Laborers Together

 

ŇFor we are labourers together with God: ye are GodŐs husbandry, ye are GodŐs building.Ó                                                                                     (1 Corinthians 3:9)

 

            Gospel preachers, all gospel preachers, are co-laborers in the cause of Christ. We are not rivals, but co-laborers. One is no more important than another. Some pastor large churches in large cities. Others pastor small assemblies in insignificant little towns. But each faithful servant serves Christ in the place the Lord has put him.

            Some of the LordŐs servants are very well educated. Some have very little education. Some are very eloquent, gifted preachers. Others speak with greater plainness. Some may appear to be more influential. Others may appear to be less influential. I say Ňappear to beÓ because none of us really knows how God uses men. But all GodŐs servants faithfully preach the gospel of Christ, telling eternity bound sinners how God saves poor sinners by his rich, free, abundant grace in Christ.

            While it is true that one preacher may be more personally beneficial to you or me than another, that fact does not make him more important or more useful than another. Let me illustrate my point.

            Who knows the name ŇHenry ScougalÓ? Very few. He was a Scottish preacher and theologian. He lived a short twenty-seven years on this earth before the Lord took him. Just one year before his death, he wrote a lengthy letter to a friend, seeking to show his friend the way of life and salvation in Christ. At the urging of others, that letter was published as a small booklet entitled ŇThe Life of God in the Soul of Man.Ó That was in1677. Fifty years later another young man read ScougalŐs marvellous little tract. It was blessed of God to that young manŐs everlasting salvation. His name all who read these lines know — George Whitefield!

            Whitefield was used of God as an instrument by whom thousands have been converted. But no one would have heard the gospel from WhitefieldŐs lips, had it not been for a man named Henry Scougal.

            The same thing is seen in the conversion of Charles Spurgeon. No one outside heaven knows the name of the Primitive Methodist Ňstand-inÓ preacher from whose lips Spurgeon first heard the gospel preached with efficacy to his soul.

            Let none of GodŐs saints ever look with scorn upon any man who preaches the gospel of GodŐs free grace in Christ. He who faithfully preaches the gospel to two or three of the LordŐs sheep is just as important in his place, doing what God has called him to do, as the man who preaches to hundreds. He is to be heard, respected, honored, supported and prayed for just as the preachers whose names are widely known.

            You who believe are GodŐs husbandry. We who preach are nothing but hoes and hoses by which God works his garden. You who believe are GodŐs building. We who preach are nothing but tools in his hand: — Laborers Together (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

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