The Story of the Two High Priests - One Filthy the Other Faultless — Ian Paisley

Reading Matthew 9:27-38: Christ’s Compassion for the Multitudes

You'll find an authorized version of the English Bible in front of you in the Pure, pick it up, and turn with me to the first Gospel, the Gospel according to Matthew, at the chapter 9, the 9th chapter of Matthew's Gospel.

You'll find it at page 12, and that's the first book of the New Testament. We're going to read from verse 27 to verse 38, and we read it together, taking your time from me. Verse 27, Matthew chapter 9,.

And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed Him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when He was coming to the house, the blind men came 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 swiftly charged them, saying, See that no man knoweth. But they, when they were departed, His theme in all that country.

And they went out, and behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with the devil. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb man spake. And the multitudes marveled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.

But the Pharisees said, He cast 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.

And 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. And God will stamp with His own divine seal of approval and blessing this reading from His own most precious and infallible book.

I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to the uttermost. I take, and God, He undertakes for me, and the people of God said, Amen. Turn with me to the ninth chapter of Matthew's gospel.

I want to call your attention to the final verses, Matthew chapter 9, verses 36 through 38. And there the Lord Jesus has something to say to His disciples. And when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they had 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. This is a special occasion which Matthew records in his gospel.

Seeing the Lost Multitudes Through Jesus’ Eyes

First of all, what Jesus saw. And when He saw the multitudes, He said to His believers, Lord Jesus Christ, we need to come to the place where we see the world as Jesus. We see as Jesus, we see precious souls as Jesus Christ.

You will notice, He saw the multitudes. He saw the multitudes. Multitudes, multitudes, multitudes. Numbers of the lost souls of man had traveled a broad road to their souls' lasting destruction, marching on the way to hell.

Ask the question to Jesus Christ. Ask the question, is it an impossible task? And the answer to that question is yes. Speaking, it is an absolute impossible task or possible to Him that believeth. And all things are possible for Jesus Christ, defined by numbers, multitudes.

He saw their condition. Look at the text. He was moved with compassion on them because their vision was because they finted. These souls were finting souls. The shadow ending black eternity was already upon the verge of time.

But the dark shadow of their own damnation upon their forage. They were finted by the way to lead them. No shepherd to feed them. No shepherd to save them. What a vision. The lost souls. Does that vision ever wake you up at night and call you to consider it?

Or can you sleep peacefully in your bed without a thought? That men die in darkness at your side without a hope to cheer, to have the eyes. Scriptures see what Jesus saw when He looked upon the multitudes.

If you turn to that scripture again, you will find how Jesus, how did He feel when He heard the cries of the children? How did He feel when He heard the cries of fathers and mothers finting on the road?

It's interesting. It doesn't say He became. Christ is all. Compassion to the Savior is not some new happening. All His time from eternity until He came to Bethlehem. And all His time from Bethlehem to the cross.

And all is Christ's passion. The church doesn't seem to have much compassion. For they can go idly on their ways. Some believers never attend a church prayer meeting. Never weep one tear for a lost soul.

Never have an hour for pleasure. They have laid aside. And the world occupies that place where they should have a throbbing heart for the souls of men. We need feeling. We need sorrow. We need sympathy.

We need the warmth of compassion. And the hot furnace, a white hot furnace of compassion for the Lord. How did He feel? He had a broken heart. When last had you a broken heart for a lost soul? Tearless souls.

Tearless prayers. Do not bring tears to sinners. Or call them to the feet of Jesus. Note with me. Thirdly, for we not only need to have the eyes of Jesus. We need to have the heart of Jesus. But we need to have the speech of Jesus.

The Harvest Is Plentiful and the Laborers Are Few

Because the Lord measured the extent of the harvest in contrast with the number of the laborers. Look what He says. The harvest. What? An immense harvest. A harvest so far reaching out over the world.

And around this globe. That it almost paralyzes us. The thought of it. A hundred million souls a day. To the great in eternity. And we without looking. And we can pass without weeping. Do not blame the reaper.

Don't reject. They have become the cause of criticism. The church criticizes those that are trying to win the loss. But they are not winning the loss. But they are prepared to sit in the throne of criticism.

And criticize those that are seeking their paths to be like Jesus. Christ speaks of the fewness of the laborers. One would think a soul that has been called by Christ out of darkness into light. One would think that a soul that has a saving experience of the grace of God.

Has felt the warmth of His plant. And has felt the forgiveness of his sins. And has felt the pardon of his iniquities. That that person would be moved with a great keenness of soul to another for Christ.

Oh the church runs its refresher courses. The church runs its new ideas how to win souls. There is no Christ course in successful soul winning. Successful soul winning starts when a person is broken and humbled.

And is on their knees before God. We do not conquer until we bow. And the church can never reach the lost until it bows in humility before God. Oh we need to see through the eyes of Jesus. We need to weep from our heart as Jesus wept.

But we need to listen to Christ's words. He is calling us to pray. Therefore what does Jesus order His people to do? What does Jesus order His reapers to do? To bow to the sovereignty of the Lord of the harvest.

He orders you to pray. He orders you to get your hands on the altar of the sovereignty of prayer. There is only one thing that can break the heart and it is the power of believing prayer. The two men in the jail, bleeding, tired, with broken bodies and fearful and painful bones.

Paul and Silas: Prayer in the Philippian Jail

What did they do? They prayed and sang praises to God at midnight. And then God worked. The greatest trophy of grace in all the New Testament scriptures is the Philippian jailer. And the greatest Christian church founded by Paul was the Philippian church.

You have only to read the epistle to the Philippians to see the heights to which it climbed and the depths to which it gave itself in obedience to Christ. Because two men, broken, persecuted, jailed, sore, tormented.

Pray! Praises ye therefore. Now there is no room for any argument here. You know whether you pray or you don't pray. You needn't sit down and say, well do I pray? For you know you don't pray. You know the skippiness of the time that you spend before God.

Praying for Laborers Rather Than Remaining Spectators

We need constant prayer to do something. You know it doesn't say here, the Lord doesn't say here that we are to pray for souls. He says we are to pray for liberals. Yes we need to pray for souls. But it is the instrument of soul winning that the Lord is interested in.

The diversity of labor. If the Lord comes down and starts sending forth laborers into his harvest, what a harvest there will be. This is where real success starts and finishes. Obedience to the commands of Christ.

He commands us to pray for laborers. And the first person he is going to enlist is you. There is no use for you to kneel down and say send the woman next door to be a laborer. Send Mr. So and So down the street to be a laborer.

Assure as you fall on your knees to pray for laborers. The Lord will put his blessed finger on you and say you have to go. Every man that prays is a recruit to labor. It is dangerous to really mean business with God.

Why do I say that? Because if you really mean business with God, there are things that you will have to shift out of your life. There will be changes to your way of living. And there will be changes to your way of vision.

And your way of attitudes to people and to the things of this earth. God has not called us to make the reaping a playtime. This is the undischarged labor of souls that have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Obedience to God's will. Nothing less or nothing more. It is what God is demanding of us. What did Jesus seek? For laborers. When the church has the same mind. When the church is praying and crying and interceding for laborers.

The Cost and Calling of Becoming a Laborer

You say I don't have the talent. God doesn't say anything about talent to you. God's talking about laboring. It talked in the old days when socialism arose upon this earth of the laboring classes. Man said to me we all labor.

I said I accept that. But this is hard work. This is the laboring of blood. The laboring of sweat. And the laboring of tears. And if God answers this prayer in this church, in your life, there'll be a change.

We'll be doing some reorganization of how you spend. You will have times which will come so precious to you, you wouldn't miss them for anything. When you meet with the Lord, walk into the secret place and the door closes.

And you're shut in with one who sees the lost souls of men. Who feels for the lost souls of men. Who has a compassion that brought them from heaven to earth and from earth to the cross. And from the cross to the depths of hell in order to save our souls.

You'll be shut in with him. And the outward things of this earth will grow strangely dim. And you'll say what a fool I have been. I have dealt with triviality. Now I'm dealing with reality. I have squandered my time for the things of time.

Now I have to deal with the things of eternity. Eternity. Eternity. Jesus says something. He says our prayers will not go unanswered. He says the church will not go without revival. He says the people of God will not be vanquished.

He says that which is impossible, humanly speaking, I will do it. God will deliver us into his arms. God will do it. And we shall see the outpouring of. I know that some of you felt that during the mission among the boys and girls.

And you felt that the sacrifices that you made were well worthwhile. What were you doing? You were laboring. And you felt that there was an urge within you. Now that the mission's over to keep praying for the men and women of tomorrow.

I would pray God that God would put it into the hearts of us all. To have the same body of workers to go now and start upon this neighborhood. And take it to our inmost souls. And say we must win this neighborhood for Jesus Christ.

The time for peace of mind and peace of body and just being a nominal Christian is over. God is calling us to join the laboring classes. Yes, and he wants you to be a laborer for him. Wilbert Chapman, a great Presbyterian minister in the United States of America at the turn of the century.

Was preaching once upon the subject of soul winning. And a lady waited behind and she said, Mr. Chapman, I would like to be a soul winner. But I do nothing but sow in my little flat, in my little apartment ten stories up.

In one of the side alleys of New York here. I can't reach people. I'm shut in most of the day. And the great preacher looked at her and he said, does anyone call at your house? She says, yes, the milkman calls at five o 'clock every morning.

She says, I know it's five o 'clock because I'm just starting my work then. He said, did you ever say good morning to the milkman? No, she said, I never did. Did you ever tell him of your Savior whom you love?

No, I never did. Well, he said, that's your first. That woman went home. She did what God said in her book, she prayed. And she said, give me my milkman as a soul to Christ. And she won the milkman to Christ.

She went back and told the preacher and they prayed together. And he said, what other people visit your house? Well, she says, the man that brings my work to me. He visits my house once a week to give me work to do and to take it back when it's done.

Have you ever said to him, he's a soul to be healed. He's a heart to be cleansed. He has an eternity to face. She says, never. He says, you got the milkman. Oh, but she said, Mr. Chapman, he's of different stuff than the milkman.

No, said Chapman, he's just a sinner like a milkman. He needs your Savior and mine. A few weeks afterwards, she came to the preacher's study and her face was beaming. She says, I want him. He's been saved.

The man that brings my work to me has been saved. And you know, Mr. Chapman, it wasn't hard. It was easy. Why? Because this woman was following the scriptural principles of soul healing. Brethren and sisters, God wants this church to be a soul healing church.

Revival Through Fearless, Faithful Prayer

There is a call for a great revival of Christian religion. A revival of a band of fearless, faithful, praying men and women. This alone will bring the advent of God to our hearts and the grace of God to our pupils.

And the grace of God and salvation to our families. God wants us to do what Jesus seeks us all to do. He that witness souls as wise, and he that turneth many to righteousness.