The Lord Of The Harvest

The title of today's message is The Lord of the Harvest, and my text is found in Matthew chapter nine, if you would turn there with me. We'll begin reading in verse 35. Matthew chapter nine, verse 35. Farmers understand that harvest time is a season of urgency. When the crop is ripe, There's no time for delay. The fields must be gathered. Every effort must be made to reap the harvest before it's too late and the crop is lost.

And here in Matthew chapter 9, our Lord saw more than just a large gathering of people. He saw souls in desperate need. He saw sheep who were without a shepherd. He saw weary, scattered sinners in desperate need of mercy and grace. And the scripture says he was moved with compassion. I love that phrase. He was moved with compassion. Now, this world in which we live is not merely a place where people live. It's a field ready for harvest.

And the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord of the harvest. Matthew 9 verse 35, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd. Then saith he, that being Christ unto the 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, as we just read, the Lord had just finished moving through various cities and small villages teaching, preaching. The Lord was a teacher, the Lord was a preacher. And He healed those that were sick and diseased. And He looked for weary souls. That's why He came into this world. He came to seek and to save the lost.

And they're everywhere. They're everywhere. The crowds were not only large, they were spiritually ruined. Don't suppose there's few statements in Scripture that are more precious than those words, that phrase, and the Lord had compassion on them. They're very personal to me. Because I was one of these. And the Lord saw me. And the Lord had compassion on me. And every believer says the same thing and realizes the same truth. Why did He have compassion on them? Because they fainted. They were tired. They were weary. They were laying down. Exhausted.

They were scattered like wandering sheep. Spiritually lost and confused. Burdened by sin and guilt. Without any true guidance, they were sheep without a shepherd. was plenteous. It surrounded them everywhere you look. Pharisees on the corner, synagogues here, you know, scribes and Pharisees everywhere you look. But truth didn't guide them. Like sheep, they were vulnerable and defenseless. They had no shepherd to protect them.

And when Christ looked upon these folks, He was moved with compassion. It wasn't just a fleeting thought like sometimes when we see someone begging, you know, we have Fleolat, poor fella, or may even say scam artist, you know, we're so fickle, but the Lord was moved. with compassion. That's where the gospel begins, not with man's goodness, not with the strength of the sinner, but with the compassion of God in Christ. Lost sinners don't move toward God.

Left to themselves, they'll wander further into darkness. We're like sheep, we're prone to wander. You know, that word prone means likely to. We're likely to wonder. We're likely to suffer. We're likely to fall into trouble. That's the nature of sheep. And that's the nature of man. All we like a sheep have gone astray, Isaiah wrote. But the great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, is also prone to look upon ruined sinners with compassion and with mercy. And He's moved. That's a wondrous thought. We're not deserving of Him being moved with compassion toward us. But it's never had anything to do with us. It's never had anything to do with what we deserve. It's had to do with Him and His love for those that God gave Him before time ever was.

In verse 4, the Lord turned to His disciples and He said, The harvest is truly plenteous. The problem is not a lack of sinners. It's still not a problem today. Everywhere they looked there were broken hearts. Everywhere they looked there were guilty consciences. Everywhere they looked there were souls burdened beneath sin. The problem was the laborers were few.

It's the same today. There's not a shortage of entertainers. There's not a shortage of philosophers. There's not a shortage of politicians. There's not a shortage of religious performers. There's not a shortage of harling preachers. The shortage was and still is faithful gospel laborers. There's not a shortage of church buildings. They're on every corner.

Look online. I was going to say look in the phone book. But I don't know how many churches. I looked it up one time. It's amazing how many. Teresa and I were coming to church one time. We lived on the other end of town. And I counted just the ones that we could see on our way here, that short distance. And there was 50 or 60. Not a shortage of church buildings. Not a shortage of religious denominations.

But there's a shortage of true gospel preaching. There's a shortage of men willing to preach repentance. There's a shortage of men willing to preach man's responsibility. There's a shortage of men willing to preach accountability. To preach the holy justice of God. All we hear today is how God loves everybody and wants everybody to be saved. But we don't hear about God's holy justice. God is too holy to excuse sin. God is too holy to just look the other way. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Where's that kind of preaching today? Men willing to preach Christ crucified. There's a shortage of it. Men willing to preach the atonement of substitution and the sovereign mercy of God. There are not many faithful gospel laborers. Men today are more burdened and concerned with making a name for themselves than preaching eternal salvation in a fainting fear.

Notice that the Lord doesn't tell the disciples first to organize and then strategize or recruit. Our Lord commands them to pray. Religious seminaries and mega-churches are highly trained to teach their proselytes how to build, how to recruit, how to organize religious gatherings. The questions that are asked today are not, do you know Christ? There are how many people you've got in your church? You'll find more teaching today on building and growing a church than on growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord.

But the Lord Jesus told His disciples, He said, Pray ye therefore that the Lord of the harvest ask Him to send forth laborers into His harvest. The work of salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. There is no other name by which sinners will be saved. This harvest is His harvest. This field is His field. These souls are His souls. These laborers are His servants. Salvation depends solely upon His powerful intervention. Not human ability. Not human persuasion. Not human technique.

Techniques used in modern day religion include emotional pressure. I think we've all experienced it, targeting those who are experiencing grief, loneliness, and even addiction. It's based on fear-based teaching, fear of hell, fear of fire, fear of eternal pain and suffering. The Lord Jesus today is preached more as a fire escaped from hell than a just and holy Savior. Nobody wants to go to hell. You find me somebody who wants to go to hell, I'll show you somebody that's not right. Fear is a sure way to get a false profession of faith. And that's all harling preachers are looking for, to add names to their row and tithings to their accounts.

Performance. Religion uses work-based acceptance. Performance, financial giving, personal achievements. Promises of earthly gain, wealthy, healthy, success, miracles, power, self-improvement. God wants you to be healthy. God wants you to be wealthy. God wants you to be wise. Well, He does want you to be wise.

And the first, as we saw in the Bible study this morning, Christ is the wisdom of God. These methods are built on manipulation, not truth. Sinners are not saved by what they do. They're saved by what Christ does for them. Look up at verse 10. This is proof of what I'm saying.

And it came to pass, as Jesus said it, meet in the house. Behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, and here's the answer, They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. But you go and learn what that means.

I will have mercy, not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Christ came, my friends, to save guilty sinners. Not to congratulate the self-righteous. The Pharisees trusted in religious performance. They wanted the Lord to come and pat them on the back and say, Oh, you're doing such a good job. You're such an example to everybody. That isn't who He came to save. Works religion no different today. That's why people are talking about what they and their church are doing.

But the Lord taught that God requires a heart that's transformed by mercy and humility and repentance. The Gospel does not condemn obedience or worship. Rather, it condemns empty religion without any compassion and without any awareness of personal sin. The gospel declares that salvation is not for those who think that they're spiritually whole, but for those who know that they're spiritually sick.

And God's got to reveal that to them. Has God revealed that to you? Salvation's for those who come to Christ for mercy. Christ came in the world to save who? Sinners. That's good news for a sinner. Christ seeks, finds, receives repentant riches because He Himself is the Great Physician who heals souls through grace and forgiveness.

And friends, this harvest is truly plenteous. And friends, the laborers are still critically few. Verse 38. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send, not the church, not the priest, not grandma, not mama, not daddy, but that He will send forth laborers into His harvest. May the Lord lay this burden on each of our hearts.

Many, even most of those who we love and care deeply for are without Christ. You do an inventory of your own family. How many of your family, how many of those that you love, father, mother, children, siblings are sitting here with you today? Well, that's just a sobering thought, isn't it?

Scripture says they're aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. And then the most condemning words of all, having no hope. And without God in this world, Ephesians 2, 12. Somebody might say, well, you know, I'm OK with not being a citizen of your kingdom and a stranger according to what you call promises. But boy, you tell them that they're without hope, without God in this world? That's a different thing. And most of the time, they'll get upset. How dare you say such? I'm as good as the next guy. Well, you got that right.

There's no goodness in any of us. There's none that doeth good, no, not one. The Gospel message is not a message of do. The Gospel message is a message of done. There's nothing a sinner can do to be saved. It's only by the finished work of Christ that we can be. Christ is the reason that any sinner is saved. Why did the Lord save me? Because Christ set His affection upon me. Because Christ died for me. Because Christ revealed to me the gospel.

Nothing that I did. And Christ is the reason no safe center can be lost. Oh my, you're going to cause people to sin. No. Friends, your children, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers, and your acquaintances are like wandering sheep without a shepherd. And there's only one that can help them. I can. You can. But he can't. The great shepherd can't.

Only God can raise up such laborers. Only God can open such hearts. Only God can give life to the dead. And that phrase here, send forth a laborer, carries some force behind it. It means to thrust out. That's what the word means. Send forth, thrust out, drive forth. This is serious, serious business.

True gospel ministers are not self-created men chasing careers. That's the definition of a harling preacher. They're in it for hire. They're in it for the money. But gospel preachers are sent by God. Men constrained by a divine calling. Men compelled by the truth that they preach.

And the church doesn't manufacture these labors. The Lord calls them and raises them up. He sends forth labors into the harvest. The working of saving sinners belongs to God alone. The gospel is not the work of man. But God uses the means of preaching, the preaching by men, to save those who believe. The gospel ministry is not self-appointed. Faithful laborers are sent by The Lord of the harvest. And what's the message these laborers proclaim? Christ crucified. The greatest harvest in history was gathered at the cross.

You say, well, how so? There the Lord Jesus stood in the place of guilty sinners, past, present, and future. It was there that all the sins of God's people throughout time were paid for by His solitary sacrifice and substitution on the cross. There the Lord Jesus stood in the place of the guilty. Christ crucified is just shorthand for the whole Gospel. In those two words, God's holiness is revealed. Sin is judged and mercy is provided all at the cross.

He bore the wrath of God against sin on the cross. He satisfied divine justice completely at the cross. He died, was buried, and rose again. And he was victorious over death, hell, and the grave. And it was through his blood that rebels are reconciled to God. And through his righteousness, condemned sinners are justified freely by his grace.

This harvest exists because Christ purchased it. There'd be no harvest without Him. Every soul brought to salvation is actual fruit of His suffering. Every conversion of a sinner from death into life was not in vain. Ever redeemed sinner is part of the eternal harvest that God the Father promised the Son before the foundation of the world. He said all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Not one is going to be lost.

And notice this. The very ones that the Lord Jesus tells to pray for here in Matthew chapter 9 are the very ones that He commissions and sends forth in the very next chapter, Matthew chapter 10. Well, you say, what's the significance of that? Well, it's not accidental or incidental.

Those who God calls us to see the need of the harvest are the very ones that He entrusts with the harvest. And in this story, the Lord answers his own prayer. He said, pray to the Lord that he send forth laborers into the harvest. And that's exactly what he does. As the Lord of the harvest, he sends those who have a concern for the harvest out to do just that. Prayer and service belong together.

So what are you and I praying? Oh, I mentioned this not long ago. We pray for a lot of things. Most of the time, to consume them on our lust, we pray for selfish things. We want a better job, a nicer home, more pay. You know what we pray for. We're all guilty of it. But our text here calls us to three responses.

We got to see the world as Christ sees it. That's a good thing. The Lord enabled me to see this world as you see it, not merely as crowds, not merely as multitudes, but as souls, not as statistics, but as sheep without a shepherd. You look around you in your everyday life and listen to those footsteps. on their way to hell. Oh, I'm telling you.

Secondly, we've got to pray earnestly for God to raise up faithful laborers. We ought to pray for pastors everywhere who preach the truth without compromise. May God enable us to pray for missionaries whom God fills with courage. We are personally involved with the work in Mexico and one in Africa. And we can send them money. Chris does every month. But they need our prayers.

I need your prayers. We need to pray to the Lord that the Lord will bless the preaching of His Word. Listen, you can spend your life in a study, studying and preparing an outline to prepare a message to preach. But if God doesn't bless it, if God doesn't make it effectual, We've all just wasted our time. Let's pray that the Lord make it effectual. May God cause us to pray for all the groups of churches that we personally know who are burdened for the eternity of souls.

Our concern is for the lost, not for our own personal comfort. That's the way it should be. It's so easy for us to lose sight of why We're here. And I'm not talking about here at church. I'm talking about in this world, in this life. It's so easy to lose sight of how God receives glory. Thirdly, come personally to Christ.

Don't just admire the harvest while remaining outside the kingdom yourself. The same compassionate Savior who looked upon the multitudes still receives sinners today. God's still in the mercy business. If any soul perishes, it's not going to be because Christ was unwilling to save. I can assure you of that. The Gospel call has always been the same. Repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

When Christ, our Lord, says the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. He's not praising humanity's spiritual readiness. He's exposing spiritual desperation. The harvest is not a picture of healthy crops waiting to be gathered. It's a picture of souls ready in the sense that judgment's near, that life is fleeting, and opportunity is urgent. Reap the harvest before it's lost. Humanity's not short on need.

It's short on faithful messengers of grace. There are many people, multitudes our Lord said, yet far too few who actually bring Christ to them. The world's full of spiritually dead and directionless people, but very little true proclamation of repentance and faith in Christ can be found. And you could go to 20 churches and not hear any of the things that I'm proclaiming to you this morning. And I'm not happy about that. I wished it wasn't so. But it is.

How sobering are the words of our Lord who said, Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth to life, but few there be that find it. God doesn't reach the world through angels or direct voices from heaven. He saves through sent messengers, called laborers who are commissioned to speak His Word in grace and truth. And when those messengers are few, when those messengers are silent, the problem's not the harvest. It's the absence of obedience of the servant.

Verse 37 points us to the urgency of salvation. People are not slowly drifting toward God on their own. They're in immediate need of rescue and the time for response is limited. You know, I know I've been here all my life since I was a young man in church. The Lord's coming. The Lord's coming soon. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. The Lord's coming soon.

And our perception of time is messed up. A day is as 1,000 years unto the Lord and 1,000 years as a day. And we think, well, I've been hanging around here for 70 years now and the Lord hasn't come yet. Our senses get dulled to the fact that He is coming back.

He said so in His Word. There's urgency here. Christ is showing us that the world is ripe for judgment, ready for mercy, and in desperate need of preaching. And preaching is the means that God uses to save sinners. That's why we give it the preeminence here. It's the most important thing. And the shortage is not sinners needing to be saved, but laborers willing to speak the Gospel clearly and faithfully.

And verse 38 gives us a command by the Lord Himself. He says, pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He'll send forth laborers into His harvest. That's not just a request to ignore. When the Lord says to do something, He means it. Pray ye therefore that the Lord of the harvest send laborers into his harvest.

God alone is the sovereign source of gospel laborers, and the proper human response to spiritual need is not strategy. It's not, oh, let's get together and figure out ways that we can go out and win souls to Jesus. You know, let's start a basketball team or a volleyball team or let's do this and let's do that and let's get people involved. That's not going to save anybody. If anything, that's going to get more lost. Because you leave the importance of the main thing, and that's the preaching of the Gospel. And the harvest is not the churches, it's not the preachers, it's not the laborers. It's the Lord's harvest. Salvation belongs to God from start to finish. I've told you that, haven't I? Salvation is of the Lord. Period.

He calls, He equips, He sends those who labor in His name. And He saves those whom He pleases by the message that they bring. Just a few bringing it. When I hear that the Lord's called a young man to preach, it thrills my soul. If he's preaching the truth, it thrills my soul. Because we need more laborers A true minister is a result of divine calling, not a personal career choice. Prayer is the God-appointed means of expanding the gospel witness. And hear me, God's sovereignty never cancels out prayer. It establishes that it's essential.

If God is the only one that could grant these things, why wouldn't we be asking Him for them? if we really care about them. You really care about your loved one? If you really care about your son, your daughter, your mother, your father, wouldn't you ask God to send forth labors? Sure you would. This carries urgency and humility together. Urgency because the harvest is ready.

Humility because the church itself cannot fix the problem with its own strength. We are totally dependent on God. And this teaches us that the mission of Christ advances when people recognize their own inability. When we see we can do nothing to save ourselves or anyone else, we'll start calling upon God who can. We've got to appeal to the Lord of the harvest and trust Him to raise up and send faithful witnesses.

And we have not. You know why? Because we ask not. And when we do ask, we ask amiss. Most of our prayers, even as believers, have been prayers that we've asked amiss. Amiss means badly, poorly, selfishly, to consume things that we ask for upon our own lust.

May God enable us. I wish I could convey it the way it needs to be conveyed. May God enable us to ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. So may God enable us to ask without wavering.

The only way our children, our parents, our siblings, our loved ones, our friends, the unbelieving world in general will be saved is if the Lord make us His laborers. You heard the Gospel from a faithful preacher. Don't know who it was, it doesn't matter. What matters is they told you the truth. The Lord's given us the message. The power is the Lord's.

We have no power. You know, that's one comforting thing to me as a preacher is that I preach, but only the Lord can give the increase. We plant as preachers. We water as preachers, teachers. But only He can give the increase. So why wouldn't we ask Him to do so? He's the Lord of the harvest.

The Lord Of The Harvest

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The Lord Of The Harvest

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