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

You'll find an authorized version of the English Bible in front of you in the pew. Pick it up and turn with me to the first gospel. The gospel according to Matthew at the chapter nine.

The ninth chapter of Matthew's gospel. You'll find it at page twelve. And that's the first book of the New Testament.

We're going to read from verse twenty-seven to verse thirty-eight. And we read it together, taking your time from me. Verse twenty-seven, Matthew chapter nine.

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, spread abroad 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 about 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 book. I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost, to fill me 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 of Matthew chapter 9, verses 36 through 38.

And there the Lord Jesus has something to say to His disciples. And when He saw the multitude, 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. I want you to notice our Lord Jesus Christ in this very special occasion which Matthew records in his gospel. Please note first of all what Jesus saw.

And when He saw the multitude, O that we as believers could have the eye-vision that occupies and captivates the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. We need to come to the place where we see the world as Jesus sees it. When we see people as Jesus sees them.

When we see precious souls as Jesus Christ Himself. You will notice He saw the multitude. What a sight! Multitudes, multitudes, multitudes.

O the numbers of the lost souls of man. O the millions that travel the broad road to their souls everlasting destruction. O the marching feet and their sound marching on the way to hell.

We ask the question, can they be reached? We ask the question, can they be won to Jesus Christ? We ask the question, is it an impossible task? And the answer to that question is yes. Humanly speaking it is an absolute impossible task. But all things are possible to him that believeth.

And all things are possible. The Lord Jesus Christ not only saw them defined by numbers, multitudes, but He saw their condition. Look at the text.

He was moved with compassion on them because the great reason that moved Christ in His vision was because they fainted. These souls were fainting souls. The shadow of the unending black eternity was already upon them.

The shadow from the world to come had stretched over the verge of time from eternity. And Christ saw them with the dark shadow of their own damnation upon their foreheads. They were sick.

They fainted by the way. Fainting souls. And they were scattered abroad.

They had no shepherd 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 or can you sleep peacefully in your bed without a thought? That man die in darkness at your side without a hope to cheer? We need to have the eyes.

We need to see what Jesus saw when He looked upon them. If you turn to that scripture again, you will find how Jesus felt. How did He feel when He saw the great perishing multitudes? 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 fainting on the road of life? It said He had.

It's interesting. It doesn't say He became. But He had.

Christ's heart is always filled with compassion. 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 His time since His resurrection to this day, Christ has compassion. The church doesn't seem to have much 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 aroused heart.

They have room for pleasure. Room for business. But the business of soul winning, they have laid aside.

And the world occupies that place where they should have a throbbing heart. Passion 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 calvary love for the lost souls. What did He see? He saw the multitudes.

And last did you see? 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 known 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. What does the Lord say? His speech measured the extent of the harvest in contrast with the number of the laborers. Look what He says.

The harvest truly is plenteous. But the laborers are few. He saw the contrast.

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.

Pass on to the great eternity. Million. In eternity.

Today. And we can pass without looking. And we can pass without weeping.

Do not blame the reapers. There's a few of them. They're working hard.

Don't find fault with them. Don't disparage them. Don't despise them.

Don't reject them. Poor laborers. They have become the cause of criticism.

The church criticizes those that are trying to win the loss. But they're not winning the loss. But they're prepared to sit in the throne of criticism.

And criticize those that are seeking their pass 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 win others for Christ. Oh, the church runs its refresher course.

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. Pray ye therefore.

What does Jesus order his people to do? What does Jesus order his reapers to do? 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. 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. Pray ye therefore.

Now there is no room for that. You know whether you pray or you don't. 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. 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 labourers. Yes, we need to pray for souls. But it is the instrument of soul winning that the Lord is interested in.

Scarcity of labour! But if the Lord comes down and starts sending forth labourers into His harvest, what a harvest there will be. This is where real success starts and finishes. Obedience to the commands of Christ.

Pray for labourers. And the first person He is going to enlist is you. There is no use you kneeling down and saying send the woman next door to be a labourer.

Send Mr. So and So down the street to be a labourer. Assure as you fall on your knees to pray for labourers, the Lord will put His blessed finger on you and says you have to go. Every man that prays is a recruit to labour.

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 labour of souls that have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Obedience to God's will. Nothing less or nothing more is what God is demanding of us.

What did Jesus seek? Look at it. He will send forth labourers. When the church has the same mind.

When the church is praying and crying and interceding for labourers. God will thrust forth. You say I don't have the talent.

God doesn't say anything about that. God's talking about labouring. It talked in the old days when socialism arose upon this earth of the labouring classes.

Man said to me we all labour. I said I accept that. But this is hard work.

This is the labouring of blood. The labouring of sweat. And the labouring of tears.

And if God answers this prayer in this church, in your life, there will be a change. We'll be doing some reorganising. You will have times which will come so precious to you, you wouldn't miss them.

Times 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.

But God will send forth laborers into his harvest. God will do it. And we shall see the outpouring of it.

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 there.

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 sealed. 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 sealed.

The man that brings my work to me has been sealed. And you know, Mr. Chapman, it wasn't hard. It was easy.

Why? 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. 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 people. And the grace of God and salvation to our families.

God wants us to do what Jesus seeks us all to do. He that with his souls is wise and he that turneth many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever. May God bless his holy work to our hearts.