Believe Ye That I Am Able To Do This

Q: What does the Bible say about faith in Christ?

The Bible teaches that faith is a gift from God, and it is through hearing the word of God that believers come to faith. Faith is a crucial element in the Christian life, as it is the means through which individuals are made righteous before God. In Romans 10:17, Paul affirms that 'faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.' This underscores that faith is not a result of human effort or education. Rather, it is a divine gift that God bestows upon those who He chooses. In the case of the blind men in Matthew 9, their faith was a direct response to their understanding of who Jesus was, demonstrating that true faith recognizes Jesus as the omnipotent Savior capable of granting mercy and healing.

Q: Why is seeking mercy important for Christians?

Seeking mercy is essential because it reflects our understanding of our spiritual poverty and need for God's grace. In the passage discussed, the blind men earnestly sought mercy from Jesus, demonstrating a key aspect of Christian life: recognizing our utter dependence on God's grace. Their determination and faith led to healing, illustrating that God responds to those who genuinely seek Him for mercy. This earnestness is critical because it affirms that we cannot approach God on the basis of our merit; instead, we must come to Him humbly, aware of our sins and shortcomings. James 4:6 reminds us that 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.' Thus, seeking mercy is crucial for fostering a humble heart before God.

Q: How do we know God is compassionate?

God's compassion is evident in His willingness to heal and save those who are lost and needy. The compassion of Christ is a central theme in the scripture, notably in Matthew 9:36, where it states that Jesus was moved with compassion for the multitudes because they were like sheep without a shepherd. This emotional response signifies that God is intimately aware of our struggles and needs. As Christians, we must recognize that God's compassion drives Him to act on behalf of those who are suffering, demonstrating His love and desire for all to come to repentance. 1 Peter 5:7 encourages us to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us, affirming that God's character includes deep compassion for His creation.

Q: What does the Bible say about the importance of faith?

The Bible emphasizes that faith is essential for receiving God's blessings and experiencing His grace. Faith is not merely an abstract concept; it is a fundamental requirement for engaging with God and His work in our lives. In Matthew 9:28, Jesus asked the blind men if they believed He was able to heal them, to which they affirmed their faith. Jesus then responded, 'According to your faith, be it unto you.' This clearly establishes the principle that our faith has a direct correlation with how we experience God's grace and power. Hebrews 11:6 further supports this notion by stating that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Thus, cultivating a deep and trusting faith is vital for every Christian.

Matthew the 9th chapter. And we will begin our reading with verse 27. Matthew chapter 9 and verse 27. When Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came in to him, and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened, and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, see that no man know it.

But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all the country. As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake, and the multitudes marveled, saying, it was never so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, he casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.

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 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 in this passage we see three men healed miraculously by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of his word, and by the power of his touch. The two blind men were healed as they came to the Lord Jesus seeking mercy. And these two blind men who had been companions in misery were about to become companions in mercy. They came to the Lord Jesus seeking his mercy and they obtained it. Now notice what Matthew tells us about these men. They were blind. They couldn't see. And that's just the condition of all men by nature spiritually. Man by nature hasn't the ability to see the things of the Spirit of God.

Our Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, when Nicodemus came and said, good master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. Our Lord Jesus looked at him and said, Nicodemus, now I know you're a religious leader. I know you're a well-trained theologian. I know you've been in Sunday school all your life, but you don't know a blooming thing.

You can't see the kingdom of God except you be born again. And that's something this generation must learn. And it must be reinforced over and over and over again. We're living in an age when men and women have the idea that somehow people can be taught into seeing spiritual things. Or men and women can be educated into the kingdom of God. It can't be done. We teach and preach and train, we instruct our children, we instruct adults, we instruct one another, but no man can see the kingdom of God until he's born of God. That's what our Lord told Nicodemus. Now if you would see the things of God, you're going to have to come to Christ and obtain sight from him. He is the revelation of God and he alone can reveal himself to you.

No more than that, not only were they blind, but these men being blind were earnest about this business of seeing. They meant business. They were determined to give the Son of God no rest until he gave them rest by giving them their sight. They followed the Savior through the streets and cried for mercy. And the Lord Jesus seems to have just ignored them. They were following him through the streets and they said, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on us. And our Lord Jesus went into a house, but they weren't satisfied. They followed him right on into the house and the man turned around and looked at him.

He said, do you believe I'm able to do this? And they said, we sure do. He said, all right, I've touched you. Now, according to your faith, be it unto you. These men were earnest about obtaining their sight. And every sinner who seeks the Lord with all his heart, every sinner who seeks mercy will obtain mercy as he seeks mercy from God in Jesus Christ earnestly with all his heart.

They believed on the Lord Jesus. They recognized him to be the Messiah. They called him the son of David. They confessed and acknowledged that he is the Lord. And they believed that he was able to give them sight. More than that, they believed him. They believed him to be both omnipotent and merciful. And they sought the right thing. The Lord said to him, said, what do you want?

We want mercy. We want mercy. God be merciful to me, the publican cried. And all who seek mercy from God, all who come to God for mercy will obtain mercy from God. Now I can tell you this, everybody who comes to God and seeks to obtain God dealing with them on the basis of what they deserve will get exactly what they deserve. If you come to God and ask God to deal with you on the basis of your merit, on the basis of your worth, on the basis of your work, then you will have exactly what you deserve from God, and that will be everlasting wrath and destruction in hell. But as we come to God, Mary, and seek mercy, what do you want? I want mercy. Do you? You will obtain mercy. I promise you, seek mercy and you will obtain mercy. God Almighty declares it, knock and it shall be opened to you. Seek and you shall find.

They obtained this thing that they desired for their eyes were opened. They were made to see. Now the two blind men came seeking the Lord. But then our text speaks of a poor demon possessed soul who was brought to the master. Look at verse 32. The blind men who had received their sight went out, and behold, as they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with the devil. The word behold is one of those catchwords that the Holy Spirit uses in the scriptures to call our attention. Now, pay attention, this is significant.

Here is a man who could not speak. He was dumb. And the reason he couldn't speak is that he was possessed of a devil. And he had no inclination to come to Christ. He had no desire to come to Christ. He had heard about him, obviously, but he would not come to the Savior. He had no ability to speak for himself, but someone brought him to the Savior.

And this one who was brought to the Savior obtained mercy just exactly as did these blind men who came seeking the Savior. Now these two examples set before us in the scriptures are designed of God to show us plainly that the experience of grace is as varied and different as the diverse recipients of grace. All three of these men obtained mercy. All three of them obtained mercy through Christ the mediator and obtained mercy by faith in him. But these two blind men obtained mercy as the result of their seeking mercy and this man who was dumb and possessed of the devil obtained mercy as a result of someone bringing him to the master and the master showed mercy upon him.

This man who was dumb The first thing he thought about mercy was after he had obtained mercy. His first thoughts of grace were after he had experienced grace. You see, grace sometimes violently arrests a man. Grace sometimes steps in a man's way and suddenly arrests him and gives him life and faith and changes his whole life about without the man ever being aware of any of the process of what's going on. And then sometimes grace deals with men gradually and causes them to hunger and thirst and seek after righteousness and hunger and thirst and seek after mercy and they obtain mercy in that way. Why do you stress that pastor?

Because we must never try to box God in and say this is the way God works. He doesn't work any other way. Don't ever do it. Don't ever do it. God operates freely and sovereignly. Now, I grant God operates according to the revelation of his word. There are certain things we know that God will not do. There are certain things we know that he will do.

But insofar as the experience of grace is concerned, that is, as Bobby Estes perceives grace and experiences grace, and his wife Judy perceives and experiences it, it may be perceived and experienced in totally different ways. These blind men experienced grace as a result of them seeking it. This dumb, demon-possessed man experienced grace as a result of someone bringing him to the master to obtain mercy. Now we must never try to box God in, and we must never judge one person's experience and the validity of that person's salvation by another person's experience of grace.

We have such a terrible, terrible tendency to do this. We have a terrible tendency to set ourselves up as the judges of other men. Children of God don't do it. Don't succumb to that tendency. We look at people and we know what we've experienced, and we know how we've experienced things, or we think we do, anyway. And we look at somebody else and we kind of have a tendency to measure the validity of that person's experience by the degree to which they have a similar experience as we do. Now, there have been groups of people develop systems of theology around this very thing. And I'm warning you against it because it needs to be warned against.

People think sometimes that if God has led Don Fortner down this road, and in order for me to experience grace, in order for me to come to Christ, I have to experience this, and feel that, and do this, and come here. Then if you come to Christ, you've got to experience, and feel, and do, and come to the same place.

That's just not so. That's just not so. We come to the same Savior. We come for the same thing. We obtain the same grace, but we do not obtain it in the same manner or in the same way of experience. Now, as we look at this passage of scripture, there are five things that I want to call your attention to, and I want you to just hold your Bibles open here and follow along with me as we look at them. These are five specific lessons that deserve our close attention. First, understand this. Faith is frequently found where it is least expected.

Who would have thought that these two blind men, or this one Dillon-possessed mute man, would have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Why, these blind fellows, who were they? What did they have? Where did they come from? This dumb man who was possessed of a demon, how could he possibly be one who would come to the Savior? After all, even after these people beheld the miracles that were performed, the multitudes marveled at the miracles.

But the Scripture didn't say a thing about them believing. Look down in verse 33. When the devil was cast out of the dumb, cast out the dumb snake, And the multitudes marveled. Oh, what an astonishing thing. It was never so seen in Israel, but they didn't believe. They knew something miraculous had taken place. They knew a marvelous, mysterious thing had happened, but they didn't believe.

And the Pharisees, who had been well-trained in the Old Testament scriptures and should have easily perceived this man as the Christ of God, they blasphemed God. But the blind men, They believed what they had heard. They could not have seen the Lord's other miracles. The Pharisees did, the multitudes did, but these fellows were blind. The only way they knew who was around and what was happening is they heard the common gossip in the streets.

They heard somebody gossiping about the Savior. Oh, I wonder if God folks in Lancaster, Kentucky would always hear you gossiping about the Savior. And folks in Danville always hear us gossiping about the Savior. And folks down where you live always hear you gossiping about the Savior.

These men came to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of David, the Christ of God, the Lord of Glory, because they heard rumor about what he'd done. They just heard rumor about what he'd done. And the rumor was driven to their hearts by the Spirit of God. You see, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. These men heard, and hearing, they believed. And believing, their eyes, the eyes of their understanding were enlightened and opened, even when the eyes of their body were darkened and they could not see. Faith, you see, is the gift of God's grace.

Faith is not something that is mustered up by the will of man, when he decides he will let Jesus come into his heart. Faith is not something that comes as the result of the preacher being able to give the proper illustrations and the proper stories and speak with the proper measure of earnestness and perhaps the choir sings softly just as I am and the preacher being able to psychologically manipulate a congregation so that folks come to decide on the Lord Jesus. No, that's not where faith comes. Religion comes like that. Deception comes like that, but not faith. How does faith come?

It's the gift of God. Read the book of God. Faith is that which God operates in you. Faith is something God gives to those who have it. Our Lord Jesus looked at the pharisees and he said to them in John 10 verse 25, you believe not because you're not of my sheep. For I said unto you, my sheep hear my voice. I know them, I give unto them eternal life, and they follow me, and they shall never perish. Faith is that which God performs for us and in us. It is the gift of God which works, which God works in sinners by the word of the gospel that's preached to them.

And the object of faith is Christ the Lord. The object of faith is not what we get from Christ. That's not the object of faith. Modern preachers have a name it, claim it theology. You just name it, claim it if you believe God, it's yours. That's not faith. That's presumption. It's worse than presumption. It's an out-faced, bald-faced lie. It's just not so. The object of faith is Christ.

And we believe him. regardless of what he does. We believe him regardless of what we experience. We believe him because he's worthy of faith. And to believe him is simply to bow to his will and trust him in all things. Believing Christ is not getting from him everything you want. It's got nothing to do with getting from him everything you want. Believing Christ is trusting him. Trusting him. I don't know a simpler more honest, clear definition of faith than that word trust. It's trust.

My daughter, raised in our house, she didn't get everything from me she wanted. She still doesn't get everything she wants. Well, close. But she didn't get everything she wants when she's younger. No, she didn't. Because some things she wanted weren't good for her. Some things she wanted to do, I wouldn't allow her to do. Some folks she wanted to have around, I wouldn't let her have around. Some places she wanted to go, I wouldn't let her go because it wasn't best for her. It was absolutely not best on her behalf. But though she did not get from me all that she wanted, she trusted me. And trusting me, she knew that what I gave her was what was best for her. You understand what I'm saying? faith in Christ has nothing to do what we get from him, it's trusting him. It's just trusting him. Now having said all that, I want you to realize that it is the responsibility of every man and woman to believe God, and that there is a direct correlation between our faith and God's work.

Look in verse 28. Our Lord Jesus takes these blind men as they come into the house and he said, believe ye that I'm able to do this. Now that's a question. That's a question. We talk about faith. And our Lord turned and looked at these fellas and he put a question to them that deserves honest consideration. He said, now fellows, you've come asking for mercy. You've come asking to receive your sight. You've asked it of me. Do you believe that I can give you what you've asked? And they said, yes, Lord. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Then touched to their eyes, saying, according to your faith, Be it unto you. Oh my soul, volumes could and should be spoken and written concerning what is taught here. Spurgeon said he touched them with his hand, but they must also touch him with their faith. Had these men been mere pretenders to faith, they would have remained blind. You mark it down. It's our responsibility to believe God.

And there is a direct correlation between our faith and God's work. When Buddy was reading back in the office, Romans chapter 12, there was a passage, just one verse, particularly in this connection that jumped out at me, in verse 6. But it read, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy let us prophesy, and listen to how Paul describes that, prophesy according to the proportion of faith. We will experience and we will obtain and we will enjoy the benefits and blessings of God's grace in direct proportion as we believe God. Our Lord said to Martha when he stood at the tomb of Lazarus, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou shouldest see the glory of God.

We have a tendency, I say we, I do, and I think you do as well, we have a tendency to blame God and his sovereignty. That is, we take refuge in God's sovereignty, And so this is like it is, or these things are like they are, or there is a lack of work here, and a lack of response here, and a lack of diligence here, because this is God's purpose. And we recognize God's sovereign purpose is accomplished everywhere in all things. We recognize that. But having said that, we must never blame God's sovereignty for that which is the result of our own unbelief.

Our Lord said, if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, a grain of mustard seed, you'd say to the sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the roots and cast into the sea. And there'd be. What's he talking about? Well, if you just believe God, you go out there and sit in that big sycamore tree, be cast into the sea, and folks would look at you and say, whoo, he has faith.

No, that's not what it's talking about. But if you believe God just a little bit, no obstacle would stand in your way to the accomplishing of God's will. No obstacle stand in your way to performing the work God's put in your hand to do. Nothing. Oh, my father, give me such faith in Christ the Lord. Do you believe that I'm able to do this? Yea, Lord. Now, secondly, there is something else that is evident here. Look at verse 30. Their eyes were opened and Jesus straightly charged them. Look at it now. Jesus straightly charged him. He gave him a strict, direct, unmistakable command. Say, see that no man knoweth. Keep your mouth shut. Keep your mouth shut. Now that's a reasonable thing. That's a reasonable thing. It's reasonable if you understand who Christ is.

The Lord Jesus was not like the self-serving, glory-seeking preachers of our day. He did not seek great things for himself. He did not seek and he did not want worldly fame. Therefore, he strictly commanded the men whom he had healed to tell no one. You've got what you want now, don't say a word to anybody. Don't say a word to anybody.

But in verse 31, They, when they were departed, spread abroad the fame in all the country. They went right out and told everybody. Now, I'm quite certain that these men convinced themselves that it was only proper that they should go out and tell everybody what the Lord had done for them. After all, the way they heard about the Lord Jesus to start with is somebody telling them about what he'd done for somebody else. They had heard from someone else what the Lord Jesus had done.

And this, surely he did not mean exactly what he said. Surely what he really meant was to just give us a test to see if we keep our mouth shut. No, what he meant was keep your mouth shut. That's what he said. That's what he said. Keep your mouth shut. Now the lesson is this.

Disobedience to Christ is always inexcusable. I wish you'd write that down, underscore it, and don't forget it. Disobedience to Christ is always inexcusable. We can always find reasons for disobedience. And we justify ourselves and we can sue our consciences, but disobedience is always without excuse.

The Lord God told Saul to go over and slay the Amalekites, slay Agag, slay all of his sheep, all of his oxen, Destroy all of his riches and all of his servants. Don't take anything. And Saul went over to the Amalekites, and he killed the Amalekites, and he brought back all the sheep, and all the ox, and all the goats, and all the gold and silver of the Amalekites, and his Sparaday gang. He's gonna have a gate, and his reasoning was, his reasoning was very good, very good.

We brought these things back for the people to enjoy and to give an offering to the Lord, to give of the Lord the spoils of our victory. When Samuel saw what had happened, he said, Saul, what on this earth have you done? What have you done? Well, Samuel, you know, you know I, this is just what I ought to do. Samuel said, give me your sword, we'll talk to you later. And he took his sword, hewed Agag in pieces, and he said, now Saul, to obey is better than to sacrifice.

Do what God says, and don't try to fit God's word into what you want it to say. I meet with young people all over the country, believers, dating and seeking companions among folks who are unbelievers, You, young lady sitting there, don't be so foolish. Don't be so foolish. But I've seen it turn out good so many times. That's got nothing to do with it. That's got nothing to do with it.

You see, one believer marrying an unbeliever, and God's pleased to take that unbeliever, give him life and faith in Christ, and God overrules it for good. Thank God for that. The disobedience of these two blind men, God overruled for good to bring about the healing and salvation and grace of this man who was possessed of a demon, but their disobedience was inexcusable.

And I'm telling you, disobedience is always inexcusable. Our rule of life. Folks sometimes say, well, I got a letter from a fellow last week. He said, what law do you obey? This one here. The whole thing. The Ten Commandments is not enough if it was God wouldn't have given us his word. God's given us his word as a rule of life, and it is our responsibility to obey that which God plainly reveals in his word, no matter how contrary it is to our experiences, our feelings, and our desires. To obey is better than to sacrifice. Thirdly, I understand from my text that none are beyond the reach of Christ's omnipotence.

Here are these blind men. We're not told much about them. But the blind, the deaf, the lame, the haught, the dumb, the demon possessed, the lunatics, during these days were the offscouring of society. Just, just cast off. They were usually beggars. They were the bottom row of the ladder. They were among the worst of the worst, as far as their circumstances are concerned.

But the grace of God is infinitely stronger than circumstances. We must never despair of any because they're blind, or because they're under the yoke of Satan. are because they obstinately refuse to come to Christ. Our Lord's arm is not shortened that it cannot save. His omnipotent arm of mercy can break the will of man, and break the power of Satan, and break the custom of circumstance and tradition. It is written in the Psalms, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.

He sees to it. Notice verse 35. Our Lord Jesus, we're told, healed every sickness and every disease. I read that text earlier today and I thought, that's a redundancy. But I've noticed in the scriptures that frequently, by deliberate plan, inspired men wrote things that appear to us to be redundancies.

It would have been sufficient for Matthew simply to have written that he healed every sickness and disease. But he says instead he healed every sickness and every disease and he did so with deliberate purpose because he wants us to understand that the Lord Jesus is indeed the great physician.

None are too loathsome for him to touch. None are too far gone for him to cure. The Son of God comes with healing in his wings. Now that's to be applied in two ways. All physical healing is his work. Anybody who doesn't recognize that doesn't know beans from apple butter about the things of God. Somebody says, do you believe in divine healing? That's the only kind of healing there is. That's the only kind there is.

Do we use medicine? Yes. Do we use physicians? Yes. Luke himself was a physician. He used medicine in accomplishing healing for men. Do we use the hospitals and those things? Of course we do, because God has given us good sense and he's given us opportunity to use things set before us for our welfare and our health. Give you an example. I think I think I truly believe in God's absolute sovereign predestination. I think I do. I'm confident that God has ordained the time, place, and means of my death, and I'm satisfied with that.

But if I go running back and forth across this highway out here, you can bet your boots, unless I've lost my mind, I'm going to look in both directions. because God's given me a little bit of sense, and I know that I'm responsible to look in both directions.

And even so, with regard to the healing of our bodies of physical disease, the healing is of God, and God may or may not be pleased to use the medicine that is applied, but the healing, if it comes, is God's work. But more importantly, the healing of our souls is altogether God's work. The Lord Jesus is the balm of Gilead. He is the son of righteousness who is risen with healing in his wings. Yes, with his stripes we are healed. Healed of our soul's disease. There is no disease of soul that he cannot or will not completely cure.

Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 6 for a moment. Hold your hands here and turn to 1 Corinthians 6. I never get tired of reading these few verses. They so thoroughly speak of me. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, I'm reading verse 9, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Now read this next line. And such were some of you. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified. But ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Christ is the great physician. If you've got a sickness of sin in your soul, your heart is plagued with the incurable plague of sin. He's able to heal. disease and every sickness. He's able to do it. He's able to do it. Fourthly, the Lord Jesus Christ is a Savior full of compassion for needy souls.

In verse 36 of our text, when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Now some fellows are scared to death. We're not going to defend God's sovereignty and God's independence and God's immutability. clearly and distinctively enough, and so they come to a text like this and see our Lord being moved with compassion towards sinners, and they try to figure out some way to explain it away. I say let the theologians argue and wrangle all they must over such text as this. I want you to understand this.

When our Savior saw the lost multitudes before him, He was overcome with sympathy. His whole being stirred within him at the sight of perishing souls. The text says he was moved. He was moved. Do you see that? God Almighty in human flesh, the same God who sits on the throne right now, He was moved with compassion.

The word is with co-passion on them. With co-passion. Like one who is intimately connected to another, when he sees that one with whom he is one suffering, he's moved and he suffers with them. So our Savior beheld the souls of men lost and fainting and perishing and he was moved with compassion on them. Moved.

Now I read that and I ask myself what are our feelings when we see the lost multitudes around us? There are multitudes. of Muslims and Jews, Papists and Protestants, intellectuals and scoffers, atheists and agnostics, who are ignorant, lost, unconverted, and perishing. Do we feel their destitution? Do we feel their destitution so that we are moved with co-passion for them. Do we long to see their destitution removed? Now those are serious questions that need to be honestly answered.

I know this, if we are unmoved by perishing souls, If I am unmoved and if you are unmoved by perishing souls, we do not have the mind of Christ. Now that brings me to my last point. Verses 37 and 38 tell us that there is a great harvest of souls to be gathered by grace for which we are responsible. When I say we, I mean every believer.

Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, no lack of harvest, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his vineyard. Now this is what the text tells us. There is a harvest to be gathered in and it's plenteous. The harvest is God's elect, Christ's redeemed ones, a multitude which no man can number, 10,000 times 10,000, thousands of thousands, a great multitude. The Lord of the harvest is God himself. He controls the field where his harvest is.

You know what that is, don't you? That's the whole world. He controls it all. He controls his plants. All his elect, he controls everything about him. He controls all his laborers. So he sends one here and sends another there. He controls the whole thing.

Faithful gospel preachers are the laborers who are described here in our text. Laborers in God's vineyard. Laborers. Now I realize that no one can begin to understand anything involved in the work of the ministry except someone who's been there. But you need to understand that the work of the ministry, if performed faithfully, is labor. It's labor.

I don't have any hesitancy whatsoever And saying to you publicly, you know what goes on around here, many of you do. There's not a man sitting out here ever spends any more time laboring at his work than I do laboring to prepare and preach to you. No man.

And I do so because that's my responsibility and that's my privilege, that's my calling. But God's servants, if they're faithful to your souls, labor in the gospel, they labor in the gospel. The Apostle Paul said, I am separated unto the gospel. That means this is what I've given my life to. This is it. And I have given my life to this. Separated unto the gospel.

Those faithful laborers in the gospel are always few. The laborers are few. There are plenty of preachers around. My soul, God knows the woods are full of preachers. Got preachers everywhere. Got a whole lot more preachers than we need. We don't need any more preachers.

I'd like to get rid of most of what we got. The laborers are few, but only God can send forth laborers into his venue. We can't do it. We can't do it. I can't make a preacher out of anybody. I can't make a preacher out of myself. And nobody else can make a preacher out of me or you either. But God may take any man and thrust him out into his venue. And if God puts him out there, I promise you, if God puts a man out there, he will equip him in every aspect for the work he's called him to do. You'll do it in every aspect.

I have read just recently William Huntington's biography. Such an uneducated, illiterate fellow from the very bottom rungs of society. Matter of fact, all his life the well-trained, well-learned, uppity, refined preachers kindly poked fun at him and said he didn't have any business preaching. He thought he was somebody riding around in a coach just like he had come from society.

But God took it and God used it. God put him in his venue and by him God did marvelous things. God alone can make a preacher. It is our responsibility to make God's harvest, that is God's church, God's kingdom, God's elect, a matter of earnest prayer.

There are a lot of things each of you can do, a lot of things. You can give, I urge you to do that. You can distribute tracts and tapes and literature, I urge you to do it. Somebody says, what can I do? Here, take these. What do I do with that? Well, don't take them and throw them in the garbage can. Take them and give them to somebody.

When you leave a tip at the table, you can leave a track. When you have an opportunity to talk to somebody, I've got something right here that I believe will answer your questions here. There are lots of things you can do. Be faithful witnesses. You can do like somebody did with this dumb man here in the text.

You can bring folks to hear the gospel. There are a few folks who will occasionally And God's providence began to have some urging to come hear the gospel preached and to be in the house of worship. But most people, most people who come through those doors come because somebody cared enough to bring them to hear the gospel. Most people. You can watch for and encourage newcomers who hear the word.

This is something that Many of you are remiss in you somebody comes and slips in sets down you act like they're just Turn I look at what you're doing here Don't ever do anything. I don't do that people don't treat people that way Whoever that is came in set down the back corner back there.

That's not so pretty to look at maybe you Think maybe he looks a little strange that man or that woman Somebody with an immortal soul gonna be God soon. I ought to encourage him to hear the word But there's one thing above all else that must be done Children of God pray Pray for those who labor in the gospel not for this pastor alone but for every faithful man who labors in the gospel pray for them and Pray for God to send forth laborers into his harvest. Pray that God will raise up others and send them out into his field of service. And I ask you to pray for something else.

I hope it's not selfishness. I know there's some of that in it. I hope it's not pride. I know there's a lot of that in it. But we've been laboring for a long time. laboring together. Let's pray for a time of reaping. Oh, that God might direct us to his sheep in time of reaping with the word of his grace. Pray that he may thrust in his seed and gather his harvest. Oh, I'd sure like to be used to gather some of his wheat in his garden, wouldn't you? Wherever he's pleased to use us. Pray for time. Amen.

Believe Ye That I Am Able To Do This

What does the Bible say about faith in Christ?

Why is seeking mercy important for Christians?

How do we know God is compassionate?

What does the Bible say about the importance of faith?

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Believe Ye That I Am Able To Do This

What does the Bible say about faith in Christ?

Why is seeking mercy important for Christians?

How do we know God is compassionate?

What does the Bible say about the importance of faith?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

Comments

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