Matthew 9 and verse 32 this morning. 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 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 it's no coincidence that
these two scenes are described together in the scriptures. Our
Lord mentions the harvest, mentions the Lord of the harvest, and
he mentions laborers in verses 36 through 38. In chapter 10,
the Lord's gonna have a preacher's school. You read chapter 10, he's gonna
gather some of these laborers together that he's gonna send
into the fields. He's going to teach them how
to labor in the fields. We'll see that when we look at
that chapter. But before he does any of this,
he causes a dumb man to be able to speak. He gives a voice to someone who
has no voice. and gives us a simple and powerful
illustration of what happens when he calls a laborer to labor
in his fields. You see, the harvest is reaped
by preaching. There must be seed sown if there's
gonna be a harvest. And as our Lord taught in his
explanation to his disciples of the parable of the sower in
Luke chapter 18, the seed sown is the word of God. And so the
dumb are going to have to speak. Dumb here doesn't mean stupid,
but it could mean that, and it wouldn't violate the text at
all, would it? It means mute. It means unable to speak. It's
pretty much the same thing when it comes to spiritual things.
That's why we can't speak anything that's worth hearing, because
we're dumb. That's just the truth. How is a demon-possessed sinner
gonna sow the seed of the Word of God? By a miracle of Christ's
power and mercy. That's how that happens. That's
exactly how that works. He's gonna have to give a voice
to the dumb. You remember what Moses said in our study in Exodus
chapter 4? Moses said unto the Lord, the
Lord said, you go and you tell Pharaoh. You give him my message.
I've got a message for him I want you to deliver. And he said,
oh my Lord, I'm not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since
thou hast spoken unto thy servant. I wasn't eloquent when you called
me and I'm still not. But I'm slow of speech and of
a slow tongue. And the Lord said, who made your
mouth? Or who maketh the dumb? Who made you slow of speech? Or the deaf, or the seeing, or
the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore
go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt
say. And the Lord says, Go, and tell
forth the glories of my Son. Oh, Lord, I'm dumb. Tell forth His sovereign power. Tell forth the wonders of Him
who is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him.
Tell of His power and authority over all flesh that He should
give eternal life to all of God's elect. Tell of the wonders of His perfect
righteousness. Tell how beautiful He is in righteousness. Solomon said, Oh, he's without
spot. He's altogether lovely. Tell
about that. Tell of his precious blood. Tell how there's power in the
blood to wash sins away. Talk about that precious blood
and how he gave himself for sinners. God commendeth his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Tell of his great grace and mercy. He's plenteous in mercy. In other
words, search the unsearchable, speak the unspeakable, and teach
that which passeth knowledge. And we say, Lord, I can't do
that. My mouth. Think about what it is we have
to say, and you can't think about that without thinking about what
Moses did. He said, my mouth. But the Lord says, I'll be with
your mouth. I made your mouth and I'll be
with you. and I'll teach you what to say." And he does. He's
gracious to do that. Only the Lord Jesus Christ would
call a mute to preach his unsearchable riches. Who are you gonna get? Somebody that can't even speak.
Who's gonna preach the glories of Christ? Somebody that can't
even talk. He hath chosen the things which
are not to bring to naught the things that are. And this act
of mercy upon this mute man is also a picture of what we preach.
Look what he did here. This is the one that we preach,
the free sovereign mercy of Christ. Many in the word of God came
to our Lord and begged for mercy. or cried from where they were.
Blind Bartimaeus cried out, Lord, thou son of David, have mercy
on me. This man couldn't have cried out if he'd have wanted
to. And I suspect he didn't much want to, being possessed with
a devil, you reckon? Those who cry out and beg for
mercy show God's grace in the truth that whosoever calleth
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But our Lord here comes
to this man possessed of the devil and dumb, unbidden, unsought,
undeserved, and shows that he has mercy on whom he will. He
gives life to the dead. And then in verse 35, we see
the Lord himself doing what he sends us to do. You see the beautiful
context here? He affixing to send forth some
laborers into his field. And he comments on the harvest
and says, pray that the Lord would send laborers into his
field. You remember when he said to
Israel, I will be inquired of thee to do this for you. He's
fixing to send some laborers forth. And what does he say?
Pray. that I'll send some laborers for. Oh my. And he does the very thing that
he sends us to do. And this is so instructive. You
can read books on how to preach all you want to, but unless you've
heard the Lord Jesus Christ preach, you don't know what the gospel
is. Saul said, I received of the
Lord. I was born as one out of due
time. The Lord appeared to me after he had died and left this
earth and taught me the gospel. Who taught you the gospel? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
prophet of God. He is the preacher. He is himself
the word that we preach. He is the gospel that we preach.
The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And he preached. the gospel of the kingdom. He
describes the multitudes here as sheep having no shepherd.
Well, who's the great shepherd of the sheep? The Lord Jesus
Christ. Not you, not me. He's the shepherd. Those he sends are just his under
shepherds, taking his message to his sheep, feeding his sheep
with him, his food, what he has provided, what He teaches us
to say. The sheep are His, the harvest
is His, and we learn what to say about what He said. We preach
what He preached. Everything He said and did is
not just our example, but our message. Now in verse 36 it says that
He saw And he was moved. He was moved with compassion. And my prayer was this. That
he might give me eyes to see what he saw. And to be moved like he was. We won't be moved. We won't see
or be moved exactly like he saw or was moved, but like that.
I want to be like him, don't you? Oh my, I want to be like
him. By his grace. We can't see all
that he sees. He knew which of his laborers
would betray him. When they're named in chapter
10, Judas Iscariot, him that would betray him is among those
that he sent into his fields. We wouldn't have seen that. The
other 11 didn't. He looks upon the multitude,
and he sees a different multitude than we do. He says, I know my sheep, and
have known of mine. I can't see like that. But the
multitude that he saw is contained within the multitude that we
see. They're out there, aren't they? They're out there somewhere. And we, like him, by his grace,
we should be moved. I ought to pray for this every
day. Lord, cause me to see and be moved. This whole thing starts
with that. The sending forth of the laborers
he saw and he was moved and he taught them to pray for laborers
and then called some laborers and taught them how to labor. He knows the sheep and the goats.
That's his business. Only he knows. I don't know a
sheep from a goat. If I try to pull out the tares,
I'll pull up some wheat with it. He said, don't do that. Don't do that. That's his business. I don't
know the sheep, who are the sheep and who are the goats, but I
know this. The Lord's sheep are out there. I know that. How do
you know, Chris? How do you know that there's
any sheep left in this world? Because the sun came up this
morning, that's how. He's already promised when he
calls that last sheep, he's going to wrap this thing up. We don't know a wheat from a
tare, but the Lord of the harvest does. And he didn't say, I want
you to go out and separate the wheat from the tares. He'll do
that. He sent us to preach to everything
that moves. That's what we're going to do
by his grace. And what do we preach? He preached the gospel
of the kingdom. So I reckon that's what we ought
to preach. The gospel of the kingdom. Now we've seen this
expression before in this very study. And so we've talked about
it and I'll be brief this morning, but it's good news. It's the
gospel that we pray. It's the good news. Well, it doesn't sound much like
good news sometimes, Chris. You talk about what a wretch
we are and how that we're a nasty maggot, a parasite in God's earth. Our brother read a while ago
how vile we are. He was talking about God's people
there in that passage of Scripture, laden with iniquity. That's the good news. When the
Lord comes and tells you what you are, that's His grace, isn't
it? That's His grace. It rejoices
my heart to hear what a wretch I am. You know why? Because our
Lord came to save wretches. It's the good news. Those angels
said, we bring you glad tidings of great joy. What is it? Well, there's a Savior that's
come. His name is Jesus because he's going to save his people
from their sins. That's what he came to do. That's
what he's going to do. Tidings of the Savior who has come to
save his people from their sins. You're a vile sinner before God. He come to save. The good news
is he come to save sinners. A vile sinner before God, but
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I'm
chief. Your sins have separated between you and your God, but
the Lord Jesus Christ has come to die for your sins, the just
for the unjust, that he might bring you to God. You're like these folks, you're
like a sheep without a shepherd, but the great shepherd has come.
and says, follow me. And he said, my sheep hear my
voice and they follow me. They follow me. When his laborers
go forth to labor, the sheep don't hear the voice of the laborer.
They hear the voice of the shepherd. It's the gospel of the kingdom,
the kingdom. Listen to what the angel said
in Luke 10. Let me read the rest of it. The
angel said unto them, fear not for behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. There's gospel,
good news. I bring you good news. What's
the good news about? For unto you is born this day
in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ. The Lord. You see, it's the gospel of the
kingdom. The King has come. Christ the
Lord. A just God and a Savior. Oh, I accepted Jesus as my personal
Savior. Yeah, but have you bowed to King
Jesus? Or did you trust the Jesus of
this religious age who couldn't save a flea? That's the question. It's the gospel of the kingdom,
you see. You can't preach about the kingdom without declaring
the throne rights of the king, the righteousness of the king,
the glory of the king, the authority of the king, the power of the
king, the grace of the king. It's a throne of grace that we
come to. He's come to establish his kingdom. The king does as he pleases in
his kingdom. He has all authority over all
flesh in his kingdom. to give eternal life to as many
as his father gave him in eternity in that everlasting covenant
of grace. He gives life to whom he will, John 5, 21. He said,
I quicken whom I will. That sounds like a king to me. That doesn't sound like a beggar.
That doesn't sound like somebody waiting on you to do something.
He said, I save whom I will. I'll give life to whom I will.
Only a king does what he wants to do. He gathers his sheep, all of
his sheep, only his sheep, into his hand. And he said, no man
can pluck them out. That's who we're preaching. He
has mercy upon whom he will. He pardons sinners as it pleases
him to do so. A pardon's got to come from the
throne. His hand is not shortened that
he cannot save. He is the mighty King. He's the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He never tried to do anything
yet. Not one time. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?
You got no right to ask him what he's doing. And He wants you
to know, He'll tell you. And He's gracious to tell us
sometimes, isn't He? He told us enough, we'll have
a thousand lifetimes. We could never, we could never
understand it in glory enough in all of it, could we? And this is integral to the context
of Him sending us forth. It's the Gospel of the Kingdom
that he sends us forth to preach. Turn to Matthew 28. You're very
familiar with this. But think about this now. He
sends us forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom. And look how he does it. He does it as the king. Matthew
28, 16. Then the eleven disciples went
away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus
came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go. You see how that works? We go in to preach the gospel
of the kingdom and it's the king that sent us to do it. We preach
the one who has all power, all authority, who sits on the throne and does according to his will,
works all things for the good of his people. That's who we
preach in, the one that has all authority in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore and preach. Teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you. And bless the Lord for this last
part. Lord, I'm with you. You're not
going by yourself. But Lord, we can't, we're dumb. In every sense of the word, we're
dumb. Well, I'm going with you. I'm
going with you. Even unto the end, I'm going
with you and I'm going to stay with you until this thing's over.
I can go like that, can't you? Teaching them to observe, that
word means to attend carefully. When we preach, listen carefully. This is not me speaking. This
is not my opinions. You can see that, can't you?
That it's not just my opinion that he's sovereign. That salvation
is not by your free will, it's by his sovereign. You can see
that's not just my opinion. Listen carefully because it's
God speaking. Look at what our Lord saw when
he looked at the multitude back in chapter 10. It says they fainted. They were like sheep having no
shepherd in this sense. They fainted. They were tired
and weak. That's what that means. They
were falling down exhausted. And this corresponds with what
our Lord preached in Matthew 11. Look at it. We're right there. Verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father. Neither knoweth any man the son,
father save the son. And, aren't you glad for that
and? We can't know God. You know,
we're agnostics. You can't know God. Yes, you
can. If the son reveals him to you, you can. There's not any
other way to know him. But if the son reveals, you see
who's sovereign, you see who he is. We preach in the kingdom,
the gospel of the kingdom. Oh, and then he says, come unto
me. Oh, you that labor and are heavy laden. You're like sheep
with no shepherd. You're weak and weary and tired
and faint. Are you? Come. I will give you rest. take my yoke upon you and learn
of me." Oh, religion takes that and says, look, we're supposed
to labor for the Lord. Take his yoke on you and you
were saved to serve. That's not what he said. He said,
you take my yoke upon you, you'll rest. You won't do anything. The Lord's
done it all for you. If you're hooked up with him,
you don't have to do a thing. You're just going along for the
ride. and rejoicing in what he did for you and is still doing. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you'll find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy. Plowing
ain't easy, it is if you're yoked to the Lord Jesus Christ. And my burden is light. Are you faint? Come to the Lord
Jesus Christ and find rest under your souls, not your body. These
bodies aren't going to rest as long as we're on this earth much,
are they? By the sweat of your brow, you're going to eat. If
you're going to eat, you may not find much rest for your body.
We're talking about more important rest than that. We're talking
about your soul just falling into the arms of the Lord Jesus
Christ and finding rest. And then he said they're scattered.
Look at them. They're scattered. They had done
what sheep without a shepherd do. They scattered. They wandered off and got lost.
That's what they did. That's what sheep without a shepherd
do every time. I've seen some sheep in this
world without an under-shepherd. And it ain't pretty. What do
sheep do without a shepherd? They wandered aimlessly and got
lost. That's where they were. They
were lost. Sheep without a shepherd are
pitiful creatures. They're food for every predator.
Without the protection of the shepherd, they're gone. They're
utterly defenseless. What's a sheep gonna defend itself
with? It doesn't have any claws or sharp teeth. It can't even
run fast enough to get away and live to fight another day. They're weak and slow and stupid. And they can't provide for themselves.
They'll wander off to a place where there's not any food or
water and can't find any. Unless they have a shepherd. And they'll never find their
way back home. A sheep with no shepherd, once
it's scattered, it's gone unless the shepherd goes and gets it
and brings it back. They have to be sought and they
have to be brought. And our Lord said here, pray
ye that the Lord would send forth laborers to bring in the harvest,
to bring in the scattered sheep. Pray ye the Lord. That's what to do. That's what
to do. We do all we know to do, of course.
He sent us to go and preach, so by his grace we preach. But
if we need something like this, if we see the need for something
like this, if that need's gonna be met, we're gonna have to pray
to him for it. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest.
He didn't say go out and look for volunteers. He said pray
that the Lord of the harvest would come. and send some laborers. Turn to 1 Corinthians 3. The Lord is going to have to send
some laborers. He's gracious to do that. We're not just talking about
preachers this morning. It's the ministry that he's given
us. It's all of it. And one man up
here, but there's a whole family of God here doing this work,
supporting this work. He sent us all out into the field,
didn't he? First Corinthians three, look
at verse five, who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers
by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave. to every man. Now Paul is writing this because
some people got to being proud about who their preacher was.
And he said, what? You're bragging on a worm. Are you not carnal? You're acting
like a lost man if you do that. He said, I've planted. God sent
us, didn't he, into the fields. There's a harvest that needs
to be harvested. How's that going to happen? There's
going to have to be some seed planted. The Lord said, I send
you forth as sheep among wolves. And by God's grace, we plant.
Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. If there's going
to be any increase, we're going to have to pray the Lord of the
harvest. So then neither is he that planteth anything, anything. Well, God needs you. You know,
the Lord Jesus needs a few good men. You know, you probably heard
that song. No, we don't. He don't need anybody. The fact that he sent you forth
to plant or to water, it doesn't show his need. It shows his mercy,
his kindness toward you, his goodness toward you, that he'd
let you in on it or me in on it. We're not anything. Neither he that watereth, but
God that giveth the increase, the glory goes to him. Now he
that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall
receive his own reward." That word reward there is return. If a seed is sown, there's going
to be a harvest. According to his own labor. The Lord uses
different men in different ways. Different ones in this church
have different gifts from the Lord that he uses in this ministry. But we're laborers together.
Oh, what a privilege. Look at those next two words,
with God. Are we with him or against him?
Oh, by his grace, we're with him. Laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry, ye are
God's building. According to the grace which
is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I've laid the foundation.
He said there, God didn't use me because he needed me, but
because he's gracious, according to the grace given me. I've laid the foundation, and
another buildeth thereon, but let every man take heed how he
buildeth. thereupon. For other foundation
can no man lay than that is lame, which is Jesus Christ. We preach Christ in him crucified. That's how God's vineyard is
planted. That's how the harvest comes
in. That's how the sheep come home by the preaching of the
Lord Jesus Christ, by the preaching of the gospel of the king and
his kingdom. Now in the next chapter, in chapter
10, when we look at it maybe next week, Lord willing, we're
gonna see some very specific teaching concerning the laboring
in Christ's fields. It's very interesting and instructive.
I pray the Lord will give us some light on it. But never forget
that this whole thing started with compassion. Unlike the priest and the Levite,
when the good Samaritan saw that man, Who had fallen among thieves
and he was bleeding out in the ditch. He was already half dead
The good samaritan went where he was it says he had compassion
on him And went where he was In luke
10 verse 30, let's look at that together I'll close with this. I just
want us to see this in all of this ministry, in this thing,
this ministry of our Lord that He's put us to work in. He's
sending forth laborers here in this place, into His field. And the whole thing is because
of His compassion towards sinners. His compassion. Now look at Luke
10 verse 30. And behold, Let's see, where
am I at? I'm in the wrong, I'm in Luke
9. Luke 10 verse 30. And Jesus answering said, a certain
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves,
which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed,
leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down
a certain priest that way. And when he saw him, He passed
by on the other side. That's religion. Religion can't
help you. And likewise a Levite. That's
the law. That has to do with the Levitical
law. When he was at the place, Cain had looked on him. When the law looks at you, there's no hope for you in the
eyes of the law. You're a goner. There nothing
can be done. Passed by on the other side,
avoided him. But a certain Samaritan, as he
journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion
on him. Can you see our Lord Jesus Christ
looking at the multitudes? And again, he didn't see them
the way we see them. It's just a mass of people to
us. what he saw were his sheep scattered. And it says he had
compassion on them. Now somebody wrote that. It doesn't
say that he said to his disciples, I have compassion on them. They
could tell by looking at him that he was hurting. The word there means his bowels
were moved. And that word bow, the Israelites,
Talk that way because when any great emotion is felt, it's felt
here, isn't it? Even anger, hatred, it makes
your stomach nod up, doesn't it? Or when you love, when you
love deeply, you feel it in your stomach, don't you? In your gut. That's why that's worded that
way. And it must have shown on his face because the writer here
said he had compassion on him. And this man there in Luke 10
says he had compassion. And he went right where he was.
He didn't go and pass on the other side like everybody else.
He went right where he was and had compassion on him and went
to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. and
set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took
care of him. And on the morrow when he departed,
he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto
him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come
again, I'll repay thee. Our Lord Jesus Christ, if he He's sending you into the fields
because of His compassion. Isn't that what we see here in
the text? So if you're gonna go labor for Him, you can't be
cold and indifferent. I know that the Lord's gonna
save whom He will. We're not here to get anybody
saved, are we? We can't do that. We have no
authority, no right, nor any power to do that. The Lord's gonna save whom He
will. whom he's known from eternity, his elect. But his laborers aren't
indifferent about that. We don't just say, well, I'm
just going to preach the gospel. Who's going to go to hell is
going to go to hell, and who's going to go to heaven is going to go
to heaven. You're not one of his laborers. No. He sent you because of his compassion,
because of his love, because of his mercy. And he's going
to give his laborers a heart like that, not to the degree
Our love not worth talking about much, our compassion not worth
talking about much. But we can't be cold and indifferent,
we're talking about his sheep. You remember in Luke chapter
15, we won't turn there, I wanna be brief this morning. In Luke
chapter 15, when our Lord talked about those hundred sheep, and
one of them got lost, and he left the ninety and nine and
went and sought that lost sheep, That's every one of his elect.
Every one of them is that one sheep. He seeks us like we were
the only sheep in the world. Every one of us. And it says
he went out and he sought that sheep because he knew that sheep
wasn't coming home. There's no way that sheep's coming
home on his own and he can't defend himself. He's gonna be
food before the nightfall. And so our Lord went out and
found him and laid him on his shoulder and brought him home
and had a party. how to get together in verse
six and that party had one thing it was a theme party you know
what the theme was he said come and rejoice and celebrate with
me I found my sheep which was lost that's what it's about that's
what it's about right there when our Lord walked with Peter on
that beach that day and he restored him He restored him as only the
Lord can do. He caused Peter, by his grace,
to be able to confess his love for the Lord Jesus Christ the
same number of times that he had denied him. In John chapter 21, each time
Peter confessed his love for the Lord Jesus Christ, he said,
Lord, you know, You know everything. You know that I love you. And
each time, of those three times that Peter confessed his love
for the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord had one and the same response.
Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. I cannot get behind this pulpit without hearing those words. And I pray that the Lord would
make it so that I wouldn't be able to look upon the multitudes
without hearing them. Feed my sheep. Lord, give us
compassion. Give us eyes to see to some degree
like you do, and a heart of love for your lost sheep, and a desire
to labor, and the ability to labor, the will, the power, the
wisdom, Give a dumb man something to
say and a voice with which to say it, by your grace, to your
everlasting glory. Let's bow in prayer.