin? Is that not us in conviction
of sin? Are we not by nature like a bull,
not accustomed to the yoke, always kicking against the Word of God?
And yet here we are, we say, God, I'm like a bull, and I cannot
be turned unless You turn me. I cannot repent unless You give
me grace. Surely after I was turned, I
repented, and after that I was instructed, I smote on my thigh,
I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach
of my youth." And then here God says this to
you who are convicted of sin. "'Is not Ephraim My dear son?'
Is He not my pleasant child? For since I spake against Him,
I do earnestly remember Him still. Therefore, my bowels are troubled
for Him, and I will surely have mercy on Him." Is that not great? He says, is not this my harvest? Are you not my sons? Have I not
provided all that is necessary for you? You who believe, I will
have mercy on you. Is that not peace to your hearts
this morning? It is to mine. And if you have
not believed, I compel you, believe on Christ. If you will not, I tell you it's
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment
than for you. Because you heard the way of
peace and you would not have it. I pray that God would bless us
to our hearts. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.