the noblest form of worship there
is, the noblest form of worship, that which is most spiritual,
that which is most honoring to God, that which is most beneficial
to our souls and the souls of others, is obedience. As the noblest form of worship
there is, the highest honor A child can give to his parents is obedience. The highest honor you can give
is obedience. And the highest honor we can
give to God our Father is obedience. In this place, as a congregation,
we spend an enormous amount of time, energy, and money for the
preaching of the gospel. Through your generosity, and
I have a reason for saying these things, so listen carefully.
Through your generosity, we faithfully assist in the support of missionaries
and their families in New Guinea and in Mexico and wherever else
we may find them, we will endeavor to do the same. We assist in
the publication and distribution of gospel literature. literally
around the world, in Ivory Coast of Africa, in France, in Russia,
what's the former Soviet Union, and in Italy. We help support
pastors of local churches in this country, churches that are
not able to take care of their own pastors and support them.
When men give themselves to the work of the ministry, we endeavor
to assist them. We maintain regular radio and
television broadcast here. I preach the gospel on radio
here every day, and some of the men air the television broadcast
tapes several times a week. In addition to these things,
you send your pastor wherever God opens a door, wherever I'm
needed to preach the gospel. You take care of the expenses
whenever that's needed. You assist other groups desiring
to establish churches. You give generously. And you
give regularly for the furtherance of the gospel. I commend you
for it. And I never hesitate. I never
hesitate to ask that you give in just this manner. I never
ask anything from you or anyone else for myself. I give a little
urge. Somebody calls me and asks if
I'll come somewhere to preach. Well, what will it take to get
you here? Just a phone call, nothing else. Just a phone call,
nothing else. I don't ask anything of myself.
You take good care of me. But I don't hesitate to ask you
to give generously in the support of the gospel ministry around
the world. I give myself arduously to the
work of the ministry. I delight to do so. I'm thankful.
I enjoy everything I do. But I'm in my office here, unless
I'm on the road, and if I'm on the road, the same thing's true
on the road. I'm here better than 70, 75 hours
every week, laboring in the gospel. Shelby gives her time, and she
works in here Most folks don't know it. She's in this office
70 hours a week, minimum, every week. Every week. Distributing
the gospel around the world. Why? Why expend so much effort? Why expend so much labor? Why go to the trouble? Why on
this earth would a man like Lance Heller, good career in front
of him, take his wife and family and move from the comforts of
life in this world to Papua New Guinea to raise his family in
a barbaric, heathen society. Why are you, sensible, hard-working
men and women, willing to deprive yourselves of some of the comforts
and luxuries and pleasantries of life so that you can give
your money away so other men can go preach the gospel? What
makes a couple like Walter and Betty Gruber. Walter had a, he
had a good job, worked at Cameron Ironworks down in Texas, had
a good job, good paying job. Why would he pack his family
up, move them to Mexico, leave a good comfortable home, nice
comfortable bed, go sleep in hammocks, and they did for a
long time. Just go sleep in hammocks in Mexico, a land where they
know nobody, and the culture is totally different. Why would
his son Cody, just when Cody's career was getting off the ground,
I mean, I mean getting off the ground, he was in the fast track
headed up the ladder. Why on earth would he give it
up? Sell his house, patch his children up, patch his wife up,
and follow his dad's footsteps and go to Mexico? I want to answer
those questions in this message today, and I want to try to stir
up others, inspire others to do the same thing. If you're
taking notes, the title of my message this morning is The Fields
are White. The Fields are White. Turn to
John chapter 4. Let me show you. I want to talk to you this morning
about biblical motives for missions and evangelism. Next week we'll
give our offerings, as we do every month, for missions. Every
dime given in this congregation, every dime collected here And
our assemblies, if somebody sends things in, every dime is spent
for the furtherance of the gospel. We pay the expenses of maintaining
this property, and that's it. Everything else goes out. We
don't accumulate anything, and that's on purpose. We don't amass
things and save it for a rainy day. God's in control of the
rainy days. We send out every dime that comes
in for the furtherance of the gospel. And here are the motives
behind it. Anytime men and women Anytime
people are called upon to make sacrifices, any kind of sacrifices,
they've got to be motivated. Here our Lord Jesus is down at
Jacob's well. Now try to get the picture. Try
to picture what he's doing. His disciples, as he sat on the
well and he sent them into town to buy some groceries, they were
walking up the hill to the city of Sycho. You can almost picture
them. It's sort of like just It was a little bit further.
It was sort of like walking around this road here up to where our mailboxes
are headed up toward town. Then he's walking up this dirt
trail. He's walking up the hill on this road and probably walking
abreast like we normally do when we're talking. And here comes
a Samaritan woman. And she's a Samaritan. They may have just nudged her
off the road. Just ignored her. They're talking to one another.
They're busy. They're busy talking to each other about things of
God. And they're going up the hill. And this Samaritan woman
carrying her water pot just kind of steps off the road and comes
on down. And the master teaches her the gospel of his grace and
reveals himself in her. And then the disciples come back
down the road. They've got their groceries. And they see the master
talking to her. They've got some suspicions,
but they don't dare say a word. And this woman has left her water
pot by the well, and she's gone back to Samaria to call her husbands,
as the Lord told her. She went to the men of the city
and said, Come see a man who told me all things ever I did.
Is not this the Christ? And now the disciples are there
with the master, and they're wondering who gave him something
to eat. And the Lord's talking to them. And He's been talking
to them about meat that He eats, by which His soul is satisfied,
doing the will of Him that sent Him. And the disciples are still
wondering what on earth he's talking about. And he looks up
on that same road. And he sees a bunch of white-robed
Samaritans coming down in that common Roman dress. All the men
of the city following this woman. And this is what he says, Say
not ye, verse 35, There are yet four months, and then cometh
the harvest, Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes." Now
he wasn't talking about corn and he wasn't talking about cotton.
He was talking about those men coming down the hill. Lift up
your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white, all ready
to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth
wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein
is that saying true, one sows and another reaps. I sent you
to reap that whereon you bestowed no labor. Other men labored,
and you are entered into their labors." Now here our Savior
tells us that one great motive for missions and evangelism One
great motive for all evangelistic missionary endeavor, one great
motive for all that we do as a congregation is this. The time is now. This is it. This is our opportunity. This
is it. This is it. I'm sometimes encouraged
by well-meaning people to slow down, you know, stop this, stop
that. You've got to take it easy, you've got to learn to relax.
I'm scared to death to stop it. I'm scared to death to stop it.
How come? How come? Because this is my
day. This is my opportunity. This
is our day. This is our opportunity. The
Master here tells us that we are never to think, we're never
to act. as if there is some future time
for evangelization, as if there is some future time for the harvest
of men's souls. He says, "...say not ye, there
are yet four months, and then comes the harvest. Behold, I
say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, they
are white already to harvest." Now in common things and ordinary
things, we plow and we sow our seed and we We plant the crops,
and we water, and we wait. We'll go out in a little while,
Lord willing, and we'll start plowing the gardens, and we'll
start planting our crops, and nobody, nobody in his right mind
goes out the next morning and looks for seed to come up and
make fruit. You don't look for it that way. Well, along about
June, we'll get some peas if everything goes well. Along about
July, we'll start getting some beans. Along about August, we'll
start gathering a little bit of corn, and all of those things
take time. but not in spiritual matters.
Not in spiritual matters. Our Lord here tells us we go
out and sow the seed, expecting right now to gather in the harvest. Don't say there are four months,
then comes the harvest. Go out and sow the seed, and the harvest
is coming. The motive then for evangelism
is the immediacy of the opportunity before us. I call upon you, each
of you, I call upon this church, I call upon myself, I call upon
all who have experienced the grace, mercy, and love of God
in Christ, to devote ourselves anew to the business of preaching
the gospel. Let us indeed be his witnesses
at home and abroad. Let us, like David, serve our
generation by the will of God in this present time. This is
the calling, this is the vocation, this is the career of every child
of God. Why do you reckon God's left
us here? Surely, surely God has a nobler
purpose for Merle Hart than to build houses, or for Oscar Bailey
than to plant crops. Surely he's got a better purpose
than that. Surely he has a nobler end for David Coleman than just
to keep shop, or for Lindsay to sell insurance or die and
teach school. Surely he has a nobler end than for us just to make
money and build houses so we can make more money to pay for
the house, to build bigger houses. Surely there's another motive.
Why did he leave us here? Well, we need to make ourselves
a little better, and it takes time, you know, for us to become
more and more holy hogwash. If we're saved by God's free
grace, we're right now made perfect in Christ. He can take us to
glory right now, but why did he leave us here? He left us
here as instruments in his hands for the gathering of his people.
That's why we're here. That's why we're here. He left
us his God to make men, instruments by which he will save other men,
just as he saved us. We're left here because God has
condescended and matched us mercy and grace. to give us the privilege
of serving Him in this world. Now that's why we're here. That's
why we're here. No other reason. Absolutely no
other reason. The Lord left us here to serve
this one purpose, to preach the gospel of Christ, to make Jesus
Christ known to this generation. Now the first thing I see in
this passage is the reason. Let me show you some reasons. given in Holy Scripture for this
great work. And there'll be obviously a whole
lot less said than is said. When I get done, you can go back
and find a lot more reasons. But let me show you from the
book of God the reasons why we ought to do what I'm calling
for. Let me show you why it is that Bobby and Judy Estes and
Don and Shelby Fortner ought to give themselves relentlessly
in the totality of our beings for the furtherance of the gospel.
Wherever God's put us, with whatever God puts in our hands, using
it for the salvation of God's people. Number one. Turn to 1
Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I'm not going to preach on these,
I'm just going to give them to you. And you can, I trust, pray
that God the Holy Spirit will write them on your heart. Verse 31. We briefly looked at
this the other day. Whether therefore you eat or
drink, or whatsoever you do, and that takes in a big range,
doesn't it, Ron? Whether you're sitting down having
a meal, and somebody says, well, you had this to eat or had that,
and Paul said, whatever's sitting before you, go ahead and eat
it, don't ask any questions, or I'm not going to eat that, that
was offered to an idol. Don't ask, and you don't have to worry
about it. Just sit down and eat what's put in front of you, whether
you eat or drink. And whatever you do, whatever
you do, whether you're going into work, or whether you're
building a house, or whether you're involved in something
with kids at school, whatever you do, whether therefore you
eat or drink, whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Watching everything you say and
everything you do lest you give offense to Jews or Gentiles,
Watch your mouth and watch your hands and watch your feet. Watch
out now. Look at verse 33. Even as I please
all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, not seeking my
own pleasure, I'm not seeking to better myself. Oh, no, no, no, no. I do what
I do, become all things to all men for the glory of God. For
what purpose? The profit of many that they
might be saved. Now then, weigh every sacrifice,
weigh every cost, weigh every obstacle in this life, the souls
of men. What are you going to hold back?
Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God in the saving of
his people. First, we're motivated by the
glory of God. Secondly, by the Great Commission. We're not going to look at this,
but it's given numerous times in the scriptures. We have our
marching orders from our commander-in-chief. These are the marching orders
to every local church, to every preacher, to every believer.
Go ye therefore into all the world, and preach the gospel
unto every creature. Teach all nations whatsoever
things I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always."
Now that's his command. It's given specifically by Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, and again in the book of Acts, in Luke's writing
of Acts. And in each place it's given
with a specific emphasis to let us know exactly why we must go
about this. In Matthew's account, in Matthew
28, Matthew emphasizes the authority of Christ as King. Let's go preach
the gospel, but men are going to oppose it, but men are going
to fight against it, but men stand in opposition to it. No
need to worry about that. He says all authority is given
to me. You don't have to worry about
anybody. Opposition is not your concern.
Enemies are not your concern. Those who oppose you are not
your concern. Obstacles are not your concern. Go preach! All
authority is given to me in heaven and in earth. All authority.
Sometimes people ask me how on earth I can preach like I do
when folks are so vehemently opposed to the message. Why,
it's not a problem. It really isn't. It's not a problem.
I don't fear men's faces. I don't fear telling anybody
the truth about God or themselves either. I don't fear in the least
speaking plainly to men about their sin and God's salvation.
How come? Because He's the King! And I'm
his servant. Nothing to fear. Mark gives us
the commission emphasizing the wrath of God. He says, as he
records our Lord's words, the Master said, Go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Why share out this commission?
Because Christ has authority. And because men are damned without
him. Men are perishing without him. More about that in a moment.
In Luke's gospel, Luke records the commission, telling us that
it is the fulfillment of Old Testament scripture, that repentance
and remission of sins be preached in Christ's name unto all nations. John's account, the Master gives
us this commission in light of his own commission, saying, As
the Father has sent me, even so send I you into the world. And then in the book of Acts,
turn over there if you will, Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter
1. The Great Commission is specifically stated as the program and purpose
of Christ's church and his kingdom as long as we are in this world.
Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. The disciples had asked the Lord,
you know they still had notions in their head about the religious
training they had had. They said, will you at this time
restore your kingdom? And the Lord Jesus said to them,
fellows, it's none of your business. Don't concern yourself about
questions to which no answer has been given by God. Don't
concern yourself about debating religious issues. Don't do that.
You shall receive power, verse 8. You shall receive power, after
that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses. The word is martyrs. Men and
women who lay down your lives in the cause of Christ, martyrs
unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto
the uttermost parts of the earth. This is what God saves folks
for. I'm calling on you, you who are yet without Christ, I'm
calling on you to believe on the Son of God. I'm calling on
you to come to Him. I'm calling on you to be reconciled
to God. What on earth does that mean?
That means you die voluntarily. That means you die to yourself
voluntarily, daily. Having been crucified with Christ,
we daily give our lives to him as his. He's the master. We're his people. So I don't
want to do that. I know. I know. Nobody does. Nobody does. No sinner in the
world is willing to give up the rule of his life. No sinner in
the world is willing to give up the rule of his life to somebody
else. Nobody. Until God makes you willing. And now, Ron Wood, if I could
have exactly what I will, it'd be his will. Isn't that true? That's exactly right. That's
what faith is. Now everybody wants to stay out
of hell, but that's not Christianity. Everybody wants to go to heaven
when they die. That's not faith. That's religious sucksters teaching
that kind of stuff. What is faith in Christ? It is
the voluntary laying down of my life at the foot of the King
of Glory. Lord, do with me as you will. That's what it is. That's what
it is. So if that's the case, preacher, I don't know anything
about God's salvation. Well, that's the case. That's exactly
what it is. We're motivated by the wrath
of God. We read about it in 2 Corinthians
5. Paul said, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. We persuade men. Will you listen to this preacher? If you're without Christ, the
wrath of God is on you. Damnation awaits you. Hell is your portion. You're
going to hell. You're going to hell. Our sons
and daughters are going to hell. Now, oh God make us to see that. They're going to hell. It doesn't
matter how nice we think they are, it doesn't matter what religious
nonsense we've convinced ourselves of, men and women without Christ
are headed to hell, and hell is their portion, and to hell
you must go. That's exactly right. Our neighbors and friends are
under the wrath of God. The world around us is perishing. A fellow wrote to me one day
this week, I can't remember Asking me about religious folks, you
know, surely, surely these people are all lost. Bobby Estes, everybody
who fails to know Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his saving
power, efficacy, and glory is lost. that Jesus most people worship
no more resembles the Christ of Holy Scripture than that pew
resembles God Almighty. It's just not so. It's just not
so. You can talk about Jesus and talk about God all you want
to, but I'm telling you that the God of Scripture, the Christ
of Scripture, is the Almighty Sovereign Savior, and you must
know Him, you must trust Him, you must be reconciled to Him
in His true character, or you'll perish under the wrath of God.
Let us then love our enemies, and do good to those who spitefully
use us, just as we do our own families. How can you do that? How can you do that? How on this
earth can Don Martin love his enemies, and do good to those
who spitefully use him, just as you would your own brother
or your own sister? How? Do the same thing for them
you do for them. the most compassionate thing
in the world. Most compassionate thing in the
world. What's that? Tell them about the Savior. Preach the
gospel to them. Preach the gospel to them. Fourthly,
the love of Christ constrains us. Because we thus judge that if
Christ died, then all for whom he died have died. The Lord Jesus
Christ commends his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, he died for us. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us. Oh my soul, Skip
Gradfelter, if the Son of God gave his life for you, what is
it to give your life to him? Huh? There's the people whom
he has redeemed! We've been redeemed by His precious
blood. He's put away our sins. He has
reconciled us to God. God's reconciled us to Himself
in Him. And now we've made the righteousness
of God in Him. If that doesn't move your heart,
to devote yourself to Him, to consecrate yourself to Him in
the totality of your being, nothing can. And then our Lord motivates us
with the opportunity we have. He says, lift up your eyes, look
on the field, they're white right now to harvest. We ought to be
motivated by the opportunity thrust upon us with each succeeding
day to preach the gospel. When you wake up in the morning,
ask yourself, Lord, what can I do today? to make men know
the Savior. What can I do? Do you recall our Lord's promise?
When He gave His commission, He said, Lo, I'm with you always,
always, even to the end of the age, to the end of the world. You see, it is His presence,
Bob, that makes the opportunity. It's His presence. that makes
the opportunity. Not our maneuvering. We sometimes,
we decide we're going to make things happen. We're going to
do something. It's his presence that makes
the opportunity. I told Buddy this morning, I
heard about a fellow he'd been chatting with over in the shop.
Buddy takes literature and passes it around, talks to folks. The
preacher, black preacher. has contacted Brother Randy Sidwell. Things go around and come around,
you know. God taught him the gospel apparently. Taught him
the gospel. Well, what happened? God makes
the opportunity. He just makes the opportunity.
It's His presence that makes the opportunity. I'm going Wednesday
to preach up in New York. Never been up there before. I
recall something Merle Hart said in one of his prayers. My soul,
this has been Twenty years ago, I reckon. I hadn't been here
pastoring very long. I fixed to go somewhere and preach,
and Merle was praying for me. And this is what she said. I
think I've got it verbatim. And, Lord, cause your word to
run well. What an ambition. What a desire. As we preach the gospel, let
us ever pray that Christ present with us will cause his word to
run well, and he will. The promise of the Old Testament
is that when Messiah comes, the sower will overtake the reaper,
and the reaper will overtake the sower. You can read it in
Amos chapter 9. What's that mean? We go out,
preach the gospel, and as we do We sow the seed. We sow the seed. Now, it may
be that the seed we sow today will bring forth fruit a long
ways down the road. It may be. But while we're sowing,
while we're sowing, we're also reaping what somebody sowed before
us. So we sow the seed. gathering
the crop. We sow the seed, and we reap
the harvest. Yes, we cast our bread upon the waters, knowing
that in many days it will return to us, but while we're casting
our bread, we're watching bread come back to us that other folks
have already cast upon the waters. Yes, we go out sowing precious
seed in the morning, the precious seed of the gospel, with weeping
eyes, but we go out with gladness in our hearts because we know
we shall bring cheese back with us as we walk back to our Savior. Why are we motivated to this?
By the preaching of the grace of God, the purpose of his free
grace. Read 2 Timothy 1 again. The Apostle
Paul, in his dying words, said, this is what motivates me, is
the purpose of God in election and grace. We preach the gospel
and devote ourselves to this business because the building
of God's kingdom is sure. Because God has a people whom
he will save. And there's one other motive. Turn to Ephesians 3. the honor of it. Oh, what an
honor! What an honor! What an honor! Look at verse 8. Unto me, who
am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given,
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ. What an honor. One of the missionaries, I believe
it was Addernaim Judson, I can't remember, I believe it was him,
got word that his son, who was a preacher, had been appointed
an ambassador for the Queen of England. And he wrote to his son, and
he said, what a pity. My son has shriveled to be an
ambassador for England." Well, how can he say such a thing?
Give up this honor for that insignificant, nothing of a job? This honor? To you and me, to our hands. To our hands has been committed
the gospel of the grace of God. And God has honored us with the
privilege of preaching in this generation the unsearchable riches
of Jesus Christ. Oh, may God give us grace then
to do it for Christ's sake. Amen. All right, Minson, you
leave this to me.